By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dowagiac Union High School's National Honor Society chapter inducted 18 new members Sunday evening.
Officers reviewed the four qualities members need to demonstrate for admission during a candlelight ceremony in the DUHS media center.
President Andrew Cuthbert spoke on scholarship, Vice President Jordan Eby on service, Secretary Adam Hess on leadership and Treasurer Molly Seurynck on character.
Guest speaker Janet Ross, the retired school nurse, discussed community service from a global perspective.
"My husband and I both have a zeal for travel, for understanding other cultures and for giving something back. We both have an eagerness to leave this world a little better place than it was when we entered it," said Ross.
Since retiring seven years ago, she and Harvey have visited Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, New Orleans and Mississippi on a variety of mission trips.
They will be leaving for Louisiana again in a couple of weeks.
"Wisdom comes with age," she told 17 of the inductees. "How would your life, and the possibilities your life holds for you, be different if you were born the exact same physical person you are right now, but in another family here in Dowagiac, or another city, or maybe in another culture? What if you were born in Iraq? Spain? Cuba? Haiti? France? Sudan? Pre-World War II Germany? All that you have, all that you believe, result from the families you live in, the communities you live in, the schools you go to and the culture and society you live in. We are all blessed to be part of a wonderful school system. I know your families are very supportive of you and proud of you and push you in the right way."
So, "You don't get to take all the credit," Ross reminded inductees. "You're surrounded by people and the community who helped you grow. I also believe that the more talent one has, the more is required. What makes National Honor Society members special is not their academic records. I imagine there are some students who have good grades like you all do, but they have not participated in leadership or service activities. You are different, and you are good stewards of the talents you've been given."
Ross said everyone is born with a "spark" that can be nurtured or "stamped out. It has to be fanned to be kept alive by significant other people in our lives."
Friday the Rosses took their three oldest grandchildren, ages 8, 7 and 5, to Chicago on the South Shore.
Duncan had not seen a homeless person before. Questions flowed. Why was he begging for money? Because he didn't have food or shelter. Why doesn't he have food. Where is his house? Where will he sleep tonight?
Duncan wanted to give him a dime he found.
"This is just a little kid, but he already has empathy and compassion for the needs of other people. That was the spark – and my heart melted," the grandmother related.
Janet said Harvey learned to lay cement blocks in Guatemala, "but you do not have to travel outside your block to be helpful and compassionate. The opportunities are limitless."
Ross said they like to combine service projects with travel because "then we get to interact with the local people and to understand their culture while feeling like we're making a difference."
They have spent a total of eight weeks in the Guatemalan highlands in two trips. Traveling unpaved two-track mountain roads, they mingled with indigenous Mayan people who spoke native dialects rather than Spanish or English.
"A lot of these people walked for three hours carrying children, food for the day and their water to get to see the doctor," Ross said. "They were given a number and had to stand in line."
They eke out meager livings by strenuous primitive agriculture or home crafts, she said.
"They have no farm implements. Maybe a donkey or something," Ross said. "They live on mountainsides and use hoes and machetes. We treated so many for just aches and pains. Some would literally fall off their fields. There was no electricity, but there were Coke products. The dentist usually sat outside because he needed more light. Patients leaned back on his lap."
People waiting in line crowded around to watch the teeth pulling.
Rural Guatemalans live in small houses with dirt floors.
"Animals are part of the household, so they run in and out," Ross said. "You see turkeys, chickens, ducks, pigs sometimes, cats, dogs, they all live inside. Women help in the fields with hoeing, planting and harvest, but their main concern is gathering food and perhaps grinding corn into meal, feeding the family and weaving cloth. Their clothing is just gorgeous. Women carry cloth the size of a tablecloth folded on their heads for shopping day."
They tie up their purchases, so "you see these women with huge sacks on top of their heads," and babies bundled on their backs.
They cook over open fires indoors. "Women wear traditional flowing skirts, which can catch fire," she said. "Of course, the smoke causes lots of respiratory ailments."
In the Dominican Republic the couple ministered to "the poorest of the poor, Haitians who came to cut cane. They occupy the same Caribbean island.
Their living conditions are awful, like run-down chicken coops. People actually live in the dump. We took paper plates and loaded them with chicken, rice and bananas, and water with ice," Ross said. "We also went to Honduras with a church group where we helped to build a three-room preschool building that was connected to a church.
"I have found that people the world over that I have experienced are the same. Mothers, fathers, grandparents all want the same thing for their children – health, food and life to be better and easier. They also live in very crowded conditions, are ill because of those conditions and have contaminated drinking water, yet they are always grateful and rarely complain.
"I often wonder if I was born in that situation if I would do as well. They have little, but they will share anything. Their sense of family is strong because community is often all they have. There is no Social Security, no welfare, no homeless shelters, no homes for the elderly or soup kitchens. Often, there is no access to health care or education, and people do not get pensions. Families and communities take care of each other as best they can."
Last December the Rosses volunteered for two weeks with the Red Cross in New Orleans, distributing supplies to devastated neighborhoods.
The brooms, mops, bleach, bottled water, ice chests, ice and blankets they offered seemed inadequate, but Ross realized, "Those things helped, but the most important thing was that someone traveled, spent money to go down and say, 'I see what you're going through. I empathize.' You can't believe how many people hugged us and thanked us and said, 'I can't believe you came all this way.' "
"I don't care how much you've seen on television," she said. "It's different when you're there, including the insides of people's houses that had up to 12 or 14 feet of water. I would have been overwhelmed."