OK, one more cumpleaños

Theresa,
A parade of children carrying balloons and a momma

with a baby on her back to celebrate your birthday!

They should make it to your neighborhood sometime next month.

(Sorry for the delay, but we´re on "Peruvian Time")

Water Wars

Have you ever lived in a third world country?

Just before I left for Peru, I met a customer at work who had spent a lot of time living in Lima. After having met a potential Spanish conversation partner from Columbia who warned me against all the "danger" in Peru, I was thrilled to meet someone who had actually lived there before, someone who could give me the "real story" about what to expect. But I was uncomfortable when she asked me about living in a third world country. I don´t know whether Peru technically qualifies as a "third world country" or not, but thinking of my destination as a country much less-developed than my first-world U.S. home was something I hadn´t really done before hearing this question.

When I thought about a trip to Peru, what came to mind were things like seeing Machu Picchu, learning to speak Spanish better, and taking an adventure of a lifetime because I have the freedom at this point in my life to explore and see a different part of the world. In January, I was ready to have my ideas of simplicity shaken; however, I didn´t imagine things like 22-hour/never-ending bus rides with seats that didn´t recline, curves that were intolerable for my stomach, and un-crossible flood waters. I didn´t imagine waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath because I wasn´t adjusted to the altitude. I didn´t imagine lighting a gas stove with a match every time I wanted to make tea or cook an egg (a task that sounds simple, but left me afraid of blowing up the kitchen or loosing my eyebrows the first few times). I didn´t imagine going more than 24 hours without running water.

Matthew´s last post was about how easy it is to go on with our daily lives when the electricity randomly goes out. We loose our lights, television, and internet access (which we have to walk down the block to use anyway), so we just find a flashlight or light a candle and go on with whatever we were doing before. Living without running water is a completely different story.

Tuesday afternoon, we came back from school for a quick stop before lunch and found that there was no water. Matthew had a toilet emergency and decided to use the restroom, even though flushing was not a possibility. When we came back much later, the water was back on and all was well, or so we thought. I boiled water for tea and put the excess in our thermos, not knowing this was to be our last water gathering opportunity for more than a day. We went out to eat pollo a la brasa with our Idaho friends Dan and Diane (our first visitors!) and when we came back, had the enjoyment of discovering we were again without water.

It wasn´t a big deal to me at that point because we had gone a night without water before. The last time, we just had to brush our teeth using bottled water and the water was back on in the morning, without any major lifestyle changes. This time, it was a bigger deal for Matthew, who was still experiencing some uncomfortable stomach action and was worried he´d have to use the toilet again during the night. And guess what? He did.

In the morning, we had no functioning toilet and a lovely smell developing in the bathroom. Also, it was the "other" day in my "every other day" shower routine, so I had to skip that. I just applied more deodorant and hoped for the best in our long day to come.

Matthew and I had been asked to be the "padrinos" of a fifth grade class for the school´s olympic day, and had to be at the school early to deliver the new volley and soccer balls that we had bought as their gifts. When we ran back to the house between gift delivery and the torch lighting ceremony to grab some last-minute things for our day at the stadium, I locked the key in the room. Great addition to an already annoying situation. We left for the stadium and joined the parade of students/athletes, got decorated in streamers and I was given a boquet of roses (complete with thorns, thank you very much), and stayed as long as we could bear the sun, which was until about 11:30. (Approprately enough, the kids were playing in an empty pool during a break between olympic events, and yes, sliding down that slide and jumping off before the drop into the deep end.)

Luckily, the kitchen that we share with the other family who lives in our house is unlocked during the day, so we relaxed there until our sobrina, Dana, came home from preschool and could crawl through the tiny window in the closet next to the room and unlock the door from the inside (of course, no copy of our key exists). Matthew took a nap on the couch while I jealously watched our neighbor wash her clothes in her courtyard.

After Dana saved the day, Matthew and I gathered all the empty plastic bottles we had acquired from buying drinkable water and headed to the school to collect as much water as we could. I loved the look on one of the student´s faces as he tried to figure out what we were doing. After several puzzling minutes, he asked if we were going to sell the water. He was astonished to find out that we didn´t have any water in our house. We headed back to boil some of the water to have some that would be safe for drinking and finally flushed the toilet using a great portion of our supply (did you know it takes more than 2 liters of water for one flush??).

By the time I excitedly yelled "Hay agua!" ("There´s water!") around 9 p.m., resourceful Roxana had already gathered several large tubs of water over a period of hours by waiting for a bucket to fill with the sink downstairs that, for some reason, let out water in drips. I felt such joy to be able to brush my teeth with running water, to flush the toilet and wash my face without a problem. By the time I woke up the next morning, Roxana had already cleaned the entire bathroom, showered, bathed Dana, washed all the dishes that had accumulated over the past day, and cooked breakfast. Super Mom.

