We did a play on papsmears for the mommies at the health center. We were campesinos - countryfolk - who went in to find out about papsmears because my friend was diagnosed with cervical cancer. They loved seeing us in campo clothing. On my shoulder is a bolsica, they use these bags to bring back harvest from the fields.
We have some orchids growing on a tree outside of our house. One good thing about the rainy season is that orchids bloom. I have never in my life smelled anything remotely similar. It´s like cinnamon-vanilla-spice-musk. I die of ecstacy every time I smell one. It does pain me at the same time though, because people go up into the cloud forest and pick them to plant at their houses.
Brian´s towel. After hanging to dry. That´s mold. Brian: ¨No comment¨. So, eight – eight?!?!?!? – months in Peru and we´re starting to figure things out. There´s still lots of zone-out-I-have-no-idea-what-you´re-saying moments, but we have a good strong network of people who care about us (and vice versa), we work everyday, and people say they understand anywhere from 80 – 90% of what we´re saying to them. Cheers to that!!! Somehow, work started magically happening in the month of April. It might have something to do with the fact that the kids have come back from the city for school, and things are starting to wake up from the rainy season slumber.
What we´ve been up to...
Brian went to a birth with the obstetrician. They had to walk about an hour to get to the house, and when they did, they baby was already born. The women hold onto ropes that are hanging from the ceiling in a squat position. There are still partaderas (midwives) that attend births, but most of the time a doctor is involved too. Mommy and baby are okay!
The garden project is slow. We´ve got some good-looking compost but have yet to plant anything (partly rain, partly who knows what).
Once a month, we have a contest in the Health Center. We make murals of health information, and people have to read it and answer 4 questions. We pick one winner and go to their house and cook them a balanced meal (with local ingredients) as a prize. It´s been awesome getting to know people, especially the ones who live a good 1 -2 walk away because we wouldn´t see them much otherwise. The last house we visited was a single mom with her mom and sisters. The women loved Brian to death and had a good time making him drink really sweet shitty champagne after we ate dinner. They kept clapping and laughing and cheering every time he drank. Heeheee!!
As far as ¨work¨, we´ll be sharing our community diagnostic with all of the authorities at the end of April. It´s kind of a big deal because we´ve been working on it for 5 months and will use it to choose our main activities for the next 20 months (probably solid waste management and potable water projects). It´s a big deal for the authorities because it is a comprehensive analysis of their community. We´re pretty nervous to have to give to whole thing in Spanish.
We also have class time with all of the grades in elementary and middle/high school. We go the the elementary school once a week and the middle/high school once a week. We teach anything having to do with the themes health, environment, or computation. So far, I´ve been teaching the kids all about waste – what littering is, contamination, how to separate trash, etc.. We´re preparing for an Earth Day celebration on April 22nd. I´m helping the schools and other authorities to organize a parade, community clean-up, and a seed-sowing. The point is to get them to do the work and for us to catalyze the organization and planning aspects. It´s really the whole point of any of the work that we do here – to help motivate, organize, and find leaders within the community so that they can begin to advocate for themselves. After Earth Day, it´s Brian´s turn with the kiddos. He´s going to teach computation.
In the long run, my ultimate goal with the schools is to help the teachers learn better techniques for environmental education. I explicitly told the principals that I will not teach without a teacher present so that I can model the lessons for them. My ultimate goal is to develp an environmental education manual so that anyone can replicate the lessons. Even if only one teacher takes interest five years down the road, at least they´ll have a manual to give them ideas.
Brian´s starting to find out that there is a huge need in our community for a working potable water system. Right now, they have a very dirty reservior (small concrete tank thing) that´s supposed to be filtered treated with chlorine but never is. People are basically drinking untreated water from a stream that passes through cow pastures. And that´s only for some villages. In other villages, they just take their water from the streams. With a parasitosis rate of over 80% in the population, there is a pretty direct correlation. Like the solid-waste management issue, we´re not exactly sure what course things will take. We´re still only beginning to present these issues to the authorities. It´s not that they don´t care, but they´ve been working so hard on converting their growers to organic farming that they´ve put other things on the back burner. That´s why we can be helpful for them, because we can advocate for progress on these issues and help the community to organize and manage them.
Right now the health center is vaccinating the entire population between 2 and 19 years of age against Hep B. We´ve been going with the health workers to all of the villages (caserios) to meet people and do interviews. It´s been really great and interesting to see the differences and similarites between them. There is definatley a huge difference between the ¨rural¨ (isolated) and ¨urban¨ (next to the main road) caserios.
