Become immersed in Spanish Language in the context of the Peruvian High Amazon indigenous kitchen and community garden (chacra). Learn, develop, and improve your linguistic skills while simultaneously acquiring an understanding of a sociolinguistic perspective that elucidates the complex relationship between language and society itself.
At Sachamama Center, you will become familiar with the cosmovision of the Kichwa-Lamista (agriculture, gastronomy, medicinal plants, their relationship with the forest), while also learning basic notions of Quechua throughout the Spanish language course, providing you with tools to increase communication in a globalized world.
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• Gain the skills to use Spanish language as an alternative means of living, perceiving, reflecting and relating to the world.
• Work in the chacra – a community garden – that will serve as your classroom as you improve your Spanish within a real-world setting.
• Spend the afternoons swimming in Sachamama Center’s new natural swimming pool, exploring the town of Lamas and various local projects.
Cost
Summer 2013: $3,500
Includes tuition, program costs, room and board, in-country travel.
Learn about Financial Aid options here
Credits
4 Transferable Credits from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
upon successful completion of the program
Dates
Summer Session: July 2 – 22, 2013
Requirements
Minimum GPA: 2.5
Minimum Age: 16 and above
Language: none required
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Visa
Yes: Contact the Living Routes office for details
Housing
Guest Housing
Application Deadlines
Summer Session:March 15
*Deadline extended
Rolling admissions on a first come first serve basis, so apply early!
Contact us for availability.
FAQs
Sachamama Center hopes to model a practice of a post-colonial, critical anthropology in horizontal, mutual, and inter-cultural collaboration with the Kichwa-Lamistas. The Center acts as an education, research and retreat center on the beautiful grounds of Casa La Sangapilla in the town of Lamas.
The Center also received status as a project of the Ecological Democracy Institute of North America in 2010. Projects at Sachamama Center include the Chacra-Huerto project, Ecological Literacy through Pre-Columbian Amazonian Permaculture and Project Qinti Qartunira, which strives to preserve the Quechua language through books recording the Quichwa-Lamistas life experiences, memories, songs, legends, knowledge and much more. Learn more about the community here!
Program at a Glance
Week 1
- Learn Spanish language within an immersion context
- Learn the various aspects of language including grammar, reading, writing, and oral comprehension skills based in the kitchen and the chacra (garden or food field)
- The kitchen and chacra serve as the classroom for Spanish language, while you simultaneously acquire an understanding of indigenous gastronomy and permaculture
Week 2
- Gain Spanish skills in an alternative means of living, perceiving, reflecting and relating to the world, from a sociolinguistic perspective that elucidates the complex relation established between language and society itself
- Understand the power relations between the languages or the modalities and distinct uses of the same language
- Experience the world through the chacra, and have the opportunity to become familiar with the cosmovision of the Kichwa-Lamista (agriculture, gastronomy, medicinal plants, their relationship with the forest)
Week 3
- Learn the basic notions of Quechua throughout the Spanish course
- Gain an understanding of the influence of Quechua in Amazonian Spanish language and will provide you with more tools with which to communicate between western and non-western cultures
Health and Safety
The health and safety of students and faculty on Living Routes programs is always our highest priority. Living Routes has clearly articulated health and safety protocols and procedures compiled in our Health and Safety Manual. This manual is reviewed and updated on a yearly basis to ensure the highest standard of care is in place on all Living Routes programs. The Health and Safety Manual is available for download here, or contact our office for a copy to be sent to you. All students also receive a comprehensive handbook including detailed chapters on health, safety and guidelines for preventing illness during the program.
Living Routes faculty and staff have extensive international experience and numerous affiliations throughout our various host communities and countries. These individuals and networks ensure that we stay informed about changing conditions and help us prevent health and safety risks while also responding to emergencies quickly and effectively if they should arise. Our program managers and directors have regular communication with field staff and faculty, who all carry emergency cell phones and are trained to carry out Living Routes Emergency and Evacuation Protocols, in the event that we must respond to an emergency, or remove a student or program from the field.
The following are measures that we take on all of our programs:
- Regular updates from the U.S. Department of State and always abide by their safety precautions, travel warnings, and recommendations for U.S. citizens abroad
- Registration through the U.S. Department of State Smart Traveler Enrollment Program
- Abidance by the safety guidelines set out by the National Association for Foreign Study Abroad (NAFSA)
- In-country orientation on country, culture, host site, health and safety procedures, illness and injury prevention and emergency protocol
- Emergency Cards with program itinerary, local emergency contacts, emergency protocol
- International health insurance under iNext Basic Plan, which includes major medical, evacuation, repatriation, and 24-hour emergency assistance
For questions or more information about Living Routes Health and Safety policies, please contact our office at (888) 515-7333 or email us at info[at]livingroutes.org.
Required Courses
Spanish Language and Peruvian Cultures
(Spanish/Latin American Studies 198P/298P/398P) (4 credits)
Course Topics
Spanish and Quechua Language, Indigenous Agriculture, Medicinal Plants, Political and Social Linguistics, Indigenous Gastronomy, Permaculture
Program Faculty
Liz Gruenfeld
PhD, MSW Boston College Graduate School of Social Work: current student
Ed.M. Arts Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
B.A. Latin American Studies, Smith College
After living in Chile, and partnering with indigenous Peruvian and Bolivian communities, Liz conducted intercultural empowerment work in thirteen countries. At Harvard, she specialized in arts-based approaches to working with children and communities affected by trauma, violence, and displacement. Since then, she has worked with NGOs doing teacher training, youth work, and research. With University of the Middle East Project, she works at the intersection of arts education and post-conflict education, training teachers in Lebanon, Morocco, and Egypt. She has published on using the arts to develop critical thinking, literacy, and psychosocial skills. She bases her teaching and leadership on concepts of mutual learning, deep reflection, and holistic education. She often uses arts-based self-reflection techniques and principles from cross-cultural spiritualities in her teaching practice.
Barbara Galinda Rodrigues
M.A., Brazil Spanish and Portuguese Literature and Theory, Federal University of Pernambuco.
Rodrigues received her licenciatura in Spanish and Portuguese from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil in 2007 and her masters in Theory of Literature with a specialization in Spanish language and literature from the same university in 2010. Her other areas of interest are: comparative literature, linguistics, and anthropology. She is currently assistant professor in the undergraduate course in Spanish literature with distance education program at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Rodrigues has published several essays on the Peruvian authors José María Arguedas and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Additionally, a wide range of guests from national and community organizations as well as Quechua-Lamista elders offer lectures and seminars.
Abby Corbett
B.A. Spanish; Graduate Certificate: Latin American and Latino Studies
Abby received a B.A. in Spanish from Berea College in 2008 and a Graduate Certificate from the University of Louisville in 2011. As a student, Abby participated in several study abroad programs throughout Europe, Latin America, and South America, and very quickly came to understand the importance of an experiential education. Soon after traveling to Peru as a student in the January 2011 Living Routes course, she returned to the Peruvian High Amazon and began teaching as an assistant in successive Living Routes courses and also worked as a volunteer with the non-profit organization Sachamama Center, also the host site of Living Routes Peru courses.
