As some of you may have noticed last week, I was responding to e-mails with record speed. That was because I was stuck in Huaraz, my regional capitol for four days. On Saturday night I was supposed to head to Lima for my mid-service medical/dental checkups, but on Thursday, I got an e-mail from the “volunteer leader” living in Huaraz that there was a huge strike going on, and going in that night might be my only chance to get to Lima. A big mining company was planning to open a mine about an hour out of Huaraz, near a big lake, and the local farmers were trying to shut down all transport in protest. I threw my stuff in a bag and made it to Huaraz, where everything seemed normal, and I went to bed thinking “just another big deal about nothing.”
But waking up Friday was a much different story. Before we even had the chance to get out of bed, we were getting phone calls saying “don’t go outside, don’t leave your hostel.” That sounded a bit extreme, so we edged out of the hostel, on a quest for orange juice and the truth. After passing the government tax office and seeing their huge picture windows shattered, we knew it was the real deal, and after seeing a rush of people sprint up the street away from the main plaza, we hightailed it to a friend’s apartment. We found the local news on TV and saw tear gas being thrown, burning tires, rioters throwing rocks and riot police throwing them right back. Word was there were no cars on the road and no transportation going anywhere…we were stuck. Although Saturday morning I went to the plaza early to see the damage, and while it was mostly empty there was a small group of municipal garbage men playing pickup soccer in front of the municipality, using rocks that were brought in to block off the street as goal markers.
Long story short, the strike continued for 2 more days. All of the stores, were shuttered, no cars passed through town and farmers came from all over, some allegedly walking as far as 40 kilometers to join the protest. Bank windows were smashed, as were any windows of government building and most of the city’s ATMs. I felt safe enough, but it was weird to think of the city that I usually see as so friendly and safe falling down around us. Finally on Sunday afternoon, we heard that the government gave in and told the mine it had to go, and here I am Monday afternoon sitting on a bus on my way to Lima. But we have passed knocked down roadblocks, piles of soot that were recently tires and painted signs saying “support the strike” and “the water belongs to the people, not to the mine”.
We have also passed numerous schools, health posts and public projects supported by various mines. Even the school in my town, which is not really near any mines, has desks donated by the mines. It’s another one of the paradoxes that make life in Peru just as confusing as always.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
so it has been a year
Well, while all of you folks in the Northeastern US of A, get to experience a beautiful and cozy fall, with leaves changing and sweaters and thanksgiving, here our only seasonal transition is rain. And more rain. After not having seen a legitimate rain shower since August, it has come down hard and steady every day for the past week, changing the dust to mud, and preventing dedicated Peace Corps volunteers from leaving their houses after mid-day. But this transition also means that I have made it full circle, through one rotation of the Earth around the sun—I have been in Yanamito for one year, which is very, very hard to believe.
Before I reflect a little on the first half of the strangeness that is my life in Peru, I’ll update everyone on the goings on of the past month or so. Probably the most exciting thing I have done recently was my first trek in Peru.
Wanting to get in one good outdoor adventure before the rain struck, Pete, our friend Will and I decided to set off on the Santa Cruz trek at the end of October. The Santa Cruz trek starts about 3 hours away from us, goes for about 50km (that’s right I’m on the metric system now…it sounds more impressive) and end on the other side of the Andes. It is the most popular trek in Ancash, with over 5000 trekkers per year and it starts and ends in Peace Corps sites. It usually takes 4 days, but since we are all acclimatized to altitude, and we wanted to prove that Peace Corps volunteers are better than normal tourists, we did it in 3 fueled mostly on oatmeal, tuna fish and ramen. It was absolutely beautiful, and I understand why it is such a popular destination. We were constantly surrounded by immense snow covered peaks, we passed through awesome forests of native queñal trees and we got to hike through a 4700m mountain pass in the snow. The worst part was the ride home—5 hours in a miniature bus, about 20 different body parts falling asleep, with Peruvians staring at the gringos all the way down harrowing switchbacks. Overall, a very satisfying and enjoyable experience.
Next up on the fun calendar was Halloween. Proving that every Peace Corps volunteer has a little bit of kid and/or a little bit of college kid in them, we all went into the regional capitol, got dressed up and Halloween party. Pete, Kaitlyn and I dressed up as the dashing trio of Robin Hood, Maid Marion and Little John respectively. This presented awesome opportunities for us to where tights and funny hats and also to go to the market, buy fabric and drop it off at a lady with a sowing machine with a vague description of what we wanted done. I would say it turned out surprisingly well and I had fun struggling to hack the business end off of a broom with a Leatherman for my Little John stick.
While the party was fun, it was also a little melancholy because it served as a going away party as well, for the 7 Ancash volunteers who had finished their two years here. It was tough to say goodbye, and it also made it really hit home, that yes, I have been here a year. I remember meeting those kids for the first time on a training trip last Halloween, and thinking “wow, they’ve been here forever. They must have everything figured out.” Well, now I’m at that point and I don’t know if they had everything figured out or not, but I sure as hell don’t, although I’m a lot less confused than I used to be.
The day after Halloween here marks the day of the dead. We celebrated by making break, some of it in funny shapes (I made a tree, a turtle and the Yankees interlocking NY)
and going up to visit the cemetery, where flowers are put on graves and for some reason everyone eats ice cream. It was actually a really nice day. Mostly everyone in the community was at the cemetery together, and they were laid back, enjoying each others company, not hurrying to do anything or stressing about crops and animals. It was nice to spend time with everybody, and I learned a lot more about my host family and their deceased relatives (including the fact that my paternal grandfather’s bones are in a box in our store room. Don’t ask).
Lest anyone should think that Peace Corps is all treks and costume parties and ice cream in cemeteries, I have been getting some work done as well. The departing of old friends means that new ones arrive, and at the beginning of November the 6 environmental nubes came to Ancash to visit our sites and then theirs’. They came up to Yanamito for a day and we put everyone to work at the nursery school, with the PTA and an Engineer from the National Park office, building a small queñal tree nursery. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and some of us got some blisters, but it now exists and looks really good (if I do say so myself).
It is also visible to the community, which is good, because that way they know that yes, sometimes I do do work and it gives me and excuse to talk about native specie reforestation anytime anyone mentions it. And talking to the new kids around different sites and in Huaraz made feel old and wise. Ok, not really either of those things, but it did make me realize that I have come a long way in the last year, and I know a lot more and feel a lot more comfortable than I did a year ago.
The rest of the big work I’ve been up has been in the school, as usual. The school year here goes from March/April (depending on the motivation levels of the teachers) to December, and so things are beginning to wind down. Inspired by the success and nice lookingness of the world map mural we did in August, I had the bright idea to draw and paint an environmental mural with the graduating 6th graders. I solicited submissions, and made the other teachers pick which one we should actually put up, so as to avoid any dirty looks or disparaging comments from the students whose work wasn’t chosen. We’re making progress on a nice mountain scene with a rainbow and some native animals, and knock on wood, it should be finished and look nice long before graduation.
And the national park people came back and we finally finished the puppet show that drove me to the drink last month. Hooray.
Which brings us to Thanksgiving 2010. Of course it’s a bummer not to be with family, but Peace Corps gives us a long weekend of vacation, so next best thing. I am on my way to Arequipa (southern part of the country, supposed to be stunning) with some good friends. It should be a lot of fun. And with that, I will finish up and check to see if it has stopped raining and I can go running. Happy thanksgiving to everyone.
Before I reflect a little on the first half of the strangeness that is my life in Peru, I’ll update everyone on the goings on of the past month or so. Probably the most exciting thing I have done recently was my first trek in Peru.
Wanting to get in one good outdoor adventure before the rain struck, Pete, our friend Will and I decided to set off on the Santa Cruz trek at the end of October. The Santa Cruz trek starts about 3 hours away from us, goes for about 50km (that’s right I’m on the metric system now…it sounds more impressive) and end on the other side of the Andes. It is the most popular trek in Ancash, with over 5000 trekkers per year and it starts and ends in Peace Corps sites. It usually takes 4 days, but since we are all acclimatized to altitude, and we wanted to prove that Peace Corps volunteers are better than normal tourists, we did it in 3 fueled mostly on oatmeal, tuna fish and ramen. It was absolutely beautiful, and I understand why it is such a popular destination. We were constantly surrounded by immense snow covered peaks, we passed through awesome forests of native queñal trees and we got to hike through a 4700m mountain pass in the snow. The worst part was the ride home—5 hours in a miniature bus, about 20 different body parts falling asleep, with Peruvians staring at the gringos all the way down harrowing switchbacks. Overall, a very satisfying and enjoyable experience.
