Program Description

More than 2600 miles separate the capitalsof Guatemala and Bolivia in Central and South America. However, these two countries share characteristics that offer the student the opportunity to understand how political economic history has unfolded to produce patterns of broad similarity and significant difference in the Western hemisphere.

These two countries are showcases for the beauty of cultural diversity and dramatic environment contrast including high mountain cities and densely forested tropical lowlands. Both were centers of ancient civilization (ancient Maya, Inca and others) and currently contain millions of indigenous people who have been engaged in a dynamic process of both accommodation and resistance to Europeans and their decendents. Since the early 1990's, Guatemala has seen the establishment of a peace process after decades of civil war. Over the same period, Bolivia has been the site of a US sponsored "drug war" that pits Bolivian military police against a resistant but unarmed rural population. Recent Bolivian elections resulted in indigenouse representatives gaining a strong voice in parliament for the first time.

Study in Guatemala and Bolivia offers students unique service learning opportunities that connect them with church institutions and organizations committed to working for justice and peace.

Semester Leaders: Doug Hertzler and Jodi-beth McCain

Enrollment: maximum 24 students

Course Credits: 15 Semester Hours

Course Descriptions:

CCUS/CCSOC 202 Cross-Cultural Understanding through Ethnographic Fieldwork 3 SH

Key anthropoligical concepts will be explored through the field methods employed by social scientists who seek to understand other cultures. Students will develop their own participant observation while living with Guatemalan and Bolivian families during language study and service-learning experiences.(satisfies Global Village Cross-cultural requirement)

SPANISH LANGUAGE Six semester hours at one of the following levels. Pplacement based on previous knowledge. (satisfies Global Village Cross-cultural requirement)

• CCSPA 102, 112 Elementary Spanish I & II 6 SH
• CCSPA 202, 212 Intermediate Spanish I & II 6 SH
• CCSPA 302, 312 Advanced Conversational Spanish I & II 6 SH

CCHST/CCPOL 302 Indigenouse Peoples and Social Movements in Latin America 3 SH

Visits to indigenous communites, archaeological sites, readings and speakers will help the student develop a comprehensive understanding of the history of indigenous peoples in Latin America. The course includes the prehistoric process of populating the Americas, the establishment of great indigenous civilizations, European colonialism, and struggles for land and political rights within the Latin American republics. The latter includes the recent civil war and peace process in Guatemala, and the conflict over coca production, land and economic policy in Bolivia. (satisfies Global Village Cross-cultural requirement)

CCCHS 302 Christianity and Social Conflict in the Americas 3 SH

Through church visits, speakers,and readings, this course will examine theological currents within the Catholic and evangelical protestant churches as they have struggled to deal with social inequality and conflict in Latin America. Students will learn about the spread of Christianity through the Americas during the colonial period and its co-existance and conflict with indigenouse religious practices. We will learn about the identity and experiences of Anabaptists in Guatemala and Bolivia as well as visiting a German speaking Old Colony Mennonite community in Bolivia. (satisfies Global Village Faith & Christian Heritage requirement)