jubilation

25 October 2006

Monday (the 23rd) was my last day in Chijnaya, for now. i spent most of it wandering around, saying buenos dias to people for the last time. i came upon the newborn calf again, and i officially named it lily. in the evening i worked with the head of the comite de becas writing an application for people in the village to apply for a scholarship for a year of school, studying something that will help the community in the end. that is the hope. the seven scholarships are funded by the chijnaya foundation: http://www.chijnayafoundation.org/
hugo left in the early afternoon to go to juliaca, an hour and a half away, in order to buy my bus ticket to cusco for tomorrow and to pick up some wood to use for the roof of his new house. well hugo hadn´t come back by around 9pm, when it was hailing quite heavily, and i was quite concerned that he either got into an accident or was stuck in juliaca. i walked across the village to his house, and that was quite an adventure in itself: huge puddles of muddy water filled the dimly lit streets while hoards of hounds chased me with vicious growls. well hugo wasn´t at his house and his family was concerned, but they told me he should be home in the early morning. well it turns out he was held up in juliaca until late into the evening because the cars back to pukará didn´t want to carry the wood he bought. he eventually returned home late in the night.
the bus ride yesterday was quite peaceful, and noticeably much more green than the bus ride i took in the opposite direction a month ago when i arrived. as we reached slightly lower elevations the valleys were filled with lush green fields and rushing rivers. chijnaya is at a much dryer, slightly higher elevation and never experiences the river where people go to bathe and wash their clothes.
but the people of chijnaya are happy. they do not need more progress to be happy. they´re in peace in their community and their animals. from my experience living there, i would have to argue that chijnayans, and the world, would be better off if americans followed the way of life of chijnayans, rather than the other way around, which seems to be the natural progression these days.

upon arriving at the hotel in cusco i was filled with immense jubuilation with the use of a shower and toilet, and a warm room. and i came upon a restaurant called greens with a buffet of fresh vegetable dishes all washed in boiled water (and thus safe to eat). this, too, filled me with immense jubilation.

ciego; godson

22 October 2006

the blind boy who is home for the weekend from school came over with his mom to talk to me this morning. he showed me his notebook of readings and writings in brail, which also included pictures he drew with the brail puncture pen thing. he was constantly using his hands, feeling things over and over. he told me he has a bright yellow light in the center of his vision that bothers him and won´t go away. also he had a loud noise in his ears when he´s feeling nervioso, and his hearing in one ear if very bad. i asked him how he knew the bright light was yellow if he couldn´t see other colors. he told me that one night a few months ago, with his eyes up to the sky, he saw all the colors. but also he wasn´t blind until he was 12 or 13 when he gradually lost his entire vision. it was difficult trying to inspire him while assuming he would never again regain his vision. he asked me how he could get the bright light away. i talked to him about ways of staying tranquilo so the sound in his ear wouldn´t bother him. he likes building things with his hands. he likes doing carpentry. and he wants to play the electric organ. i suggested sculpture. i gave him some incense. he asked me when i was going to come to his school in puno. he wants to learn english but doesn´t have the time. i told him another volunteer is coming here in december to teach english, when he has a break from school. he is very excited. diner is his name. he´s 16. he´s one of the kindest people i´ve ever met.
i then walked across the village to visit jose araca and family. i will be the godfather of his new baby. we were deciding on names. on thursday they´re going to the hospital to make it official. they knew they liked yosef but wanted another name beginning with R. they were thinking about renso but weren´t sure. i left and made a list of R names i like, including rumi, ravi, rafael... they looked through the list but none of them stuck. i suggested renzo with a Z. they kept repeating yosef-renzo over and over. i said it was perfect. they seemed to like it, and i liked it because they had chosen it originally, the renso part. but they wanted a third name so the boy would be distinguished from all others. the mother wanted gabriel. they want me to return to baptize him in 6 years. it´s possible. the baby´s name is yosef renzo gabriel araca aguilar. my godson.
later in the day i was walking to hugo´s house when i witnessed the birth of a calf. the mother continued to lick the ground where juices had fallen, while the human family struggled to keep the newborn calf steady.
hugo rode up to me on his motorcycle and we took a safe 10 minute ride to a river and some big rocks, including machinaccacca, a big rock that looks like a machine, a barco or a locomotive. on the way back hugo was excited to find both a rope used to pull cows around and a hubcap, for his future car that he says he´ll have by the time i return in 6 years.
now it´s raining peacefully and yoni´s using my poncho to bring in the cows from the field. i would normally help but i´ve been a little sick the past 2 days, and the family wants me to take care of myself. and i´m writing to you, my devoted reader.

