Hiking

Probably anyone who knows me knows that I love hiking.  I love mountains and I love being outside in nature.  So, not surprisingly, when a group of the 5^th grade girls I’ve been doing reading classes with asked me to take them hiking up the mountain it was like Christmas had come early.  It took a few weeks for us to get organized, but two weeks ago I was able to take a group of 6 girls up the little mountain just outside of Zobue.

These girls, ages 9-14, have grown up their whole lives in Zobue, but have never explored the hills and mountains just outside their town.  I was so happy to be able to show them around.  On Sunday afternoon I packed my backpack with water and snacks, put on my hiking boots, and set out towards the primary school where I said I would meet the girls.  The first girl I met was Maria.  She was standing outside her house.

“Esta pronta para subir a montanha?” I asked.  Are you ready to climb the mountain?

“Sim, mas quero comer,” Maria responded.  Yes, but I want to eat first.

My heart sank.  Who knew if the food was prepared already or if we were going to be waiting two hours for it to be done.  Figuring I had plenty of time, I entered her house to wait for her to eat.  Luckily, the food was already prepared.  I sat with her baby sister on my lap while Maria ate about 2 bites of xima and one bite of chicken before saying, “Ja, vamos.” Ok, I’m ready. Let’s go.

We set out, now a group of two.  A little further down the path two more girls joined us.  These were actually 8^th graders from my REDES group who saw us walking and wanted to join.  Four strong, we continued across the bridge and up towards primary school to collect Eunicia from her house.

When we arrived at Eunicia’s house there were a few of my students on the porch (Eunicia’s mother is a teacher at the secondary school and my REDES counterpart).

“Eunicia esta?” I asked. Is Eunicia at home?

“Dio? Nao,” one of the students responded. (Many people here have house names they use at home and school names they use for school and official documents. Dio is apparently Eunicia’s house name).

I was disappointed because I knew Eunicia had really wanted to come hiking.

“DIO!!!” Maria yelled. (When you don’t know where someone is, just yell for them…they are probably nearby).

“Sim?” Eunicia’s voice called from a few houses away.

“Vamos subir a montanha!” Maria yelled.

Soon after, Eunicia appeared with two more girls and a boy.  

“Voces querem subir a montanha tambem?” I asked. Do you want to come too?

“Sim!” the girls said. The boy looked like he wanted to come too, but then responded, “Nao, fome.” 

No, I want to go home and eat something.

After asking all the girls their ages and assessing their sizes I decided they could all make it up the mountain.   We were now a group of seven.  We set out.  The girls jabbered in local language while I tried to pick out words I recognized.  I looked down at the ground.  Other than my hiking boots, all I saw were feet in flip flops.  One girl didn’t even have any shoes.  Well, I thought, they are used to walking around barefoot.  They will probably do fine.  And they did.  The hike was a short one—just up a small mountain outside of town—but requires some scrambling up rocks and walking through some uncleared trail.  The girls, flip flops in hand, climbed right up the granite hillside, through the bushes, and over the boulders to reach the summit. 

At the top, we ate trail mix (they were very excited about the chocolate pieces and tried to save them by tying them to their shirts because they didn’t have pockets), drank water, took pictures, played games, and danced.  After about an hour, we headed back down, the girls singing and chatting with excitement.  They immediately asked me when we could go again.  We’re going again tomorrow.