Brasil!

Well, time for some quick travel blogging. I will get pics up there later, but for now just some description on what I am up to at the moment. I flew into Sâo Paulo early this morning and explored it for awhile before deciding on heading to Rio a night early.
Sao Paulo is a massive city of around 18 million inhabitants, and it looks it. There is not a whole lot there for the tourist, but it does offer a look at the staggering disparity between the rich and poor in Brazil. There are homeless people in literally every doorway and arch in the center of town, in numbers that I had never seen the like of. I thought that Lima was fairly impoverished, but it holds no candles to the staggering amount of homelessness in just the small part I saw of Sao Paulo. I also had a fun episode with a dude high on something who came up to me and tried to see how close to my face he could swing without actually hitting me. After three haymakers he discovered that he was not going to get any reaction out of me except for a blank stare and wandered off in search of god knows what...
After my charming first encounter with Sao Paulo, I decided not to waste any more time there and took a day bus to Rio de Janeiro, arriving in the evening. I went down to the famous Copacabana beach and watched the sun sink beneath the waves. Since I am not capable of doing everything right at once, I of course forgot to change out my camera batteries and will not be having pictures of that, although I will do more beach wandering and get up to the famous Sugar Loaf mountain tomorrow before heading to Iguazu falls. I will put up more Rio commentary the next time I post, but suffice it to say that it is a beautiful city and one that I should have probably planned more time with. I will not miss the staggering heat, though, so I probably planned just right...

Solutions

Wow, that last post has been hanging up there for awhile. I promised a more optimistic blog this time out, and here it is. Things really haven’t changed in site, but I’ve got a couple of interesting new projects to hope after and something may even come of one of them. First off, we have a new environmental plan in place that may get some of the projects I had proposed off to a start. I also finally tracked down some seeds courtesy of another volunteer in the canyon to start a garden with the health post for the old folks club. Lastly, Salvador and I, another canyon volunteer, may get to do a business video project that would entail some traveling and fancy camerawork.
So, on to the broader strokes. For one, I don’t want the last post to be interpreted that what the Peace Corps does is ineffectual or unnecessary. There are at least six NGOs working in the Canyon from three different countries and I am convinced that Peace Corps has a better development philosophy than any of them. The core of the difference is that PC volunteers actually live in the towns where they try to make a difference. Most NGOs come to town, give a talk about a subject, and head on out. Some turn this talk into a series and even start organizations that are supposed to do a particular task, such as make artisan goods or promote tourism. The problem is that there is little to no follow-up and not living in the town means that the NGOs have a tough time diagnosing what the problem is if something goes wrong. By living for two years in the same town PC has a lot better chance at producing truly sustainable projects.
The second problem with most NGOs is the way they hand out money and resources. The simple action of giving to people isn’t bad in itself, but do it enough and you produce a culture of expectation. One of the first questions I got when I got to site was what I was going to give people. My answer of two years of my time didn’t seem to impress them much. I recently had a conversation with a teacher at my high school where I mentioned the saying where you can either give a man a fish to sustain him for a day or teach him to fish to sustain him for a lifetime. The teacher said that most Peruvians would just take the fish, and I think that would be true of people most anywhere, especially if they’re used to being given handouts. Sounds almost Republican, I know, except that I’m not sure they’re particularly interested in the teaching to fish part either.
So, I have no idea how to solve the world’s problems, but I think that we could do a lot worse than the PC approach. I’m certain that the common philosophy of just giving handouts isn’t working and won’t work. Ways need to be found to change people’s basic outlook. The most probable methods to find success would be to change basic circumstances through universal access to education and improving basic living standards with basic infrastructure projects (3 “basics” in one sentence… and I want to write for a living…). If we stopped giving billions to third world despots or wasting them through projects that treat the symptoms instead of the disease, we might even be able to do it.

