More Confusion, Craziness, and Encouragement…Or Are We Just Experiencing Magical Realism Again?

So some guys came down to Sicchez from the provincial capital of Ayabaca (like a county seat), set up an antenna, and started a radio station. Cool!!

And then the tapestry of alternate realities began… Here - I can’t fairly say if it’s Peru, rural Peru, South America, or Latino culture in general - the truth is elusive, just out of grasp and variable. In some ways thoroughly maddening when one needs a firm grasp on the situation at hand, or to follow through on a specific task (how many different damn answers are there to one simple question?!?); but this rippling and fluid version of he truth may be closer to reality than we realize. Maybe magical realism can be better described as comprehensive realism.

Anyway, the case in point: the new radio station in Sicchez. Everyone’s excited, paying a few cents to send ¨shot outs¨ to friends over the air and blasting the station over the town loudspeakers. And then slowly, ever so slowly, we begin to realize that it’s all we hear anymore. The other two radio stations (one from Lima and one from Ecuador), go away. No one watches telenovelas on the Peruvian TV network either (this is a truly horrifying thing) and we begin to wonder why. Whispers of a take-over ride the breeze: the radio signal has intercepted and canceled out all the other radio signals. They just don’t come in. Worse yet, the TV signals come in, but with the Sicchz radio station audio. Then, the inconceivable happens: the only phone in town, a community phone with satellite signal, plays the Sicchez radio station when you dial a number. Awesome! We have been usurped, overtaken. But to what degree depends on who you ask. Everyone knows the truth, but not one version has a match.

But all good phenomenon normalize, all good stars fade away, and one fine morning a week ago found our town waking up to the Lima radio station over the loudspeakers once again. Ummmm…..wait….we thought…
Gueiby (our 11 year old host sister) looks at us as if we were completely insane and shrugs, ¨No, Angela, the Sicchez radio station never interrupted anything. Nothing’s changed.¨ Well, the drama at least gave us the illusion of something strange afoot, but it looks like business as usual reigns.

And the finale:
Now….imagine…you are a poor, rural Peruvian subsistence farmer. You don’t have a concept of ¨exercise¨ because life is an exercise in itself. The rainy season recedes and every morning you see some tall skinny white guy running by, sometimes 3 or 4 times. What is he running from?!? Wait – why did he come by again?!?

That’s my hubby! Brian’s training for a Peace Corps volunteer organized marathon in July (you all KNEW he’d find some hard-ass thing to train for while here, the Peace Corps cannot stop Brian from setting fitness goals). Granted, we are well-known by now, and I’d even venture to say well-loved too, but running?!? What?!? Why?!? Now that Brian’s become a regular morning attraction, providing a few seconds of entertainment for various families who live along the road, he’s become a bit of a star. Receiving shouts of hope and encouragement from the peanut gallery: ¨GO GRINGO GO!!¨ ¨ALMOST THERE GRINGO!!¨ ¨KEEP GOING!!¨ can be heard from the doorways. Not to mention friendly offers for cane sugar moonshine shots (180 poof, no joke) from already drunk men – the Sicchez style aid-station. Even if the Siccheñans don’t know why, they wish him the very best in his race. And so do I.

p.s. The race is July 5th in Pacasmayo. Wish him happy running (a natural like him doesn´t need luck!)