pukará

19 October 2006

it´s a month before the election, and all the candidates for alcalde (mayor) of pukará rallied around the town square. pascual was backed by quite a few chijnayans, but yoni spoke on the platform of an opponent. all the candidates seemed to try to blast their speakers as loudly as possible, as if the speaker quality was directly proportional with candidate quality. i tried to act as if i weren´t part of any party, so when pascual and yoni´s candidate paraded down the streets with their followers waiving flags and yelling things, i walked to the side taking pictures. it was a tricky situation because the chijnayans wanted me to parade behind pascual but i also had to support my family who supported the other guy. there were 11 candidates in all, each with their own logo and team of flag-waivers.
so apparently guillermo is chijnaya´s official judge. it is night now, and there are some meetings going on in the other room with some people who have a problem that needs to be worked out by the judge. outside the room, sitting in the cold, an old woman and a couple with a baby are waiting. i have a feeling this may go late into the night.
currently reading: Foucault´s Pendulum by Umberto Eco


21 October 2006

yesterday i woke up and felt energized and ready to sell cheese. i got an extra table out of the building where the computers are, borrowed a plate and knife from mama mercedes, and jumped in the car with guillermo who was on the way to work in pukará. we stopped at the planta where i bought 6 cheeses that were made the day before. hugo was going to meet me in the town square on his motorcycle. i set up my little cheese stand among the usual vendors who sell little things to the tourists who come to town every day in big first class buses to see the ruins of pukará on their way to puno or cusco. they all welcomed me to sell and i offered them cheese samples throughout the day while their kids yanked at my legs yelling "la turista!"
well it seemed like most of the tourists were afraid to come close to this foreign cheese, and wouldn´t even take free samples. the few people i sold to were the ones who were interested in what a gringo was doing selling to tourists amidst a row of native vendors. i ended up selling two whole cheeses to upper-class young peruvian men who were taking the same bus as the tourists, a half cheese to one of my neighbor vendors, and a quarter of a cheese to a south african couple who kept saying how the cows here were jersey cows from the island of jersey, and while they are terrible for their meat, and while they produce little milk, the fat content in the milk is very high, making them perfect for cheese.
later, hugo and i took a little ride over to the health post in pukará so i could check it out. hugo basically told the nurses there that i´m a doctor, so they kept asking me questions, and really wanted to give me an injection for the rubella vaccine because they´re having problems in peru with rubella. i wouldn´t let them touch me. the health post was active but dirty, and i hear the doctor there is terrible. but it´s good they have an active health post, unlike chijnaya.

satan music

18 October 2006

the other day i went to visit hugo and i brought along the guitar because he's been asking me to bring it since the day i got here. a friend of his was asking what kind of music i liked, and trying to name something he might have heard of i said the rolling stones and the beatles. well he had heard of them but never listened to them because he was told all rock and roll was music of the devil. well if the devil is what is represented by anti-authority, maybe it is devil music, as the best music seems to be counter-normalcy. i failed to mention that the song i was attempting to play in front of them, which they all very much enjoyed, is titled "The Devil May Care (Mom and Dad Don't)".
in other (similar) news, i mentioned to guillermo and family last night at dinner that i used to help teach chemistry for a couple of years, at which they replied that that explains why they often see me up in the distance, dancing in the mountains.

coca

16 October 2006

the curandero, simón, paid me a visit this morning in my room, minutes
after i woke up. last night i bought a bag of coca leaves in preparation
(we had coordinated this morning´s reading at the techamiento yesterday
afternoon). as he came into my room, guillermo brought in a special
blanket for simón to sit on, and another blanket in which to wrap the coca
leaves. sitting on his knees with the coca laid in front, simón began by
explaining the different kinds of leaves: those that represent male and
female, good and bad wind, etc... all in dichotomous pairs. after showing
me the basic 4-8 leaf types, he pushed them all into their blanket and
folded it up. he proceeded by saying prayers, mixing the ancient incan
coca tradition with catholic/latin "spiritus sancti" type prayers. he then
blew on the blanket of coca, and had me do the same. he laid out the
leaves in a pile, and immediately found the leaf that represented me. i
thought it was quite a good representation. but thought was not my role in
this ceremony. my role was to be receptive to the reading that lay ahead.
today´s theme was school and occupation, and i told him my desires to be
both a doctor and a religious leader. so, after laying out the two leaves
that represented each of these fields of study and career, he proceeded by
grabbing small handfuls of leaves and allowing them to drop from his hand
on top of each of the two fields. we proceeded in this way after asking
various questions about my role in each field. the coca leaves that
dropped determined my future in the two fields. overall it basically
determined that i would not be satisfied being a religious leader alone -
i would want something more as well. and, while medicine suits me, i have
much studying yet to do, for i am at this point very little prepared for
the field. he then had me put the mail center of leaves in my mouth, while
he grabbes a handful to take with him to the fields for the day as he
tends his vacas. we will continue again with the same coca batch and a new
theme in a few days.
currently reading: The Holy by Daniel Quinn

