March 2000

Greetings from Peru to everyone!

Back in sun-baked Moro, and I'm adding to the heat , exultingly using David's oven. So far I've made banana bread - well more like cake cause the only pan we have is this HUGE cake pan (and everyone loved it - it's not a very dessert culture here, so it's quite the novelty), biscuits, and am now in the process of cookies. Quite a long drawn out process, cause the gas ran out half way through the first batch, so then Celso (the new deacon) and I had to run around to find more gas!

Celso is great, quieter at the moment than David, but I think he's a little cautious because he's new here - we discovered last night, by accident, that we have the same birthday! So that should be quite the fiesta.

Where to begin... First by thanking my mother for the SPECTACULAR CHOCOLATE!!! Wowee. A little molten, but nothing a small episode in the fridge couldn't cure. Let's see. When I left Moro last, I went up to Pamparomas for a day or two, and then drove to Huaraz, with a significant detour to Ocshapampa to drop off alfalfa seeds. The road was, well mas o menos (more or less) to Ocshapampa, there was only one spot where there was a river in the road, and the truck basically jumped out of the mud. I love that truck, talk about power house. Loaded down with 400 kg of seed, and it still made it.

It was a little more hairy coming back. I only had five people with me (I'd had that many the time before, but all were very strong), one man with a broken collar bone, another ok man, and three kids of about 11 years old (small in stature). Well we got stuck in the mud with one wheel in the air. "Ok we need to put rocks under the wheel" (the one in the mud)

"Yo soy debil, yo so debil" (I am weak) was all the collarbone guy could say, even when all I wanted him to do was sit in the truck on the side that the wheel was in the air! Oh well, we made it out of there.

So I get to Huaraz on Saturday, and the people whom I'm supposed to talk are in Lima, so I got to spend the first couple of days hanging out with people whom I'd met in Pamparomas. Betty and Coti, the practicants, and Maza (the civil engineer whom I beat in an arm wrestle). I stayed with Betty and Coti's family who were incredibly welcoming, and it was an interesting cultural experience. An inordinate amount of glossy Christmas wrapping paper was strung around to decorate. That and super religous pictures.

And they watch tv nearly all the time they are sitting around relaxing. It seems to be custom here that when your guest arrives, you click on the tv. (I thought it was just me, but when I got back to Pamparomas I had a conversation with the new practicant, Freddy, about how the tv is killing the Peruvian culture). And the tv is terrible. Quite honestly, the most intellectual programming is the commercials. Even the news is worse than a tabloid. Although I was quite relieved to find out that the most popular soap (on from 9 to 10 pm) is not in fact translated from English, but fromPortugese (Brazilian) - really bad. But talk about wonderful family.

Carnaval was on (lots of water throwing, and the various barios compete for the queen (a guy dressed up as a woman) of the city.. as far as I understand. It was a little hard to follow, but basically it looked like Hallowe'en), and they took me to see lots of it.

Went out dancing with Betty, Maza and his "enamorada" (literally "lover" though apparently it means a girlfriend of somewhat recent acquisition). The table next to us has more guys than girls, so one tall guy kept on asking me to dance. When finally a whino song came on (the traditional campesino music) Betty told me to go ask him to dance, so I did.

Boy you should have seen the looks on the faces of the people at his table (why does white girl know how to dance our traditional music!)! And the dj ran not one but four whino songs, back to back (it's a super energetic dance) so the poor guy was dying. He stopped a couple of times, "mi corazone, mi corazone" (my heart), and I'd say (not knowing that it was in fact more than one song) "oh, falta poco" (not much left).

And then on Sunday, Maza took Betty and I to his family home, a few kms outside of Huaraz. As per usual, super nice family. the mother has an oven (one of the traditional brick ones, which can hold 27 sheets of bread) and made the best bread I have tasted yet in Peru! Incredible!

The Dad was a little hard to understand, because he only has three teeth, all on one side, and is going a little deaf so he shouts. When Maza went to his soccer game, one of the most bizarre incidents in my life happened. His mother and his two sisters told us how the "girlfriend" won't even talk to his family (she lives one block away) and how much they hope he won't marry this bad girl. And then they ask me to "conquistalo" (I'll let you figure that out)!

The mom told me she'd grow cuys (like hamsters) just for me, and make me one whenever I wanted (we had a spectacular cuy stew with peanuts and hot peppers) if I'd go after him! Incredibly funny on one hand, and incredibly sad, cause family is SUPER important here.

