This past week we had many ups and downs. Two weeks ago we started our “tracks” in
which we chose to take classes in Food Systems, Botany, or Spanish, depending on our
individual interests and majors/minors. I chose Spanish myself and it turned out to be a little
more than I bargained for, yet helpful and interesting nonetheless. Our professor was very
passionate about teaching and urged us to express our ideas about abstract topics each day like
our personal views of the cultural differences between our own culture and that which we
observed in Mexico or the Zapatista movement. These 4-hour discussions were entirely in
Spanish with the exception of one of us asking for help expressing our ideas or with an odd
vocab word. From the beginning I realized my Spanish was nowhere where I thought and, half
way through the day, I would often become very tired or frustrated with the sheer amount of
things I didn’t know or understand about Spanish. However, in retrospect, the class improved my
knowledge of Spanish and Mexican culture immensely.

Unlike other classes I have taken here or in Vermont, there were field trips to famous
cultural areas at least once a week. The first in-class trip was to the convent-turned-museum
attached the Santo Domingo Church, a rally point well known to everyone in the group. On the
outside, the church appears to be much smaller than reality. But once you enter through the
museum doors, there are corridors upon corridors of smaller doors, opening into halls of artifacts
of indigenous tombs recovered from Monté Albán or old systems of distilling mezcal. It could
have easily eaten up an entire day instead of the 4-hour class we had to explore it. The second
field trip was to the Botanical Gardens just outside that was home to every native plant in Oaxaca
including the ancient relative of corn that we see today as the result of centuries of artificial
selection by farmers. Some tree and plant species were so strange it almost felt as though we
were in the middle of a Dr. Seuss story (or Jurassic Park).

The latest excursion was to the ruins ofYagul (“old tree” in Zapotec), a home for the elite after wars in Monté Albán forced them to relocate. Among these ruins were epic plazas and rooms easily distinguishable though they were more than 1000 years old. They also contained a unique ball court shaped like an “I” that is thought to have been home to an ancient sport that celebrated special religious events. In
addition, it was one of the first areas of inhabitance for early humans who lived in caves near the ruins where evidence of the ancient corn species was found, among other things. From the road leading up to the ruins we could see cave paintings in giant crevices carved into the walls. After
this we traveled to the nearby market of Tlacalula, the city of relocation for the ancestors of the area after the Spanish Conquest. Once entering the market, it was easy to see how you could be lost. The main street of the market was flooded with vendors and market-goers buying and
selling everything from machetes to black pottery and leather shoes to local produce. It appeared to never end and, after about and hour and a half, we still had not found the end of the market due to the many side streets and distractions along the way. On our way back, we all rested our feet and took naps on the bus home.

With only four weeks left, I’m looking forward to doing more outings like this to other famous ruins that are scattered around the state and exploring even more topics in my upcoming classes. The time has gone by so fast!

Hasta luego,
Sarah L.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted which leaves a lot of catching up to do. Two weeks ago we finished our 6 week session at the language school, Solexico, and had four days reserved for research on our independent projects. This time, of course, was spent unproductively enjoying Oaxaca state’s beautiful beaches and eating fresh caught seafood.

The trip to Puerto Escondido (the main beach town) was rough–a seven hour van ride on twisting mountain roads. There was more than one of us who woke up the next morning with large bruises on our heads where they repeatedly banged against the windows of the van. However, we made it there safe and sound at 6 a.m. Thus, the first hotel we spotted, we got a room. The next day was spent lounging on the beach and maneuvering our way around the city and finding new places to eat to satisfy cravings for fresh-caught fish. The following day we traveled to Mazunte (another, less touristy beach town) in a bumpy collectivo and spent the night eating more food and dealing with large, aggravated scorpions. The following days consisted of more beach hopping, lots of lounging on hammocks and reading Kurt Vonnegut (a favorite author among the group)–not to mention the obvious popular pastime of beach-goers (swimming!). By the end of the trip, we were all significantly more tan and no closer to finishing our final projects.

The week after we were split up into three different groups and shipped off to two different towns to work with non-profit organizations or weaving cooperatives. My group was one of two headed to the famous weaving town of Teotítlan to work with the weaving cooperative called Bii Dauu. This cooperative consists of at least 10 families, many of whom are related in some way, that produce tapetes (rugs) and an assortment of other weaving related products. The most amazing about this cooperative, in my opinion, was the use of all natural dyes that were harvested from a community “huerto” or farm. Though many weavers claim to use only natural ingredients, it is in fact very hard to turn a profit because the cost of the sustainable production of its natural dyes often breaks even in the less busy seasons. For this reason, most weavers buy their already-dyed wool from vendors and are able to sell for a lower cost. This however, was not the case at Bii Dauu as many of the weavers held a strong belief that the use of natural dyes was simply more environmentally sustainable and responsible. During the week, we learned all about these beliefs while working in the garden and learning the process of producing beautiful rugs from natural dyeing agents and wool.

