people

27 September 2006

this morning I went looking for hugo to discuss the English testing.
Someone in town told me he was working at the cheese factory this week
(they rotate weekly, communally) so I decided to pay him a visit on the
job – a good excuse to see the queseria for the first time. People from
the village were bringing in their buckets of fresh milk, some walking and
others by bike. Hugo said we could test tomorrow, but I know it´s not
going to happen until at least Friday, at the earliest. I also brought up
the idea to all the cheese factory workers of starting a cheese stand to
sell chijnayan cheese in pukara´s nearby town square to tourists to make
more money. They all seemed very positive about the idea and told me to
come back at 2 to discuss having a meeting. Until then I climbed a nearby
hill, got a nice view of chijnaya and a neighbor valley, and spend some
time up there reading. Of course, at 2 I show up at the queseria and no
one´s there. I wait maybe a half hour and then return to my rock on the
hill to continue my book. I mean honestly i´d be perfectly happy here just
going up on the mountains and reading every day.
When I came back home I found a group of people working on the animal shed
at the house, which will provide shelter for the cows to keep them
healthier, and hopefully produce more milk. The group of men work on the
roof while a gathering of women, including mama Mercedes, are cooking
dinner outside. As they finish the roof, Guillermo (father) announces that
I will be the honorary Padrino for the ceremony of the completion of the
roof. Guillermo sets the scene, officially welcoming everyone present and
names me the Padrino. On cue I break a hanging bottle of champagne with a
hammer. And the rounds of beer passing begin. They call me to get my
guitar and entertain them, so I stumbled through a few tunes, including a
great rendition of House of the Rising Sun with all of them clapping
along. With the cold of the night we moved the party indoors into the
gathering room with jesus in it. Dinner is served, special this time: two
courses. First is the normal soup with hunk of meat, and second comes
Incan corn from cusco, a really meaty and delicious hunk of lamb, potatoes
to peel, and a little salad (which I can´t eat because of the water).
During dinner the passing of the cervesa continues, and after dinner mama
Mercedes passed around coca leaves for people to stick in their mouths and
suck out the juice. It´s tasty. Some of us got up to dance (music was
playing from upstairs – through the floor), helar taught me some Peruvian
dance moves, and then they decided to bring down the tv and dvd player
(which seems very out of place here) and they played this really strange
video of different Peruvian singers with various shots all around peru.
They were really excited about it. I found it intriguing and very odd that
they´d sit around watching this.


26 September 2006

This morning, Ralph, david, and Eugene arrived from puno to begin our
meeting with all the Chijnayan committee heads. The heads lurked out to
the meeting room from their homes. The committees consist of
agriculture/dairy, health, internet, tourism (which i´m directl affiliated
with), maybe more. The meeting lasted hours, during which the various
spokesmen argued with each other about bovine insemination technique and
the restriction of computer access. I also set times for my classes: 3
hours a day of English and computer classes. I still don´t really know if
i´m starting the English testing with hugo tomorrow. That´s how it is
around here. After the meeting a few of us ate lunch (bowl of soup with
hunk of meat, this time also with quinoa) in the communal store, which
sells everyday items, and apparently serves food (it´s run inside
someone´s house, and there a couple other stores in the village run out of
homes, one with a solar-powered satellite-connected phone).
Later in the day I taught helar some chords on the guitar, and for dinner
ate soup (with chunk of meat=freshly slaughtered lamb right outside my
door this morning) and tortillas, which are basically fried bread. After
dinner, yoni, helar, and I ventured in the rain to use the internet, which
is open for the community (3 other computers not in the school) from about
5ish to 8-9ish. I let yoni and helar go ahead first (it´s a competition to
use the computers… swarms of kids come and gather around, watching really
bad music video things or chatting with friends), and they chatted with
friends (both at the same time on the same computer) who they know from
high school, who were currently in other cities quasi-nearby. I think yesi
(yesenia), the other sister in the family, stays away during the week in
another town for high school. I think helar and yoni already went through
that. They´re both studying to become school teachers, like their dad.
So after watching this chatting online for a while, the internet
connection suddenly cut out for the night. We walked home, them trying to
teach me phrases in Quechua, which they admit is as difficult a language
as Japonese. So here I am, in my sleeping bag, quite unsure about what
will happen tomorrow. I need to talk to the cheese-men about selling
cheese. More on that later.