Next up on the fun calendar was Halloween. Proving that every Peace Corps volunteer has a little bit of kid and/or a little bit of college kid in them, we all went into the regional capitol, got dressed up and Halloween party. Pete, Kaitlyn and I dressed up as the dashing trio of Robin Hood, Maid Marion and Little John respectively. This presented awesome opportunities for us to where tights and funny hats and also to go to the market, buy fabric and drop it off at a lady with a sowing machine with a vague description of what we wanted done. I would say it turned out surprisingly well and I had fun struggling to hack the business end off of a broom with a Leatherman for my Little John stick.
While the party was fun, it was also a little melancholy because it served as a going away party as well, for the 7 Ancash volunteers who had finished their two years here. It was tough to say goodbye, and it also made it really hit home, that yes, I have been here a year. I remember meeting those kids for the first time on a training trip last Halloween, and thinking “wow, they’ve been here forever. They must have everything figured out.” Well, now I’m at that point and I don’t know if they had everything figured out or not, but I sure as hell don’t, although I’m a lot less confused than I used to be.
The day after Halloween here marks the day of the dead. We celebrated by making break, some of it in funny shapes (I made a tree, a turtle and the Yankees interlocking NY)
and going up to visit the cemetery, where flowers are put on graves and for some reason everyone eats ice cream. It was actually a really nice day. Mostly everyone in the community was at the cemetery together, and they were laid back, enjoying each others company, not hurrying to do anything or stressing about crops and animals. It was nice to spend time with everybody, and I learned a lot more about my host family and their deceased relatives (including the fact that my paternal grandfather’s bones are in a box in our store room. Don’t ask).
Lest anyone should think that Peace Corps is all treks and costume parties and ice cream in cemeteries, I have been getting some work done as well. The departing of old friends means that new ones arrive, and at the beginning of November the 6 environmental nubes came to Ancash to visit our sites and then theirs’. They came up to Yanamito for a day and we put everyone to work at the nursery school, with the PTA and an Engineer from the National Park office, building a small queñal tree nursery. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and some of us got some blisters, but it now exists and looks really good (if I do say so myself).
It is also visible to the community, which is good, because that way they know that yes, sometimes I do do work and it gives me and excuse to talk about native specie reforestation anytime anyone mentions it. And talking to the new kids around different sites and in Huaraz made feel old and wise. Ok, not really either of those things, but it did make me realize that I have come a long way in the last year, and I know a lot more and feel a lot more comfortable than I did a year ago.
The rest of the big work I’ve been up has been in the school, as usual. The school year here goes from March/April (depending on the motivation levels of the teachers) to December, and so things are beginning to wind down. Inspired by the success and nice lookingness of the world map mural we did in August, I had the bright idea to draw and paint an environmental mural with the graduating 6th graders. I solicited submissions, and made the other teachers pick which one we should actually put up, so as to avoid any dirty looks or disparaging comments from the students whose work wasn’t chosen. We’re making progress on a nice mountain scene with a rainbow and some native animals, and knock on wood, it should be finished and look nice long before graduation.
And the national park people came back and we finally finished the puppet show that drove me to the drink last month. Hooray.
Which brings us to Thanksgiving 2010. Of course it’s a bummer not to be with family, but Peace Corps gives us a long weekend of vacation, so next best thing. I am on my way to Arequipa (southern part of the country, supposed to be stunning) with some good friends. It should be a lot of fun. And with that, I will finish up and check to see if it has stopped raining and I can go running. Happy thanksgiving to everyone.
Friday, October 1, 2010
A Day in the Life
I often get asked “what’s your typical day like?” While I will stay away from the cliché of “well, there is no typical day”, my days tend to vary widely and even after a year, each day brings its surprises, both good and bad. But this past Tuesday, September 28th, encompassed a lot of the elements that encompass my everyday life here, both on a work and social basis, and it’s relatively fresh in my memory, so I’ll run through it.
6:40 am: My alarm goes off. Today is the rare day when I actually sleep until my alarm, as we have had no early morning, loud guests (my host grandma is half deaf, an early riser, and constant visitor—this is not good for my beauty sleep) and my parents left early to go work in the field, so there is no whyno (Peruvian folk music of questionable quality) blasting. I rolled out of bed, went through the morning routine—there wasn’t supposed to be any water, but there was, which was a pleasant surprise—and ate my breakfast of a cheese sandwich, a bowl of potato, noodle soup and a cup of very hot, very sugary, very diluted tea. From there I got dressed (it’s easy here, I only change my clothes once or twice a week), chugged a cup of instant coffee in my room and since I had an extra ten minutes, I decided to trim my mustache. This took longer than I expected and cutting it a bit close (timing wise) I walked up to the school. State of mind: maybe a bit tired, but a promising day.
8:00 am: Arrived at the school. Today is a very exciting day. Pete and I arranged for SERNANP, the national park administration, to come up to Pete’s site (Huashcao) and give an informative puppet show and class to all of our primary school students. Our schools agreed and I was really excited for the kids to learn something about this unique and beautiful area they live in and I was excited that I had arranged it. With about 40 kids, including the 1 and a half year old son of a professor and 1 preschooler and 4 teachers, we set off for the 30 minute walk uphill to Pete’s site. State of mind: hopeful and psyched.
9:00 am: Arrive, unscathed if a bit sweaty (OK dripping sweat) at the Huaschcao municipality. The park staff, with the assistance of Pete and my Peace Corps friend Sophie, is busy setting up their stage. Renee, the park’s director of education tells me that we will be participating in some sort of costume pageant/dance before the puppet show and that I will be playing the part of the “evil gringo” who litters and illegally hunts in the park. I was still recovering from the walk up and he’s awesome but also old and a little bit perpetually confused, so I only caught about 40% of what he said, but that was enough. State of mind: hot, slightly confused, still positive.
9:45 am: We finally are ready to go. I introduce Rene to the crowd, in Spanish, and having made no major grammatical mistakes nor forgotten any words, I am feeling good. He says a few words and the music starts. It turns out that my “costume” consists of a redhead mask with boils all over its face. I come out and the pre-schooler and baby both start to cry, the older kids know it’s me and my big dramatic scene is “shooting” the 6th grade professor who is dressed up as a deer. The dancing went on too long but overall, it was fine. Sate of mind: so far so good.
10:15 am: Time for the puppet show. But, somewhere between the end of the dancing and the beginning of the puppeteer, the power has gone out. This is very, very bad. Why? Because it is not a spoken puppet show, but a puppet show dictated by an audio track. Crap. Pete runs off to look for 3 C batteries. Rene tries to stall and tries to give the kids a bit of a class about the park, but attention quickly flees and kids (mostly from Pete’s town start to wander off and/or play marbles, while the teachers sit and stare and do nothing. This is going downhill fast. Rene salvages the scene by at least introducing the puppets, which the kids really liked, and promising to come back when there is power.
10:45 am: Students and teachers depart. One 4 letter word to sum up the morning: F…ail.
11:00 am: Pete returns, out of breath with batteries after running 20 minutes uphill to his house and back. We help clean up all the costumes and set and SERNANP departs. State of mind: somewhere between angry, frustrated and wanting to scream.
12:30 pm: Pete and I, two twenty somethings, frustrated, annoyed by circumstances out of our control and straddling the lines of American and Peruvian culture, decide to do what anyone in our situation would do—we go to the nearest tienda (small store—and this one was really small. It sells crackers, cookies, soda, beer and not much else), buy some beers and drink Peruvian style while venting and laughing about our jobs and our lives in English (note: Drinking Peruvian style entails, filling a glass, drinking it and then passing it to the next/other person. It’s fun). Another note, for the sake of my parents, Pete’s mom, and the handful of other adults who may read this: understand that this is not a cause for concern, it was just our first English conversation, and drink, in about 10 days. Think of it like having a beer at a business lunch, we’re just in a different line of business. State of mind: improving.
1:15 pm: Power returns. Pass the beer.
2:00 pm: The clock strikes 2. I told my family I would be home by 11:30. Whoops, I depart to trek back down to Yanamito. State of mind: daytime beers are always a questionable decision, but definitely improved.
