Jungle school and a glorious sunset

First let me tell you that I have managed to put up some photos - not too many, but its a start.  This laptop is really tiny and .........well, I will do more again soon.

 

This morning was not too much of an early start - we had to give the kids a chance to get to school so that we could visit them and see how the schools work here.  So we had a relaxed breakfast and only left the Manatee at around 8am, heading upriver to pick a school to stop at.  The first school we stopped at, we could not visit as the teacher had gone to town for the day to do paperwork.  Yes, The Teacher, as in one teacher.  Many of teh schools only have one teacher for all the kids.  They dont have grades like we have in our schools, but have units to finish....... 56 of them, if I remember correctly.  Anyway, we scooted downriver and found one where the teacher was also away, but a committee member was there, could show us around and accept the gifts of pencils, paper and other supplies that were brought to them. 

 

The canoe could not get all the way up to the river bank as there was a sandbank in the way, so we all piled out with our wellies on and, much to the utter amusement of the kids watching us, we trudged through the wet sand, mud and water to reach the steps.  Now steps here are not always like steps that we know - most times they are simply steps cut out into the sand of the rivers edge.  Sometimes its a good 15 feet and higher to get to the top......and its always muddy, always slippery and always worse going down than up!  By the time we reached these steps the kids were all openly laughing and it really did not help when one of us.....well, she did not fall, she kinda just sat down on one of the steps to stop herself from falling...  No, it was not me.

 

The community center consisted of a few buildings, the school building, the outside toilet and meeting rooms for the parent meetings and other community get togethers.  When you picture all this - you have got to put aside any thoughts of windows or heat and air - well, there is plenty of air - there are just no windows to keep it out.  The school room was not very big and had eight double desks in it - half facing towards a board on the back of the room and half facing forward to a different board on the front of the room that held different lessons.  There were fractions on the one board and we all agreed that these were part of that stuff that one forgets about 6 minutes after passing the tests!  They had some books that were really beautifully illustrated and very well taken care of.  There were a few kids in the classroom with us and they sat quietly, looking at us as we chatted and asked questions.  Of course they could not understand us, but our guides translated and asked them some questions.  They were really shy, as all kids around that age are.... They are pretty petite for their age by comparison to the American kids and they all have perfect teeth and bright and interested eyes. 

 

Instead of glass in the windows, one of the main walls has huge openings for windows, but there was a very attractive grating, so when sitting at the desks we could see straight out into the jungle.  I wondered how often the monkeys came to visit.  There were butterflies all over the place outside, lining the walls and flying in a frenzied flapping cloud as we walked near them.  The toilet is a separate building outside and, as with the other buildings, up on stilts to stp flooding when the river rises over the banks, which must happen often enough to warrant almost all the houses and buildings being up on stilts - sometimes a good eight feet up!  The roofs of these buildings are all made from the leaves of various palm trees and do an amazing job at keeping the rain out - it also looks lovely.

 

When we signed up for this river boat cruise, we were told that part of the fee was to help support the community - I have to admit that I did not really ask too much about it - but here was where some of that money went to.  The governments supplies the backpacks and uniforms for the kids - yes, uniforms in the jungle and they all looked neat and clean!  They also supply some of the needed things for day to day teaching, but once that initial lot has been used up, its up to the teachers to use their money to get what the kids need, like pencils, more paper, chalk, marker pens and the many things that make teaching easier and learning more attractive.  The teachers do not earn a whole lot and the communities are not always able to supply what is needed, so most times, these schools go undersupplied and the kids lose out on many opportunities.  There is a great need for a little cash injection into these schools - the education is at the grass roots level of development here - they need so much and in so many cases, just a little bit will go a really long way to really getting a good few kids a better chance.

 

Because the communities are all spread out along the banks of the Napo River, some of the kids have a really long way to walk to school...... some walk 2 hours there in the morning and two hours back home.  And no, there is no pickup lane, no parents to fetch them - the kids, some really little, walk all these hours by themselves through and alongside the rivers edge, all in their little white shirts, blue pants and government issued backpacks.  At some schools we saw some smaller canoes, so they probably use that mode of transport too.  Other communities had a canoe service that would pick up some of the kids in a communal canoe and bring them in, but still - many walked each and every day.  The 11 year old that was in the room said he walked about one and a half hours each way.

 

The only running water available is that in the river and the electricity is sometimes available for about 2 hours a night - you should see the wiring - gives me the heebie jeebies!  But it works.  When the girls reach eight or 10 years old, that is considered old enough to take care of the babies, feed them, change them, carry them around and take over all aspects of being mama, while their parents work the cash crop fields.  The boys learn fishing really young too and so although it looks like an idyllic life for kids - there are many really tough and responsible chores to do.  The girls are considered to be old enough to be wives at 12 to 14 years old.  And so the cycle continues.