25 September 2006

it´s raining outside and i´m writing by candlelight at my desk since the
light in my room is at the other end, by the bed. Candlelight is much
better anyway. I just came back from driving into town with my host dad
and sister, Guillermo and Yoni. Yoni wanted to go into town (Pukara) for a
meeting for people working for some local political cause or candidate (I
got lost in the Spanish) and I decided to go with to use the internet in
town since the internet hasn´t been open yet in the village since i´ve
been here. Guillermo´s a teacher at the school in Pukara so he was
recognized by the kids around town. Yoni´s meeting was cancelled because
not enough people showed up (I have a feeling this happens quite often
around here), so I said we should just go back and i´d use the internet
tomorrow in chijnaya, but they insisted on taking me to the internet place
where they stood behind me watching the whole time (a common practice
here). On the way there to pukara we dropped off mama Mercedes and brother
helar to tend the cows (I think they collected the dung, to use as fuel in
the kitchen). On the way back from town mama jumped in the car and helar
walked the cows back home. Right after we got home it started raining.
Earlier today I washed my hair for the first time, using a shallow bucket.
I then went over to Hugo´s house (he´s the head of the tourism committee
in the village, and he´s super nice). I had wanted to use a computer in
the village (I need to stay in touch with Ralph the professor who´s
staying in puno a couple hours away). Well we had also scheduled the fist
English testing for today, but hugo had gone to another town, Pukarayllo
so the incredibly nice mama of the house sent her two little daughters
with me in search of the man who holds the key to the computer room at the
school. We talked to him and then waited probably a half hour at the
school, when he rode up on his motorcycle sorry to say that the key is not
here. The person who has it lives in pukara, or is in pukara.. so I spend
most of the day reading outside. I loved how the two little girls could
happily entertain themselves fir that long with only a bouncy ball and a
bunch of pebbles.
Later I stopped an old man and talked with him for a while – he´s very
happy living here and he says it´s much better than their old land by the
lake (Titicaca) where it would flood every year. He taught me the word in
Quechua for “Hi” but I have since forgotten it. Quechua es muy dificil! I
know and can use only 3 words thus far: yes, no, and thank you; ahree,
mana, ahreepune (transliterations).
After reading for a while longer I came inside for a rest, when suddenly
Helar burst in ready for a game of chess. He´s been very nice lately. But
I do feel bad when i´m around him… he has this look in his eyes of envy,
or something. But we had a great game of chess, after which Yoni joined
us. We hung out in my room for a while, I taught helar some guitar, yoni
found my notebook with a picture of dogs on it to be insanely funny due to
the disproportionably large sizes of the dogs´ heads.
Just now, while writing this, blood started pouring out of my right
nostril. I´m going to tend to that like the Chijnayans tend to their
vacas.
I forgot: also in pukara Guillermo showed me around the archaeological
museum, filled with stone artifacts from around the Inca age from the old
city of Pukara. There were many statues of the creator, I forget his name,
holding the head he chopped off of a man before creating the world (though
I think I probably got the translation wrong somewhere in there).


24 September 2006

my sister yoni doesn´t know what mcdonald´s is! that makes me very happy.
i just went out to pee and my host mom´s cousin was outside with his
little son on his way out. he grabbed my arm, drunk, and sort of in a
roundabout way asked me to go get drunbk on cervesa with him. as i was
beginning to say "no thanks i´m going to sleep" mama mercedes opens her
window from above, leans out, and says (in spanish) "primo, go away and
leave him alone" and then turns to me and says "go to sleep", and then
proceeds to watch me try to break free of her primo´s sloshy
handshake/signal for drinking beer. as i break free i walk back to my room
and notice my lock is missing from the door to my room - instantly i
become worried that someone in the village is after my stuff (since
theý´re all desperately poor i wouldn´t really have minded all that much),
but it turns out that my sister yoni simply moved it from the door to the
windowsill on her way back to her room from the party that is still
blasting music VERY loudly next door. for 1/3 of the village being
adventistas who don´t even go to parties, let alonoe drink or dance,
there´s a huge tolerance for this music that is dominating the airwaves
throughout the village late into the night (although this should be the
last night for a while since the birthday celebrations are ending). and i
think i have my first day on the job tomorrow - testing students in
english for placement in classes. i´m un poco nervioso... i have no idea
how to teach english.
it´s really difficult trying to keep my energy up to show how much i
appreciate and am interested in everyuthing. especially when i don´t have
full command over spanish.
today was mama mercedes´ birthday, and a bunch of her family drove here
from hours away. we spent most of the time sitting on benches at the house
together chatting (me not understanding much, them being incredibly
interested in american prices, the guitar i have here, and pictures of my
family, friends, and santa cruz (california, not bolivia). we ate lunch
(finger-peeled potatoes and a piece of lamb - no one washes their hands
first). oh, and during the whole day the ritual of drinking a cup of
cervesa and passing continues (this really saves a lot of cups). i haven´t
been partaking due to my on-going sickness (except when they keep the beer
there in my face and won´t move it until i have at least a small cup´s
worth).