sitting cow

12 October 2006

yesterday the doctors and the boss couldn´t get past juliaca because the
one main freeway was closed. after hearing the news, pascual the mayor and
augustín, the head of the foundation committees came over to me and told
me to come with them in the car. i didn´t really understand what we were
doing apart from a meeting with another nearby community. we drove into
pukara where pascual talked to and gathered together some folks who joined
us in the car (8 total - the others were teachers like pascual), along
with some gaseosa and pan (soda and bread) to bring as a gift for the
community. two and a half hours later of driving mostly in 1st gear up a
windy, rocky, dirt road (during which we all had to get out of the car
apart from the driver to lighten the load to clear some rocks), we arrived
at the small village of "union", at about 5000 meters in elevation. Union
had not received the message that we were coming for a meeting, so there
were only 3 people to meet us at the main center of the village, which was
the school. children have to walk 1-2 hours to get to the school each
morning because the houses are so far away. we met in the preschool room,
which had the alphabet, a poster about cleanliness, a student´s mock
tienda poster, and a big sign reading "Jesus es nuestro amigo." after
passing around a cup and sharing some gaseosa, pascual began the meeting,
explaining that we represent the (lollipop guild?) chijnaya foundation,
that i was there in place of the boss, sr. bolton, and that we wanted to
include their community in upcoming projects, such as bringing electricity
to their school.
Augustín made some more introductions, and then pascual asked me to do the
same. I didn´t really know what to say other than to explain my position
and how i´m connected (while acting very official – representing the
united states and all). Since they hadn´t expected us, they didn´t have
lunch for us, so we all passed around the pan (bread) and took two pieces
each. They were all very grateful. Then pascual sort of transformed the
meeting into a political ploy for his campaign (he´s running for mayor of
pukara). He and each of his teacher friends talked about how he would help
their community, yada yada. The three of them, of course, were very
receptive and acted like they would vote for him, etc.
While the drive was quite long, it was scenic and it was wonderful seeing
the incredibly remote community that raised alpaca and llamas and sheep in
huge numbers. It´s too high to grow papas or quinoa there but they come
into town once a week to sell meat and buy vegetables. Chijnaya is still
at 4000 meters, but here the plants grow. Union is situated below an
incredibly tall mountain that houses three lakes near the peak that supply
the communities in the area with water.
After the long drive back, we ate lunch (around 4, after snacking on more
pan and popcorn-like stuff in the car) in pukara, and returned to chijnaya
around sunset.
There are something like
10 other candidates for mayor of pukara. The election is in late November.


13 October 2006

last night, when yoni and yesi thought the milky way was a cloud, i
decided to give them a lesson in astronomy, which turned into a lesson of
special relativity, time dilation, and the space-time continuum. it was
all a little bit too much for them (and i´m sure i didn´t explain it all
very well in a foreign language) but i think they enjoyed thinking about
the immense number of suns in the universe.


14 October 2006

I´m pretty sure i was named the godfather (padrino) of a newborn baby boy
last night. i was walking down the street and saw an ambulence so i
stopped to check it out. i started talking to the dad Jose Araca and he
said they hadn´t yet named the baby. he asked me for suggestions, so i
told him i thought yosef would be a good name since his name is jose
(similar) and i told him i also like the name julian. i wrote these down
on a piece of paper for him, with my email address, and he said he might
just have to use both names together, yosef-julian, and make me the
padrino, which basically consists of trying to stay in touch over the
years and providing birthday presents. well i´d be surprised and honored
if he uses my names. i think the naming of the padrino doesn´t happen
until the baptism, in a few years.
this morning a cow in the neighbor´s yard across the street couldn´t stand
up. she wants to but she can´t. they called for teh curandero to come, who
read the coca leaves and said something about a bad wind. i just went over
(it´s post-dinner now) to pay my respects and lay on the hands. as i was
talking to her she started crying and looking over hew shoulder, so i told
the family that i thought she wanted to be close to her baby who was tied
up a ways behind her, far out of reach. they untied the baby and the sick
mom lit up a little bit and began licking the baby´s body. at that point i
came home and ate corn soup.
currently reading: Return of the Children of Light by Judith Polich


15 October 2006

She stood up today. the cow. and i acted as sanitational engineer for the
village.
last night we had our newly bought 15 trash cans (cilindros) painted and
today after the town meeting the gente from each area around the village
brought the large cans to their nearest street corner. after a large group
of kids filled all the cans with garbage from around the streets (it took
only an hour or so, because there is so much trash), the men standing
around were a bit confused about what then to do with all the collected
trash. well we had to get it off the streets or the wind and the dogs
would tear it apart. so we push started the old tractor and hooked on a
big cart, and with the group of kids and the tractor driver i drove around
the village, collected the cans, and dropped them off (with great effort
and some gushing sangre) at the dump silo a little ways away, where it was
all to be burned, plastic, shoes, batteries included. this is what happens
when western plastic invades the rural land. after a few more days of
collecting we´re going to have to take another load of trash cans by
tractor to the dump silo.
once again i was lured into another techamiento, after transferring some
cash to a family of a blind boy, so he can come home from school in puno
this weekend to stay with his family. for the 3rd time i was made padrino
of the new roof, and i broke the champagne bottle. the owner of the new
covertismo was very excited i was there to join in on this buen día. he
thanked me over and over for my help. all i did, of course, was break the
champagne bottle. all the other men actually built the new shed.

