Coffs Harbour is home to the big banana, the original of all the ‘bigs’ (Australia is home to and is very proud of its big items: there’s the big guitar, the big merino, the big prawn, the big pineapple just to name a few). The students that we leading on the service trip weren’t very stoked about it, complaining that it wasn’t that cool and wasn’t that big, to which I replied “But have you seen a bigger banana?” From there we all decided that it was indeed pretty cool and pretty big.
If you’re confused to why I’m talking about a big banana, let me tell you. At the beginning of April I went on a service trip to Coffs Harbour with some year 10 students (Sophomores for the Americans). Typically the students go on an international trip to Cambodia when they are in year 10, but due to the ban on international travel, we were able to adapt the trip for a local context.
Coffs Harbour is a town 7 hours north of Port Kembla on the north coast of New South Wales. It is very much so a country town but situated at the beach - everywhere takes 10 minutes to get to and all the shops are closed by 5pm. The first few days we were there it was super rainy and unfortunately most everything in town was closed, although we were able to spend some time learning about the local area, meeting people and doing some landscape work at the botanical gardens. Once it dried out a bit more we got to spend a lot more time connecting with people - at the beach with public volleyball competitions and a sand castle building competition for the kids, at the skate park with a free barbecue and hot chocolate, going to the shopping centre to hand out encouragement notes and lollipops…
It was so cool to see how the students grew in confidence over the trip! A lot of them had never talked to a stranger before, so practising that was really nerve-wracking at first, but once they realised it can be a part of normal every-day life, they started to really get into it.
For me, one of the most important things I wanted to students to take away from the trip was that their world can be so much bigger than just home and school; that even at 15 years old, there’s a lot of opportunity to get to know their neighbours - engage in the people and what’s around them.
When I was in the 10th grade, I went on a trip to New Orleans. We got to meet with organisations that had been working to rebuild homes for 7 years since Hurricane Katrina destroyed entire neighbourhoods. We also got to learn about a lot of the culture and see the city’s most famous sights. But the part of that trip that had the most impact on me was meeting people and hearing their stories. Those stories inspired me, enraged me, humbled me, and most of all, impacted me. In fact, I was so moved by my week experience that I returned that summer because I just couldn’t get enough of the people and their stories. I got to spend time with some of the friends that I had made and make some new ones. I learned how my world could be so much bigger than just what was happening at home or with school - that there was so much out there constantly offering people opportunities to engage.
I have no clue nor any expectation that the students we took to Coffs Harbour will be transformed by what they experienced, but then again, I doubt the teachers who took me to Louisiana expected that of me either.
Only time will tell, but from the short time I was able to spend with them, I know they have incredible things ahead of them.
Love, Analies
My mailing address is:
Analies Steensma
Dharawal Country
PO BOX 132
Port Kembla, NSW. 2505
Australia
2012 - Back in New Orleans again, hanging out with friends I had made earlier that year.