On the spot

Hey everyone, I'm just haning out in Huancayo for the weekend and decided to do a "on the fly" blog and just type without composing something beforehand....so here goes...

We decided to come to Huancayo after having our PEPFAR reunion in Yauyos. It stands for The Presidents (USA) Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, and is a new initiative that is happening all over the world with Peace Corps volunteers and NGO's. The reunion went well, granted just trying to get the presenters to Yauyos was something in need of "Emergency Relief" itself. The presenters were coming from Canete and weren't familiar with the area and pretty much spent a day and a half just trying to get to the town we recomended them going to in the first place! Oh well, once the two day reunion (usually three days without hectic traveling) got started we were able to become incredibly informed on the current stats and findings of AIDS/HIV. We (me and my volunteer buddies from Yauyos) all brought one student, a professor, and a health post worker to the presentation and by the last day we all were able to develop a mini-project for our sites to start promoting AIDS/HIV prevention. I would say all in all it went well, we were able to "capacitar" our host country counterparts from the health posts, and we all develop small projects for our sites and learned how to ask for funds in the future.

Like I said, we decided to come to Huancayo to visit the ATM since we all pretty much ran out of money on travel and hotels during the PEPFAR reunion, and sadly enough this will probably be one of the last, if not the last, times we all get together in Huancayo before the other Yauyoiners head out and their replacements come in.

In site I've happily started my environmental class with the elementary (primaria) students; see picture-----

So as it stands now, I pretty much have classes all week; Mon, Wed, Fri with the little ones and Tues, Thurs with the Jr. High/High Schoolers. Its going good so far, and the elementary kids are such a positive energy boost. Every time I walk into the class I get a heartfelt "Buenos dias joven Markos!" and when I have to skip a class because of some sort of travel outside of my site I definitly hear about it the next day from the kids. I'm really glad I held off on teaching with the little kids because now I have a nice, energetic and positive way to start my second year.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my Christmas trip in my blog yet, but we've bought the tickets and will be home Dec 19th-9 Jan. As Dad calls it, it will be the "Winter Concert Tour" for Frieda and I, and i'm super excited to bee-bop around the country.

I'm starting to realize that my second year will probably have much more traveling around Peru than I gave myself in my first year. Dad and Rhonda have already said they want to come and visit, and maybe I can get some more of you fearless travelers to take the leap and come see Peru.

I also want to start a blog discussion if possible. The question I propose is; Should I go to Med-School? Since i'm considering being a nurse, I thought I might as well consider being a doctor as well. Let me know what you think or share any personal stories or ideas, I'd love to hear from you.

Alright, we're about to go and get some lunch so I'll talk to you all later!

A touch too heady for my taste.

After reading a few of my piers’ blogs I realized I was doing a bit too much analyzing and not enough explaining of my service. Of course there is a healthy dose of both, but I feel its time I got back to PC Goal #3, which talks about creating a better understanding of the culture we live with. So with that said, I’d like to start rambling if you’ll permit me...

Like I posted before, we successfully transformed 9, 55 gal. drums into public trash cans to try and help the problem of people throwing trash in the river, (incriminating pictures to come.) I think the most interesting part is now that trash management is being discussed more and more, and the towns people are more and more self-conscious of tossing trash into their water source, that many of the towns people are simply going outside what’s considered the village limits of Miraflores and dumping their trash there; there is some thought process going on that I don’t understand that is making those town members think it better to go a few kilometers to dump trash, then right in their own plaza with the trash cans. It’s some sort of “cultural, barrier analysis” thing that the PC office just loves to talk about and is the buzz word in development work, but to me it’s just the slow process of breaking bad habits. But overall there are several people in my town that are really motivated about getting this trash management system off the ground; one of the most important is the town’s mayor. He actually approached me about creating a community landfill, and we’re hoping to have it completed by this month! Score one for the environment and the river! But keep in mind I did just see a newly posted propaganda sign for the mayor as he intends to run again for the next term, and so we can unwittingly assume it’s more of a political move to say he’s completed this project than anything, but in this case I guess I can look past the means to the end.

