Mud, Reforestation, and Carnaval

Brian loves these fried.....just kidding!!!

The mud slides that block our access to the outside world (and this is a VERY tiny one). Although it is very green and pretty with all the wetness.

Our beautiful Peruvian family.

My first shot at cheese empanadas. They were too thin and the chees fell out when we fried the dough. But who doesn´t love fried dough with crispy fried cheese???

Compost lessons for the curious.

In Sicchez during the rainy season, there are two paradigms of mobility: within Sicchez and everywhere else. Although it´s next to impossible to leave town right now it´s very feasible to walk places – muddy and drenched – quite happily. So that´s what we´ve been doing a lot of.
We are doing house-to-house interviews to learn about how people live and relate to their environment (what they do with their trash, if the smoke from the firewood they cook with is able to escape the kitchen, what they eat, etc). Our goal is to get to 100 houses (47 so far). The houses are spread out in ¨caserios¨, or little clusters, anywhere from a 4 hour climb to a 10 minute walk away from the center where we live. It´s been tough to get a true sense of things because people are very shy and understandably reluctant to share such private information, especially because they know they aren´t living in the greatest of conditions. We always go to the homes with people from the health center so that it isn´t so weird, but we´re learning that observation is the best way to learn. The upside is that we are getting to know people a lot better and are starting to fit in a bit more. They´re beginning to call us by name and treat us like friends instead of visitors. I can´t express how relieving it is to finally have a sense of normalcy and feel accepted! One can only feel different for so long!!

Brian is such a charmer when he interviews people.

We also proved our Sicchenan worthiness at a ¨minga¨. A minga is kind of like a volunteer day where people gather to work on a project for the district while the district provides a lunch afterwards. This minga was a reforestation project sponsored by the municipality. Brian and I spent the day carrying saplings up and down a steep hill while the local men dug holes and planted the trees. It was pretty funny, I think we shocked the Peruvians a little bit by how hard we could work. More than one person asked me, ¨Do people in your country work like this?¨ They have this idea that N. Americans don´t do physical work.
I also learned of another minga tradition. An hour after things got rolling, the men kept shouting, ¨Water!!!¨ But I felt bad because nobody was bringing them any and the sun happened to be out that day. So I threw one of the men a water bottle that I had in my backpack and all of this friends started laughing. That´s when someone said to me, ¨Angelita, they want a different kind of water.¨ 5 hours and 100+ drunk men later, I learned that the ¨other¨ water is liquor made from sugar cane. One man was so well ¨hydrated¨ that he passed out on top of the hole he was digging.

The dedicated Sicchenens planting trees.

Nice day for a walk in the mud.

Brian´s feet.

The Carnaval celebration in Sicchez (similar vein as Marti Gras but without the debauchery). There are a bunch of presents hanging from the tree in the middle of the town square. Everyone gets together and dances, eats, drinks, and throws flour all over each other. Usually the men are in circles drinking while the women sit on the benchs and wait to be asked to dance.

Brian dancing with the Carnaval queen. I think he finally found his match, as he is quite adept at the Peruvian dancing style.

Everyone has to take a swipe at the tree. At the end of the festival, they cut it down and everyone runs to grab up the prizes hanging from its branches. Of course, when I took my swipe at the tree, I missed the mark and hit the rocks at the base of the trunk. Laughing hysterically, the women asked me if there are any axes in the U.S. Sadly, I had to admit that, yes, people use axes but I just can´t aim. Brian and I left before they cut the tree down because it was pouring a drenching cold rain. Party poopers.