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Dragons Central America Semester Abroad: A Gap Year Program

Program Affiliation: Where There Be Dragons

Location: Rural Areas Guatemala , Quetzaltenango Guatemala , Guatemala City Guatemala

Central America - a narrow strip of steaming jungles and fiery volcanoes, unites two massive continents and splits the world's largest oceans. Rising out of the sea at a confluence of five tectonic plates, this causeway of cultures and ecological diversity is an explosion of rapid biological and cultural change. Today the countries of Cen... read more Central America - a narrow strip of steaming jungles and fiery volcanoes, unites two massive continents and splits the world's largest oceans. Rising out of the sea at a confluence of five tectonic plates, this causeway of cultures and ecological diversity is an explosion of rapid biological and cultural change. Today the countries of Central America continue their historic legacy of adaptation, responding to environmental and social challenges with innovative communal strategies. The Central America Semester takes a hands-in-the-dirt approach to understanding indigenous culture and collective life in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador through extended rural home-stays, one-on-one language study, work on communal farms, and a participatory examination of land-use and grass roots activism.

In the western highlands of Guatemala, over eighty percent of the population is indigenous Maya who maintain a legacy of rich cultural survival and community strength in the face of diverse external pressures. The villages surrounding the bustling city of Quetzaltenango, known locally as Xela, are where the Q'iche' Maya continue a way of life centered on the cultivation of corn, beans and squash, wearing traditional dress as a marker of identity and following a many thousand year-old calendar using a base-twenty system as accurate as the most advanced computers of today. Living with indigenous families, working the fields, and learning Spanish, we begin our semester with an experiential understanding of Mesoamerican culture and the legacy of conquest and resistance that has played out here for five hundred years. Herbal healers, weavers, and community leaders share their arts and experience while conversations with local NGOs working in human rights, community health, and development provide opportunities to get involved in contemporary struggles for continuity and change in Guatemalan society.

After leaving our base in western Guatemala, we spend a few weeks exploring the rest of the Mayan heartland. We will hike Central America's tallest volcano, visit ancient pyramids towering above the jungle, and spend time in communities heavily affected by the civil war. From Guatemala, we bus down into El Salvador where we learn about its own distinct civil war history, focusing in particular on the US’s military and political involvement, and meet up with local non-profits to learn about the solidarity work they undertake with supportive US organizations. In between guest speakers and service projects, we will make sure to eat plenty of pupusas and catch a wave or two in one of the country's many coastal beaches.

From El Salvador we pass briefly through Honduras, entering into Nicaragua where we will spend the rest of our journey. In the country's northern highlands, communities have long relied on local solutions to social and environmental challenges. In the face of political strife, devastating war, and rapid globalization, these communities have joined together and come up with creative and revolutionary responses in the form of radical people's movements, progressive organizations, and innovative appropriate technologies. While living in homes with local farmers and continuing with their one-on-one Spanish instruction, students will learn about the revolution, participate in local agricultural co-ops, intern with NGOs, partake in the annual coffee harvest and meet some of the friendliest folk in this part of the world.

The final portion of the trip is turned over to our students who will decide how they want to end this Central America learning adventure. Options include homestays in fishing villages, visits to organic permaculture farms, ascents up active volcanoes, additional service projects, or extremely off-the-beaten track journeys into the jungles surrounding the Rio San Juan or the Caribbean villages of the Moskito coast.

Through a rugged and authentic exploration of some of the most remote regions of Central America, the "Roots of Rebellion" semester seeks to unearth the complex myriad of issues facing indigenous and peasant communities working towards development and conservation today. With Spanish lessons, rural homestays on organic farms, and service learning at the forefront, this semester program provides an experiential and fresh perspective on relationships with land and community organization. Less