The fish

He arrived in the early hours of the morning. He had waited for a bus on the edge of the asphalt, for any truck that would pick him up, stiffened by the cold stinking breezes of the nearby sea-drainage.

It had been a nine-hour journey, standing still, squeezed in among the other passengers with no fare and no solvency. And then two more hours on foot, guessing the road in the middle of the darkness, besieged by doggy devils - the kind that charge tolls payable in hard cash - and rascally ghosts, the kind that make you lose your way.

But he arrived smiling, suspecting the surprise his precious cargo would cause the children.

He was carrying his briefcase of a wanderer, of a distant worker, of a wasted labour.

And he was carrying a jar, a jar without a lid, full of water and in the water he: a little blue fish that swayed with every step, as if distracted.

Do you like this story?

Continue reading it in the book of the Network:

El hombre que curaba (The man who healed), by Alfredo Mires Ortiz

Today, 24th June

Teacher Sara Moreno, responsible for our Rural Library in Educational Institution (BRIE) in Jaén shared with us this experience that reflects the learning of our brother Alfredo Mires put into practice.

Today, June 24th, in the Andean and Amazonian calendar, there is a big celebration for San Juan and the Day of the Peasant.

During recess, the young people of Citizenship and Social Sciences VII of the School of Higher Public Pedagogical Education ‘Víctor Andrés Belaunde’ of the province of Jaén, together with those of Cycle I, carried out a ritual in the SAE (School Agro-ecological System) to give thanks for the fertility of the earth and to recognise the valuable work of the peasants.

It was also a moment to share the fruits of the earth in the hope of a new planting cycle in the SAE.

It is a ritual that connected us with the SUN, with the cycle of LIFE (spiral) and our Mother Earth and also renewed our commitment to the historical legacy of the Marañon Culture, with the defence of our fertile valleys and the Chinchipe and Marañon rivers and our crops of cocoa, coffee, banana, cassava, corn, pumpkin and beans.

Many thanks to all the organisers and participants of such a beautiful offering of thanks to our Mother Earth.

The work of the Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions -BRIE

We continue to receive news of the beautiful work done by the Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions -BRIE; their teachers and directors undertake diverse actions of collective reading and storytelling that extend and cement the oral tradition of Cajamarca and the Andean cosmovivencia.

Special recognition goes to the following BRIEs:

- Pomabamba, with its Biblioteca Campesina Alternativa (ECA) (Alternative Peasant Library), and the Centro Cultural Quiritimayo de Cajamarca (Quiritimayo Cultural Centre of Cajamarca) carry out various activities of reading the books of the Network that recalls the countryside, the landscape, the stories of grandparents and the peasant memory through reading circles.

- Bambamarca - Hualgayoc, holds reading circles every week, implementing collective reading, storytelling and reading with parents.

- Malcas, Cajabamba, encourages reading with children at pre-school level, involving parents and teachers of the institution.

We continue to grow...

We would like to share with you that, in June, three new libraries have been created: two BRIE in the educational institutions of San José de Paucamarca - San Marcos, and Segundo Briones de Namora - Cajamarca. And the third one in the Sócota Health Centre, in the province of Cutervo. This last one has a special character since it is the first time that a library has been created in a Health Centre. Patients will be able to read while they are recovering or waiting for their appointments, their relatives to distract their minds from their worries, and the staff who work there - in their free time, to continue learning, recover their energy and relax their spirits.

To create a library in rural areas, you don't need a special place or large shelves; all you need is a small space where you can place books in an orderly fashion, as well as a great desire to read books from the Network of Rural Libraries, whose content has been rescued by the community members themselves.

Reading as harvesting

Translation:

Reading as harvesting

The word 'leer' (to read) derives from the Latin legere, which means 'to gather, to collect, to harvest'. This is because it was formerly associated with “picking out words”.

Legere, in turn, is a word related to lignum, “that which is gathered to make fire”, from which the word 'leña' (firewood) derives (3).

With the word leer (to read) are connected lesson, choice, intelligence, religion. And as a verb it goes beyond the reading of a piece of writing, as it can be spoken of reading the eyes, the thoughts, the stars, the time, the lines of the hand, reading the weather, the future, the stains on coffee, a CD and a DVD.

*3. In German, legere is related to the word lesen, which originally meant “to select, to put together”. In English a word read is used, which is not related to the German lesen but to raten, which means “to advise” and also “to guess”, because of the reading of the runes.

Alfredo Mires

en: La dignidad de los pueblos también se escribe leyendo (The dignity of the people is also written by reading)

Notes on the promotion of reading in rural areas

My favourite colour is seeing you

This phrase, engraved on the walls of the Rural Library Network house, encourages visitors from different communities to feel welcome.

Our comrade Alfredo Mires engraved this phrase with love and dedication, inspired by the positive energy that our rural brothers and sisters bring with them; energy from Mother Nature and everything she nurtures.

And, ‘my favourite colour is seeing you’ is reinforced every time we see coordinators and librarians; seeing their joy, their camaraderie, their desire to move forward, their enthusiasm for organising the books they will take to their communities, the act of telling stories, sharing, enjoying reading; but above all, seeing our fellow farmers, who quietly promote reading and rescue the culture of our peoples.

Let us also echo this phrase to thank the animals: the butterflies, the birds, the kittens, who come to cheer us up and enjoy what remains of nature in this little house.

My favourite colour is seeing you. You are always welcome in this, your home.

Guernica Ica

In mid-May, we received several copies of the book Guernica Ica, by writer Isaac Cazorla, as a donation from our colleague and friend Gabriela Hidalgo, who volunteered with Network a few years ago. We are thrilled and delighted to know that we are still a family willing to support each other and continue on the same path.

Thank you, Gaby, for your valuable contribution. It will be of great help in continuing to encourage our readers in the different libraries in the countryside.

Reading and sunshine

Here in the Andes, rural people tend to be grateful for the weather: we welcome the rain, we thank the hail for fertilising the fields, and we enjoy the warm sunshine that shelters us.

However, with climate change in recent years, we also know that torrential rains can damage the soil and that strong sunshine can burn us.

Today we received some photos from our Rural Library in Educational Institution (BRIE) in Quinuacruz, Cajabamba. The educational community at this institution knows how wonderful it is to leave the classroom and read in nature. That is why the teaching staff came up with the initiative to build a reading hut where students can read under a thatched roof, with natural light and in a cosy environment.

We send our greetings and sincere congratulations for this wonderful initiative!