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!