Chimbán!

To get from Cajamarca to Chimbán, you must cross the territory of four provinces and, at least, a dozen towns. Now that the roads are in better condition than a few years ago, direct travel would take a day ... but since there is no direct route, it is better to leave early today to arrive tomorrow at the end of the afternoon.

Our brother Jesús Oswaldo Quispe Delgado is Coordinator of Rural Libraries in the district of Pión (to get there better we do not get accounts because we even have to cross through the Amazonas region) and was invited by community members from Chimbán: "Here we also want to have our Rural Libraries ", they told him.

Jesus Oswaldo consulted and received the order to go to the area to see what happened.

After several days of walking, he called us: sixteen communities are asking us to have their rural library.

Does it mean that there is more interest in having libraries? No: it means that there is interest in the raison d'être of our libraries, that they are opening up more the desire to read the world and embrace it, not to let themselves be dragged down by impostors and superficiality, not to let themselves be snatched from the conviction of hope.

Thank you for that enormous effort, Jesús Oswaldo. We have sent the books right now. And we are getting ready to go visit them.

Volunteers, always

A few days ago I was lucky once again to travel to the country with Rumi and Mara.

As head of the Community Program I had a trip to the area of ​​Sócota, Cutervo, north of Cajamarca.

Rumi and Mara were born among the books and tasks of the Rural Libraries Network. From very young I carried them on my back when we went out to visit children with projected abilities in distant communities. Sometimes the villagers assisted us with the help of a horse, but we always tried not to cause unnecessary expense or inconvenience.

Mara and Rumi have grown up playing with children and, since they were little, they helped me to help them and learn together with them.

Since then, more than 20 years have passed and on this trip, their support has been really great. The company on the road - where I now have to drive long hours - was very pleasant and fun; Rumi understands very well the projection apparatus we need for workshops with teachers; both actively participate in teacher training and their comments and opinions are of the utmost importance; the dynamics are more manageable thanks to their help; Mara is always aware of children and is a great help in the topic of homeopathic medicine; both read very well for others; and not to mention the clearing up after each session and the relief that it means for me that both take photos to document our work.

Thank you Rumi and Mara, our volunteers: your presence is a blessing.

Rita Mocker-Mires

Reading also heals

Don Segundo Medina or "Nenito", as his family affectionately calls him, is a regular reader and likes good books. He enjoys every story that falls into his hands, every prose, every poetry ...

His grandchildren provides him with readings that encourage him, that cheer him up and take his thoughts away from any illness, from any ailment.

He was recently hospitalized for several weeks, but during the time he spent in the hospital he was accompanied by some of our books that cheered and encouraged him in those difficult times.

His recovery is ongoing, and he tells us that when he reads he feels much better.

He says that he likes our books because the stories are good, that Alfredo writes very nice, that his poems and stories are very pleasant and leave great teachings.

Sometimes Don Segundo has also attended our presentations and since we will soon have 'fresh' books, we want his health to improve even more so that we can have him with us.

Thank you very much, Don Nenito, for liking our readings.

Our medicine

In the Andes, May is the month of flowers. When walking through the countryside, on all sides you can see the abundant beauty of flowers and new green shoots. May is the month of awakening, of the abundance of colours and of the fullness of life: it is when the earth breathes out, it is the time of the wiñay.

In the Community Program, in our own way, we celebrate this month for the good of children with projected abilities: we meet with the traditional healers and prepare the medicine we need for next year.

The teachers and coordinators have a special knowledge for these preparations, because they know the formulas for homeopathic medicines and combine them in an extraordinary way with their ancestral wisdom about Andean medicinal plants.

The concept of fresh and warm remedies merges with the similarities of homeopathy, the traditional is enhanced by the "scientific". It is a wonderful experience and, at the same time, so natural.

Every year we live it with spirit, with joy, and knowing that we are on our path.

The voice of the Orejiverde

Our friend Daniel Canosa continues to work tirelessly with libraries and communication in Argentina. He has replicated the note we wrote about the beginning of the "Taramuyke" Library, in Potrero Grande, San Ignacio.

"From the Rural Libraries of Cajamarca comes more happy news, a new rural library has been incorporated - bringing reading to new communities, an unprecedented event in the history of library services for indigenous communities that continues adding commitments to bring reading to villages far from urban centres.

Probably it is in that word, persistence, where you can find some explanations to this true social and cultural phenomenon, an example that continues to endure through time, and where we ask ourselves how it was possible, that the simple idea of ​​sharing readings in rural contexts, continues to generate adscriptions among peoples, where the collective and disinterested effort of a dream that just turned 48 on 31^st March is appreciated ... They symbolize good reasons to try to imitate their walk, and that ours, enriched, open in new directions without forgetting these teachings.

On behalf of Orejiverde, congratulations friends! "

The complete note in this link:

http://www.elorejiverde.com/toda-la-tierra-es-una-sola-alma/4961-taramuyke-una-nueva-biblioteca-rural

Thanks Daniel!

