Builders Beyond Borders

Beto with the Maestros in San Antonio

B-3 Kids with the family in Bernales

B-3 in Bernales

One of the Peace Corps Peru’s Water & Sanitation Program goals is to help families have access to more sanitary conditions. Most of the smaller towns in my district don’t have waste water systems. Many of the families in those towns have basic, rudimentary latrines which the families may or may not use. A lot of times the families hacen sus necesidades en el campo abierto (do their thing in the field). This is not to say you’re walking through town dodging a minefield of human excrement but it’s clearly not a very sanitary practice and can result in all kinds of illnesses and diarrea particulary in children.

During the past three months, I’ve been helping out a couple of other Volunteers with latrine projects. We were working with a Connecticut-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called Builders Beyond Borders (B-3). High school kids raise money to go on a week-long volunteer trip to countries in Latin America. The funds raised pay for their trip and for the materials and tools needed for the projects. The Peace Corps and B3 have been working together for a few years and the relationship makes a lot of sense - PC Volunteers know the needs of the communities, what the potential projects are, can facilitate the in-country organization, and will be around after the kids have gone back home to help the project be more sustainable. B-3 provides the funds, labor, energy and motivation.

I’ve been working on the latrine projects in the towns of San Antonio (sans Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Mexicans) and Bernales building latrines. The first group was a little rough in that we as PC Volunteers were kind of unclear of our roles and B-3’s goals. There were also a few B-3 adult leaders that were kind of difficult to work with and some PC Volunteers that were kind of smug and full of themselves. The next two groups were fantastic! The kids interacted well with the Peruvian families despite their limited Spanish skills, worked their asses off and were fun to be around.

The latrines were built out of brick with tin or thatch/cement roofs and wooden doors. All had real toilets that would eventually be hooked into a sewer system. Some had a place for a shower and a sink. The families were excited to have the bathrooms installed and helped out with the construction. They also got a kick out of having about 40 gringos in their town at the same time and will likely talk about all the gringo kids for the rest of their lives. The kids from the US, who happened to be from one of the richest counties in the country, got to experience a different culture and see a manner of living completely different from their own.

Thanks to B-3 for all the good hard work!

Vacation in Arequipa

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted last. Reason being I’ve been real busy which is a good thing. A bored volunteer is a miserable volunteer and a miserable volunteer quits before his/her service is done or does crazy shit like trying to organize local militias. “The horror… The horror…” So what have I been up to? I’ve been working on a bathroom/latrine project with high schoolers from the US. I've been at an English teaching workshop put on by the US Embassy. I’ve been to Lima a couple of times for some meetings, been writing my community diagnostic, and been on vacation. So let’s talk about vacation.

Susan came down for about a nine day visit. We spent a couple of days in Lima with some other friends of mine who happened to be in town at the same time for a wedding (always good getting a Big Red sighting in). We went to a cathedral near the center of town that had catacombs which were pretty cool. Susan got a necklace ripped off her neck by some thief as we were walking to Chinatown (bienvenido a El Peru).

Before Susan got here I hadn’t done any planning because I didn’t know if Machu Picchu, which is something everyone should see in their lifetime, was going to be open after some major flooding earlier in the year. I kind of wanted to take Susan to my site but that likely would have been too much for her since no one there speaks English and she doesn’t speak Spanish (plus there ain’t a whole hell of a lot to do there). So we decided to go down to the south of Peru to a place called Arequipa. She did see my site for all of a minute and a half during our 15 hour bus ride.

Arequipa is called the White City (the other White City) because many of the old Spanish colonial buildings in the center of town were constructed out of white blocks of volcanic rock. The center of town is beautiful and several large volcanoes, some active and steaming, loom in the distance. We visited an old monastery where nuns from well to do families were cloistered and lived a pretty posh, partying lifestyle until some agua fiestas (party pooper/killjoy) of a bureaucrat opened the place up for tourism and the nuns had to actually live like, well, nuns.

We were there during Semana Santa (the holy week leading up to Easter). There were many processions of people carrying litters with Jesus, Mary, and other saints followed by marching bands that sounded like they were playing the Texas Tech fight song (Go! Fight! Win! …And praise sweet baby Jesus!). There were no bunnies or dying of eggs that week for some odd reason. We sat there in a bar watching the processions pass in the street outside as the jukebox inside was playing “Sexy Bitch”. Kind of surreal.

