Education equals possibilities

In issue 6 we brought you the first part of this story where Kari and Per described how the Mirasol project was started. We now return to find out the latest developments.

More than 4000 meters above sea level where there's almost no oxygen, there lives a beautiful animal, with soft, warm fur, and huge brown eyes. The alpaca. But it does not live alone up here. It is herded by some of the indigenous people of Peru, and in order to give them possibilities and a real choice of having a different life, Du Store Alpakka in Norway built a school for the herders' children.

The school building was finished earlier this year, but it will not be certified as a children's school until next term. In the mean time, the school is being used for extra curricular activities, and the children stay in the dorms during the week. Monica who is the school head mistress told us a couple of stories of the children's reaction to what we might consider everyday utensils and routines.

Warm rain

These children and their families live on the plains in little brick huts. Normally they have no doors or windows, nor any insulation, so these huts are barely a shelter from the wind, the snow and the rain. They have no means of protecting themselves against temperatures that can vary by more than 20 degrees celcius in a matter of hours. In their little homes there is no electricity or water, explains Monica. Right after the school opened, she and the other teachers started to teach the children some basic hygiene: How to use a shower. The smallest kids were terrified of the falling water, but one of the older boys dared to try it out.

He went under the shower head and cried out: "It's just like the rain! Only... only its warm!", Monika explains laughing. But there's a seriousness in her eyes. Teaching the children modern habits has got to be done carefully.

"We have to teach them things like this if they are to function in a modern society. If any of these children should choose to go to college in one of the bigger cities in Peru, and didn't know how to use a shower, they would soon be alienated both from the people and the society. But there's a real risk that by teaching them these things we alienate them from the society they are a part of today. Imagine staying in this warm cosy school, with hot water and clean linen all week, and then going back to your parents little hut in the weekend. That is why we teach them these things, but at a level where it can become a normal part of their lives. There is no need to shower every day, once a week is more than enough when you're hardly used to washing yourself."

She and the teachers try to keep up the routines of the herders' life for the children also when they're in school. They get up at five in the morning for exercises, and then teach the children about their wonderful culture, so that they can understand it, and respect it.

Big hearts

The school is often visited by the business associates of the yarn factory. A lot of people are touched by the story and this summer the owner of an Italian yarn company came to the school.

"We showed him around the school, and he got to meet the children. There were still some basics missing, like desks and books in some of the classrooms, and this man wanted to give something back, but he wanted it to be something that would be fun for the children to play with," Monica tells us. So he went to the nearest town and bought 25 bicycles for the school. One for each child.

See part 1 of the Mirasol project from Issue 6

To find out more about the project go to
www.dustorealpakka.com or www.mirasolperu.com