Day 3 - Sanare - Ilisha

Day 3 - Sanare - Ilisha

We began the day late after waking up an hour after we were supposed to since the rooms were so dark. After a rush to get dressed and prepared for the day we went to the posada’s restaurant in order to eat breakfast and get to the bus by 9:30 in order to visit our first group of students in a nearby small town called Caspo, around Sanare. The bus ride there was a scenic and revealing sight of how the countryside rural lifestyle works. There were rows and rows of what I assume were coffee plants and multiple fields among the trees and greenery. Even though my expectations had been hot mornings as a prequel to hotter afternoons it was actually pretty cold on the way there and the cliffs were covered with fog. We reached the school and were met expectedly with shyness from the students who were a total of 75 for the whole school. In order to make integration easier we split into five different groups making sure each of us had someone who was able to speak spanish and translate.
During our talks with the students they explained some of the requirements for them to graduate and it was interesting how the idea of a large project in order to graduate was similar to our own. They talked about how they are split into 5 different project types; for example one will do agriculture focus while another will do a scientific and another will do something that connects with social growth. All projects must be something that will actually better as well as make a change to the community. The students all seemed very mature and were able to explain themselves very well. It was pretty amazing to hear a 13 year old girl describe the complicated dynamics of vermin culture and how it affects the crops around them as well as making growth much more organic and therefore able to produce future generations based on healthy and natural growth.
Though not every single one knew what they wanted to do later on in life many did, and they were working hard to achieve their goals. In order to move forward toward college level education they have to move past the obstacle of living in such rural and isolated settings in order to get to where the next available university is located. It isn’t their lack of motivation that holds them back but the access, it seems very hard to move ahead and stay ahead. What I felt was so great about our discussions with them was the fact that it was a give and take session. We spoke with them and answered as many questions as we could and they answered our questions as well. To listen to them was great though and it gave me insight to how little there is a sense of togetherness and community building and care in our own country.
Afterward we shared and did a community building exercise, something that differed depending on which group you were a part of. Ours happened to be the one where everyone in the group had to get over the rope without speaking and or touching the rope itself or you had to begin again. It was definitely an interesting and scary experience to be picked up and handed over to a crowd of waiting hands on the other side. I had to laugh when I finally touched my feet to the ground in the end.
Our time was pretty short with the students and we left soon after saying good bye. Our next step was to visit downtown Sanare. Our forty minute search for a bakery ended with one of the ones we had passed several times before and we went back to just relax for the rest of the afternoon.
We watched a movie, “Venzuela and the 4th World War,” about Venezuelan politics and government which was really interesting and gave insight on how much corruption can be part of governments when there aren’t ways for things to be balanced between the people and the purpose of the nation. It was pretty sad to see how hard it was for the people to finally feel as if they were being represented fully by someone they had voted in rather then just the people who were rich. I’m looking forward to what we’ll be learning tomorrow.

-Ilisha