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