Galeano | Journey Into Amazonia

In the Peruvian Amazon, I experienced a different way of life, a different view of the world. I learned a lot about the people and their culture, but I also learned a lot about myself. Walking among Peruvians as one of them, completely immersed in their culture and their lifestyle expanded my mindfulness and helped to mold me into a global citizen. In the middle of the Amazon, I discovered diverse wildlife, beautiful dances, political passion, and a good and gentle people. I carry memories of this adventure with me, and my life was forever enriched because of it.

Allyson Pagan

FSU Learning & Service Journey Into Amazonia was an invaluable experience. Even in a short amount of time I found myself slowly adapting to daily life in Iquitos… the sounds and vibrancy of the small city on the edge of the Amazon were like no city I've been to in the United States. And I wasn't going to resist. I allowed myself to see the world in a different light, to accept the Peruvian perspective as my own. In this respect, the various readings we had before the trip definitely inspired and encouraged me. And it's amazing what you can learn about yourself, and your own culture, when you are willing to open your mind to another. It was hard at first… I definitely had my culture shock moment. But the love that my host parents showed me, the passionate people who I had the privilege to work alongside at my internships, and the kindness of the small communities that shared their homes with us along the rivers made this journey one that I will never forget. I worked hard, had fun, and learned so much along the way.

Luke Williams

Living in the amazon, even briefly, is a life changing experience. The sights, the smells, the tastes, and the sounds are so wholly unique to the region that they escape description. The people there have an incredible capability to connect, both with their environment and with other people. The interconnectedness of life is nowhere so apparent as in their communities and culture. The time I shared with everybody there forced me to question my understanding of life and our place as humans in nature. Still today, two years after I came back, I often think back to my time spent there and I realize that I still haven't fully comprehended everything I experienced.

Luis Bin-Hurtado

My time studying abroad in Perú has been so important to me, as a student and as a professional and as a person. I met good people in Iquitos, who shared with me and sat with me and made me feel at home. I got to know a land totally different from my own - I saw trees and animals I'd never seen before, and learned the stories that people tell about them. I will never forget the taste of strange rainforest fruits, the song of a shaman as he blessed me, the sight of a dolphin surfacing in the river as the sun set. Even now, a few years down the road, I still go back and read the journal I kept during my time there. It was such a crucible of so many thoughts, feelings, and perspectives that continue to change and shape me today. I think the most important thing about the experience was that it opened me to the world of folklore and folk culture. It's in Amazonia and it's here in the U.S. and in every place that there are people, and it's a pivotal and ever-changing facet of human nature that is worth studying, worth delving into, worth advocating and honoring. The work I did there, interviewing so many people and documenting what they had to say, really cemented the direction of my academic career and perfectly complemented my two degrees in ways I never expected when I signed up for it. The program becomes what you make it - a shape-shifter, like you find in the stories of the forest. Aside from the program's import for my development as a person, it also afforded me multiple strong points for my resume, and it's always an impressive talking point during interviews. In fact, I can honestly say that it has been the best thing I ever did in college to prepare me for the world after college. I gained language skills, cultural competency, hard skills like teaching and traveling, and a breadth of experience that can speak to nearly any situation I might ever find myself in. This program is so much more profound than any trip to a museum or guided tour or book or film or poem about the people and places you'll find there.

Hillary Tully

I went to Iquitos, Peru with Dr. Galeano in 2013. It is an interesting and unique experience that has affected me and my outlook on life and my career. My host family welcomed me with open arms, literally. That helped me to feel right at home. On top of that, I had the privilege to work with students from Peru in the K-12 setting. The students' strong desire to learn another language helped to get me pumped and ready for teaching languages. In addition, the teachers in the K-12 schools were ideal models for being a great teacher; being flexible and having the ability to know what would work for the students helped me to see what made a teacher more effective. My journey into the amazon also helped to open my eyes about the different views of nature and how that transferred into the education of students which you would have to experience to understand. Overall this experience helped me to form a more critical lens when it comes to teaching students, and making it a point to understand the context in which they were raised to help with their learning. I have recently visited Peru with my wife and I can't wait to go back again. It was just that great.

Derrick Pollock, M.S.

