The clearest indication that something is fundamentally wrong with the situation in Agua Blanca is that at every one of the schools we have visited girls make up about 2/3 of the pupils, and this ratio increases with the age groups. Boys from a very young age leave school and lead a different life, according to local sources, involving crime, drugs and death. Our guide/friend who was robbed was done so by a twelve-year old nervous kid with a gun. Suddenly professional robbers don’t seem so bad, or at least as dangerous. A university professor, who also runs social projects, told us about an armed gang called “Los Ochos” (The Eights), which has a (maximum!) age-limit of 8 years to be a member. To repeat: an armed gang of below nine-year olds!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The illustrative lack of school boys
From the previous post it should be clear that even though I sometimes am in highly unusual situations, the level of danger is under control. For the inhabitants of Agua Blanca, such easy tactics such as leaving the area shortly after lunch are not available, and the nights there are by all accounts terrible. One of your guides was robbed twice in a period of 3 days. A principal told us that when school starts on Mondays they often have to clear a corpse lying in front of the building. Some schoolchildren simply go to the nearest school (as apposed to a better one 50 meters away) because the danger implied by the extra distance
The clearest indication that something is fundamentally wrong with the situation in Agua Blanca is that at every one of the schools we have visited girls make up about 2/3 of the pupils, and this ratio increases with the age groups. Boys from a very young age leave school and lead a different life, according to local sources, involving crime, drugs and death. Our guide/friend who was robbed was done so by a twelve-year old nervous kid with a gun. Suddenly professional robbers don’t seem so bad, or at least as dangerous. A university professor, who also runs social projects, told us about an armed gang called “Los Ochos” (The Eights), which has a (maximum!) age-limit of 8 years to be a member. To repeat: an armed gang of below nine-year olds!
The clearest indication that something is fundamentally wrong with the situation in Agua Blanca is that at every one of the schools we have visited girls make up about 2/3 of the pupils, and this ratio increases with the age groups. Boys from a very young age leave school and lead a different life, according to local sources, involving crime, drugs and death. Our guide/friend who was robbed was done so by a twelve-year old nervous kid with a gun. Suddenly professional robbers don’t seem so bad, or at least as dangerous. A university professor, who also runs social projects, told us about an armed gang called “Los Ochos” (The Eights), which has a (maximum!) age-limit of 8 years to be a member. To repeat: an armed gang of below nine-year olds!
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