2:30 pm: Arrive home to a big plate of potatoes, rice and ¼ of a roasted guinea pig and a big bowl of wheat and potato soup to celebrate my host brother’s birthday. The perfect lunch. State of mind: stuffing my face and full, aka very content.
3:00 pm: A district mayoral candidate is having his close-of-campaign rally on our soccer field. The entire town is there, and so wanting the face time but not wanting to violate the Peace Corps “no political involvement” rule, I go outside, say hi to a bunch of people and do what I would do at any political event, namely lie down a bit away from the crowd in the sun and close my eyes. State of mind: drowsy…
3:20 pm: I wake up to a 1st grader, a pre-schooler and his 2 year old brother jumping on my chest and laughing. I played with the kids for a bit and then sat down and talked to some teenagers about the usual (weather, how do you vote in the US, this is how you say “good people” in Quechua). State of mind: groggy, but amicably social.
4:00 pm: The rally has finished up, some people have cleared out and I get invited to play some volleyball. I dominate three games (being the tallest person in town definitely has its advantages) and I sit back to watch the upcoming soccer game. State of mind: huh, somehow today wound up being a good day.
5:15 pm: See the garbage pail near the soccer field. It is full, and whoever cleaned up the rally decided that it would be a good idea to just dump used Styrofoam plates next to the trash. Somebody says to me “Alex, looks like you have some work to do.” I almost lost it, and kind of snapped back that it was the candidates work and that my job is not to clean up after everybody. Moved to a spot where I could no longer see the garbage pail. Sate of mind: Pissed off, frustration take two.
6:15 pm: Now cold, unhappily make my way back home, only to see that in the interim someone has in fact collected the plates that overflowed from the garbage can and put them in a big sack. Lift my head and walk home with a skip in my step. State of mind: OK, so things turned out OK. Faith in mankind resurrected.
6:25 pm: 2 weeks ago, the garbage truck accidently took down someone’s power line, leaving them powerless. Of course this was not my fault, nor should it have been my responsibility to fix, but due to political apathy, it fell to me to coordinate with the provincial municipality to come up and fix. Today was the day they were supposed to come, which I remembered and went to check if everything was fixed. On my way, I encountered three 2nd graders elbow deep in another garbage pail collecting soda bottle caps having spilled out another 40 Styrofoam plates. If I didn’t hate Styrofoam as a semi-hippy on a liberal college campus, boy do I ever hate it now. I take a deep breath and ask them what they are doing. They show me their bottle caps. I tell them to wait there, I am going to get a bag and they are going to clean up the mess the made. As I turn back towards home to go get a back, one kid says “let’s make a break for it.” My response:
“I know your names, I know where you live, I know your parents and I know your teacher. You can either wait 5 minutes and do this with my help, or you can be dragged back here tomorrow morning by your ears”, and I turn to go. State of mind: REALLY? I think my head might explode.
6:30 pm: Returning to the scene of the crime, I ready myself for the possibility that these kids might have succumbed to poor judgment and ran off. Thankfully, they all stayed and we cleaned up the mess in about 5 minutes, with very little complaining. Plus, the electricity got fixed and the family thanked me. State of mind: Well that could have been worse. I need to go home and not leave the house again until tomorrow.
6:40 pm: Dinner in front of Madagascar 2. Leftover rice and potatoes, more wheat and potato soup, bread and another cup of dentist-offendingly-sweet tea. State of mind: numbed by television.
8:05 pm: Power goes out.
8:10 pm: Power comes back.
8:12 pm: Power goes out. State of mind: for the umpteenth time today, “really?”
8:15 pm: My mom declares, “Well with no power, we may as well go to bed.” I am not yet sleepy, so I pull out my secret weapon—a fully charged laptop and season 2 of Weeds on DVD. Two episodes and I am ready for bed. State of mind: again, numbed by TV, sleepy.
9:20 pm: Time for bed. Go to bed content, pretty happy and trying not to think what tomorrow may bring (which, P.S., included: a 5:30 wakeup from my mom telling me that they were going to plant potatoes, which I already knew; a pretty good English class; a close but heartbreaking volleyball loss with the teachers—I blame everyone on my team but me; dogs having gotten into the garbage bags and strewing plates everywhere—I looked the other way; two hours later, to my amazement, seeing that plates have been cleaned up; carrying a half full bag of synthetic fertilizer back from the field to prove that I am not useless; a woman from a neighboring town telling me that there are lots of pretty, single girls in her town and that I need to come visit; and of course, 2 more power outages).
6:40 am: My alarm goes off. Today is the rare day when I actually sleep until my alarm, as we have had no early morning, loud guests (my host grandma is half deaf, an early riser, and constant visitor—this is not good for my beauty sleep) and my parents left early to go work in the field, so there is no whyno (Peruvian folk music of questionable quality) blasting. I rolled out of bed, went through the morning routine—there wasn’t supposed to be any water, but there was, which was a pleasant surprise—and ate my breakfast of a cheese sandwich, a bowl of potato, noodle soup and a cup of very hot, very sugary, very diluted tea. From there I got dressed (it’s easy here, I only change my clothes once or twice a week), chugged a cup of instant coffee in my room and since I had an extra ten minutes, I decided to trim my mustache. This took longer than I expected and cutting it a bit close (timing wise) I walked up to the school. State of mind: maybe a bit tired, but a promising day.
8:00 am: Arrived at the school. Today is a very exciting day. Pete and I arranged for SERNANP, the national park administration, to come up to Pete’s site (Huashcao) and give an informative puppet show and class to all of our primary school students. Our schools agreed and I was really excited for the kids to learn something about this unique and beautiful area they live in and I was excited that I had arranged it. With about 40 kids, including the 1 and a half year old son of a professor and 1 preschooler and 4 teachers, we set off for the 30 minute walk uphill to Pete’s site. State of mind: hopeful and psyched.
9:00 am: Arrive, unscathed if a bit sweaty (OK dripping sweat) at the Huaschcao municipality. The park staff, with the assistance of Pete and my Peace Corps friend Sophie, is busy setting up their stage. Renee, the park’s director of education tells me that we will be participating in some sort of costume pageant/dance before the puppet show and that I will be playing the part of the “evil gringo” who litters and illegally hunts in the park. I was still recovering from the walk up and he’s awesome but also old and a little bit perpetually confused, so I only caught about 40% of what he said, but that was enough. State of mind: hot, slightly confused, still positive.
9:45 am: We finally are ready to go. I introduce Rene to the crowd, in Spanish, and having made no major grammatical mistakes nor forgotten any words, I am feeling good. He says a few words and the music starts. It turns out that my “costume” consists of a redhead mask with boils all over its face. I come out and the pre-schooler and baby both start to cry, the older kids know it’s me and my big dramatic scene is “shooting” the 6th grade professor who is dressed up as a deer. The dancing went on too long but overall, it was fine. Sate of mind: so far so good.
10:15 am: Time for the puppet show. But, somewhere between the end of the dancing and the beginning of the puppeteer, the power has gone out. This is very, very bad. Why? Because it is not a spoken puppet show, but a puppet show dictated by an audio track. Crap. Pete runs off to look for 3 C batteries. Rene tries to stall and tries to give the kids a bit of a class about the park, but attention quickly flees and kids (mostly from Pete’s town start to wander off and/or play marbles, while the teachers sit and stare and do nothing. This is going downhill fast. Rene salvages the scene by at least introducing the puppets, which the kids really liked, and promising to come back when there is power.
10:45 am: Students and teachers depart. One 4 letter word to sum up the morning: F…ail.
11:00 am: Pete returns, out of breath with batteries after running 20 minutes uphill to his house and back. We help clean up all the costumes and set and SERNANP departs. State of mind: somewhere between angry, frustrated and wanting to scream.
12:30 pm: Pete and I, two twenty somethings, frustrated, annoyed by circumstances out of our control and straddling the lines of American and Peruvian culture, decide to do what anyone in our situation would do—we go to the nearest tienda (small store—and this one was really small. It sells crackers, cookies, soda, beer and not much else), buy some beers and drink Peruvian style while venting and laughing about our jobs and our lives in English (note: Drinking Peruvian style entails, filling a glass, drinking it and then passing it to the next/other person. It’s fun). Another note, for the sake of my parents, Pete’s mom, and the handful of other adults who may read this: understand that this is not a cause for concern, it was just our first English conversation, and drink, in about 10 days. Think of it like having a beer at a business lunch, we’re just in a different line of business. State of mind: improving.