It was great to continue life as normal. I showered, with a little fear that the water would go off as I was all soapy, but no problems for me. A little later, the water was off again as Matthew was about to shower, but luckily came back on in about 10 minutes.

It´s the fact that I had no control over whether the water is on or off that bothered me the most. It´s not that I used up my supply and the water ran out; some external force had control over whether we had running water or not. The whole lack of water ordeal was probably caused by some accident associated with the new road that is getting "installed" here in town. Having the water turned off is not a typical thing here, or probably in most of Peru. But it didn´t seem like people were fazed by it, just annoyed at the extra work to get water. I just kept thinking about how different things would be in a similar situation in the U.S. (which, as you might imagine, isn´t the best thing to do in a situation like that). For me, it was another harsh reminder of how fortunate I have been, and that I shouldn´t take running water for granted.

Someone told me that it has been predicted that the next big wars are going to be over water. I can completely imagine and understand this. Water is so important for daily life, much more than electricity. In this past experience not many people were without water, so we could gather water from the school and from the drippy sink downstairs. But what if the majority was without water? Who would be as willing to share?

Even though the water is icy, I´m happy I can shower again. And you can believe I´m not the only one!

Note (Saturday 22 May): I returned to the house last night after publishing this post and learned there had been a flood in the kitchen! Roxana had come home during the day to find the water turned off again. She left for Cusco and accidentally left the faucet on full force without knowing, as no water was coming out at the time. The owner of the house came upstairs later in the afternoon to find several inches of water covering the entire kitchen after she noticed some water leaking through the ceiling downstairs. Although some things are still drying out, nothing was ruined, not even the projector that was sitting in a box on the floor. Feast or famine. Flood or drought? AND btw, the water went off this morning again. Haven´t been home all day, so we´re crossing our fingers that it´s back on by now.

Note (Tuesday 25 May): The water was not back on Saturday night when we got home, and hasn´t been turned on since then. We´ve been surviving with a giant tub full of water from a hose connected to the roof next door. The reason we´re without water is because they´re installing new pipes downstairs, and as it´s already late, I have no hope that it´ll be done today. Today the landlady told me that the water was going to be turned on very soon when I asked to fill another bucket so I could flush the toilet. Hardly anything is ever finished "on schedule." sigh. Maybe tomorrow?

some thoughts and ranting.

Recently, Sara and I have been talking about how our lives will unfold with new experience and ideas about the world once we return home. I must admit I start to feel a little stressed and depressed at the thought of returning to the States. (I had this same problem when I was retuning from Europe.) Once I start traveling, I want to keep exploring to see what is out in the world; to see other views of life and broaden my world view. After traveling abroad, it is impossible to view home (the States) in the same way. I was challenged a bit in my world view when I was in Ireland, walking to school and back and having to line-dry my clothes for the first time in my life, and learning who has the right of way when a herd of sheep is coming at you. Ireland has a slower pace of life which let me see how the States has a culture of  "I need something and I need it now."

Before I start this rant, I want to say that part of what adds stress to my thinking process is that now I have to figure out my next step in life and I have no idea where it will take me. I don´t even know where I want to live. If anyone has some ideas, or job connections let me know.

I can look back at my time in Ireland and think "that was nothing (in terms of culture shock)." Now, I am a bit concerned about reverse culture shock. Here in Peru, there is not really a way of living simply; everyday-life is simple. Hot water, dish washers, washing machines...any machine in concidered a commodity. I have gone several months without hot water, washing machine, microwave, or refrigerator and I have had no problems at all. In the states, I feel a lot of the mentioned machinery is a nessisity for many Americans, but really they just add stress and headaches to life. For example, "Oh no, the fridge is broken and my month´s rations of food is going to ruin." Or, "Oh no, the power is out. How are we going to survive without our microwave and electric stove, I am going to starve." When the power goes out here, we light candles and life continues, hardly missing a beat. No problem. It has been a blessing to live without my robot assistance. No car that can break down and require a $400 repair (more than a teacher´s monthly salery at our school).

Does this mean I will come home and cut the addiction of electricity? Probably not, but I will be aware that doing things by hand, like washing clothes, allows time to slow down and reflect. I probably will not have that much reflection time while washing clothes once I return (I also won´t have back pain from using a sink designed for someone a foot shorter than me), but I will be aware of the energy I use.

The US culture really forces us to use machines. How many people reading this live close enough to his or her work to walk, or can take a bus. I probably just described more than 90% of Peru. Even some of the teachers at our school commute one hour to work by bus, and that bus ride only costs 1sol (or 33 cents). Let me also tell you that gasoline costs the same here as it does in the States. Yeah, the rides might be a little uncomfortable at times and an old guy might try to stick his hand in you pocket to get your wallet, but rides are available. 

