Life after SALT
They spent a year immersed in other cultures, now they’re roommates at university
*Please note that parts of this interview were conducted in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic became a worldwide threat. The story has been updated to reflect how COVID-19 is affecting Rebecca Janzen and Natasha Neustaedter Barg.
While studying toward an undergraduate degree at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), Natasha Neustaedter Barg had an idea. She wanted to put down her books and travel, experience a new culture. Unbeknownst to her, fellow classmate Rebecca Janzen had the same idea.
“I told myself that I wasn’t going to get to know anything if I stayed in one spot,” said Neustaedter Barg, who attends university in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In 2018, Janzen, 23, and Neustaedter Barg, 21, applied to Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) cross-cultural service program called Serving and Learning Together (SALT). SALT is a year-long immersive program where participants serve internationally while living among another culture.
That same year, Janzen and Neustaedter Barg said goodbye to family and friends and moved across the globe in order to experience new cultures and serve with MCC.
Janzen served in Amman, Jordan, teaching English through conversational classes for adults at an organization called Jesuit Refugee Services.
Neustaedter Barg taught alongside Grade six to nine teachers at Van Lang Secondary School in Viet Tri, Vietnam. She shadowed teachers, created lesson plans and occasionally, to her students’ surprise, she would kick off her high heels and join in a game of jump rope during recess.
“It’s been fun to learn about each other’s cultures and see how it’s changed us,” said Neustaedter Barg. “It’s been very affirming living together this year. In our ups and our downs, we can celebrate and acknowledge each other.”
Little did they know that their year living across the globe from one another would bring them together as great friends and roommates.
Once they completed their placements with SALT in spring 2019, they both returned to Canada and decided to move in together at CMU while continuing their undergraduate degrees. Neustaedter Barg is studying toward a bachelor of arts with a major in social sciences, while Janzen finished her last year of a bachelor of arts with a major in biblical and theological studies and a minor in intercultural studies this April.
For Janzen and Neustaedter Barg, the transition back into Canadian culture took some time; however, being roommates meant they could navigate these experiences together, like finding commonalities in navigating traffic.
“When I first got to Jordan, I was overwhelmed by the roads,” said Janzen, explaining that there is a lot of swerving and honking compared to Canada.
Neustaedter Barg agreed, adding that crossing the street is like a real-life game of Frogger. Eventually, the chaotic traffic became one of her favourite parts of Vietnam.
“It’s been fun to learn about each other’s cultures and see how it’s changed us,” said Neustaedter Barg. “It’s been very affirming living together this year. In our ups and our downs, we can celebrate and acknowledge each other.”
“It’s been so good to have someone who understands what it was like to move away for a year, what it was like to live in another culture,” added Janzen.
“Our wall there is a good example of how we’ve tried to integrate our lives and our stories together,” said Neustaedter Barg, motioning to a wall in their shared room that’s filled with pictures and postcards of the countries they lived in and what their life is like now back in university pursuing undergraduate degrees.
For Neustaedtar Barg, SALT taught her how to fully embrace a new experience. It’s a lesson that she’s brought back to Canada and is sharing with Janzen. In their spare time from studying, the two often go out on roommate outings to relive their experience abroad by treating themselves to Vietnamese or Middle Eastern food. Pictures of these experiences—with SALT and as students at CMU—hang on that wall as a reminder of the lessons they have learned along the way.
“A lot of people have asked me if I want to return to Jordan. I do, but I don’t feel called to go back and live there and work there,” said Janzen. “I feel that what I’ve learnt is largely what I have brought back with me.
“(I want to) help make Canada a better place for people I worked with, for the people who showed me so much hospitality and care,” she said.
To learn more about SALT visit mccmb.ca/SALT.
*Please note this story was written before the public health guidelines surrounding COVID-19 came into effect. Due to communal spaces, CMU’s student dormitories were closed mid-March. Neustaedter Barg and Janzen quarantined in their personal apartment on campus until the school year ended in April. Now living off-campus in Winnipeg, Neustaedter Barg is at home with her family while Janzen has moved into a house with friends.