"Seeing with the heart"
By Omar Benito Benavente - Jul 07, 2021
The day we arrived at Amantani Island there was something powerful in the air, a cold breath that disappeared on the skin at the first second of touching the sun. The weather on the island is a contrast all the time, the shade blows and the sun shelters strongly and the mid terms are always a mirage. All around, green; above, pure air, and if the oxygen had any age it would be like a child without the vices of the pollution of the cities of the mainland.
After a while of walking, we arrived at the house that would welcome us for the next few days and that, at the same time, would be our center of operations: mother Anselma's house. There she welcomed us with hugs, breakfast and a view of Lake Titicaca, endless and deep blue. There was a moment when looking at the lake I found it surreal to be more than 3,400 meters high and see so much water in front of me because the lake is infinite, it looks like the sea, it does not run out and when you try to see beyond the horizon there is only more water.
So, the island by some whim of geology was there, perfectly located in that ocean of fresh water called Titicaca. And we, who would be there for a few days, stood there waiting, with an inner desire thinking of the emotions that surely awaited us when we met the children of the island.
In the afternoon we went to the school and set out to carry out the activities of the project for which we were there. I was supposed to take pictures of the actions and behind the camera I tried to become invisible. Those shy and curious faces of the children would appear in front of the camera lens, in the fullness of their innocence, tried to understand who we were and what we were doing at school. But after a while, their looks had already gained the necessary confidence to smile at us just by talking to them. Then, the games we had prepared unleashed their laughter and in the distance you could surely feel the echoes of the laughter that before crossing the cold afternoon air, had already gone through our bodies.
This is how the lush happiness of a child is capable of warming any cold weather, making us return to that innocence that at some point in our lives we lost and that is always just around the corner ready to accompany us. Thus, the workshops and activities were already fulfilling part of the objective: to become children again in order to better play our role as a bridge between those little ones and our chores. And so, the afternoon went by in the total harmony of the children, the dreamlike landscape and the promise to come back tomorrow.
When it got dark and we were returning to Anselma's house, it was difficult for me to watch my steps through the darkness, I only walked with the confidence of those who know they cannot stumble, with a firm step, looking towards the night and who knows, understanding that after that first afternoon in Isla Amantani I was seeing with my heart more than with my eyes.
Photos by Omar Benito Benavente.
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