Town

Hello all,

This week I finally got to do some talking with town authorities on the subject of small business in Madrigal, which is my trained and educated specialty, instead of youth development which is where most of my work has been directed so far. I will still work in this field as no work with adults begins before seven o’clock here due to the farm-centered lifestyles of the people. The organization that is showing the most promise is Turismo Viviencial, which centers on a type of live-in tourism that pretty much just attracts Europeans at the moment. This form of tourism involves people coming to live in a home in another country for a period of time, from a week to a couple of months, to get an idea of the habits and customs of a people and their surroundings. Since we are in one of the most beautiful spots in the world this is a big opportunity for the town. Still, there is a lot of footwork and restructuring to do before we can get a move on things.

On other news this week, I’ve been a bit under the weather but still doing everything I need to. The amusing part of all of this is when anyone hears me cough they have another natural remedy they would like me to try to cure it. I had to have received more than ten amateur prescriptions this week. I also pinned down a learning aid my high school English students enjoy- using activities centered on song lyrics. It’s good for listening comprehension and vocabulary building, and I had a completely quiet classroom for the first time since I began!

It just occurred to me that I haven’t really got around to describing the town. It is seated in a depression surrounded by mountains, the most impressive of which is an extremely jagged peak that is right next to where the canyon really plunges down. You can’t really see the canyon from the town because you need to descend a series of step-like slopes full of farm fields to get to it, a difficult descent. The jagged peak bears an Incan fortress, Chimpa, overlooking the deepest part of the canyon. Also on that side are ancient rock tombs including a mummy, cave paintings, a ghost town, a rock forest, and a forest of puyas, plants that flower once a century, Closer to the town is an abandoned mine and then kilometers of farm fields.

The town itself is built around a central plaza that has a small park with a fountain, a few statues, and bushes cut in the shapes of animals and objects. For the most part small stores and governmental buildings populate the square and residential houses radiate outwards. Towards the edge of town are a large public meeting hall and the schools. The schools are single-story complexes of buildings built around a cement common area. Most houses are built of painted adobe with tin roofing, including mine, although there are still some of the traditional stone, straw-roofed houses around.

As far as amenities go, we have streetlights and for some, including my family, thankfully, running water. The roads are still primarily dirt, although we are building a stone and asphalt one entering town. The stores don’t have a huge selection, but you can find most of your amenities and fill in the gaps by going into the closest big town, Chivay. Madrigal has all of the hallmarks of a small town, but it has everything I need and I have certainly never lived in a place so naturally beautiful.

Food

Hey all,

This week has been more of the same, although I did walk to the town across the canyon to visit another volunteer Saturday, which pretty much left me burnt out. It took four hours of descending into the canyon through all kinds of terrain and then climbing back up and out to the highway. This is particularly difficult at altitude, and as skinny as I’m getting I’m still in terrible shape. Should probably start up that running pretty soon… Getting back was as difficult, but only an hour as I hopped a ride from my fellow volunteer’s town back home. As far as work goes, I got to talk to a local governmental agency called Sierra del Sur about a variety of projects, including a women’s savings club that will be meeting next week. I’ll also be meeting with a residential tourism group that needs revitalizing and the mayor to talk over some possibilities, including starting a town library. Still no dice on the radio show though, although I’m working on getting the radio key.

This week’s topic is food, then. For the most part, it’s pretty tasty, although after they butchered a sheep we ate random guts for a week straight. Not my favorite week. They have a different approach to meals in the canyon. Breakfast and lunch are the biggest meals of the day and more or less the same. Dinner might be a smaller plate of food or just tea or coffee and bread. I don’t get a whole lot of meat, although when I do it is usually sheep jerky or on good days chicken. We also get alpaca, a llama-like animal, every once and awhile. Yesterday in my friend’s town we even had donkey, which was tough but not too bad.

Generally, though, we eat rice with some sort of side that usually involves potatoes, including a type of sun-dried potato, called chuño, that tastes awful in most settings and the very strong regional red onion. One of my favorite meals is spaghetti with a sauce made primarily from shaved carrots. Soup is another constant, and is usually quite good and sporting potatoes and chives. My mother also makes a simple cheese that is quite good and often makes tostado, which is just corn fried until it is nice and crunchy. To drink we get fresh milk, tea brewed from local herbs, coffee, or chicha, which is kind of like a sour beer brewed from corn that usually isn’t alcoholic. Overall I can’t complain, and going into the capital once a month gives me the opportunity to get hamburger now and again so I can’t really ask for more.

