In our search for a metaphorical, developmental El Dorado we have ventured into a quagmire of verb tables. Out here, swirling above us, are peculiar and frightening tenses we once thought belonged strictly to the realm of mythology. We try to focus on the road ahead but their cries haunt us in the night.
Though it goes unspoken, I believe we have all asked ourselves the same question: to turn back to the relative comfort and blissful ignorance of our Spanish phrase books or continue on towards the mountains of vocabulary that loom in the distance?
Luckily, we are not alone. We have with us Lucy, our shining linguistic conquistador, who speaks so many languages she has to do tongue push-ups, followed by tongue pull-ups, every morning just to maintain the strength and dexterity for all those vowel sounds and consonant congregations. With Lucy tugging at the reigns from the front, and our Group Leader Andy behind us driving us forward like a pack of huskies, feeding us fish heads for our efforts, we have made good ground.
Earlier in the week was International Rural Women’s day, for which we conducted a series of interviews with some pivotal female figures in the community, including 70 year old Julia Reyes, mid-wife, potter and mother to eight children. Wednesday saw the rallying of a small army of children for a litter pick of the communal areas. In the absence of any institutional waste disposal system, anything that cannot be put to good use tends to be casually discarded. Perhaps with a realistic alternative and a little gentle persuasion this practise can be changed.
Speaking of change, the changing climate has been the common thread of the week, knowledge on the subject being passed around like a hot potato via a series of talks. Though the theory can sometimes rub against some religious views and some argue that environmental science is not of the upmost relevance to a rural population toeing the breadline and concerned largely with practical subsistence, it is hard to dismiss the value of an understanding of the global context which shapes ones daily struggles. After all, education, by deduction of a well-thumbed expression, is power.
Written by ICS volunteer Sam Baron
