Last Day in the Cuna

Monday was full of tears. Today was my last full day in Ayacucho as well as my last time at the Cuna. I spent the whole weekend making a video full of the pictures and a few movies of all the different activities throughout my 3 months there. I burned enough copies for all the kids and the other teacher Liliana. I knew that Monday would be tough, but had no idea how tough it was going to be.

The last week we have been trying to coordinate schedules with the Social Worker to have a meeting with all the moms. The only day that worked for the Social Worker was Monday. As we were rounding up the moms and kids to go down for our meeting, we were waiting like always ( I have come to decide that the guards have a little game they like to play, who can hide for the longest time.) As we were waiting Davis brought me a plastic bag. I didn’t think anything of it at first but when he brought it to me the 3^rd time I looked in and saw a purse that the moms had made me with all the kids names emboradred on it. I was already fighting the tears away as I was walking into the prison knowing that this was going to be the last time I see my Cuna kids. Once I saw the purse I lost it. Standing in the middle of the women’s pavilion I started crying. Let me tell you that is not the place you want to be crying. As son as one tear dropped, Marlene one of the inmates, started making fun of me and calling me a cry baby. The kids that were standing around me as I started crying just looked at me like I had 3 heads or something. I had to pull myself together pretty fast in a quick attempt to not start a crying epidemic among the kids. Luckily the guard came and let us out right after so I was saved a little more humiliation.

It was bittersweet having a meeting with all the moms for my last day. Bitter in the fact that I didn’t get to spend the whole morning playing with the kids. But sweet in the sense that I was able to see that the prison is getting involved in the Cuna to make sure that it is going to continue when I leave. Liliana also talked to the moms about how they need to take an active role in the cuna both during the mornings when the kids are there and in the pavilion all other hours. They also decided to start having the kids eat their lunch in the cuna instead of in the pavilion. The kids have not had a chance to learn how to sit down and eat their food like most people do because there is not a table or any form of routine in the prison. The ladies and the kids get there food then either choose to go to their rooms to eat or find a place in the pavilion to sit down and eat. Also on the agenda was cleaning routines. It seems like 90% of the time that we bring the kids in the room the moms are just starting to clean the room from the day before. We then have to take the kids out to the broken swing sets and entertain them while the mothers finish. It has been hard to get them focused when we start with playing and goofing off then go to learning mode. The mothers are also getting together this Friday to have a work party to clean up the Cuna room, children’s kitchen area and play yard. Monday a fence will be built to make the play yard safer for the kids.

During the meeting I was presented with my purse officially and once again broke down. I was asked to talk and I had all these wonderful things that I would have liked to say to the moms about their kids, but I couldn’t even get a squeak out. It seems like the last week I had really started to see the difference in the kids and now I have to leave them. I was no longer called “gringita” but “Senorita Alex”, “Senorita Alice” or “Senorita Jandra” depending on the speaking development of the child. The kids were also sharing their food and toys with the other kids, and I didn’t have to constantly remind the kids that “our hand are for hugging, not hitting” or “our mouths are for giving kisses, not biting and saying bad words.” These things might not seem like big developments to everyone else but they are huge milestones in the lives of these kids. I have absolutely loved my time that I had the privilege of spending with these kids. I hope that they will have all the options in their lives that all the other kids in Ayacucho have. It has been a fast 3 months but I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Rata!

Yep thats right, take the a off and you have the word in English. Rats! In the last 2 weeks we have had 2 different episodes of rat sighting and killings in the Cuna. The first time happened as we were all playing outside with the kids. I was pushing a few kids on the swings, and Liliana was playing with a few other kids in the grass. She started screaming and I looked up just in time to see a huge, giant, ugly rat scurry across the grass. Liliana called the cook and the moms who were in charge of cleaning the cuna that day out to try to find the rat and kill it. We took all the kids inside while this was happening. One joy of working with kids ages 1-4 is they have really really short attention spans and like to wander off. Jherson had decided that he had enough of whatever we were doing at that moment and wanted to go outside to play. He walked himself out of the classroom with me following behind him to corral him back in. Just as I caught up to him, I saw one of the moms picking baby rats out of the garbage.

Apparently the moms had found out that the rat had a nest and decided to throw the babies into the garbage. Later realizing that this would not solve the problem. They were in the process of picking out the babies and putting them back in the nest. The nest was then set on fire, to kill the 10 or so baby rats. I was slightly traumatized by that episode, hoping that that would be the end of it.

Not so lucky! Friday we had encounter number 2. The prison had an amour fixed up so that we could store and lock up the supplies and toys that we use in the Cuna in the room. We had just gotten everything moved into the amour Tuesday and loving not having to lug all the supplies as well as the kids down to the Cuna everyday. As the kids were eating their snack Friday, Liliana opened the amour to get out something to talk to the kids with while we had a captive audience. She opened and shut the amour in about 5 seconds. After shutting the doors, she ran around the room hyperventilating and flapping her arms. I asked her what happened and she told me she couldn't say. I ask if it had 8 legs, thinking it was a spider, but she said no. She took me outside and told me there was a rat in the amour. We didn't say anything to the kids, let them finish their snack then shoved them all outside to play. Stacie (the other CCS volunteer) and I were going to play with the kids outside while Beatrice and Liliana took care of the situation inside.

