In January 2024, I landed in Vichada to work as a rural teacher, knowing that leaving behind the city life of Bogotá would bring me countless surprises. Shortly after classes began, a very particular visitor burst into the classroom: a green parrot with a yellow forehead, playful with the children and able to repeat with astonishing accuracy some of the words heard during the lesson. A lover of fruit and any pencils left out of place, he quickly became a daily presence for the students.

In the small hamlet where we live, everyone knows Lorenzo, a yellow-crowned Amazon parrot who was rescued as a chick and was never clipped or caged. When the time came for him to leave, he simply didn’t: he flies freely around the village, perches in the tallest trees, follows those riding bikes, sneaks into houses to taste fruit, but always returns home without anyone —not even dogs or cats— bothering him.

The funniest part is that his favorite place is the school; he literally seems like another student. Every morning, he arrives with the children, attends class, and at lunchtime, we see him in the cafeteria pecking at his friends’ plates. He has never bitten a single child; it’s as if he knows they are harmless, unlike adults, whom he keeps at a distance.

“There are so many,” Zaira confessed one day when her new pencil mysteriously disappeared. We searched through backpacks and pencil cases until we realized that Lorenzo was unusually quiet… and happily chewing on the pencil. In situations like this, all you can do is laugh. As a natural peacemaker, I bought Zaira another pencil and offer Lorenzo twigs or little sticks when class gets a bit dull.

Lorenzo has become a star in our natural sciences class: when we studied the classification of living beings and got to birds, he kindly became our live model to draw. His wings, beak, feet, and colors were on full display, to everyone’s amazement. In a Spanish class, Marianita wrote an article about his adventures titled “Lorenzo’s Mischief,” which was shared in the school newspaper and even reached a journalism training program by the Foundation for Press Freedom.

In his story, I discovered the meaning of true freedom: rescued from a fallen nest, carefully fed, and now able to fly to the heights… he chooses to stay with us. I know it may not be entirely natural for a parrot to live with humans, but there’s something beautiful and unique about that choice.

As a teacher, I came to teach, but I’ve learned so much from my students, their families, and in this case, from a noble bird who reminds me of the importance of giving a voice to those who “only lack the ability to speak.”

For Lorenzo, flying free in nature means living with the community. Sometimes he spends hours searching for food or resting in the sun, but he always returns to the school, his favorite corner, as a living testament to respect and empathy toward animals.