 

After visiting the school, we were allowed in to one of the houses.  this house was up on very high stilts - easily 12 foot up and there really was nothing inside but a few benches around the walls.  And I say walls very loosely... there are no walls, but rather railings and sometimes some palm fronds woven into a design, but they are all open with the woven parts only seemingly to be for decoration.  There was a walkway across into other parts of the house like the bedroom and the kitchen, but we did not impose and go in there.  The lady of the house make necklaces out of all totally natural stuff - and they are beautiful!  We all bought some and when hung together also make for lovely windchimes.  The seeds used are black and red, so they are really bright and pretty.

 

And then we went for a short walk through the jungle.  One of the little kids shadowed us, not really wanting to join in, but also throwing stones or something deep into the jungle and giggling behind his hand with really button -bright eyes when we reacted with surprise each time.  It was cute.  We found some really interesting little insects, but mostly I just loved the denseness, the utter chaos of different plants, greenery and the rustling of leaves as the little frogs jump around and the rain drips in its endless fall to earth.  We often made sure we were behind everyone else and let them get a little ahead of us so that we could stand alone in the jungle in total silence - its wonderful!

 

 And then, right after we got back into our canoe for the ride back to the Manatee - the heavens opened up and everything pretty much disappeared into a typical and very heavy Amazonian Downpour.  It was just glorious!  The air is already so clean and clear and the rain just makes the sunlight touch everything with a light glow - just lovely.

 

After lunch and a good few hours rest time, in which I took a nap!  I could hardly believe it myself, but I slept while we were cruising down the river. I must have been really tired.  At around 3.30pm we boarded the canoe again and headed to another river island to see what there was to see.  We all had the option of taking the afternoon off and staying on board to watch a napkin-folding display or go walking on the island....... everyone boarded the canoe!  We were all very tired by this time of the trip, but no one wanted to miss out on anything.  This was bigger island than before and had many more animal prints on it - we were told many of them were cabybara and some other things that I really dont remember.  Frank and I walked off in the opposite direction to the rest as they are all bird-watchers and pretty much wanted to look for birds, we just wanted to enjoy the walk and whatever else there was... So we walked, found some mud, Frank got stuck in it and we thought he might lose his boot!  It took some serious pulling to get his leg out of there!  The patterns in the sand were just glorious and in other places the top layer of the sand was dried up and curled up creating lovely patterns too.  We walked right along the edge of the jungle growth, hearing many birds and creatures inside, but not able or wanting to go in there.  Its like a solid wall of plants in places and stunning to see how many different types.  Most of the time while on the island, we could not see the others, nor hear them and it was gloriously quiet and totally peaceful and it was lovely to be there barefoot in the sand with the constant swish of the river flowing by.

 

And so we headed back to the Manatee again and were handed a simply glorious sunset!  It was a beautiful orange  and the different shades seemed to dance along the ripples in the water as the sun got lower and lower and changed shades along the way. The morning had started with a few of us on our knees on the top deck, taking photos of some or other bug, and ended with us all still smiling and still happily clicking away.

 

And so the day ended for me with many thoughts swirling around my mind about life out here.  It all looks so simple and worry free, but its not.  The job of working on a boat like the Manatee looks all great and wonderful and I am sure that they all have loads of fun.  But most of the crew have family and youngish kids that they have to leave for a good length of time. It seems as if most of them work 20 on and 10 off.  Thats a lot of time away from home and kids and family!  So its not all fun and roses working out here as is the first impression on getting here.  It was interesting and lovely to see how the crew were happy to leave the boat at the end of the trip and head home to their families.   And the jungle people..... they have everything they need to survive, but who of us is content with that? They bathe and wash dishes in the river, they deal with the endless bugs, the downpours and many of the issues we all deal with - but just out in the jungle with very little communication, very little money and big changes coming.  The oil companies are trying their darndest to get into this area as it is incredibly rich in oil.  They already have a good sized foothold in too much of the area and I am sure that they will get more and more as the time goes by.  With this 'progress' come all the changes that eventually lead to the crime rates they already have in town and the breakdown of the family units.  The erosion of the river banks has got dramatically worse with the increase of the speed boats taking many to work at the already established oil companies along the way.... we could literally see it falling away as the boats passed at high speed - and its only going to get worse.  I can almost already see the Napo river all under lock and dam and the riverside communities all but destroyed - all this because of money and our need for more comfort, more convienience and more luxuries - all wrapped in plastics.  It's all so clear when out here, just how the 'progressed world' is breaking down these beautiful places.  And its very sad.  So, dont only recycle your trash - use less, less of everything.  Make a difference - it really does count out here in the middle of the jungle, you really will make a difference by using less plastics, by being less wasteful.  I know this sounds weird, but when I see the bright eyes of that barefoot school child - I just know that by making small changes, I can really help save his/her community and way of life and the life of this jungle.  Its so worth saving - all of it!

 

 

Till next time.

love and light

Annie

 

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