Our days started at 6 a.m at which time we would wake up, eat, and head to the farm for work. This included making biofertilizer, constructing beds for plants, watering nopales (cacti in which cochineal bugs are grown and harvested to produce a red dyeing agent) and composting soil and already used cacti pieces. This usually lasted for less than 3 hours–the allotted time–and ended in impromptu basketball games with our supervisors (who were surprisingly good at it and beat out even the tallest of our members). After this, we would head home again for more food. Being sufficiently stuffed, we often snuck in a nap before heading out for more class. This time was generally filled with our learning the process of dyeing the wool, using the looms, or making our very own mini-tapetes. Another meal of sizable portions followed, again followed by another class with similar themes as the previous one. We were all well fed and worn out by 8 p.m, which became bedtime for the majority of the group.

One thing to note about the people of Teotítlan is their dedication to their culture. Everyone except for the newest generation spoke Zapotec, a language indigenous to the area since pre-Hispanic times. This was spoken everywhere: at the table, among family members, in the street, in the small mercado and in the school while simultaneously learning Spanish. In addition, it was common to see people shaking hands on the street or whenever someone entered a room in order to express greeting. This produced an air of a close-knit community with a common history and an uncommon language (though they were happy to teach outsiders a few Zapotecan words). They also welcomed each person whole-heartedly into their homes, giving up their own beds (in a few cases) or loading our plates with enough food to satisfy even the hungriest of stomachs. Many were very eager to practice their english or share stories and history about their town and people who all regarded us with warm words. By the end of the trip, we all felt as though we were part of this community and had a strong desire to return in the future.

Though we had all stayed in other villages earlier in the program, we all agreed that this was the most informative and inviting community of them all.

Hasta la próxima,

Sarah Leidinger

Hola todos!
In my most recent field trip, my group and I traveled to the small pueblo of Capulalpam located
in the mountains of Oaxaca. Unlike the city and most of its surroundings, these mountains were
full of vegetation, potable water and refreshingly clean air; the experience was reminiscent of
Vermont during springtime. The trip getting there, however, was pretty trying for some of us.
In order to illustrate our venture up these green monsters, I quote our TA (she did the
program 3 years ago) who said, “it was like riding in the spinning teacups at the fair for 2.5
hours.” Her description did not disappoint. Turn after winding turn, we went up, down and
around a few of these mountains before finally reaching our destination. Though everyone
prepared themselves with a tablet or two of Dramamine, a few of us (myself included) were
feeling a little queasy by the end. Luckily, there were no accidents and the vans’ drivers left with
no more to clean than could be expected from a large group of snacking college students.
Upon arrival, we were all ready to stretch our legs and check out the amazing views from
the hillside town. After learning about the pueblo and talking with the municipal president, we
were shuffled off in small groups to our respective home stays.

The next day, we went to a community farm that produced much of the pueblo’s produce
with the help of many local students who we saw in action towards the end of our day. Among
other things, they grew carrots, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and garbanzo and string
beans. They taught us ways in which they protected their veggies from weeds or bugs while
growing great tasting and healthy food without the addition of pesticides and with minimal use
of added nutrients. Not only was the tour educational, it was also filling and delicious as we were
able to try some of their veggies (probably the only time I’ve ever enjoyed raw beets). That
night, we had the option of going to a traditional healing center and having a limpia (spiritual
cleansing by a healer), an “energy” reading, a massage, and a temescal (similar to a sauna but
much hotter, often used in traditional medicine).

The following day we awoke at 8, packed and ready for the ride home that afternoon.
After dropping our bags off at a local community center, we happily hiked through a temperate
rainforest (who knew!) in true Vermont fashion. With plenty of sights and endless amounts of
fresh mountain air, we hardly noticed the passing of the 3 and a half hours it took to finish our
hike. Throughout, our tour guide (the municipal president) gave us a quick education in local
herbs used in traditional medicine and the environmental history of the land and the conservation
efforts in place there. Finally, we finished up the day at a small restaurant with local trout for
lunch followed by a zip-line. All in all, it was a great trip with some of the best sights and
experiences so far!
Hasta la próxima,
Sarah L.

