This is a guest post by Rachael Manser, student at Gustavus Adolphus College, who went abroad on a Custom Short Term Program to Cuba with Augsburg CGEE January 2016.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
$\"Rachel$ <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here’s my Pedagogy of the Oppressed poem that I titled “Human”:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
World and human beings do not exist apart from each other;<\/div>\n
They grow together as tree from soil,<\/div>\n
Body to trunk as hand to branch and thoughts to leaves.<\/div>\n
Yet, man is able to transcend,<\/div>\n
to grow beyond the bounds of the forest,<\/div>\n
if only he is recognized<\/div>\n
as human.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But violence permeates the soil,<\/div>\n
hoarding all the nourishment and growing to ungodly heights<\/div>\n
while blaming those it poisons for their inadequacies.<\/div>\n
The trunks of man grow short and stubby<\/div>\n
for they have been convinced of their unfitness to rise,<\/div>\n
reduced to things;<\/div>\n
the struggle to see can only begin when the see themselves<\/div>\n
as human.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yet, they try to keep us down,<\/div>\n
filling us as if we’re empty pots waiting for a plant.<\/div>\n
But we are restless, hopeful, and curious.<\/div>\n
Our ability to bloom is stifled<\/div>\n
for fear we may grow tall enough to view the world above the forest,<\/div>\n
to truly connect with the earth and sky.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We will continue in our process of becoming;<\/div>\n
for as long as reality is unfinished,<\/div>\n
we will never cease to grow –<\/div>\n
the essence of our humanity.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ \n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ \n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ \n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t $\"\"$ \n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a guest post by Rachael Manser, student at Gustavus Adolphus College, who went abroad on a Custom Short …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cuba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52075"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52089,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52075\/revisions\/52089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}