el medico pimp

5 October 2006

"I woke up this morning with the sun beam shining in"- that song from the
Big Lebowski. I actually woke up to the cries of the rooster, 6ish.
Time runs differently here. I´ve grown accustomed to it, and i like it. i
no longer make any time-driven committments. i´ve started teaching guitar
to a girl named Yuli, and i´m going to start with hugo soon. yuli wants to
bring friends to learn too and also last night was asking about a
particular time to continue the lessons. well i´ve learned, and i´ve begun
to play the chijnaya time game. so i said "oh, i don´t know, some days in
the late afternoons... when the moon is right and we want to play." i´ve
come to relate many things to the recently growing/shining luna. the card
trick i showed my family last night... i relayed all powerful forces to
the bright luna overhead. one day, when the moon is not looking, i said, i
may be able to explain the magic.
well it´s market day again, so i guess i better go into town. i´ll ride
with guillermo and yoni who are going in a little bit.
my family here, it seems, is in the upper-middle class of chijnaya. they
have enough food to eat, for the most part. all the kids went or are going
to a university. they have a 2 story house made of cement (1 room on top,
1 on bottom). they have a fairly large number of animals, and they always
have meat to eat. and they have a car. there are only about 5 cars in
chijnaya among the 50ish families. also, their rooms have cement floors
rather than dirt floors (although the kitchen has a dirt floor).
i cringe every time i see them treat the animals as far-sub-human, moving
the cows along with a whip and often pushing them around with their hands
and feet (most often completely unnecessarily). and guillermo grabs chucky
by the neck with 2 hands and yanks him around the yard. but everyone
treats the cows this way, by custom. they have to show them who´s boss or
the cows will not cooperate (not that they want to cooperate as it is).
but it seems to me ("if you live your life like a candle in the wind...")
that if they showed the animals a little love they might get along a lot
better. but who am i to talk about treating the animals.
as i was getting ready to leave for pukara this morning, hugo walks up to
the house with a friend of his who has a young girl who is sick with a
fever and pain and stomach problems. while guillermo and yoni are honking
at me from the car to get in and go i race into my room and drop some
tylenol in a plastic bag, give them to hugo´s friend and explain when to
take them (for the daughter). just now after returning to chijnaya i was
ambling about by hugo´s house on my way to this mountain that i´m sitting
on right now, and hugo tells me the girl is feeling MUCH better and is
happy. i don´t doubt that many things wrong with the people in this
village will get better by taking any sort of medicine from the
all-knowing gringo (placebo). as i´m standing there talking to hugo as he
and friends are building a new casa at his house, laying adobe, they bring
over a young boy who has a swollen cheek/throat below his right ear that
hurts. well i don´t know what to do about that, although i´m suspicious
that it´s related to an infected/dirty ear, so i tell them how to wash out
his ear and that may hopefully clear it up. i don´t have antibiotics at my
disposal, and i wouldn´t know what to use anyway. it´s not huge and he´s
not screaming in pain, so i assume it will go away on its own soon. i feel
that just giving them some advice and having them take the time to pay
attention to it will set the little boy on his way to recovery.
on the ride home from pukara today i sat in the far back of the rasta van
with 19 chijnayans. why they never opened a window, i don´t know.
currently reading: The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an
Andean Community, by Catherine Allen


6 October 2006

there is no better time to be here. it is warm throughout the day until
the late afternoon when the clouds roll in from behind the mountains,
raining or hailing every few nights. they say the hail is "feo", ugly, but
i take pleasure in the sound it makes against the roof of my room. it will
be ugly, however, when in the upcoming weeks and months the people will
have to tend their animals and plow and plant their papas and quinoa when
the rains and hail strike earlier and earlier in the day.


