Oaxaca 2010

It has been a wonderful, transformative, magical time in Oaxaca. In the students own words:

I”ve met so many amazing people and pushed myself to do things I thought I’d never do This is a trip that I will remember my entire life and I am so grateful to be given this opportunity. Erica

Oaxaca has been a crucial component to my experience as an undergraduate at UVM. I will take with me amazing new friendships, conversational Spanish, and fond memories of this beautiful and unique country and its people. Melissa

Through every experience and conversation throughout this trip it has become more and more clear that there is so much power in what people and communities can do. It's really exciting to realize that everything we want to see, we can begin working on today, right now. Page

Oaxaca has been an unforgettable experience teaching me to push my limits, live in the present and love as much as I can. It may be the end of the trip, but it is at the beginning for the end change I wish to see. Shiren

The speed at which the past 4 months has passed is difficult to grasp. Eye-opening, beautiful, challenging, fun. This group of amazing individuals is one of the most valuable things to return to Vermont with: new friends, shared experiences, new ideas and lots of motivation and excitement to share what we have learned. Jesse

Living in Oaxaca has enriched my life in more ways than I ever imagined and in more ways than I can possibly write down on paper. The eye-opening experiences and genuine people here will forever influence the way I think and act. I can only hope that other people can learn to be open and understanding toward cultures other than their own. Elena

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. (Mary Schmich) Caroline

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." (Pericles) Allie

I'm reaching up and reaching out,
I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me,
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.
Spiral out. Keep going, going... (Lateralus by Tool) Lesley

How can I possibly sum up Oaxaca in a couple of sentences? Suffice it to say that I couldn´t have hand-picked a more incredible place or a more fun and adventurous group for such a journey! Thank you especially to Mary Lou, and to Corrine, Gustavo, John, Amy, Cynthia, Jean, Barry, Mia, and to our families. It´s impossible to articulate just how much we´ve all grown in the past three months, and we never could have done it without you. Annie

To summarize this experience in a couple lines would be utterly impossible. Even with all the space in the world there is no possible word combination to appropriately articulate the thoughts, smells, tastes, and everything else intangible that is Oaxaca. It was truly a perspective-altering, life-changing adventure! Taylor

Oaxaca has given me new friends who already feel like family members, the ability to slow down and appreciate each moment as it comes, a deeper and more meaningful understanding of culture, and the realization that I am never an individual but always part of a connected community of people and nature to which I owe my life. Alexandria

Oaxaca is cultural candy for the senses: the people, the food, the language, and the beautiful places to experience were all life-changing. Claire

Oaxaca has been a life-changing experience for me; I am both sad to leave and excited and hopeful at the prospect of sharing what I've learned with my own community. Amber

This past three months have been an amazing adventure, which has risen my consciousness of and connection with community, culture, family, food, nature and myself. When I leave I feel like a part of me will remain which can't be regained but i am taking back a lot of valuable information and memories which will keep this experience alive. Natalie

There’s nothing stopping me from doing what I want with my life “Keep on Dreaming boy cause when you stop, its time to die.” (Shannon Hoon, Blind Melon) Russell

During out months in Oaxaca, we have traveled everywhere from Apoala to Zaachila, from the mountains to the beach. Along the way we have learned so much about ourselves and our relationship to the places we occupy. If is impossible to summarize so many amazing experiences of what has been the best semester of my education. Sarah

Oaxaca has truly been one of the best experiences of my life. The places I've been, people I"ve met, and experiences we've shared are memories I will keep for the rest of my life. Casey

In Oaxaca with dirty black feet walking down the street to the drum beat. Ellie

Update From The Bad Arts and Sciences Kids who Keeping forgetting to do the Blog

Hello Friends & Family,

Geology class with Barry Doolan is going very well. This year our class is focusing on water, so we've learned how to use a colorimeter, test Total Dissolved Solids and pH. We're making predictions about what we might find in the water in various places around the state of Oaxaca, and then testing the water to see if our theories are true. Last week, we ventured off to the remote town of Apoala where we tested the community's water, explored deep into caves with lots of guano, and hiked down to the gorgeous waterfalls to go for a swim. The falls were absolutely beautiful despite the frigidness of the water. It was an amazing place to visit as almost every other place we have visited has had a water shortage. Apoala is comparable to a hidden oasis in a desert. Upon descending into the Apoala valley, the landscape changed drastically from dry and rocky to lush and green. They cleary had a very successful agricultural system despite the "dry season" Mexico is currently finishing. It seems as though there really is such thing as a dry season in Apoala.

After the Apoala trip, Russell, Annie, Kristina, Ellie, Erika, and Claire took off for the port for the weekend - Puerto Escondido. Annie celebrated her 21st birthday with us Saturday on the beach, ending the night with a nice dinner right on the sand and some dancing. Sunday, we traveled to a smaller beach called Manzanilla about 20 minutes from the main beach Zicatela. At Manzanilla we hired a boat to take us out, show us some sea turtles, and snorkle in various locations along the coast. We soaked in the sun all weekend and finally, with sunburned backs, climbed onto the 15 passenger overnight van to take us back to Oaxaca.

