I didn’t know exactly what to expect when my Christian Brother friend asked me to accompany him out to a public school that was in bad shape. He said they were lacking many things a school should have and that as part of the Franciscan Movement of Justice and Peace, it would be good if I saw it to understand the situation better. I got up early one day and it took me 1 ½ hours to get to the school, just over the border of the southernmost limit of the city of Cochabamba, which is also high up in the hills.
We got out at the end of the route of the public
transportation van and walked along gravel and dirt to get to the school
grounds, which I wouldn’t have recognized if my friend had not pointed it out
to me. He showed me a building that had recently been roofed and is used for
the 1st grade class and the 2nd grade class, and then he
showed me the bathroom that had been built was locked so the kids had to squat
in the school yard or street if they needed to relieve themselves.
Next I saw the space used for the two kindergarten classes,
two tiny rooms rented out from the bottom of a house next to the school
property. I talked with the teacher of the 5-year-olds so I got to see her
room, but not the other, although I think it is identical. There were no
windows, no lights (so the only light they had was from the door left open) and
hardly any furniture for the kids to sit on and work. They were really packed
into a little itsy bitsy space and they are 5 years old!
(This is a view from the back, it's the smaller building on the left)
We talked with some of the parents, the director of the
school, the director of the neighborhood committee and I left very confused
with conflicting versions of the story. Together with two Christian Brothers,
we decided (without telling anyone in the school or neighborhood) to visit the
mayor of district to find out if he was aware of the conditions of this school
that has now been in existence for 3 years. After more than 2 hours waiting for
him, we got to see him and expressed our concern for the well-being of the
children because every child has a right to an adequate education, in
conditions that reflect their dignity. He listened to us, saying he didn’t know it
was so bad because no one had informed him and of course blamed the
neighborhood committee and the parents etc. We asked for dates of when the
bathroom would be opened, when they would get desks for the kids and when they
could build appropriate school rooms, and we got vague answers.
About a week later I found out that the neighborhood committee
and the parents committee went to visit the mayor on their own initiative and
got him to sign an agreement to build 4 new schoolrooms in 2013. I was
thrilled! Later when we returned, they thanked us for having gone and spoken to
him, saying that we helped make him aware of the situation so he was more
motivated to act when they went. Now the question is at what point will he
begin construction, but at least it’s a start and the community members were
the main protagonists, seeking justice in education for their kids.
5 Things I’m grateful for today: seeing a Bolivian friend
this morning who moved to La Paz but came back to visit; receiving girl scout
cookies in the mail from my dear mother, mmmmm yummy!; having time this morning
to jump rope and laugh really hard while watching one of my favorite series on
DVD; finishing my laundry before it got dark; listening to a little boy on the
bus sing a funny song over and over because he loved it so much.
