"Please, don't give the children money."

Reportaje número 5, 20-22 de Octubre

Let me begin by explaining the title of this week’s entry. I travelled out to the islands on lancha shared between All Ways Travel and Cusi. On my trip, as the guide explained local life on Amantani, pointing at the ever-handy map of the lake and teaching a few phrases of Quechua, he said—three different time in three different languages—“Please, don’t give the children money.” If you've ever traveled to Peru or any third-world country, you understand the sheer poverty and amount of children begging or selling on the streets. He explained, the majority of money given directly to children in used to purchase candy or soft drinks, products which only promote the development of cavities and unhealthy eating habits. Furthermore, children on Amantani often skip school or leave early in order to ask for money or sell small knick-knacks. I think that was perhaps the best piece of advice that the tour guide could have given to his group. It’s sometimes hard to imagine, as a tourist visiting a place for one, two or three days, the long term impact of tourism. But, if you do the math: an average tour group is about 15 people. If 1/3^rd of the group, or just 5 people, give just 3 nuevos soles each, or approximately 1 U.S. dollar, to a community’s set of children and that community sees 1 group each week, or 52 groups of 15 tourists (which is a relatively low estimate of tourism frequency for most of Amantani’s communities), the total given—to the children alone—is 780 nuevos soles or 260 U.S. dollars. Imagine, that is not too much less than the average annual wage of a campesino in Peru. Sorry for that little mathematical word problem, I was very impressed and glad to hear a tour guide give information that helps all parties involved in this situation: tourists, native parents and their children. There are alternatives, gifts that can truly help the children of Amantani. These include books, pencils, or even fruit. The main message here is that we should all be conscious of our impact on the world, whether we’re at home or travelling.

Now, to the real report. This week, I was alone on the library front during my stay. Don’t be disheartened though, on Thursday we had a group of 15 (!) participants on the Cultural Exchange Tour. About a dozen children attended the main learning session on Monday and another 4 or 5 came after during our free time to utilize the library’s resources. Honestly, I’m just as a happy if they come after the session because, for me, it signifies that the community has grabbed on to the library as a center of learning and not just to me or to my teaching. When I was teaching/playing with the kids though, we did a lot of review: body parts in English, different words we had picked up from stories, some drawing techniques for the younger children who need to improve hand/eye coordination. Afterwards, we read a story together, the “La Vendedora de Fosforos” (The Match Salesgirl). A note about the stories that we read: I generally pick a selection of three stories for our group reading that I know are going to be understood by every child, regardless of age or reading proficiency, then we always, always, always vote on the one we most want to read. As for the reading, the majority is done by the children themselves while I and several children who can’t are still earning to read in Spanish or who are too shy to read to the group act out the story. In this way, I hope to improve their comprehension of the story and teach them of the various ways to interpret stories. On top of the stress on democratic selection of stories, every day at the library I try to stress good manners and picking up after ourselves. If you’ve ever been to Peru, you’d understand the importance on the latter. It’s not uncommon to watch even the residents of Amantani fling trash into Lake Titicaca.

On Tuesday, we had an entirely free day. The kids had a blast! It’s not that they don’t enjoy the times we sing and dance and learn together; it’s more that they have finally started to feel a sense of ownership towards the library and the books in it, and I wanted to give them a chance to explore and realize how much fun it could be on its own. The reading, drawing, practicing English, and laughing that went on on Tuesday made it a very memorable day. Moreover, Tuesday morning, 7 adults of the community, including the Justice of the Peace and Santa Rosa’s governor came to the morning English lesson. We went over basic phrases to use with tourists to make everyone feel comfortable and the pronunciation of the English alphabet. With time, I really think the community of Santa Rosa will flourish because of their own desire to learn and understand the world that is, with or without their permission, encroaching upon their traditional way of life.

Not just Santa Rosa, either. I forgot to mention that on Monday, 5 residents of Villa Orinojon visited to observe my lesson and the library space, in order to prepare for the construction of their own library!