Hola todos!
This is my fourth week in Oaxaca, Mexico and I’m still not bored of the food, the city, or the
people and I don’t expect I ever will. It seems there are endless things to discover here and I will
never stop learning or enjoying this place! For example, this week we traveled to a small town
called Ocotlan that was about a 50 minute drive from the city. Here, we learned about the process
of making mezcal, a popular alcoholic drink in Mexico that has recently enjoyed a lot of
worldwide popularity. In the city, there are multiple vendors for mezcal that can be found in the
streets or in legitimate stores but it’s hard to comprehend how much time and effort it takes to
make such a small amount of the drink.

Firstly, a liquid is harvested from the maguey plant, a type of agave plant which is native
to Mexico, and later distilled into the popular drink. The plants from which this liquid is
harvested take many years to grow and mature, some as long as 40 years. When they are finally
mature the “piña,” or the plant after the leaves have been removed, is taken and roasted in an
open air pit in the earth during a process that takes a total of 5 days to complete (which gives it a
unique smokey flavor). After this, the piña is ground and put in large vats to ferment. After a
period lasting from months to years, the fermented piña is then placed in a distillery. In the
“fábrica” or factory we visited, the mixture is distilled between 1 and 3 times to give a smoother
taste. The most expensive sold by this fábrica was distilled 3 times and had a chicken breast
introduced at this stage to give it a unique flavor.

The culture behind mezcal has put Oaxaca on the map and the rate of exportation has
grown accordingly. This, however, has begun to take a toll on the smaller-scale producers who
often use family recipes passed down from generation to generation and old-school distillery
practices. The guide we talked to said that the recipe used at another local fábrica had been lost
after the owner died because none of his five sons had learned the craft. Also, because of such
high demand, a local artesian who produced an important part of the fábrica’s distillery process
was unable to keep up with his orders. Therefore, the production of the fábrica’s mezcal has been
hindered. These factors are just a few affecting the small-scale and mostly family-run distilleries
now that demands are growing and traditional production processes are struggling to keep up.
In learning about the local economy of Oaxaca and the industries that dominate it, like
that of mezcal production, we are continuing to discover the difficulties and problems that befall
many of the local artesians as they try to make a living here.

In addition to visiting this local distillery, we also traveled to the city center of Ocotlán
and visited a museum dedicated to the famous painter, Rodolfo Morales. The museum was
located in an old monastery whose restoration was a gift to the community by Morales and is
home to many of his original paintings. A mural painted by Morales himself was featured in a
small section of the ex-convent that features many aspects of Mexican life including people
working in the fields, weaving rugs, and selling things at the market.

Luckily, we decided to travel to Ocotlán on Friday, the same day a weekly market was
held in the town square just outside the convent. It was incredibly extensive, selling everything
from bowls of tejate, an ancient Zapotec drink, to leather shoes and backpacks. This market has
been going on for centuries and photos of the market during the restoration of the ex-convent can
be seen in the museum.

Can’t wait to see what the coming months have to offer!

Hasta luego,
Sarah Leidinger

GLOBAL GRAM – Week of Jan. 30

Sarah’s New Blog Post: Third Week in Oaxaca!

Read all about her third week here.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Common Hour – Reports from the Field: Jordan

Time: 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Description: COMMON HOUR SERIES – REPORTS FROM THE FIELD: Jessica Salameh, former Global Village student, talks about her study abroad experience in Jordan. 5:30 p.m., L/L A-161.

COMING SOON!:

Tickets ready for pick-up now! Limited number of FREE TICKETS. Stop by the Living/Learning Director’s Office (205 Commons) to pick up a ticket while supplies last. Office hours: 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.

Le Vent du Nord and Pine Leaf Boys

Time: 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Description: LE VENT DU NORD AND PINE LEAF BOYS: A Québeçois and Cajun double-bill with two of our favorite bands! Le Vent du Nord is one of the most exciting groups to come out of French Canada, and they have the fans, awards, and CD sales to prove it. Fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, guitar, accordion, and percussive feet combine to create a unique sound that makes you want to celebrate, dance, and laugh with joy. The four-time Grammy Award-nominated Pine Leaf Boys from Lafayette, Louisiana, are part of a new generation of musicians that brings a youthful exuberance to traditional Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco music. Ambassadors of regional American Music, the Pine Leaf Boys have performed in Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Latvia, Denmark, and Slovenia.

Date & Time: February 17, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Location: Flynn Center for the Performing Arts 153 Main Street, Burlington, VT, United States, 05401

YouTube clip: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j03tTLBcPYg

Limited number of FREE TICKETS (normally $25.00). Stop by the Living/Learning Director’s Office (205 Commons) to pick up a ticket while supplies last. Office hours: 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.