1:15 pm: Power returns. Pass the beer.
2:00 pm: The clock strikes 2. I told my family I would be home by 11:30. Whoops, I depart to trek back down to Yanamito. State of mind: daytime beers are always a questionable decision, but definitely improved.
2:30 pm: Arrive home to a big plate of potatoes, rice and ¼ of a roasted guinea pig and a big bowl of wheat and potato soup to celebrate my host brother’s birthday. The perfect lunch. State of mind: stuffing my face and full, aka very content.
3:00 pm: A district mayoral candidate is having his close-of-campaign rally on our soccer field. The entire town is there, and so wanting the face time but not wanting to violate the Peace Corps “no political involvement” rule, I go outside, say hi to a bunch of people and do what I would do at any political event, namely lie down a bit away from the crowd in the sun and close my eyes. State of mind: drowsy…
3:20 pm: I wake up to a 1st grader, a pre-schooler and his 2 year old brother jumping on my chest and laughing. I played with the kids for a bit and then sat down and talked to some teenagers about the usual (weather, how do you vote in the US, this is how you say “good people” in Quechua). State of mind: groggy, but amicably social.
4:00 pm: The rally has finished up, some people have cleared out and I get invited to play some volleyball. I dominate three games (being the tallest person in town definitely has its advantages) and I sit back to watch the upcoming soccer game. State of mind: huh, somehow today wound up being a good day.
5:15 pm: See the garbage pail near the soccer field. It is full, and whoever cleaned up the rally decided that it would be a good idea to just dump used Styrofoam plates next to the trash. Somebody says to me “Alex, looks like you have some work to do.” I almost lost it, and kind of snapped back that it was the candidates work and that my job is not to clean up after everybody. Moved to a spot where I could no longer see the garbage pail. Sate of mind: Pissed off, frustration take two.
6:15 pm: Now cold, unhappily make my way back home, only to see that in the interim someone has in fact collected the plates that overflowed from the garbage can and put them in a big sack. Lift my head and walk home with a skip in my step. State of mind: OK, so things turned out OK. Faith in mankind resurrected.
6:25 pm: 2 weeks ago, the garbage truck accidently took down someone’s power line, leaving them powerless. Of course this was not my fault, nor should it have been my responsibility to fix, but due to political apathy, it fell to me to coordinate with the provincial municipality to come up and fix. Today was the day they were supposed to come, which I remembered and went to check if everything was fixed. On my way, I encountered three 2nd graders elbow deep in another garbage pail collecting soda bottle caps having spilled out another 40 Styrofoam plates. If I didn’t hate Styrofoam as a semi-hippy on a liberal college campus, boy do I ever hate it now. I take a deep breath and ask them what they are doing. They show me their bottle caps. I tell them to wait there, I am going to get a bag and they are going to clean up the mess the made. As I turn back towards home to go get a back, one kid says “let’s make a break for it.” My response:
“I know your names, I know where you live, I know your parents and I know your teacher. You can either wait 5 minutes and do this with my help, or you can be dragged back here tomorrow morning by your ears”, and I turn to go. State of mind: REALLY? I think my head might explode.
6:30 pm: Returning to the scene of the crime, I ready myself for the possibility that these kids might have succumbed to poor judgment and ran off. Thankfully, they all stayed and we cleaned up the mess in about 5 minutes, with very little complaining. Plus, the electricity got fixed and the family thanked me. State of mind: Well that could have been worse. I need to go home and not leave the house again until tomorrow.
6:40 pm: Dinner in front of Madagascar 2. Leftover rice and potatoes, more wheat and potato soup, bread and another cup of dentist-offendingly-sweet tea. State of mind: numbed by television.
8:05 pm: Power goes out.
8:10 pm: Power comes back.
8:12 pm: Power goes out. State of mind: for the umpteenth time today, “really?”
8:15 pm: My mom declares, “Well with no power, we may as well go to bed.” I am not yet sleepy, so I pull out my secret weapon—a fully charged laptop and season 2 of Weeds on DVD. Two episodes and I am ready for bed. State of mind: again, numbed by TV, sleepy.
9:20 pm: Time for bed. Go to bed content, pretty happy and trying not to think what tomorrow may bring (which, P.S., included: a 5:30 wakeup from my mom telling me that they were going to plant potatoes, which I already knew; a pretty good English class; a close but heartbreaking volleyball loss with the teachers—I blame everyone on my team but me; dogs having gotten into the garbage bags and strewing plates everywhere—I looked the other way; two hours later, to my amazement, seeing that plates have been cleaned up; carrying a half full bag of synthetic fertilizer back from the field to prove that I am not useless; a woman from a neighboring town telling me that there are lots of pretty, single girls in her town and that I need to come visit; and of course, 2 more power outages).
Friday, September 3, 2010
some mountains some coast, some peru
To start off, this is my dog carrying firewood. My host dad thinks this is the most awesome thing in the world, so here it:
Well it’s September again, which means I have been here just about a year. But not quite—my next blog will be a special one year in Peru edition, for the 8 of you still reading this thing, don’t miss it. Anyway, things here are kind of, well, normal. I have been in Yanamito long enough that I really feel comfortable and not out of place, which is pretty big. The garbage truck is coming every week, which is a huge relief. And we are about 2/3 through the school year so even that feels pretty much routine. Basically this is my life now and a lot of the newness and weirdness has just become the everyday. Don’t get me wrong, weird stuff happens every day. Yesterday on my run, for example, and old lady told me her pig was up ahead walking in the wrong direction and could I get it to turn around and walk back to her. I obliged. Just one example.
This is not to say that life here is boring—it isn’t. And so I move onto what jumps out at me as extraordinary in the past 4 or 5 weeks. Work wise—ummm, not too much. Like I said, the garbage truck comes regularly now, and that had been taking up a lot of my time and energy, so I just have to ensure that that keeps happening. This week I started a trash management curriculum in the school, focusing on separating organics and inorganics and making organic fertilizer (compost, vermiculture etc) that I hope to spread to the community at large so that they use their animal waste and don’t burn stuff as much as they do now. But that’s idealistic future talk, which I’ll stay away from. The really cool thing I did at the beginning of August was a world map project. This is a Peace Corps world wide project, where volunteers, with helpers from their communities, draw mural sized world maps. I was really scared to start it, given my general atrocity in the fields of both art and geography, but Peace Corps gave us a really good manual and with the help of anywhere from 2-7 kids a day for the 2 weeks of their mid-school year vacation there is now an awesome, 2 meter by 4 meter map on the wall of my school. WE may have left off Suriname and a bunch of island nations, but overall, I still think it looks pretty darn good. Now I finally have a tool to help me explain that no, the US in not near Spain, and yes, you need to fly to get from Peru to New York, among other geography related FAQs.
Kind of work related was I had another environment training conference. This time the 17 of us who started last September got together in Huanchaco, a small beach and surfer town about 9 hours north of me. Cons: a lot of what we did was focused on the coast, which no matter how hard I try, I cannot apply to the mountains (marine ecology? Uhhhhh…). Pros: I got to spend a week in a beach town, which included really good fish, my first ever try at surfing (I did it I think kind of), some cool ruins (called Chan Chan, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Chan) it’s like the oldest sand castle in the world)
paddling a traditional reed fishing boat called a caballito del mar with my best buddies in Peace Corps and of course, running along the coast and swimming every day. Overall, it was pretty sweet. Also, and this might make us seem creepy, but it’s too good a story not to tell, we found a dead sea lion on the beach and 5 of us (and by 5 of us I really just mean my friend Mark who’s way tougher than me) cut out its teeth, which are like four inches long and are really cool. So yea, fun trip, with a good souvenir to take home as well.
I also have done some cool touring around Ancash. I climbed Huascaran up to the snow again, this time with my host brother and one of his friends and Pete and his host brother. We did it up and down in one day, leaving Yanamito at 5:30 am. I didn’t want to move for the next 3 or 4 days after, but it was a beautiful hike and it was nice to go on an outing with my host brother—I think my host mom was pretty happy about it.
