Laura, Lydia, Shina and Trevor: Serving in the Selva
November 6, 2014
Shina, Laura and host mother Carolina, with a cousin.
We left Lima by bus in the late morning, bound for the jungle gateway towns of San Ramón and La Merced. In miles, the trip is not so far. But there is a punishing climb en route. The highway to this part of the Peruvian selva central, or central rain forest, requires crossing the Andes at Ticlio, which brushes the clouds at 15,807 feet (4,818 meters).
Laura and Shina were waiting for us when we arrived around 9 p.m. at the Gad Gha Kum El Mensajero Lodge, just outside San Ramón, where they are living in a bungalow during the service term. Their Italian-Peruvian host family (Del Aguila Gerbi) owns and operates the lodge and has, in recent years, been taking in Goshen students as part of their extended family. While there, we were able to visit with sisters Carolina and Rocio.
Over the next two days Shina and Laura showed us around, including a 20-minute walk to a waterfall on the lodge property. On the way, we disturbed several large butterflies that flew away, appearing to glow in the dark. We also passed workers who were harvesting avocados, bound for a market in Lima. All is lush and green here. Rain fell both days that we stayed at the lodge.
Shina and Laura pose in front of a waterfall near their home in San Ramón.
Our first day, we visited INABIF (Programa Integral Nacional para el Bienestar Familiar), a government-funded program that assists low-income families. Shina and Laura work with children who come to the center before or after school to eat a hot meal, take part in activities and programs, and get help with their homework. The academic work ranges broadly: in the span of one minute, Laura was helping a student with an algebra problem while Shina (by request) spelled a child’s name in Korean.
Earlier that same day we visited the Centro de Educación Especial San Manuelito (San Manuelito Special Education Center), a school for special needs children located a short walk from INABIF. The school receives government funds to care for children diagnosed with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders.
Trevor is assisting with physical therapy. When we arrived, we found him leading 5-year-old Alejandro through a series of walking exercises. “It’s so much fun coming to work each day,” said Trevor, who plans to become a professional physical therapist. “The dynamics are different with each child.”
Trevor works with Alejandro at Centro de Educación Especial San Manuelito in San Ramón.
A sign in his classroom said: “Demos importancia a la persona y no a su discapacidad” (“We ascribe importance to the person and not to his or her disabilities”). The 16th of October was Día de la Persona con Discapacidad in Peru.
That evening we sat around the kitchen table with Trevor’s host family members, Jeny and Carlos, enjoying bread and coffee. Jeny was soon off to her night shift as a nurse at the Elera Clinic. The family is passionate about volleyball, which they play each afternoon at 4 p.m.; Trevor set aside his first love, baseball, to take up voley.
The next day we took a shared taxi, or colectivo, to Oxapampa, a city of 10,000 that is known for its blend of European, indigenous and Peruvian cultures (colonists from Germany and Austria’s Tyrolean Alps settled here in the late 19th century). Lydia’s host mother, Teofila Espinoza Nieves, invited us for a lunch of pachamanca, a Peruvian feast that features chicken, beans, platanos and an assortment of potatoes, all cooked together (usually in an earthen “oven”).
Lydia works each morning at Jardín de Ninos Los Jazmines (Jasmine) preschool and kindergarten. The school features a play-based curriculum, an innovative approach that is new to most of the children’s parents. During our visit, Lydia, or Profesora Lydia, drilled a group of 5-year-olds on signs they had learned the day before for fruits and letters in Peruvian Sign Language. In between classes we admired the display of recycled materials used for planters outside the classrooms.
Lydia works with the children in her class on the sign for sandia, or watermelon, in Peruvian Sign Language.
In the afternoon Lydia’s mother put us all in a mototaxi to visit Floralp, the region’s largest cheese plant, so we could sample some of their delicious cheese and yogurt. Later, Lydia took us on a walk around her peaceful town. The main plaza is adorned with exotic trees and plants, chirping birds, and view of the surrounding mountains. At one end of the plaza sits the church where Lydia’s mother attends. Constructed in 1939 in the Tyrolean style, it is the only church in South America that is built mostly of wood (madera diablo fuerte, or devil wood). Because of this it is known as the only church where God and the devil reside together. For our afternoon snack, we enjoyed coffee and sweets at Felíz Día Pastelería (Happy Day Bakery) near the plaza.
On the return trip to Lima, we traveled by night bus from La Merced. One of the strangest sights is a traffic jam on a high mountain pass at one in the morning because the road is too narrow with all the curves to permit trucks and buses to cross paths at the same time. So vehicles going in one direction need to wait while vehicles in another direction pass; no official is in charge of turn-taking so drivers get testy. Horns were honking at 15,000 feet, when everyone should have been home and in bed.
