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I guess I should have seen it coming. I have, after all, been in training all my life. Having grown up with two phenomenal teachers as parents, workbooks were my siblings and stuffed animals my students from before I completely understood the concept of teaching. Now, I have fallen in love with it.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it has been thanks to the students here in Yasun\u00ed\u2013their eager eyes and happy smiles, the internal lightbulbs switching on, the expressions of excitement on the faces of those delving into the world of photography for the first time ever.\u00a0Perhaps it has been the fact that I have been able to share the experience with a very talented and enthusiastic colleague, Jorge A. Castillo-Castro. Perhaps it has been this treasured place, the inspiration I find in every moment here in the jungle, making new discoveries with every blink of the eye. Perhaps it has been the incredible support I have received from one of my greatest photographic mentors, Nevada Wier. Whatever and whoever is responsible, I have again become the student, and I couldn\u2019t be more thankful.<\/p>\n
Over the past two months, Jorge and I offered a photography workshop for students in three Waorani communities here in Yasun\u00ed National Park: Guiyero, Timpoka, and Ganketa. We concluded last week with a small exhibition and celebration in the community of Guiyero. Watching the students react to seeing their own images in print and then in a slideshow presentation was something magical that no words could describe. In the end, we announced three students, one from each community, who had the strongest photos, and we invited them to Quito for the University exhibition opening in November. You can likely compare how they felt to some mix of the night before holidays, birthdays, and weddings combined. The students chosen to travel to Quito\u2013Filomena Enomenga, Yeti Ahua, and Mayra Ahua\u2013have spent at the most a week in the capital city over the span of their lives (between 20-26 years), meaning that this experience will, without exaggeration, very likely change their lives. And honestly I couldn\u2019t imagine anyone more deserving, for they too have changed my life, and I know their images and presence in Quito will inspire many, many more. Tremendous congratulations to the all the students!<\/p>\n
The images accompanying this post are a visual review of our experience teaching photography to an exceptional group of people who have, in return, generously shared their culture and their lives with us. To them, we cannot say thank you enough.\u00a0This also would never have been possible without the constant support from Estaci\u00f3n Cient\u00edfica Yasun\u00ed and Pontifica Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Ecuador (PUCE). To all of you here in Yasun\u00ed and beyond, wakebi (good people<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>in Wao).<\/p>\n En espa\u00f1ol:<\/strong><\/p>\n Supongo que deber\u00eda haberlo visto venir. Despu\u00e9s de todo, yo he sido en la formaci\u00f3n de toda la vida. Habiendo crecido con dos maestras fenomenales como padres, libros eran mis hermanos y animales de peluche de mis alumnos desde antes de comprender por completo el concepto de la ense\u00f1anza. Ahora, me he enamorado de ella.<\/p>\n Tal vez ha sido gracias a los estudiantes aqu\u00ed en Yasun\u00ed \u2013 sus ojos ansiosos y felices sonrisas, las bombillas internas de la conexi\u00f3n, las expresiones de emoci\u00f3n en los rostros de los que ahondar en el mundo de la fotograf\u00eda por primera vez en la historia. Tal vez ha sido el hecho de que he sido capaz de compartir la experiencia con un colega muy talentoso y entusiasta, Jorge A. Castillo-Castro. Tal vez ha sido este lugar preciado, la inspiraci\u00f3n que encuentro en cada momento aqu\u00ed en la selva, hacer nuevos descubrimientos con cada parpadeo del ojo. Tal vez ha sido el incre\u00edble apoyo que he recibido de uno de mis m\u00e1s grandes mentores fotogr\u00e1ficas, Nevada Wier. Cualquiera que sea y quien sea responsable, me he convertido en el nuevo estudiante, y yo no podr\u00eda estar m\u00e1s agradecida.<\/p>\n Durante los \u00faltimos dos meses, Jorge y yo nos ofrecimos un taller de fotograf\u00eda para alumnos de tres comunidades de Waorani aqu\u00ed en el Parque Nacional Yasun\u00ed: Guiyero, Timpoka y Ganketa. Llegamos a la conclusi\u00f3n la semana pasada con una peque\u00f1a exposici\u00f3n y celebraci\u00f3n en la comunidad de Guiyero. Para ver a los estudiantes reaccionan a ver sus propias im\u00e1genes en la impresi\u00f3n y luego en una presentaci\u00f3n digital fue algo m\u00e1gico que ninguna palabra podr\u00eda describir. Al final, hemos anunciado tres estudiantes, uno de cada comunidad, que ten\u00eda las fotos m\u00e1s fuertes, y los invitamos a Quito para la inauguraci\u00f3n de la exposici\u00f3n de la Universidad en noviembre. Es probable que pueda comparar c\u00f3mo se sent\u00edan en cierta mezcla de la noche antes de las vacaciones, cumplea\u00f1os y bodas combinados. Los estudiantes seleccionados para viajar a Quito \u2013 Filomena Enomenga, Yeti Ahau, y Mayra Ahua \u2013 han pasado al m\u00e1ximo una semana en la capital durante sus vidas (entre 20-26 a\u00f1os), lo que significa que esta experiencia , sin exagerar, muy probablemente cambiar\u00e1 sus vidas. Y honestamente no pod\u00eda imaginar a nadie que merezca m\u00e1s, porque ellos tambi\u00e9n han cambiado mi vida, y s\u00e9 que sus im\u00e1genes y presencia en Quito inspirar\u00e1n muchos, muchos m\u00e1s. Enormes felicitaciones a todos los estudiantes!<\/p>\n Las im\u00e1genes que acompa\u00f1an este post son un examen visual de nuestra experiencia ense\u00f1ando fotograf\u00eda a un grupo excepcional de personas que han, a su vez, comparten generosamente su cultura y su vida con nosotros. Para ellos, no podemos dar las gracias lo suficiente. Esto tambi\u00e9n nunca habr\u00eda sido posible sin el apoyo constante de la Estaci\u00f3n Cient\u00edfica Yasun\u00ed y Pontifica Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Ecuador (PUCE). A todos ustedes aqu\u00ed en Yasun\u00ed y m\u00e1s all\u00e1, wakebi (buena gente<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>en Wao).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17″ gallery_orderby=”rand” fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.9.1″ _module_preset=”default” pagination_text_color=”#FFFFFF” min_height=”487.4px” custom_padding=”6px||0px|||”][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I guess I should have seen it coming. I have, after all, been in training all my life. Having grown up with two phenomenal teachers as parents, workbooks were my siblings and stuffed animals my students from before I completely understood the concept of teaching. Now, I have fallen in love with it. Perhaps it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/meganwestervelt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Blog2_Yasuni_006.jpg?fit=950%2C550&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganwestervelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}