7 October 2006

i´m writing by candlelight. even though the power is basically out in the
village, my room has a bulb that runs on very low power, and thus works
right now. however, the family just welcomed an unexpected group of
visitors and they´re having a "reunion" in the other room, so they´re
using the light bulb (the whole thing with the visitors is a little fishy
top me, and the dogs - they´re barking like crazy right now).
yesterday afternoon i helped hugo build his new casa. we were laying adobe
and carrying logs and placing them on the adobe as support for the floor
of the second story. meanwhile, geronima´s dad, 86ish, an active
adventista, was standing in a pool of mud, dishing it out in bucketloads,
used to seal and connect/insulate the adobe walls. the whole time hugo was
saying how this house was for me and my friends to come stay in. and he
called me the architect since i advised on where to put the door to the
second story, and i did some division in my head to figure out how far
apart to spread the logs so they´re evenly spaced.
there are only a handful of 2 story houses in the village. it is with
great pride that hugo is constructing his new house. after working for a
while we sat around, they shared some gaseosa (i didn´t want any), and
they asked me how much my shoes cost... then commented on how their
sandals are made from used car tires (awesome!).
As i walked home i had an awkward moment outside the house here. i saw 3
girls talking and i thought one was yuli my guitar student so i said
"guitarra! un momento..." and went and got the guitar out of my room
because i was supposed to let her borrow it for the night. however, it
wasn´t yuli, it was yesi, the younger sister from my family who had just
come home from school for the first time since the day i arrived here. she
and her friends continued to be confused/tell me that she wasn´t yuli, she
was yesi. i responded with a blank look, and then finally after a while it
sunk in and i said "bienvenido a la casa!" and started playing guitar.
later in the evening, after eating dinner in the kitchen, the kids left to
leave me with guillermo and mercedes. guillermo proceeded to go off on a
very long and informative schpiel (sp?) on the reality of living here with
little access and little money. i didn´t understand a lot of what he said,
but he did say that he was the first school teacher from chijnaya and in
the beginning other members of the village were very jealous. he also said
that there´s nothing in chijnaya that´s going to keep the next generation
living here - they need new businesses, or something. the families are
large, so when they divide their land between all 3 or 5 or 8 children,
the kids really aren´t left with enough to get by, so they have to have
another job, like guillermo. he also has this idea of starting a chicken
farm for chickens and their eggs, and he wants me to help him find a
machine that goes around collecting hundreds of eggs. i told him we can
look on the internet. his eyes lit up.
he proceeded to talk about how poor peru is and how it needs to really
start advancing like the united states... "how can we make more money!?...
we could sell cocaine..." at which point i burst in saying no no and why
it would not help the world at all... and then i started talking about all
the problems that have and are resulting from the "advancement" of
american society... meanwhile guillermo´s constantly looking at mercedes
with eyes that suggest: "yeah, listen to this" for mercedes is really not
educated and learns everything from her husband (she told me this), who
takes pride in his lecturing. this went on for probably two hours, after
which we just sort of said "vamos... buenas noches." they had told me
about the insecurity with which they constantly live - will the potatoe
crops yield enough to eat this year... perhaps enough to sell some so they
can buy other things like corn and rice?
they´re arguing with the visitors in the other room right now. it woulds
like it might have to do with helar´s baby. it could be the mother´s
parents. i think it´s time start thinking about how to give out these 200
condoms i have.
currently reading: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins


8 October 2006

i´m on top of a very high mountain with two late-teenage chijnayan boys,
wilson and cesar. they are writing love poems for their enamoradas, both
of whom i happen to know... wilson´s enamorada is yuli, my guitar student,
and cesar´s is yesi, my younger "sister". enamorada ranges from crush to
girlfriend, but the parents can´t know. it´s a tricky game hey have to
play to find a love and life partner. these two have not done more than
talk and dance with their enamoradas, from what they say. they´re sitting
on rocks near me now, comparing poems. the parents can´t know about the
enamoradas or the girl´s parents will send them away. they basically can´t
mention anything unless they want to get married and have babies. they
both agreed to take my 200 condoms and distribute them among their friends
and themselves. they said that people over 18 use condoms but those under
18 don´t because they aren´t allowed to buy them. it´s not religious, they
say... just that the adults don´t want kids under 18 having sex. with
helar and his baby´s situation in mind, i feel quite justified in giving
away my condoms, for their protection.
i asked them how it all works with finding a wife, etc., and they said
that after time as enamoradas (in secret) they become novios (which
implies marriage and babies in the near future). helar and his girlfriend
were basically made husband and wife by default (the baby). it was the
baby´s mom and family who were over last night, discussing how to take
care of the little guy, baby in hand.
these 2 boys here on the mountain have told me they are not faithful. they
are always seeking other people. thus, condoms (preservativos) all the
better. they originally wanted me to give them to the girls, probably to
help give them ideas, but i said it would be a little awkward for me to
hand over a bunch of condoms to a 17 year old girl during a guitar lesson,
so they agreed to distribute. they are very happy to have them.
as i was looking for hugo to go into pukara i came upon a large group of
men finishing the roof on a house and another group right next door
finishing a "covertismo", animal shed, while a group of women cooked
dinner outside. they all came up to me to shake my hand and explain to me
what they´re doing and ask me if it is good. of course it´s good! it´s a
new house with a new roof to live under! i was hanging around for hugo to
finish working because we had a plan to go into town in the evening, but
of course things tend to linger. they had a ceremony for the finishing of
the covertismo, and they named a guest who had just recently arrived by
car as the padrino. he of course welcomed everyone there and have special
thanks to my presence. we then moved to the new roof of the house that was
completed at the same time. the owner, whose name i never learned, had
been paying close attention to me the whole time i was there, bringing me
a stool to sit on, asking me how everything was. well he named me the
padrino for the new roof of the house. in front of about 50 people i went
up, this time giving a little talk about how this roof would remain for a
hundred years through wind and rain, and thanking everyone for their
presence there together to build it. i then broke the champagne bottle
with a hammer. however, unlike when i was padrino at my house with
guillermo and family, thwn i smashed the champagne bottle with full force,
causing glass to go flying, this time i learned from the padrino of the
covertismo that i was simply supposed to give a strong tap on the bottle
so only the bottom broke and champagne would go shooting down. after this
ceremony i was led into a room lined with benches where i gathered with
all the men, and one woman (i don´t know who she was), to eat the dinner
that the wives were cooking outside whle the men were finishing their
work. while we were served two bowls of soup, and another bowl full of
corn, potatoes, and lamb, men in the room asked me questions, like "in
your country do you eat 3 servings? we peruvians can eat 3 bowls!" well i
didn´t really know how to answer that, except that when they were all
starting to pack up their 3rd bowl in to-go bags i commented... "so you
can´t eat the 3rd bowl!?" they laughed but then backed themselves up by
explaining it was for their wives and children who had to be fed too. well
i didn´t want to eat this whole dinner in the first place beause before i
left my house in the afternoon mama mercedes was already making a special
dinner for me with the chicken that they drove 45 minutes to buy simply
because i mentioned once that chicken was the meat i ate most at home. i
tried explaining to hugo that my family was making me dinner, but i didn´t
really have a choice to eat or not once i was named padrino. i was the
godfather of the new roof.
after passing and drinking beer, and attempting to open a bottle by using
another bottle for leverage and failing, hugo and i left the scene, where
by this time the men were pointing out one man sitting near me who had
brain or pschological trouble, who was supposedly going to fly back to the
states with me to be operated on so he would become normal. the villagers
really think gringos like me have the capacity to do anything. i can´t
even open the beer bottle like them.
as i followed the man who had offered to drive us into town (one of the
few with a car, who i was to pay for his services), to his house, he came
out with tapestries that his wife makes of the uro islands of lake
titicaca, implying that i should buy them or take them to the states with
me to sell. as i gave an excited look about the art but an uninterested
look about buying them, he put them away and told me we´ll talk more
tomorrow. we drove over to pick up hugo at his house, and his whole family
(wife and 2 daughters) jumped in the car eager to go to town. after an
important errand in town i received an email from the boss (dr. bolton)
about the 2 doctors coming to chijnaya tomorrow and what we needed to do
to prepare. we then made the drive back to the village. never before has a
5km drive been so exciting (terrible rocky dirt road at night). we came to
the house of the head of the health committee, with whom we had to relate
the news of the doctors. guillermo and mercedes appeared, flashlight in
hand, very worried, as they had been spending the last hour looking for
me. i of course felt very bad because they had made me a special dinner
and i never showed up, but i explained to them how i was sucked into the
whole other affair. they understood. but then i felt obligated to eat my
second dinner of chicken, veggies, and rice... which was delicious. what a
night!


9 October 2006

today i acted as pharmacy, director, and secretary at the health post. the
two doctors arrived with two nurses but no equipment apart from
stethoscopes and blood pressure whatchamacallits. i supplied the rest of
everything necessary in treating the 150ish people who came and signed up
with me to be treated... a light for looking in throats, cotton balls,
alcohol swabs, q-tips, and most importantly 1000 ibuprofen which was
prescribed to pretty much every other person. without it people would have
been left with a prescription and no pills- ibuprofen costs about 10x as
much here as at the costco back home. so i signed people up on "la lista"
and moved them along one by one to the nurses, who checked pulse, bp,
temp, etc. guillermo´s in one of the doctor rooms acting as a translater
between quechua and espanol. And as the patients came out of each of the
two doctor rooms they brought me their prescriptions, mostly for 10-18
ibuprofen pills, which i dispensed in plastic baggies. most other
medicines will have to be bought at the pharmacy in pukara. about 50ish
people were seen by the doctors today, and they´ll be coming back for two
more days. i will again act as pharmacy, director, and secretary for the
rest of the aching bodies who will be given enough medicine to last a
week, after which i´m sure their bodies will once again become painful
from their immense physical labor. but simply seeing a doctor is something
these folks haven´t been able to experience in a very long time, if ever.
they are all too poor to actually go and pay for a visit. many, after
receiving their 12 or 18 ibuprofen, comment, "thank you. this will make me
better." this positive attitude is what is most important.