I went to Iquitos, Peru with Dr. Galeano in 2013. It is an interesting and unique experience that has affected me and my outlook on life and my career. My host family welcomed me with open arms, literally. That helped me to feel right at home. On top of that, I had the privilege to work with students from Peru in the K-12 setting. The students' strong desire to learn another language helped to get me pumped and ready for teaching languages. In addition, the teachers in the K-12 schools were ideal models for being a great teacher; being flexible and having the ability to know what would work for the students helped me to see what made a teacher more effective. My journey into the amazon also helped to open my eyes about the different views of nature and how that transferred into the education of students which you would have to experience to understand. Overall this experience helped me to form a more critical lens when it comes to teaching students, and making it a point to understand the context in which they were raised to help with their learning. I have recently visited Peru with my wife and I can't wait to go back again. It was just that great.

Derek Jones

Journey Into Amazonia in Iquitos, Peru was the trip of a lifetime. I made lifelong bonds with the people there that I will never lose. It stills puts a big smile on my face to see pictures of the sweet children I was so lucky to work with everyday. I experienced and learned things in Peru that I may never get the chance to do again and I am forever grateful for that experience. I can honestly say this trip changed my life! Since I've been back all I can talk about is the trip and how badly I wish I was back there, I think I am starting to annoy my friends!

Rebeca Freitag

When I am asked about my experiences with the Journey Into Amazonia program, I don't hesitate to tell people that it was one of the most influential experiences of my life and integral to discovering my life's intended direction for the near future.

I feel that the program has as much academic and practical value as it does personal and cultural value, and my experiences in the program reflect it. On the surface, speaking, communicating, and functioning inside of a Spanish-speaking culture was an incredible learning opportunity and truly allowed me to master my conversational Spanish skills and become comfortable with making observations, thinking critically, and recording and developing my thoughts in Spanish. Even more important to me was the intercultural exchange with the many people that I interacted with and developed relationships with. I felt truly welcomed to explore a way of life that was different from my own and from what I had been accustomed to in North America, and I also found that the people of Amazonia were equally curious about my customs and me. In this mutually beneficial intercultural exchange I was able to influence others while being influenced by them, I was able to build friendships and lasting ties, and learn many lessons in human empathy.

By the end of my time in Amazonia I realized that I had adopted certain Amazonianisms regarding my ways of viewing, interacting with, connecting with and appreciating the world and all of the life in it. For the first time I felt able to evaluate the difference between what is truly valuable in my life and what I had been taught (or conditioned?) to find valuable according to North American culture—I felt reaffirmed in chasing old passions and new aspirations, and in spite of the many superficial pressures that exist in our culture to become marketable like some pre-packaged good, I dropped my old major, declared a Spanish major, and have pursued my passions of supporting community and education through agriculture and music. The Journey Into Amazonia was a pivotal experience in my life and I encourage anyone who is as serious about learning more about Amazonia and the Spanish language as they are about discovering,\.

Tyler Lee

I traveled to Iquitos in July 2011 where I spent a month living with a wonderful local family, conducting research interviews, and participating in language teaching internships. In Iquitos, every day presented the chance to meet new people, interact in Spanish, and learn about relationships between humans, ecology, mythology, and daily lived political and economic realities. While it's been over three years since the trip, the experiences I had there continue to impact my worldview and personal goals. Iquitos taught me that reality is complex, multilayered, and often contradictory. It showed me that understanding requires keeping the mind open to unexpected connections. Most importantly, Iquitos made me realize the power of learning through the act of sharing everyday experiences with other people. The insights I gained through this FSU study abroad program there have been invaluable in my community-based service work and foreign language teaching.

Elizabeth Ortel

The immersion into the Amazonian culture allowed me to learn about other ways of life that I did not even knew existed. Spending a great deal of time with my host family gave me the opportunity to understand their belief systems and their perspectives on the world. I was also able to largely improve my Spanish speaking abilities. For me, this experience facilitated critical thinking about the world and gave me the tools for working with people from other cultures.

Kaitlyn Barningham

I chose to go to Iquitos because it looked like a location starkly different than what I have ever known and I was very curious. I also knew of Dr. Juan Galeano's dynamic and fluid expertise in Peruvian Amazon riverine cosmologies and ways of life. His knowledge aligned with my personal and academic interest in sociocultural perceptions of gender existing across multiple contexts. I had intended to explore how indigenous women personally view their femininity in terms of their physical body, social role, self-expression, and sexuality. About a week into my stay, however, I realized that my research question was too ambitious! I would have to understand the political, economic, and ecological complexities that account for current Amazonian modernity and therefore social constructions of gender. During my four weeks in Iquitos I supported a quality primary education project at a non-profit organization called Asociación La Restinga. The mission at La Restinga is to empower children and adolescents from low-resource districts in Iquitos by encouraging creative impulse, critical thinking, and self-advocacy. Becoming a part of La Restinga's family and engaging in ethnographic fieldwork with mothers and teachers of children in the program allowed me to experience some of the fundamental educational elements (individual choice and social consciousness) that served as a framework for my general research interests concerning femininity. The multiple planned and unplanned contexts that I was exposed to as part of the FSU student group and as an individual researcher taught me to assume nothing, honor my curiosity, and approach new experiences mindfully through self-awareness. Drs. Rebecca and Juan Carlos Galeano demonstrated exemplary flexibility and passion for exploration and human connection during our field excursions. Journey to Amazonia is a unique and complex experience that I value dearly and reflect upon continuously.