Just my luck as soon as I got the kids outside 2 of them needed to go poo. I told them to hurry and we went inside to use the bathroom. They hurried and I got them outside. There is no running water in the Cuna so we have to take a bucket and fill the back of the toilet with water from a tub in the shower to flush the toilet. I was in the middle of doing this when Beatrice and Liliana opened the amour! I heard screaming and whack, whack, whack of the 2 by 4 piece of wood Beatrice had armed herself with and the broken broom handle Liliana had. I freaked and figured if I shut the gate fence that we have to keep the kids out of the bathroom I would be fine locked in the bathroom. Not exactly true. Liliana shouted to me that the rat was coming for the bathroom so I stood on the lip of the shower screaming just watching the rat squeeze through the openings in the fence thingy. I was now locked in the bathroom with the rat. It came towards me and hopped in the shower. Needless to say I sprinted out the the bathroom as fast as I could and stood on the tallest bench I could find. I stayed there until the whole ordeal was over. I kept telling the ladies let's just lock the rat in the room and get a guy to come kill it for us. They just laughed at me and Beatrice said, "we can take care of this." I then decided that from my perch, I should just take the job of telling the ladies where the rat was running to. After a good 3 or 4 minute chase they finally corner the rat and beat it to death. Lucky for me this all happened right next to my safety perch, so I got a front row seat to all the action.

As soon as the rat wasn't moving anymore I gathered enough strength in my shaking legs to run out of the room. With a pounding heart I was bombarded by all the kids who had been standing on the other side of the door with Stacie worried that their teachers were getting hurt inside as we screamed bloody murder. Stacie told me she had to do all she could to try to keep the kids from not opening the door and running in to save us.

While I was safely outside they ladies found another rat and repeated the cycle. We now had 2 dead rats on the floor of our classroom. We all decided that this was enough excitement for one day and called it an early day. We left the Cuna an hour early and just hung out in the women area until our ride came to pick us up.

Come Monday as we were walking to the Cuna I was telling Liliana that I hope we don't have any rat incidents today. I think that I jinxed us because as soon as we walked in there were the 2 dead rats laying in the same exact spot as they were 3 days ago! Oh if I can't get a teaching job in the states with this kind of experience I don't know what it will take!

Liliana

Liliana is my teaching partner at the Cuna. She has been with me since my second week in the Cuna and is a wonderful asset to the program. I honestly don't think that I would have been able to run the Cuna daily without her. It has been 2 months of seeing each other 4 times a week, however I have realized lately that we don't know very much about each others lives. Back when we started the Cuna, I asked her if one of the kids belonged to her. She told me that she only had a 8 year old son, but he lives with her parents. I never really asked to many more questions about her life, 1 because we are always acting a ringmasters in the craziest 3 ring circus of all time and 2 if I were in jail, I think I would be a little embarrassed to talk about why I was there. I kind of let that conversation be in her court, if she wanted to share I would listen, but I would not push the subject.

Well that was my plan at lest until today. Knowing that this weekend was Mother's Day, I asked Liliana if her son was going to visit her. She told me that her son didn't know that she was in prison. Saying. "if he knew he would be really sad. He thinks that I am working in the countryside as a teacher. I co

uldn't find a teaching job in the city 2 years ago, so I went to the country to teach. While I was out there I went to visit my uncle's house for the weekend. While I was there the cops came and busted his house for having drugs. I didn't know anything about him being involved in the drug business." She continued to tell me that she has been in jail for a year now, and has to wait for another 5 months until she gets her 1st hearing.

I am not a judge nor have an extensive background in criminal law or profiling. However, the look of sincerity that was in Liliana's eyes as she was telling me her story made me believe that she might have just spent the last year of her life in jail for no reason. I could not imagine being an innocent person in a law system that believes that everyone is guilty until proven innocent!

Mother's Day in the Prison

It has been 2 months since I have set up the Cuna preschool program in the prison. I have finally gotten the kids to not hit, bite or throw things at each other with the help of Liliana (the inmate teacher) and a few volunteers to learn a song and dance. I have spent the last 2 days making animal coustumes for the kids. One of the main songs we sing is called La Ronda de Animales, the animal circle. I made ears and tails for 7 different animals that the kids have learned the corresponding sounds too. We have been practicing and practicing our song and dance to put on a little show for the women during our Mother's Day Celebration.

Lets just say that the kids practiced and practiced but when show time came. They all got stage fright except one girl and the teachers. The video that one of the new volunteers took of our stellar performance just makes me look ridiculous. The little girl, Sadia, who

was the only one who remembered the dance is unfortunately blocked by my big bum. Oh well what we do for the kids, I guess. after dancing to a few songs with the kids it was game time. We had the kids and moms play balloon relay races and stomp your moms balloon (not as successful as we were thinking it would be.)

After we tuckered out the kids it was let Alexandria make a fool of herself part 2 start.

Marisol had a "great" idea that we would have a dance competition between the moms for a prize of chocolate candies. Well this wasn't just any dance competition....I had to dance and

then the mom that was able to follow me the best would win. One would think that this competition would last a song and no more. Oh boy was that wrong, 5 songs later and I was completely out of moves we finally ended the competition.

We also had clothes to give away to the ladies. The ladies who won musical chairs got to pick out an outfit. All in all it was a fun day. The kids danced, the women danced, we all danced together. We were able to pass out clothes, candies and sweet bread to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a bitter sweet day though, the ladies were able to have a fun day but you could tell all of them were a little depressed that they would have to spend Mother's Day alone in

prison. Most of the women who are in prison are in there for drug tracking. They were forced to make a tough decision to not be able to provide for their families or take the risk of carrying drugs out of the jungle once to make enough money to live on for a year or two.