We (and by this I mean my host brother, both to not incriminate myself and cuz he carried it the whole way) also brought back down a chunk of ice from the mountain because that’s what everyone does when they go up there. My host dad then used his wood shaver to make shaved ice, which my mom then served us as snow cones. I asked what flavor they were, to which she responded “sugar”. I can’t say I’m shocked that she’s missing her 2 front teeth.
I also checked out a place about 2 hours away called Hatumachay, which is a rock forest. According to our guide, there was a volcanic explosion millions of years ago which sent a lot of gasses up into the atmosphere and then when it cooled down these gigantic rocks just came crashing down on top of this mountain. I don’t know if the science is right, but it sounded super cool. So anyway, people have been living and hunting up there forever, so we saw some cool cave paintings and then a bunch of people went rock climbing and the lazier of us just walked around, mouths hung kind of dumbly open cuz it was just really really cool and beautiful.
On the sports front, my soccer game is improving (I think this and people have told me, so it must be at least a little bit true), which makes it a lot more fun to play and feel like one of the guys. My parents also brought me a bunch of American sports equipment when they visited—football, mitts and a ball, Frisbees—and I’m having a lot of fun taking those out and trying to teach people how to use them. I have never been an athletic star—my high points are camp softball in high school and maybe running in general—but throw a spiral twenty yards in front of a bunch of people who have never handled an American football before and jaws drop. It’s a lot of fun for me. I have also been going to a bunch of school anniversary celebrations with the teachers from my school and kicking butt in volleyball, but I always feel like I’m cheating. But it’s not my fault that I’m tall right?
And that’s life in the Andes of Peru. It’s hard to believe that in America it’s back to school and almost fall and 2011 and all that, but I think I’ll feel that more when the rainy season arrives and I realize that time is actually passing and not static. Hope you are all well and shannah tovah to everyone whom that applies to.
Well it’s September again, which means I have been here just about a year. But not quite—my next blog will be a special one year in Peru edition, for the 8 of you still reading this thing, don’t miss it. Anyway, things here are kind of, well, normal. I have been in Yanamito long enough that I really feel comfortable and not out of place, which is pretty big. The garbage truck is coming every week, which is a huge relief. And we are about 2/3 through the school year so even that feels pretty much routine. Basically this is my life now and a lot of the newness and weirdness has just become the everyday. Don’t get me wrong, weird stuff happens every day. Yesterday on my run, for example, and old lady told me her pig was up ahead walking in the wrong direction and could I get it to turn around and walk back to her. I obliged. Just one example.
This is not to say that life here is boring—it isn’t. And so I move onto what jumps out at me as extraordinary in the past 4 or 5 weeks. Work wise—ummm, not too much. Like I said, the garbage truck comes regularly now, and that had been taking up a lot of my time and energy, so I just have to ensure that that keeps happening. This week I started a trash management curriculum in the school, focusing on separating organics and inorganics and making organic fertilizer (compost, vermiculture etc) that I hope to spread to the community at large so that they use their animal waste and don’t burn stuff as much as they do now. But that’s idealistic future talk, which I’ll stay away from. The really cool thing I did at the beginning of August was a world map project. This is a Peace Corps world wide project, where volunteers, with helpers from their communities, draw mural sized world maps. I was really scared to start it, given my general atrocity in the fields of both art and geography, but Peace Corps gave us a really good manual and with the help of anywhere from 2-7 kids a day for the 2 weeks of their mid-school year vacation there is now an awesome, 2 meter by 4 meter map on the wall of my school. WE may have left off Suriname and a bunch of island nations, but overall, I still think it looks pretty darn good. Now I finally have a tool to help me explain that no, the US in not near Spain, and yes, you need to fly to get from Peru to New York, among other geography related FAQs.
Kind of work related was I had another environment training conference. This time the 17 of us who started last September got together in Huanchaco, a small beach and surfer town about 9 hours north of me. Cons: a lot of what we did was focused on the coast, which no matter how hard I try, I cannot apply to the mountains (marine ecology? Uhhhhh…). Pros: I got to spend a week in a beach town, which included really good fish, my first ever try at surfing (I did it I think kind of), some cool ruins (called Chan Chan, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Chan) it’s like the oldest sand castle in the world)
paddling a traditional reed fishing boat called a caballito del mar with my best buddies in Peace Corps and of course, running along the coast and swimming every day. Overall, it was pretty sweet. Also, and this might make us seem creepy, but it’s too good a story not to tell, we found a dead sea lion on the beach and 5 of us (and by 5 of us I really just mean my friend Mark who’s way tougher than me) cut out its teeth, which are like four inches long and are really cool. So yea, fun trip, with a good souvenir to take home as well.
I also have done some cool touring around Ancash. I climbed Huascaran up to the snow again, this time with my host brother and one of his friends and Pete and his host brother. We did it up and down in one day, leaving Yanamito at 5:30 am. I didn’t want to move for the next 3 or 4 days after, but it was a beautiful hike and it was nice to go on an outing with my host brother—I think my host mom was pretty happy about it.
We (and by this I mean my host brother, both to not incriminate myself and cuz he carried it the whole way) also brought back down a chunk of ice from the mountain because that’s what everyone does when they go up there. My host dad then used his wood shaver to make shaved ice, which my mom then served us as snow cones. I asked what flavor they were, to which she responded “sugar”. I can’t say I’m shocked that she’s missing her 2 front teeth.
I also checked out a place about 2 hours away called Hatumachay, which is a rock forest. According to our guide, there was a volcanic explosion millions of years ago which sent a lot of gasses up into the atmosphere and then when it cooled down these gigantic rocks just came crashing down on top of this mountain. I don’t know if the science is right, but it sounded super cool. So anyway, people have been living and hunting up there forever, so we saw some cool cave paintings and then a bunch of people went rock climbing and the lazier of us just walked around, mouths hung kind of dumbly open cuz it was just really really cool and beautiful.
On the sports front, my soccer game is improving (I think this and people have told me, so it must be at least a little bit true), which makes it a lot more fun to play and feel like one of the guys. My parents also brought me a bunch of American sports equipment when they visited—football, mitts and a ball, Frisbees—and I’m having a lot of fun taking those out and trying to teach people how to use them. I have never been an athletic star—my high points are camp softball in high school and maybe running in general—but throw a spiral twenty yards in front of a bunch of people who have never handled an American football before and jaws drop. It’s a lot of fun for me. I have also been going to a bunch of school anniversary celebrations with the teachers from my school and kicking butt in volleyball, but I always feel like I’m cheating. But it’s not my fault that I’m tall right?
And that’s life in the Andes of Peru. It’s hard to believe that in America it’s back to school and almost fall and 2011 and all that, but I think I’ll feel that more when the rainy season arrives and I realize that time is actually passing and not static. Hope you are all well and shannah tovah to everyone whom that applies to.
Friday, July 23, 2010
a marathon, machu picchu and a garbage truck (in other words, Peace Corps Peru)
I don’t even know where to start…July has been a show to say the least. To start with I ran a marathon. It was in a beach town on the northern coast called Pacasmayo that has been a Peace Corps site for a while and 3 years ago a volunteer organized this marathon for July 4th as a way to raise money for his community. So it’s not just a marathon it’s also a big Peace Corps party. So yea I finished in 3:51, which isn’t outstanding, but it’s under 4 hours and I jumped into the ocean right afterwards and now I never have to run a marathon ever again unless I really, really want to. And I got to hang out with a bunch of Peace Corps friends, and I won a framed race poster and I got a cool medal. Overall, I knew I was gonna run a marathon one day and I think this was a cool way to do it.
