Peanuts, Nuns, and Hard Dirt

We are now bidding farewell to tamales, hominy and all things corn, and the oranges are fading fast. However, the waxing of one thing invites the waning of another. Enter the season of coffee, beans, and peanuts!! We are eating lots of bean-laden soups and one can find coffee berries happily drying out in the sun in front of almost every home. Juan also makes a mean peanut ice cream popsicle. The rains, I think, have finally departed, a whole two months late. Yeah, yeah, I know, liquid gold…who in their right mind would be happy to see rains disappear?!? Me! It´s now very hot. Being at 4º S latitude and 4,200 feet above sea level, the suns´ rays penetrate directly into my skull and I love it. Seven months into site and I´m only now discovering what amazing views and beautiful sunsets we have the pleasure to enjoy from our front porch. We look down a huge north-trending valley into Ecuador with clouds sitting below us in the morning and layered-ridge-sunset light vistas in the evening. And the stars - a whole new unfamiliar southern sky to absorb!!

Our garden. Huertocito. This tiny little desire of ours to plant a few veggies to augment our meals that turned into a large demonstration garden project at the health center – the garden. We finally finished the bamboo fence right before Brian left to the States thanks to one kind soul who donated 10 bamboo trunks from his plot of land. We cut them down and carried them from his plot to the health center, in the process learning why bamboo is the next miracle fiber. It is extremely strong, flexible and heavy. With an axe, Brian split the bamboo poles don the middle, then split each half into halves again to make little sticks. I trimmed the edges of the bamboo sticks with a knife and dug a trench in the ground into which we inserted the sticks. By the end of the day our hands were covered in little cuts (just like paper cuts), as bamboo is as sharp as a steak knife. **Thank you Karen for the Burt´s hand and foot repair kit – healed right up in no time!!**
“Oh yay,” I thought after we finally finished the fence, “we´ll be eating spinach in no time!!” No so much…. Our poor little huertocito is very malnourished. It´s virgin earth, never been planted with anything and previously used as a medical trash dump (as evidenced by the needles, plastic, glass, cotton, etc. finding its way to the surface as we dig). And in these parts of Peru, virgin earth means pure, pure, hard, clay. No trace of organic matter. Straight from rock, a very pretty yellow-red and hard as a rock when dry – can´t even smash the dirt chunks against a concrete wall to break them. What a roto-tiller could do in one day has taken me 6 with a shovel, a pick axe, and a bucket for carrying water to wet the earth down a bit (otherwise the tools are denied entry by the dirt trolls). But please don´t take this for complaining, who doesn´t love a good hard-day´s work in a garden?? I especially love seeing the look of utter shock on everyone´s face when they see a *woman* wielding a tool. I like to swing it high above my head and scream, “ Woman, I - hear me roar!!!” Heeeheee, not really, but it´s a good opportunity to counteract the machismo.
However, the veggie dreams will have to wait until next year, as the agro-tech and I have concluded that a season of green mulch and nitrogen-fixing plants is necessary to condition the soil before planting the ever-so delicate veggies. Oh well, this way we can teach the mommies about preparing soil and what nitrogen-fixing is.

Contrary to every fiber in my being and soul, I have started jogging 2-3 times a week. Who´d have thunk, I had to travel to the southern hemisphere to finally find a group of runners I can hang with – 2 overweight people and a high school girl. We walk a lot between jog spurts. It´s perfect for me!! We are getting better though, and now I finally have a way to get the heart really pumpin´. Jumping jacks in my room just doesn’t cut it anymore. Oh yeah, Brian runs with the two police officers – the rest of us eat their dust.

A week or so ago, our village celebrated it´s patron saint, Paul, with a three-day festival. All villages, towns, and cities in Peru have patron saints; thus one can always find a festival here. They’re definitely a kick in the ass. There were volley ball (women) and soccer (men) tournaments, tons of food, masses at church, processions where they carried a model of the saint through town, cultural dances, cock fights (eeek!!), fireworks and an incomprehensible amount of drinking and dancing. Peruvians have a special party perseverance – they go until dawn several nights in a row. It was a hootin´ good time!
One day during the festival, I was watching a soccer game with Juan and Elvia (our host family). On that particularly beautiful day, I was wearing a long grey skirt, white top, and lacey-fancy head scarf. At one point, an extremely drunk man (one of many) stumbled towards me and started speaking in drunken tounges, nothing of which I understood. However, after a few minutes, I was able to make out the words “ my dear sister” and “Catholic”. So I proceeded to tell him that I was raised Catholic (it´s best not to get into issues of non-religiousness here) when he gently locked his arm with mine and told me how he´s loved me since forever. I look to my left and see Juan and Elvia laughing heartily. They tell the man to go back to his group and after he left they told me that the man thought I was a nun and was asking me about the strange habit that I was wearing on my head! Chuckles were shard by all, as one can see how it adds up – white foreigner (missionary), skirt, head scarf, alcohol-induced stupor…

Well, well…. all these stories and not much about the nitty-gritty work stuff. What are we doing to contribute to the development of the community?!? Mostly, it´s an ongoing battle for Brian and I to lead productive professional lives here. Professionalism just does not translate over the cultural divide. Work and life take on a different shape here, naturally. I´ve developed a solid-waste management plan with a tech at the municipality (a need he identified and chose to pursue with my support). It calls for training authorities on how to execute clean-ups, installing sanitary mini-landfills in 50 rural homes, increasing the domestic production of organic fertilizer from food waste, and replacing the defunct trash cans that exist in the district capital of 500 people where we live. But…just like in school, you can´t do peole´s work for them. The Peace Corps approach is that volunteers help facilitate leadership and proactiveness within the communities themselves. Not like an NGO that sweeps in and executes a financed project. So, we proceed at an imperceptibly slow pace from my point of view. Work days are shorter, lunches longer, people don´t show up when they´re supposed to or say they will, stuff is always postponed, and sometimes they just get drunk instead. Which relegates me to the role of cheerleader/motivator (nagger?!?) I do my best to hold people accountable for their roles, but I can only do so much. Custom is custom. And, in defense of Sícchez, they are making great headway with their organic unrefined sugar plant and their reforestation project (both supported heavily by NGO´s). I know you all must be curious about Brian´s “work”, but he´s not so interested in blogging. Suffice it to say that things are similar for him, except he´s focusing on nutrition, family gardens, and improved cooking-stoves. However, he does have it a little easier, as the people at health center are relatively organized and more proactive with projects.

Well, again, if you´ve made it to the end of a month´s worth of thoughts, congratulations and thanks! We love you all!

Sorry about not having pictures this time!