El Bosque Seco

Last week Brian and I took a trip up north to check out different sites. Since he´s health and I´m enviornment, we went to separate Departments (like states in the US). He went to Piura to visit different volunteers. I went to Lambayeque to learn all about the economy and ecology of the dry forest (bosque seco). Since I´m the one with the camera, you guys get to hear more about my trip to Lambayeque. It´s an understatement to call it dry. It´s really dry. The main tree is called the "algarroba", it´s a mesquite. I was excited to find that ficas grow under them - I´ve always wondered what the natural habitat of my houseplants are (Anya, you have my fica tree). There is no ground cover between the trees, but in areas that aren´t already disturbed/destroyed there are lots of shrubs. Like any desert, the bosque seco has lots of life if you pay close attention. It isn´t obvious at first look.

The people there live a very rural lifestyle. They mostly do animal husbandry and small scale farming for substience, but therein lies the problem. There´s no water, and like in the rainforest, people cut down the forest to make space for farmland. There´s one small area that is officially protected by the government, but every area of the bosque seco (protected or not) is subject to "invaders" who cut the trees for firewood (they ALL cook with firewood) or who want to clear a space to live. Some communities are organzied and have volunteer groups that patrol their area, but most are not. The volunteers in the bosque seco are mostly working with communities to develop economically viable means of living sustainably in the dry forest. We talked with beekeepers and visited a site that has a tree nursery. The nursery has algarrobos for reforestation, and lots of other fruit trees. The intention is to sell some trees and plant the others so that they can sell the fruit. The main goal is not to replace what they already do, but facilitate the development of a diversified income source. That way, when one thing fails, they have other options. And it´s easier on the environment.

I stayed with a different family each night in the campo (countryside). I have experienced nothing short of extremely generous hospitality with the Peruvians that I meet. The people I stayed with do not have much: no electricity, running water, etc. and are so willing to share all that they have to offer. Often times, I would be served a huge plate of food while the rest of the family shared a single bowl of rice and some chicken. I feel so grateful to all of the families that we met, as it must be hard to open your home to a bunch of strangers who come from a completely different standard of living.

We will finally discover our assignment next Tuesday and will promptly post the big news. Our Spanish is for sure improving, but it just feels like there´s such a long way to go. I did tell my first impromptu joke in Spanish and made everyone laugh. It felt like I won a contest, I was so elated to have told my first ¨second language¨ joke!

Again, here are some unorganized pictures of my trip to Lambayeque. If someone out there knows how to post pictures on blogspot in an orderly fashion with captions, PLEASE HELP!! I also realize that some of them are small and you can´t magnify them, I blame the computer I happen to be using at the moment, although I know Krista and Doug (for that matter ALL of our computer literate friends) will secretly know that I truly don´t know how to manage a machine.

p.s. The pictures of the dry forest with the big dirt hills are actually ruins of a 2,000 year old culture (pre-Incan)

Love you all!!

La Presidente and her First Man

Here are the pictures that I didn´t post last time....

Quite a surprise today: Ang was elected president of the Peru 10 (our group) Junta Directiva (association). I didn´t campaign, but maybe it was Brian´s good looks that got me in. It doesn´t really signify too much, we`re just practicing how associations work in Peru.

We´ve been going to a ton of festivals and we´re begining to learn that one can always find a festival in Peru. And they are usually week-long parties with parades, dancing, contests, ect.

Last weekend we went to a festival in our little barrio. They were celebrating one of the many saints. They had live bands playing ¨wino¨music - a really unique sound from the sierra with it´s own dance to boot. Lots of chicha (fermented drink), beer, dancing, and a completely crazy and dangerous fireworks show. Suffice it to say that we were covering our heads from the little sparks flying everywhere. And the big one didn´t happen until 4 am. Good times!!

Ang has decided to ditch the ¨conform to the food¨route after a day wretching in bed after some admittedly delicious home-made ceviche (¨raw¨ fish cooked in lime juice, onion, ginger, and garlic). It´s actually pretty easy to eat vegetarian here and her body is waging a war against meet.

We had our language proficiency tests today. We both improved and are stoked at being able to talk like 5 and a half year olds now!!

Thanks for the comments, we love you so much!!

Also, feel free to email us too. We are by no means limited to blogworld only.

Goodbye Frisbee

Peru swallows frisbees like nobody´s business! The kids in our town were stoked to play with such a cool new toy... for about 5 minutes before it ended up on the roof of the tienda (store) next to our house. Now it´s back to soccer matches that are more akin to a circus of gringoes with balls rolling between their legs. At least it´s good exercise! You can just barely make out the frisbee in the picture above.
We live in a little barrio outside of Chosica (picture above). Basically, Chosica is along a busy road that follows the River Rimac up out of Lima into the mountains. It´s a complete and unabashed desert here. The foothills do not have a single plant on them, completely rock. I think the only rain on this side of the Andes comes in the form of occasional floods. Our barrio, like most of them, was formed by squatters about 40 years ago by the employees of a nearby country club. Lots of folk from Lima come up here because there´s more sun here during the winter (Lima is locked in with constant cloud cover). Our barrio has about 1,000 families. The main road is dirt, there´s a school, health post, church, and a bunch of tiendas. Every day we have about a 15 minute butt buster walk up a hill to our house. Of course, lots of dogs to guide the way.
The Peace Corps training center is a 10 minute bus ride from our home in a different neighborhood. The busses are called combis and they play really loud music. It actually reminds me a lot of India with the music blasing out of a vehicle filled to 400% capacity. Basically every day we have 4 hours of language class a day and 4 hours of technical training. It´s going well, there´s a lot to learn. The whole language thing can be pretty exhausting, as there´s really no true rest until your head hits the pillow. It´s a lot like being a child again. I feel so dependent on others for so many of my basic needs: food, where to go, how to get there, when to do things, ect. Not to mention that we basically have the vocabulary of a 5 year old with which to communicate. It´s hard to give up so much independence!
That said, our language is defiantely progressing. Our host family is so kind and takes the time to explian everything about five different ways so we know what they´re talking about. They are truly about the LOVE - so kind and truly good people. We spend so much time talking and laughing together every night. They love to joke around and will even kill the moment by explaining exactly WHY something is funny.
In the beginning our family worried a lot about what to cook since Ang is a veg, but Peruvian food is actually really basic. Quinoa, rice, rice, rice, rice, vegetables, fruit (it´s been fun trying all the different types of new fruit), potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, and rice. Breakfast is super small, some bread and juice. Usually we eat the same thing for lunch and dinner. Our host family (the wife) makes tamales to sell to the barrio every Sunday. They are KILLER!! We put up a picture of Ang tying some of them togther. They´re basically corn meal, chicken boullion, hot pepper, and spices with a piece of chicken, onion, and an olive wrapped up into a banana leaf and steamed for two hours. We eat them every Sunday for breakfast. We also put up a picture of the 1 year old with mango all over his cute little face.
Last weekend, the local school had a dance for the community. Each class dressed in traditional clothing and did a dance from different regions of the country. Two of the kids in our family, 8 and 13, danced. It was pretty awesome (pics above).
Oh yeah, we found out that we´ll be placed somewhere in the north of Peru, but we don´t know exactly where yet. We should know within three weeks.
Sorry about taking the snail mail address off. I was informed that it´s agains the rules to post specific addresses on a blog. I´ll email out to you Krista and AM. If anyone else wants to know it, let me know and I´ll email it. We also learned that it costs 3 DOLLARS to send a LETTER, so I´m not so sure that it is a viable means of communication for us.