Cornelius, a sophomore, was one of 17 students from 91¶ĚĘÓƵ who participated in the spring semester intercultural trip to Guatemala and Mexico. Professor Wendell Shank, who teaches Spanish and linguistics, and Liz Miller, from Intercultural Programs, led the group in exploring history, culture, and language within the context of colonization. They spent eight weeks living with host families in Guatemala City, followed by some free travel time, and then two weeks of community learning in various Guatemalan organizations before traveling to Mexico City.

Zoe Clymer, a junior at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ, described her two weeks of community service at a private clinic on the outskirts of Guatemala City as “eye-opening.” She shadowed various positions in the clinic, prompting her to consider her role in health care and how she wants to help people stay healthy. Several other students worked in a clinic in San Juan. Ivy Miller, a sophomore, helped take patients’ vitals and sorted through piles of medicine for the pharmacy. She described the two weeks as “nerve-racking at some points,” but also appreciated the opportunity to “be helping hands to the clinic staff and expand our knowledge one day at a time.”

Another group of students worked with the Community Cloud Forest Conservation, an organization that teaches leadership skills and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Nathan Miller, a junior, reported that he and other students helped harvest vegetables, prepare soil at the tree nursery, and cook meals for the group, all while being surrounded by a beautiful landscape.

Besides community service, students spent the semester learning about migration, economics, human rights, health and education systems, and Mayan history and culture. They visited museums, refugee shelters, schools, and nonprofit organizations, but also got to relax at the ocean, take hikes, and explore volcanoes.

Caleb Metzler said he’s not sure how to compare his level of learning from this past semester with an ordinary one on campus. “While I haven’t been sitting in a classroom for three to six hours every day cranking out scholarly papers until my hands feel numb, I’ve had opportunities to learn every time I leave the confines of wherever we are staying,” the 91¶ĚĘÓƵ junior said. “It’s almost as if this semester has been a test-run on what life is like, and I feel as though I’ve learned quite a lot about what I want for my future.” 

Metzler, a triple major, is still thinking about what he wants to do after graduation. Several key experiences on this intercultural trip made him say, “Hey, I think I could enjoy doing this for my career.” These experiences included a presentation from a Guatemalan sociologist, a conversation about legal advocacy surrounding environmental health, and a volunteer experience at a migrant house in Mexico City.

Students on the intercultural trip sometimes felt overwhelmed with their immersion in a different language, but Spanish classes and placement with host families boosted their language skills. Still, with 22 indigenous Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, students found themselves in situations where they couldn’t understand the language people around them were speaking. Malia Bauman, a sophomore, worked with the organization in an area that spoke Tz’utujil; she said it was sometimes difficult to find her place since she didn’t know the language. But she still appreciated hearing their native language since it “helped me see authentic interactions between my family, teachers, students, and community.” 

Similarly, Clymer reported that even though it was challenging to express herself in Spanish, one of her highlights from the trip was living with host families “because I got to form meaningful connections with people that live very differently from me.”

Students on the trip included Malia Bauman, Noah Buckwalter, Zoe Clymer, Malachi Cornelius, Lily Gusler, Claire Hurst, Emae Klompenhouwer, Esme Martin, Caleb Metzler, Ivy Miller, Nathan Miller, Samuel Myers, Kaylin Ozuna, Rose Short, Payton Simmons, Sarah Wheeler, and Amanda Yoder.

Members of the group shared their experiences and stories from the trip at Convocation on Wednesday, April 30. Watch a recording of their presentation .

By Andrew Jenner, Rocktown Weekly

It was the first Tuesday in January, cold and rainy, when Jon Spicher and Lars Akerson began pedaling south. In the 45 days and 2,000-plus miles since then, they’ve made steady progress, about five days of biking and two of rest each week, cutting a gentle arc across the Southeast, crossing the border in Laredo, Texas, and heading south into Mexico – Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and now, San Luis Potosi.

They’re just hitting their rhythm, about a quarter of the way done. Spicher, a junior at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ, and Akerson, a recent graduate, are bound for Asuncion, Paraguay, where the Mennonite World Conference will convene in mid-July.

Biking through the towns hear Oaxaca, Mexico (Photo from the bikers’ latest blog on )

They’re riding to meet new people and see new places, to "strengthen relationships within the global church," to "consider ways of living the life-changing call of Jesus Christ in the context of a global church" (so says their blog), to raise $30,000 to help other young people attend the conference in Paraguay – part pilgrimage, part adventure, all by bike, slowly, heading south.

So far, so good, they say.

Yes, lots of people ask them what they’re doing and where they’re headed. Yes, they’ve encountered unexpected kindness and hospitality, and yes, they’ve had a bunch of interesting conversations. No, nothing really bad has befallen them, so far. Some tendonitis that troubled Spicher early on dissipated somewhere in Alabama.

They eat a lot of bread, and they drink too much soda (everyone in Mexico seems to do this, they’ve found; Spicher says he’s giving it up for Lent). They both got sick soon after crossing into Mexico, something fluish, and now they’re mostly better except for a lingering cough.

Their bikes – Spicher’s on a Surly, Akerson’s on a Trek – have performed admirably, especially since they found a friendly bike shop in Corpus Christi, Texas, that allowed them use of the workshop for a tuneup.

Before they left, they expected to camp about half the time, to cook on their campstove, to purify their own water. But thanks to the unexpected hospitality they’ve encountered, and pleasantly cheap lodging and food elsewhere, they haven’t really roughed it at all. They haven’t even taken their tent out of its bag since leaving Harrisonburg.

Biker Lars Akerson enjoys the hospitality of local residents during a recent stop near Puebla, Mexico (Photo from the bikers’ latest blog on )

They carry about 50 pounds of gear each. They are a few days ahead of schedule, which affords them the luxury of a leisurely pace.

"I’d say we take at least two days a week off," said Akerson.

"It’s pretty laid back," added Spicher.

San Luis Potosi by Mardi Gras. The halfway point in Managua, Nicaragua, by Easter, hopefully, and that’s about as far ahead as they’ll let themselves look, right now. Conceiving their trip as a series of shorter ones keeps them from getting discouraged.

"You can’t really think about Peru or Bolivia from Mexico," Spicher said.

Two thousand-odd miles down, a lot more than that left to go. South America still feels like a dream.

To follow their trek, visit their blog at americas.bikemovement.org/route.

‘I heard a lot of good things

Zulia Mena will speak about the impact of the war in Colombia and U.S. foreign policy on the Afro-Colombian people 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ. The coffeehouse is located on ground floor of 91¶ĚĘÓƵ’s University Commons.

Ms. Mena was elected to Congress in 1994, serving for four years as Colombia’s first ever Afro-Colombian congresswoman. Today, she continues her work in the Chocďż˝ as a community organizer and social worker.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Mena will speak at James Madison University. She will be accompanied by Harrisonburg resident Silvia Romero, who will talk about her experiences as a Latino in the Shenandoah Valley. The presentation will be held at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Building 1301.

Ms. Romero was born in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Her family came to the United States in 1991, and she started elementary school not speaking a word of English. Romero currently works for the Shenandoah Valley Migrant Education Program and is involved in the community through her church, Blessed Sacrament, and the Latino theater troupe, Teatro Chirmol.

Mena is traveling across the southeastern U.S. with Witness for Peace, acting as a voice for the Afro-Colombian population internationally. Her appearances locally are sponsored in part by 91¶ĚĘÓƵ’s Conflict Transformation Program (CTP).

Admission to both presentations is free.

For more information, contact Danny Malec, (540) 729-6936; e-mail: dannymalec@hotmail.com.