As I said before there are several other motivated individuals, another one of them being Sra. Orivia. She and I, (her being the invited community partner because she is part of the Municipality Board,) went to a Peace Corps sponsored seminar in Trujillo, Peru about environmental projects and small donations for projects. During the seminar and especially afterwards, she kept pulling me aside to tell me her thoughts and ideas and what projects she wants to start in Miraflores! Score one for more sustainable community development!

My environmental/English class is doing okay, I get about 5-7 kids that come pretty regularly. I’m actually pretty proud with how much about environmental topics they already know, and how easy it makes it to talk about protecting the environment. I’m a firm believer that this information that we give the students sinks in somewhere in their mind grapes, and the hope is that after the hormones level out in their brain a bit they will actually be able to apply some of the stuff we are teaching them; but isn’t that the hope of any teacher of adolescents across the globe!

Miraflores also received a new Agro-Pecuaria teacher, (Agro-pecuraria is pretty much like 4-H), who is full of newcomer’s motivation and has plans to build a green-house in the school. We’ve also developed a tree planting idea where each kid will plant 6-10 trees for points. Pretty much 6 trees are the minimum amount of points to pass and 10 trees is an “A”. After spending as much time with the kids as I have I can only imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of 6er’s, but there are a few kids who I know will step up to the 10 mark. I think the biggest problem with trying to promote environmentally conscious students here in Miraflores is that the majority all know (or hope) that they will just leave after grado sexto, which is their equivalent to high-school, to look for work in the city. The thing is, is that when I first arrived all of the grado sexto students left after promotion, and at least 4 of the 7 have returned already; some with kids! So for now, 6 trees per kid is just fine, the trees should have some good growth on them by the time they come back from the city.

On a personal note, I have to admit I’m growing more and more sad as we march towards November, because in November all of my fellow Yauyos volunteers that were here one year before me will be leaving. Of course I’m excited to get to know a whole new group of volunteers after then, but it kind of sucks to think I couldn’t do the full two years with one group and form some really strong bonds.

We are also approaching the rainy season again, which means more grass for the cows and the start of planting season! I’ve pretty much seen the full circle of the subsistence living here, from planting to harvesting, and its pretty neat to know that this process has pretty much been doing its thang’ since the time of the Incans. Now, if only I can find some tools that are a bit more my size, I might be a bit more inclined to spend more hours in the fields ; )

Once again, I hope you are all safe, happy and healthy, and I’ll check back in soon.

Looking back on a year.

I’m about one week from when I left for the Peace Corps, one year ago. Its like a birthday in a way, except at this birthday I actually have a good response if someone asks me, “how do you feel to be one year older.” I would say I feel fairly accomplished with my service thus far. With my community, we’ve made public trash cans, planted hundreds of trees, and even dug an irrigation canal on the side of a mountain just to get water to them. I’ve given classes of English and Environment, and with the students we’ve dug mico-landfills, started composting, and we’ve even begun separating the trash at the school and saving our recyclables. I’m completing my goals as an Environmental Volunteer and I’m very impressed with how far my Spanish has come. So overall, my spirits are high...atleast as far as my projects go.

But another part of having the earth complete another circuit around the sun and watching a year tick by, is gaining more knowledge and perspective than the year before. As my Spanish improves I’m able to have more in-depth conversations with Peruvians, and I’m truly starting to see the true nature of their hearts and minds. I’m seeing that they are proud of their country, but can’t see how to develop their country without outside help. They see the USA as the end of all means, and if its not given to them it may not be worth trying to get. I see radical Peruvians tired of being exploited by outside organizations, and I see placid Peruvians being ungrateful and selfish with the help that is given to them – and of course all manners of people in between. I’m starting to see the subtle undertone of suspicion when I say I’m from “Cuerpo de Paz” or “Body of Peace” when you directly translate it, which sometimes acts as another reminder of the “Cuerpos de pacificación” that came into their towns and “pacified” the “terrorists” during the 80’s and 90’s. I’m seeing that, like everything in life, even just giving your time with the best of your intentions isn’t even immune to the blending of black and white. Its not that I’m questioning development work, I’m wondering about the history of where its been and where it will go into the future. I’m wondering about what the free-handout does today to the people of tomorrow. I’m also just simply wondering if working in the health field would be a more satisfying way to help people instead of environment work, (if you ever get to see the blank stares you get when trying to describe the importance of reducing our carbon footprint to a rural community of Peruvians, you’ll know what I mean.) I guess it’s a good thing that I’m thinking about it, I think that means I still care.

