Checking In

Hey Friends,

This isn’t a full post but I wanted to give a quick update on going ons here in Peru.

My last update about my life was after finishing the trip the jungle. Upon returning home I spent a couple weeks in my site and then went to Lambayeque for In-Service-Training (IST). We visited environment volunteer Matt West and the nearby Natural Reserve of Chaparri. This was a great trip, the most useful day was when we built a tree nursery for the local tara trees. Chaparri was great too, it is a private nature reserve put into place by the community’s own initiation and we got to see Oso Anteojos (Peruvian Spectacled Bears).

After that, my next big adventure came in September when I went to another IST, this one administered by the Youth Development program. We spent three days learning about social theatre and it was a complete success. I also got to meet many other volunteers that I normally wouldn’t have ever met and so I had a great time. The taller was Thursday-Saturday but because I had a couple official meetings on Monday and Tuesday in the Peace Corps office I was able to spend the weekend in Lima and it was fantastic.

Now, I am finishing up a few days with my good friend Sarah Walker, a PCV from Tumbes, who came down to visit us Ancash folk. The best part of this was her visit to my site where we ate cuy with my family and went on a beautiful wak with my host-sister.

Aside from all of this, I have mostly been in my site and things are going very well. We have volunteers coming at the end of the month as part of their training and I’m taking advantage of their presense to start a trash management project in the community. I also have an incredible room to do my library project in and the obstetriz from my health post, who I brought to the theatre IST, is very excited about the theatre group we will soon be starting.

So, much love to you all, I’ll try to get back on posting but hopefully this gives you a quick snapshot of what I’ve been doing.

Best,

Brian

p.s. Here are some links to news articles about Peru in case you are interested.

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14349487&fsrc=rss

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2009/08/200981934857664636.html

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2009/07/2009720184914971836.html

My Host-Family Pt. 1

I’ve come to realize that I’ve yet to really talk about my host-family here in Ancash, yet a blog entry about them practically demands to be written. For one, they are an important part of my experience here in Peru; I interact with them on an almost daily basis. Moreover, their lives are very representative of the experience of Quechua-speaking Peruvian families in the sierra (mountains). By writing about them, I will be writing about the shared experience of the many Peruvians who are sustenance farmers, living almost entirely off of the products of their land.

In this blog, the sake of readability and convenience, I will refer to my host-family as my family, my host-father as my father, etc.

My family in Collón consists of my father, Fortunato; my mother, Eulalia; my brother, Ernesto; and my sister, Linsey. I also have another sister named Susy, but she is engaged and lives with her fiance in James’ site, Pashpa, about an hour away.

My Father

My father, Fortunato, is 48 years old and has lived in Collón all of his life. As far as I have seen in my nine months living here, he is a very good man. I say this not because he is hard-working, which he is, but because of the way he treats his family. The biggest example of this is the fact that he does not drink, which makes him an oddity in my site. He is not necessarily against drinking, he did drink in the past, but he sees drinking as an irresponsible use of money that should be spent taking care of his family. Furthermore, he recognizes the harm that can result from drunkenness, such as fighting (not just from the alcohol he says, but also the fights that ensue between husband and wife when money that should be for the family is spent on alcohol), and seeks to avoid it. Another very respectable fact about him is that he recognizes the value of my mother’s house-work, something seemingly simple but key; such recognition is not always found even in socially developed countries.

As a worker, my father is a jack of all trades. Like all the other families here, his primary concern is the charcra (loosely translated, the farm, but not quite so extensive in its meaning; more like plot of land with the connotation of a place where food is grown included into it). The people in Collón primarily eat food that they themselves grow, and so taking good care of his chacras is essential for the well-being of the family. On days when he is not working in the chacra, my father works in cutting timber. He owns a chainsaw (a nice one, worth $800, which he takes very good care of), and with this he is able to earn up to 100 soles in a day ($33), but such high-paying work is rare and he is more likely to earn between 30 and 50 soles. This type of work, of course, does not come every day but when it does he always takes the opportunity. In addition to helping others cut their trees, he also practices tree planting, exclusively eucalyptus, and when his trees mature he cuts and sells them as well. My father also is experienced in construction of adobe houses, he built the one in which I live, and so if construction work is available he will do this as well. Finally, as other odd jobs arrive, such as helping dig the sewage lines or harvesting crops in another town, he works these as well. He is also responsible, as a voting member of the community (the father of each family), for working in faenas, which are community work days, and he often helps relatives as well, when extra hands are needed.