Work has also been progressing, in that Yanamito kind of manages its trash now. So basically with the support of our mayors, Pete and I have been running between 4 municipalities trying to get trash cans and the commitment of a garbage truck to come up. I managed to wrangle 4 big metal cylinders out of the municipality and up the hill, which to my surprise were still sealed oil drums. So after a day of using a hammer and chisel as a huge can opener and some fun with spray paint, I came out with these:
We also managed to get the municipality to say they would send up the truck on a weekly basis every Thursday, starting July 8—4 days after the marathon and the day my parents would be up in Yanamito getting to see my life. We also found this out on June 25th. Needless to say, I had to scramble a bit, but I managed to explain what was happening to the town in a community meeting (that’s right…I gave a 5 minute speech to everybody in Spanish. There was only a little confusion I think) and I got a promise from my mayor that the Saturday before there would be a community cleanup and everything would be fine. So I went to the race, slightly nervous that my work life would fall apart while I was gone, but to my pleasant surprise I came back with my parents the day before the truck was supposed to come and the pails were out and there was a neat mound of garbage waiting for the truck to come. Just when I began to have faith in the system, I went out on Thursday morning to meet the truck with my parents, and we waited. And waited. So I called the guy in charge who said whoops the truck got 2 flat tires, it can’t come, we will try again next week. I’m pretty sure he was lying, but what could I do. So again I departed Yanamito, this time on a jaunt with my parents, nervous that while I was gone the streets would pile high with trash until someone just decided to burn it. But what could I do—I was on vacation. More on the trip to come, but after 5 days in the jungle with no cell phone service I called Pete on Thursday evening to hear that…the garbage truck came and everything went swimmingly. We were on a bus full of somewhat annoyed and wet tourists, but I fist pumped the air and my parents cheered. And two days ago I was actually in town when the truck came. I got to ride in the front while we drove around town emptying the barrels and waiting while mostly ladies ran out with full bags to dump in the truck. It was awesome. Hooray trash management.
One more garbage story and then I move onto other things I promise. So every Sunday for the past two months there has been a soccer tournament in my town. Teams come from a bunch of towns within walking distance and they play each other, and most of my town spends the day outside watching, eating ice cream and generally relaxing. Ice cream here is sold in little Styrofoam cups for 50 centimos a pop (the equivalent of about $.15). What happens to all those little cups you ask? They get thrown everywhere. Every Monday the town is a mess. So before the last Sunday in June I got the mayor to agree to put one of our garbage pails there. I brought it down at 7:30, had it all set to go, and when I got to the tournament later in the day I bought myself an ice cream as a pat on the back. I threw out my cup, and the pail was mostly empty, but it was early. I came back after lunch to check on it—still empty with garbage just about everywhere but in the pail—I could still differentiate my cup. Huge fail. So I went to go sit down, pretty dejected, to watch the game. One of my little buddies from first grade, Noel, sits down beside me and starts talking to me about ice cream (what else?). He says he wants some ice cream but his mom won’t buy it. My wheels start turning, and I told him if that if he filled up one little shopping bag with garbage I would buy him some. He got really excited, agreed, and five minutes later (with some help from me…he’s just a little guy) his bag was filled and we went to deposit it in the pail and buy ice cream. A few other kids and there parents saw this transaction and soon I had a good chunk of the elementary school lining up to wait for a shopping bag. Within 20 minutes the whole drum was filled to overflowing and the area was a whole bunch cleaner. Sustainable? Probably not. Effective? Definitely. And the kids enjoyed it and a bunch of moms saw it too and encouraged their kids to throw out their garbage. It was fun. And encouraging. Ok no more garbage.
My parents came to visit. I hadn’t seen them for the 10 months I’ve been here, by far the longest we’d gone without seeing each other, so I was pacing up and down the bus station incessantly by the time their bus finally came in at 9:30 pm, but as long as the ride from Lima was they made it. We spent a day in Huaraz, where we went for a hike and I showed them around town. Then 2 days and 1 night in Yanamito, where there just happened to be a town soccer tournament that day, so they met everybody.
Then we spent 6 days in the Manu jungle and a few days in Cusco, including Machu Picchu. I had to do a lot of translating, but I think it was really great that they got to see my town and where I live and work. Everyone was really glad to meet them and now all they ask is “when are your parents coming back?”
The jungle was awesome. First of all, as I learned in India, it’s good to travel with your parents, especially when you’re used to backpackers standards. Hotels were nice, food was good, to say nothing of the company. But the back to the jungle. We saw a ton. About a million different birds (we stayed at a hotel with some serious birders who were keeping a log book and all that and in the morning we were out looking at birds with them and they said they saw 40 different species before breakfast), including a ton of hummingbirds and macaws, which are like huge parrots and according to our guide (who was the man) are as smart as 5 year olds, and some hoatzins, which I’m pretty sure are dinosaurs:
We also saw few different mammals, including the world’s largest rodent (basically a pig sized guinea pig) and the largest jungle mammal, a tapir:
which kind of looks like, according to my dad, a combination of hippo, horse and pig. The mammal list also included 5 different kinds of monkeys, giant river otters and some chinchillas. We also saw some caimans, which are like crocodiles/alligators (I don’t really remember the difference). And one almost ate us. For real. We were on a catamaran taking a wildlife viewing boat ride around a small lake, and I spotted a big (according to our guide 4 meters from nose to tail) caiman on the bank. We got a little bit closer and our guide told us it was full and resting, but our two boat drivers contended that it was dead. We got closer still and we saw that its stomach, nose and tail were all chewed up, so we all thought it was dead. So one of the boat drivers gets the boat real close and says he wants to go grab its tail. He hops off the boat and the caiman rears up its head, splashes the water and full on snaps its jaws. Our guy ran back to the boat and we booked it out of there. It was pretty exciting—my heart was pounding for a few hours, no joke.
That was probably the most exciting thing that happened, but in general the jungle was just really cool. We got to ride down a river in a boat, I saw a million cool trees and plants and it was just really different from anything else I’ve ever seen, and I think my parents would say the same. There’s a lot more to write about, but I feel like I’m rambling a bit, so if anyone wants to hear more or see more pictures just let me know.
Side story for the jungle trip. We stayed at 3 different lodges, only one of them had electricity and we happened to be on this part of the trip over the world cup final. Watching the world cup here has been another cool experience, cuz people here actually like soccer and get really into it. Like one morning when Pete and I had just got back form our last training conference and Portugal was playing Brazil (I think). We had work to do, but we passed a small store where the game was on, and so we decided to have a soda and watch the game, where we talked international soccer with the shopkeeper and whoever else entered the store and stuck around to watch the game. So meanwhile, we get to our lodge at about 2 the day of the final, and there is power, but no TV in the room. But walking around I heard the game coming out of the kitchen, with the 6 workers huddles around.
So, despite our hike that was supposed to start at 3, me, my parents, our guide and the staff crowded around a 10 inch TV in the middle of the jungle to watch Spain take down the Netherlands, then we went on our hike. It was a lot cooler than watching in a sports bar somewhere.
So that was the jungle. And of course, you can’t come to Peru without seeing Machu Picchu. So we went to Machu Picchu. We took a car from Cusco city, through the Sacred Valley and eventually up to the famous mountain. Along the way we saw an Alpaca farm, some other Inca ruins and a cool town called Ollantaytambo, where there is a modern town that still lives in and uses the Inca infrastructure and houses. We took a train to Machu Picchu, which was a beautiful ride and they also served sushi as a snack, which blew me away. And Machu Picchu was cool—it’s really old and beautiful and our guide explained a lot of cool cultural and mystical stories. And yea here we are—the classic photo:
And for all of us, having visited the Taj Mahal, this was the second wonder of the world we could cross off our lists, so 2 down 5 to go.
And yea after that it was a little more souvenir shopping and back to the airport so that my parents could head back to the states and I could go home and see if I can get some work done after 3 solid weeks of distraction. It was a great trip and a good marathon, but I am ready for a few calm, normal weeks in site (I hope).
Work has also been progressing, in that Yanamito kind of manages its trash now. So basically with the support of our mayors, Pete and I have been running between 4 municipalities trying to get trash cans and the commitment of a garbage truck to come up. I managed to wrangle 4 big metal cylinders out of the municipality and up the hill, which to my surprise were still sealed oil drums. So after a day of using a hammer and chisel as a huge can opener and some fun with spray paint, I came out with these:
We also managed to get the municipality to say they would send up the truck on a weekly basis every Thursday, starting July 8—4 days after the marathon and the day my parents would be up in Yanamito getting to see my life. We also found this out on June 25th. Needless to say, I had to scramble a bit, but I managed to explain what was happening to the town in a community meeting (that’s right…I gave a 5 minute speech to everybody in Spanish. There was only a little confusion I think) and I got a promise from my mayor that the Saturday before there would be a community cleanup and everything would be fine. So I went to the race, slightly nervous that my work life would fall apart while I was gone, but to my pleasant surprise I came back with my parents the day before the truck was supposed to come and the pails were out and there was a neat mound of garbage waiting for the truck to come. Just when I began to have faith in the system, I went out on Thursday morning to meet the truck with my parents, and we waited. And waited. So I called the guy in charge who said whoops the truck got 2 flat tires, it can’t come, we will try again next week. I’m pretty sure he was lying, but what could I do. So again I departed Yanamito, this time on a jaunt with my parents, nervous that while I was gone the streets would pile high with trash until someone just decided to burn it. But what could I do—I was on vacation. More on the trip to come, but after 5 days in the jungle with no cell phone service I called Pete on Thursday evening to hear that…the garbage truck came and everything went swimmingly. We were on a bus full of somewhat annoyed and wet tourists, but I fist pumped the air and my parents cheered. And two days ago I was actually in town when the truck came. I got to ride in the front while we drove around town emptying the barrels and waiting while mostly ladies ran out with full bags to dump in the truck. It was awesome. Hooray trash management.
