A Deer Hill custom program participant cleans up after a service project in the Bri Bri village of Yorkin. For the first time, participants on our Costa Rica Exploradores summer program will work with the Bri Bri during their 3-week expedition.

Deer Hill Program Director Jason Kroll reflects on the 10th anniversary of our Costa Rica Exploradores program:

After 9 years of continuous refinement and reflection, we are especially excited about our program in Costa Rica this summer. Thanks to continued discussion and feedback between me, Miguel Cabrera (owner-founder of our partner organization “on the ground”), and our field instructors, the program elements and itinerary for Costa Rica Exploradores 2012 are our best yet.

In addition to a very authentic homestay experience in a charming Tico village – where last year our group worked with local people on a reforestation project – the redesigned program includes service and cultural exchange with the Bri Bri, an indigenous people of Costa Rica and Panama who live in the mountains above the Caribbean coast, subsisting on farming and agriculture. The Bri Bri live very simply in balance with nature, in communities based around small-scale agriculture. Key crops are cacao and bananas. The Bri Bri speak their indigenous language, as well as some Spanish. We visit a community called Yorkin, which is situated above the Yorkin river along the border with Panama.

In addition to this new element, the program flows as well as ever between adventure and service elements as it moves from the capital of San Jose through the Cloud Forest, along the Pejibaye and the Pacuare River (one of NatGeo’s top 10 whitewater rivers in the world), and finally to the Caribbean Coast. In Costa Rica, Deer Hill works very closely with another organization, Exploradores Outdoors. This company is owned and operated by Miguel and Yency Cabrera. Through nearly 10 years of collaboration, we have been deeply impressed by the Cabreras’ sense of quality and concern for risk management. Miguel and Yency both have an impressive record of river descents and backpacking expeditions around the world. Their intimate knowledge of their homeland allows Deer Hill to offer you one of the most refined programs, off the beaten path, in Costa Rica.

All this, and the participants will also get to work on their Spanish every day of the trip through conversation with local people and guides, and the occasional relaxed class with our fluent leaders.

Whether you have taken a Deer Hill trip before, or you are considering your first trip with us, our Costa Rica program offers all of the quality, depth, adventure and reflection of our Southwest programs, with a little added “pura vida”!

Learn more about the program, see a photo gallery, and read the detailed itinerary here.

Deer Hill program leaders Miles and Britt pose with their Bri Bri hosts

The leaders call time for a break, and everyone grabs a water bottle or a snack, and lounges for a while. Stanford tells jokes, teases the group, and chats with them about his horses, and growing up nearby. A plume of smoke rises from the chimney on the family home, as Grandma Charley prepares a simple Navajo meal for the group.

This is a typical moment from a Deer Hill service project, but what kind of relationship am I describing? Are we “helping” the family? Clearly. Are we working to “fix” something? Of course, and yet somehow these verbs, so often used when discussing community service, don’t paint a full picture of the interaction that is taking place.

I recently came across an article entitled “Helping, Fixing, Serving”, by Rachel Remen, and although she is writing from the point of view of a medical doctor, her ideas might help me to define to the goals and philosophy of our work with families in the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni Nations.

Service is not the same as helping. Helping is based on inequality, it’s not a relationship between equals. When you help, you use your own strength to help someone with less strength. It’s a one up, one down relationship, and people feel this inequality. When we help, we may inadvertently take away more than we give, diminishing the person’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

In this insightful piece of writing, Remen argues that neither “helping” nor “fixing” are ideal paradigms for those serving others. When we help, we assert our own strength, and imply weakness on the part of the person we are working with.  If we set out to “fix” an individual, or a community, we inevitably assume that there is something broken – whether physical, financial, emotional, or social. Both approaches, Remen writes, reinforce a “one-way” relationship between a “giver” and a “recipient”, creating a sense of debt. They tend to reward the ego, without nourishing deeper connections between the players.

Remen believes that focusing on “serving” can support a more balanced power dynamic. If we can approach our hosts as equals, with the idea of “serving” uppermost in our mind, then we work freely, openly, for the simple pleasure of it. Approached in this spirit, service springs not from the ego, but can be instead, in Remen’s phrase, “the work of the soul”.