Fortunato’s personality is perhaps best described as jovial and kind. By anybody’s standards, he is a talker, he loves talking to and joking with people. This has been a real blessing for me because I often find it hard to relate to the people here, and his curiosity and love of speaking has allowed me some insight into the local culture that I would not have otherwise had. He is also, as I mentioned before, a generally good person. He is constantly thinking of his family first, and treats his relatives and neighbors with respect, for this he is well-respected here.

My Mother

I know my mother, Eulalia, more through interaction and observation than through communication. This is because her Spanish is very poor and so it is more difficult to have long conversations with her. Furthermore, the women here seem to be more timid around me than the men do, and so our gender difference is also obstructive.

When I think about Eulalia and who she is, the first thought that comes to my mind is that she is a hard woman, tough as nails. She wakes up early every morning to cook breakfast, and then, after serving the entire family, she begins her daily work. This work can be a little variable but it often involves taking care of the family’s sheep (we had two bulls as well but we sold them). I haven’t participated in this activity yet, but from my observations, this means taking them to pastures where they are able to eat and drink, and making sure nothing bad happens to them. While doing this, she is also taking care of my little sister who doesn’t go to school yet because she is four years old. This work is very important for the family because our livestock is the family’s investment. In addition to the products they bring (my mother makes blankets out of the wool), the family is able to sell the animals if they need money and so if they are not well kept the investment is a poor one.

Before taking the animals out, my mother also does all the laundry that needs to be done, and tidies up the house. Then, after the animals have been out for several hours, she returns them and begins to prepare dinner, which we usually eat around six or seven. Her other responsibilities include helping out with the chacra and maintaining the small garden we have behind our house.

As I said before, my mother does not talk nearly as much as my father. For this, I cannot say as much about her personality or who she is. She was also born here in Collón, and so has also lived her her entire life. She is a hard woman, but she loves her family deeply and worries a lot when they are not around. She also has a good sense of humor, and often makes jokes, but I usually don’t get them because they are in Quechua. Also, the humor here is really dry and so sometimes when she makes a joke to me in Spanish I just don’t get it. For example, two nights ago, after talking about how we would be traveling in the morning, she told me we weren’t going to have breakfast before leaving. That seemed reasonable to me, if we were leaving early, but she was just messing with me. Whenever she does this she just laughs and says ‘Chiste Brian!’ which means ‘I’m just joking Brian!’. They make fun of me because I don’t get the jokes here. Finally, to finish speaking of my mother, she likes to dance at town parties and she enjoys watching Huayno videos after dinner, before bed.

Overall, I respect both of my host-parents. They both work very hard and respect each other, while taking good care of their children and maintaining a generally positive attitude about their lives. They certainly have worries, mostly about their children and what’s going to happen to them when they’re older, but they don’t show this often. They are also both very fatalistic, which I think is a natural posture to take considering that any small accident could take them from ‘just getting by’ to no longer being able to care for themselves. They are also both religious, Catholic, but in more of a superstitious way than a pious ritualistic way.

So, I’ve already written a lot. I’ll end this blog post and finish with the rest of my family next time.

Best,

Brian

Jungle Pictures!!!

Are almost here. But I’m so excited to finally have pictures up from my new camera that I don’t want to wait to tell the world. So, check out my multimedia link or… just click here. All the albums but one are already uploaded.

Chau!

Brian

Off to the Jungle Pt 2

So, where I left off last time we were finally relaxing in Tarapoto. Ben had left us and Joe and I randomly bought a giant circular pool toy which has since been converted into a guest bed in my house. James randomly bought jewelry at 3:00 in the morning after leaving a club, we ate ant pizza for dinner, and finally we were ready and set to enter the real Peruvian jungle.

Our taxi left at 4:00 a.m. from Tarapoto and we were headed off to Yurimaguas to meet with our guide’s daughter Marivela who was going to feed us breakfast. We arrived to the port town around 6:00 a.m. and Marivela took us to her house where we tried to stay awake enough to enjoy the delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and sandwiches. Matt and I stayed at the house while the others went to the market to buy hammocks and we were told that the boat we were planning on taking for 20 soles was already full and so if we wanted to keep going we would have to take the speed boat which cost 100 soles. After some deliberation we decided that wasn’t worth losing a day over so we packed ourselves into the boat which almost immediately started sinking because it was back heavy. After a quick evacuation and a reevaluation of our seating positions, we began the five hour journey towards the small jungle town of Lagunas.

This part of the trip just felt good. While I was sure we were being ripped off, sitting on the front of a motorboat as we sped down one of the large tributaries of the Amazon river, I was completely happy (quite like right now as I’m listening to Bon Iver and drinking hot chocolate). For one, it was just nice being on a river again. Adding that to the sense of adventure I felt as we flew past small villages and the gneral lack of any pressure to do anything except enjoy my surroundings… it was nice.