So as I complete my Peace Corps Birthday this September 11 (yes, we left on 9/11 last year,) I want to say what I’m thankful for and give birthday wishes. I’m thankful for the beautiful site that I live in, I’m thankful for the extremely motivated community members, and I’m thankful for just being able to help-out now and then and have this experience and give a positive representation to Peruvians on behalf of the USA. I wish that the projects will keep coming, I wish that I Peru will eventually brew a decent beer, and I wish that all of you back home stay safe, happy, and healthy and I can’t wait to see you at Christmas!!!

Photos are just easier!

So here's one of the projects we've been working on finishing and finally completed last week! We slowly obtained enough 50 gal. drums to sand down and paint to use for trash cans in our town. We made three of "organics", three of "inorganics", and three more of "recyclables." Even though it took about two months to get everything together, the REALLY long part will be starting the presentations with my town teaching them what the differences are between the three catagories, and, hopefully, getting them into the habit of using them. The first photo is my very first presentation I gave; one down, who knows how many more to go!

Let’s slow it down a notch.

So I’m not going to lie, its gotten slow here in Miraflores. Mostly because after the rapid fire succession of being in-site for a week then out-of-site for a week for almost two months time seems to turn into molasses when I’m not looking to leave site for almost two or three weeks at a time. Granted we have “La Feria” (Fair) coming up next week where I should be able to see exhibitions of local food, customs, and dancing, and we also have Fiestas Patrias coming up at the end of the month, which should give me something to count down to. And honestly each day brings a new experience still so I shouldn’t really complain about time moving to slow, but there are days when your only plan is to sit and read a magazine in the sun because everyone is at their farms. I’m sure these slow days will be something I look back on when I’m surrounded by floresent lighting and irate bosses and wish I was back in Peru, so I’m taking them all in, enjoying them as they come, and reminding myself that this is just as much a part of Peace Corps as the days when you can barely get a meal in because it seems the few 300 people in my town all seem to realize they need you for something!

My town is in the dry season right now, and we’ve finished harvesting all the crops, so in general we’re in kind of a down season. But its okay because its also the time for one of the biggest fiestas which should be coming up in August. My school is also planning on building a fuel-efficient, smokeless stove called a “cocina mejorada” literally meaning “better stove” and I’m hoping other people in my town will show an interest and I can help them build their own. The problem I run into though since we have a big NGO working here in the region is that when you propose a project the families aren’t really keen on supplying the materials themselves since they are so used to the NGO just supplying things for them. It’s a hard habit to break, and I’m afraid unless I put up some of the materials nothing will really take off the ground, so its an obstacle I’ll just have to overcome.

Overall I’m still happy and healthy, staying warm and still eating way to many potatoes. Frieda and I are still happy as ever. We are “Peace Corps Dating” which means we see each other every few weeks and hopefully can send the occasional email or have a phone call hoping there’s electricity or a good signal. Her and I are planning on hitting the US Circuit Tour this Christmas and taking vacation together to visit each other’s homes, so I’m looking forward to introducing her to all you guys back home! Other than that all I have to say is no matter how slow time seems to be passing its hard to believe I’ll have been in Peru for one year in about two months!

I hope all is well back home, send me some emails some time, I love you all.