P.S. I also forgot to mention that, now that I’ve become much more a part of the community and I’m not treated like a tourist I’ve been eating A LOT more. Maybe I should back up a little. When visiting Amantnai, the foods served at meals are traditional or, at the very least, common and everyday to the residents. The only difference between what residents and tourists eat lies in quantity. For breakfast, for example, most tourists are served a few pancakes and a piece of bread with coffee or tea. This past Tuesday morning, I ate the usual two pancakes followed by a large bowl fo potato and onion soup that was then followed by an even larger bowl of sopa de quinoa molido (ground quinoa soup). If you’ve ever had quinoa, a very traditional grain on the Altiplano, you know that it is extremely filling. It has more than its fair share of protein, vitamins, and minerals along a complete set of nine amino acids. When lunch time came, I was still stuffed.

Not full. Stuffed.

¡Mis primeros turistas!

Reportaje número 4, 13-15 de Octubre

I began my most recent trip to Amantaní in a completely ordinary fashion. I got up at 6:30, packed up, had breakfast, went to the port at 7:45, got on the Huayracusi (In Quechua huayra=wind and Cusi is the name of a travel agency with which All Ways Travel coordinates voyages to the islands), and made my way to the port of Pueblo. Pueblo is the capital of the Amantaní and situated about a 15 minute walk down the hill from the community where I’m working, Santa Rosa. This week I stayed with a younger woman, Martina, and her family. The accommodations, as always, were simple but clean. What made Martina´s house particularly interesting, though, was its connection to the electrical grid. This was the first home that I’ve stayed in with electricity and all of its attendant comforts. There was a light in the kitchen and a small one in my room, a radio, and last, but certainly not least, a television. Now, we’re talking maybe 6x6 inches, black and white, local stations only. It was, however, a TV. It stayed in the parents’ room and was only really watched at night, but the father of the family did watch it during the day. I guess much of his work took place early early in the morning. Most days, people in Santa Rosa wake up at about 5:00am.

Once on the island, I ate lunch and headed to library where I was greeted with a great surprise: 5 tourists had arrived as part of the Cultural Exchange Tour to help out in the library. The group consisted of 3 Americans and two Canadians. When the kids arrived that day they were so excited to see newcomers! Together, the tourists and I taught some of the main body parts in English. Really, the teaching was a lead up to the main event: “Head, shoulders, knees and toes!” The children were ecstatic! For those not familiar with this North American children’s song, it is involves saying and touching the aforementioned body parts while repeating the lyrics progressively faster until it becomes a sort of tongue-twister/aerobics fusion. After the singing (and exercising), we all went inside to act out “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” while the children read the story. With 20 minutes remaining until the tourists had to leave to hike to the top of Pachatata, we enjoyed some free time. The children and some of their parents either talked about Snow White, read out loud, or practiced their English with some of our tourists who could not speak Spanish. Overall, an excellent day!!

The second day of my stay, Tuesday, brought me another group of tourists! This time 6 French tourists--one of whom could speak near-fluent Quechua (no easy feat, mind you!)—came to the library at about 3 o’clock. After school let out, the children barreled over to library, just as excited as the day before. We went over our body parts again and then received a special treat: the tourists sang to us in French! The kids, in return, played everyone a few songs on their zampoñas. The zampoña, also called the siku because of its Quechua name, is a small pan-pipe like instrument extremely common to all of the Andean Altiplano (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zampo%C3%B1a). Following our mini-concert, we played a version of Pictionary in which the children, split into two teams, had to draw an object well enough so that their team could guess it before their 1 minute time-limit ran out. The words were chosen by our visitors and ranged from “condor” to “sunset.” Let me tell you, the village of Santa Rosa boasts many very talented young artists! We finished out our time practicing reading in small groups.