Upon arriving in Lagunas we settled into our hostel and had lunch at our guide’s house, which consisted of roasted chicken and fried potatoes. Afterwards, we relaxed for a little bit and even had the chance to play a few soccer games with the locals (James, Matt, and I played). Matt hurt his foot early on which was too bad, but James and I won our first game but unfortunately lost our second. Then we had the most delicious coconut popcicles and went back to our hostel where we went to bed early.

We woke up bright and early the next day and after pushing our moto-taxis through the mud that was the road leading to the National Reserve Pacaya Samiria we finally arrived to the river where we would begin our expedition into the wild.

Well, sort of the wild. While these few days were definitely exciting it wasn’t quite as wild as I hoped. We didn’t see as much wildlife as I had expected we would, and I was especially disappointed about not getting to see the pink river dolphins. We did, however, get to see a few different species of monkeys, some sloths, various birds including a local eagle and parrots, a baby crocodile, termite mounds, large beehives, and some really cool trees. Basically, we were a bit unlucky. It rained while we were there which is a rarity during the month of July, and that dampened our prospects on seeing wildlife. Still, we did float down the river in traditional dug-out canoes and we had great guides. And, despite not seeing much wildlife, the scenery was still beautiful so I shouldn’t complain too much. While there, we slept at a local refuge and even got to run into other Peace Corps volunteers who were also in the area. I also went swimming and got attacked by a thousand little fish which was quite a surprise. I was told I could go swimming in a certain spot, which I could have, but nobody told me that there are lots of little sucker fish that nibble on you while you swim. So that was fun.

After a few days in the park, we returned to Lagunas where we spent the afternoon in hammocks preparing for two more days in hammocks. No complaints here, just relaxation. That evening we caught our boat to Iquitos, a slow moving passenger and freight boat that carried probably about 200 people along with few hundred or so chickens and some cattle. In this boat, there were no seats. Instead, everyone brought their own hammocks and strung them up in the passenger section of the boat where it was very crowded. Yet despite the closed quarters, everyone seemed to stay in good spirits and we had a very good time. We played lots of cards, mostly rummy and uno, and got to meet lots of interesting people including several hippies who were on their way to a Rainbow Gathering in Iquitos.

Finally, after almost 40 hours of river travel and some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, we arrived to our final destination, Iquitos. Our first order of business was finding a good hostel at which we succeeded beautifully. We found a cheap, clean, and comfortable hostel with a friendly owner and a laid back group of fellow travelers. We spent a lot of time here getting to know the other people and just hanging out.

Iquitos itself was just a fascinating city. It is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road (pop. 370,962), and it is filled with remnents of its opulent past, originally funded by rubber and then by natural gas. There are beautiful colonial buildings covered with tiles imported from Portugual, and there is even a building known as the Iron House that was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Now, Iquitos’ economy is centered mostly around the lumber industry, though production of oil, rum, and beer, as well as tourism, also keeps the city alive.

As we were tired from our traveling, we generally used the time here to relax, but there were some places and experiences there that definitely stood out. One of them was the Yellow Rose of Texas, a BBQ restaurant owned by a Texas ex-pat named Gerald Mayeaux who uses a a family secret 17  ingredient BBQ recipe to bring the south to the jungle. The food is fantastic and Gerald is soon opening up a new bar called Margaritaville which will be above the restaurant. He took us up to check it out and it looks incredible. The walls are covered with sports paraphernalia, there are plasma TVs always playing sports, a real billiards table, and an upstairs New Orleans themed area. We had a great time there.

Another great place we went to was the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm where we were able to see, as you can imagine, a lot of butterflies, as well as some orphaned animals including monkeys, a giant anteater, a jaguar, a tapir, a crocodile, a manitee, and turtles. So we saw more here than in our jungle expedition which was nice, I was glad to see wildlife, and the butterflies were incredible.

Next, the morning before leaving Iquitos, Joe and I went piranha fishing. We had actually gone the night before but had no success, so this time we went down to the docks and told the men there we wanted to catch piranhas. We would pay 10 soles each if they took us out and 20 soles each if we were happy with what we caught. Needless to say they figured it out that time and Joe and I caught a whole string of piranhas which we brought to the market and told a lady we would buy her juice and rice if she cooked them up for us. It was a great meal, although truth be told I found the piranha pretty bland. I should mention though that Iquitos is a juice paradise, for less than a dollar you can get an entire pitcher of fresh squeezed juice made out of a variety of different fruits including the familiar such as bananas, papayas, and oranges, and the unfamiliar, such as the delicious and healthy camu camu which has more Vitamin C than any other fruit in the world.

