This content was published: January 21, 2008. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Getting to know Oaxaca
Story by James Hill. Photos by and photos by Stuart Cowburn and Cecelia Barry.
They are trips that offer a lot more than the usual tourist attractions. It offers hands-on work that could help change the lives of locals for the better.
PCC, in partnership with Medical Teams International, sent a group of seven as part of the annual community service trip sponsored by the Community Education program. The group was made up of people from the community and PCC, like PCC retiree Barbara Ellis and Community Education Manager Cecelia Barry. The participants paid their own expenses, as well as project fees, to construct a protective fence around a watershed area, and to provide support on a water line to the rural village of El Carrizal, in the mountainous Oaxaca state.
“The work is rigorous, because of the physical aspect, and because the team works at an altitude between 7,000 and 8,000 feet,” Barry said. “(The Oaxaca trip) is an excellent opportunity to experience an indigenous culture in a very personal way. Participants work and interact with local communities, while providing much-needed community services.”
PCC sends groups to Oaxaca for community development work twice per year. The next trip will be May 31 through June 7. A free information session will be offered from noon to 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 31, at the Central Workforce Center, 1626 S.E. Water Ave. The Community Education program has numerous travel programs that go to Honduras and Belize to build schools or Nicaragua to work on solar projects, or other options where participants tour points of interest in such countries as China, Italy, Spain, Greece, Peru, Japan and Egypt.
PCC Grants Officer Stuart Cowburn was one of the group members on the fall 2007 trip.
“I had never been there before,” Cowburn said. “I’ve always had an interest in international development sort of work. I like doing hands-on work in challenging environments and experiencing the realities of the developing world.”
Cowburn has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Liverpool University, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Portland State University. When Cowburn first came to the U.S., he took geology classes at PCC in 1994.
“I was looking to retune,” he said. “Definitely, PCC had the most accessible and affordable options for me. The general science classes were small in size with good instructors.”
And Cowburn used PCC again, but this time as an employee, to prepare for Oaxaca. He had taken an introductory class at PSU in international development and attended classes through the Community Education program that were taught by Green Empowerment, a nonprofit that specializes in developing off-grid power sources like solar and wind units in the Third World.
Once the group touched down in Oaxaca, it was a three and a half hour road trip to the village, 6,000 feet up in the mountains. Their mission was to fence off a catch basin and part of a stream to prevent animals from polluting the drinking water, and to lay larger water pipes under ground.
“I was prepared, but just being there drives it all home to you,” Cowburn said.
Related Pages
International Education program, Study Abroad credit courses