Connections

Shannon E. Donahue '08

Over winter break, I went to San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala with my sister to volunteer for a few weeks. The experience that I had was amazing. The village that I worked in had no running water and people lived completely off the land. The projects that we worked on were building a school. Unfortunately most of the people there do not receive an education past the third grade level, so we really were trying to involve the community in the construction of the school so that they would feel personally invested in the project. The second project that we worked on was completing a water survey so that hopefully the village can receive funding to have Engineers Without Borders come down and establish a reliable water source, sewage system for the people. This meant going door to door and asking questions. It was great to practice my Spanish and also to interact on a personal level with the locals. I met Oscar Peren, a famous painter and he asked me to go to an AA meeting with him to celebrate this 20th year of being sober. At the meeting I was asked by the proctor to talk about alcoholism in the US, I was definitely appreciatiative that I had just taken a course on substance abuse. Everyone we met was so gracious and willing to open up their homes to us. After two weeks of hard work (7am-7pm) we went to Lake Atitlan to relax before heading back to the US. Lake Atitlan was absolutely beautiful. I attached a few pictures for you.

So now I am back in DC and back to classes and work, I love the program here at GW, it is very small so professors really get to know students (like at Merrimack). Work is crazy, I am working with over 225 students, it definitely makes work eventful and interesting!

I hope that all is well back at Merrimack! Let me know how things are going.

 

Shannon E. Donahue
Assistant Program Coordinator
Alternative Breaks
Office of Community Service
The George Washington University