Finally, we decided to go to a professional soccer game, where we saw the powerhouse team from Lima, La Universidad, play against CNI de Iquitos. We all took sides, Joe and I for ‘la U’ (my host sister in Lima was a big fan) and the others for CNI. It wasn’t a terribly exciting game, the score remained 0-0 until the last five minutes when CNI scored a surprise goal and earned a big upset (La U was ranked #1 and CNI #14). Still, we had a lot of fun dressing up and Joe and I made the probably stupid decision to watch the second half from the ‘barra’ of the U which is basically where all the crazy fans are. It was kind of like a mosh pit on concrete bleachers with singing, dancing, pushing, flag burning, and fireworks. I spent more time watching out for myself and Joe than I did watching the game though, so unless I’m with Peruvian friends I probably wouldn’t do that again. James also made out really well having gone for CNI and we actually lost him for the night as he ended up at a random club making friends and getting free drinks all night becuase of the CNI shirt he was wearing.

Finally, we had a pleasant flight back to Lima where we spent a day before returning to our sites.

Whew, so I made it through. I’ve been back at site a week and a half now, but I’m already off again to Lambayeque for Environment In-Service-Training (IST). I’m bringing my host-brother and my host-cousin and we’ll be spending a few days at a private reserve learning about tree nurseries and eco-tourism. It should be good, although I’m so exhausted from traveling that really I just want to stay in my site. I’m starting to find some of the motivation I’ll need to actually do projects (famous last words) so we’ll see how things go. I started computer classes again and it seems that some of the kids are really finally starting to get it. Others were asking when we were going to study English again so maybe I’ll give teaching English another chance (no one came to the classes before). I’m starting research into a government program that supplies books for communities wanting to start libraries and my health post and I have set Sept. 2 as our next attempt at getting the surveys really under way. We’ll see what happens…

Best,

Brian

Off to the Jungle pt. 1

Sometimes an adventure you have is so involving that it is hard to talk about it when you first get back. I first experienced this on my return from Japan in 2006. People would ask me ‘How was Japan?’ Ehh… how am I supposed to answer that question? Good. Yeah it was good. Lots of Sushi.

So… how was the jungle? Good. Well okay, amazing. I already want to go back.

But, that’s not where this story begins. So in continuing with my inability to break the narrative style of this blog, here’s the trip from day one… more or less.

The trip started in Ancash of course with the visit of three friends from the States. Matt, a long-time friend from high school; Ben, another good friend and one of my fraternity brothers; and Marisa, a friend of Ben’s from studying abroad in Chile.

This part of the trip was one of my favorites. We had to rush around a little but we were all fresh into the journey and excited about seeing each other and that energy carried us a long way.

The first part of that experience was fairly local, for me. We took an easy hike to visit the ruins of Honkopampa that are near James’ site. Then, after walking through Pashpa (where James lives) we went to Collón where everyone got to meet my host family. This went very well and the newcomers got to try their hand at preparing and eating guinea pigs. We experienced every step in the process from pulling the live guinea pigs out of bags, to killing them, to cleaning and gutting them, to cooking them, and finally to eating them. It was quite a good time and it was really fun for me to see everything with ‘new eyes’ again. While everything at my site seems pretty much normal now to me, or if not normal at least expected, to my friends it was completely different. The language, the open-fire cooking, the latrine… everything was a new experience and it was fun watching and participating in that.

After this, we stayed the night at a friend’s lodge near Llanganuco. We cooked ourselves dinner and had a nice time of it, but we went to bed early to prepare for the next day which we spent hiking Lake 69. I was impressed with everyone’s ability to make it up there, it can be a pretty tough hike because of the altitude but we kept a good pace and stayed in good spirits.

Then, after my having to run back to my site to grab my passport which  I had forgotten, we left for Trujillo. There we had our first casualty as Marissa, who had already been sick while in Cusco before joining us, decided she ought to go back to Chile after falling sick again. Matt was sick too that day and so Ben and I wandered around Trujillo and did a tour of the ruins of Chan Chan. An impressive archeological site near the beach.

Next, was a quick stop in Cajamarca where we met up with the rest of our traveling group (Erica, James, and Joe). In an attractive colonial city known for its dairy we had great ice cream and also had the chance to visit local thermal baths which were fantastic (or maybe I was just excited to have my first hot bath in 10 months). We only spent the morning here though, as we had a lot of places to go with not much time, and we pressed on to Celendin where we spent the night visiting other volunteers and making new friends.