Whenever I travel, I realize things in the US that are extreamly outdated in comparison to other countries. The US just passed a bill for some sort of universal healthcare, while Peru has had more affordable healthcare since before it had widespread electricty. Peru also has public trasportion available to the masses. I am not saying the US sucks and Peru rules; Peru has its own problems, like unsafe working conditions and not supplying a livable wage (wage is something else lagging behind when compared to Europe, Canada and Australia).

The other day I stumbled upon some stats of the Human Development Index and the US is ranked 13th. The US ranks 83rd in the Peace Keeping Index. Seeing how hard it has been for the US to change and how upset some people got over this change makes me think that maybe the population of the US is just too large. We have a democracy (majority vote government) meaning that when there is a vote, potentially 149 million people are left unhappy. Peru has an estimated population of 22-24 million (its hard to count those who live in the jungle). That is roughly the population of Illinois.

One money fact that is a bit shocking to me now: back in January in the Miami airport, Sara and I purchased a small mocha from Starbucks to break some large bills. That small mocha cost $3.90, which means that just 8 of those small mochas would pay for my half of each month´s rent. Wow.

El Último Cumpleaños

Matthew and I celebrated Elias´ birthday Wednesday with him and his family, including his brother Roberto (dancing fiend in red) who had his birthday just a few days earlier.

We brought Elias bread from Oropesa (our town is nationally famous for its bread) and some no-bake "cookies" that didn´t turn out as well as I had hoped. After I re-formed the delicious blobs to sort of resemble cookies on a plate after our long trek to his house, I walked around offering them to guests who had the funniest looks on their faces. Many accepted and tried out my strange looking sticky cookies, but one man refused! After I have tried so many things including a cuy that still had a claw and nails, he says "no gracias"! Woah. I served most of the cookies, or tried to, and then sat down to dinner.

Although I was a champ finishing my cuy the last time we were at Elias´ house, I couldn´t quite plow through my plate the same way the other night. Matthew and I arrived later than a lot of people, so only one other guest was still eating when we got there and I felt like everyone was watching us eat and waiting to start dancing. We were served a special dish from Cusco that is only served during this time of year, which included a mountain of food- a special grilled corn, a piece of chicken, a piece of sheep, a quarter cuy, some sort of deep fried vegetable goodness, sea weed, and fish eggs. I tried, I really did. I wanted to be grateful and not refuse the hospitality, but I couldn´t do the eggs (have you ever had the crunchy treat?) or the seaweed. Wasn´t sure what the sheep was, just looked like a scary piece of meat, or some part of an animal and when I couldn´t bite into it on the first try, it went into my pile of bones, eggs, seaweed. I shamefully turned in my half-eaten plate after I did my best.

The rest of the night was filled with lots of cerveza and lots of dancing. Due to the shortage of female guests, I was asked to dance many times. I didn´t mind dancing and wasn´t made fun of too badly this time for my gringa dance skills. PLUS, while I was dancing, it was less likely that I´d be handed a cup full of Peruvian beer! My most frequent partner was Roberto and he had some mad skills. I just tried to imitate him and all was well. I didn´t care too much for one particular partner who liked to dance a little too closely for my comfort, but all I had to say were some magic words, "ayudame, Mateo!" and my partner would move back to a safe distance.

Because my Peru trip is winding down and I´m heading home in June, this may have been my last Peruvian Party and I´m ok with that. I just can´t do it like they do, partying until 5 a.m. on a school night.

Happy Birthday to everyone celebrating today, especially you, Miss Jenny Popp! And may your tomorrow be nothing like our yesterday.

 

¡El Dia de la Madre!

Congratulations, Graduate

Hello Erin,

I know you are probably pissed because this is the second graduation of yours that I have missed because I have been exploring foreign countries. I just want to say Congratulations, Graduate. ¡Te Felicitas!

There are some others who want to congratuate you as well. All of these photos come from the town where  I currently live, in no particular order.

Bugs Bunny says congratulations! He is a sign for a shop called Bugs Bunny.

This cow says congratulations.

This sheep says congratulations, so did three others, but they did not
want to pose for the camera and kept showing their back ends.

These caged birds say congratulations.

This kitten says congratulations.

This rooster says cockel-doodle-do.

These field geese say congratulations.

(Look hard, they´re there. If we believe they´re there, they´re there alive and true!)

This dog says congratulations.

This blured donkey says congratulations.

(After he said congradulations, he rolled around on the ground to scratch his back.)