6th month update

Hey everyone, I hope this new blog finds everyone in health in happiness. I’m sitting in my room waiting for the sun to come up, which usually happens at about 9:00 am these days. I’m wearing three layers, a down vest and a stocking hat just to stay warm! After the rain stopped the temperatures started getting pretty cold at night, we usually wake up to frost and ice on the ground. But there’s nothing to be alarmed about because once that good ole’ BOB (big orange ball) comes peeking up over the mountain it warms up pretty quickly. Its funny to say, but I usually start my day out in a stocking hat and end up putting on sunscreen before lunch!

So I’ve officially passed my 6 months in site road marker on this crazy journey. 6 months in site, 8 months in Peru, its amazing how fast its been going. I think lately its been flying by because I’ve been traveling quite a bit to other areas. It’s a safe bet to say that in these last few months I’ve left my site atleast twice a month, each time for about a week. We’ve had things like Early IST where we went to Chiclayo and Chongollapay for some training and updates from the Peace Corps. Then I had a PEPFAR Initiative meeting in Ica which is an initiative that’s being pushed throughout all Peace Corps countries to try and increase the amount of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention activities. I’m actually going to be the Yauyos representative on the HIV/AIDS Peace Corps committee when all the Peru 12’ers I’m working with here leave in 5 months. And most recently I also sat through the Congreso Regional de Educacion Ambiental presentation in Huancayo, which I just got back from yesterday. Of course I never thought the Peace Corps demanded this much travel from its volunteers, but then again being a volunteer in Peru is so much different then other countries. First of all, I think since we have such an integrated bus system here in Peru the main office can use that to its advantage. And secondly I just think that living in such a large country makes any trip many times longer than normal (It took me two days of traveling to get to Early IST!) I stop and wonder what service is like for people in countries like Togo, Africa which looks about the size of Rhode Island and is surrounded by countries that may or may not let you cross into their borders. I don’t feel like my traveling is affecting my service or integration at all, considering just yesterday getting back from Huancayo I was invited to another Ranza (a work party where they put new ribbons in the cows ears) about 30 minutes after getting back to my house. But I do feel that when trying to explain being a volunteer to my community its kind of hard to talk my way out of the question that always comes up, “if you’re a volunteer, how do you pay to travel?” Though, with the help of some other Peace Corps friends that have been here a year already, I’ve realized that being in site with occasional travel ends up being a healthy combination. For one thing some of the meetings and presentations I go to the Peace Corp pays to send a community member from my site to come with me. This is surely a positive thing when considering one of our goals here is to develop community leaders and project managers that live in our local communities. The other thing I like to remind myself is that this experience is just as much an opportunity to improve your community as it is to experience the country in which you are living. So do I feel bad being away from site to long? Yes, undoubtedly, its what I’m here to do. But I’m also incredibly grateful that I’ve seen so many places in Peru already, and only plan on seeing more.

As for my projects in site, I’ll give a quick shout out to what I’ve accomplished so far. I would say the majority of my time is spent in the schools these days, teaching environmental education with Prof. Walter and his Agro-pecuaria classes. We’ve built a micro-relleno, a compost pile, a school garden, and occasionally we work in the tree nursery and take care of the trees we planted early in the year. I’ve also bumped my micro-relleno count to six; four more to go and I’ll reach the project goal of atleast 10 in a volunteer’s site. I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time in the tree nursery by myself, just weeding and watering and taking care of the over 800 trees I need to plant next year to reach the other project goal of over 1000 trees planted in site. So far I’d say I’ve been a pretty productive volunteer, and I’m incredibly pleased with how well my Spanish is improving and how many cultural events in my town I’ve been able to participate in. I can only say I felt pretty integrated when the town president offered to bring his daughter back from Lima where she’s studying and “introduce us” sometime. I had to laugh because he was three sheets to the wind on chamis (Peruvian moonshine) and could barely stand, but I couldn’t help but think it was an “I love you man” sort of drinking moment that really only happens amongst friends.