We are also working with two different youth groups. They are already organized and just looking for things to do. I have to say that working with the kids is by far the best part for me. They´re all so interested and eager to learn and do things. Some come by our house on weekends to get help on homework. It must have been pretty amusing to listen to Brian and I try to explain algebraic functions and graphing in Spanish.
Easter
In Sicchez, they celebrate Holy Week. Easter Sunday isn´t really too big of a deal. On Thursday, everyone cooks a ton of food and brings a plate of it to all of their neighbors. You end up with a ton of different plates of food to share with your family. It´s a really nice tradition. There´s mass on Thur, Fri, Sat, and Sun, but we only went to mass on Thursday because it´s the biggest. They have 14 stations all over the town (the stations of the cross) and everyone walks to the stations in a large group to say prayers at each one. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are days for relaxation. I read books and watched the clouds. Brian studied Spanish (always so productive, that man!)
St. Patty´s Day
We introduced St. Patrick´s Day to Sicchez in classic style. I have a feeling this holiday will catch on here since it involves lots of beer. We told them all about the traditions (and history too, Brian Sr.!) and made our family wear green all day. There is no food coloring in Peru, so Brian, being the thrifty guy he is, bought green gelatin to color the beer. We bought a caja of beer (12 32-ounce beers) and commenced the celebration after dinner. The gelaitn coagulated immediately after we added it to the beer...gross...but it was a nice touch. After the first caja was downed, Juan (our host ¨brother¨) bought another caja. After that caja was downed, Juan said we weren´t drunk enough and made two pitchers of hard liquor cocktails (made with fresh mango...mmmm). We taught them how to play quarters, it was pretty damn funny. Brian sunk his quarter the first time every time, and Elvia (our host ¨sister¨, Juan´s wife) could never make it, so she kept having to drink. They loved it! By 2 am I was daincing in bare feet with Juan in the living room and everyone was nice and drunk. The next day, everyone in town asked us why we didn´t invite them to our party. They say they want to celebrate San Patricio next year with us. One guy told Brian the next day, ¨Look Brian, I´m wearing green!!¨ Unfortunately, we had to break it to him that it only counts on the 17th.
The main (only) road...
Yeah, ugly. It still rains really hard (but not as long) every day. As I write this we are closed off from the main road due to about 8 huge mudslides blocking access. No supplies coming in or out (a.k.a. pretty skimpy food selections). Parts of the road have simply given out. They finally got a front end loader up to fix things, but in all it´ll probably be two weeks before there´s access again. To get to Piura, one has to walk four miles to where the busses still have access. Brian didn´t come this time because he had to teach some classes about dental health at the health center. Don´t worry mom and dads, we walk the road to other caserios a lot and if we see there´s any chance of danger, we don´t take the bus.
We love you all and miss you tons!!! Don´t forget to email us every once in a while and thanks for all of your glorious care packages!!!!!
What we´ve been up to...
Brian went to a birth with the obstetrician. They had to walk about an hour to get to the house, and when they did, they baby was already born. The women hold onto ropes that are hanging from the ceiling in a squat position. There are still partaderas (midwives) that attend births, but most of the time a doctor is involved too. Mommy and baby are okay!
The garden project is slow. We´ve got some good-looking compost but have yet to plant anything (partly rain, partly who knows what).
Once a month, we have a contest in the Health Center. We make murals of health information, and people have to read it and answer 4 questions. We pick one winner and go to their house and cook them a balanced meal (with local ingredients) as a prize. It´s been awesome getting to know people, especially the ones who live a good 1 -2 walk away because we wouldn´t see them much otherwise. The last house we visited was a single mom with her mom and sisters. The women loved Brian to death and had a good time making him drink really sweet shitty champagne after we ate dinner. They kept clapping and laughing and cheering every time he drank. Heeheee!!
As far as ¨work¨, we´ll be sharing our community diagnostic with all of the authorities at the end of April. It´s kind of a big deal because we´ve been working on it for 5 months and will use it to choose our main activities for the next 20 months (probably solid waste management and potable water projects). It´s a big deal for the authorities because it is a comprehensive analysis of their community. We´re pretty nervous to have to give to whole thing in Spanish.
We also have class time with all of the grades in elementary and middle/high school. We go the the elementary school once a week and the middle/high school once a week. We teach anything having to do with the themes health, environment, or computation. So far, I´ve been teaching the kids all about waste – what littering is, contamination, how to separate trash, etc.. We´re preparing for an Earth Day celebration on April 22nd. I´m helping the schools and other authorities to organize a parade, community clean-up, and a seed-sowing. The point is to get them to do the work and for us to catalyze the organization and planning aspects. It´s really the whole point of any of the work that we do here – to help motivate, organize, and find leaders within the community so that they can begin to advocate for themselves. After Earth Day, it´s Brian´s turn with the kiddos. He´s going to teach computation.