*Passport students can use this event for the Passport class.
**The Lane Series requests that you arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled show time so tht the performance can start on time.

The Beaux’ Strategem

Time: Various dates/times in Feb.
Description: THE BEAUX’ STRATEGEM:The original version of The Beaux’ Stratagem, written by George Farquhar, was first performed in London in 1709. It was later adapted by Thornton Wilder in 1939, though it was not finished. That opportunity, passed on from Wilder’s estate, went to Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), who completed work on it in time for the new version’s debut in 2006.
Three centuries in the making, the play is a raucous romp through the minefields of love, money and marriage. It is an evening full of careful scheming, double dealing and a good bit of old-time swashbuckling bravado, proving that when it comes to matters of the heart anything can happen no matter how carefully planned.

Hola todos!

Although this is my third week here in Oaxaca, I still have many things to learn about the culture
and people of Mexico. For example, towards the end of the week, we traveled to a village outside
the city called Santa Ana del Valle and spent a night there. There, we stayed with indigenous
families in the town and learned the ins and outs of the politics of a Zapotec village.

Unlike those in the greater Mexican communities, these indigenous villages have a much
more communal aspect. As a member of the village, a person has an obligation to his
community to work a certain number of years for the greater good; this is termed tequio. The
man that gave us a tour of the town, a highly respected member of the community, told us that 15
years of tequio is required of each person in the town and is usually begun at the age of 18. This
work may include maintaining the local museum, working in the fields around the town, or
organizing events at the local church.

This tequio is unpaid work that each member of the village
is obligated to do as part as a service and, if refused, the person’s land may be seized and shared
among members of the village. In more recent years, a number of community members have
gone to the United States to work due to the lack of jobs available to them in Mexico. Because of
this, a new rule has been made where those abroad can pay others in the community to do their
tequio for them. After learning all this, I talked to my local host mother that night who shared her
views of this system. Though she liked the system, she felt that it was not practical because they
are not paid for this work and yet, they still need to earn money for food and other goods.

The next day we went to a local weaver who taught us the processes of collecting wool,
dyeing it using natural coloring agents and weaving rugs from the colored wool. The following
day, we went to a traditional medicine woman who explained how she uses plants and natural
remedies to cure health problems like sadness, fright, headaches, fear, anger and diabetes.
Though it was hard to believe this alternate form of medicine, later we were surprised by her
ability to pick up on vibes from people in the group.

Though we only spent one night in Santa Ana del Valle we learned so much about
indigenous politics and economic practices. We learned so much in such a short amount of time
that I am excited to see what is in store for the coming weeks.

Hasta luego,
Sarah Leidinger

Welcome back! Hope the first week of classes went well. It’s a busy second week of the semester in the Global Village.

NEW THIS SEMESTER:
Sarah Leidinger will be writing for the Global Village blog while studying abroad in Oaxaca this semester. Exciting!
Please check out her first post here.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

GLOBAL VILLAGE COMMUNITY MEETING:

Time: 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Description: GLOBAL VILLAGE COMMUNITY MEETING: Community meeting and Passport Class overview. 5:30 p.m., L/L A-161.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Friday, January 27, 2012

ANONYMOUS 4:

Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Description: ANONYMOUS 4: It is our honor to present Anonymous 4, one of the most respected and revered female a Capella vocal ensembles in the world, for the third time on our series. Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, Anonymous 4 combines musical, literary, and historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition, creating ingeniously designed programs. To mark their 25th year together, Anonymous 4 has developed a truly unique and very special concert program, ANTHOLOGY 25. It features ancient, traditional and modern works from each of their 19 prizewinning, chart-topping harmonia mundi CDs, in one, two, three and four voices, including 11th century plainchant, richly harmonic English conductus, spicy French motets of the 13th century, exotic 15th-century Hungarian polyphony, 19th-century shape note hymns, and contemporary works.

YouTube clip: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EEb7gt7FIKs

Location: UVM Music Building Recital Hall, 384 South Prospect Street

Time: January 27, 2012 7:30 pm

Limited number of FREE TICKETS (normally $35.00). Stop by the Living/Learning Director’s Office (205 Commons) to pick up a ticket while supplies last. Office hours: 8 a.m- 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.

*Passport students can use this event for the Passport class.
**The Lane Series requests that you arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled show time so that the performance can start on time.

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Global Village website: http://www.uvm.edu/~gvrlc/
Global Village e-mail: global.village@uvm.edu
Global Village Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gvrlc

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Hola todos! My name is Sarah Leidinger and I’m a sophomore currently studying abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico for the semester with the UVM Oaxaca program.