Not much to say

Hey Everyone, its been awhile since I updated the ole' blog, sorry about that. I'm going to let the pictures speak louder than my words....

In this photo i'm standing with Senora Crespin and Senora Pedro after completing the "Campana de Limpieza" (Cleaning Campaign).

This is the micro-relleno, compost, and bio-huerto (small garden) area that Professor Walter and I constructed with the students of Miraflores.

This is me and my socio-communitario, Roy. We were about half-way through a hike that took us up to Huaquis (the ruins near my town) and down through some terraced farming and this little oasis where some incredibly old trees were growing over the path.

This is the group of B3 (builders beyond borders) teens from the US that came and helped us make some sanitary latrines for families in Ica.

....So i've been staying fairly busy, and since I just finished Early IST (In Service Training) in Chiclayo, i'm full of new ideas that I can take back to my community. But for now I just need to survive May since I have a two, four-day fiestas, the anniversary of Nor-Yauyos Cochas (the reserve that i'm living in), a camping trip with the volunteers of Junin, a tech-exchange with volunteers in Ancash, and of course Mother's Day ; ) Busy, busy, busy, but i'm loving every moment of it!

Two Posts In One!

I don’t really have much to blog about these days. I’m kind of in-between jobs right now since we finished the trash diagnostic and now we are waiting for the Campena de Limpieza (Cleaning Campaign.)

I’m growing accustomed to waiting, and I think that’s a big part of learning to be a volunteer. What I mean is waiting allows you to face the times Americans fear most; the time when you have nothing to do! Sure it’s incredibly cliché of me to start comparing the fast paced lives of Americans to the slower pace of my Peruvian country living, but it really is teaching me something. Its teaching me to enjoy walking to no where in particular, staring at nothing in particular, and not doing anything in particular. Its helping me appreciate simple conversations and knowing how to just BE. For example, today I went and picked mushrooms with my host brother and sister and its probably the most activity I’ll do all day (besides typing this blog.) But if I didn’t do this simple activity I wouldn’t have been able to participate in my little sister (3 year old, Pati) pretending to herd Chucho and I up a hill like cows. She had the “Vaca! Vaca! Arriba!” going and everything! It was hilarious, and totally made my day. Now I’m not saying I won’t get back to America and crave the fast paced life, because ultimately no matter how much a person travels they will never be able to escape the person they were raised to be. But I do know that this experience has helped me remember what its like to laugh and to know that life will give us the happiness we need to carry on as long as we have the patience to embrace the times when we have nothing to do.

The Projects Are Coming! The Projects Are Coming!

Yes, as the title implies, the projects are coming! We finished our trash diagnostic for our town and to quote the engineer after I turned in the information to her, “todos (everything) ESTA CORRECTO!” And yes, it was in capital letters. Though I felt the numbers were a bit off considering over half the town has left for the rainy season and most houses didn’t give us all their “true” trash because they were afraid of public scrutiny. Though in the end it turned out fairly believable, something around .85Kg per person per day. Now we are preparing for the Campaña de Limpeaza, where most of the Nor Yauyos Cochas Reserve is going to clean up the freakin’ trash! Each town is going to be responsible for its streets, farms, and watersheds, and it sounds like an amazing initiative; not to mention we get free hats and t-shirts. Tommorrow I’m going to present the plan and the date to the communitarios during the fiena, which is a community work day that should provide me with a pretty good venue.

In a way, I feel that the more projects I do concerning trash the more my community will think of me as some sort of “Solid Waste Control Volunteer.” This makes me a little uncomfortable simply because I desperately wanted to work mostly with agro-forestry promotion. On the other hand I also joined for the sole reason of helping, and that usually means doing the work other people have put off doing. So, alas, maybe my fate of my service will be solid waste management. But, then again if we truly think about it, what other physically sustainable projects can an Environmental Volunteer in the Peace Corps actually do? So much of what we are trying to promote is just an idea, theory, or simply to big to truly comprehended (i.e. “GLOBAL” warming.) Its such a huge hurdle to just get the school kids to recognize that they are living in a protected national reserve of Peru, let alone within a constantly evolving eco-system encompassing the entire planet! Sure we can plant a 1000 trees (which is actually one of our goals in each site), but does the community openly know the “why” behind it all? I will probably finish two of my three Environmental Volunteer Goals (plant trees, manage trash, educate about the environment,) within the first 6 months of my service, but if I can’t start reinforcing the “why” behind protecting the environment then none of my projects will truly be sustainable…