Ancash pics and new design

Hey all,

You may have noticed the new design, which was a long time coming. I finally figured out how to spice things up with pictures and such (it really wasn´t that hard). Also, after the dour tone of the last post I will be rolling out a solutions themed essay whenever I get around to writing it. Enjoy the pictures, and here´s a link to the newest from my vacation to Ancash-

http://picasaweb.google.com/zijerem/Ancash#

Rant

I’m going to rant about work here, just this once. For a young idealist, development work seems just about perfect. You’re helping change the world a little at the time, travel, and experience new cultures. In reality, the travel and culture are certainties, but the changing the world is anything but.
Let me demonstrate with a small, seemingly inconsequential episode. A Peruvian NGO approached me earlier this week about helping set up a workshop they had planned. They had all the details of the workshop planned out on their end, but needed me to recruit interested young people to take part and make sure they got to the regional capital for the event. Just about every expense was covered and the information looked good with potential to spark some change on important issues. They just forgot one little detail, and one little detail is all that it takes to tank a development project.
That small detail was the lack of funds to cover transportation to the regional capital. We’re only talking 8 soles roundtrip, or a little less than 3 bucks. The young folks that were interested in the workshop weren’t interested enough to pay to go, and the NGO was too dumb or stubborn to provide the funds themselves. I wasn’t too surprised, so I asked the municipality for the funds, which was truly small change for them. Unfortunately, they had to sign it off with the mayor, and since he’s never in town… I had to go to the municipality every night of the week to get the runaround I knew was coming, and, of course, nobody went to the workshop.
It really was no big deal, but it demonstrates the fundamental problems with each of the major players of the development game: the NGOs, the local government, and the people themselves. NGOs just offer workshop after workshop, with little to no follow-up. They never get to know the people enough to cover the small details that sink projects, and their hand-out attitude often spoils the people for anybody that is really interested in affecting change.
The local government, like all politicians, has its sights set on first staying in power and only secondly accomplishing things. That’s the bane of democracy; elected officials always have to look over their backs and that can get in the way of performance. This automatically puts the focus on the short-term win over any long-term project which limits the effect you can have.
Finally, you have the people. Since the default setting for people anywhere is complacency, getting them moving towards anything is a Herculean task. Not that there aren’t motivated individuals in town, there just aren’t enough, and eventually they fall under the influence of the others or cut loose from a sinking ship and seek their own fortunes in bigger ponds. You can’t give them an excuse to not try (like not paying for their ride into town) or they just won’t.
So, I’ll probably walk out of here after two years without having anything concrete to point to as an accomplishment, or even a tiny footstep towards that “changing the world”. And that’s development work… beating your head against the wall and hoping that there’s not just more brick on the other side. I have some time yet, but I can tell you now that I won’t regret my time here. The last two goals of Peace Corps, learning something from other cultures and teaching them that Americans don’t eat babies, will be accomplished, and I will have gained great relationships and stories from these two years. I will certainly continue to make project plans with the few folks that are interested in change, and maybe that mythical successful project will come down the pipe, but I’m not holding my breath.

Ancash and comings and goings

Back from vacation finally. Not me that is, but the schools. Vacation was extended another week on account of the pig flu making its way around and it’s just this week that I’ve had anything to do. The environment project was on the skids until the students got back (some were I the capital doing odd jobs), and it’s almost like starting from square one again, but we’ll get it going again.
As for my vacation, Ancash was beautiful. While the elevation isn’t as intense as where I live in Arequipa, there are many, many more snow-capped mountains. I finally felt like I was in the Andes there. I spent two nights in the city of Huaraz, which wasn’t terribly impressive, and two nights camping by a beautiful glacier lake up in the Huascaran National Park, named after the tallest tropical mountain in the world, which is also pretty impressive. Well, I don’t feel like waxing poetic at the moment, but trust me, Ancash is well worth the visit and pictures will be a-comin’.
The last item of interest these last few weeks is the come and go of volunteers in Arequipa. Training class #9 is on their way out, and #13 is coming in. We will be getting four new volunteers who we’ve already met and seem pretty cool. We’re also getting a transfer from my training class, Sal, who was one of my best buds in training. It’s sad to be losing some good friends who I’ve spent the last year with, but it looks like we’ll have a pretty good group as well for the next year and should both have plenty of fun and get some quality work done.

