By LINDSEY SCHIBELHUT, Staff Reporter.
Have you ever wondered what its like to travel or volunteer abroad? In the Brown Bag Series Event: Two Professors in Peru on April 16, Maureen Donegan, Professor of Psychology, and Christine Coleman, Professor of Spanish, spoke about the places they visited, the families they stayed with and shared pictures they took while taking in the local sites and cultures.
Audience members had the opportunity to try Peruvian tea before the start of the presentation. Coleman explained how the tea is a “cure to everything.” The people drink the tea to prevent altitude sickness, headaches, nausea and sore throats among others.
Some of the different places both Coleman and Donegan were able to explore while in Peru were: Cusco (which is the sacred valley of the Incas), Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Moray and Machu Picchu, but most of all both professors spent time volunteering in local schools.
“I was volunteering teaching English at a primary school that was outside of the city,” says Donegan, “so it was an adventure just going there everyday taking their public transit. There was a 45 minute bus-ride to go out of the city and a 30 minute uphill hike to the school which was up in the mountains.”
Coleman volunteered and took classes at Academia Latinoamericana de Español in Cusco, Peru.
Both Coleman and Donegan also had the opportunity to stay with local Peruvian families while they were volunteering. Coleman said the people culturally tend to be more conservative than in the U.S.
“I was told ahead of time that they would do my laundry once a week,” Coleman explains, “which was great they did do my laundry once a week, but they wouldn’t wash my socks or underwear and so I didn’t know that and I wasn’t prepared for that.”
She says it was cultural and was considered too private or too intimate, so she had to hand wash those items herself.
One souvenir that Coleman brought back was a replica of a “Torito de Pucara,” which is a cross flanked by two bulls. The cross and the bulls are both Christian symbols in Peruvian culture.
“You see these on the buildings all over Peru,” says Coleman, “They are on the top of the highest point on the building. They’re meant to bless the house.”
Depending on who lives in the house, the top of the cross may have a musical instrument on them or if you are a carpenter there could be a saw, etc.
“I came out of curiosity,” says audience attendee John Mauch,”I learned about the event on the Delta College website. I learned a sense of what it’s like to live in the South American culture, and what to expect in terms of food and travel and entertainment. I was interested in hearing firsthand experience.”
As for what Donegan and Coleman hope everyone learned?
“I hope people know a little bit more about Peru, it’s people and it’s culture but I hope they are encouraged to travel somewhere that they haven’t been before,” Donegan says.
Donegan says if students are interested in volunteering abroad but are not ready to go alone, they should look for a faculty-led service learning travel course. Coleman co-taught the Honors Academic Travel course this semester and it will be offered again next year. If students are interested in traveling and volunteering in Peru Donegan says they can contact either her or Coleman for more information.
“Don’t wait for the best opportunity, or the best moment or the best group, don’t wait on someone else to go and do something new and challenging just do it, even if it’s scary, just dive in,” says Coleman.