Transportation

Blog 2

This week has been a crazy one. Monday I taught in the Primary School, where we had a parade celebrating the gift of a couple new computers and some desks and chairs. The students marched in classes, the style being the goosestep we last saw in Hitler’s Germany and still used by many South American countries. There is little consciousness concerning World War II, South America being just about the only area largely unaffected by the war, particularly its Pacific coast. So, this is most likely a vestige of the time when German military advisers were the primary resource of military knowledge in the continent, although Argentina was the country with the strongest ties, even being the center of a conspiracy theory involving an escaped, living Hitler. Also, an interesting note on the high school- the students are made to pay for the paper their tests are printed on, which strikes me as a similar practice to making the executed’s family pay for the bullet. When I told my class not to worry about it they insisted, which I guess puts money back in my pocket…
Anyway, after Primary, I was to do the first installment of my radio show and computer class, but I got a series of no-shows for those. I did have success Wednesday with my teachers’ English class as well as teaching at the high school and pre-school Wednesday-Thursday. I also started up a basketball club to give me a sport I have a chance of competing in (instead of soccer). In my free time I put the finishing touches on my first book of poetry, as requested by a few fellow volunteers, and wandered over to the health post to see what I could help out with. Thus ended a pretty busy week. If you want a Word copy of the book, shoot me an email, which if you don’t have it is: henryjfromage@hotmail.com.
Topically, I thought I’d tackle transportation this time. The primary form of transportation is on foot because all of the others are so infrequent. I walk most places, which usually isn’t too bad, although it is an hour-plus hike to the next town which gets long. Also, walking to the chacras, or fields, can take up to two hours. Another option is by horse, which I haven’t taken advantage of yet.
Speaking of engine-run transportation, the primary is the combi, which is a slightly larger passenger van that goes back and forth to the nearest big city, Chivay, three times a day and is packed beyond belief, and then goes and picks up more people in each successive town. For anyone significantly over five foot, it is pretty rough, but when you have no other options… Also you have the big Greyhound-type bus that leaves for the capital city of Arequipa every morning at 3 a.m. This is fairly comfortable, although to take it at night back to Madrigal might mean you’re standing for a significant portion of the trip. There are taxis as well, but the cost is prohibitive to return from Chivay. Also, the municipality has a huge, construction-type truck, called a bolquete, that they use to ferry materials and people around the town’s jurisdiction and occasionally elsewhere. If you can catch it when it’s leaving there’s generally space in the cab or up top. Lastly, in Chivay are the mototaxis, like we had in Lima, that are basically low-powered motorcycles with passenger cabs attached to the back. There isn’t a whole lot of point taking them as Chivay is pretty walkable. That’s more or less the slate of transportation available, little of it comfortable but with the distances in question, all of it essential.

Lastly, here’s another batch of long-promised photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/zijerem/Peru3#

Education System

Hey all,

Well, I’ve finally gotten a chance to sit down and write topically. I think I’ll tackle what I’ve seen of the school system in this post. I’m working in all levels now, as I’ve mentioned. First off is Inicial, which schools the four and five year olds. They are about as well behaved as young kids everywhere, which is to say not very, and this holds true for all the grades. I had heard that kids were more disciplined here, and they do have a military-like formation at the beginning of the day, complete with many of the movements I myself learned in R.O.T.C. However, that isn’t exactly true, and it’s one of my bigger pains in the rear trying to hold their attention, which makes me truly sorry for the other teachers who don’t have the advantage of being a novelty. Still, there are students that really want to learn, mostly the girls, that make it still worthwhile.
Back to the level-by-level comparison. Anyway, Inicial is the kindergarten/first grade of sorts and I’m still trying to figure out how best to teach them. Using songs, pictures, and employing hands-on activities are the traditional methods and I’m still trying to find the right mix of these. The school resembles what a kindergarten room would in the U.S., although in a building by itself. The next level is Primaria, which has kids from 6-12 years old. Each level has its own room and the military discipline starts here. The school is public but still has strong Catholic influences and some religious education mixed in. Here the teachers are a fun-loving bunch, which means there is always plenty to eat at breaks and unfortunately, some sporadic drinking during the school day, something that apparently isn’t rare here. I wouldn’t say that I have seen any of them drunk, but still it isn’t a very good practice.
The Colegio is the final level, and the last for most Peruvians. It goes from 13-18 years of age. Here the school is even larger, with the biggest contingent of computers, which I’ll probably be teaching with before to long. Here is where I’ll hold my adult English and Computer classes when I start them up next week. Each level in the Colegio has its own room, with the teachers of each subject moving in and out with the hours, the reverse of back home. The same basic subjects are taught here, although I think they stop Math at a level below the U.S. and have religion classes like the Primaria.
Overall my impression of the level of education here is that it is a fairly professional one, with very dedicated teachers, although there are still strides to be made. The resources provided to the Colegio in particular are also quite good, with most of the books being new and each classroom having a whiteboard. The students seem to be more or less the same worldwide, no matter the different disciplinary practices and backgrounds. Teaching is definitely still a wok in progress for me, but each day I spend in the classroom the more I learn how to make my classes more useful and interesting. Hopefully I can strike the right chord with each level and get as many learning as possible…

