This summer, 12 students and two faculty members are traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico to immerse themselves in the culture and language of Oaxaca, Mexico and develop their conversational fluency and understanding of daily life in Mexico by living with Oaxacan families and attending class at the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez. Please enjoy this blog post from Jay ’27 as he reflects on a meaningful day in Oaxaca filled with language learning, artistic exploration, and a basketball game with local kids that highlighted how sports can transcend cultural and language barriers.
We started our day today in Oaxaca with our breakfast, followed by our usual three-hour class. My favorite part about our classes here is having a tiny class of five people with a teacher who is willing to correct all of our small mistakes. After class, we did a forty-five minute language exchange with some people from Oaxaca, and then Nosa (my roommate) and I went home to eat lunch with our homestay family; it was delicious! After lunch, our group met up to go to a printmaking workshop. Printmaking is a popular artform here. Printmaking involves creating a wood carving by hand, which is then used as a stamp to reproduce the image of the carving. The art featured at this particular workshop seemed to have a lot of political commentary and empowering messages.
My favorite part of the day (and of the trip so far) was going to a public park and playing basketball with some local kids during our free time. As an athlete myself, I think that engaging with people in sports is one of the fastest ways to get to know a person and connect with them. I played with three of my friends (Nosa, Victor, Jesse) and we played two games to 11 points, changing teams each game. I was impressed with the skills and sportsmanship demonstrated by the locals we played with. I feel like the sportsmanship and fun competition I have experienced here represents my impression of the community in Oaxaca (with a very small sample size). Despite our limited ability to communicate during our games, the locals were extremely understanding and eager to engage with us, and most importantly to have fun sharing the experience with us. Throughout this trip I have learned that differences in language and culture can be over-exaggerated barriers that can easily be broken when there is a common goal. And when there exists a healthy common purpose, people are willing to accept the challenges that come with those barriers, as seen in our basketball games.