Is this the true meaning of the Peace Corp’s? Being in site long enough to possibly make a possible lasting impression that might possibly lead to a possible change in some unfavorable habits? (Please take note of all the possibilities.) With this type of reasoning does a PC volunteer ever really know if they made a difference? I think a Peace Corps volunteer needs to come to terms with the idea that even self-less service is selfish and this is just as much behavior change for us as it is for our communities.

Its not all work and no play.

I just had an opportunity to thaw out. We had a regional meeting in Cañete, near Lima and right on the beach. It was totally worth the bus ride through swerving mountain paths and cliffs to just be able to feel the sand in my toes and hear the waves crashing again. And to be warm! I can’t say enough how much the sun helps a person’s overall well being. The meeting went well, there was a lot of discussion about the upcoming Builders Beyond Borders group that is coming to that area to help the Water and Sanitation volunteers build some cool projects. Sadly us Yauyos folks won’t be able to participate because we’re a little to far to travel easily back and forth, but its still neat to hear about high-school students caring enough to volunteer in other countries already. Later, of course I ate plenty of good food and was able to drink some beers with all the other Peru 14er’s I haven’t seen since Swearing-In, and in the end I realized how amazingly therapeutic the trip was for me mentally. This whole process is totally like training for a marathon where you stair step your way up, back-off the training a bit and let your body recuperate, then stair step it up some more. After just speaking English freely, relaxing, and swapping war stories with the other volunteers I really felt ready to get back to site and take it all on again. It’s amazing how much a process living life is; there’s the beginning stages where it’s all new and novel, the stage where that starts to wear off and things start repeating, the stressed out stage, the release and relaxation, and then we head back to start it all over again. And during this entire process we are building our bodies and minds for something greater, and we understand that we are part of something greater as well…so as you can tell by my positive mindset I’ve obviously been at the beach. I also met some volunteers in the Peace Corps Response Program. From what I could gather they volunteer for 3-6 months tours and usually in disaster areas or just generally with the Red-Cross or other organizations. Of course you have to be a completed Peace Corps volunteer before you can apply for the Response Program, but it seemed like a really neat thing to do, especially for someone that’s finished up the Peace Corps, wanted to head home right afterwards and after a few years realizes they want to volunteer again and signs up for the Response Program. And this brings me to another point; what really motivates me to complete my service here in Peru. The motivation comes from the idea that after these two years I’ll be part of a global fraternity of RPCV’s (Returned Peace Corps Vols.) for the rest of my life. I’ll have the college assistance like the Fellows program available to me, opportunities like the Peace Corps Response Program, and even just the camaraderie that will constantly surprise me, starting from the day I get back and lasting forever. I’ll have that secure feeling for the rest of my life of knowing that I belong to something great.

So as you can tell, the trip was great and I’m ready to take on the upcoming project in my town for a landfill and trash management system. I’ll be coordinating, promoting, getting dirty, and sharing technical information with my town and SERNAP who’ll be overseeing its execution. SERNAP wants to excavate a landfill for each town in our protected area that will last 6-8 years and hopefully help stem the problem of the towns just throwing trash in natural caves or the river. Its an ambitious project, especially because they want to get done by the middle of this year, but its totally do-able. Right now the Peace Corps volunteers have been asked to start house-hold trash accumulation surveys to get an idea how much trash is produced in each site, so that should keep us busy for a bit. The only hard part now is trying to find level ground that is far enough away from the river…I have a feeling that after some frustrations I’m going to have to barrow the “Iraqi Okay” slogan I adopted during my deployment and use it for our landfill’s placement; “so what if its not exactly 50 meters from the river,” its still “Peruvian Okay.”

