Welcomed back

We´ve finally arrived in Carmen Pampa and begun to settle into the community. It is exhilerating to just see so much growth and development in the university and in the children since we were last here. And a great relief to escape the choking altitude and multitudes of the capital city with its bullet-riddled walls from recent civil unrest. The trip from the capital again proved to be terrifying, with several near-accidents due to the blinding fog on such a narrow and muddy cliffside road. Of course, reuniting with old friends in different pockets of the campus carved out of the jungle valley was worth the white knuckles.
Jason and I have delved immediatley into the project of studying the university and its effects on the poor indigenous community it serves on many different levels. It has been difficult to narrow our scope while immersed in such fascinating topics as the debate over the eradication of coca, which is raging in this region. And of course, everyone is still discussing recent massive protests that deposed the president and what will become of the country with such powerful social movement organization and such unstable govenment. Anyway, we are in agreement on our goals and tasks at hand now that we are within the community, and so we began to reintegrate and to explore the people that make it up.
Two conversations in particular tonight have reinforced our motivations for documenting this grand educational and social project. Amazing stories from violent mass protests and their harrowing recent childbirth accompany a simple dinner at the tiny house of Willi and Fabiola and their newborn. They are students no older than us, still grieving the loss of their first child Luis, and struggling to pay for studies. Later in the evening we meet with two old friends under the lights of the basketball court to catch up. Martín and Fico spend two hours with us laughing, chewing coca and debating the political and social problems of the country and region, and begin to provide us with a better idea of what role the university plays in local and national politics and as an agent of positive social and economic change.
Jason and I agree that bringing out the cameras immediatly is not the way to earn the trust of such a closed indigenous people, but the ideas and information exchanged in the evening´s interactions would have been perfect material for the film. However, it is clear that the conversation has only begun and deeper friendships are being formed.