I recently had the chance to escape the rain in Cusco and head out to the Amazon rainforest to take the early steps of getting to know different communities, talk to them about the barriers they face to high quality education, and hear their ideas for possible solutions.
It is always a great experience getting to know new regions of Peru. I have been to Iquitos, the largest city of the Peruvian rainforest located between the Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya Rivers before, but this was the first time I spent more than two days far from the city in communities along the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers. This time of year the rivers are high due to the rains, and in total they can rise up to 10 meters! Thanks to the floodplains, I was able to save some travel time on the rivers by cutting through flooded jungle.
Among the five communities I visited, I heard very similar problems – some reminiscent of those I often hear in Cusco and some very new. For example, teacher quality is a nation-wide problem, especially in rural areas, so I was not surprised to hear it come up as one of the principal concerns of parents. The rivers, however, cause their own problems.
Communities along the Ucayali River spend half of the year underwater, and for this reason the houses are built on stilts. When the water rises higher than the stilts and floods the houses, the residents simply build a false floor above water level and wait of the flood season. During this time of flooding, many teachers, who generally come from the far-away cities, simply stop going to the communities. In one community, students generally receive only three months of instruction per year!
We are committed to working with these communities in the near future and there is an obvious need for the personal, community-specific projects that we do focusing on creativity, critical thinking, inference-level educational themes, social responsibility, and environmental harmony. It will be interesting to see how these projects develop in such a different region of Peru. Stay tuned!
Ian McGroarty
Kids in San Jose de Paranapura
The Amazon from above
Walking into Vista Alegre
San Jose de Paranapura
Piranha on the Ucayali
More smiles