One more garbage story and then I move onto other things I promise. So every Sunday for the past two months there has been a soccer tournament in my town. Teams come from a bunch of towns within walking distance and they play each other, and most of my town spends the day outside watching, eating ice cream and generally relaxing. Ice cream here is sold in little Styrofoam cups for 50 centimos a pop (the equivalent of about $.15). What happens to all those little cups you ask? They get thrown everywhere. Every Monday the town is a mess. So before the last Sunday in June I got the mayor to agree to put one of our garbage pails there. I brought it down at 7:30, had it all set to go, and when I got to the tournament later in the day I bought myself an ice cream as a pat on the back. I threw out my cup, and the pail was mostly empty, but it was early. I came back after lunch to check on it—still empty with garbage just about everywhere but in the pail—I could still differentiate my cup. Huge fail. So I went to go sit down, pretty dejected, to watch the game. One of my little buddies from first grade, Noel, sits down beside me and starts talking to me about ice cream (what else?). He says he wants some ice cream but his mom won’t buy it. My wheels start turning, and I told him if that if he filled up one little shopping bag with garbage I would buy him some. He got really excited, agreed, and five minutes later (with some help from me…he’s just a little guy) his bag was filled and we went to deposit it in the pail and buy ice cream. A few other kids and there parents saw this transaction and soon I had a good chunk of the elementary school lining up to wait for a shopping bag. Within 20 minutes the whole drum was filled to overflowing and the area was a whole bunch cleaner. Sustainable? Probably not. Effective? Definitely. And the kids enjoyed it and a bunch of moms saw it too and encouraged their kids to throw out their garbage. It was fun. And encouraging. Ok no more garbage.
My parents came to visit. I hadn’t seen them for the 10 months I’ve been here, by far the longest we’d gone without seeing each other, so I was pacing up and down the bus station incessantly by the time their bus finally came in at 9:30 pm, but as long as the ride from Lima was they made it. We spent a day in Huaraz, where we went for a hike and I showed them around town. Then 2 days and 1 night in Yanamito, where there just happened to be a town soccer tournament that day, so they met everybody.
Then we spent 6 days in the Manu jungle and a few days in Cusco, including Machu Picchu. I had to do a lot of translating, but I think it was really great that they got to see my town and where I live and work. Everyone was really glad to meet them and now all they ask is “when are your parents coming back?”
The jungle was awesome. First of all, as I learned in India, it’s good to travel with your parents, especially when you’re used to backpackers standards. Hotels were nice, food was good, to say nothing of the company. But the back to the jungle. We saw a ton. About a million different birds (we stayed at a hotel with some serious birders who were keeping a log book and all that and in the morning we were out looking at birds with them and they said they saw 40 different species before breakfast), including a ton of hummingbirds and macaws, which are like huge parrots and according to our guide (who was the man) are as smart as 5 year olds, and some hoatzins, which I’m pretty sure are dinosaurs:
We also saw few different mammals, including the world’s largest rodent (basically a pig sized guinea pig) and the largest jungle mammal, a tapir:
which kind of looks like, according to my dad, a combination of hippo, horse and pig. The mammal list also included 5 different kinds of monkeys, giant river otters and some chinchillas. We also saw some caimans, which are like crocodiles/alligators (I don’t really remember the difference). And one almost ate us. For real. We were on a catamaran taking a wildlife viewing boat ride around a small lake, and I spotted a big (according to our guide 4 meters from nose to tail) caiman on the bank. We got a little bit closer and our guide told us it was full and resting, but our two boat drivers contended that it was dead. We got closer still and we saw that its stomach, nose and tail were all chewed up, so we all thought it was dead. So one of the boat drivers gets the boat real close and says he wants to go grab its tail. He hops off the boat and the caiman rears up its head, splashes the water and full on snaps its jaws. Our guy ran back to the boat and we booked it out of there. It was pretty exciting—my heart was pounding for a few hours, no joke.
That was probably the most exciting thing that happened, but in general the jungle was just really cool. We got to ride down a river in a boat, I saw a million cool trees and plants and it was just really different from anything else I’ve ever seen, and I think my parents would say the same. There’s a lot more to write about, but I feel like I’m rambling a bit, so if anyone wants to hear more or see more pictures just let me know.
Side story for the jungle trip. We stayed at 3 different lodges, only one of them had electricity and we happened to be on this part of the trip over the world cup final. Watching the world cup here has been another cool experience, cuz people here actually like soccer and get really into it. Like one morning when Pete and I had just got back form our last training conference and Portugal was playing Brazil (I think). We had work to do, but we passed a small store where the game was on, and so we decided to have a soda and watch the game, where we talked international soccer with the shopkeeper and whoever else entered the store and stuck around to watch the game. So meanwhile, we get to our lodge at about 2 the day of the final, and there is power, but no TV in the room. But walking around I heard the game coming out of the kitchen, with the 6 workers huddles around.
So, despite our hike that was supposed to start at 3, me, my parents, our guide and the staff crowded around a 10 inch TV in the middle of the jungle to watch Spain take down the Netherlands, then we went on our hike. It was a lot cooler than watching in a sports bar somewhere.
So that was the jungle. And of course, you can’t come to Peru without seeing Machu Picchu. So we went to Machu Picchu. We took a car from Cusco city, through the Sacred Valley and eventually up to the famous mountain. Along the way we saw an Alpaca farm, some other Inca ruins and a cool town called Ollantaytambo, where there is a modern town that still lives in and uses the Inca infrastructure and houses. We took a train to Machu Picchu, which was a beautiful ride and they also served sushi as a snack, which blew me away. And Machu Picchu was cool—it’s really old and beautiful and our guide explained a lot of cool cultural and mystical stories. And yea here we are—the classic photo:
And for all of us, having visited the Taj Mahal, this was the second wonder of the world we could cross off our lists, so 2 down 5 to go.
And yea after that it was a little more souvenir shopping and back to the airport so that my parents could head back to the states and I could go home and see if I can get some work done after 3 solid weeks of distraction. It was a great trip and a good marathon, but I am ready for a few calm, normal weeks in site (I hope).
Sunday, June 13, 2010
to 15000 feet and back
Its hard to believe that another month has flown by and that for the first time ever I am off the academic calendar. Thankfully, June in July in Peace Corps Peru is bringing a boatload of distractions that should make me forget that such a thing as summer vacation ever existed. This week I go to a rural part of Lima called Yauyos with the rest of the Ancash environment volunteers to see the volunteer sites there and maybe try and get some ideas. Then next week I have a project design seminar in Lima with my school director. One week later I should be running a marathon (my fingers are still crossed, but I think I will be ready) and right after that my parents are coming to visit. So somehow it seems like life is on hold till August. But that is all in the future, and skipping over the past month would be a mistake…
The last big event in May was a girl’s leadership/empowerment camp we did in Ancash where each volunteer brought two teenage girls from his/her community. We did a huge range of activities from yoga to bracelet making to career planning. Now some of you may be asking, Alex ¨what could possibly have been your role in these sorts of activities?¨ My answer, truthfully, is not much. I brought girls, and supported my friends who led sessions, acted in a gender equality play and led a discussion about it afterwards and refreshed all of my old camp counselor skills. But I honestly felt a little out of place all weekend, especially as in Ancash male volunteers are outnumbered heavily by female volunteers. The important part is that it seems as if all the girls really enjoyed it, and in a male dominated culture where opportunities for women can be few and far between I think it was a really great and important program. Also seeing two teenage girls in traditional dress doing yoga is one of those cross-cultural experiences that you have to see to believe and makes you remember why working outside the US can be so mind blowingly cool.
