The leader and his assistants greeted each student individually. The students responded with a simple phrase they had learned for such greetings: "Mucho gusto." Robert Blake, professor of international animal science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the coordinator of the class in 1995, moved around the room answering the students' barrage of questions as the last handshakes were made.
The leader began, as Blake translated: "Welcome to the Colonia Villanueava Norte, one of many barrios of Tegucigalpa, the capital and most populous city in Honduras. Tegucigalpa has nearly a million inhabitants with thousands more arriving daily. Most of us settle on the outskirts of the city, places like this. The Choluteca River runs through and divides the city. Since the colonial period, the wealthier families have generally inhabited the region east of the river where the Spanish settled and acquired major holdings. The western region has been more recently settled by people like us who have migrated from other cities or rural areas looking for better job opportunities or fleeing the political conflicts. Most of us had little or no money when we arrived and it took us time to find a job. To survive, we must work as a community. "
He went on to explain that individuals in the barrios organize themselves into "patronatos," small social units, which may be highly patriarchal or more democratic, but which help the members develop basic services, from collecting the garbage to educating their children. Some patronatos are more effective than others because of their political contact with local municipal authorities or congressional representatives. Leaders of the patronatos can tell those running for office that they will help swing their election if promised fundamental services in return.
The students walked through the barrios and saw workers putting finishing touches on the new school and constructing a drinking water source for the main plaza. They walked by huts that served as local stores selling everything from adhesive bandages to bottled water. The afternoon was hot and few people walked the streets; dogs lay in the shady areas. The students began to see the barrio for what it was: people looking for a better way of life and organizing into effective units to achieve more than any individual could. What had first seemed like a slum, an eyesore, and a place far removed from any of their previous experiences was now seen for its richness. its sense of community, and its struggle for a better life. When the students first got off the minibus, one student remarked, "This sure isn't Kansas, Toto." Another replied, "Or even Ithaca." Now the students realized they were seeing a new world.
These students were participating in, an ALS course that takes students and faculty to a developing nation in Latin America for two weeks in January. "Life changing" is how Prof. Blake describes the course. When the students return to Ithaca, they will have developed bonds stronger than can be forged in any classroom and will have experienced cultures vastly different from their own. Most students who have taken the course since it started in 1968 say that it has changed their view of the world.
The course has led to changes in career plans for some, to new ways of looking at old jobs for others, and to new awareness of how others live. Even older students who have lived and studied in other countries for years find themselves changed. And faculty members develop new perspectives on their own disciplines. The list of 871 students who have taken the trip in the past 28 years reads like a Who's Who in International Agriculture. It includes Ronnie Coffman, ALS director of research and associate dean; Hubert Zandstra, director general of the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru; Dan Makunga, dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Nairobi in Kenya; Steve LaPoint, a researcher in tropical forage cultivation at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia; Tony Bellotti, entomologist, and Francisco Morales, virologist, both with CIAT in Colombia; Robert Ziegler of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines; and Tully Cornick, rural sociologist with USAID in Guatemala.
During the first years, the class went to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Later the site was changed to Mexico. Since 1991 the class has gone to Honduras, an ideal location according to Blake, because it has a variety of ecosystems and social systems within a very small area.
Before making the trip, most students take International Agriculture in Tropical America 402 in the fall semester. It meets weekly for lectures by a team of professors both within and outside the college who initiate the students into the culture, politics, history, and economy of the country. Then, for International Ag 602, some 30 students, five or six faculty members from different disciplines, sometimes a dean, and one or two Cooperative Extension agents meet several times before leaving for the trip.
Students divide into theme groups, each with a faculty adviser, to study a particular topic. Each group is formed from students from various disciplines, perhaps an agronomist, a plant scientist, an animal nutritionist, and a historian to add breadth to the understanding of pertinent issues. The topics are wide ranging, such as critical examinations of plant genetic diversity for tropical agroecosystems, dealing with chronic malnutrition, and the influence of government intervention in Honduran agriculture. When their plane arrives in Honduras, flying low over the tropical vegetation, the students realize that no amount of preparation could adequately prepare them for what they will see: banana and coffee plantations, shrimp farming, more corn and beans than they had ever imagined, rural villages where families have lived for centuries, the Maya ruins at Copan, and the large cities.
This year Professor Jane Mt. Pleasant's theme group studied sustainable cropping systems on marginal land. Throughout the developing world, the population is increasing rapidly and people are being forced to intensify land use to produce enough food. Students tackled the issue from different perspectives—using biological as well as social sciences—and made a report to the entire class. In addition to their presentations, the groups make recommendations for further research and educational activities to try to address the problems.
And the problems are being addressed. For example, Phil Arneson, associate professor of plant pathology and co-chair of the 1996 class, said yields on hillside farms have been improved with a mulch-based agriculture. As a result, rural people who have migrated to the cities are beginning to return to the country.
Jose Luis Gonzalez-Duran of Nayarit, Mexico, a Ph.D. student and, at age 44, the oldest of the 1996 class, said that after seeing how nongovernmental agencies work cooperatively and respectfully with the farmers in Honduras, he'll change the way he works with Mexican farmers. He said he's learned that not all good ideas come from the government but that many valuable ideas and programs come from the people through their indigenous knowledge and testing.
Norma Maximo of Schenectady, N.Y., a native Honduran who took the course three years ago as part of a master's program in international agriculture and rural development, said her experiences changed the way she felt about poverty. She learned that people don't need all the "things that Americans feel they must have." Since receiving her master's degree two years ago, Maximo has helped organize a Centro de Progreso for Latin Americans in the Albany-Troy-Schenectady area of New York State and is its executive director. The center will concentrate on economic development and education. She's also working to establish an export-import business with Honduras. Blake, who has taught the class and gone on the trip eight or nine times, says the course is "an opportunity to blaze new trails, to learn firsthand about things you never knew existed. It's a living lab and the relationships between faculty and students that are forged on the long bus rides last." A recent participant in the class summed up his experiences by saying,"The class opened up new opportunities for my future work and, more than any other course I've taken, it changed the way I will look at the world in the future. Isn't that what a class should do?"
Helen Mundell is a freelance writer.
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