Well, it’s about that time again when I realize I haven’t posted a blog in a long while. I figured the last epic story would either keep all of you entertained for at least a month or make you not want to read again. So, after a small absence I will attempt to fill you in on my life here over the last few weeks. It’s been full of fun, cultural experiences, cook tops, schools, and other awesome adventures. You’ll just have to read till the end to find out all about it….
Carnaval is an extremely important festival in Latin American culture. You hear stories about the crazy samba lines in Rio and elaborate parties all over the place. Here in Peru is no different. Carnaval is the celebration of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, etc. Here in Peru it lasts a month, with a few days closer to the actual Tuesday becoming a little more “intense”. The northern mountain city of Cajamarca is renowned throughout Peru as having the most exciting, extraordinary, wild Carnaval festivities. Now, if you advertise things that are “exciting, extraordinary, wild” to a bunch of volunteers, the odds are you will get a fair turnout. So with this enticing claim to the best Carnaval festivities I traveled to Cajamarca for a few days to see what all the fuss was about. We went for the main days of the party and were not let down. The entire city on Saturday shuts down and turns into a battlefield. You arm yourself with water, paint, and any other random substance like shoe polish and motor oil. Water balloons, super soakers, buckets. All full of water-based paint and water. Your mission: soak and paint anyone in the entire city who isn’t you…or the police. I mean I didn’t know what to expect. I grew up having some pretty legendary water fights in the old neighborhood. Sometimes up to 15 kids would get into with hoses and all. Yeah, now imagine close to 200,000 kids (from ages 4 – 70) marching to a constant drum and brass beat throughout a beautiful mountain colonial town throwing water balloons, spraying paint out of hoses, pouring buckets of water on strangers, having the biggest paint/water fight you have ever seen. It was awesome. Everything was fair game. Taxis were covered with paint and constantly checking their windows. Little kids of 8 would run up to us and spray us with paint and water balloons. Middle aged women were spraying hoses at us out of their second story apartment buildings. It was game on everywhere. Locals were inviting us to home brewed corn beer while simultaneously drowning us with paint water. We were dancing through the streets amongst random crowds of Peruvians laughing and accepting the crazy gringo entourage. It was amazing. When they sun went down the party shifted to the main city square with the same music beat but without the soaking wet clothes. Instead the city substituted paint and water for various libations and kept the party going all night and into the next night. The following day we saw an awesome, colorful and eccentric parade that was the day’s main event. It was incredible. Something you need to experience to fully get. A fun vacation to say the least.
On another note, the cook top/healthy homes project came to a completion with the implementation of 23 cast iron stove tops that will eliminate smoke and related problems/illnesses as well as allowing for a faster cooking time and lesser consumption of firewood. The implementation was similar to the above-mentioned paint throwing, corn beer drinking festivities…. Well maybe not, but all the participants seemed very excited to receive this final part of the project and are now cooking on the new and improved stoves. It felt like a party to me to finish the project, and I am proud of the participants for seeing it out till the end and working to change habits that have been with them their entire lives: burning garbage, hand washing, nutrition awareness, etc. If you guys are reading, thanks for participating! Apart from the completion of the healthy homes project and heading north for festivals, school started back up. This means a great deal of things. Mainly, my Monday thru Friday will be a bit busier. Not saying that I will be teaching 6 hours a day but I will at least be wandering in and out of the different schools attempting to implement various projects. This year we are looking to focus on more environmental education (science, ecology, etc.), a recycling program, and perhaps a youth group of sorts. It’s still quite early on and all the students and teachers (myself included) have a lot of ganas to start up really cool projects. We’ll have to keep this motivation up for the whole year, not just the first month, and hopefully work to create some cool projects that will be enjoyed by all. I have also started up a radio talk show with my counterpart and amigo Daniel. We have the awesome prime time slot of 5-6 am every Thursday. You would be surprised to know how many of my friends and community members are up and about at 5 in the morning. It’s called Desayuno Ambiental, which can be translated as Environmental Breakfast. We hang out with the not-so-legal radio station operator (a guy who may or may not sneak a signal without a license out of his house) and discuss various themes about the environment interspersed by the wonderful local huayno music. It has been fun so far and will hopefully continue to be so. After the radio, school and stoves, we are also looking into a community wide recycling program as well as a few more tree nurseries. So, as I look to my last year here, it seems as though there will be plenty of promising things to keep me busy and help my fellow comuneros (community members). Time to get to work…
So, the last few weeks have been a good mix of fun and hard work. That seems to be a theme down here. A great fun time and experience with some truly rewarding and sometimes taxing work. Maybe not the 9-5 type of taxing, but certainly not a breeze!
Well, that’s the update for the time being. The invitation to come visit still applies to all of you (unless you just stumbled upon this blog via the inter-web and I don’t know who you are…). Time is escaping…only 8 months left so book those tickets quick! I hope all is well and that springtime is cheering everyone up from what sounded like a pretty harsh winter. Enjoy the nice weather and don’t be afraid to send me an email update of your own! Until next time.
Cheers,
Peter