This is not a tourist experience in which we purchase a specific cultural product that we expect to be delivered on schedule, and in the expected way. We come to work, and to learn, and we hope that in perhaps unforeseen and surprising ways we will receive understanding that enriches our lives. For example, hearing stories, wisdom and history first-hand can show students a different, and more reverent, relationship to our Earth.

I do not mean to imply that all is well, and that life is simple and harmonious on the Native American reservations of the Southwest U.S. Our groups see the difficulties that these communities face; they see the living struggle between traditional ways and the conveniences, ironies and, yes, humiliations, of modern American life. Always, there is real work to do for our hosts that makes hard lives a little easier. But, our primary goal is to facilitate cultural exchange. At its best, this is a profoundly interactive, “two-way” relationship. We work together as a team towards a common goal, discover humor and common ground with people with very different lives, and in the process to learn something about our selves. Spending time with those who cherish their culture and history so much, can cast our own culture in relief, encouraging us to think about our roots, to speak proudly of where we come from, and to share the traditions and unique ways of our family.

Deer Hill host Milton Bluehouse of Ganado, Arizona, is the grandfather of an extended family with whom we have worked for many years. This is how he describes Deer Hill’s service projects:

“We all have common concerns – we want to learn, we want to help. Working together as people of different societies can build bridges and, ultimately, respect and understanding. That’s what I believe Deer Hill does. What’s even more important than the projects we complete is how we solidify our friendships and look together for peace in the world”.

What Mr Bluehouse describes is something beyond helping, or fixing. As Remen summarizes in her article, “Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected.” Just being there, working together, creating a genuine connection, can be an end in itself.

This is a guest post from Allison Dobscha, from Portland, OR, who attended our Wilderness Leadership program this past summer. Thank you to Allison for putting her experience into such lovely words.

When people ask me what I did over the summer, my answer seems to change every time. I’m not quite sure how to put the experience into words, into the three sentence description they were expecting. “It was incredible,” I say sometimes, or “it was really hard, but totally worth it,” but it’s nearly impossible to express how meaningful the trip was to me. At home, I’m reminded of Wilderness Leadership every day. It takes different forms around my house. On my computer, it’s a folder of pictures, a slew of Facebook wall posts, a desktop background, and a rough draft of a college application essay. In my room it’s a giant map of the Weminuche Wilderness on my wall, our route marked with a red dotted line. In my closet it’s the brand new backpack I couldn’t resist buying once I returned, hoping it would motivate me to plan a trip of my own. It is constantly in my mind as a collection of thoughts, memories, sensations, and people I refuse to let go of. Here’s a sort of top ten:

1. Sitting on the counters in the Backcountry Pantry, discussing the “Message from Hopi Elders” with Doug. Taping this piece of handed-down wisdom into my journal, so I could read it every day in the wilderness.
2. Drinking in the most vast expanse of stars I have ever seen.
3. Enjoying a delicious, warm, gooey lemon bar at basecamp.
4. Light filtering through spaces between red rock, while I washed my face with the clear water of a sacred pool hidden in the canyons.
5. Leading my group through the high mountains, relying on my navigation skills to reach our campsite by the river.
6. Cooking macaroni on a flickering Whisperlite stove, turning around to face the mule deer that would follow us for the next few days.
7. “Circle” in the evening darkness: talking about what Place means,  and leaving pieces of our souls at Moon Lake.
8. Rez time, working on a hot roof for hours with our Hopi hosts, and wishing we could work for a few more.
9. Witnessing far away lightning on a gray horizon from the edge of the Hopi mesas.
10. Jumping fully clothed into the lake at Deer Hill Basecamp after 10 days in the desert without a shower. Sitting on the dock in the middle of the water, absorbing the perfectly blue sky and feeling ultimate freedom, ultimate peace.

I couldn’t pick one favorite moment, because the entire experience stands out in my mind as the most meaningful, enlightening, fun, and awe inspiring month I’ve ever had. I pushed myself every day, and ate huge meals to satisfy my extraordinary appetite. I felt so comfortable in my mountain sleeping bag, I didn’t miss my bed. I spent five and a half hours alone, learning about myself by an unnamed lake, now marked with a star on my topographical map of the Weminuche. I came home with a clearer mind, a stronger body, and a new family. I can’t imagine living without them, even now, being home for over a month. We hugged each other with pride and triumph after an intense and emotional round in the sweat lodge our last day before flying home.

