I am currently participating in a trip through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos and ended up visiting a number of schools in remote indigenous communities here. I couldn’t help but notice that almost every community that I visited has a primary school and most have secondary and “high schools”. Also, I noticed that the schools […]
Here in Cusco, Peru we are in the midst of our intensive teacher training program before we send our teachers out to their respective communities. This week, we are doing the final tweaks and edits to the many lesson plans that make up our different dynamic and indigenous culture-based project activities: create a fun […]
I was walking quickly, trying to get my destination and avoid the traffic and crowds as much as possible. Since moving to the small mountain village called Urubamba, I’ve come to avoid going to the city of Cusco. As I was walking I heard a voice that sounded somewhat familiar, and when I looked up, […]
Storytelling has always been a primary mode of learning in indigenous communities. Before colonization and “settler” education systems were placed upon indigenous peoples, storytelling was the way in which wisdom, often carried through generations, was conveyed to children. Today it is as relevant as ever and an integral part of how Alma delivers indigenous education. […]
It’s that time of year again when I get to go visit as many of our projects as possible in two weeks. This year, to try to maximize my time in the communities we decided to sleep three nights in a couple of the Bolivian jungle villages. I’m not sure what I was most […]
I was planning my trip to visit the Monte Cristo and Manguita’s projects. We were traveling with Dayana, Kathy’s teacher, her 2 kids Mateo who is 3 years old, and Sofia who was only 25 days old. In a normal trip without any setbacks, it takes around 11-13 hours but this trip was not […]
My grandfather used to bring cold lemonade and a homemade sandwich to the plains outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico where he grew up. The small lunch was the offering to his teacher, an old Mexican rancher who once rode with Pancho Villa, for lessons on everything cowboy. The old man would tell him the […]
Chumpe and Lacco are far away. So far, in fact, that to drive there from Cusco is to drive over the spine of the Andes and begin down the other side – halfway to the Amazon! The good news is that they are within an hour of each other. So when we go to […]
I usually drive on my own out to visit the projects, but rarely am I alone for the entire ride. There is always someone hitching a ride on the isolated mountain roads. Sometimes they are walking down from the community to take their animals to pasture, or often are heading back up after visiting the […]
Yissel and Damaris are sisters in first and second grade respectively, in our Biblioteca-style project in Manguita. Every time I visit Manguita, I am both impressed and thrilled with parental involvement in the project. The parents of Manguita inspired us to take home teaching strategies, where we develop individualized strategies for parents to use in […]
I walked by an old woman, in traditional dress sitting outside of her home, and noticed that she was sending a message to someone on Whatsapp. My two year old daughter can open my phone’s photo album and scan through the pictures. Google is launching weather balloons that can provide Wi-Fi and the Bolivian government […]
I awake to the sounds of the birds. There are so many different birds: the loudest and most obvious are the roosters, self-consciously crowing since before sunrise. Next are the nearby songbirds and their familiar chirps and whistles that can be heard seemingly everywhere in the world. But then, from further off, deeper into the […]
There are few certainties. A hard to accept fact of life, but one that is clearly highlighted in the context of traveling in the jungle. The municipality is loaning us their 40hp outboard motor, which we mount on the long wooden boat of Don Wilfredo, a community leader and parent from Monte Cristo, in order […]
2 days before the start of the Alma projects, we took a trip to the Karhuacalla Library project with the teachers working on the project, Elizabeth and Yesica. We went to the community of Karhuacalla in the district of Paccarectambo in the province of Paruro, in order to help get the teachers set up to […]
The only guarantee when I head out to visit communities is that something interesting will happen along the way. In fact, it’s become so commonplace that I often don’t notice it as something notable. It’s sometimes nice to take people along on community visits to get a sense of those interesting things again. I went […]
In boxing there is a saying: “Nothing gets you ready for the ring but the ring.” The same could be said about the classroom. We completed two weeks of intensive training, with 21 teachers from Cusco, Loreto, and Beni, by developing and implementing our lessons in a classroom with 24 students from the Kallpanchis Biblioteca […]
Story/Photo: Ian McGroarty For the first time, we will have an intensive two week teacher training in Cusco with our teachers from Loreto, Beni, and Cusco. The goal is to ensure that all teachers receive the same base training and experience with Alma’s innovative teaching methodology, which can then be adapted to the different community […]
It’s rainy season here in Cusco, and that means if you haven’t planted your wheat, barley, or potatoes yet (depending on the altitude of your community), you are late! These mountains are volatile, and you never know when the rains will suddenly stop and you’ve missed your chance at a strong harvest. Actually, you almost […]
Wherever two ecosystems meet, there will be life. So it is where the black waters of the Juanache River meet the muddy waters of the large Ucayali. At that bend, I often see the pink river dolphins breaching for air while fishing, and we often end up with one or two fish in our peque-peque […]
I was in the Peruvian Amazon recently to attend the final “achievement days” with the students, teachers, parents, and community members of our projects along the Ucayali River. It was the beginning of the rainy season and the river was already rising quickly, but was still not high enough to get into the community of […]