Assembly!

"My heart is sweating pumas"

Manuel Scorza

Messages to keep walking

Messages of encouragement and strength came to us at this time. And how they help!

They come from near and far, from the countryside and from the city but, above all, they come from within. And here we share some:

Javier says: "Dear brother, with the greatest appreciation, receive the greeting and may the blessing of the father and the spirits of our deceased and our sacred mountains spill their blessing to the whole family."

Says Rosa: “For the Rural Libraries it is like all the time is to be born and a new year, because they make reflection and union taking consciousness of the reality, in forging of a free and sovereign homeland in the chaotic world of now.”

Javier and Orlanda say: “Dear friends, thanks to you for showing us, to so many, coherence, courage, integrity, kindness of heart. A huge hug and our best wishes for this year that begins.”

Says Sara: "I wish you a nice time ... You are a Christmas because you bring good news for young people, peasants and children. Hugs for the whole family.”

Mario says: “Thank you very much, brothers. Many blessings to all the team of the Network. How I love the libraries!!”

Materials for the new year

The Community Program for the accompaniment of children with projected capacities is conceived as a community-based rehabilitation program - although we do not fully agree with the term rehabilitation, because that would be to think that the children, without our accompaniment, do not have skills, which is completely false.

The truth is that our accompaniment of the children is direct: in the communities, in the houses and with the presence of the family. We start from the particular needs of each child and the expectations of the family to build together a strategy that helps the child to improve their own skills -according to their possibilities, in harmony and with the rhythm of the family and nature.

That requires a lot of tact from our coordinators since, on the other hand, from the Central Office we also require a cautious reporting of the accompaniment of each child with a specific planning and a constant evaluation of the advances. For that, generally, coordinators need some therapy materials for each child.

That sounds little, but in sum, the amount of materials requested by the coordinators for the nearly 80 children that we accompany, is great. That is why, each year our managing partner Lola Paredes travels to Lima where we can acquire these materials at a lower cost.

When the materials arrive in Cajamarca, the Main Room of the Network's premises is filled. From there we have to order, distribute, pack and send everything to different destinations. It is a job that normally takes us a week.

This year, with the generous support of our volunteers from Colombia, we did it in a single day. Thank you with all my heart to you Gaviota, Hasbleidy, Mayra, Paula and Sara!

Volunteering and dedication

Gaviota Castro, Hasbleidy Rivera, Mayra Sánchez, Paula Castellanos and Sara Ríos, a team of young Colombian librarians, arrived in the middle of this month to become volunteers in our community.

They are an example of inspiration and expectations to learn and deepen; In their volunteer application they honor us with their words "We know that the experience we will have as volunteers in Cajamarca will nourish and enrich our work".

Thus they have integrated into the family, with joy, dedication and simplicity. But, above all, with the commitment of volunteering: they have been demonstrating their professionalism, supporting various activities in the office and visiting our libraries in some communities.

Welcome, team: your presence is encouraging and teaches us a lot. We know that we are not alone, that you are also doing your thing in sister communities.

This time together is for us an opportunity to share, to learn and unlearn.

On the horizon

Some time ago now, our friend Daniel Canosa, from Argentina, sent a letter to Alfredo Mires, director of our Network.

His words were so pleasant and generous that we asked if we could share it. Here a fragment of this dawning:

"It has been incredible the journey that your country people made this year with the Rural Libraries of Cajamarca, an untiring example of what it means to bring culture to distant peoples and, more than that, to build your own knowledge.

You represent that light at the end of the path that guides in the midst of frequent discouragement. Every time I have to find reasons to show that it is all worthwhile, Cajamarca always appears on the horizon.

Keep it that way.

A big hug friend and best wishes.

I sincerely hope that you can enjoy a serene and happy ceremony, that you continue making that beautiful path along with the rural libraries.

I always think that the journey of the people of Cajamarca, in which you were always present, gives hope for others, that as librarians we have a good example to continue learning, I hope you never give up the journey.

Best wishes, a big hug and thanks for sharing your message.

Until next time!

Daniel »

Coming from the exemplary and excellent work that Daniel lives and unfolds, it is an honourable encouragement that impels.

Readings: Paco Yunque

In just twenty pages the great Peruvian writer and poet César Vallejo manages to bring the reader closer to the experiences of a country boy who arrives at that strange place where children are locked in a room, in front of a blackboard, with tall windows to avoid distraction and to ensure, many believe, learning.

"Paco was also muddle-headed because in the countryside he never heard so many voices of people at once. In the country people spoke first one, then another, then another and then another."

How much that place can deafen the children who were born and grew up in front of the mountain, planting the farm, playing around the trees or taking care of the guinea pigs, the hens, the sheep; looking at the clouds, feeling and taking care of the springs.

How much desolation children can feel when they are subjected to ridicule and abuse by others of their age, who are children of the rich, the landowners, the powerful or the abusive city dwellers.

"Yunque does not say anything, sir, because Humberto Grieve hits him, because he's his boy and he lives in his house."

And it is necessary to be outraged by the abuses, injustices and exclusions. Because nobody is more than anyone and the school could not and should not be that place where mockery and fear are everywhere.

The school should not be a place of seclusion and invisibility of the most humble, the most kind, the most dignified. The school, more than being the countryside itself, must be born of it: to learn from and with Nature, the first teacher we all have.