treks, radio, and plastics

7:30 on a Wednesday morning in mid May and I have realized my last blog update came way to long ago. Often times, I will be talking to someone on Skype or what not and they will remind me that I haven’t posted in a while. Apparently reading my dribble is more exciting than actually talking to me in person! Hmm, anywho, I have plenty of updates for you all and hopefully a few photos. Enjoy your break from Facebook…

First up, another go at high altitude trekking in the Andes. The whole country of Peru shuts down for parties and vacations during Semana Santa or Holy Week. This means that we as volunteers also get a few days off for vacation and can aprovechar (take advantage of the opportunity) to see some more parts of this incredibly beautiful and diverse country. I joined a contingent heading out to the Cordillera Huayhuash. I won’t even attempt a lengthy description, for my words will surely fall short of the true majesty of the area. Huayhuash is a smaller mountain range that extends to the south of the main Cordillera Blanca (my area) which is home to the second highest peak in Peru (Yerupajá, 6,634 m/21,765 ft), a countless number of other jagged snow caps, gorgeously colored glacial lakes, high pampa or plateau land, rivers, and a sense of isolation that allows you to appreciate all the natural beauties without many modern distractions. We, our group of 5 including myself and Alex, headed out to the city of Chiquián, about 3 hours south of Huaraz, to catch the trail head and met up with our guide/cook. Yeah, we had a cook. He was incredible. I am confident enough to cook for myself while camping, but carrying a food supply for 8 days weighs a lot. We decided that having to hike over mountain passes between 4,700 – 5,000m every day we would hire a cook and some donkeys to carry some of the crew gear (i.e. food, cook tent, etc.). We had amazing weather thankfully, after our failed attempt at trekking a few months back. We still saw some snow at the top of the passes but the days were filled with sunshine and breezes that kept things cool and enjoyable for hiking. 8 days took us all over the mountain range: camping next to lakes and eating freshly caught trout, passing through small “villages” of 2 – 3 stone/grass houses used to watch after livestock, wild vizcacha (chinchilla type animal) scampering across the trails, Andean condors, and an overall amazing time outdoors, above 4,000m at the heart of Pachamama (Mother Earth). [Check out the Huayhuash wikipedia or google page to learn more about the area.]

After vacation on the trail, I have been fairly busy up here at site. The radio show continues to awe and inspire listeners every Thursday at 5 am. That’s what I think at least. Although, there has been some positive feedback for the AM “shout outs” we give to all the neighbors and community members. This week we have a great interview with the head of environmental education at the national park office recorded and ready for air. It’s been a fun activity and a good way to reach a lot of listeners, even if they only pick up on bits and pieces of the informative sections. All you need to start building are bits and pieces…

We just had our first recycling buy last week as well. After a few months of coordination we got our start up capital from the municipal government down the hill and put out some announcements on the radio regarding times and prices. For the first go around we (the newly formed environmental committee) bought 190 kg of recyclables (plastic bottles, scrap metal, cans, notebooks, etc.) for 75 soles. It was a great turn out. For that amount of money we were able to get nearly 200 kg of what would otherwise be garbage off of the streets and out of the fields. The kids and moms have finally seen the connection between recycling and economic gain. This is often a “make or break” type of realization for projects here. I can preach and preach about conserving the environment and applying proper waste management practices, but earning even just 1 or 2 soles can often times be the catalyst needed in forming a new habit.

I am starting to enter back into the schools as well. We have some plans to install a green house and vermiculture (worm composting) with a few sections and hopefully re-start the youth group from last year’s HIV/AIDS project. I have also been teaching English and a little computers in our newly formed “technical institute”. My counterpart Daniel has been doing an incredible job making connections and has brought 6 used desktop computers as well as internet to our small, dusty community center. The internet is part of a government project focusing on rural communications and the computers are being rented from an institute in on of the cities down the mountain. We have a few students that come every week and learn computer use, starting from the basics, and after a while can even move on to more intermediate programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver. We just hired a professor from our town that has been studying IT for the last few years down the mountain and is now ready to put it in practice. It is only in the initial phase, but still interesting and inspiring to see technology attempt to weave itself into a culture and place that has never before known internet, email, Microsoft Office, etc. I feel that often times we (even down to our littlest kindergartners) take for granted such things that in the last 10-15 years have become a “normal” part of our lives. Email has becomes as instant as texting with all our new smart phones. If we need to google search something, we only wait a few seconds or grow impatient. So, it is has been fascinating to see these themes of “globalization” slowly move into our small, rural Andean community as well.
We are also planning to start up another Healthy Homes project including the improved cook stoves, tree plantings, organic gardens, and talks on nutrition, hygiene, and environmental conservation. I have a grant in progress right now and can hopefully be able to start up the project in the middle or end of June.

Everything else is going swimmingly. We have been planning a pretty amazing trip to the Amazon rainforest in July to finish up our vacation days. Then, a few short months after, I have my Close of Service Conference, which is the final Peace Corps “wrap up”. Only 6 more months and this 27-month experience will come to an end. It has been filled with so many wonderful opportunities, stories, experiences, and the like. I am sure the last stretch will prove to be just as rewarding, eye opening, and adventurous as the previous.

Hope all is going well back home and that you are enjoying the beginnings of a new summer. Keep me updated on your own adventures, wherever they may take you!

Peter