The Queen With The Frozen Heart 7

 This is the seventh part of the story.

If you want to read the first part of the story go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 1  

To read the second part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 2 

To read the third part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 3. 

To read the fourth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 4. 

To read the fifth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 5.

 To read the sixth part of the story, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 6.

The two weeks were torture to the prince. He travelled as fast as he could to his mother’s castle where he tried to say goodbye to his mother. But he was too old, too big, too grown-up, her mother didn’t even recognize him.

In her mind the time stood still, and so in the castle and around it, everything was in a standstill. Even the sun and the moon moved slower and seasons of the rains had changed to accommodate her magic.

But her enchantment only reached the area around the castle. And the prince had treaded the outlying forests and the distant mountains. He had reached the peaks that almost touched the sky and the rivers that were born in faraway lands.

For him, the time never stood still. It moved its steady course with the rains and dry seasons, just like it always had. And through the change of the rainy seasons to dry seasons and back, the prince had grown and become an adult himself. He was no longer the little boy that the queen remembered.

- Farewell, mother, the prince whispered and a single tear slid from his eye to his cheek and fell to the ground.

Where the tear fell grew a bush of chili pepper with tiny little peppers, the strongest ones. Without saying a word, the bear took a handful of the peppers and hid them in his chikra.

From a far, prince stood looking at her mother and said his goodbyes. It almost broke his heart but he was determined to go. He buried his hands to the bear’s fur, loyally it had followed him to the castle and loyally it stood next to him while he said his goodbyes.

- Are you sure you want to go, it asked him and looked him straight to the eyes; the queen will go mad from grief and loss if you will perish also. She cannot lose both of you, you know?

- I am sure, friend, prince answered; I cannot stay here and watch her destroy herself. And I cannot be the small boy he wants me to be.

Now the whole kingdom and its future depended on his journey and its success. The queen’s magic was changing everyone and little by little this corner of the world would be separated from everything else. And who could know what would happen then?

Prince could feel the land’s dissatisfaction and knew how dangerous that was. It would not let this go too far. And when that would happen, he knew that his mother’s life would be in danger.

Fast he ran, as fast as he could. Around the castle that was not fast. It was more like treading molasses, he fought against the wind and his feet could not find a good hold on the earth. He knew that in reality he was fighting against his mother’s will.

Finally he came to a standstill. He stood next to a calm little lake where his parents had used to bring him when he was little. Prince looked at his image in the lake and stood as still as he could. Little by little he could feel the grip of the queen around him, letting go. And he could his mother’s deep sadness that lingered around the lake.

He remembered the good moments that they had had at the lake, the laughter and the play. How his father had taught him to swim and her mother how to jump. How they had spent the days in the water to dry themselves in the sand later on, basking in the heat of the sun. He remember how they would have sat under the trees, eating maitos and drinking chicha, his mother herself had made and served them.

The queen wrapped herself in these memories and let go of her sadness. It was good, she told herself, everything was good. Her son had just gone to the lake to swim and play, like he always did. And she moved on, letting go, letting the prince free.

- Goodbye mother, the prince whispered again and jumped into action.

He ran and ran, his feet flying over the forest path. For him it had been only two days but when he finally passed the area surrounding her mother’s castle and the limits of her spell, he could see that the fortnight had almost passed. It would be a close call to reach the spot where he had agreed to meet with Iluku.

So the prince ran, without stopping to eat, or drink, without taking even a slightest nap. He carried a bit of food with leaves wrapped around to it, to keep it fresh and a little bottle of chicha that his mother had given to him while welcoming the stranger that she thought he was, to the castle. From this he took sips while he ran, and felt fortified by her love. The food he saved for later.

 

To be continued...

This is the seventh part of the story.

If you want to read the first part of the story go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 1

To read the second part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 2 

To read the third part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 3

To read the fourth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 4

To read the fifth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 5

To read the sixth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 6

 To read the eight part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 8

To read the ninth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 9

To read the tenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 10

To read the eleventh part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 11

To read the twelth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 12 

Changing the world, one community at time

I use to say there are two kinds of special education teachers that I work with.

Sadly the first kind looks for my help to lessen their workload.

They come to me and ask, “what should I do with this student?”.

But nothing is ever possible.

They just want to be able to justify not doing everything they are supposed to do.

To be able to say “I tried, but it just wasn’t possible”.

This is because none of the teachers are really special education teachers.

Most of them are high school graduates and they work as special education teachers because they were given two option.

Either they do it or they won’t work at all.

Not the best way to motivate people.

This happened because when we started, even the administrative personal saw special education as the worst job imaginable.

It was something that the government obliged them to do.

It was something that they understood that needed to be done.

But at the same time, culturally, it was the most disgusting thing they could possibly do.

For Kichwa culture, a child that is born visibly disabled is supai wawa, a demon child.

Supai wawa is born when a demon enters a woman and kills the baby inside and takes the baby’s body over.

It is not a real baby, but a kind of zombie, held by an evil spirit that wants to propagate.

And if it is allowed to live it will spread around and infect other women and other women.

So, that finally all babies born will be deformed, disabled, demons.

A very primitive thinking that is luckily disappearing.

But in ways, it still affects people’s actions.

Other form of attaining disability is by sin.

If your parents sinned, if they did something horribly wrong.

Then a disabled baby is born.

A thinking born out of a mix of traditional beliefs and Catholic Church’s teachings.

This way of thinking also explains why some people attain disabilities later on in life.

Be it by disease, accidents, or any other reason, the real reason behind it all is the sin.

Either they sinned, or their parents but someone did it, and so now they have to live with a disability.

When we started our work with the special education among Kichwas it was not very popular.

And the teachers, who were made to work with disabled children, were not very happy about it.

Some of them sought to find ways to change career, or they simply renounced after seeing their students.

Or they stayed long enough to find another job.

Or they did the bare minimum.

But then there is the second kind of teachers.

Who come to me and ask the same question “what should I do with this student?”.

And I find that they have already gone the extra mile and beyond.

That they have gone to the students home, they have gotten the mother to take them to the hospital.

They have gotten them to the disability registry; they have gotten the attention necessary.

They are doing what I told.

But it’s not enough.

They want more.

Because in Kichwa culture, everything is communal.

You take care of your community and its members.

You make sure everything is well and they are well.

And when a special education teacher understands that a disabled person is truly a person.

That they are on a mission, on a mission to make sure everyone understands it.

To make sure, they are made part of the community.

And when the community accepts the person, it does not matter what the parents want, it does not matter what anyone wants or says.

Because the community makes sure that everyone in the community are well and taken care of.

When I came here, I saw an impossible mission in front of me.

And I was sure I would never be able to make it.

Vast amount of people, hidden in the jungle, far away from each other, with a culture that tells them that people with disability aren’t people.

How could I change it?

Well, it was impossible, I could not change it and I won’t change it.

The special education teachers are making the change, one community at time.