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During the school year, Dr. Lillian Larson teaches in the Special
Education/Communication Disorders Department at the University of
Nebraska at Kearney. But come summertime, Dr. Larson travels the
world. Her most recent trips included a week long "eco-tour" in
Ecuador, living with the pygmies in Zaire, and visiting schools
in Indonesia. Certainly semester breaks allow Dr. Larson ample time
to travel to great distances and discover diverse cultures, but
the greatest benefit exists upon her return, when she has classrooms
full of students to share her experiences with.
When she visited Ecuador, she and a group of other teachers stayed
with a Cofan tribe. The Cofan are a small ethnic group that live
in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon whose lives are
now deeply affected by oil companies that are taking over the land.
Since 1972, when oil companies set their sights on expanding in
Ecuador, the Cofan and neighboring tribes began to dwindle in numbers.
With a combined population of just over 1,000, they are sadly facing
cultural extinction.
To help in this plight, the chief of one Cofan tribe in the village
of Zabalo allows 12 groups of "eco-tourists" to stay in his village
each year. The money from this eco-tourism provides for the Cofan
families and villages, while educating visitors of the grave social
and environmental consequences caused by the overpowering oil industry.
This is the kind of information Dr. Larson brings home. She raises
awareness in her community and in her classrooms by sharing how
the land is being stripped of its natural resources and how the
Cofan hunting land is now marred by 315 miles of oil pipeline.
Standing six feet four inches tall, Dr. Larson clearly towers over
people in most any culture. But when she visits the pygmies of the
Congo she really towers over them. While on her last visit,
she got down on her knees in an act of humility to greet the chief
of one pygmy tribe. And even on her knees she was still a bit taller
then the tiny man. The chief laughed and laughed. "He thought that
was the funniest thing, and that kind of cemented our relationship."
It humors Dr. Larson that most travelers, including her, want to
take pictures with the natives. But in the Congo, she found that
the natives wanted to take pictures with her.
In all of her journeys, Dr. Larson finds that her experience in
teaching communication disorders really helps in bonding with non-English
speaking people. Trained in connecting with people who have had
hearing loss, stroke or cerebral palsy, she is more sensitive to
how people try to communicate. "I'm perhaps more likely to notice
other things that people aren't speaking. I'm tuned in to
watching the nonverbal."
Also as the daughter of a minister who often moved, she had innumerable
experiences that enriched and broadened her communication skills.
"When I was a child, I would go with my parents and visit nursing
homes. International students and missionaries from different countries
would always stay in our home. I've just been exposed my entire
life to people of all ages and cultures."
Her extensive communication skills clearly came in handy when
she visited Irian Jaya, a remote island of Indonesia. There she
stayed with the Dani, an indigenous group who have remarkably resisted
the pressures of modern culture. The Dani will have nothing to do
with western clothes; the men wear only penis gourds and adorn their
noses with pig teeth. Their bodies are embellished with clay and
grease paint. As with peoples of other cultures, Dr. Larson relates
to the Dani with ease. "Smiling is universal," she says. "And so
is music. I would sing just a few bars of a song, and then I would
gesture to them, and they would be able to sing it." It's her way
of breaking the ice with new friends. "When you're dealing with
people who don't have a written language, they're more tuned in
to listening. It's amazing at how easily they can mimic the sounds
that I make."
And the sharing goes both ways. "I like to learn their dances and
songs, and it's always well received because it shows that you're
interested in them."
Of course summertime must come to an end. But when Dr. Larson returns
to the University of Nebraska each fall, she always has something
to share with her students. She shares with her class how in many
cultures, it is the woman who do a greater portion of the work.
In Ecuador for example, the Cofan farmers are the women. Their knowledge
of soil and weather patterns is exceptional. And in Irian Jaya,
women are often seen carrying up to five woven bags of goods at
a time. An additional bag holds a child.
She also shows her students how the Cofan uses the forest's natural
treasures for practical and decorative purposes. Dr. Larson demonstrates
to her class how they would bend leaves and weave them together
to keep the rain from seeping through their roofs. And she illustrates
how the seed of a fruit called tagua is used as "vegetable ivory,"
and could be carved to create jewelry or etch out the profiles of
faces.
And she lectures on the varied ways people of other societies
deal with age. In other cultures she finds that the elderly are
very much respected. Among the Dani, the children are at times cared
for by the elderly. The young ones are treated differently too.
"The children are included in the activities," she recalls. "I had
dinner in the home of the ceremonial king and queen of one of the
Indonesian islands, and their young toddler stayed up with us late
into the night. In America the child would have been fed first,
and not allowed to stay up with the adults." She also noted how
in many Indonesian villages, she very seldom hears a baby cry.
But Dr. Larson's sharing of the world doesn't end when class is
over. Just the other day when she visited her chiropractor, the
receptionist and assistants were excited to see her photos from
her most recent travels. "I think vicariously I give people opportunities
that they would never have themselves, but through me they could
learn a little bit more about other parts of the world."
With her extensive training in communication, along with her many
overseas adventures, Dr. Larson acts as a swinging door of understanding
for her friends both at home and abroad. She lives her life as an
instrument of sharing. Her next stop, Christmas in Brussels. "I
travel in order to enrich my life and the lives of others. I feel
that I can help bring remote parts of the world a little closer
together."
Backshall, Stephen, and David Leffman, et. al..
Indonesia, The Rough Guide. (Rough Guides, 1999).
Equador, Galapagos. (APA Publications, 1998).
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