Jennifer Rodriguez

I traveled to Iquitos, Peru with Professor Galeano in the summer of 2012; I had the pleasure of staying in the city for a month and residing in smaller communities deeper down the rivers for a month. I learned a great deal from the landscape after studying plants and animals through indigenous mythology and science. Also, the promotion - combined with the oppression - of indigenous languages, forms of knowledge, and education was a fundamental aspect of what challenged my ways of thinking and viewing the world. Now as I teach in New Mexico's public schools I consistently reflect upon the educational systems I was exposed to in the Amazon and try to incorporate new ways of thinking in my classroom. I encountered an eclectic mix of people and experiences in this region and each person and place has a story to share. Iquitos and the surrounding region push the mind to see the world from an array of different perspectives.

Amanda Walden

I participated in the Journey Into Amazonia program during the summer of 2010, the year before I graduated from FSU. It ended up being a life changing decision. It was my experiences in Iquitos that inspired me to continue studying at the graduate level, pursuing a graduate degree in Latin American Studies. Journey Into Amazonia was an amazing experience for me. I got to live with a wonderful and welcoming host family, get to know the city intimately through the internships I worked at, and explore the amazing natural life around the city traveling up the river to stay in some small communities and connect with the folks who live there. This program really gives you the opportunity to explore a beautiful country, meet many extraordinary people, and build long-lasting relationships (I have been back to Iquitos on my own since to visit friends there). I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is serious about having a study abroad experience that is truly immersive, rewarding, and eye-opening.

Kate Layton

Last summer (2014) I interned in the neonatal unit of Hospital Iquitos in Iquitos, Peru. The hospital served some of the poorest communities in the city, and as a result, many babies born with Down syndrome, HIV, and different types of birth defects. At the hospital, not only did I participate in numerous medical exams and procedures, but I also witnessed firsthand the compassion and commitment of the doctors and staff to their patients. Working alongside Dr. Juan Carlo Ruiz, and the wonderful hospital staff, strengthened my passion for medicine. The people of the Amazonian region of Peru were the kindest people I had met in my life. Their outlook on life was incredibly positive, and spending a month learning from them and hearing their stories changed my perspective on life. I feel so lucky to have been a part of Journey Into Amazonia, because those experiences will stay with me forever.

Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of the website and reflect on my time in Peru. I miss it very much!

Emily Bliven

As an educator I want my students to be global scholars and world citizens who know how to develop and transfer skills in and outside of the classroom. My ultimate dream is that they will be afforded the opportunity to travel outside of their own country and have experiences that open their minds to not only new ways of thinking but that make them more culturally aware and globally intellectual. This is exactly what I got from my journey to the Amazon. Being a participant in the Journey In to Amazonia I was able to use and enhance my skills in a way that I didn't know I was able to. I grew so much in a short amount of time from this experience in my second language, in my teaching skills, in my group and team work skills and most importantly I grew in the faith I had in myself. During this journey I learned to get out of my comfort zone and push myself. I was able to put everything I had been learning in school into practice. I left one person and came back a new one.

Jasmyn Pollock

My time in Peru really made a difference in the way I look at life. I feel like seeing what is different and what is similar about a new culture when it's compared to the one you grow up with always makes an impact. I went to Peru expecting to rough it in the jungle for a month, but ended up making amazing friends and new family bonds in a city that I came to really love. People are so friendly there, and much more willing to talk to anyone on the street, which made it so easy to slide into the culture of Iquitos. I learned a lot about both spirituality and secularism from literally every person I met, and I will never think of the Amazon the same way. It's sublime, for sure, but seeing the way real people, kids and adults, interact with something that had always been shown to me as this mystical giant was both humbling and inspiring. You never really see what you're capable of until you're entirely out of your comfort zone, and this trip definitely got me there.

Taylor West