The rain makes pddddd sound as it sploshes against the window of the taxi

Schhhhhhhhh goes a bike on the wet road

A white stone dragon creeps on the roof of a pagoda

Water drips from its beard

The Perfume River fills up with muddy water

That streams from the hillside

Looking through the foggy window

I see a lonely watermelon sitting on a board

Raindrops bead on its green veined surface

I wrap my jacket tightly around me

It’s a rainy day in Hue

From The Big Field Trip – Vietnam, March 2010

Chairs creak as the audience settles themselves in the chairs

The performance starts with plucking strings

Doing! Doin! Doi!

A ripple of water spreads as a puppet comes from behind a very thin piece of cloth

The hidden puppeteers move the puppets with rods that are under water

Four dragons swirl figure eights while spitting water out of their mouths

The water sloshes and jumps

The drum beats loudly

Grandpa slumps against my shoulder

He’s tired because he hasn’t slept for days

The dark theater surrounds us

We are at a water puppet show

From The Big Field Trip – Vietnam, March 2010

Up the stairs we go – into the moss-covered jungle

Don’t step off the path! There are land mines out there from the Vietnamese-American War

Grandpa spots a tiny white gecko on a big green leaf

I spot red-headed lizard on the slippery steps

We walk down the path to a river

Mom throws my ball into the waterfall

I jump off the slippery rocks into the crystal clear water 

The deep pool is 12 feet deep – Papa can’t even touch the bottom!

Little sucker fishes clean the pool

The air is sweltering as we trudge up the back up the stairs

Cruz spots a small grey and white moth blended into tree bark

An earthworm falls from the tree tops on to a bed of leaves, right in front of Grandpa

The earthworms in this jungle are supposed to cure malaria

Calling for mates, cicadas whine like fire trucks

I hear the honking of the car horn – our driver is telling us to hurry up

We are in Bach Ma National Park

From The Big Field Trip – Vietnam, March 2010

I am sea-sick, tottering on our floating junk

As the anchor lifts, the junk sways in the wind

We curve around the islands, and it reminds me of the floating mountains in Avatar

Rocks balance on the side of cliffs and they look like they’re going to fall off any second

The drizzling rain makes me shiver

Cy jumps off the junk into the icy-cold water

Fisherman bring up traps full of fish and crabs

A dried-out jellyfish lies on the sand like a plastic grocery bag

As we climb to the cave, I begin to count steps

The top of the cave looks like sand dunes in the Sahara Desert

The cave lights blink as I count 777 steps

Back in the light, we can see the islands sticking out of the green painted sea

We are in Ha Long Bay

From The Big Fieid Trip – London and Sofia, September 2009

Moss and grass grow between the cracks in the sidewalks

Crunch, I step on an empty green aluminum can

A bright reflection of the gold dome of a church blinds me for a moment

A gold M, a McDonald’s sign, stands on top of a ten-story building – a big gray block

Tangled gray TV and telephone lines along the cracked plaster of a wall

A parade of beeping cars with streamers stops at a red light, coming from a wedding

The ground vibrates as an electric trolley rumbles by

Ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum, a car tire driving over black cobblestones

Screech! A fan belt slips

A white plastic bag whips around in the wind in a trash-filled empty lot

Drip-drop, drip –drop, drip-drop, raindrops ripple puddles in a stone-lined pond then it begins to pour

In the rain, people funnel underground to emerge on the other side of the street

CAESARS CASINO a sign says, a man dressed as a Roman soldier, his spear points towards storm clouds

The rain water seeps into my clothes like a sponge, and I run for cover into a grove of chestnut trees 

 By Cyrus

From The Big Fieid Trip – London and Sofia, September 2009

The violin sounds like the mosquito buzzing in my ear at night

A gray haired man plays classical music on the subway stairs

On the steps of a church an old woman sells flowers in plastic cups

In a park a German shepherd runs “S”s in the grass, chasing a stick

A black statue of a dancer stands inside of a fountain full of chestnut leaves and

Above her 15 pigeons perch on a wire

Passing through a parking lot I smell car exhaust

Vroom! Vroom! A car drives fast and screeches around the corner

Rabbits in a cage on the sidewalk with children’s fingers poking inside

Plastic elephants in the window stare out at me

Black leather high-heeled boots, 300 Lev

Flakey pastry polygons in a bakery window

The smell of fresh bread floats into the air

By Bella

Cyrus, Bella, and Jason are teaching English to two 6^th grade classes at a school in the country, and Angela and Jason are teaching an English class to a group of 12 adults in the neighboring town of Inca Baths.

In addition to all of this we are still taking treks and excursions around town and into the countryside. We are also very busy with homeschooling and work.

Cyrus and Bella are exploring poetry during school time. They have been using the people and landscapes of Northern Peru as inspiration for writing their own poetry. I thought I would post some of their Haiku poems along with pictures of the things that inspired them. Haiku poems are an ancient style of verse from Japan. They are traditionally written in three lines with 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the second, and 5 syllables on the third line. They capture a moment in time, and often show contrasting images. Scenes from nature are often the focus of Haiku poetry.

Green grass all around

Sitting criss-cross with a lamb

A girl dressed in blue

Isabella Kirkman, November, 2008

From the big field trip

We run down rocks very fast

In the rock’s shadow

From the big field trip

Forests of towering rocks

Above winding trail

Cyrus Kirkman, November, 2008

From the big field trip

Cyrus Kirkman, November, 2008

We invite you to respond with some Haiku poetry of your own.

Bella says, “Please write 1 or 2 Haiku poems.” She also wants you to know that “you don’t need to use exact sentences”.