The Encyclopedia in Huamachuco

Of how the names and their knowledge move in our communities: the Mustela frenata -to give an example- is known in Cajamarca with the name of Huayhuash; a bit towards the coast it is a ferret or weasel. To the north it is monkey, or fine. A little further north is huaygash or huayhuacho. But it is also known by the name of monoch'usho, masha, chupacuy, padrecuy, godfather. In general he is called "compadrito", because if he is called by his name, he returns to harm the house.

To the south, in the area of ​​Cajabamba, it is known as the squirrel.

This means that further south, our books of the Peasant Encyclopedia can be enjoyed for their content, but it would be fantastic if we also have books born of their own knowledge in all our rural libraries.

Now that we have extended to the area of ​​Huamachuco, this concern has been a constant.

That's why we have already begun to collect oral traditions in that area.

Our brother Alfredo Mires was a few days ago - in coordination with the Amigo Project -, seeing the constitution of the Human Team and the steps to collect our knowledge there.

To grow you have to take root. To root ourselves we must have the humility to enter and revere the prodigious wisdom that still lives in our communities.

The fragile planet that we inhabit

"The fragile planet that we inhabit – will it support our aggressions?", reflections of Father Juan Bottasso, a dear friend of ours.

Here we can read:

"The myth of Prometheus, the Greek hero who stole the secret of fire from the gods and with it managed to transform the world, has guided humanity on his long walk, but now he needs to find a corrective.

You cannot continue treating the earth as a simple object of exploitation. You cannot only attack her, you have to learn to live with her, otherwise we burn the trunks of the raft that keeps us afloat. Neither is it the case of rejecting everything that humanity has invented in its long journey. The technology that has created these problems is called to solve them. It is simply to make the presence of man less brutal. It is not easy. You have to explore all the roads, you have to look for all the possibilities, you have to give up the easy slogans. It is necessary to continue deepening, comparing, searching. Because this has already become a matter of life or death."

Alto Dorado

From Alto Dorado village, San José de Lourdes district, in the Province of San Ignacio, we received an application to start Rural Libraries in Educational Institution No. 16969.

Thanks to the encouragement and commitment of our sister Marleny Violeta Olivera, the library has started its march.

This past May 23, Marleny made the long journey from San Ignacio to Alto Dorado, on the very border with Ecuador.

Just the river divides both countries, in an area of ​​delicate ecosystems threatened by illegal mining.

As soon as they arrived they began with the installation tasks of the Library. Marleny was generously accompanied by her friend Marleny Burga, who deployed all her eagerness to help in this birth.

Already in the place they had prepared a very nice space to house the books: discovering wisdom will always be good news.

This is how the rural library "Hito Fronterizo" has started, with Professor José Onécimo Guerrero Aranda as librarian. Of him, who was telling stories of his area while the library was being installed, Marleny told us: "It is enough to see him smile to discover that a man with dreams and joys is hiding inside, and enthusiasm springs in the brightness of his eyes".

Let that enthusiasm populate the community with the readings that are sown there!

Our congratulations and hugs to you.

Celebrations

On April 26, a conversation was held about the Andean festivities, with an emphasis on "Pawkar Raymi" or Andean flourishing, organized by the Apu Cultural Promotion Association.

Our brother Alfredo Mires was invited as a speaker and worked on a dismantling around the concept of party, giving as an example the change in which the celebrations that were ancestrally linked, as a principle, to agriculture and the movement of the cosmos, have been falling:

"The now highly commercialized Halloween Festival is nothing more than an imitation of the ancient rituals of the Celtic culture, which were celebrated at the end of summer in northern Europe, when the animals were collected from the fields and taken to the stables to spend the winter. On this date, the Celtic god Samhain allowed the souls of the dead to return to their homes ... And as the deceased could seize the bodies of the living to resurrect, the living dirtied the houses and covered them with skulls and masks that could scare to the deceased and discourage them from returning.

This kind of transmutation also happened with the current Holy Week: the ancient Romans had inherited, from many other cultures linked to the earth, the Feast of Attis, the god of vegetation, dead and risen. This was from mid-March. On the 25th it was the Feast of Hilaria, the day of Joy, in which the arrival of spring was greeted.

For that party, the goddess Cibeles bathed naked in the river calling for the rain and the fertility of the fields: all the celebrants had to dress in colors and informalities and laugh as they celebrated: the earth was resurrecting after having endured the harsh winter: the days began to get longer than the nights.

The feast of the world, all over the world, was a celebration of joy: it was celebrated laughing."

In Linderos

The community of Linderos, in the province of Jaén, already has its rural library housed in the I.E "Francisco Bolognesi" Nº1642.

With the enthusiasm of their librarian Yliana Margot Álvarez Espinal and our co-coordinator of the area, Professor Elizabeth Olano, they already carried out their first reading circle that brought together twenty-five children between nine and eleven years old.

They have had a whole conversation in the background after reading one of our editions: The letter from the Indian Chief Seattle.
We are encouraged by the strength and commitment of the volunteers in Jaén.

Thanks and congratulations!