We'll be sure to add some pictures once we return from our trip to Capul...Calup..Caup... A pueblo in the Sierra Norte that I cannot pronounce, nevermind spell.

ARTS AND SCIENCES FOREVER

Greetings from the Food Track

Imported: USA - Jean Harvey Borino

Commence: Health in Oaxaca class

On Monday Jean Harvey arrived ready to teach us about ongoing diet trends, both global and Mexican. We have been discussing topics such as the health care bill in the USA, health care in Mexico, and the relationship between American agriculture policies and Mexican health. We were given a breif Nutrition 101 class, where we reviewed essential components of a healthy person's diet such as: carbohydrates, protien, calcium, iron and daily caloric intake. We have been reading about obesity trends, both urban and rural-in addition to Western medicine and homeopathy.

At the start of the week some girls went to watch everyone's favorite pastime- baseball! Although "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" wasn't sung, it was a lively game between Oaxaca and Campeche with Los Guerreros de Oaxaca winning the game.

This weekend, a group of girls ventured to Puerto Escondido, while others took advantage of the last weekend in the city. In the llano (a small and beautiful park) a human health and environment fair was held; dozens of NGOs, cooperatives, Universities, small businesses and working groups came together to educate the public. It was wonderful to see so many people involved in amazing projects such as pedal power (generating electricity by bike pedaling) environmental art, sustainable agriculture models and projects, in addition to human rights and environmental advocates. Overall it has been a fufilling week and a great start to a new class, which has made the end of this program seem further than it actually is.

Hola!

This was our last week of the art class with Corrine. On Tuesday we visited museums and galleries around Oaxaca to work on our Cultural Biography project. Each group managed to track down a handful of paintings by their artist, and by the end of the day everyone could recognize an Olivera painting from a Toledo from across the room. As we went on, we discussed the symbolism behind the art work, and how Oaxacan culture was being represented.

On Wednesday we ventured out of the city again and

visited the communities of Ocotlan and

Coyotepec. In Ocotlan we found the Aguilar sisters- 3 sisters who have set up shops next to each other, making and selling pottery. They specialize in figurines, everything from village women to goats to skeletons. Their work has been featured in the Smithsonian, and it was amazing to see where the art was made. Afterwards, we wandered around Morales' house and walked to see his mural in the town center, discussing what we saw and sketching in our journals. We grabbed a quick snack of quesadillos and hot chocolate in the mercado, and then hopped on a bus to Coyotepec. There we went to visit the home and studio of an 87 year old women who had been making black pottery since the age of 12. Watching

her knead a block of clay and shape it into a vase was mesmerizing. Her main tools were her hands, and she moved with the strength and agility of a much younger woman to finish the basic structure of her piece in under 15 minutes. We talked with her for a little while, drew some more sketches and then headed back into the city with a new appreciation for arte popular.

The next day we met early in the morning to go to the studio of Claudia Vergaz, a local "upcycle" artist in Oaxaca. Claudia collects trash- wrappers, tinfoil, cans- and turns it into art that has gotten her recognized internationally. She transforms everything she finds into shadow boxes, dolls, frames and piggy banks. We were in awe of the amount of creativity she had to use trash in such a different way. Furthermore, Claudia mentioned that she is starting a sort of women's cooperative, where she provides training and small jobs for women living on the streets. It was really inspiring to hear of how she rose up in the art community and is now using her abilities to give back.

Friday was the culminating day of our class, and we gathered together in the morning to present our artist biography projects and art journals to one another. We wrapped up some of our thoughts about the meanings of folk art and culture, and compared artistic skill in our drawings. Later that evening we met as a whole group at Mary Lou's to show the Food and Nutrition track all we had worked on the last couple weeks. They were suitably impressed, just as we had been with the feast they prepared for us on Wednesday during their class. We all agreed that the art class had been wonderful. Learning to make alebrijes and identify works of art was completely new to us, and we enjoyed being able to see so many aspects of Oaxacan culture portrayed through pottery and paintings. Corrine was a great professor, always ready to look at another museum or assure us that our sketches really were great. We will miss her after she heads back to the U.S. but we're looking forward to starting Geology with Barry next week!

Brazos a todos!

Sarah and Caroline

Culture and Cuisine

Food Systems Track

The food systems track started their first week of the Culture and Cuisine class with Professors Amy Trubek and Cynthia Belliveau, looking into the concept of cuisine in Oaxaca, and how it fits into the past, the present, and the future of the people of Oaxaca. After a day of in-class discussion, we had our first field trip to Las Quince Letras, a restaurant where we tasted and analyzed three different types of mole, a traditional sauce that Oaxaca is well-known for. It was a really filling and tasty experience!