10 October 2006

the women all lined up for the female doctor, and the men the male doctor.
and i dispensed many an ibuprofen, as well as some other medicines that
the boss and assisant david picked up from the pharmacy last night. at the
end of the day we walked over to a group finishing a covertismo, animal
shed, and the boss, dr. bolton, was named the padrino. he and the doctors
were going to immediately take off but were given plates of food. i as
well. however, i was also sucked into sitting under the new rood with the
rest of the men to continue the cervesa passing, along with 2 more plates
of food. i am becoming used to these customs, and i felt quite comfortable
this time being the center of attention during dinner... with the others
whispering to each other things like, "he likes to climb the mountains
around town" and "he doesn´t play soccer but he skis down mountains." this
time, after the final dish, i was given a handful of coca leaves (they
were dropped into my hat), which i stuck in my cheek to suck out the
juice. while doing this i was handed a shot of tequile-like alcohol (it
was really pretty nasty), as well as the usual beer. "mister, mister" one
old man began, "how much water do we need to drink for every kilometer we
walk in the sun?" "i don´t know" i replid... "you need to find a river."
Another man asked my shoe size and commented that they all wear Goodyear
(sandals from used tires) and asked for a translation of Goodyear. they
were happy. anything good is great to them. well my second dinner is on
the way. i need to prepare.
in other news, the doctor´s shirt, under is white coat, read "pimp at
work." he didn´t know what it meant.
it´s a done deal... i just made the transaction. the 200 condoms are off
to find new... homes.

family

3 October 2006

Mama mercedes was telling me last night in the kitchen that she is 47 years old, Guillermo one year older, Yoni is 23, Helar 20, and Yesi 17, although she's not living here during school.
i taught my first english class today. scheduled for 3; people trickled in with enough for a class around 4. i decided it would be better to have class while climbing mountains and exploring the nearby rivers and rocks. all the students agreed. we kept the class today indoors for an introduction, and it went well. they all (most late teenagers) were all excited about keeping the class going after i said it was enough for the day. we went really fast through words and phrases that i pulled from who knows where and i doubt they're going to remember much, but we'll go over everything again tomorrow. and soon, sunday probably, we'll have class while on a trek in the mountains. i had a good time teaching. i actually felt like i was helping these people in some way finally. i had a lot of energy and so did they.
guillermo just drove home incredibly drunk. yoni and helar were not happy about that, and i'm sure they were a bit embarrassed. we were leaving the kitchen from eating dinner and playing cards, on our way back to our rooms, when he drove up. he got out of the car and asked me if i had a question. i said no and good night and he wandered up to his room yelling, i don't know if directly at mama mercedes or not. i came into my room to play guitar and now i'm in my sleeping bag... can hear him faintly... my name came up once or twice.
i've started eating some of my meals with the family in the kitchen. it's a little smokey in there but much nicer than to be alone in my room. i thought they had wanted family time, bringing my meals to me in my room, but i think they just thought i'd be more comfortable in here, with a table to put the bowl of soup on. in the kitchen we all just hold the bowl or set it on our knees.
they're always trying to serve me in any way they can. i wouldn't blame guillermo if he's frustrated. i wouldn't feel great if i felt like i had to cater my life in my home around a rich american tourist. i really don't want them to change anything for me. they always serve me the best piece of meat. i can see mama mercedes eyeing them as she brings them out of the pot. they're always asking me if everything is how i like it. but playing cards with helar and yoni in the kitchen after dinner was great fun. helar said i speak castellano (as they call spanish) very well and that i can be a translater/guide with him for tourists, and we can travel all around peru, and eat well. i really don't blame him for wanting a little more variation in the dining experience.
after i saw guillermo come home really drunk it dawned on me how hard life really is for them. they barely get by with enough money for food, and to keep their animals healthy. they don't have access to anything outside the local community (including any sort of medicine whatsoever), and they may never. while this keeps the tradition alive, it allows for little growth and education, and perspective. i feel that with my opportunities i have a perspective that they will never be able to obtain. maybe this is why they may feel self-conscious around me.

cow shit

28 September 2006

I´m sitting in the combi-van waiting to leave Pukara. I decided to come
check out the weekly market that many of the villagers go to in order to
buy their household food items – potatoes, bananas, beans, coca leaves,
lots of bread (sold as single pieces)… lots of people hanging around the
sidewalk. The combi-van is really more of a rasta-van. It has rasta
stickers all around the windows with palm trees. Oh, we´re leaving… 5km
dirt road.
Every day I sit and stare in awe at the beauty of this community. Everyone
really seems to keep to themselves but at the same time they all know each
other, and what´s up in the village. I tried the cheese from the queseria.
It was delicious, salty, and very squeaky in the teeth.


29 September 2006

I just helped unload a bunch of cow shit from the back of the car. It will
be stored in the kitchen and used as fuel for the stove.
Earlier today I helped Hugo hack away at the outside of his kitchen in
order to add a new door. Pretty much all the buildings are made of
mud/adobe and have to be renovated annually. I think this brings the
people together.