later in the day I went to the bull fighting event, which involves
traditional dances, a band full of horns (repeating the same things over
and over), and what seemed like mock-bullfighters/jokesters hissing the
weak, thin bulls to come chase and run into them, at which the crowd
always went wild. I walked back with yoni and helped her and her sister
yesi (yesenia) bring in the cows and sheep from grazing into the yard at
the house. my family has 10 cows, 2 calfs, about 6 sheep, 2 oinkers, and a
dog named chucky who can be a ferocious little beast. i´ve had good luck
with him so far. Animals---food.
I told them i´d eat anything but the pigs. Luckily their meat stock right
now is lamb (it´s incredibly fresh and delicious). So far, breakfast=soup
with noodles, potatoes, meat and bone. Also hot, delicious tea (either
chamomile or cinnamon and clove). Lunch=potatoes to peel with my fingers,
hunk of meat; or soup with potatoes and meat. Dinner= fried eggs and
either bread or rice, same tea. Right outside my door they have a little
chamomile (manzanilla) bush they use for the tea.
My family was very generous and gave me a big room for myself. Originally
they were going to have both me and their son, helar, who´s 20, share the
space. He´s being nice and moving in with his sisters. So there´s a
2-story building made of cement- the downstairs is one room with jesus in
it. Upstairs sleep the parents. Apart from that are 2 separate rooms;
one´s mine for noe and the other´s shared by the 2 sisters and 1 brother.
Around the corner is the kitchen, and to the side of the big building is
the squat toilet with bucket to pour water post-business, also there is
the 1 water source of the house, which puts out water only at certain
hours of the day (sometime in the morning, and sometime in the afternoon).
The rest of the square-ish lot is devoted to the animals, who are tied up
each evening. Jesus…-- they´re catholic. I´ve told them i´m Judio which
brought some strange looks. I explained about the old and new parts to
their bible, and i´m glad they agreed jesus himself was jewish. Some
things can be explained with the help of referring to the adventistas in
the village (observing Shabbat, not eating pork-although the Adventists
don´t eat pork because to them jesus turned some of their brothers into
pigs, and they don´t want to eat any of their brothers). I don´t want to
rely on the adventistas too much because they don´t go to the fiestas,
dance, or drink, all of which are quite traditionally jewish (although not
to this horribly repetitive loud music they´re still blasting next door.
It sounds like a mix of synthesized mariachi music and some old drunk guy
yelling into the microphone non-stop, which is what I think is actually
going on. Occasionally (like every 20 minutes) there are pauses and I hope
the party has ended, at which point that drunk announcer guy comes on the
microphone full blast, sounding like he´s trying to rile people up. I may
have to soon sport my silicone earplugs, like last night. Tomorrow i´ve
got to test these hungover folks´english.

Woh, that was strange. So I put in my ear plugs, went out for one last
pee, and turned my light off to go to sleep. Minutes later while i´m
thinking about whether or not i´m comfortable here as the only gringo in a
village of hundreds, I hear a faint bang on my door. “un momento” I say in
confusion, tearing out my earplugs. Helar, who yesterday while drunk
started saying things like “you know much more than I do” (which confused
me), appeared in my doorway. Just now he came into my room, drunk, and sat
down on my bed with me. He said something like “we Peruvians only get
drunk once in a while” (I don´t really mind how often he gets drunk). He
then looked around the room, pointed out my stuff, and laughed, saying
“you brought everything” (I have a bunch of medicines and wet-wipes and
clothes all laid out on the floor on top of my tent´s ground pad). I
didn´t have anything to say. He then started to say “I want you to give me
5 soles (about $1.50). Right then mama Mercedes knocked on the door (helar
had locked it behind him as he entered) and started angrily telling him to
get his ass out of there (not using foul language), and then she looked at
me, told me to not talk to anyone or open the door for anyone, and to go
to sleep. I´m glad i´m not sharing this room with him, sad as that is. And
i´m glad I had my earplugs in to begin with. It made the event that much
more surreal.
Earlier this evening I was telling yoni how I thought the US needs
chijnayans to come teach them (us) how to live.