Then came my hell driving week. Got to see an interesting side to Cordillera Negra. A few things I really disagree with. I am used to things not being efficient the way they are in Canada; but this was different. The first day we took two cars (one rented) to basically drive from village to village, dropping off stuff. Now there's an incredible bus delivery system here - and it's really cheap. So why pay four people to do it! So finally we get to a pueblo where there's going to be a how to make jam course, and half the people have to leave to go back to Huaraz for another meeting!

So Hilda and I stayed with the instructor, saw part of the jam course (very cool, she had a great way of talking with the people), and then when we tried to leave, there was a huayco (debris torrent) which not only wiped out part of the already crazy road, but killed two or four people (depending on who you talked to). So back we go!

So the next morning we try to leave early to get to another course several hundred of kms away (how can you tell I was driving), and there's no pass, so we go the high road (the crazy logging road style road). Finally get to the next village in time to see the VERY END of the cooking competition (it was for women's day, so each team had tried to put on activities that celebrated women's labour. In one village I got to judge the quality of the sheep! Me who knows so much about sheep!).

The next day, Cordillera decides to send us to Pariacoto. Teach me to ask questions. When we've already been in the car two hours (for once we have a chauffeur) I ask how long the drive is, "Oh, there's no pass, so we're going via THE COAST - about seven hours one way" Boy was I ticked off.

We finally get to the pueblo, the tree planting competition is in the puno (tops of the mountains) so it'll take us an hour to walk there, and we want to get home before midnight, so once again we drop off the stuff and leave! Luckily, we decide to have lunch, and while we're eating, we find out that they've cleaned the road, and we can go home the short way (four hours).

Anyway, I'll cut my griping short. Let's just say there were a few other things that happpened that made me quite aware of the not so pretty side of Cordillera Negra. They have a great toilet in their office though.

So then we made our way back to Pamparomas, a whole group of us: Karin the new forestry engineer, Celso (another one) another forestry engineer who's coming to see the district, and Oly the head of the development group in Pamparomas. On the way, we stop in Caraz and I learn how to ride a motorbike (Fr. David's new one).

It took several tries for me to get it started, and then I didn't realize that when you let the clutch out, it REALLY GOES, so I had quite the flying leap start. Dave said that there was a pedestrian walking towards me who somehow escaped me (I didn't notice him, I was trying not to fall off - don't worry mom, it's a small moto - and who walked, very pale, zombie like afterwards. So I toured the city, and got bit by a dog while going over the potholes. Didn't draw blood though!

So then back in Pamparomas, we split into two groups to tour the villages and talk about the plans for the next year. Hiked for six days, three hours a day usually (although the last day was closer to nine), stopping and talking in the villages, and eating (how can you tell Mel was in heaven. And at some of the sunsets, let me tell you, it certainly felt like it). And playing lots of cards.

A lot of amazing people. In one village, Chunya, for once all the women were at the meeting, and they were THRILLED that I am hoping to work with them, and get them courses in what they want to learn. That was my spiel, that I am interested in working with the women, and that I am going to try to find out what they want to learn, to make things with the resources of their area, to sell. To generate a bit of income for them and their families. My actual goal is much more general than that. the self-esteem of the women is often pretty low, in terms of positions of power, and they certainly don't have much access to it. And just in presenting themselves to strangers, the women are much more timid than the men. So my broader goal is more that the women would get more access to equality I guess.

So we'll see how it goes. Talked to David yesterday (the man whom everyone acknowledges knows the most about almost every village!) and we picked four villages: Chorillos, Coto, Chunya, and Achuhuas, for me to work in. So I think I'll go and stay in each one for several days (they are in two valleys, kind of from top to bottom), and practice my Quechua (coming along much better now - Karin and I had some intensive language lessons - complete with drawing for the kids and them telling us what words we were drawing), and try and find out what the women want to do... we shall see.

Oh yeah, I got to use one of those hanging trolley things to cross a river - about 20 m up. Karin, the new engineer, will be great to work with. Not that everyone isn't great, it's just nice to have another woman around. She's at least a head shorter than me, so Victor took to calling her my "hijita" (small girl child)! She had the largest pack of all, the worst shoes, and was scared of heights. So Victor (a great guy) kept on taking her pack and putting it on top of his! He looked like a sherpa.

Anyway, this e-mail is long enough. Description never really was my forte. The clothes, smells, sunsets.. I think you should just come and see for yourself!

Anyway, I love you all. Escribeme por favor! And I hope you are all doing well

big hug

Mel

 

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