In the long run, my ultimate goal with the schools is to help the teachers learn better techniques for environmental education. I explicitly told the principals that I will not teach without a teacher present so that I can model the lessons for them. My ultimate goal is to develp an environmental education manual so that anyone can replicate the lessons. Even if only one teacher takes interest five years down the road, at least they´ll have a manual to give them ideas.
Brian´s starting to find out that there is a huge need in our community for a working potable water system. Right now, they have a very dirty reservior (small concrete tank thing) that´s supposed to be filtered treated with chlorine but never is. People are basically drinking untreated water from a stream that passes through cow pastures. And that´s only for some villages. In other villages, they just take their water from the streams. With a parasitosis rate of over 80% in the population, there is a pretty direct correlation. Like the solid-waste management issue, we´re not exactly sure what course things will take. We´re still only beginning to present these issues to the authorities. It´s not that they don´t care, but they´ve been working so hard on converting their growers to organic farming that they´ve put other things on the back burner. That´s why we can be helpful for them, because we can advocate for progress on these issues and help the community to organize and manage them.
Right now the health center is vaccinating the entire population between 2 and 19 years of age against Hep B. We´ve been going with the health workers to all of the villages (caserios) to meet people and do interviews. It´s been really great and interesting to see the differences and similarites between them. There is definatley a huge difference between the ¨rural¨ (isolated) and ¨urban¨ (next to the main road) caserios.
We are also working with two different youth groups. They are already organized and just looking for things to do. I have to say that working with the kids is by far the best part for me. They´re all so interested and eager to learn and do things. Some come by our house on weekends to get help on homework. It must have been pretty amusing to listen to Brian and I try to explain algebraic functions and graphing in Spanish.
Easter
In Sicchez, they celebrate Holy Week. Easter Sunday isn´t really too big of a deal. On Thursday, everyone cooks a ton of food and brings a plate of it to all of their neighbors. You end up with a ton of different plates of food to share with your family. It´s a really nice tradition. There´s mass on Thur, Fri, Sat, and Sun, but we only went to mass on Thursday because it´s the biggest. They have 14 stations all over the town (the stations of the cross) and everyone walks to the stations in a large group to say prayers at each one. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are days for relaxation. I read books and watched the clouds. Brian studied Spanish (always so productive, that man!)
St. Patty´s Day
We introduced St. Patrick´s Day to Sicchez in classic style. I have a feeling this holiday will catch on here since it involves lots of beer. We told them all about the traditions (and history too, Brian Sr.!) and made our family wear green all day. There is no food coloring in Peru, so Brian, being the thrifty guy he is, bought green gelatin to color the beer. We bought a caja of beer (12 32-ounce beers) and commenced the celebration after dinner. The gelaitn coagulated immediately after we added it to the beer...gross...but it was a nice touch. After the first caja was downed, Juan (our host ¨brother¨) bought another caja. After that caja was downed, Juan said we weren´t drunk enough and made two pitchers of hard liquor cocktails (made with fresh mango...mmmm). We taught them how to play quarters, it was pretty damn funny. Brian sunk his quarter the first time every time, and Elvia (our host ¨sister¨, Juan´s wife) could never make it, so she kept having to drink. They loved it! By 2 am I was daincing in bare feet with Juan in the living room and everyone was nice and drunk. The next day, everyone in town asked us why we didn´t invite them to our party. They say they want to celebrate San Patricio next year with us. One guy told Brian the next day, ¨Look Brian, I´m wearing green!!¨ Unfortunately, we had to break it to him that it only counts on the 17th.
The main (only) road...
Yeah, ugly. It still rains really hard (but not as long) every day. As I write this we are closed off from the main road due to about 8 huge mudslides blocking access. No supplies coming in or out (a.k.a. pretty skimpy food selections). Parts of the road have simply given out. They finally got a front end loader up to fix things, but in all it´ll probably be two weeks before there´s access again. To get to Piura, one has to walk four miles to where the busses still have access. Brian didn´t come this time because he had to teach some classes about dental health at the health center. Don´t worry mom and dads, we walk the road to other caserios a lot and if we see there´s any chance of danger, we don´t take the bus.
We love you all and miss you tons!!! Don´t forget to email us every once in a while and thanks for all of your glorious care packages!!!!!
