Burchell students find culture shock in Belize

July 8, 2007

By Will Elliott

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Most of the students had never been out of the United States before, let alone the country. One had never flown on an airplane. Passports for two students didn't arrive until 48 hours before departure.

For the 15 students Burchell High School teachers Tim Lundt and Tara Moore took to Central America this summer, the adventures didn't let up from there.

It was a 19-hour trip from Wasilla to the group's rainforest lodging in Belize. When they arrived, Continental Airlines had lost their luggage. The students' sunblock and extra clothes were in those bags and two students cut the legs off their pants to escape the sweltering rainforest heat.

It was a small price to pay for what Lundt called the trip of a lifetime.

Organized by International Zoological Expeditions, a scientific and cultural tourism service, the nearly two-week trip carried students from ethnobotanical inquiries in a Mayan village to marine biology studies with the Smithsonian Institute, Lundt said. Along the way, team building and leadership were a major focus. Moore headed up those activities.

Other high schools regularly send students overseas, but the Burchell trip was unique because of the students who went, Lundt said. Three of the students were from Valley Pathways school, but the rest were from Burchell. Many of those students were forced to mature early, faced with challenging circumstances at home like teen pregnancy or foster care. Burchell is the Mat-Su Valley's alternative high school and many of its students are classified as at-risk.

"Nobody was willing to take a chance on these kids,” Lundt said. &#8220The reality is that they're just like any other kid.”

Student Brian Oenga said his Mayan hosts in Belize treated him very well.

&#8220They loved us. They treated us like family, with a lot of respect,” he said. &#8220That's somewhat unusual to find up here.”

Oenga, who divides his time between Palmer and Barrow, repaid the kindness by telling his Mayan hosts about Alaska and teaching them a few Inupiaq phrases.

It was also gratifying to know the scientific work the students conducted was of real value, Lundt said. The group partnered with the Smithsonian Institute to study coral reefs along the coast. Those reefs are an indicator of oceanic health and useful in measuring global warming. The students snorkeled and dived to gather data on the coral, which was posted on the Internet to aid oceanographers worldwide.

&#8220It was a chance for the kids to work with some real scientists,” said Lundt, a recipient of the British Petroleum Teacher of Excellence award.

Many students said the trip's cultural studies were the most exciting. The group lived in a Mayan village and witnessed firsthand the free interplay of traditional and globalizing influences in the developing world.

Students caught 5-foot iguanas alongside Mayan hunters. They also helped grind corn, repair roofs with palm leaves and grind cocoa beans with stones to prepare the chocolate drink Mayan emperors imbibed in stone palaces thousands of years before.

They also saw Internet access and televisions in village homes. Lundt said children in one house were ardent fans of &#8220Jackie Chan Adventures,” an English-language cartoon produced by a Japanese studio about the Chinese stuntman and martial artist.

Though American clothing brands and music were prevalent, the Mayans still washed those clothes by hand in the river - a matter of tradition, Lundt said.

Students came face to face with how far back those traditions go on one outing. Mayan guides led the group deep into caves used by their people for thousands of years. There they witnessed strange subterranean formations, underground waterfalls, and giant trees fused into the ceiling of one chamber where they had lodged after being floated downstream by loggers generations ago. Because of the uncommon rapport the guides struck up with their Alaskan visitors, Lundt said the Mayans eventually conceded to show the group a secret cave with an even more startling sight.

The small chamber was filled with pottery, stone axes, jewelry, bowls of teeth and piles of human skulls. Lundt said the guides thought it to be a burial chamber, estimated at 500 to 1,000 years old.

It all added up to quite the culture shock, Woodward said.

Some of the biggest differences between Mayan and American culture highlighted the Mayan lifestyle's greatest strengths, Oenga said.

&#8220They live life as it comes,” Oenga said. &#8220After [the trip], I realized what comes comes because you don't know what's going to happen. I just take it one day at a time.”

Woodward agreed.

&#8220Everything was so natural,” she said. &#8220They weren't worried about stuff most Americans are worried about.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.