Holes and Cute Kids

Frist of all, Brian and I must say that we have the absolute best friends a person could ever ask for!! Thank you to all of you who keep us in your hearts and take such good care of us even if we´re so far away. Really, we´re almost spoiled rotten! And thank you Ash, Ann Marie, Frank, Missy, Krista, Doug, and Shauna for going out of your way, literally, to do what friends do best!!

Well, the beans in our garden are flowering and we have some re-seeded alfalfa shoots coming up. We´re pretty happy because the nurse at the health center and a really cool dude who lives in Sícchez have kind of adopted the garden too, which is so much better than us being the only ones who care. They work in it without us even being there! YAY!! However, every garden is not without it´s plagues, and our beans have these powdery white circles on the leaves. Not being from this zone, I inquired numerous people about what the heck it is and how to fix it. So far, we have five possiblities: it´s a special dust that falls from the sky, it´s from the ¨freeze¨ (it never freezes here – ever!!), it´s ¨burnt¨ (hugh??), worm eggs, and mold. I think I´m going with the mold theory. As soon as the agricultural specialist comes to town, we´ll have a chat.
Brian´s almost ready to start giving workshops to the mommies in the garden. It´ll be about composting and preparing soil (mixing in natural fertilizer and planting legumes and nitrogen-fixing cover crops like alfalfa). They´ll each be expected to prepare a garden space at home. If said task is completed, they earn lettuce seeds. Each workshop attended will earn them more seeds, until the end when they will be ready to plant a full garden.

¨Trashy¨ would be an adecuate description of me lately. My community partner and I finally got the municipality to install a sanitary landfill for the bio-contaminated waste at the health center (now we just have to get them to use it). I also installed a pilot landfill at the local school in one of the villages. The deputy govenor and I went house-to-house passing out instructions and encouraging the families to replicate the pilot landfill in their homes instead of throwing trash in the streams and/or burning it. We have a contest going there to encourage participation. I will now be headed there each month to check on progress and help the families manage their landfills correctly. We´re doing the same basic thing in two other villages, each one at a different stage in the process depending on the personality of the community.
In the urban center, my community partner and I are trying to form an ¨environmental promotion¨ committee who will help me educate the locals about using the trash cans, separating their waste streams, and keeping the streets clean. My work here is a lot harder because I can´t seem to get full support from the municipality, so I spin my wheels a lot waiting for follow-through. But I am proud of the few people here who have worked hard to help out their community.

Welp, that´s about it. We´re basically lovin´ life a lot more these days because we´re able to ride our bikes, walk in normal shoes (not rubber boots), run, hike and just generally be outside. Someday soon I´m fixin´ to make my own yogurt (as soon as the cows at the local stable have their babies) and start sprouting...well, anything that´ll sprout. If anyone has any homemade yogurt or sprouts suggestions, pass them along! (Isn´t sprouting the perfect alternative when there are no veggies?!?!? WHY didn´t I think of that a year ago??)



Community members diggin´ their landfill behind the school. They´re basically 1mx1m holes in the ground that you fill with alternating layers of trash and dirt, top with more dirt and plant a tree on top of. Pretty simple, but NOT a simple habit to change!!



By two meters down, this poor smiling guy was throwing the dirt out of the hole over his head. My back hurt just looking at him.

Here´s the landfill for biocontaminates at the Health Center. It´s lined with plastic and the biohazards are deposited in plastic bottles before being thrown in the hole.

I recently went to see the southernmost mangroves in South America (near Piura) as a Peace Corps training event. It´s a very small protected area outside the city of Vice.

More mangroves.

Do not let Brian´s smile fool you. He had to entertain these second graders for 30 full minutes while I taught computers to the first graders. He was ready to pop each one several times in the head by the time I took the foto. What a sport!!!

Aren´t girls cute?!?!

Looking down on Sícchez from 4.000 feet up in Ayabaca.

Ahhhhhh....

Oh, and there´s been some demand for an uploaded video of our room, kitchen, and general life stuff. Soon to come....

What Way Does Your Sink Water Swirl??

You know that whole northern/southern hemisphere drainage thing? The one that says water always drains clockwise/counterclockwise depending on which hemisphere you´re in? Who wants to be a science geek with me!?! At our house, there are two concrete sinks next to each other where we wash clothes in plastic tubs. One sink is for washing and the other for rinsing. Well, the water doesn’t always drain in the same direction in the sinks. If I try to dump water from the tubs at the top of the drain, giving no initial force in either direction, they drain clockwise. But, if I dump the water in from the side, giving a directional force, they drain in that direction. In other words, I can make them drain in either direction if I try. What I want to confirm is that clockwise is the ¨natural¨ direction of drainage in the southern hemisphere. In what direction does the water drain from your tubs/sinks up north? We don’t have a tub, so I can’t let water passively drain. There’s also the possibility that the drainage thing is not true. Has Myth Busters done an episode on this??