Work and such

Hello all,

Here´s my first promised update, although I have to pound this out at the internet café instead of on my computer (just worked through some virus issues) so it won´t be as detailed as I hope to get in the future.
What I´ve been up to lately is revisiting the capital to fix the new computer and talk to a university about giving citizenship chats to my high school, a whole lot of teaching (including in their version of kindergarten now... I´ll have to brush up my nursery song knowledge), and the new addition of a radio show. The town offered me an hour every day on their FM radio station which I´ll use to introduce some international news to the town, talk about community and health issues, and three days a week play some world music (I´ve certainly got enough to fill an hour a day for several years...). I´m going to start getting pretty busy here before too long, but that is exactly what I wanted and is refreshing. I´ve been reading two books a week lately, so as much as I like it hopefully that´ll slacken as I´ve got more and more meaningful tasks to fulfill.
Well, this was criminally short, but I´ve got quite a bit to do. Keep posted for the meatier stuff coming up...

Update

Hello all,

Well, I finally oot a funcioning computer so I should be able to type up blog posts now and put them up when I get access to the internet. That once a week I promised awhile ago is now viable, then.
On the news front, I now have a family to stay with, which is awesome. My mom and dad are both 40 and their primary sustenance is their chacras, or fields. They grow corn, potatoes, alfalfa, lima beans, and quinua, which is a cous-cous like grain with a lot of protein. I helped plow a chacra last Tuesday and I was probably as tired as I´ve ever been afterward. I walked the bulls from 9am to about 5pm with only a small break to eat in between. Still, it was very interesting and even strangely fun, although I´m sure the more of it I do the less fun it´ll be with time (and probably the easier).
I also have an eight year old little sister that has become my shadow and two younger brothers that are studying in the capital. I am getting used to some pretty rustic living conditions, from the outhouse without light or toilet seat (but it flushes!) and washing my own clothes by hand to the four days of various sheep innards to eat as we just butchered a sheep. It is interesting how quickly one gets used to all this as I can´t say any of it bothers me all that much, although if we keep eating like this I will be skinny indeed upon my return (already down 15-20...).
As for work, I am teaching English in the Primary and Secondary schools and will be putting together adult english and computer classes before too long. I have yet to get seriously involved on the business side, but I am having meetings all this week with different organizations that may hopefully be able to get me started there. I also have a heft community diagnostic to take care of, so I am fairly busy right now.
Well, that´s the news I have for now. I´ll get more descriptive in the future now that I can devote some time to it...

First Impressions

Hello all,

Well, the first several days are over and I´ve survived all-right. I still don´t have a host family, but I´ll be looking for one in earnest in the coming week or two. I know that there´ll be something somewhere, and for the time being I´m staying in the municipal hotel, which needs some touching up but is otherwise pretty comfortable, if cold. It does feature potentially the best toilet in town (still no seat, though), which is all mine, so I can´t complain too much.
The town fiestas just got over, which is why I haven´t gotten much done, and they were pretty nice. I described a bit what was to be expected, and it all was pretty exciting. When I have more time in the future I´ll make sure to write a bit on the fiesta culture here, as well as a lot of other descriptive topics, but for now I´ll just keep you updated on what´s happening on my end. Unfortunately my computer was the next electronic device of mine to bite the dust, but thankfully the information on it was all intact and recoverable. There´s an outside shot it can be fixed, but I´m not holding my breath. I´ll know more tomorrow when I´m next in cell phone coverage. At worst, there is another volunteer nearby who has two laptops and may be open to selling me one at a reasonable price. I do have internet in my town, which saves me a lengthy walk, but it isn´t always available so I need to prioritize my time on it.
As for the town, everyone seems pretty nice, if a little withdrawn at first. After a little partying with the mayor and city council among other community dignitaries, I feel as if I´m a little more accepted than my first couple of days. I´ve yet to do anything of any significance with them, but there will be plenty of time in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I´ve already contacted the local schools (they have a primary and secondary/high school here) and set aside a few days to work with each. It appears as if I´ll be thrown into an English classroom right away in the secondary school as they´re looking for another professor. I´ve made it clear that I have no idea how to teach English from the ground up, but would be glad to be a resource and a temporary fill-in. Well, that´s about all the news I can remember,

Zach