New faces at CGE

A new semester has started at CGE Mexico! We were very excited last week to welcome 18 students to Cuernavaca where they will live and study until mid-May. Our students are eager to build new relationships, learn from community members, and of course prefect their Spanish. And we as staff are ready to help them on their journey in Mexico and beyond!

This past week students explored the city, met CGE staff and got situated in their rooms, and played about 17 different ice breakers. Here's a picture of one we learned from the youth group desafio joven, which translates to something like "defiant youth."  We ran around and pretended to be rabbits and rabbit holes, mixed together, and got more comfortable with one another. Check out the smiles!

Staff and students trapping rabbits in their rabbit holes.

Later on in the week we met with youth from around Cuernavaca, including some from that same youth group.  We played more ice breaker games and communicated with one another, even with the language barrier.  But that's really the way to learn Spanish, right? We met at La Comuna, which is a really cool cafe that hosts human rights events every week. I'm sure some students will be going back there. 

Mexican and US students "conviviendo" at La Comuna.

Lastly, a little about me, the new intern/residential assistant. I was a student during the spring semester of 2008 studying Social Justice, Gender, and the Environment in Latin America, and since graduating from Swarthmore College in 2009 I have been organizing with immigrant workers in the United States for immigrant and worker justice.  First I worked as a union representative for mushroom workers in the all-immigrant Kaolin Workers Union in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  I then moved back to the Midwest and worked as a Latino Community Organizer for three years at a tough and tenacious organization called Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.  There I organized hard hitting direct action protests, developed community leaders, won back wages that employers stole from workers, and got to play a big part in the national prison divestment campaign against Wells Fargo through National People's Action. I felt called back to Mexico for various reasons and now I'm back at CGE.  Nice to meet you!

-- Ruth Schultz