Everyone Danced

On the feast of St. Francis this year, we held a fiesta to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the University - four days of sports championships, dramas, variety acts.......and dancing.

In the rain and in the mud every student danced. Teachers and administrators danced.







The director, Padre Freddy, danced.

Miss UAC-Carmen Pampa

slipped out of her shoes

to dance.

Different departments chose from the hundreds of different Bolivian folk dances - each with its own history and symbolism.

Below is the Tobas from the hot Amazonian jungles.

The Vet department did the Waca-Waca (cow dance) below.

This dance which Dan and Lee are adroitly performing is called the Morenada. First done by black slaves who worked the mines for Spanish overlords. The 45 pound costumes spoof the courtly dress of the Spanish royalty.

This dance is called a Tinku. It was done in villages that were split into an upper and lower half, or in close neighboring pueblos which were at odds with each other. They dressed in their best clothes to dance a reconciliation in holy week each year. The costume includes leather helmits because the dance ended in a ritual but real and sometimes deadly fight - with stones, fists, iron knuckles, etc. Women fought as bravely as the men. When there are injuries and deaths it served to insure good crops the following year.

The dance in Carmen Pampa included only a symbolic brawl in the mud (above). Traditionally all harm was forgiven immediately - even by the parents who lost a child in the brawl. The two warring towns made up and purged all resentment of the previous year. The dance is still common but much tamer. However, even now in the rural areas, there are occasional deaths.

Then there were some who selflessly gave up the chance to stomp mud and roll in the rain in order to record all this. Jean photographed.

Children's Library

The children’s library, which some of you contributed to so generously, is keeping us busy these days. We open every evening for a few hours and a few afternoons as well.

Some university students help out during their work-study time.

The 200 plus books are being well circulated. It is really something to see juniors in high school reading and enjoying the illustrations in Where the Wild Things Are (Donde Viven Los Montruos).

They had - and have - little access to books throughout their childhood. The elementary grades have one text , a reading book . The third grade reader, for example, deals with such topics as, the bones, the departments of Bolivia, traffic rules, and the digestive system – so it is a science, social studies, geography, all around text.

Right now we have 70 library users signed up from pueblos as far as an hour’s walk away. A second grader, Kevin, (pronounced K’been) is about to fill his borrowers sheet which means he has borrowed 50 books. He deserves a little reward - maybe a box of crayons or a pencil and a sharpener . . .

During the evening library hours when they stop in to return and pick out another book many will stay to play cards or checkers or Scrabble. Puzzles are also quite popular among all ages. Watching the junior high schoolers doing simple puzzles over and over demonstrates better than words the needs we are trying to fill.

One of the University students in the art room
Lee has set up carved a beautiful sign which we

hang when the library is opened.

Thanks to all for your support! Jean

Chorro Morro - Play the Game

Last straw.......

Collapse!!

Nurse in the Pueblos

In the pre-dawn rain, the plaintive call of the patutu drifted down the valley. The cow-horn patutu is blown to call the leaders of the surrounding pueblos to meeting.



The purpose of today’s gathering was a village-by-village evaluation of health services in the valley. It lasted three days. Nurses Paulina Sepeta and Jean Lechtenberg listened to reports from each pueblo. Toward the end of the second day the leader abruptly queried, “Quien es la rubia alli?” – “Who's the blond in the back there?” Jean (Juana) was introduced to the larger community and kindly applauded.









Visiting the pueblos involves leaving early by car or on foot, tramping the dripping jungle lanes and mountain paths. The pueblos are actually scattered clusters of slope-side adobes. Most have a muddy dooryard with a water standpipe, chickens, dogs, maybe a sheep or pig.












The shy, smiling, barefoot children greet the nurses and call their mothers. Their clothes are permanently soiled - not torn but worn-through and threadbare. Many speak only Aymara.










The homes have a dirt floor, and may be partially roofed. The stove is a fire pit in the corner.









Scattered on the floor beside the nurses bags are children’s playthings – a hammer, flattened bottle caps, a piece of pipe.













The nurses weigh the little ones in a sling and measure them. They give polio and other vaccinations, vitamin A and medicine for parasites, lice, and infection.


















They talk to mothers who do not realize that new universal health coverage applies to all children up to the age of 21 and to new mothers for 6 months – better universal health coverage than in the US.







For a nurse, the poverty, the dirt, the disorganization weigh heavy on the spirit. She wonders if the bright children that blossom here in the dirt will raise their own children here. Sister Damon began a college in this valley to insure that some of them will have other options.























A little girl embraces her dear faceless teddy.











In the years to come she must find her own countenance. The nurse prays it will reflect a wisdom, confidence, and pride in achievement that health and education will afford her.

How to Make a Cup of Carmen Pampa Tea

About a month after the tea plants have been cut back by machete the new buds will sprout. This is the time to pick the tea leaves.

Snap off only the top three tender leaves.

Spread the leaves in the air for an hour then crush and tear them.

Squeeze them until the juice drips out

and pack them into balls.


Allow them to ferment

and turn dark overnight.

Then lay them in

the full sun to dry.

Salude!

Local coffee growers make another type of tea called “sultana” from the husks of the coffee bean. After the red shells have been stripped off and the coffee beans sold, the pickers use the dried shells with a little cinnamon and clove to brew their tea.

Christmas Eve - Carmen Pampa

In the little town of Carmen Pampa,

Mary and Joseph were serious.

The tiny Savior in aguayo blanket, rubber tire sandals and woolen cap was lying in the straw.

The sheep got grass.

The children danced.

Someone from the pueblo of San Cristobal was lucky in the raffle.

But all the children got presents,

...and everyone had bread and chocolate.

The Olde School House

This is the grade school in Carmen Pampa - a cement courtyard surrounded by classrooms.

Jean teaches the children with very low reading skills

in the courtyard or the cafeteria. Her “desk” is the old

water pipe stand.

In addition to the students assigned, there are usually some extras who wander by to see what is going on.

“My dream is to create a library that would allow the children to read something beyond their one text. Actually, the only students with the text are those whose parents could afford to buy one.

At the present time, I am loaning books to neighborhood children out of the volunteers’ house. They come knocking at the door asking for “libros”.

I hope these few photos will convey an idea of the situation here. How many books might an American child have in his bedroom? These children don't have even one”.

Interested in helping out? Write Jean at lechtel@gmail.com Thank you.