April 12, 2010. From the desk of Peter…
The huyano music is extremely loud today…and live. I have decided to write to you all in hopes that I can turn the “beautiful”, loud, repetitive music/lyrics into background noise. Here goes…
I have been back in site for a week or so now after our beach vacation to Hunachaco, a small beach town outside of Trujillo. It was quite the trip. I did nothing, and it was amazing. A group of the Ancash volunteers stumbled out of the mountains, beards and all, and made camp on the beach for a few days. It was lovely. The town of Huanchaco is a lively little place and attracts a great deal of tourists and eccentric surfers. When you mix these things with Peruvian beach hippies, good ceviche, and a reggae bar it’s a great recipe for a vacation atmosphere. We spent most of our days lying on the beach and when hunger found us we turned to the nearest beach side cevicheria and ordered a plate of Peru’s national dish and a cold beer. It was a bit different than time in site and the sierra to say the least. We also got to visit a group of incredible old ruins known as Chan Chan. If you are interested in Peruvian or South American history/archaeology, feel free to spend a few minutes on Wikipedia reading about the culture of Chimú and their city of Chan Chan. All in all, the vacation was a great way to rest, soak in the beach atmosphere, and escape the campo lifestyle for a while.
Now its back to reality; if you consider reality living in a small, rural Andean village teaching little kids how to compost. Classes have been going well this month. Since I started in the primary school down the road from me, we have completed two different compost piles, a micro-relleno (a hole for garbage in layman’s terms), and a garden. Not bad for only a month or so. Now we need to keep these things going and continue to talk about why we dug a big hole to put garbage in and why we mixed animal manure with vegetable scraps. Without the “why” it’s just a big hole and a pile of decomposing organic matter. Hopefully the students can become pro’s and take this knowledge home to their families…that’s the hope at least. The high school and I have been on a break since vacation and my last global warming class. I plan to venture back down there this week and start things back up. That’s the update on Mr. Blank’s classroom.
In other, more exciting news, I hiked to a mountain pass yesterday to bottle and bring home “mineral water” that my family has told me about since my arrival. My host brother, sister, and I hiked a good two hours through fields, hills, and streams to arrive at the Quebrada Ulta. This valley splits the Cordillera Blanca (my mountain range) and allows for travel between my side of the big hill and the other. It was a very beautiful site: a gushing mountain river flowing in between enormous peaks with scattered forests clinging to their sides. We climbed down to the river bed and found the magical source of the pure, clean mineral water. It was a trickle coming out of a rock and flowing into the river. I was hesitant to drink it at first when I noticed the cow patties scattered about and a piece of trash floating in it, but my brother assured me it was clean. I’m not sure it was the best idea to drink the bubbling water undoubtedly full of parasites but heck, why not. We had a few drinks and then filled up all my recycled plastic bottles we brought…it proved to be a great impromptu “this is one reason why you recycle” talk. We then headed back home with our bounty of bottled water. It was a fun and beautiful hike.
Today is my host dad’s birthday. That is the reason for the loud, live huyano music. It also kept us up late last night passing the vaso (cup) and enjoying a huyano jam session with my dad and his friends. It was fun but I had to call it a night after we sang “happy birthday” at midnight. The festivities are carrying on today as well. The chicken has been killed and meat is on the menu for lunch, something that excites me greatly. So the birthday activities should keep me busy the rest of the day.
I head into Huaraz this weekend for our monthly meeting, another round of Quechua class (yay!), and to post this blog for your enjoyment. Then I hurry back to site for another week before heading north to Chiclayo, Lambayeque for our early-IST training. I am bringing my host dad and my counterpart, president of the community, and good pal Daniel along for the first few days. It should be fun to see all of the MAC crew again and hear the sure-to-be enthralling talks on eco-tourism, trash management, and things of that nature. We also are presenting our community diagnostics to the group that week. This implies that the community diagnostic needs to be finished before than…I am finally writing the thing I have been “writing” for the last 4 months. It is coming along swimmingly and I hope to turn in a pretty good write-up of my community complete with graphs and pictures. If anyone wants a copy please don’t hesitate to ask. It should keep you entertained for days depending on what online translation website you use and/or previous knowledge of Spanish. The first 5 people to request a copy will get a complimentary kilo of community grown potatoes…so don’t wait!
Only another month before the Blank’s tackle Peru. I am really excited to see the family and show them around my new home. I am even more excited to watch them all squeamishly try guinea pig for the first time. Photo documentation of the whole trip and especially the cuy eating will be available mid-June.
That’s all the new for now. I will be sure to update you when something really, really cool happens. Thanks for reading and take care!
Pete
p.s. I have been promising pictures for months now…the next blogs will be phlogs™ (photo blogs that is — I just trademarked it). If they are not up by Sunday April 18, PLEASE call me out on it with an email, phone, or messenger pigeon reminder!
"Abrakadabra!!! We are having rabbit for lunch" This was my present for my little brothers birthday. It was delicious.
