Stories From The Field

I was thinking more about my site visit (I do a lot of that!) and I thought you all might enjoy this little story.

My second morning in Jocos, Natalie and I hiked to one of the nearby by towns where Natalie has been working. The town (Santa Rosa) has a small school with about 50 kids and one teacher. Yes, one! I am beyond impressed with that! Anyway, when we got to the school, Natalie headed into the first classroom to greet the kids. They errupted into a chorus of Holas and Natalies. I was a few steps behind and as soon as I came into view the entire class went completely silent! You could have heard a pin drop! Natalie introduced me and asked the kids to say Hi. Nothing. Not a word. They all just stared at me! Natalie then tried a different route, repeating my name asked them to say it. After what seemed like forever, a brave little girl in the back of the room quickly said Kellie and ducked behind her nearest neighbor. We repeated this in the next class room as well.

Far from being upsetting, it was an interesting experience for me. I rarely think of my looking different from the people I encounter here. Perhaps that is because that near Lima, light skinned persons are more common and not that big of a deal. It was bizarre for me to think that, in all likelihood, the kids in Jocos and the surrounding communities have never seen someone as fair as me, let alone have one show up in their classroom in the middle of a lesson on identifying tree leaves!

It will be fun to get to know these kids and have them get to know me!