Before I applied for the program, I knew I wanted to go abroad for a semester and had my heart set on doing a semester abroad in Spain during my junior year. I had no plans to go anywhere else, but when I saw an email about an extension of the deadline for the Oaxaca program, I decided to apply. I had little knowledge of what it was about or what we were going to do but I’d had a suite mate my freshmen year who had done the program and loved it. Therefore, I sent in an application in late October on a whim, not expecting it to amount to anything. As it turns out, I was accepted to the program and before I knew it, I was packing my suitcase for Mexico.

We’ve been in Oaxaca for two weeks now and it already feels like a lifetime (in a good way!). Oaxaca has a rich culture and history which we’ve been learning about in class. In addition, we’ve also learned a lot by walking around the city and talking to locals. Last week we visited Monte Alban, an old Zapotec ruin that is thought to have been the political and economic center for the indigenous that lived there nearly 2500 years ago.

We’ve also toured more modern establishments including a permaculture center that is dedicated to serving the nearby community and promoting sustainable harvesting practices. During all this we’ve had some delicious eats including sopa azteca (tortillas, avocado, and Oaxacan cheese in a spicy broth), homemade tortillas, bread, papas fritas (freshly cut potatoes, fried, and topped with spicy sauce) and chapulines (toasted grasshoppers with lime and chile powder) among other things. On top of this, we have spanish classes every day during the week and optional group activities like salsa and cooking classes, free Spanish movies and professor-student soccer games, just to name a few.

‘
To be honest, I was a little wary about coming to Mexico because I had always associated the country with drug lords and big guns, a result of close-mindedness and too much T.V. However, living here for two weeks I have already grown to appreciate the culture and the experience of studying abroad in another country completely unlike my own. So far, this has been much more than I could have expected when I applied 3 months ago.

Hasta la próxima mis amigos!

Sarah Leidinger

Scenes from last night’s Global Village Open Suite night!

Let’s Talk Politics!
I don’t know how many of you have been watching the news, or keeping up whats going on in this region, but there’s a a new Middle East forming! What a time to be here with all the recent events that started with Tunisia and Egypt overthrowing there leaders and are now facing the challenge of regime building. Libya is trying to get rid of their leader Qaddafi, who is mass murdering his people like crazy. Similar events are talking place in Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. There are people dying and protests everywhere- including Jordan. Jordan has normally been a place of stability and peace in the midst of a violent region, but lately there has been tons of protests here- I’ve seen like 2 a week. Most of them are peaceful and organized, but there were two that got out of control this month.

In the first big protest here, someone died and 200 people were injured. It happened while I was away on a trip to Wadi Rum( a gorgeous desert here in which the movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed), and right when I came back I had Midterms all week and I then I went on spring break which I spent in a village with no internet, so I haven’t had a chance to write in my blog. The death that happened here occurred when 2 different protests groups got into some sort of clash and things got out of control, and the guy was murdered. The King and government then tried to blame this guy’s death on a “heart attack.” hmmm ok, that’s believable. There have been many protests by people who support the king. They drive around the the city honking, screaming, and singing how great the king is and chants like “long live our king.” These protests are usually by the native Jordanians who are seen as very supportive to the King. The other protests have been by people who demand change, as they believe the King has too much power, and are upset about the corruption and economic hardships in the region. These protests have traditionally been led by the larger Palestinian population here which make up about 60-70 % of the country, and are often accused by the native Jordanians as being “unloyal” to the country. It’s really stupid if you asked me, but these to groups don’t seem to like each other. Anyway, this protest was different because there were many native Jordanians protesting against the government. But it guess when it comes down to supporting the government or having enough money to feed your children, even those who are normally considered “loyal” can switch sides in a split second.

There was also a second big riot this week in Zarqa, a town about 20 minutes outside of the city. I’m really not quite sure what happened here, but some sort of crazy Islamic protest in which dozens were injured. The jihadi salfest group took to the streets carrying sharp weapons and declaring their support for Al-Qaeda, and calling other protesters who want reform Atheists. Kinda insane. Zarqa is mostly lower income citizens and Palestinians who have been marginalized in the society here which has made them much more easily influenced by Islamic parties and groups. Here’s an interesting article on the Muslim Brotherhood movement in al- Zaqa. http://globalgeopolitics.net/wordpress/2010/05/04/zarqa-lives-up-to-al-zarqawis-ideals/ Anyway, who knows what will come of all the political changes here, but it sure is interesting to witness all of this!