So, most importantly Brian´s cousin Patti and her friend Nina came to visit us all the way up in Sícchez. Not only that, but it was my birthday and the town´s anniversary on the same day (I knew it was my destiny to come here when I found out that I share a birthday with Sícchez and my mom shares a birthday with the town obstetrician!!). Patti and Nina: thank you from the bottom of our hearts for coming!! I can´t tell you all how nice it was to see family in the flesh and gab, gab, gab, gab, gab (even Brian gabbed!). And these two beautiful women deserve major props for enduring the anniverary celebration and epic hike up to Ayabaca (4,000 ft. elevation gain). They ate my family´s food (pig soup with hair still on the skin), dealt with a large number of perpetually drunk people, listened to muisc loud enough to bust ear drums until the wee hours of the morning, waited until 12am for the dance show to start as the town waited for the sound system to show up (side note: there already were speakers – very loud speakers – but apparently not enough...we had to wait until more speakers showed up so that they could hear our party in Ecuador), and managed to get sick and still hiked the next day with minimal food and no energy. Not quite a luxury vacation. Somehow I think Cuzco went better. But the whole time they were in good spirits and gave us lots of love and even some goodies from the States, which was much appreciated. Don’t worry mom, dad, and Kristyn, there´s no major party when you guys will be here. Nice and boring...just the way we want it!!

The Fireworks Monster behind the crowd at the anniversary celebration in the Main Plaza.

The Fireworks Monster up close! Lots of cracking and spraying of sparks when lit...a doozy of a time!

Brian tried to call OSHA, but no one answered. This set-up is for the speakers, for an area the size of a SMALL basketball court. Ear plugs are obviously of no consequence here. We could feel the vibration in our bones.

We’re nearing the end of the coffee harvest. Almost every house, rural or nearer to the town center, can be seen with coffee berries drying out in the sun. It gives off a very faint rotting smell, but in a weird way it smells good…probably just because I’m a coffee addict. Also on the agricultural front, our family’s cows just gave birth so we’ve also been drinking a ton of fresh (boiled) milk. It’s very thick and flavourful, almost like cream. Alas, the feast or famine phenomenon again: chocolate milk, milk/flour desserts, warm milk with sugar, cheese, cold milk, etc… several times a day. I like it but admittedly in small amounts, it’s kind of a lot to take for a soymilk drinker. However, I have been mixing the milk with coffee and cocoa powder – Kristyn, it makes me think of you – it’s friggin’ delicious! From here on out, the harvests are scarcer until December. I think the only thing that comes into season are the avocadoes (November), but people don’t have very many avocado trees and they keep telling us that they don’t produce like they used to (sob!!). Papaya will also come into season around October.

Fresh-picked coffee beans in a bolsico, a two-sidded bag they sling over their shoulders to carry home stuff from the fields.

Coffee berries drying outside. A common view here.

Half-dried coffee berries.

Gueiby sifting away the shells of corn kernels before grinding them and making tamales. (I know, random picture)

A random mango tree. Pretty, isn´t it?

Some little buggers. I just love ´em!!

Well, we´ve got some pretty good looking beans popping out of our garden. The alfalfa didn´t take, so we have to find something else for a winter cover crop. For now we´re going to plant more beans. It´s nice to grow things.
I finally got the municipality to start using a sanitary landfill instead of throwing the trash behind a tree and burning it when the pile gets too big. I consider this a major success. A sanitary landfill is basically a large hole, lined with compacted mud that is used to throw trash in. Every 30 cm the trash is covered with a compacted layer of mud until it is filled. Then you top it and plant a tree. Used correctly, they effectively prevent leakage and contamination. Now the challenge is to make sure they maintain the landfill correctly and put one in at the health center and primary school. The kids and I also made anti-trash-throwing signs to post around town for the anniversary, but they somehow all dissapeared. Instead, the town was covered with trash the day after the festivities ended. But, at least they have a safe place to throw it now!
I also conducted a class/meeting in one of the rural villages – 205 people, 61 families total – to help them with waste management issues (littering and improper waste disposal are common problems in many parts of Peru). The govener, principal, and community members were very excited and I will be going back there soon to help them construct a model landfill. From there, each family is responsible for building and maintaing one in their home. I will be conducting monthly visits to verify correct usage. They will also be responsible for monthly clean-up campaigns with the kids. Brian keeps reminding me to be cautiously optimistic, for we have yet to experience much follow-through or consistency with responsiblities here. But we figue perfection is overrated. I can only give what they are ready to recive, and my service is not defined by my needs, but by theirs. Go Sícchez!!
Brain says to email him for details of his whereabouts. There are occasional Brian sightings here, but not all can be verified. He´s doing a good job working with the pregnant women and mommies on nutrition-hygine-family planning themes. He´s at the Health Center a lot supporting their initiatives and programs.

So that´s August in short. We can barely wait to see the Ash and Co. gang out here in September!! More friends!!! And I´m now allowing myself to count down the days to my family´s arrival to Peru. Oh how depressing November will be after all of these lovely visits! You all need to keep on coming! We have our eye on Huascarán sometime in June 2009 (hint, hint climbing friends). A volunteer lives at the base camp and can help with logistics. I know, how´d he get so damn lucky?!?!

As always and every day, we´re thinking of you all and send our best energy to each and every one of you!!!