I’m so glad I kept a journal. Rereading my entries, I am transported back. Looking at my pictures I’m amazed at how majestically beautiful my surroundings were every single moment on this trip. Wilderness Leadership was my third Deer Hill course, and probably my last (I’m too old to return next summer.) It’s hard to imagine a summer without Circle, a sweat lodge, and the most amazing people. Where else could I have learned to be comfortable and content covered in mosquito bites and desert dirt?

Alison “drops in” to Gravel Canyon, Utah, during the first section of the 2010 Wilderness Leadership adventure summer camp program

Teen Community Service: Canyon Country 2010 in the process of building a shade arbor at a sustainable ranch in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Photo by the lovely Genevieve Uhl, Deer Hill leader.

Top 3 reasons we love this picture:

1. It’s fun

Community service has been part of Deer Hill’s teen adventure camps for 20 years for a reason. Sure, we’re working hard on our projects, but the activity, the challenge, the learning, the social aspects of the project, and the connection with native traditions make service “work” incredibly enjoyable.

2. The community service work these teenagers are doing is real

The Halwoods are longtime friends of Deer Hill, and members of their extended family have been hosting Deer Hill groups at their land in Canyon de Chelly for nearly 20 years! This shade arbor will provide shade for the hosts during the hot summer months, as they spend most of their lives outside.

3. It’s inspiring

It shows the beautiful backdrop of Canyon de Chelly and the surprisingly hospitable and lush landscape down on the canyon floor. Certainly one of our favorite places, and an inspiring place to spend a week camping and working with the land.

“The service section was the most meaningful part of the trip for me. I felt like we were really impacting our hosts lives and helping them. They also taught me so much in return, and really made us feel like we were part of their family. I’ll remember this experience for ever.” Sophia Janetty, Canyon Country 2010

Deer Hill successfully passed the review, once again meeting hundreds of standards, taking in Ethical and Educational Concerns; Program Governance, Program Management, Operations, and Oversight; Service Projects; Technical Skills; Staff Selection, Hiring, Training and Supervision; Transportation; Equipment, Nutrition and Hygiene; Environment and Culture; International Concerns, and other areas.

We would like to thank the review team for their time, attention to detail and commitment to experiential education.

Quoted from the Association for Experiential Education Accreditation Site Visit Review Report:

A. Strengths of the Organization

• The overall quality, commitment and dedication of staff at all levels of the organization is exceptionally high. The hiring and training practices for field staff are sound, and the review team noted the high caliber of field staff – in particular, their dedication, passion for outdoor education and commitment level to the organization are outstanding.

• Deer Hill’s commitment to professional growth, maintaining a “learning-culture” where feedback and honesty are valued, belief in high standards and commitment to the accreditation process is evident at all levels of the organization.

• Deer Hill places a high level of attention on the individual development of the student.

• The service component at Deer Hill is truly exemplary, as is the organization’s reverence, respect and appreciation for Native American culture. The program’s practice of gifting tools to the recipients of service is compassionate and empowering.

• The sense of community is very strong at the Deer Hill base. This translates to excellent role modeling for their students and is transferable to their programs. The review team was impressed with such a genuine, warm, caring community of individuals. Trust and communication level is high.

• The work of the Deer Hill Foundation as a related entity allows for a diverse participant population.

• Location: access to premier recreational and educational opportunities.

• Website is great and materials are strong.

Learn more about the Association for Experiential Education at their  website.

]]> http://www.deerhillexpeditions.com/community-service/deer-hill-renews-accreditation/feed/ 0 http://www.deerhillexpeditions.com/community-service/featured-program-service-leadership/ http://www.deerhillexpeditions.com/community-service/featured-program-service-leadership/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 17:49:19 +0000 richard http://www.deerhillexpeditions.com/?p=2759 ...]]>

Service Leadership teen summer camp. Mudding bread ovens in Zuni is dirty work but fun.

Activities: Inflatable Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Campcraft, Leadership Workshops and Initiatives.

