Guatemala
Aisha Hadlock and Jennifer Koerner

This winter term a group of twelve Oberlin students visited Guatemala for a four-week period with Santa Elena Project of Accompaniment (SEPA). SEPA has been traveling to Guatemala at least twice a year for the past ten years making this year’s students the twelfth group. This organization was founded in 1997 to provide indigenous Guatemalan civil war refugees from the village of Santa Elena (a small village in the northern part of Guatemala) with international human rights observers on their return home, following the signing of the peace treaty that ended the civil war and extreme governmental mistreatment of the Mayan people. Over time, SEPA’s purpose has evolved from its observer status to the role of collaborative assistance with education and other village projects. SEPA also works with another Mayan pueblo, Copal AA, population 600, located on the Chixoy River, near the border with Mexico.

Oberlin students became involved with SEPA about nine years ago, when John Gates, co-president of SEPA’s board, took the first group of students to Guatemala for a winter term project. With little widely known about the recent Guatemalan civil war, this trip aimed to expose the students to the recent history of the Guatemalan civil war and visit the two refugee communities of Santa Elena and Copal AA in order to interact with the residents and carry out some teaching work in the local schools.

For Bonner Scholar Phoenix Forbes (‘08), the trip was her first to Latin America and an eye-opening one on many levels. Her biggest culture shock? “Realizing that, at least in the cities, the same stereotypes about black people are perpetuated in Guatemala.” She thinks this may have something to do with the prevalence of television and American media in the more populated areas. Despite this Phoenix found the people to be very grounded and welcoming of their group. Her main priorities for the trip were to carry out teaching activities, but she also really enjoyed the short visit the group made to Chico Mendes, a reforestation project where they assisted in working with saplings being readied for future planting.

Another component of this trip was to teach English in schools in both Santa Elena and Copal AA. In preparation for this portion of the trip, the students also participated in an intensive language course in Xela, at the Celas Maya Language School, where they studied either Spanish or, for those who were already proficient in Spanish, K’iché, a Mayan dialect. Throughout Guatemala, a recent law requires children to pass an English language proficiency test in order to go to middle school, which also has a tuition requirement. As a result, many students do not go beyond the 6th grade. Through selling baked goods and other goods SEPA has been able to provide scholarships for students in the two villages to go to middle school, as well as pays the salary of a teacher in Santa Elena. This however is far from enough English instruction or general schooling. For Phoenix this was portion of the trip was the highlight, and wished for more as the need for sustainable teaching was very evident to her, especially the challenges faced by the children in being able to succeed in entering middle school.

On another note, the entirety of the trip did not involve such serious subjects. The group was also able to partake in some social activities and visits to beaches as well as some sacred Mayan sites.

Want to know more? Contact John Gates at jfgates@oberlin.net or call (440) 774 - 5484. Pictures courtesy of John Gates and Emmy Brockman.

Events and 

Announcements

MAY

Fond Goodbyes

The CSL would like to extend a HUGE thank you, good luck and best wishes to Avery Book, outgoing Campus and Community Collaboration Leader, and Sarah Litvin, America Reads Program Assistant, who are leaving the CSL for the big wide world. Avery is heading south to North Carolina for the summer, and will most likely be working for Unite Here in the fall, while Sarah, an ’07 grad, is taking a position as an Oral Historian at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Mississippi. They both will be greatly missed and we wish them all the best!

Welcome!

The CSL is proud to announce our new Campus and Community Collaboration Leader Americorps *Vista, Celeste Eustis. Celeste has worked with both the America Reads and WAVES programs, and will graduate this May from Oberlin. She can be reached at the CSL beginning in July. Welcome Celeste!

JUNE

Summer Leadership Institute 2007

The SLI is a yearly event that brings together Bonner Scholars, Leaders, and program staff from around the country to develop leadership skills and goals for Bonner Scholars and Leaders. Oberlin is proud to host this event, which will explore the intersection of our multiple identities, not only by considering the many dimensions of personal and cultural diversity, but also investigating the concept of eco-social context - the idea that we as humans are interconnected to each other and the world around us. June 3 – 6, 2007. For more information visit:
http://www.bonner.org/meetings/sli/home.htm

Did You Know?

Some things you might not know about the CSL (for more information visit www.oberlin.edu/csl):

• if you have a Federal Work Study award you can make community service your job?

• That you can take community-based learning courses and receive credit for combining community service with academic coursework?

• That the CSL offers reimbursement opportunities for travel expenses to and from your service site?

• That the CSL has over 200 community partners?

• That we provide one time service opportunities as well?