Sunday, July 18, 2010

Day Six

July 17, 2010
Kaitlyn Peterson

The fence outside the school in Anco Pacha has been torn down, and we’ve just sanded all of the dirt from the school walls. We’re ready to lay down a smoother, prettier top layer.
At the moment Brad, James, and Jimbo are digging deeper holes in order to install new fence posts. They are careful to avoid the sewer pipe, which is directly underground in front of the school. Thomas was originally helping to remove rocks from the holes; however, “his talents were needed elsewhere,” says James. In other words, Thomas needs a little more practice with the pick-ax. Another group continues to paint the mural on the wall opposite the holes. Jenny has been “gently” guiding Gia, Madeleine, and Ted [Gemmell-Hughes] in perfecting the mural, now depicting a playground scene including recycling bins, a clean river, and a trash-free park. A half-plastered wall stands across from them while we await the proper materials to finish it. Tim and Jobe [Gemmell-Hughes] have just left the site along with Mr. Gemmell in order to buy more paint, wood, and plaster. Tim has also been working with Nick and Prescott to build shelves for the schoolroom. Earlier this morning Diana, Lila, Dilong, Molly, and I nearly completed coloring the building on the side of the courtyard.

Walking through the streets of Ollanta we feel like tourists—the shopkeepers charge us twice the fair price and the language is usually too quick for even our most advanced Spanish speakers. Still, our being here feels justified because we are working to help the community. Yet the glares and the shout outs from the street vendors cause us to question how valuable our work really is to the inhabitants of the area. While removing the fence posts, Jason commented that “This job is going to be even harder for the next group [to dig up our posts] in 15 years.” Most of us arrived thinking that we could makeover Anco Pacha and make a lasting difference in the lives of these people. However, we’re finding that the majority of our work is only temporary—but maybe it still has its benefits. Ten days in a town, less than five hours each day might not be enough to pull a handful of people out of poverty. Yet our interactions with the children and the members of the town will impact them, and more significantly us, for years to come. Instead of asking which building we should paint next, or which tools we should use to plaster the walls, we’ve begun asking questions about human nature and the evolution of poverty. Lila, a 24 year-old who has been with us for a week but just left us this morning, spoke to us about the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda. So far our time in Peru has served more to change our way of thinking than to change the scenery in Anco Pacha. It’s exciting to think about how much we ourselves will change in the next two weeks and about how much we will change the world in the future.
I love you, Mom and Dad. See you in two weeks.

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