From Celendin we finally were making our approach into what is considered the jungle. We took a long but incredibly scenic bus ride to the small town of Tinga, from where we visited the overgrown ruins of Kuelap. An ancient fortress once ruled by the Chachapoyas (People of the Clouds). Kuelap was truly impressive to see, a giant wall surrounds the old village on the top of a hill, where only two narrow passages permit entrance making it extremely difficult to attack. The Incans had to seige the fortress for 8 months in order to defeat it, because they did not dare try to attack. Inside, many ruins of buildings still remain but as it is only recently being studied and excavated it is still overgrown.

After seeing Kuelap, we re-stationed ourselves in the city of Chachapoyas, the local regional capital, from where we visited the even more impressive Gocta Waterfall. This I think was my favorite part of the trip just for the sheer awesomeness of standing under a 771m (2,530 ft) waterfall.

After this, we went on to our next major destination which was Tarapoto. We didn’t do a lot there but we got a hotel by a pool and did some serious relaxation, which was well deserved after all the hard traveling we had done so far. It was also in Tarapoto where Ben had to leave us in order to get back to Santiago. Fortunately though, we picked up another Erica and so with sadness came joy.

Anyway, I need to get off the computer now but I will write about the rest of the jungle trip tomorrow (hopefully).

My best to you all, and pictures will be coming soon!

Brian

La Maratón Internacional de Pacasmayo 2009

So last weekend was quite exciting and fun. I traveled from Huaraz to the beach at Pacasmayo where I ran my first ever race. Now, normally I would be opposed to such needless running but I thought I would give it a shot and I actually really enjoyed myself! I ran the 21 kilometer race, which I finished in about 2 hours and 18 minutes (based on the time we started and when I finished, the official times are not yet posted). I was pretty happy with this considering I had done almost no running to train, but I was definitely pretty sore afterwards.

But as fun as seemingly imminent death from over-exertion was… the best part of the weekened was seeing old friends and making new ones. The Marathon was created and is organized by a Peace Corps Volunteer so it is a bit of a tradition now for volunteers to run or at least volunteer for the event. Peace Corps Peru even gives us a free vacation day to do this so many volunteers take advantage of this.

Sadly though, it was also the last time I was able to see fellow Ancash volunteer Tyler Brown (of Peace Corps video making fame). He decided that Peace Corps wasn’t right for him and so he is going home, and while it is pretty sad for all of us, especially the ‘Ancash Family’, I think he is making the decision that is best for him and so I wish him all the best of luck.

Finally, in other ’stupid but amazing things’ I’ve done lately. I did manage to put on some crampons and take a shot at Ishinca with James and his brother Joe. James’ host brother was our guide and did an excellent job, we spent one night camping and then an entire morning (starting at 3am) to make it almost to the top before turning around because of the altitude. But, almost to the top means we were at about 18,000 feet so none of us were complaining. The view was simply sublime at any rate. All we could see were white-capped mountains in every direction and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever experienced. But of course I didn’t have my camera (one more week until my new one!) but I will definitely post a few of James’ pictures once he posts them himself.  Or maybe I should just get better with words…

So, right now I am stuck in Huaraz because there is a national transportation strike but hopefully I will be able to head home shortly. Matt and Ben arrive next week on Tuesday so that is very exciting, and the jungle has been officially cleared so the next few weeks look great.

Chau

Brian

The Long Awaited Update

Note: I wrote this blog a week ago on the 25th of June but am just getting the opportunity to post it. I promise to post more often from now on : ), and I am getting my new camera in 12 days so pictures will finally be returning. Now…

So where to begin.

Life in Collón continues to be an enigma. Somehow, after almost seven months at living here I still fall short of words trying to describe what this experience means to me and what it is doing to me. After seven months, I feel remarkably unsuccessful, yet generally quite happy with my life. I question my efficacy here, yet have not once questioned my decision to come. I feel a lot of these conflicting feelings come from the two seemingly different lives I live. One, as a privileged American living in a fascinating Third World Country, and the other, as an akward gringo trying to implement a vague idea of sustainable change into a tiny Andean community. Both of these are me, but the person I am as I comfortably sip a beer in my favorite bar ‘13 Bujos’ and the person I am in site, still unable to deeply connect with anybody outside my host family and still utterly confused by Quechua, seem worlds apart. Let’s talk about this.