On the third day, we rose from the dead and took a two day, one night tour to Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world. We saw llamas (pronounced “yamas” despite what my friend Ally from Chicago says), Alpacas (a related pack animal that’s tasty in steak form too), and Vicunas (small llama-like animals known for their fine, expensive wool).

We had an Italian lady on our bus who was either kind of crazy, a lot inconsiderate or a bit of both. A little ½ gringa ½ Peruvian girl on the tour said she looked like Willy Wonka, not the Gene Wilder variety but the creepy Johnny Depp type. At the first stop on the tour, we got out to look at some scenic something or another. When we got back on the bus, this crazy lady was sitting in my seat. She muttered something in half Italian, half Spanish and half English. Not knowing what the f&ck she was saying, I thought she might not be feeling well from the altitude so I let her sit there (leaving Susan without a translator). As the bus started off to our next destination, I realized that the crazy lady had thrown my hoodie on the floor behind her when she took my seat. I got f*cking pissed and stewed the whole way to our next stop. We all got off to look at whatever but I made sure I was the first one on the bus, reclaimed my seat, politely moved all her shit out into the middle of the aisle and dug in waiting for a confrontation. She looked at me kind of funny but knew I wasn’t moving so she sat on the front step of the bus. Turns out she didn’t have altitude sickness. She just said, in her words, “I’d prefer to sit here” - a kind of reverse Bartleby the Scrivener kind of thing. Long story short, she did this throughout the trip - bumping people out of their seats, pissing them off, and saying “I’d prefer to sit here”. A very nice Spanish man gave her a piece of his mind but it didn’t get all dark European history on her like I’d hoped he would.

Anyway, the canyon was cool. We sat in thermal baths, caught up with some Peace Corps Volunteers, saw some big-ass condors with about a 3 meter (9 foot) wingspan, and missed out on a violent miner's strike. When we got back to Lima, we went to my favorite local sports bar and watched Michigan State get bounced out of the NCAA tournament by Butler – an unfortunate ending to an otherwise great vacation.

Posts

To quote Sammy Sosa, phonetically speaking, "Ay apalayayze too mai fangs". I've not posted anything in quite some time now. Reason being I've been really busy. Which is a good thing. Most new volunteers in their posts complain of boredom. I've been everything but bored. Which, again, is a good thing.

Some posts in the near future - updates on some projects I've been working on, my vacation in Arequipa, and my brush with the President of Peru, Alan Garcia. Stay tuned. And again Ay apalayayaze.

The Cubs

“Chicago Baseball is on the air! From Wrigley Field in Chicago, it’s the Chicago Cubs versus the Saint Louis Cardinals” – Pat Hughes, Play by Play Announcer Extraordinaire. With spring training games starting and 30 days left to Opening Day, one of the things I’ll miss most the next two years is watching my beloved Cubs at the beautiful Friendly Confines, listening to them on WGN AM-720, and reading Gordon Whittenmeyer’s columns in the Chicago Sun-Times. I’ll miss freezing my ass off in the stands on Opening Day, sitting in the bleachers in the sun on warm summer weekdays, singing during the 7th inning stretch, having a few beers and dogs with good friends, jawing with Sox and Cardinals fans, and watching my beloved Cubs blow yet another golden opportunity to go to the World Series. If they somehow do manage to make it to the World Series this year, I'll see everyone in Chicago in October for one hell of a party!

But it’s not all bad. I do have internet in my house, found a website that streams live games for free and should have time to watch a game or two. I also got my host brother to start wearing a Cubs hat. Up until Monday, he was wearing a cheap Sox hat but I told him that was pretty low and kind of ghetto so I had my dear friend Chris Albu bring him one. He was very excited and sports it proudly now. At least he wasn’t wearing Cardinals gear – after all, he’s not moron.

Nazca Lines Part III

I just heard about a documentary on the Nazca lines on National Geographic Channel. It's called Nasca Lines: Buried Secrets. I haven't seen it and don't have cable but the trailer looks pretty sweet (very dramatic music) Check it out the show and let me know what you think so I can go out and try to find a pirated copy of it in the market.