The other really incredible thing that I have done recently is climb a mountain. Now that may sound mundane, but remember I live in the foothills of the tallest mountain in Peru. Now if this works right, there should be some sweet pictures to go along with my somewhat less impressive words, but I will try my best anyway. At 5:30 am I walked down from my site to Musho, my friend Kaitlin’s site two towns down the hill where the trek up Huascaran starts. The 5 of us going met there, divided up tents and food and set out. Within two hours we had left behind most of the signs of civilization (except for cows, there were cows over 4000 meters) and were hiking up through beautiful quenal forests, a tree that is native to, and in only grows in, the high Andes. It is also probably the coolest tree species on Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylepis). It was pretty and peaceful and it did not seem awfully hard, although my calves may beg to differ (they still kinda hurt…). After about four hours, with a few breaks thrown in and a ton of questionably necessary pictures, we made it to Huascaran base camp, 4200 meters, where all of the summiting expeditions set out. We set up our tents and set out for the glacier, which we thought was an easy hour stroll away. Wrong—it was a two hour rock scramble. It was hard and really high and we were really tired, but it was worth it. Being on/near a glacier is a side of nature I never even imagined. There were shades of blue in the ice that looked supernatural. And it was cool to think that down at site it was probably about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and I was playing with snow. Also, I will refrain from any commentary on global warming, but it was definitely also striking to think that in X years there may not be any more ice there at all. After playing on the snow for a little, we had to head back down before dark. We got a little bit lost and while the sunset was absolutely gorgeous, we were all a little bit more focused on getting back in one piece to our tents. It looked a bit sketchy, but we made it back about 20 minutes after dark with minimal mishap (I ripped my pants on a rock—I am not happy about it, but in the big picture I guess it is good that that was the worst that befell me). And after a pasta dinner and a few minutes of star gazing we passed out exhausted. The morning was freezing, but you could see the shadow of the mountain we were on against the mountain range across the valley—again, very cool. And then we hiked down and rejoined our towns in their daily lives, finally being able to say, yes I have been up to the ice and it is awesome (I was being asked every day since the rainy season ended when I would go). It also gave me a really good appreciation for the type of adventures and unique experiences my Peace Corps experience will give me the opportunity to have. Sorry if that was a really long description that just sounded like a normal hike. For me it was epic, and I cannot look at the mountain the same way, but sadly words fall short of experience.
So anyway, those are the exciting parts of my life. Teaching continues to be what it is. I made an English board game this week and I think it was the first time anyone in my 5th and 6th grade class had ever experienced a board game (the spaces were numbered and they did not know what to do after 6 because that is all there is on the dice). In honor of environment day on June 5th we (Kaitlin Pete and I) went up and down the hill with an anti-littering puppet show which was well received. We also had an AIDS seminar and as all PEPFAR money that goes to Peru is entrusted to Peace Corps we are all now starting to develop HIV-AIDS/sexual health projects. HIV-AIDS is not really an issue now, but once you get one case…Also according to people I trust to know these things, there are lots of undiagnosed cases of STDs in our rural populations. Also, anything that encourages responsible sexual behavior is a plus in my book—I constantly get asked why I do not have a Yanamiteña girlfriend. The easiest answer to explain is that everyone in town who is my age already has two kids. So it is outside of my usual sphere, but it looks like I will be doing some sexual health promotion. Besides that, working with my buddy Pete we managed to get some garbage cans for our towns from our shared municipality and we are working hard to get a garbage truck up here at least twice a month. So such is my life. Like I said my parents come soon, so if anyone wants to send something for me with them, you are more than welcome…also sorry for the lack of apostrophes, everyone freaking Spanish keyboard is different…hope you are all well and happy summer. And now, pictures, from the bottom up, so to speak…
The last big event in May was a girl’s leadership/empowerment camp we did in Ancash where each volunteer brought two teenage girls from his/her community. We did a huge range of activities from yoga to bracelet making to career planning. Now some of you may be asking, Alex ¨what could possibly have been your role in these sorts of activities?¨ My answer, truthfully, is not much. I brought girls, and supported my friends who led sessions, acted in a gender equality play and led a discussion about it afterwards and refreshed all of my old camp counselor skills. But I honestly felt a little out of place all weekend, especially as in Ancash male volunteers are outnumbered heavily by female volunteers. The important part is that it seems as if all the girls really enjoyed it, and in a male dominated culture where opportunities for women can be few and far between I think it was a really great and important program. Also seeing two teenage girls in traditional dress doing yoga is one of those cross-cultural experiences that you have to see to believe and makes you remember why working outside the US can be so mind blowingly cool.
The other really incredible thing that I have done recently is climb a mountain. Now that may sound mundane, but remember I live in the foothills of the tallest mountain in Peru. Now if this works right, there should be some sweet pictures to go along with my somewhat less impressive words, but I will try my best anyway. At 5:30 am I walked down from my site to Musho, my friend Kaitlin’s site two towns down the hill where the trek up Huascaran starts. The 5 of us going met there, divided up tents and food and set out. Within two hours we had left behind most of the signs of civilization (except for cows, there were cows over 4000 meters) and were hiking up through beautiful quenal forests, a tree that is native to, and in only grows in, the high Andes. It is also probably the coolest tree species on Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylepis). It was pretty and peaceful and it did not seem awfully hard, although my calves may beg to differ (they still kinda hurt…). After about four hours, with a few breaks thrown in and a ton of questionably necessary pictures, we made it to Huascaran base camp, 4200 meters, where all of the summiting expeditions set out. We set up our tents and set out for the glacier, which we thought was an easy hour stroll away. Wrong—it was a two hour rock scramble. It was hard and really high and we were really tired, but it was worth it. Being on/near a glacier is a side of nature I never even imagined. There were shades of blue in the ice that looked supernatural. And it was cool to think that down at site it was probably about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and I was playing with snow. Also, I will refrain from any commentary on global warming, but it was definitely also striking to think that in X years there may not be any more ice there at all. After playing on the snow for a little, we had to head back down before dark. We got a little bit lost and while the sunset was absolutely gorgeous, we were all a little bit more focused on getting back in one piece to our tents. It looked a bit sketchy, but we made it back about 20 minutes after dark with minimal mishap (I ripped my pants on a rock—I am not happy about it, but in the big picture I guess it is good that that was the worst that befell me). And after a pasta dinner and a few minutes of star gazing we passed out exhausted. The morning was freezing, but you could see the shadow of the mountain we were on against the mountain range across the valley—again, very cool. And then we hiked down and rejoined our towns in their daily lives, finally being able to say, yes I have been up to the ice and it is awesome (I was being asked every day since the rainy season ended when I would go). It also gave me a really good appreciation for the type of adventures and unique experiences my Peace Corps experience will give me the opportunity to have. Sorry if that was a really long description that just sounded like a normal hike. For me it was epic, and I cannot look at the mountain the same way, but sadly words fall short of experience.
So anyway, those are the exciting parts of my life. Teaching continues to be what it is. I made an English board game this week and I think it was the first time anyone in my 5th and 6th grade class had ever experienced a board game (the spaces were numbered and they did not know what to do after 6 because that is all there is on the dice). In honor of environment day on June 5th we (Kaitlin Pete and I) went up and down the hill with an anti-littering puppet show which was well received. We also had an AIDS seminar and as all PEPFAR money that goes to Peru is entrusted to Peace Corps we are all now starting to develop HIV-AIDS/sexual health projects. HIV-AIDS is not really an issue now, but once you get one case…Also according to people I trust to know these things, there are lots of undiagnosed cases of STDs in our rural populations. Also, anything that encourages responsible sexual behavior is a plus in my book—I constantly get asked why I do not have a Yanamiteña girlfriend. The easiest answer to explain is that everyone in town who is my age already has two kids. So it is outside of my usual sphere, but it looks like I will be doing some sexual health promotion. Besides that, working with my buddy Pete we managed to get some garbage cans for our towns from our shared municipality and we are working hard to get a garbage truck up here at least twice a month. So such is my life. Like I said my parents come soon, so if anyone wants to send something for me with them, you are more than welcome…also sorry for the lack of apostrophes, everyone freaking Spanish keyboard is different…hope you are all well and happy summer. And now, pictures, from the bottom up, so to speak…
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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