Life as a priveleged American has been good and promises to stay that way, and even to get better. Since my last blog, I spent Semana Santa (Holy Week, leading into Easter) at the beautiful beach of Mancora in the northern coast of Peru with many of my good friends from Peace Corps. Then, I got back to Ancash and went on some beautiful hikes, including a two-day stint on a portion of the Santa Cruz Trek, and a day hike to Lake 69, a beautiful mountain lagoon nestled at the foot of a glacier. I get to go into my capital city of Huaraz and kick back at least every couple of weeks. And I even got to take a few days to go to the coastal city of Chiclayo, where all the Environmental volunteers attended a conference together on Project Design Management So really, no complaints.

And the next several weeks are looking even better. This weekend, I climb my first mountain. Then, on July 5^th, I’ll get to return to Pacasmayo (where we had Reconnect) and see a bunch of friends after running a 21k and proving that just living above 10,000 feet keeps you in shape. A week later, my friends Matt Kuzara and Ben Royer will be coming my way to spend a few days hiking Ancash followed by a trip to the Peruvian Amazon. Yup, we’re going to the jungle! It’s great.

This life of seeing Peru and being with new and old friends is incredible. It keeps me motivated and always gives me something to look forward to. Yet it also stands in contrast to my life at site as a volunteer. I’ve already seen more of Peru 10x over than most of the people in my community ever will see. And buying a $4 meal in Huaraz is way out of most of my community’s budget. We literally have different realties.

So how do I fit into this rural Andean reality? Well, right now I’m not claiming to know the answer. I hope to find it, in fact learning how to connect with people I do not share a common culture with is a big part of the reason I joined the Peace Corps, but right now I am just lost. It’s all so different, even right now as I am in my room, I have the local Huayno music blaring above me, and I can hardly even hear my own thoughts, which seem to me at this moment disjointed and unclear. And I’m not even sure if it is the music, or the effort of trying to explain how I feel when I’m at site that is causing this.

And how do I feel at site? Generally pretty good, at least in terms of being in control of my emotions and of the stress that often accompanies this type of experience. My biggest challenge is, as it has been, feeling ill-equipped and unable to really be of help here. As always, I still remain optimistic for the future, but at the same time, I have mostly come to terms with the fact that I may not be the super-volunteer I once envisioned I would be (although I haven’t lost hope!). I do not take personal blame for this, I simply live in a hard site, as most of us do in Ancash. But it’s not the lack of basic services that makes service here more difficult, but it is the fact that after seven months I haven’t found anyone here that really wants to make things better. Sure, everyone wants things to be better. But no one has come to me and showed willingness to help me do this. And at the same time, I still do not feel integrated enough in the community to be able to identify those who would even want to help me in the first place.

And this leads to one of the great challenges of development, sustainability. I don’t want to just do projects by myself, because they wouldn’t last. Successful projects have to come from the grass-roots; if the community doesn’t have a stake in the project how will it last? Yet, I do not feel competent enough to get the community involved in a project. Why? 1) I am having a hard enough time just getting kids to come to the computer classes I give Monday-Wednesday, and to the English classes and Youth Group I have fruitlessly tried to start. If I can’t get small projects underway how can I expect commitment in larger projects. 2) I still have been unable to implement my surveys. I have been trying for months to get the health post to work with me on this, but they are under-staffed and always busy. There have been countless meetings that I have set up with them that have fallen through. And, if I don’t have my surveys implemented, I feel I have no ground to stand on when asking people to come help me. I can’t just say, ‘Hey, we should work on this because I feel it might be needed and helpful here’. That’s the outsider imposing his own arbitrary solutions on vague problems scenario. Rather, I want to be able to say ‘Hey, I just did these rockin’ surveys and it turns out there’s a mal-nutrition problem. 40 of you expressed interest in learning how to use home gardens fertilized with compost to combat this, so let’s have a meeting and start working’. But I can’t say that until the surveys have been done. And I can’t get the surveys done without the health post because I need the help of the local health promoters because they can navigate the dark waters of Quechua in a way that I can’t.

Breath.

So basically, I feel I need the surveys as a foundation to stand on. And for the life of me I can’t get them implemented. Add this to my general incompetance with learning Quechua, and my lack of any viable counter-part, and things just ‘ain’t gettin’ done’ (Yeah, the South is more endearing when you’re farther away).

So how do I plan on dealing with this? Well for now I am just pushing and pushing with the health post to get my surveys implemented. Our next tentative date for working on this is July 11^th. I hope and pray that this works. Otherwise, I am trying to continue involving myself in the life of the community. And that’s hard, mostly because of Quechua, it sucks never having a clue what is going on, but also because for the most part community integration involves an axe or a plow, and having been sick the last few weeks has drained me of energy to work.

