Field Observations and milking a cow...

This past Wednesday/Thursday we (the education track) took a trip to Cangahua and San Clemente to see two examples of bilingual (Spanish & Quichua) schools for our “viaje de observación.” Despite getting lost on our way to the first school, it was a great trip.

The first school in Cangahua was a school that accommodates six surrounding communities and has Quichua classes for a maximum of 5 hours/week (depending on the grade). When we first got there, we had a great discussion with the director of the school about the structure and the community surrounding the school. A group of students wearing traditional indígena clothing from the area performed a song in Quichua for the whole student body and us.

It was a beautiful performance, but the most profound aspect of it was when we heard a little boy (also indígena, like the whole student body) say: “¿Por qué no cantan en cristiano?” (“Why don’t they sing in Christian [Spanish]?”). This notion was something that bothered all of us. Why would someone want to deny his or her heritage? That’s always a question to consider here in Ecuador and reveals a lot of the sad aspects of Ecuadorian culture.

After the Quichua performance we had to sing to “introduce” ourselves to the 440 students. We sang the “Do Re Mi” song from The Sound of Music and then when the kids chanted “¡Una más!” we sang “You are my sunshine.” It was pretty funny. We then spent some time in the classrooms with the kids and then shared a community lunch and a discussion with the teachers/directors. It was all super interesting, but we had to get going to head to San Clemente for the evening.

We stopped, of course, in Ibarra to eat helados de paila (ice cream named for the process used to make it… delicious!). We got to San Clemente (25 minutes up Volcán Imbaburra from Ibarra) as it was getting dark but we were able to appreciate the mind-blowing views of not only Ibarra down below but the rest of Imbaburra above. After a brief introduction by an indígena leader named Manuel Guatemal we broke up into pairs and went “home” with different indígena families who participate in the ecotourism project there.

My friend Jamie and I spent the night with Raúl Guatemal, a younger brother of Manuel’s, his wife Nancy, and their son Eddy. It was great getting to know them and sharing some incredible meals with them!

Probably the funniest part of San Clemente was dragging our butts out of bed to go milk the cow. Neither Jamie nor I had ever done that before, so we all shared a laugh when we had major issues trying to get the milk flowing…you learn something new every day, ¿no cierto? After going home, we made tortillas, which was an adventure in and of itself when the fire went out and we frantically tried to recuperate it while hoping Nancy wouldn’t come back outside to see us in the scramble. Breakfast was once again delicious (especially the fresh milk!), and we rushed to meet up with the rest of group to head to the school.

San Clemente’s school was much smaller, with 90 students and 4 teachers going up to around 7th grade. We played games with the kids in English class, played soccer during their break (that altitude is tough!), and had a discussion with the director of the school. Even though it’s a “Bilingual Intercultural School,” they don’t have any classes in Quichua, which was interesting to see in a community so preoccupied with preserving their way of living. They did, however, have a culture class on Inti Raymi, a Quichua celebration in June of the harvest and la pachamama ( Quichua for mother Earth), which was very interesting.

But basically I left with many questions and contradictions. Why are they called bilingual if really in the first one just has Quichua classes and the second doesn’t even have any Quichua? Why does the school in San Clemente not have what it needs if they are in fact investing the revenues from ecotourism projects? What are the houses of the children like (since all of those participating in ecoturism send their kids into the city for school)? How has religion (Evangelical Christianity in Cangahua and Catholic in San Clemente) affected the children within those communities?

Despite our somewhat contrived experience of living with indígena families, it was a fantastic time and I was very excited to see one of the schools that I will be working at for my pasantía (internship) Oct. 28-Dec. 5. I’ll be living in San Clemente with Manuel’s nephew, a teacher, and working in a school in a nearby community with English classes. I’m actually going to be developing their English program because they’ve wanted one for a really long time I guess. Every Thursday I’ll work in San Clemente with the English classes there. I’ll also get to participate in mingas (community work days) and anything else that comes up in the community. I’m super excited!