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Published: August 10th 2007
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Emilie reading a story
It is entitled "the bug, the boy and the bear" we know them by heart its an all time favorite... Hello friends from all around!
We are compltely exhausted. Today we have taken the kids by the river. It s sounds quite simple like that, but imagine this. There is one professor and five volonteers -including marion-, walking for two hours in the wild with about 30 kids. Meanwhile a bus and 20 others (the smallest) went directly there with 2 volonteers -incluing em-. Now, this is nothing like europe or america where kids must be watched and kept under control... We climbed and hiked and walked by the road in the middle of the mountain, kids running all over the place. We saw donkeys and cows (the kids jumpe on me sudenly cuz i had a red headband and they thought the bull was gonna get me! I cant belive we didnt lose any kids!! One tried to run away at some point, but others got him back pretty quickly. As much as he doesnt like the orphanage since he just got there, I doubt he would have survived very long in the middle of the mountains. Well, you see a few houses here and there, and fields whereever the river is close or water can be brought, but
Marion, Nikanor, Dani and Lilou
These two kids are some of the youngest there, and really nice most of the time... that s about itThis was actually so sad. The others made a circle around him so he couldnt get away and looked at him so meanly, pushing him arund. Emilie broke it to get him as he started crying, and he cried and cried in her arms.
Well somehow we made it to the river, and let them loose to play for hours. It s awesome to see them laugh and swimm (and smell better). They really are let in the wild, it s really good to see that they get wild free time in their hyper scheuled life. and it was great being with them outside of the orphenage, playing with them, wrestling... As we were looking at a giant peruvian spider, they spotted the looks on emilie s face, and for the rest of the afternoon, they were putting crickets in her pocket, ants in her hair, anything to try to make her react. Her stoic face (surprising eh! but if you react you re doomed forever) was unfortunately not enough to deter their cheekyness... Mais ils sont mignons quand meme. On fait beaucoup de calins, ils ont un manque d affection terrible.
Sinon hier,
nous sommes allées dans la maison d´une dame qui s´appelle Nelva. On l avait rencontrée dans l office du tourisme ou on etait allees prendre des infos pour la suite de nos aventures. Elle nous a recu chez elle pour discutter du perou, et voyant qu on etudiait en politique, elle nous a enormement parlé de l histoires du perou. Les problemes d integration depuis les annees sombres sont vraiment enormes, surtout a cause de la pauvrete de l education, controlee par un gouvernement centriste. Nelva etait prof avant les annees du terrorisme, et elle dit que les gens etaint tres cultivés et que le niveau scolaire etait tres bon. maintenant tout a changé. Rien que hier, on a vu des manif de prof dans les rues contre leur manque de moyens, les eleves ont bloqués toutes les entrees des facs pour protester contre la pauvreté de leur cursus et le manque de bons profs. Ce qu ils apprenent parait d ailleurs tres derisoire, (ca c est occidentalisé, dit Nelva) Ils apprenent les civilisations egyptiennes, mais peu connaissent l histoires des pays d amerique du sud. Meme leur propre histoire ils la cernent tres mal. Tout ce qui s est
passé dans les annees 1970 jusqu a maintenant n est pas du tout inclu dans le cursus. Le fait que le president actual Alan Garcia ait ete aussi en charge de la repression militaire contre le sentier lumineux et responsable de tant de morts, a quelque chose a voir la dedans... Il y a eu une commission pur la paix et la reconciliation faite en 2005 par le gouvernement de transition de Fujimori, mais Nelva nous explique que c etait completement manipulé, que les mauvaise personne etait employees a denicher la verite, et bien trop payees. Rien que dans sa famille, Nelva a perdu 7 personne proches (freres, cousins) mais aucun n a été mentionne dans la commission...
sorry for english speaker who missed the political part... next time (:
The language of the people here is called Quechua (oui, comme la marque) Most of the population in the region speak it, and yet, it is not taught in schools, nor are there any newsaper in the language. Nelva, the woman we met yesterday, told us that there is a huge identity crisis in peru.
We re going back there on tuesday morning. we cant wait.
Monday,
nikanor
what a clown this one we re gona teach a 5 year old kid some english. Now, this is soooo random. It s the lady who works at our internet café who asked us to do so. since we didnt want to get paid (seriously, how much englsh can a 5 year old actually learn!!!), in exchange we get things like...big bloks of cheese. yep.
Tomorrow, we re going with the whooooole gringa group (yeay huge tourist trip, we re so thrilled) (that is very very sarcastic) to the Piedras de los Something. There are hot springs lost in the mountains, and.... stuff. we re not too sure yet...
For all those who fllow the health reports, status quo reached again. in the midst of a pretty sick house, we re surprisingly powering through. The force is in us.
Voila, The end.
Peace and love to all the guinea pigs out there, to which we send our dearest apologies.
PS: Jean francois, BONNE FETE!!!!
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kirsty
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great photos!!!