Coro Arizmendi and Alfonso Valiente offered us their home and a friend’s home, took us on long, exciting van rides through Mexico City, and shared special places in Mexico where they have both carried out research in their roles as university biology professors.
Some of the highlights of our time in the city were paddle-boating at Chapultepec Park, watching folk dances at the Balet Folklorico, and visiting the archaeological ruins at Teotihuacan. We also visited the school that daughters Vale and Coro attend. We are looking into the possibility of future exchanges between this unique ecological school and Sussex.
Macaws flew to and from their nests. CARSON KADAS, age 12
Our final stop in the area was a camp run by the people of Santa Maria Tecomovaca. We camped near a canyon that is home to between 80 and 100 macaws. After enjoying a delicious and spicy meal made by local people, we slept in tents as well as we could through a rainstorm, before awakening at dawn to hike to the top of the canyon. There we enjoyed the spectacular mountains and witnessed pairs of macaws flying to and from their nests.
Even with all this activity, there was time for relaxation and play. Somehow, the kids found time to swim, tell stories, and play fútbol in whatever small corner of grass or concrete they could find.
The students who participated in this trip are Arwyn Anthony, Drew Estep, Paul Hutto, Carson Kadas, Tyler Morgan, Kadin Mulla, Bowen Newell, and Molly Stark-Ragsdale. They were accompanied by Dan Morgan, Martha Newell and Anne Graham.
All of us were students of language, culture, customs, and wildlife, but in addition to learning about Mexico, we learned about ourselves and each other. Some learned new words, others how to be flexible or independent, and all of us learned about the importance of friendship that crosses age barriers as well as international borders.
Sussex School currently has openings in middle school for the 2008-09 school year. We offer Spanish in all grades as well as French in the middle school. The school phone number is 549-8327 if you would like more information.
Anne Graham, K-8 Spanish teacher
Alfonso Valiente and Coro Arizmendi, university biology teachers in Mexico City, and their children, Vale, left, and Coro, were hosts to Sussex School students, parents and a teacher recently for a weeklong tour of the country. The family lived in Missoula two years ago and their children attended Sussex.
Photo provided by Sussex School
Excerpts from student journals
ARWYN ANTHONY, age 15: Vale warned us about scorpions at our campsite, so when I went into the bathroom and saw the large black thing with claws and legs scuttling across the floor, well, that freaked me out just a bit. I couldn’t really tell what it was at first because it was dark and the light I had wasn’t very bright, but Drew came in and tried to squish it with a plunger but it scuttled its way up the wall and behind the wooden bathroom stall wall. It turns out it wasn’t actually a scorpion, it was a amblypygi (whipscorpion), which is related to a scorpion, and it looks like a cross between a scorpion and a spider, but in the dark it still freaked me out. We actually did see a real scorpion that night, it was much easier to handle. It was little and very distinctive, and it held out its claws in front of it and whenever we made a sound or moved it would stop and stick its tail in the air.
We saw cacti in Mexico. KADIN MULLA, age 14
DREW ESTEP, age 14: We arrived on Tuesday into Mexico City and I was amazed by the setup of the city because it was so much different than American cities. Also the entire city (or at least most of it) wasn’t more than 2 or 3 stories tall ... .
TYLER MORGAN, age 15: Plip - plip - plip - 4:30 fire light. Mingling whispers slide through air as a skate glides over the ice. Visions of fish slide through my mind as I twitch to escape the puddle known as my sleeping bag. “Oh, the tarp will keep us dry!” I can see the water coming in, and to no avail, we do not avoid it.
BOWEN NEWELL, age 15: We went camping and early in the morning we hiked about 2 km up a hill to see macaws fly out of the canyon where they have their nests. We were sitting on an overlook. You could tell they were coming before we could see them from their squawk. They were really loud and pretty big. We could see their colors better against the trees. They were mostly green with blue and red. They were really cool.
The ruins have many stairs. CORO VALIENTE ARIZMENDI, age 11
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