Caete del árbol y pudrete

I have a new favorite insult, it's simply epic! Last night, at dinner, while chatting with the students, one of the students, Alexis, asks me, "How do you say, in English, 'caete del árbol y pudrete'." I could hardly contain my laughter to tell him what the translation would be. After I accomplished containing my laughter, I told him that the English equivalent would be, "Fall from a tree and rot." Up until now, I have written a lot about the jungle, the school and the surroundings, but I haven't said much about the students. This has mainly been due to the fact that I hadn't quite gotten to know them well enough to tell you all about them. 


I'd like to start out with my initial observation, these kids are tough. On the day that we moved from the lodge to the school, we had to haul up all of that luggage that I mentioned before. Mine was the worst, not necessarily because of the weight, but rather the size and shape of the bag. It's one of those big uprights with four wheels, very handy in the airport, not so much in the muddy jungle. I would put the weight of it at about 65lbs., so I guess it weighed enough too. We loaded up all of the luggage onto a canoe and headed downriver for about 5 minutes, when we got to the school port, we saw the sign saying that it was a 400 meter trek to the school. Four hundred meters trekking with that awkward four-wheeled beast. 


The students came to help us with the carrying. These guys are all very short and the look pretty small, but they are made of stronger stuff than I. Robinson, the kid I am now calling Tractor, began helping me carry my beast of a suitcase. We got a short distance and Tractor tells me, "Let me lift it up onto my shoulders," I looked at him like he was crazy. Next thing I know, he tosses this 65lb. monster onto his shoulders and takes of running towards the school with it. He didn't stop until he got to the bottom of the stair path that leads up to the school. At that point, when I finally caught up to him and, out of pure embarrassment that he had lugged that thing so far, I offered to take over. I hauled that damn thing up the stairs on my shoulders like a champ and I felt like I could die by the time I got to the top.       


The other day, when I took a group of students up the river to a community to acquire provisions for the school, a similar thing happened. The stove in the kitchen is run off of propane tanks, we took four empty ones with us to the port. I easily managed an empty tank. When we returned with four tanks full of propane, once again the fours students readily grabbed the tanks, threw them on their backs and headed off in a steady trot to the school. 


Life here, as I'm sure you are beginning to catch on to with my other posts, is a little rough. Things take longer to do, things are harder to do and the elements love to work against you. Getting materials into the jungle is an incredible challenge, as you just found out. Needless to say, these kids learn and adapt to it. Despite all of the challenges, difficulties and setbacks, I have yet to hear many complaints, if any. I had an enlightening moment the other day when there was no water, "Let's just climb up there through the jungle in the middle of the night and figure out why!" I have come to the realization that we, in the US, and many other parts of the developed world (especially in cities) have gotten use to complain about very petty inconveniences. We complain if we lose power for a few hours or a night, try only having it three hours a day. We gripe about the heat, try being in the middle of the Amazon without air conditioning. Hot water for a shower? Forget about it. It's going to rain for a few days straight? Put on a rain coat and get used to it. Life is slower here and people deal, what's more, they're happy. My students have been organizing little dances nightly; they get together, put on some good music and just have a good time, jungle or not.  


I have been really impressed and happy with my students. In these past few days, they have been helping me to realize why I'm here. Trust me, it's not for the bugs, snakes, heat, humidity and mud. I've realized that I'm going to do my best to stick with them for the year because they deserve it. In class, I've been talking with them about some philosophical things and getting them to think critically. One student said to me today, after I asked what they would do to try to fix the problems we're facing, that they would invite people down to the jungle so that they can see first hand what we're trying to protect and why it's so important for them. She knew well enough that if a person can't see the damage that they're causing, they will just keep on causing it. 


For now, I'll leave you to think on that a little. Let me know what you come up with. In the meantime, please don't fall from a tree and rot.