This week’s trip was a blessing. I understand much better the roles of the various actors in the project. Tourists, villagers, travel agencies and volunteers together really can make a difference in the lives of the children of Amantaní.

The tale of the lancha perdida...and Aladdin.

Reportaje número 3, el 6-8 de Octubre

I started out on the morning of October the sixth bright and chipper (no easy feat at 4:45 in the morning, mid you), ready to throw myself into the beginning of my first entirely regular week in Santa Rosa. After walking a few blocks form my apartment here in Puno, stuffing myself into a combi (the Andean version of a Mexican colectivo, a van with a common destination and route that will pick you up and drop you off wherever on that route for a small fee), I found myself in Capachica where I could take a quick boat to Amantaní. Don´t get me wrong, it´s not that I don’t enjoy stopping and seeing the Uros, but taking this lancha would only be about a 45 minute journey. In comparison with the three and half or more hours on a tourist boat, it is a true time bargain. Once the van stopped in the main plaza of Capachica, I took a small mototaxi down to the beach from where the lancha would leave. By this time, 6:35ish, I thought I was making good time—the boat wasn’t supposed to leave until 7am. Or, so I thought.

At 7:00, I started to worry that I was the only person waiting: this method of arriving to the island is the most popular with its residents. At 7:30, I knew something was wrong.

I started my trek back to the town. Now, usually, the weather this time of year around the lake is quite beautiful. Blue skies, perhaps a little rain in the afternoon, a good breeze: everything needed for a great boat ride; everything that makes a several kilometers uphill hike with 5 liters of water and several books a little bit of torture. No worries. I made it in the end. After taking a wrong turn and spending 2 hours walking back the long way, I made it.

Without the things on my back, the walk itself would have been a very great experience. I was spending time on a part of the lake where I’d never been right after the first rain of the season. The farmers and their whole families were outside planting and tilling their crops with a sense of urgency brought about by the tardy rains and the impending storm that would hit that afternoon as I took a combi back to to Puno.

My trip to the island the next day took place on a tourist boat, purely out of my own frustration. I arrived to Santa Rosa at 1:30pm and headed straight to the library. Happily, I found everything in pristine condition. I planned out my afternoon lesson and headed to my host’s home for lunch. Following the delicious and protein-filled quinoa soup, my host family’s daughter, Celia, accompanied me to the library. On the way, she stopped at several of her friend’s house to recruit them to the 4 o’clock session. Unfortunately, many of the children, especially the older ones, had to be outside helping the parents. It wasn’t only in Capachica that it had rained and everybody everywhere on the island was planting.

With the turnout of 7, we were still able to have great fun. Together we took turns spelling each other’s names and drawing them with fun markers to later post on the walls of the library. I thought that the bright names could make the space brighter and give the children a sense of ownership in their community’s library. After the name exercise, we read the story of Aladdin. The discussion that followed was truly enlightening. Everyone really enjoyed the story, but many children didn´t know what a lamp was, let alone a genie. To help with reading comprehension and to gain a better understanding of the children, we each drew what we most would want from a genie. The two best answers or, at least, the two that most interested me: watermelon and deciduous trees. Go figure.

To end our time together, we played ¨Simón dice¨ (Simon says) to the great fun of all. I’ve noticed that every time I go to the island the kids are less shy and I have a better rapport with them. I can barely wait for next Monday! But, this time, no lancha, thank you.

Reportaje número 2, el 27-30 de Setiembre

Reportaje número 2, el 27-30 de Setiembre,

I set out on this, my second trip to Amantaní, with much less trepidation than my first. I have to say, having some familiarity with the place and its people allowed me to much more fully throw myself into life on the island and into the library. The point of this journey, besides beginning my regular trips, was two-fold: 1) to do a complete inventory of the library and 2) to excite both the kids and the community-members of Santa Rosa about the possibilities open to them with this new asset.