Whistling actually does help while you work

I want to propose a question to those still reading my blog. How do you think people should define themselves? Do you think it’s better to let the experiences you’ve had in the past speak for themselves? Or is it better to be a person that defines themselves with their present situation? The reason I ask is because I’m being reminded of what “work” truly is and I have to constantly quiet the voice in my head that says to me “you’ve had enough manual labor in the past to fill a barn, why do you keep looking for situations that give you more!” This was especially the case as I climbed up the side of a mountain the other day carrying PVC pipes with my host family to an irrigation canal over 4000m (about 13,000 ft). I thought about how all my farming experience, college experience, and even Army experience were merely words on a resume and wouldn’t be able to help me during the grueling moments. What did it matter that I had dug ditches in the past or carried tons of heavy loads miles upon miles on my back or in a wheelbarrow; I was faced with the present situation of the mountain, burning leg muscles, my will power, and some PVC. Does a person ever reach a point where they’ve gained enough life experience to feel like they can stop climbing mountains of achievement? Should a person ever want to stop? Are our experiences in the past simply words on a resume or do they slowly build us into the person we hope to be? So I ask again, is life for you a culmination of what you’ve done? Or is it simply being happy with what you’re doing in the present moment?

The project I’m working on these days is helping my community plant over 3000 pine trees and installing an irrigation canal of PVC pipes; and like all projects in my site, its happening on the side of a mountain! It starts with a 45 minute hike uphill with all of your tools for the day, and usually ends about an hour after the rain starts pouring. *Practical advice note: remember to bring a good poncho, a rain coat doesn’t cut it.* The work is fulfilling, like all hard work is, and I’m just happy to know that I’ll have some good success stories under my belt after all is said and done. I also went to visit our town’s annex, Piños, which was a breath taking view of massive valleys and mountain sides covered with terraced farming. So many times I’ve felt like I’m living on the set of Lord of the Rings! The sad story about Piños, and so many other towns in Yauyos (Miraflores not excluded), is that all the older teenagers are leaving to start working or going to university in the bigger cities after highschool and these small mountain towns are shrinking. Towns like Piños only have 30-40 people left, mostly either over 35 or under 16 years old. All the really old townsfolk talk of how beautiful and full all the terrace farms were in the 70’s and 80’s, but now you can see the majority of them overgrown and eroding. And of course on top of all this you can see a basic disappearance of the towns’ cultures. All the younger generations see the “good-life” they could be living on something their parents didn’t even grow up with; TV’s. Now I’m the last person to condemn TV, I love TV and I love progress and I wish a happy and progressive life for everyone. But when thinking about preserving culture and small rural areas like Yauyos (and any number of small rural areas across the globe) I think in 20 years many of these small pueblos will be ghost towns and the one’s that remain will be the one’s with the best reception.

Trash Man

I don’t know if you know this, but Peruvians have more patience then oak trees and rocks combined. You can see this with their farming methods, food preparation, and even overall everyday conversations. I saw it once again when my town had a “meeting” last weekend. It consisted of the 30 or 40 people that have actually stayed during the rainy season, and was intended to go over all things concerning Miraflores and future projects. Maybe I should mention this simple meeting was actually three days long; from 8 am to 8 pm with only a one hour break for lunch each day! As with all Peruvian meetings it was purely a round robin discussion over every miniscule detail imaginable and surprisingly, with unfaltering patience (mine broke the first day because I had to leave for the capital city), mostly everyone stayed until the end. I couldn’t imagine a meeting lasting more than 3 hours in America without a cry for a break, let alone 36 hours! So to say the least, my town is incredibly dedicated to its posterity and future, and I am being shown what true patience really is.

