Saturday night Maricarmen and I went dancing, and it's amazing how the music doesn't seem to change...the same songs I heard 4 years ago in Nicaragua, and the same 80's classics Latinos seem to love (with some new ones, some Peruvian music, and all the hip hop songs that in Europe and the States have people running to the dance floor, and here have everyone sit down waiting for the next Spanish song...). The place was quite nice, we met some people there who wouldn't let us go home at 3 am 'cos it was too early! They had a live band and the best thing is that men dance (as in: they know how).
Sunday morning we were supposed to get up early to go to the Sacred Valley. Of course after
the dancing night we didn't leave the house till late morning, but we had a great day. it was Maricarmen, her son Nicolay, the webmaster working with us Olger, his wife Erica and their baby daughter Kalia, and myself. Olger is a couple years older than me and Erica must be my age: they are both brilliant, intelligent, active...and they are actually adults, there is no doubt in their minds that they want to be parents, that they have to take on responsibilities, and I wonder why in our "developed" world so many people our age are light years away from that.
We went with Maricarmen's car and the views driving from Cusco to the Valley are amazing. First we went to Chinchero, according to Olger, who is a certified tour guide, the most beautiful and authentic craft market in the Valley, at 3700 mts (Don't ask me feet, I'll never learn...). When we arrived we first met an 80-year-old man who hand knits hats: it used to take him 3 months to make each hat, but now hie eyesight is so bad it takes him about 5 months. We had a hard time communicating with him as he doesn't speak much Spanish (only Quechua), but Maricarmen offered to take him to the hospital in Cusco to have his eyes checked; it's probably just a problem of cataract and I hope she'll take him in the next few weeks. He is an amazing artist and his skill will soon be lost.
Then we drove to Urubamba, the Sacred Valley district capital, at the bottom of the Valley, about 1500 mts. There I was baptised to the Peruvian carnival tradition: people throw water, water baloons and foam at each other in the street, so Nicolay, Olger, and random passer-byes decided to gang up against me and I was SOAKED! I got my revenges though, spraying them with foam and spraying foam at random people from the car as we drove away.
From there we went to Huayocari, where Maria and Geoff have their land, and worked adding "soap" (duck and cow dung) to each plant so it will grow better. Farm work is hard! But it was nice, and in the meantime Olger and Erica cooked us a great lunch. People in Huayocari are not very open, I think it will be hard to work with volunteers there: they have lots of internal politics arguments around the access road, bridges, and the local governemtn stealing money. There are also serious alcoholism problems, and I haven't seen any house that seems sufficiently well-off to host a volunteer. Anyway we'll see as I get to know the communities better.
Finally we went to Huycho. The beauty of the place is undescribable: surrounded by green mountains and different kinds of luscious vegetation, facing gorgeous mountains with glaciers. The communitiy is definitely richer than Huayocari, and the people extremely welcoming. I found the perfect host family for Simone, the first volunteer coming in March. They have a nice house with hot running water, bathroom, kitchen, etc. The mother, Rosa, seems very friendly and open, ahd she has worked with volunteerd before. The father Crisostomo was in a very bad accident a few months ago, when a truck ran him and other people over on their way to work. He was lucky to survive, and had to have surgery in his leg placing a piece of metal instead of his femur. Now he is much better, but he still walkes with crutches and obviously can't to any farmwork...so it will be perfect for Simone to help on the farm. They have 2 daughters ages 9 and 7 and a 5-year-old son. I'm excited to work with them, and they are so happy to recieve a volunteer. We pay host families 400 soles (about US$ 140) per month; the volunteer gets a private bedroom, all meals, and a real Peruvian experience.
Also, I'm gonna try to do a socioeconomic study of all the communities, going to each house to see the conditions of the house, how many people live there, what is their job, etc. to try to reach out to the poorest families and see what projects they would like to see in the community and actively involve them.
Sunday morning we were supposed to get up early to go to the Sacred Valley. Of course after
the dancing night we didn't leave the house till late morning, but we had a great day. it was Maricarmen, her son Nicolay, the webmaster working with us Olger, his wife Erica and their baby daughter Kalia, and myself. Olger is a couple years older than me and Erica must be my age: they are both brilliant, intelligent, active...and they are actually adults, there is no doubt in their minds that they want to be parents, that they have to take on responsibilities, and I wonder why in our "developed" world so many people our age are light years away from that.
We went with Maricarmen's car and the views driving from Cusco to the Valley are amazing. First we went to Chinchero, according to Olger, who is a certified tour guide, the most beautiful and authentic craft market in the Valley, at 3700 mts (Don't ask me feet, I'll never learn...). When we arrived we first met an 80-year-old man who hand knits hats: it used to take him 3 months to make each hat, but now hie eyesight is so bad it takes him about 5 months. We had a hard time communicating with him as he doesn't speak much Spanish (only Quechua), but Maricarmen offered to take him to the hospital in Cusco to have his eyes checked; it's probably just a problem of cataract and I hope she'll take him in the next few weeks. He is an amazing artist and his skill will soon be lost.
Then we drove to Urubamba, the Sacred Valley district capital, at the bottom of the Valley, about 1500 mts. There I was baptised to the Peruvian carnival tradition: people throw water, water baloons and foam at each other in the street, so Nicolay, Olger, and random passer-byes decided to gang up against me and I was SOAKED! I got my revenges though, spraying them with foam and spraying foam at random people from the car as we drove away.
From there we went to Huayocari, where Maria and Geoff have their land, and worked adding "soap" (duck and cow dung) to each plant so it will grow better. Farm work is hard! But it was nice, and in the meantime Olger and Erica cooked us a great lunch. People in Huayocari are not very open, I think it will be hard to work with volunteers there: they have lots of internal politics arguments around the access road, bridges, and the local governemtn stealing money. There are also serious alcoholism problems, and I haven't seen any house that seems sufficiently well-off to host a volunteer. Anyway we'll see as I get to know the communities better.
Finally we went to Huycho. The beauty of the place is undescribable: surrounded by green mountains and different kinds of luscious vegetation, facing gorgeous mountains with glaciers. The communitiy is definitely richer than Huayocari, and the people extremely welcoming. I found the perfect host family for Simone, the first volunteer coming in March. They have a nice house with hot running water, bathroom, kitchen, etc. The mother, Rosa, seems very friendly and open, ahd she has worked with volunteerd before. The father Crisostomo was in a very bad accident a few months ago, when a truck ran him and other people over on their way to work. He was lucky to survive, and had to have surgery in his leg placing a piece of metal instead of his femur. Now he is much better, but he still walkes with crutches and obviously can't to any farmwork...so it will be perfect for Simone to help on the farm. They have 2 daughters ages 9 and 7 and a 5-year-old son. I'm excited to work with them, and they are so happy to recieve a volunteer. We pay host families 400 soles (about US$ 140) per month; the volunteer gets a private bedroom, all meals, and a real Peruvian experience.
Also, I'm gonna try to do a socioeconomic study of all the communities, going to each house to see the conditions of the house, how many people live there, what is their job, etc. to try to reach out to the poorest families and see what projects they would like to see in the community and actively involve them.
 |
| Peruvian life |
No comments:
Post a Comment