It is a school day in early March – a hectic time for seniors. College decisions are fast approaching, final exams are on the horizon, and a significant transition in life looms ahead. On most school days, students contend with a flurry of assignments, readings, discussions, presentations and essays. But 16 students from Girls Global Academy in Washington, DC are having a different type of school day in the community of Portobelo, on Panama’s Atlantic coast. On the surface, Portobelo’s surrounding crystal waters and quiet streets could lull one into thinking that it is a sleepy town, but our experiences there quickly taught us otherwise. 

We came to this moment thanks to several of my Bread Loaf-related experiences. As a Change Fellow, I deepened my interest in educational opportunities that can help students’ learning feel alive and relevant. Funding through my Change Action Grant provided me and our student group with the resources to collaborate with local partners and co-create published products that can contribute to their work. My role as a mentor with What’s the Story? allowed us to access tools and knowledge related to documentary filmmaking that would support us in recording experiences and considerately sharing stories of some of our community partners. 

The program in Panama was made possible by our amazing partner Total Immersion Experiences, led by founder Andrew Stanoch and his co-leader Veronica Jimenez, who created a Panama itinerary perfectly tailored for our group. From meeting with local leaders to getting to know members of a girls soccer league – students dove into Panama’s history and community- based learning in unique ways. 

Learning from Leaders: Mama Ari & Company

Our students were able to visit Mama Ari and the youth she works with in Portobelo – to hear them tell their stories, on their terms. Mama Ari is a community matriarch, appointed to play the essential role of transmitting history and cultural knowledge of the Congo community to the next generation. Our What’s the Story? team also had the chance to interview Mama Ari, and wanted to learn more about what makes her tick.

Mama Ari shared,

“We are here in Portobelo, we will continue to be here, as the seeds have spread throughout the world. Before, the Congo was a culture that was not very well treated. But thanks to the work of our ancestors who came before us, they allowed us to continue to be proud Afro-descendants today – defending our culture, carrying it high, and letting the world know who we are.” 

Behind Mama Ari’s statement that “we are here and defending our culture” are centuries of resistance to colonial and Western forces – forces that did all they could to prevent these communities from forming and existing. She is a member of what is known as a cimarron (maroon) community of self-emancipated Africans in Panama. Her ancestors were taken from the region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Americas beginning in the 16th century – to meet the labor needs of Spanish colonizers. Africans were forced to be the primary laborers in many colonial industries in Panama, after Indigenous communities were decimated due to enslavement, disease, warfare and relocation tied to the arrival of Europeans. Maroon communities formed from the rebellion of enslaved people; they ran away, banded together and reconstructed their communities in rugged areas beyond the reach of their former enslavers. They reconnected to their cultural traditions, created new practices to symbolize their experience in the Americas, challenged Spain’s campaigns of conquest and forced Spanish governments to the negotiating table – ultimately creating the first communities of free Black people in the Americas. 

We were fortunate to have an afternoon of learning from Mama Ari and the youth she works with about how the dress, food, clothing and music in the Congo community continues to highlight their experiences. Her cultural center in Portobelo is a place to celebrate history, as well as live and practice cultural traditions. She explained,

“…I love to work with children, as well as to transmit all my cultural knowledge to them. That’s my mission in life. I would like to help make visible all the contributions of those that came before us—that in a simple and humble way, they made and left on this Earth.”

Mama Ari’s insights offered us the chance to question the truths we are often taught, to hear from those with whom students may share similarities and differences, and to broaden our own perspectives. This influential history and knowledge is often intentionally overlooked in history’s dominant narratives – perhaps making it all the more essential to seek and hear this context. 

Many pieces of a puzzle came together to hear these words from Mama Ari. This is what I believe can be most compelling about education – the opportunity to personally see, hear and feel just a portion of the powerful but all too frequently obscured stories about the multitude of ways there are to be human. 

How The Program Came To Be 

Girls Global Academy (GGA) is a public charter school in downtown Washington, DC. We are in our fourth year, and have our first graduating class this year. Our co-founders, Karen Venable-Croft and Shayne Swift, created the school to provide abundant learning opportunities to girls in the DC area, and have long envisioned integrating international programming as an essential part of our education. Our founders’ commitment to this type of learning paved the way for all the moments that followed in our travels. 

These 16 eager seniors, ready to shake up their learning, joined our first international program. Many of our students traveled out of the country or on a plane for the first time to participate. Their willingness to take a risk and say “yes” to an unfamiliar and completely new way of learning made this program a success and will undoubtedly take them far in the future. 

International Education: Encouraging Listeners and Learners

I am keenly aware that international education can often focus almost solely on the experience of visitors, while advertising that they offer service or support to local communities. Therefore, international programs carry the risk of negatively impacting community partners, as visitors may lack the cultural knowledge to act with sensitivity, and lack the skills to be effective and supportive of communities in achieving their goals. Often embedded in service programs or international work is the idea that the mere presence of Westerners is useful, which can contribute to harmful narratives about those in “developing” countries needing “help” from outsiders. Despite these concerns, my experiences have also shown that opportunities for cross-cultural interaction in these programs can be powerful and lead to lasting connections if done with humility and care. 

Therefore, an essential part of our international program is that as visitors, we come as listeners and learners. Though this may seem like the most simple contribution, it is one that is key to ultimately moving toward a more just social reality. It allows those of many backgrounds and cultures – especially those that have been placed at the margins of our existing power structures – to be able to share their wisdom, and hopefully have their knowledge met with an open and receptive audience. 

New Connections with Peers: Curundú Sports Association

We also had the fantastic opportunity to work with a local girls soccer league, Curundú Sports Association (ADC), in Panama City for an oral history and soccer day. Dash Harris, co-founder of Latinx Travel, is another incredible partner who connected us with the league and led our activities with them. Dash’s work focuses on the African diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean – centering the stories of those who have all too often been written out of their own history. To challenge this reality, Dash seeks to provide opportunities to learn more complete stories, and perhaps find one’s own place within them. 

Dash organized experiences for our students to see the ways in which the history and stories of some communities are intentionally erased, and how those closest to power benefit from this erasure. Dash shared that she feels

“one of the biggest injustices facing minoritized communities is that we are being spoken about, but not being given access to speak for ourselves. How you speak about yourself versus how others speak about you is all the difference. We have always spoken about ourselves, we have always spoken about our experiences, it just depends whether we are given a platform for it to be widely disseminated.” 

With this in mind, Dash designed an opportunity for us to hear and elevate the experiences of the members of the ADC girls soccer league. The league provides an outlet and structure for vulnerable teen girls from Panama City to build both sharp soccer skills and community. Our students expressed that it was a unique chance to meet peers while traveling. They imagined that if someone came from another country and prioritized learning about their story, it would likely feel “amazing.” We thought that an oral history project with the league could be a small but meaningful way to center their voices and provide a way to disseminate their insights to a wider audience. 

Valery, a GGA senior and program participant, shared a bit more about the project and what it meant to her:

“With the soccer league, we talked to them about the differences between our countries, things that are normalized, good things, bad things, and things that we wished were better for our countries. We got the opportunity to exchange information and keep in touch after Panama. I feel like that was a great experience.”

We recorded conversations between league members and our students during our visit, and are in the process of transcribing, translating, and co-designing a story and photo book with the league’s coaches. The book will be published and given to their leaders to share and distribute. Change Action Grant funding made it possible to work with Dash, the ADC soccer league, as well as ultimately publish this book. 

Valery expanded on her reflections on the program:

“Most people visit more touristy places, but being in Panama, it made me appreciate the smaller places you might not usually go to. In future opportunities, I would like to do that again – yes, learn about well-known places, but also the places where people are living day-to-day life.”

The program was crafted to illuminate many voices and stories in a way that builds mutual understanding and empathy, so I am reassured that students found the opportunities to build cross-cultural connections with community partners to be unique and valuable. 

Chanara’s Reflections: Learning from Multiple Perspectives 

I recently caught up with Chanara, an eager traveler and participant on the program, about her reflections a couple of months after our return: 

“People might not always take the time to listen to people’s stories. But in reality, despite the language barrier, those that we met were very willing to engage with us, and share their history. It was really empowering. Being in a country where you aren’t fluent in the language, it’s eye opening, because there is another world out there. For example, we went to the town of Portobelo, and there we were able to see how their [Congo] culture is so rich, but also often overlooked. It just made me realize that no matter where you go, the richest cultures are usually the most undervalued.”

Chanara shared that the program highlighted the wisdom of many communities. She explained, “There are multiple perspectives, and we often get the perspective of those who took over a place. I saw how it’s important to truly educate yourself and take the time to learn from everyone.”

Exchange and Conflict Transformation

Looking back on this work, and reflecting on the theme of conflict transformation, I am aware that peace is not solely the absence of direct violence. It comes about through shifts in cultural attitudes and exclusive power structures. These attitudes and structures have quieted generations – as languages and cultures become endangered, and discrimination and assimilation disproportionately silence some voices. Transforming conflict is dependent upon transforming relationships between those of various backgrounds and cultures, to understand one another’s experiences and hopes for change. This requires communication – where we can truly listen, share and be heard – an essential step to chipping away at the root of inequality, and thus the conflict itself. Chanara and Valery’s reflections represent the kind of understanding and admiration that we aim for in promoting conflict transformation through cross-cultural exchange, which can ultimately deepen respect for the many peoples and cultures in the world.

Many thanks to Mama Ari, Dash, and members of the ADC soccer league who were willing to host us and share their multitude of insights. I am encouraged that in future endeavors, our students will continue to take the role of active listeners, question the power structures that write others’ narratives and learn from whose stories hold similarities and differences from their own.