Community Service: Cross-cultural service projects in Navajo and Zuni; Conservation service project with the US Forest Service (80 total certified service hours)

Locations: Deer Hill Basecamp, CO; Animas River, CO; Northern Navajo Nation, NM; Chuska Mountains, NM; Zuni Pueblo, NM; Lizard Head Wilderness, CO.

Trip Highlights

• Getting to know your leaders and group while inflatable kayaking the exciting class 3 rapids of the Animas River.
• Working alongside an inspirational Navajo elder and a group of young Navajo teens to improve a mountain bike trail system for an Indian Health Service Wellness Program.
• Working with Zuni elders in their cornfields, and learning about their traditional way of life and fascinating mythology as you help them with their labor.
• Breathing in the cleanest air in the USA as you explore the unbelievable beauty of the Lizard Head Wilderness, near Telluride, while helping to preserve it for others.
• Learning about your leadership style while taking responsibility for your group and the completion of the project as Leader of the Day.

“My most meaningful experience was working the corn fields in Zuni. I loved how the family cooked food for us and brought us to their table. ” Zack, Marietta, GA, Service Leadership Alum

“The time we spent in the mountains, climbing Centennial Peak and doing solos, was a very fun and important experience, a great end to an amazing trip. The sense of accomplishment after ascending the peak was incredible.” James, Newton, MA, Service Leadership Alum

“One evening Patricia came out to sit around the fire with the group and share stories about her life and role as a medicine person. One of the examples she gave of traditional techniques was of using hot coals to draw out “bad things” from someone with health problems. Patricia explained that one of the side effects of this was that she inadvertently draws out heat from all fires, especially fires used for cooking. We had been cooking a Pineapple Upside Down Cake in our dutch oven throughout the evening, with charcoal scattered around the base and on the lid. Needless to say, when we checked the cake after Patricia left, it wasn’t close to cooking through!”

Thanks to the leaders Rachel Landis and Lexi Tuddenham for this story.

Learn more about Deer Hill’s custom-designed class trips for schools.

Mountain Goat Ski Guides

“There are moments in life that are unforgettable. On Heart of the Rockies 2009 there were many of them. Experience gained while leading students through the fabled Weminuche Wilderness on Deer Hill courses has shaped my life. I see the students grow stronger and stand taller, and glow with a sense of accomplishment. This lets me know for sure that this is worthwhile work. As a leader of the Heart of the Rockies, I have partaken in such moments as cooking sizzling pizza bagels on a quartzite slab of stone. I have been held on my own two feet in the palm of a glacial valley and breathed the cleanest air in the world. We go to the wilderness because the elk still browse, the Indian paintbrush paints the sunset in the tundra, and the water was snow a day ago. A program like Heart of the Rockies, where we spend three weeks together on an outdoor adventure, is a voyage into camaraderie, challenge and beauty. Climbing mountains, doing the hard things with great reward, provides a lesson to all of us that we can do anything we put our mind to!

Check out the gallery! I have included comments on each shot. Why not leave your own impression?”

Dear Deer Hill staff (Doug & Bev & family):

Almost 20 years after my experience with Deer Hill, it remains a shining light and inspiration for the work I do today. I am a documentary filmmaker and teach others the art of storytelling all around the world. I find myself speaking about how closely linked are the inner and outer landscapes of our lives and encounters. When the stories we tell are stories from the heart, they have the power to transform others. I have also found myself connecting with Native American communities in California and continue to participate in sweat lodge ceremonies, and to carry a respect for the earth with me. Quite literally, I feel and know her heartbeat to be my own. That sense of respect for her and for the spirits of the land- the rocks and water- and all life that dwells inside and outside of myself, was born through several rites of passage, one of them being Deer Hill. It has shaped me profoundly. So thank you to all past and future leaders and youth who keep the spirit of Deer Hill alive and well. We have you to thank for the strength and wisdom of our future generations.

Alison Fast

We checked out Alison’s website here. Turns out she has had a fascinating career in the media so far, using television production and other approaches to help and empower people in developing countries to tell their stories. She has worked with organizations like PBS, Barefoot Media, and NBC, and won a Peabody award for her documentary “For My Country? Young Latinos in the Military”. If you have an interest in media and advocacy, you might find Alison’s fun and creative site inspirational.