Here's a link to the trailer and more info about the show: http://www.edgewest.com/?p=102

Here's when it's running.
2/25, 7 PM EST
2/25, 10 PM EST
2/28, 12 PM EST
3/4, 3 PM EST

If they show a hil top with three big triangles, I live in the small town that's right next to them.

I’m not an English Teacher but I Play One in Peru

My primary job function here en el Perú is to provide technical support in the matters of water and sanitation but that’s only one of the goals of Peace Corps. The other two goals are to provide Americans with a better understanding of the people of Peru (which is what I hope to accomplish with this blog) and to provide Peruvians with a better understanding of Americans (which is what I hope to accomplish by being here in their country). Having said that, I can only write a dopey blog for so long and the technical aspects of this job are going to take a little bit to get going.

So I’m left with Goal 3 and, well, a lot of time on my hands. In the mean time I’m teaching English which is a pretty huge skill to have if you’re Peruvian. All the foreigners that come to Perú as tourists or to do business, whether they’re from Europe, Asia or wherever, communicate with the locals in English. I suppose English now is kind of like Latin was back in the day before it became completely irrelevant to everyone except pedantic academics and doctors.

Anyway I’ve started teaching English Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the evenings. The class was organized by a guy from the Instituto (a community college essentially) for the kids studying tourism. The class started out with 3 students. I had no idea where they were proficiency-wise so the first class we walked around describing things in English to see where they were at (I know, a dangling preposition but I’m not an English teacher so LAY OFF). They spoke a little but not very well at all.

The second class doubled in size and the third doubled from there. The class last night had about 20 people in it, two of the original tourism students and the rest high school and elementary school kids. I didn’t expect to have a class ranging from a 4 year old who could barely speak Spanish to a 27 year old who can kind of get by with his English. I’d planned a fun class with a body parts game and a family relationships game using The Simpsons but my plans went right down the shitter when 16 kids hadn’t had any English at all. I winged it and came up with another lesson plan on the fly. I don’t feel like it went very well but under the circumstances... I am planning on taking a course on how to teach English that’s being put on by the US Embassy next month so hopefully that will give me a little more direction.

There were also a four junior high age boys sitting in the back of the class f*cking off the whole time. Remind me again why I’m not a parent or a teacher?

Random Encounters with Ancient Cultures

You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting some sort of ruin, geoglyph, petroglyph or other mark left behind by some ancient culture that was doing its thing well before Columbus and his asshole buddies barged into the New World uninvited. Last Saturday I worked at a faena, a community cleanup/improvement event, in a town in my district. After the work was done, I was sitting around eating chicharron de chancho (mmmm…. fried pork…) at the Governor’s house when he told me there were ruins up the way from his house. Even though the sun was blazing and it was hotter’n shit out, I wanted to go take a look and the Governor’s son was kind enough to take me. Up the dirt road toward the sierra and around the bend were the ruins of rock walls of an ancient pueblo perched on the side of the hill.

Earlier in the week, I went for a run up the sierra separating Rio Grande and Palpa and along the flat pampa toward Pinchango, the tallest mountain in my department (state). As I was running along the pampa, I noticed that there were ruins of rock walls of what looked to be houses. Outside some of the houses were flat rocks that I assume the ancient folk used as surface to crush corn and whatever else with round river rocks. My reason for thinking this is my host mother has one of these out back of the house where she periodically crushes up various ingredients to make a tasty cheese sauce and potato dish called Papas a la Huancaina.

Last week my site mate and I went over to visit a little pueblo in her district and walked up the sierra to the pampa. Again, Nazca lines all over the place. You couldn’t tell what they were but it was still pretty cool walking with the neighborhood kids, eating mangoes and enjoying the cool evening breeze on geoglyphs created just after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Yesterday, a 3rd year volunteer and I went walking down the ways a bit from my town and found a geoglyph called El Tumi on the side of a hill. El Tumi was a pre-Columbian ceremonial knife that some folks say were used to cut the necks of prisoners.

Nazca, which is about 45 minutes south of me, gets all the tourists (and their dollars) but there’s some pretty cool shit right here in my 'hood.