A New Set of First Impressions

Another Gringo Arrives on the Scene

After finishing up my first year of grad school stateside this past year, I am finally down in the Sacred Valley to see what we have put together, and to work on developing the organizational aspects of the dormitory. My major goal is to figure out how many families in the surrounding communities have girls who cannot access a secondary education, and out of those girls which ones want to attend school. Then we will hopefully be able to figure out the most equitable way to choose the girls who want to go to school next year.

Arriving at the dorm mid school year has been at once exhilarating and daunting. It is amazing what the group has been able to accomplish since we started the project in November. On June 15^th, my second day in Peru, I went up to Ollanta to meet the girls. Eli met me at the plaza and we went up to the dorm

Meeting the girls

What I found when I arrived at the dorm were six very happy and energetic girls. They greeted Eli like a favorite uncle, calling him Tio Lizandro (or Uncle Lizandro). My reception was also warm, Eli introduced me as Tio Joseph, and with a few giggles the girls welcomed me to the dorm. The dorm itself was clean and more spacious than I expected. The girls had a hundred questions and requests for Lizandro, so during that time I met Rachel and Sarah.

Like Eli said in a prior post Sarah is tutoring and teaching the girls biology, and Rachel is tutoring, teaching English, and generally being awesome. We are really lucky to have these volunteers, and I am especially lucky because Rachel is interested in helping me with the aspects of the project that I came down to do. After the introductions and general questions and day to day tasks, the girls, Eli, the volunteers, the housemother and I played volleyball in an ancient square until the sun went down.

Maura, our housemother, is a quiet and friendly woman who has a great relationship with the girls. They all get along, and she is very nice to them, but has a good grasp of getting them to calm down and do the chores and work that they need to do everyday. She is from Cuzco, and has a family down there, but her daughter has grown up, and she is now able to take a job 5 hours away. The distance seems to be the hardest part for her, as she has never been to Ollanta and doesn’t know any one in the town who is her age. We are hoping to have a party for her in the near future, so that she can meet people and build a community.

A hike up to the highlands

Since the girls did not have school Thursday due to the Paro, or strike, we decided to take them up to Pallata, where Yesica and Dina are from, to visit with Alex and the kids from the Rustic Pathways service project. The hike up was beautiful, and after a little grumbling about the heat the girls really enjoyed their walk up. This was the first time that the girls got to see their housemates’ community. Yesica and Dina were especially excited because they got to go home early.

The Girls and Rachel on a Water Break

The village was picturesque, houses were scattered along the side of a mountain leading down to a lively little river. Fields and narrow pathways made up most of the space in the valley, with a few houses scattered around a little further away from the center of the village. There is only one road in the village wide enough for a car, and electricity seems to be a grand luxury. The houses are adobe with dirt floors.

The girls went down to where the Rustic Pathways group was camping. They were really excited to see Tio Alex again. They all gave him hugs, and then they introduced themselves to the group in English and Spanish. It was amazing to see the girls make full English sentences in front of a bunch of teenage strangers. It was very brave of them.

The girls then did cultural exchange with the Rustic pathways kids. Braiding hair, playing games and learning English/Spanish were the activities of the day. After the fun and games there was an inauguration of a cuy hut, a place where the village will raise guinea pigs to sell. Cuy, as it is called in the Sacred Valley, is a delicacy in Peru. After the inauguration we had a cuy feast, complete with dancing.

The Rustic Pathway Students Dressed to Dance

Well, out of the one-hundred things that are new and exciting, these two days were highlights. The work I will do has not yet started, acclimating to the culture, making friends and seeing how things are done in the Sacred Valley are my goals for the first weeks. There will be more to come when I head up to the highlands to meet the remote communities.

There are many things to be done, but what I have seen has really impressed and inspired me.

transitioning

Maura with Nohemi


It’s been a week of transition down here in Ollantaytambo. Bianca left the dormitory for her summer job with Rustic Pathways, leading groups of high school students up giant mountains and to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. In her place we have hired Maura, a teacher from Cusco with experience working in a dormitory a lot like ours. It was a long and hard process, finding a candidate we all felt good about. We were having trouble getting candidates until Alex put an advertisement on the radio in Cusco about a month ago. About forty calls started coming in a day. Bianca and Alex took care of the first round of interviews, seeing four or five candidates a day for a week. Then we all met with the candidates they liked for a second round of interviews. From there we came up with three finalists. Each came to the dorm for two days. It was hard decision to make – and a new experience for me – but we felt that with the Maura’s experience, plus the fact that all the girls liked her instantaneously, she was the right way to go.

This is Maura’s second week in the dorm, and first without Bianca, but so far I’m very satisfied with our decision. She seems to care for the girls in a very motherly way. She has a relaxed demeanor and knows when to impose order and when to let chaos happen. During homework time she sits with the girls, helping and supervising.

She’s definitely a little overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for six adolescent girls. My job, I feel, is to let her know that the responsibility is not hers alone. That is possible, in a large part, because of the wonderful help we are receiving. Rachel is a student at Evergreen College who started to volunteer a few weeks ago and decided to extend her ticket for the summer to stay and help out. She’s at the dorm every afternoon tutoring, is spearheading our plan to sell crafts made by the girls’ families, and is willing to step in whenever an extra hand is needed. Sarah, a Reed student, has been tutoring and teaching a great course on botany. Joe arrived a couple of days ago, just in time. He’ll be starting the process of figuring how to best select girls for next year. It’s a great team, and we’re doing it together.

So, let me back up and tell you a little more about this crazy week. Right now I’m stuck at home in Urubamba, unable to leave because there’s a general strike and businesses are closed and people are throwing rocks at any cars daring to move. For me, it’s a lucky break. I needed this day to recover from a soar throat and fever I’ve been fighting off all week. Yesterday, I got out of bed to go to Ollantaytambo and try to figure out whether we should send the girls home before the strike hit. You see, the strike is supposed to be today only, but there’s always the possibility that it will continue. Then we’ll have the girls for two days without classes and they won’t be able to go home until Saturday. I really liked the way that we sat down together – Maura, Rachel, Joe and me – and collectively decided that it was better to stay, rather than risk sending the girls home and having them miss a day of school. Today, while I rest, the three of them are taking the girls to meet up with Alex’s Rustic Pathways group for a day of cultural exchange. We gave Maura the option of taking the day off, but she wanted to go. I don’t want to rush and end up broken hearted, but I like her, I really like her.

-Eli