Continuing with trying to understand and deconstruct the Oaxacan cuisine, we discussed the differences between pre and post-conquest ingredients in the Oaxacan diet. A lot of us learned that sugar, mangoes, onions, garlic, and chicken weren't here pre-conquest! We then took our new found knowledge to the Hidalgo Market in Colonia Reforma, where we bought ingredients to make an epic meal! After five hours of working together diligently in the most beautiful kitchen we have seen so far, we mastered an incredible meal that we got to share with the Arts and Science group. We even got to make our own tortillas (with a little bit of help)!

We also had the chance to experience food at Teatro Culinario, a restaurant that believes in using local in-season ingredients of Oaxaca to create artistic, contemporary dishes. Very different than any of the food we have tried within homestays, in other restaurants, and on the streets! Finally, we made a trip to the Tlacolula market to look for different types of herbs and chiles that are used in Oaxacan dishes.

We are excited to learn more about Oaxacan cuisine and to cook more in the kitchen with Cynthia and Amy!

Food Systems Track

The food systems crew, 13 mujeres and John Hayden, spent the past week in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca. On Monday morning we met, sleepy-eyed at 6 am in the Zocalo and made our way to Abasalo bus station where we boarded public transportation. The bus made its way outside of the city through the Central Valleys out to the mountainous Sierras, to a village called Capulalpam de Mendez. We split up into three groups and stayed in houses with families, where we ate our meals and slept. It is amazing the change in climate out in the mountains, lush green forests, fruit trees, vibrant flowers, and the constant backdrop of the endless mountains. We learned about the governance system of the village (usos y costumbres) and what it means to be a "magic town". We celebrated Lesley's birthday with a bonfire, all sitting under the beautiful, starry night sky. We went to a traditional medicine center and learned about different beliefs of health and indigenous medicine. We saw a demonstration of a limpia, and some of us received traditional massages and participated in a temezcal.

We also spent two nights in Yavesia. This was a small village of less than 700, located in a drastic valleys, the houses literally perched on the side on the mountain, a river in the middle of the valley, separating it into two neighborhoods. We had individual home-stays, which posed as a challenge for many, but was definitely rewarding in the end. We learned about the villages efforts to protect their forests from being exploited for lumber. An ongoing legal battle that shows the challenges of communally owned land, and an inspirational real-life example of people reclaiming their commons. We spent Thursday hiking and appreciating the woods in the mountains, the jagged rock formations, and the breathtaking views. We returned on Friday, meeting at 4:30 am, to catch the only bus to the city.

Words cannot quite do justice to the natural beauty and tranquility of these villages. Hiking in the mountains and seeing the beautiful pine forests, rivers and flowers, was like candy for a bunch of nature-deprived Vermonters, I am not exaggerating when I say it was blissful. It was a refreshing and challenging week, I think that we all pushed our comfort zones, and learned a lot. It was good to be learning but also feel like we are really experiencing Oaxaca, more and more it seems like the most important things in life are learned this way. Experiencing first-hand a different way of life, a different way of thinking, has certainly broadened our own perceptions. We have talked a lot about our relationship to nature, our selves, agriculture and the environment all being a part of the same thing.

Now we are about to embark on the last month of the program with cooking classes and discussions on food and culture. We are all very excited and eager for what the next month has in store for us.

Abrazos,

Jessie and Page

Arte Week 2-Arrazola!

This week marked the 2^nd week of Art class for those of us in the Arts and Sciences Track. We started out the week with regular scheduled classes at Solexico coupled with some field trips including a visit to the house of Oaxacan artist Rene Bustamante. We were all amazed by his vast (over 2,000!!!!) collection of painted masks that covered every available surface of his gorgeous house. These masks, like much of Oaxacan art, tell stories of traditional cultural practices including dances and other ceremonial uses.

As amazing as our visit with Rene was, the highlight of our week was our weekend-long field trip to the town of Arrazola to learn about “alebrijes” as a supplement to what we had been learning about in the classroom. Alebrijes are hand carved wooden figures (usually animals) made from the Copal tree and elaborately painted with various ornate and intricate designs. In order to enhance our learning experience, each member of the group stayed with different families to whom we gave various food items and paint supplies as a small gift for the immense hospitality they offered to us. After a short while, we realized that this small gift could never compare to what these families gave to us by welcoming us into their homes and of course, providing us with endless amounts of food and the overwhelming hospitality that we have found common here in Oaxaca.

Among the many things that we learned during our stay was how central the family is in the production of the alebrijes-while the father and sons carve the figures, the wives and daughters often collaborate in the painting process, making the final product a family creation. While we came into the town with the preconceived notion that what we were studying (the alebrijes) was a craft of mass production for tourists, we came out of the stay realizing how much time and careful artistic consideration goes into each and every piece. We met on Sunday morning to partake in making a breakfast of memelitas together with the community, each and every one of us sad at the prospect of saying good-bye, but comforted by the sincere requests of the families that we return soon and stay with them again. We all look forward to fulfilling this request.

Paz y amor from Oaxaca-Elena and Amber.

Russ, Caroline, Allie, Taylor, and Sarah