"Back me."

This was a request heard often by Tusculum College students as they recently volunteered in schools in Belize. Crowding around their visitors, the school children would ask for rides on the college students' backs – "back me."

A Service-Learning Immersion class spent eight days in Belize, March 23-31, volunteering in schools, an orphanage, and an impoverished community known as the "Burial Grounds." The class was led by Dr. Jennifer Brooks, associate professor of commons and history, and Robin Fife, director of Tusculum's Service-Learning Center and assistant professor of social science.

"It was an opportunity for us to work together, learn about ourselves, serve others, and experience what it is like in other parts of the world," Brooks said of the trip to the Central American country.

"We took this trip as individuals," Fife said, "and we found ourselves working together as a team in situations where we had to meet many challenges. Whether that challenge was adapting to a different culture . . . or the frustration of only being able to do a little when there are so many needs to be met, we made a difference to those we helped and at the same time supported each other in learning and growing."

Working through the St. Andrews Presbyterian Mission, the 12 students in the class and the two instructors stayed with Pastor Moises Chan, a Mayan Indian and native of Belize, and his wife, an American. The college students volunteered at two schools, one operated by the Anglican Church and the other by the Presbyterian Church. Churches operate the public schools in Belize.

At the schools, the students read to the children, made presentations to classes, and played sports with them. The Tusculum students describe being swarmed by children wanting their attention and asking for those rides on their backs. The children were loving and welcoming of their Tusculum visitors, but the college students also took note of the schools' lack of resources.

"The children were running around at recess with their pencil in their hands," said Tara Henderson. "Just as I was about to say something of warning to them, I was told that the children carry their pencils because if they lose them, they don't have another."

At the Presbyterian-operated school, the Tusculum students presented donations of books, pencils and paper, for which the school's staff was most appreciative, they said.

Some of the students volunteered at an orphanage, reading to the children and playing games with them. There the students found the children to be friendly and very welcoming of their guests, although their conditions were not ideal. "There was rubbish in the yard," Scott Hanger said. "The orphanage had a staff of four or five people, but they didn't pay much attention to the kids."

Two days and a part of a third were spent by the class in an area called the "Burial Grounds." Brooks explained that people in this area were one step from being homeless and live in shanties in a highly polluted swampy area next to a community cemetery. The homes, built with plywood, tin, and other materials that are available, are on stilts above the swampy area and are connected by a series of "London bridges" – wooden walkways also built above the water. The students helped one family repair and add to their home and assisted another woman by strengthening the "London bridge" to her house.

Each of these tasks presented some unique challenges. "Having worked on houses here, I was used to architecture with square dimensions, but this was not a square house and it was not level," said Noah Grunzweig of working at the home of Eyan Whyte.

The students helped Whyte, who took two days off from his job to work along side the students, repair the roof of his home, enclose an area at the back of the home for a bathroom, and build a side deck to accommodate a family burrito business. Whyte and his family, which includes six children, share the one-bedroom house that has no running water. A small ramshackle bathroom was located to side of the house connected by a wooden walkway.

In fixing the walkway at another home, the students had to replace boards while perched on the weak existing walkway to avoid getting into the swampy muck, which was polluted with garbage, but for a reason.

"It was hard for me to throw a wrapper or bottle on the ground after I was finished with it," Grunzweig said. "But the people there had no problem with it." The students learned that because the people in the community could not afford to purchase fill dirt, they were using garbage to try to create solid ground out of the swamp.

The students also had the opportunity to explore Belize and experience its culture. They found the people to be friendly, but discovered there were tensions between the adults of the different ethnic groups there which include Mayan Indians, dark-skinned Creole people, and those with Hispanic backgrounds. The class traveled to Mayan ruins, a small island off the coast of Belize, and a zoo in Belize City, cut out of the jungle so the animals were living in their natural habitat. The class also journeyed into southern Mexico during the trip.

Fife said that it is hoped that ties between Tusculum and service agencies in Belize will grow with projects completed here to assist people in Belize as well as future service trips by the students to the country.