The Land of the Unknown

Today I went to visit the only part of my village that I have yet to visit, because it is so far away. I was invited by a family to go out there weeks ago, and I had been putting it off because I wasn´t eager to walk all the way out there. And it is out there. So at 8 am this morning Mayra,13, and Idalia,11, came to meet me near my house and we started the 45 minute hike into the land of the unkown (well, unknown to me)... It was a beautiful walk. The roads out there are laid with stones and are covered with canopies of green from trees that have probably been there for hundreds of years. There are rivers, and pretty bridges that cross them, and hills that aren´t that fun to climb but sure are nice to look at. We got to their house- really old, made of sticks and mud.

It´s a whole different kind of poverty out there. I visited their school that only goes up to 6th grade... A lot of the people that live out their don´t continue their educations past that. If they want to, however, continue studying they can walk the 45 minutes to come to school everyday in my town. Only a handful of them do that, including Mayra and Idalia. They are so nice. They live in the darky little old dingy house with their mom, their uncle and their grandparents. They all share a room and beds. I am really impressed by them and their family though. They were talking to me about how they tell the girls they need to study and continue their educations and not get married and start a family at 14 years old like many of the other girls around here do. How sad to start a family so young- you dont even really know what you want when you are that age... and those girls sacrifice their childhoods and their bodies and their freedoms and they become baby machines and end up with 11 kids down the road. Anyway, their mom has been spending all of what little money she makes on sending her girls to computer classes in the city each week. The girls are pretty and clean and well dressed. I taught them how to make friendship bracelets and they loved that. I really enjoyed my time there. They fed me lunch too... It was hard to get down- some kind of tofu, potato mush, a salad, and a side of horchata. It wasn´t terrible. Each time I eat a salad here though I wonder- will this be the time I get amoebas? Just have to wait and see... Lately I have been able to eat all kinds of stuff and drink the water and I´ve been ok.

I visited their school out there. They need help. They have only 3 teachers for all grades- kinder through 6th. Each teacher teaches 3 grades all in the same classroom, all at the same time. That`s tough. They used to have a teacher for each grade, but lost some people. Probably because commuting to work their is crazy- an hour bus ride than a 45 minute hike. And it´s not like the government pays those teachers any more for going out there. So they probably take the jobs closer to home as soon as the opportunity arises. Also, the school principal is one of the teachers.... And their roof has huge holes in it and they desperately need a new one. That school makes the one I work for look state of the art.

Anyway... gotta get home and take my clothes off the line before the rain rolls in.

Paz y amor.