Now. I feel as though I’ve been dancing around what I’ve wanted to say without really saying it. So these next few paragraphs will be in summary an attempt to give a little clarity and directness to my rambling.

Overall, life is good, actually really good. It certainly has its ups and downs, but like normal, the ups are way higher and more frequent than the downs, which mostly just involve a few occasional bouts of lonliness or feeling useless at site. As for my work, I have not accomplished nearly what I thought I would have at site. I do not blame or absolve myself of this, I just accept it and try to deal with what that means. What I have been doing, I have considered successful on a small scale. This success has been my computer classes. I teach typing three days a week in the afternoon and I see it as a productive activity that is giving real workable skills to the students here. These computer classes also serve to keep me sane. They let me know the kids and when the people in the community see me walking to school in the afternoons with my laptop, they assume I’m doing something useful. So that is good too.

As far as community integration, I feel I have reached a level of mixed success. Basically everyone knows me now, which is good, but I don’t know everyone yet, which is why I feel my success is mixed. Nevertheless, I feel generally accepted here, and the biggest challenge is simply relating to people. As I said before, the realities that we respectively come from are quite different. I can’t just go to a one of my friends here and honestly talk about the challenges I feel that I am facing here. And neither do I really feel that I am entering into their lives. Learning how to connect with the people here is, I think, one of the most important lessons I will learn in Peru. I feel that way because I believe that if I can connect with them here, I will have learned something about the shared experience of humanity and will have reminded myself that for the most part, people are just people – trying to get by, live a good life, and love their friends and family – and that if I can learn to see the connections that bind us together and recognize humanity in everyone I meet I will be a much better person for it. I think in some ways I’m already learning that. I am continually impressed by my host-father’s dedication to his family and his light-spirited enjoyment of a world that continually presents him and his own with difficult challenges. Just the other day, he called me over just to tell me how the ropes hanging to dry were dancing on the clothesline with the wind. (¡Mira como están bailando! Look how they’re dancing!). His poetic appreciation of the world around us struck me. This is the same man that worries because he knows his daughter isn’t getting enough good nutrition, and knows her education will be seriously lacking, but can’t do anything about it because of the economic circumstances in which he lives. Yet he still enjoys his life, and he is one of the most joyful and youthful almost fifty-year olds I know. It’s rather humbling all of that. And there’s something impressive in the way he greets every day with a witty smile and whistles his way off to his work every day.

Again, on reflection, I would not change a thing in my life right now. Work has not gone as well as I wanted it to, but I am very optimistic and I still feel there is a lot of potential for good work here. I have a great host-family and I generally feel accepted by my community, even though I have trouble getting to know them beyond superficial gestures. And finally, my life outside of site is simply amazing. In a month I will be floating in a canoe down the Amazon River! I am going to summit my first mountain this weekend and I have friends here (and friends and family back home) that I truly apreciate with all my heart (even if I’m bad at staying in touch) and would never trade for anything.

So, love you all ; )

Brian

Brief Update

Alright everyone,

So it has been way too long and I apologize. Time seems to just fly by here. Anyway, I just wanted to quickly post and say that I am still alive and doing well here. I haven’t been able to start many projects yet but I have been teaching computer classes and English classes and they have been going very well. I still feel rushed in and out of a site a lot but the rainy season has passed so that has changed my world. I’ve also been working on a survey with my health post that we will hopefully carry out next month. Anyway, a longer update will come soon but for now I miss you all and hope all is well. I bought a new camera too since my old one has been giving me many problems and so I’ll be able to return posting good pictures as well. Anyway sorry this isn’t longer. I’ve had a of issues with my computer (windows died and I had to switch to linux). My new wireless card comes in a couple weeks and then all should be well : ) ! So chau!

Love,

Best wishes,

Brian

So What Do You Think?

Alright,

So most of my blogging is narrative. My life is like this, etc. This is all well and good but I would like to occasionally write with more substance. Like the kind of stuff you, my readers, can learn about the Peru from.

Some of my ideas for these type blogs are: (lots of lists lately)

• Peruvian Food. I would take photos of different foods I eat (when my camera starts working), write about how they are made and how I like them. Maybe not even just typical dishes but local products like Sublime, the best Peruvian candy bar that I’ve found.
• Andean Culture. As I’m learning about the culture here I would like to blog about it. What makes it different? What do they believe?
• Peruvian History: What are the historical forces that define Peru?
• Outside Intervention: What are the affects of international NGO’s on poverty and social issues in Peru?

And I’ll freely admit I don’t have the wherewithal to tackle all of these yet. But I intend to learn and I intend to write about them.