The upswing to all this is that I was finally able to present to my town as a group! I think I finally completed the cycle of introductions that started almost two months ago when I first showed up at my host parents’ front door barely speaking Spanish. Of course as I presented myself my Spanish was horrible, (I felt as nervous as I did in Iraq when I presented the medical evacuation plan to a room of Iraqi generals), but the Mayor and some other guys I’ve befriended backed me up with some more in-depth descriptions of my work. The final result was some affirmative head-noddings, a few confused looks from the older folks, and a list of people that want to start a trash management programs in their homes. I felt pretty good afterwards, especially since I have another concrete project to work on (even if it is only digging a 1m x 1m x 1m pit for trash in each home), but also because the one person that invited me into town (the Mayor) actually showed me that he knows why I’m here.

I began my “micro-relleno” project by digging one for the health-post’s head nurse (a micro-relleno is a fancy word for trash pit, and, coincidentally, a papa-relleno is an incredibly delicious snack), and afterwards I started talking to the other health-post workers about their overall trash management system. This opened up a huge can of worms. It turns out that my health-post (and we think all the others in this zone) throw their medical waste in with the normal trash, which is all collected and thrown into a really deep cave! Yes, that’s right; all medical waste is thrown into a cave. It seems like such a contradiction; to have a country advanced enough to even produce medical waste and have a health system, but backwards enough to think throwing trash in a cave is a good waste management system. So this will obviously be on my agenda for some time while me and the other volunteers try and figure out something a little better than throwing trash on the heads of gnomes…or possibly a bear…or even a Peruvian patiently out-waiting the rocks that surround him.

One last thing, a bit of practical advice for those of you still seeking some from this blog. Having expectations about the title you receive from the Peace Corps my not be incredibly prudent. For example, I talked to someone who was supposed to teach English in Africa and ended up doing water treatment instead. And now as I head into my second month in my site the prospects of me being an “Agro-forestry Promoter” are slowly being shadowed by the trash management needs of my community. Will I still put Agro-forestry promoter on a resume? You can bet your ass I will. But can I, ironically, use the cliché phrase of “my recruiter lied to me” for both the Peace Corps and the Army? Hilariously, and not surprisingly, yes!

The Holidays

So what do cray paper flowers, crates of beer, two hour speeches, 80 year old women dancing, and marching bands have in common? You guessed it! A Peruvian Christmas and New Year’s fiesta! Along with those interesting sights and sensations there was also the burning of lots of stuff, eating lots of alpaca and panneton (Peruvian fruit cake), and men in Negrito costumes dancing to the same song for days on end. The New Year’s celebration is actually 3 days long in my pueblo and was actually going on as I typed this out. I think what was most interesting for me was to see all the family members that have left this pueblo to work in Lima or other bigger cities returning to celebrate in a much cherished tradition. You can see fathers teaching their sons the traditional dances and wearing the traditional costumes for the Negritos. You get to see family reunions after one or more years apart. You also get to see the just how different Americans and Peruvians experience life; simply put time just moves slower here.
As another year passes I, like so many other people, did a double take as the clock struck 12 and looked back at how this last year has been a combination of almost every emotion available. From the intense satisfaction of getting my Peace Corps acceptance letter, the anxiety of skinning my way out of the military’s grasp, and even the relaxation spending a summer at home provided me. And now as I begin another march towards next December I wonder how my service in Peru will pan out. I want to teach classes, create clubs, reforest entire mountains, and have a trash free community by the time I leave; but these are my goals and not the goals of my community. I’m seeing more and more that sustainable projects start with seeds planted months before the final product and that’s kind of where I see myself right now, little by little planning and planting seeds of motivation for projects in the future. One of the biggest problems we have in Miraflores is the high turn over rate of people. Most committees and social groups only last about a year, sadly, and most projects end when the person that started them leaves (doesn’t look good for my projects in two years!) But there are ways around this problem, and with the help of the NGO’s here and some of the wiser, more traveled folks in my community, I’m beginning to understand (through broken Spanish) just exactly how to work successfully with this tiny town of 300…And yes I’ve made the movie connection and totally consider myself a Spartan of Miraflores!