Work and stuff

Well, this last week or so has been especially fruitful from a work standpoint. I’ve been talking for awhile with several groups about possible environment projects, but this last week everything has started to fall together.
The first project that showed promise was a grant the high school wanted me to help with to make a plant nursery for trees to combat erosion and a grass crop called tara that has commercial value for a number of reasons. After that, I finally got a youth group interested in doing a recycling business going. One kid, Ivan, has a lot of ideas and determination and will be going somewhere in life. After that, I finally got started with a nurse interested in doing environmental projects from the Health Post. With the Environment Committee of the municipality getting interested we now have the opportunity to do something really special.
As of now the idea is to educate the populace on environmental themes. Then, if we can get an ordinance requiring the separation of organic and non-organic materials passed, the kids’ recycling business will receive the non-organic materials and the organic will go to a related composting project. The kids will receive the proceeds of recycling in the town minus a choclatada (holiday party with hot chocolate and sweetbreads) for the populace and the cut that the “recycling association” needs to sell the non-organic materials to the nearest big town and after that the capital. It should be a good youth, business, and environment project all rolled into one.
Of course, the likelihood of us coming out of this with nothing is pretty high considering all of the other projects I’ve tried and seen wither. There should be a stat for projects attempted in the tri-annual reports we do. This is simply the most promising project I’ve seen to date and with the most interested and dedicated people to see it through.
So, besides trying to marshal the forces I’ve been working with the nurse and some of the youth in sorting through the local throw-away spot. You can’t really call it a landfill because it’s pretty much just a cliff that people throw their trash off of. We’ve got a pretty good quantity of metal, plastic, and paper to sell already, which will be a nice start to the project as a whole. I also worked with some folks making the famous Incan-style andenes, or farming terraces. It’s some hard menial labor that I’m not getting enough of these days.
Another interesting factoid from this week is that I weighed myself at the health post and came out at 82 kilos, which is about 185 pounds. Considering I came to Peru at around 230, that’s pretty crazy. I’m not sure if I believe it, but I’ll get the official stats at our one-year medical checkups in September.
The only other news to report is that I’m looking forward to going to do some nice hiking in the mountains in Ancash, one of the more spectacular hiking destinations in the world. I’ll be there in about a week and can’t wait.

Volcano climbing

Well, I have really falling down on my blog duties lately. Been awhile. There´s not really a whole lot to report in the world of work and play. I´m starting the steps necessary to build a library in town, but that will take awhile. Still teaching an unhealthy amount of English, and looking forward to my next vacation possibility at the end of this month. I´m thinking of going to Ancash, one of the great hiking destinations in the world, but after my recent climbing experience, mayhap I should have second thoughts (I don´t).
I recently attempted the climb Misti, the iconic volcano that overlooks my capital city of Arequipa. It is 5800 meters tall, making it taller than any mountain in the contiguous United States and taller than the tallest mountains in Antartica, Europe, or Australia, and darn close to Africa´s tallest as well. It´s a two day hike, starting at around 10 a.m. the first day. You hike to base camp, which takes until around 4 p.m., set up camp, and settle in for a cold, cold night. At midnight everyone gets up and sets out for the summit, to get there in time for the sunrise at 6 a.m.
Unfortunately, that was not to be for me. An hour into the hike I vomited, and afterwards I was so fatigued putting one foot in front of the other was a huge chore. I gave it a shot anyways and hiked on for another two hours, but when I started feeling nauseous enough to puke again it was obvious that I was suffering from altitude sickness and there was no more point in going on. I went back with one of our guides, who had seen suspicious lights around our campsite. The way back down was for a change kind of fun. Misti has vast slopes of black volcanic sand stretching from the summit almost all the way down, and you can slide down on your feet in a kind of snowboarding sort of way and get some pretty good speed going. Doing this in the dark with only your headlamp is a bit of a rush.
When I got back to the camp I settled in until the sunrise, which was still not bad from my vantage point at around 4000 meters. One beautiful facet of it all that I forgot to mention is the city itself. It´s set out like a giant glittering Maltese cross in the night and this view just about made the other depredations worth it. In the end, I got to 5300 meters, as high as I´ve been and still quite a bit higher than any mountain in the U.S. outside of Alaska. With some training I think I´ll try and tackle Misti´s taller partner, Chachani, which is apparently the easiest mountain over 6000 meters to climb in the world. Still, this body was not made for mountain climbing, but I won´t let that stop me just yet.