Meeting the Girls of Iquitos

As soon as we had drained our coffee cups the morning after we arrived in Iquitos, after about eighty solid hours of traveling, we had our first meeting with our Peruvian contacts en vivo. Young, fresh-faced and matter-of-fact Carmen and Patti explained that there was an anniversary party for their school La Rosa de America that day and that we were going to attend. Right now.  [See video below]

During the festivities, we got a chance to explain Jungle to Jungle (or, in Español Selva a Selva) to these bright young women. They had so many questions. Many were over how exactly we were planning on implementing the project. We told them that we would bring our laptop, and a webcam, and that we would be needing internet, whether wireless or wired. The students in Hawaii have a similar setup, and we have set up a time to meet in cyberspace, with five hours of real time in between us. Once they understood this, the next question was “Oh, will you be needing a projector?” Wow, ok! Surprised that they have that lovely little piece of equipment, we said we would love it. We then explained that we had originally crafted the entire program for our students in Hawaii, to teach them about exploration a nd the region’s wild biodiversity. Once we had made the initial contact with Patti Guzman, though, we began tailoring it to be interactive across the two cultures. Two weeks before we left, we had a meeting with our Kalama Students and asked them to think about what kinds of things they would like to share with the students in Peru and, in turn, what they would like to ask of them. We compiled a list.

Turns out, the girls in Iquitos did the same thing. They prepared things like a small dish of their favorite food (ceviche across the board!), created a poster saying what kind of music they like the best (believe it or not, Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers) and even what kind of chairs they usually sit in!   We had put together a small presentation about Hawaii, starting with its geography (Google Earth really wowed them!) and a little geology. But the thing that is so interesting to Jungle to Jungle us is to compare our two different jungles. We explained that the jungle in Hawaii looks almost identical to the jungles around their town, but there is one important difference: Hawaii has very few terrestrial animals! =0 D But we got to show them some of the creatures that swim around us all the time, like the blue-ringed octopus and the spinner dolphins. We showed them pictures of the hula and taught some simple Hawaiian words.  

The most fun part, though, was that they got to meet our students at Kalama. Although the internet connection was too slow for real-time video conferencing, we could send video messages back and forth with just a few minutes in between. This way the girls got to ask each other questions and respond.   All in all, it was a beautiful experience for us. We learned after that the older class was whining to their teacher about why they didnt get to do this project. (“Well if you would show some more initiative in learning English, we’ll see!”)

Their teachers asked us so demurely afterwards if J2J would consider keeping up contact so that more of their students could get to experience it!  

We are thrilled. And honored. And heck yes we want to continue working with people who are interested!

Those are our favorites!