I was not alone in my journey this time, however. I was accompanied by a good friend and project colleague, Laura Kurland. Laura is actually the person who brought this internship in Perú to my attention. She originally came to Perú two years ago on a Fulbright grant in order to complete research for her master’s thesis, has years of experience working with kids, and an intimate knowledge of the peoples in and around Lake Titicaca (Check out her project's blog here: http://samka-puno.blogspot.com). Together, after arriving to Amantaní at about 1:30 on a Saturday, we were escorted to the home of our hosts, Cecilia and Iwaristo. Their home was high above the port, overlooking the island’s capital, Pueblo. After an excellent lunch (Cecilia has a certificate in rural Andean cuisine, leaving no doubt about the quality of sweet oca and after-meal muña tea), we headed over to the library for our first view. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive at first; I had no idea what to expect.

Let me just say: I was totally jazzed! The room itself is located below the community hall in a site that is perfect because of its central location in Santa Rosa. The library was modest but clean with a sizeable collection of books. We immediately began our inventory. The collection ranged from coloring-book versions of Aladdin and Pinocchio to atlases and math textbooks. Following a complete counting and reorganizing of the books according to genre and age level, we met with Santa Rosa’s tourism president. Isidro, who is a youngish man with a home not far from the library, greeted us to the space, making me feel very comfortable. The three of us worked out my schedule of visits to the island (every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), a time for working with the children (Mondays and Tuesdays from 4 to 5), and arranged to attend the community’s meeting the next day.

Before the meeting, which took place at 5 o´clock in the afternoon, Laura and I got a great introduction to Santa Rosa’s younger denizens. On Sunday morning we were copying down the titles of books in order to prepare a fuller electronic list of the inventory when a couple hours earlier than scheduled—about 9:30, or so—seven children came rushing into the space. As excited as we were to get to meet the library´s main ¨clients¨, we immediately put down our things and went to play err…work. (I think it´s too fun to be called work, but it isn´t play, either. Maybe there should be a different word for this kind of job. Plork? I´ll think about it…) We started out with a warm-up song both Laura and I were familiar with from our days working at a children’s summer camp. If the song has an official name, it has long since been superseded by the ¨Cha-chi-chi-cha¨ of its catchy chorus. After the song (during which about 5 more children joined the group), we went inside to read the Spanish version of Pinocchio. To increase comprehension and make reading a little more fun, the kids took turns reading the stories while Laura and I went to work acting it out, with much acting support from the kids who weren’t reading.

During the next 20 minutes, we all drew what the inside of a whale would look like (remembering the scene from the story when Pinocchio is swallowed up and finds Gepetto inside one of the giant creatures). For the 15 minutes, to get out a little more energy, we went outside to have a little race. Not just any ordinary race, though. The kids split into two different teams. What kinds of teams, you ask? Well, if you’ll remember from being 8 years old on the playground, it was obviously girls versus boys. Anyway, I stood about 5 meters away from the teams with my arms outstretched and shouted out a simple word (gato, casa, etc.). The child at the front of their line would run to tag my outstretched hand. Whoever reached me first had to shout out the first letter of the word I had said at the beginning. The words varied in difficulty, as did the way to reach me. One time we hopped on one foot, one time we waddled, and one time we just had to walk calmly and quickly. (Way easier than it sounds.)

The whole morning was a hit. When we ended the day at 11, we had 16 kids and not a face without a smile.

That afternoon, we went to the community meeting. While the meeting was held in Quechua, we were able to follow most of the things going on until it was our turn to speak. I stood up first and after greeting each group and the leaders separately, as is the custom, explained out goals, the schedule, the survey, and our timeline. Laura took more time to flesh out some of the ideas of the survey and the adult language class that will take place every Tuesday morning from 7 to 8am. Overall, the afternoon meeting with the parents was as much a success as the morning meeting with the kids. The whole visit really did a lot to assuage my fears and apprehensions. I now know that the community is on board, the kids are excited, and the library will be a place to learn. I’m ready; only 6 days until Monday!