I am missing a few things: a scary bread woman statue said congratulations, and so did a Jesus statue, but he was from Cusco. We were also going to have a drink in your honor but never made it, some other day maybe. Just know that I did eat a chocolate donut to celebrate your graduation. It had been was cut in half and lathered with custard filling. It was delicious.

Let the Celebration Begin!

This time, the party is for all the mothers! Que lindo. The students at our school spent the last week preparing for today, a giant celebration for Mother´s Day (Dia de la Madre).

Each grade prepared some sort of musical performance to honor their mothers, in addition to the posters hanging outside each classroom. Although some of their song choices were puzzling (Michael Jackson´s Thriller...whaaa??) , all of the groups were entertaining.

Here are some photos highlighting the day:

As nothing started at 10 as promised, Matthew and I had time to see the posters for the mothers outside each class. Here is the project I helped the 5-year-olds complete Wednesday. It was very involved, including coloring the mom´s skin SKIN COLOR (not pink or orange) using horizontal and vertical lines ONLY, gluing pieces of colored paper and gems to the skirts, then gluing the mom to another piece of colored paper.

The fifth graders wanted to dance to Thriller and their teachers appealed to Matthew for dance instructions. Here he is trying to enlighten them yesterday with moves he learned on youtube. (Reportedly, no one has seen the video.)

Here are the kids dancing today, in full costume...still lacking cohesive coreography. A for effort, though. They opened the scene with tombstones and fit three kids in one small box!

The tenth graders did a traditional dance. Very coordinated, very impressive. At one point the girls were like bulls, charging towards the red blanket.

Then, they were spun out and back in to the boys with whips. The dance ended with one pair dancing and a contender fighting for her. While they were busy, a third boy carried her away!

For the finale, a photo from another school program. Our "sobrina" is the one on her toes. The four-year-olds required extensive costuming for 3 minutes of jumping around!

So, that´s how we celebrated Mother´s Day at school. Not surprisingly, we heard that Sunday will be full of parties and beer. Mom, don´t worry, I´ll have one for you!

P.S. If you´re confused about the first photo, it comes from the first grade´s poster for the mothers. Many of the images honoring mothers that I have seen involve an infant nursing. I´m not completely sure why...but I think it´s better than using the song one class was learning...it included lyrics about mom sweeping the floor and taking out the garbage. hrm.

cuy and the question of a lifetime

We are currently experiencing a nice pleasant blue sky Sunday (great for laundry) and what better thing to do than make a blog post.

The other day, I am not sure which day, just the other day. Sara and I got an invite to visit Azul ("blue") Wasi("house" in Quechua). It´s a blue house that is home to 12 orphans or abandadoned boys on the outskirts of town. We had a bit of trouble finding it at first, but lucky for us, Sara is kinda a celebrity in town and some of her admirerers (students) started shouting her name to say hello and told us where to find it. We were greeted by a resident of the house who gave us a tour. It is a program that is completely funded by a private donor and frequently has extraneros volunteer there (when we visited there were two gringos, Matthew from Iowa and some other guy from the Holland). I am going to visit again tomorrow (Monday) to talk to the jefe ("boss") and probably help some kids with homework and play some soccer.

I do not have any photos of Azul Wasi so here is a photo of a cow we passed on the way there

One occurance that is always a bit odd while traveling is that when I meet a white person, it does not mean he or she speaks English, so when we met the volunteers at Azul Wasi we spoke the whole time in Spanish, even after we knew the other Matthew was from Iowa. It was fun and I actually knew what was being said.

Ok fast-forward to yesterday.

We ended up attending another accidental party. We went to visit the house of Elias to possibly purchase a charango (see the Music Stuffs post). We arrived and were told it is his wife´s birthday, and we all know that Peruvians love their birthday parties, and this one was no exception. We were given Chica (a fermented corn beer), wine, and coke mixed with beer, but best of all we got to try our very first cuy (guinea pig). The former vegetatian Sara dug right in and started with the innards (heart and other organs) and was picking meat off the rib bones in no time flat. It was actually pretty good but the skin was a little rough to eat. We ate the whole thing with our fingers (the only way to do it). The only part that bothered me was seeing the claws...and I was lucky enough to get a head as well. We liked it so much we are going to eat it again on May 12 for Elias´s birthday.

And now the question of all questions.

This is what I look at everyday, a real head scratcher

Since living in Oropesa I have been renting a room. In this room is my bed and next to my bed is the back side of a desk (the front side faces Sara´s bed and separates our "rooms") to make this desk a bit more pleasant to look at, it is covered with a blanket with a picture of Papa Noel. The question I ponder every night before I sleep is this: Why is Papa Noel telling us to be quiet, with a finger to his lips, while he is also holding onto a bell? That just seems silly, Papa Noel.

And since I do not have many photos to share on this post, here is one of the Incan king and me dancing.