So, here is my question for you:

What are the questions that you have about Peru? Is there anything you want to learn that I can write about? What interests you that I can give a Peruvian perspective of? Or do you just want more pictures?

You can either comment or send me an e-mail, but I want to share some of the power over the content of this blog. Giving me questions will make this blog more interesting for all of us and I think a lot could be learned. I like that. So thank you!

Chau!

Brian

So Life Can Be Challenging

Duh.

But here are my challenges right now, some related to the Peace Corps, some mildly related, some not at all.

For fun I’ll make a list (in no particular order).

1. I have a parasite. And while truthfully this is not all that bad (well I won’t bother you with details), I’ve been stuck in my capital city for five – going on six – days longer than I want to be. What are the implications? Tagging this onto Reconnect I’ve been gone from my community for what will be two weeks.  After this long I feel estranged from my community. It is really frustrating. I am really at a point where I want to start a project, I want to have some kind of success so I can validate my presence to myself and to my town, and instead I’m stuck in Huaraz with a bug eating my insides while I wait for my medication to arrive. Furthermore, we have official vacation time beginning in less than two weeks, and so even when I do get back I’ll just be leaving again. It was to the point where I was tempted to skip out on the trip just so I wouldn’t have to leave. I was talked down from that but I still find the whole situation very troubling. I worry that my community will think that I don’t care or that I am not happy there. This may not be true but it still bothers me.
2. This is almost the same issue but with a different twist. It is a challenge balancing my personal life with what I want to do in the community. For example, being stuck in Huaraz I have spent a fair deal of time trying to catch up a little on what is going on in the world and generally enjoy myself (no clubs but a few movies). I did do some ‘useful’ work, such as writing and printing surveys, but not as much as maybe I should have.  Yet on the other hand, I really want to try and understand what is going on in the world right now. It is a fascinating and scary time we are in, and it drives me crazy not ‘getting it’. But when I’m trying to figure stuff out, like have a basic grasp on the economic issues shaking the world, I am ignoring the needs of my community. Where should I put my focus? It would be great to spend all my time thinking about my community but I don’t want to get back to the U.S., apply for jobs and graduate schools, and have a weak and limited understanding of the events that shaped the world I’m coming back to. Ahh!
3. I went swimming in the ocean with my cell phone in my board shorts. This is stupid and my fault, but it still isn’t fun not being able to easily communicate with people.
4. …

OK, so I suppose it’s not so bad. I’ve mostly been worried this week about my influence in my community and about the impact I can have there. But really I have a of good going too. So to balance, here are things I am happy about or that I am looking forward to.

I am happy about…

1. The other Peace Corps volunteers here in Peru, as well as the Peru PC administration. The people I have met here are an amazing, talented, and adventurous group of people. I enjoy them so much on all different levels whether it is something simple like relaxing on the beach, something creative like making movies, something crazy like swimming in freezing glacial lagoons, or something intellectual like discussing development theories. You are all there every time and you make it an awesome experience. I love it : )
2. My host-family. We don’t always understand each other but they are patient with me and try to keep me updated on what is going on in the community. They are supportive and want me to succeed, and that is awesome.
3. Living in Ancash. It is so beautiful here. It is so beautiful here. Enough said.
4. You. My family, my friends. I have received great feedback about this blog and I appreciate that so much.  Thank you for caring about me and the experience I am having here. Wow. It is humbling.

And now, things I am looking forward to…

1. Success in my site. Despite the challenges, I actually do have a lot of hopes and expectations for what I can do in my site. I really do think that I can organize the community to take care of the trash program, and I think we might even get some native trees planted too. Add in some classes and maybe a library project, and I will be very proud of myself and my community.
2. Even more friends. I already said I’m happy about my friends here. I want to add that I am really looking forward to developing these relationships over these two years.
3. Growing as a person. I strive to be a relentless self-improver and I see these two years as a huge opportunity for my personal growth. I can’t wait to see who I will become.
4. Really understanding a different culture. When I leave I will understand a completely different culture. I will see what makes us different and what we share.  How cool.
5. Seeing my life begin to be laid out. I’ll have to make some big decisions in the next two years, especially concerning graduate school and the preliminary steps of a career. This is big. It’ll be interesting seeing my desires and ambitions narrow into a (more or less) set path.
6. The Jungle. This is just to brag really, but in July I’ll be lazily floating down the Amazon River with a delicious beer in my hand, enjoying the wildlife. That’s just too cool.

Alright, so that’s all. This blog has taught me that things aren’t as hard as I’ve been making them out to be the past few days, and that I have so much great stuff going for me here. I like the way this turned out.

Love you all,

Brian