The last week or so has been much less productive than I’d like. I can’t advance with my world map project (for now) because all of the teachers used my paint during the school’s anniversary, so I have to wait for more to be delivered. I got more bags and we planted 400 trees at the school and X more in the community tree nursery – which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t very time consuming. Since the kids missed so much of regular class during the week of the anniversary, the teachers have been more hesitant to let me into the classrooms during class time (since what I teach is technically off-subject). So I’ve been doing a lot of yoga again. I guess I’ve lost 8-10lbs in the last few months. Which is exciting, except that I am still currently 25lbs heavier than I was when I got to Peru. What. The. Hell.
Halloween was not very eventful – Brad, Jared, and I walked to a site we’ve been developing for the new volunteer that is going to arrive in a few weeks to find him a host family. It went really well. Then we made s’mores at Brad’s hobo house and watched the Dark Night. No costumes. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a 6. At least we were together 
Dia de los Muertos was interesting to see here. Last year, this time I was still in training in Chaclacayo (weird – it’s been a really long year). Like the celebration I saw last year, there was a massive event at the cemetery – everyone brought flowers for their relatives and then got really drunk. But later that night, the town gathered in a central location to watch what they call “cortamontes”. This involves cutting down 4 eucalyptus trees that are about a year old – relatively tall (eucalyptus grows fast). Then they “plant” these trees in a row, using 2×4s… not even shovels… they pack them into holes in the ground with dirt around them. Everyone is mostly wasted by this point, so the really really drunk people and the children dance around these trees, which have been “decorated” with balloons. Several hours later, the men cut the trees down again. In the dark. Drunk.
I didn’t stay long because the sheer number of drunk men who finally worked up the courage to talk to me was unbelievable. I would be standing there minding my own business, when suddenly I would feel someone really really close to me behind me – definitely in my personal space. I look around and a creepy drunk man would say “oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable! Gringa! Gringa! Dance with me, gringa!”. No. I’ve been here long enough to know that I don’t even have to do that anymore. Or. “gringa! I told everyone we would end up together! You’re going to have my babies, gringa!” No. No I am not.
Weird things a brewin.
One of the things I love most about my host family is that they are always buying baby animals. We have so many babies running around: 3 kittens, 2 puppies, a lamb, and 2 piglets – all under 6 months old. It’s freaking awesome. The kittens are like a month old. It kills me.
Lastly – Proyecto Huascaran has come to my town. What does this mean? It means that we are experimenting with having internet. It isn’t quite set up yet, but at the very least, when we have electricity, I should be able to go to the computer room and use the internet. They’re saying they’re going to install an antenna so that people can have wireless throughout the whole town, but I’ll believe it when I see it. At any rate, please don’t expect me to be any more accessible than I currently am, but the possibility exists that I will be able to have internet more frequently than once every 2 weeks.
That’s all folks!
Till next time.
mother nature’s quite a lady, but you’re the one i need. November 8, 2009
there’s a time and a place for everything and it’s called college. November 7, 2009
This month we had our regional meeting in a different city, which was a nice change of pace – we even made it out to spend some time at the beach, which is awesome because rainy season has started in the mountains and the one thing I’m already most starved for is THE SUN. We were celebrating a few birthdays and we decided to get one of the guys a stripper for his birthday. Normally, this is a good idea. However, we’re all operating on volunteers’ salaries and paying for a stripper to come out to the hotel is expensive… not to mention sketchy. So we decided to just take him to a strip club. This was by far the cleanest and fanciest strip club I have ever been in… it still had a pretty funky smell to it, but all things considered… even the girls weren’t too ugly. I guess we were the first girls to ever enter the building and they didn’t know what to think. The bouncer tried to explain to us what kind of establishment they were and was surprised when we told him we completely understood what was happening. When we walked inside, we scared off most of the dancers, which put a damper on our plans. We ordered a pitcher of beer and waited for them to come back out. After about an hour, our buddy finds one that he like and I approach her to see how much a lap dance would be. She tells me to ask the bartender. I ask him and he tells me they don’t do that here. What kind of establishment is this?! What kind of strip club doesn’t offer lap dances? I sent Sara up to go talk to her, maybe she could talk her into something. We watched her gesticulate wildly for quite some time and when she comes back she tells us that he just has to buy her a drink and then they can go into the “private dance booth”. We give him some money and he goes over there to buy her a drink. She tells him that he needs to buy 2 shots for 60 soles a piece and then the dance is going to cost 60 soles more. We love our friend… but not enough to pay 60 dollars for a lap dance. So we leave, dejected.
When we get back to the hotel, we find that there is a wedding in full swing. The stage is just on the opposite side of the wall of our room. They will be celebrating until 5am.
The next morning, I get on a bus to Lima and about halfway there I look out of the window to see seven men carrying a corpse out of a ditch. Then I realized that this whole series of events doesn’t even phase me anymore. This is my life here. Oh Peru.
the mystery of iniquity November 7, 2009
This week marks the anniversary of the school. The town is bustling with activity to prepare: dance practice, band practice, sports, cleaning the classrooms, painting the school, finishing projects. There’s a lot of excitement, but not a lot of time to work with me, so I haven’t been as busy as usual.
I think we may have hit the limit of what people are willing to donate to the museum project. The next step is to figure out who has moved into the cities and send them notifications to see if they’ll be willing to donate something they’ve taken with them.
Since my first day in my new site I have been trying to get the attention of the community president to organize a tree planting session. He has been less than forthcoming. Finally, after about 4 months I got him to agree to a meeting at least and he couldn’t even bother to show up for that. He says that they are super busy taking care of the trout farm project – they have to feed the trout 3 times a day to fatten them up and they’re a pretty far walk from the center of the community. So instead, he pawned me off on CORENA, the committee for natural resources, made up of 6 women. These women and I planted 600 trees in 2 days. More than I have accomplished in 4 months trying to work with the men. Interesting.
I still have a ton of seeds left over, so I just need to pick up some more bags when I go to Lima.
That’s all there really is to write about this time around. Oh! I almost forgot… the whole communist flag saga…
Well, the security officer came up to my site with an investigator to check it out and the consensus is that some drunk A-hole was trying to scare the authorities because he disagrees with their politics. Elaborate and not funny. But not terrorists. They’ve narrowed down the list of suspects to 4 or 5 people and asked for the help of the provincial police in identifying who it was. But the police never came. Apparently, it’s too far of a drive and they just don’t care enough to do it. So… everyone has moved on and it is basically just like it never happened.
