Letter from Oruro

Oruro, Bolivia
May 18, 2005

Sometimes, certain things strike one especially in the heart. I wrote earlier about how I was unprepared for the poverty here on the altiplano...dry...dust...street vendors everywhere trying to eke out a living...street dogs...old, crumbly buildings, and very nice people. Today, something happened that will stick with me, I hope forever, as an important detail. This morning, I went to the school-day care where my niece Mimi in the Peace Corps has her office to teach a class of very grubby, very sweet, 7-9 year olds. The project of the school-day care is next to an orphanage and an attempt to help mothers keep their children. Kids come when parents work. It is connected in a way to the Montessori school system, but I don't know much about how teachers are trained. Anyway, the kids are cared for and fed and someone wipes the runny noses of those who have them. I have a thing I do in teaching English where I teach a silly song There's a Spider on the Floor.

There's A Spider On the Floor

There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
Who could ask for any more
Than a spider on the floor?
There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.

There's a spider on my leg, on my leg.
There's a spider on my leg, on my leg.
Oh it's really really big
This old spider on my leg.
There's a spider on my leg, on my leg.

Now the spider's on my stomach, on my stomach.
Now the spider's on my stomach, on my stomach.
Oh he's just a dumb old lummock
This old spider on my stomach.
Now the spider's on my stomach, on my stomach.

Now the spider's on my head, on my head.
Now the spider's on my head, on my head.
Oh I wish that I were dead,
I've got a spider on my head!
Now the spider's on my head, on my head.

And he jumps off! ....
Now there's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
(repeat until you can't stand it any longer :o)

I have my own spider of heavy paper with yarn legs and I bring spider bodies and black yarn for legs for the kids to make their own. The bodies have holes punched for tieing on the legs, and the kids color the bodies. I brought each kid what I would guess was his-her first set of colored marking pens. When it came time for the coloring part, one little boy asked Mimi to sharpen a yellow pencil for him to use. She asked why. He said he didn't want to use his pens because then he would use them up. I can only think of the boxes and boxes full of crayons and colored pens that most of our kids have and then expect new ones just because. Something is not right in this world. I'll not forget that little boy. I got some great little kid photos that I can send later. Have you read Mountains beyond Mountains??? Do so. There are blockades on the roads all over Bolivia as protests for many different things, so our trip south may be delayed a day or two. Mimi says the blockaders take weekends off.

Love, Suzy

Suzy Hampton is a globe-trotting English teacher and soulmate from Missoula, Montana. She loves The Middle Kingdom too.