Photos and editing by Karen Stoltzfus
Shina, Laura and their host mother Carolina, with a cousin.Morning in San Ramon.Walking toward Trevor’s school, San Manuelito Special Education Center.Trevor helps Alejandro say hello.Trevor poses with Alejandro.Trevor works with Alejandro.Trevor with the directora and a long-time teacher, who works with the deaf.Duane plays with Alejandro.New solar panels installed to heat the therapy pool at San Manuelito Special Education Center.Touring Trevor’s school.A classroom at Trevor’s school.Bananas growing at Trevor’s school.Trevor and Duane talk in his therapy room.A view from San Manuelito.A San Manuelito bulletin board.“We have the right to be different.”“We ascribe importance to the person and not to his or her disabilities.”Leaving San Manuelito.Lunch with Trevor, Laura and Shina at a San Ramon chifa, or Chinese restaurant.The director at INABIF shows us a poster made by Emma and Stefan from GC’s last SST group.Shina and a friend at school.The children love attention from GC students!Although this isn’t Shina and Laura’s main class, a group photo was in order.Willy interacts with two young girls while we visit INABIF.View from INABIF classroom.The classroom where Laura and Shina spend most of their afternoons.Laura helps with homework.Shina helps with homework.Shina works with several students on homework.Shina converses with a student.Laura helps with homework.Laura helps with homework.Prayer of an adolescent at INABIF.Group photo with Shina, Laura and INABIF director.Outside INABIF, Laura and Shina’s school.Map of San Ramon in the center of town.San Ramon central plaza.View from the central plaza in San Ramon.Gad Gha Kum Lodge where Laura and Shina are staying.Willy and Duane walk up the road to the lodge.The bungalow where Laura and Shina are currently staying. They have been asked to move, depending on the needs of the guests.Shina and Laura pose outside their bungalow. Each one is named after a tree. Shina and Laura sit at a table near their bungalow where guests may be served breakfast.A view of the grounds at the lodge where Shina and Laura are staying.Shina tries to get a large butterfly to show us its wings before it flies away.Starting our walk to the waterfall on the grounds of Gad Gha Kum.Shina makes her way to the waterfall.Laura nears the waterfall.The river that flows from the waterfall.Duane visits with Laura and Shina in a lovely setting.Laura and Duane talk at the foot of the falls.Trevor and his host father.Trevor and his host parents.Trevor with his host parents and brother, along with Duane and Karen .Lydia sits with the youngest students at Jasmin school.Lydia visits with a student.Lydia observes a class at Jasmine school.The students sing us a song.Lydia shows us a flower pot made with recycled materials at the school.Students pose outside their classroom.A swan planter made out of a tire.A frog planter made from a soccer ball.Lydia poses with one of her classes at Jasmine school.Students in the classroom with Lydia and a teacher.Lydia with students from Jasmine school. Students like to give hugs.Lydia works with the student on Peruvian Sign Language.Lydia works with the children in her class on the sign for sandia, or watermelon, in Peruvian Sign Language.The teacher in one of Lydia’s classes demonstrates a math problem.Children in Lydia’s school listen intently to one of the teachers.Feliz Cumpleaños: the children’s birthdays are listed by the month.A sign in the classroom at Lydia’s school that asks the children about the weather for the day.A young girl is asked to draw flowers to demonstrate a math problem.A sign in the classroom at Lydia’s school: Canto y bailo – sing and dance!Iglesia Santa Rose of Oxapampa, constructed in 1939 by Otto Müller Plofm. The church is built in the Tyrolean style and is made entirely of wood (madera diablo fuerte), or devil wood.Walking through Oxapampa’s main plaza.Lydia poses with Willy and Duane at a memorial to the town founders in the main plaza.Otto Müller house, next to the municipal building.Shops in Oxapampa’s downtown.The architectural style in Oxapampa is a mixture of Tyrolean and modern Peru.Oxapampa received this ‘La Reserva de Biosfera’ designation in 2010.Walking through Oxapampa.A recently installed monument for peace along the main road through Oxapampa.Lydia walks with Willy down her street toward home.Lydia arrives at her home in Oxapampa, just in time for lunch.Chickens in Lydia’s backyard.Lydia with her host mother, Teofila Espinoza Nieves, and her sister Noemi, who is married and lives next door.Karen and Duane pose with Lydia and her host mother and sister.A quito quito plant (or naranjilla), growing in Lydia’s back garden. We enjoyed juice from the fruit during lunch.Lydia’s host mother has a wonderful garden, including many flowers.Duane and Lydia sit on the porch outside our room at the Carolina Egg guest house.Birds of Paradise in Oxapampa.Orchids in Oxapampa.Cows on the main road through Oxapampa. The town is well known for its cheese and yogurt.Cows wandered onto the main highway through town in Oxapampa.Palta (avocado) trees in Oxapampa.Hammocks at the Carolina Egg guest house.Familiar flowers in Oxapampa.One of many beautiful plants in the area where we stayed in Oxapampa, down the street from Lydia’s house.Local Oxapampa restaurants, Ameila y Melissa.The wooden doors of the cathedral, Santa Rosa de Lima of Oxapampa.A close-up of the wooden doors of the Santa Rosa de Lima cathedral of Oxapampa. A mural painted on the wall of an abandoned building in downtown Oxapampa.Looking toward the municipal building and the main cathedral of Oxapampa.Some of the fancy cakes at a popular pasteleria in Oxapampa, where we enjoyed coffee and pastries with Lydia.A view from the pasteleria where we enjoyed coffee and pastries with Lydia.A view of downtown Oxapampa not far from the main square. It has a bit of a feel of the ‘old west’ in the USA.A view of downtown Oxapampa just off the main square.A view of the down plaza from a park bench.A tree in the main plaza of Oxapampa.A view of the town plaza from a park bench.The carved back of a chair at a local Oxapampa restaurant.Carved into wood that appears to be ‘madera diablo fuerte’ like that of the cathedral, this picture illustrates the hard life of the early colonists from Europe.Oxapampa was founded by Austrian-German settlers in the late 19th century. Early photos of the town are on display at a local restaurant.Rio Chontabamba flows through Oxapampa.A sign at the edge of the river shows a map of the area around Oxapampa, designated the ‘Reserva de Biosfera Oxapampa Ashaninka Yanesha.’A sign across the river points the way to a Yanesha’ community, an ethnic group of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. The most recent census count puts their population at over 7,000, distributed among 48 communities.Sign in the La Merced bus station back upon returning to Lima: Roughly translated: “Smile, we are filming you. To all persons of evil intention, you are not welcome here, so please leave.” Many of our students find that their Lima families miss them while they’re on service. Here’s a note that Trevor’s family sent.
