Arequipa

I just got back from my site where I’ll be living for the next years, and I couldn’t be more pleased. The town is called Madrigal, in the department (state) of Arequipa, described by some as the Texas of Peru because of its distinct, prideful culture. The city is beautiful, nestled in the Colca Canyon valley, which is the deepest canyon in the world, as mentioned earlier. I’m actually only a couple hour walk from the deepest part of it.
The town itself is small, only about 400 families, and very agrarian. Nearly everyone has a farm, or chacra, and is there all day. So, I’ll only have a small window between 6pm and bedtime to get most of my work done, although I can plan and do research during the day while most of the population is gone. I can also work in the schools and go to the farm and help out. I should have plenty to do overall, especially since there is great tourism potential there. There is an Incan fortress overlooking the deepest part of the canyon, ancient cliff-face tombs- one of which has a mummy, a rock forest, hot springs, cave paintings, and even a rope bridge and an abandoned mine (cool to explore if not exactly tourist-centric).
The people are also amazing. Everybody greets one another when passing in the street, everyone seems to know everyone else, and there seems to be a genuineness there that you don’t see that often. I think I’m pretty much a new toy for the kids, as I got a little buddy right away, Maria, complete with a lamb that follows her around. She wanted to do everything with me, as did a young boy named Emerson who showed me around a lot of the spots to see. My primary duties are with adult organizations, but I believe that I’ll end up doing a lot with the kids of the town as well, as they’ve not got a whole lot to do with their free time.
The scenery is spectacular. You can see where the canyon plunges down from the town square (which has a beautiful stone church that may have been built 400 plus years ago). Mountains are all around, and after a rainfall their peaks are covered with snow. An hour’s hike away is the river at the bottom of the canyon, which isn’t very deep but fast in a whitewater sort of way. Within the town, the houses are mostly of stone or adobe, and walking down one of the dirt streets with stone buildings and animals all around makes you feel like you stepped back into the middle ages. Apparently the scenery gets even better after the rainy season, when everything turns green and the sun is out much of the time.
On the downside, I will probably not see a toilet seat again for the next couple of years. Also, it is bitterly cold at night without any heating per se, so I’ll have to get creative with covers, long underwear, etc. People also only bathe once a week, which is another throwback element of the town. I will probably kick it up a notch and go into the nearest “big” city, Chivay, once a week to shower/bathe at the hot springs in town. Either way, I’m going to have to get used to being dirty much of the time. Still, I entered the Peace Corps expecting “rustic” conditions and this is pretty much what I asked for. I’ve become too soft over the last year or so and a little hard work and grit will be good for me.
Overall, I think I will have a great time over the next couple of years and furthermore I think there is room for me to really help in some aspects. That’s the important thing, anyways. Well, I have to two weeks left in Lima before I head to site for good. When that happens, I’ll be updating once a week. I also will have a cell phone again, which you can call after our cell phone tower gets built in town (about a month or two in). This is it!

Here are the long promised pictures, covering my trip up north to Cahamarca, my small vacation to the holy mountain of Marcahausi, some more pictures of my house here in Yanacoto, and my site to be, Madrigal:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zijerem/Peru2

Oh, and I started picking up poetry lately. For some reason it’s just flowing right now, which is strange because I’m not used to doing much with the creative arts. Here’s one I wrote recently that came out in about ten minutes:

It courses
Down the mountain
Rushes over and
Around
Rocks, moss-laden
Branches, obstacles
Of many kinds
For it is its
Nature
It cannot burst
Asunder the
Iron bounds of
Gravity or
Retract its wet
Wanderings
However much it
Might wish
So it plunges
Ahead
Leaping and bounding
Over and
Around
Until it meets its
Match
An obstacle insurmountable
A wall, whether of
Rock or
Concrete
A halting force
Doest it then flow
Around, or
Stop, and
Puddle?
Or does it rage
Against this
Impediment,
Struggle, scratch,
Chip away
Until it can
Once again skip
Over and
Around?