Festival of St John at new Waldorf school 'Selva Azul' in Tarapoto

Lourdes has been helping a group of parents and teachers to get a new Waldorf school in our nearby city of Tarapoto up and running.  It now has 27 children with 10 in the kindergarten,  In grades 1-2 there are five and in 4-6 grade there are twelve.

After much wrangling with corrupt officials who wanted cash payoffs (such is life in Peru) the official permission to operate was granted a few days ago.  Lourdes used sweet talk, pursuasion and her many contacts to get the licence made legal without resorting to bribes, thereby proving it can be done.  In Peru the corruption happens at the kindergarten level - all very obvious.  In the USA and elsewhere it's more like PhD level - covert and harder to spot.

Yesterday we celebrated the Festival of Saint John which is also a solstice celebration and happens in all the 1000+ Waldorf schools worldwide. Usually it involves a huge bonfire but here in the Amazon that would be too hot so in general the people celebrate St John's day by going to the river.  In this part of the Amazon basin St John's day is a big deal, everyone celebrates it and there is even a special food item called a "juane" which is seasoned rice, chicken, olives and egg all wrapped up and cooked inside a particular large leaf which inparts a delicious flavor.  In our case at the new Waldorf school we planted a new banana tree in the center of the lawn and decorated it with hanging gifts as well as decorating the whole of the school and playground.

A traditional Amazonian band consisting of two drummers and a 'clarin' -a small clarinet- was hired from Sauce and parents. teachers and children all danced around the tree for hours wearing typical Amazonian native outfits.  In the case of Mercedes the first and second grade teacher who is from the Shipibo tribe it is her normal everyday dress.  No dressing-up necessary.  That's Mercedes in the purple top.

Chavin Revisited

El Lanzon at Chavin

Although I find it a place way too cold to think about living there, my favorite place in Peru is Chavin de Huantar.  For me it is the spiritual center of Peru and the 4000 year old carved stone diety known as El Lanzon is a local representative of the Godhead in physical form.

I always get an inspirational spiritual charge whenever I get to go back to spend time at the Chavin temple complex.  Just a few days back I returned from almost two weeks up at Chavin and had a really great trip.

To see more about Chavin go to my new blog:

www.chavincalling.blogspot.pe

I went on a solo hike up the east side of the Mosna river valley to get this photo of the 3,800 year old Chavin temple complex.  The ceremonial plaza can be seen in the foreground with the various truncated pyramids behind.

Easter in the Amazon jungle

In our Waldorf educational project located in the community of Sauce, Peru we celebrate the different festivals throughout the year.  For this Easter celebration Lourdes decided to have the children make butterflies as symbols of new life, transformation and regeneration rather than traditional easter eggs. We have lots of butterflies here and easter eggs are not really part of the culture. No bunnies either for that matter.

Balcony finish carpentry

 Maestro Victor and his crew have been helping me get the facade of our house in Sauce moved along towards completion.  The next step will be to install bug-proof screening which will make both balconies pleasant places to hang out in a hammock. I plan to put a horizontal wire on the facade to see if I can get the bougainvillea to grow along it.

 I have also been working on getting a second guest bedroom completed.  Stay tuned for upcoming photos of that.

Please help us raise funds for 2017

Dear friends, family and past volunteers,

Please consider making a donation to Estrella de Sauce as we begin our year with 'Vacacciones Utiles' (holiday camp) for 120 children in three communities.

We are also about to resume our weekly get-togethers for 26 senior citizens, classes for 60 children in different age groups and classes including medical help for twelve handicapped children and youth.

Estrella de Sauce can be seen as a pilot program demonstrating a new way to offer Waldorf alternative education to families way down the economic totem pole at little or no cost.

Our long term objective is to finish our cafe and bed and breakfast hostal so that it can produce funds to support our educational and social programs within the community of Sauce, but we are in need of extra funds to push this forward towards completion, also to maintain and upgrade our Estrella de Sauce facility and our Estrella del Lago sailing catamaran.

We have kicked off a crowdfunding campaign at:

https://generosity.com/education-fundraising/waldorf-education-in-the-amazon/x/14567391

thanks in advance for your help and you are always welcome to come and visit

Martin and Lourdes

End of year fiestas at Estrella de Sauce

Here in the Southern hemisphere it is the end of the school year.  At Estrella de Sauce we gave gifts cake and drinks to the children who attend our daily program on Thursday and on Friday we had another celebration for our senior citizens group who meet once a week throughout the year.

Now we will take a break for a few weeks before beginning our 'vacacciones utiles' summer camp for 120 children in 3 different communities.

We send holiday greetings to all our past volunteers, our supporters, friends and family.

!Paz y luz a todos!

Christmas gifts for 26 senior citizens

Mercedes serves up fiesta goodies

Christmas songs with guitar and harmonica

Denise hands out gifts

Our volunteers Miriam and Mercedes

November in the United States

Volunteer Denise relaxing aboard 'Estrella del Lago' as we head for the swimming beach.

Lourdes and I are heading north to the USA for all of the rest of November.  We have a new grandchild, Rowan Stevens in Asheville North Carolina who we will be meeting for the first time.  We plan to offer baby-sitting services to his mom Betsy and dad Lief so they can go out on the town while we are visiting.

We leave our Waldorf educational and social project Estrella de Sauce in the capable hands ofour wonderful volunteers Mercedes who comes from Pucallpa, Peru, Miriam who is from Cologne, Germany and Denise from near Hamburg in northern Germany.

Mercede is a trainee Waldorf teacher and an expert in Shipibo embroidery.

We all went out for a last sail, swim and kayak messabout on Monday after which I prepared our 33 foot sailing catamaran 'Estrella del Lago' for our month away by removing all loose gear such as sails, motor etc and tying her up with extra ropes as November tends to have strong winds on the lake.

We will arrive in the US on November 7, right before what pomises to be a wierd and interesting presidential election.

 Miriam cruising aboard 'Estrella del Lago' ready to do some kayaking.