Brigadero/Hall Monitor

Everyday the radio* blasts the Peruvian national anthem at 8:00am. The idea being that the kids are at school in formation, raising the Peruvian flag to the anthem everywhere at the same time. Meanwhile, Yeferson is either just waking up, playing with his little brother in the driveway, or arguing with his mom about what he wants for breakfast. Getting to school is not a priority, no matter how much Dina, Roger, or I try to explain the importance. In fact, one day I was running late and offered to let him on my bike with me. He said no, and started walking. He left around eight, and I left about ten minutes later. Then later that day, around 9:30, I was walking out of a classroom, and here comes Yeffer strolling into the school. I guess he found something more important on the way to school then school itself**.

Anyway, this has been the long way to the following short story: A couple of days ago, my host aunt saw me in the street and told me to check Yefferson's notebook. The teacher had written a note to Dina telling her that she was nominating Yeffer to be the brigadero (head boy/monitor). A charge usually given to the brightest stars of the class. However, someone needed to read it to Dina. When I got home, I acted like Yeffer was in trouble and hyped up this note that the teacher had written to Dina. Dina was pissed, without knowing why, yelling random accusations, and course Yeffer was sheepish at best, not knowing what the note said either. However, by the time I finished reading the note, the both had huge grins and Yeffer acted like he had just got a pony for Christmas. Hopefully this helps motivate Yeffer to care a little more about his schooling. We'll see.

   


* Roger earned a S/.100 tip for cooking a ton of pachamancas (underground BBQ) during mother's day at the restaurant, so made the ill advised purchase of a huge speaker with laser lights, that now wakes me up every morning around 5:30am with Huayno music turned up loud enough that he can here while he works in the back chacra (field).

** I'm sure if Yeffer was a stronger reader, he would drop the Mark Twain quote on me about how "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education".