Azedon

This has been a strange week. It’s hard to describe a week of school as rough when school has been closed Monday and Friday, but I’d say this was a rough one. On Tuesday, the grade 4/5 teacher was out because of a transportation problem. I wound up taking his class, and it was pretty horrible. What, exactly, does a teacher do when the children really don’t care what you tell them to do, and do what they want to anyway? There’s no office, no one to call to remove anybody, and no point in telling anyone to leave the room because they won’t until they feel like it. But things never degenerated to the point they did the last time I took the fourth grade alone, so I thought that was a reasonable outcome.

Then, on Thursday, the k/1/2/3 teacher was out. I’ve been in there before, and I knew I didn’t want to go. I held on almost until recess, but by then they weren’t doing anything I asked them to do either. This time, I was told a substitute teacher was on her way—but no one ever came. After recess I went back to teaching English, which I can always manage for about 45 minutes with grades 4-7 (it used to be 3-7, but the third grader was moved down to the primary classroom, which makes perfect sense in this case). That cheered me up a bit. We learned to say “Here it is,” “Here they are,” There it is,” and “There they are.” We won’t remember these things on Monday, but there it is. We also learned to play “Rock, Paper, Scissors” this week, in a kind of random spur of the moment bit of inspiration. Oddly, the first two classes really enjoyed it, and the second two wouldn’t give it a chance. But I thought it was cool. Maybe that’s because I won all my matches…

Anyway, After yesterday’s round with the primary grades, I was glad (if surprised) to get the day off. I ran into one of my students, Augustin, who seem to like to invite me to work with him. Augustin is a seventh grader, but, given that his brother Juan is also a seventh grader, and much smaller, it seems possible that Augustin has not run through school in seven years. Still, I’m flattered that he likes me enough to invite me into his home life, so I went along with him to mound soil up around rows of potatoes using an azedon. An azedon is a mattock, and clearly the preferred tool around here, which is sort of unfortunate, since my shovel skill are way better. The azedon has a heavy steel head, like a hoe, and a short wooden handle. I can pretty much guarantee that any of my reader’s lower back would start to hurt in just a few minutes, as mine did. But I persisted for about three hours until just before lunch, when I didn’t feel like I was moving around very well any more. This was too bad, as only my lower back was tired. But that was enough—no more sciatica for me, thank you.

At lunch, I got to meet Augustin’s parents and older brother, and found out that Angel, whom I’ve met before, is his cousin. Angel and the older brother were spreading cement over the surface of a house made of cinder block. It turns out that Augustin’s father (also Augustin) is a man I’ve seen around town withut ever actually meeting. He looks a bit like a circus roustabout, circa 1930: felt hat, friendly, weather-beaten face, little and wiry. I’m glad I really got to meet him. Augustin’s mother sat next to me at Wednesday night’s community meeting, working the entire time shelling something that looked like roasted squash seeds, but I’m not sure. In any case, lunch was relaxed and friendly, my day a bit painful but stress free, and it was a nice finish to a tough week. Well, finish may be too strong a word. My week won’t be over until the beginning of the Great Guinea Pig Giveaway this evening.

The giveaway is the result of a government project to foment development in rural areas. Each family in Tolte will get a guinea pig coop tonight, and eleven guinea pigs (that’s one male and a harem of 10 females) on Monday morning. Since guinea pig is everyone’s favorite food here in the Andes, this has the potential to be a kind of local gold mine especially because everyone already grows guinea pig food, otherwise known as alfalfa. Permaculturists take note: guinea pigs raised on a diet of alfalfa, a nitrogen fixing plant, may be the most sustainable agricultural system going. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next six months or so.