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November 3, 2004

Yesterday I went do Delia and Samir's school. I met Delia and Samir one night around 11:00 pm. They were going through garbage, colletcing bottles and paper and anything else they could use or sell. I met Delia first. She was kneeling on the sidewalk, drawing on the top of a cardboard box. She was waiting for her parents to come back from collecting. I asked her if she liked to draw and she said yes. Then I asked if she could draw me a house and she said yes. When she was finished she looked up and me with a look of uncertainty. I smiled and she smiled a very faint smile in return. Then I asked if she could draw her brother, since she had written his name on the box before I got there. Then I asked for one of her mother, then her father. Then herself. The more she drew, the more she started to smile.

Here is the first picture I took of her.

 

Samir....

 

Inside the classroom all the students were crowded around the teacher's desk. They all wanted me to stay and we started practicing "hello, what's your name?". Children always get excited when I ask them this in English. They all laugh when one of their classmates tries to answer. But not in hurtful ways. They are all having fun.

Here they are around the teacher's desk Some of them are opening their English books to see how to say "My name is..."

 

 

 

 

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Later one of the school officials came and told me I couldn't be taking pictures and made me go to the director's office. I waited around for him to come back and then he told me that they "didn't have time" for me to teach English." So I had to leave without ever even having a chance to say goodbye to Delia.

I saw her again at night a few days later and she asked me what happened. I could see the disappointment in her face. Samir was there and he told me that the school director is always like that. Samir said they had lots of time for English and the school director was lying. Samir told me some other things which showed me he had really been thinking. That was the last time I saw Delia and Samir. I looked for them a few more times but never found them. Then I travelled out of the city. This is just one more sad example of the educational system and the society in Peru. These are two very smart kids. They will never have much of a future. Yet, just a few hours away by plane, there is a country which has enough resources to help these kids. But in that country, most people are thinking about how to make more money, not how to help the children like Delia and Samir.

S. Hein
Chiclayo, Peru
November 3, 2004

The other two teachers looked dead.

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