Once we got to the Tarabuco municipality in Bolivia, we tried to scheduled a single big meeting with leaders and school council members from three different communities. It was scheduled for Sunday – market day – on which most people bring their wares to a small town. We were advised that at the end of a Sunday we should be able to gather the majority of people in one place.

As it turned out, though, we ended up needing to meet with quite a few of the leaders and authorities in their own homes or community spaces – people’s lives were just too busy, community rivalries intense and we were a bit too unfamiliar to warrant a big meeting. Would you give up your Sunday afternoon plans for someone from out of town who had last visited you six, eight or even fifteen years ago?

Once together, there was only one leader who gave us the proverbial cold shoulder, coming to meet with us on the road below his house but declining to walk forward and extend a greeting. Still, we did walk all the way up to his house and his wife offered each of us a bowl of steaming grains and legumes for breakfast. One of his daughters looked eagerly at the booklet we brought; she and her brothers as well as their father were among the people we had recorded in 2016 and 18. She inquired about attending our talk at the university the following week.

The most gratifying visit was to the home of a community leader whose interview I remembered for the long, humorous and philosophical monologue he had produced in response to one of our story books. In July we visited his house in twice, and it wasn’t till the second time that I realized that the older gentleman toasting grains over an open fire in his yard was his father and one of my other favorite interviewees! In fact we had selected excerpts from both of their interviews for the trilingual booklet. The visit had even more surprises; I realized we had also interviewed his wife without knowing they were all related.

This farmer had two grown sons; one of them is a senior studying history at the university in the city of Sucre. The other brother is already a lawyer. Both young men were excited to hear that their interviews had been published – that their words and culture would be shared and mean something to others. They remembered with enthusiasm being recorded by us (2009) as children in the late Prof. Rene’s class. I had my own memories of Prof. Rene; he had welcomed me back two years later (2011) for a weeklong residency at the school and had allowed me to participate in a full day’s classroom activities. School residencies, up close and experiential, are the best way to figure out whether the materials you are producing are suitable for use in the contexts they are developed for.

The booklet we returned to folks this year is in their own words, and has already been well received. Click on the image below to read the book.

Here is the link to our booklet, in Quechua, Spanish and English!