30 September 2006

I celebrated Shabbat today by resting, reading… it really didn´t change
much of how I shaped my day.
I just got back late (8pm) from using the computer and mama Mercedes was
so nice she stayed up to bring me my dinner (soup with hunk of meat).
Helar and Yoni were already in bed. I love this schedule.
Helar spent the day at mama´s other house, where relatives live at the
base of a mountain not too far away, making adobe (to use to make
buildings).
I´ve made sort of a daily ritual of climbing nearby mountains to perch on
rocks and read for hours. Today I went slightly farther and higher than
usual. The scene was stunning – amazing views of nearby field-filled
valleys, rock formations, the village, other mountains reaching up to the
crisp sky…
After a few hours, as I came into the village, I was told almost everyone
had gone to Pukara. Chijnaya really didn´t seem different with almost
everyone gone. I don´t normally see too many people out and about. Mostly
the people tend to their animals, either in their yards or out in the
fields or down by the river. So it turns out everyone had gone to the
police station in Pukara because they had captured a suspect who had
supposedly tried to break into a building in Chijnaya to steal the
computers. Chijnaya really sticks together. It´s a strong community, and
they all went to check out the suspect. It turned out that it was just a
boy who came to chijnaya at night to meet his girlfriend. I guess they
have yet to find who tried to steal the computers (I think 3 people were
seen snooping around at night trying to break in).
On Saturdays the chijnaya queseria transforms and makes a big batch of
yogurt. So I went today and tried it – delicious. So fresh and tasty
(people bring their fresh milk in daily).
I gave my first prescription yesterday. An old man stopped me on the
street in the village (there are 3 streets) and asked me to help sort his
medicine out. I think he has a pretty bad case of arthritis. So he brought
over some bottles of pills that were donated by an American couple who
came to visit last week, but he had no idea what to do with these pills.
So I laid it all out for him. Hopefully he understood and will take the
right things at the right times.
Also, I found out today that practically everyone in the village has bad
eyesight, but no one has enough money to buy glasses. Helar even has his
prescription but no glasses.
Time to sleep to the distant sounds of dogs barking and donkeys making
high-pitched, whining, see-saw like cries into the night. The morning will
bring the fresh songs of roosters.
Currently reading: Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martín Prechtel


2 October 2006

I am soon ending my Yom Kippur fast. It has been mighty
delightful/thoughtful/delirious! I spent most of the day perched on a
short mountaintop, reading.
Yesterday on the way to a meeting at the cheese factory I see two guys
very drunk, drinking cervesa. This is about 6:55am. As i´m waiting at the
queseria for the workers to come to have the meeting (they didn´t show up
until 8, meeting scheduled for 7; meeting lasted 5 minutes) I see the two
drunk guys push start a motorcycle on the dirt/gravel road and ride by me
yelling back something incomprehensible. Later in the day I come home to
find out mama Mercedes´ brother was in a motorcycle accident and is now in
a nearby hospital. It´s not entirely severe but he´s in the hospital for a
week. At first when mama M was telling me about the accident I didn´t
realize it was her brother and started saying how very drunk the guys were
and how I thought maybe it wasn´t the best idea to ride a motorcycle at
7am while sloshed. Then she mentioned that it was her brother in the
hospital, and I felt bad. Yoni went to see him today – getting better
little by little.
As far as the meeting at the queseria… the 3 workers I talked to seemed to
think it would be fine to sell cheese in the nearby town square, but this
morning at 6:30am I get a knock on my door, it´s Guillermo (father) saying
to get up, there´s someone here to see me. I go outside in my long
underwear and furry slippers to find the president of the queseria telling
me I can´t start selling cheese in Pukara because they need all the cheese
they have to sell to their wholesaler because they have a year long
contract with him and they´re not producing much this time of year due to
the shortage of milk that the cows are producing, and they don´t want to
lose business/their deal with this wholesaler due to a shortage of cheese
(from me selling some on the side – for potentially much more money than
they´re getting from the wholesaler = S/8.50 = about $2.50 per kilo).
The sun is setting. I think I might eat soon. Yoni, for some reason, finds
it hysterical that i´m sloshing around from lack of food and that I refuse
to eat of drink until it truly gets dark. I think mama´s cooking me up
some mate de carnela (cinnamon tea). The first taste is going to be
ecstatic.
I just found out today that brother Helar (20 years old) has a baby and a
soon to be wife! She´s still in school. The family didn´t know about the
baby until a few months ago when Helar came home from school. Mama´s
worried about how they´re going to handle it. I think Helar´s strung up
about it too, but he doesn´t talk about it.
It´s massively hailing right now. They predicted it from the way the
lightning flashed so brilliantly in the distance.
Currently reading: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey