Sunday, March 29, 2009

It´s been awhile...


Hey all,

I just realized it´s been roughly a month since my last post. That´s pretty lazy of me, I guess, and I´ll try and make it a little more frequent. The good news is I should have some interesting things to report. I´m heading up to Ayacucho for the world´s craziest Semana Santa (holy week) celebrations and should have some pretty cool cultural stuff to report from that. I also plan on getting to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu this month if I´m approved to do it, and that should be highly describable as well.
As for what I¨ve been up to the last month- work. That is a very, very good thing, because it means that people are waking up again in my town and starting to do some things I can help with. I¨m still teaching English in all the schools and working with some community groups with their computer skills. However, bigger fish to fry are starting to hit the pan, like an environmental committee within the municipality that is warming up to a landfill project and the high school starting to make a reforestation project to combat erosion. The health post is starting a garden project with the old folks and some high school students are looking into working with them to make a recycling small business. Also, some people interested in tourism development are starting to pop up again and I¨ll be working with them to make project plans and see if we can get some of them moving. All-in-all it´s an exciting time to be around because things are actually getting done...
Other things of interest I guess would be that even as high as we are we´re not safe from mosquitos. My system doesn´t take to them all that well, so I get some pretty impressive swelling once in awhile. Benadril is my third most prevalent food group at them moment. I also got a q-tip end stuck in my ear recently, due to some shoddy local q-tips. It wasn´t that big of a deal but I had to jaunt down to the capital to get it out so I was half-deaf for a week. I definitely appreciate people with reduced hearing and their plight a lot more now. Felt like I was living in a swimming pool. So, that´s the update. Take care all and watch some baseball for me.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Photos!

Hey all,

Here´s the photos I got from the disastrous Argentina trip as well as some I took at a ceremony held at our Incan fortress in the valley, giving a pretty good idea of what it looks like where I´m living now. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.es/zijerem/ArgentinaAndColcaInSpring#

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I¨m back! and such

Hey all,

Well, it´s been awhile since the last, fairly depressing post, but it´s all good. The vacation was a complete disaster but it won´t stop me from seeing what I want to of this continent- it just means that I¨ll have to put off the northern portion until my trip home.
The last few weeks have been pretty stale. I planned this trip in the first place to cover the dead period of the rainy season, when everyone is either away or partying (which I´ve done enough of the last few months) but most certainly not working. Since I had to be back I´ve pretty much just sat around and watched movies on the laptop and planned for when stuff started happening again, which should be this week. The last party of the season is raging around me right now and today is the last day. Also, school starts again tomorrow. I´ve heard that most people aren´t back for the first week, so I´ll pretty much just be setting my schedule and trying to re-open dormant projects.
I did take part in the last party, carnivales, over the last week since I was in town anyway for my final week of Quechua classes. I´m still processing all the info I got this week, but I think I can get along in the language o.k. and with studying can even get fairly proficient at it.
As for carnivales, the holiday has been more or less going on all month as a lead-up to Lent. Mardi Gras is the peak of the holiday in Brazil and New Orleans, but we wrap up a little earlier here. It´s characterized by people chasing around with water balloons, squirt guns, and spray foam going after the opposite sex. Bands also roam in the early hours picking up the solteras, or single girls, from their houses and dancing into the morning. Another custom is that all single males have flutes and try to ¨rob¨ solteras with them, playing to them I guess to win them over. I missed out on that part. For the most part it all devolves into drinking and dancing like most parties here.
Oh, a final interesting touch is that they ¨plant¨ trees in the town square. These are laden with presents and balloons and danced around. Periodically someone takes a chop at it with an axe until finally it falls, provoking a frenzied rush to grab the stuff that was in the branches. The catch for the chopper is that if you are the successful one you have to pay for the tree in the next year´s festival, so everyone takes little chops and it usually takes all night.
Well, that´s all for now. I should have some work stuff to report next time as well as a different topic than town parties to expound upon...