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
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
posted by Gabriel Klapman | 8:33 AM
2 Comments:
i think michael henry (if you know him, i don't really, just heard randomly) is in peru doing Peace Corp. in Chalaco? that's what facebook says. Anyway good to hear from you, glad to see you're doing something totally awesome while I'm sucking it up in law school.
Michelle Yu
Hi Gabe. I'm enjoying your blog greatly. I emailed you at your Pomona address, but I don't know if you can access it or not. If not, email me with another address and I'll forward my message there. Tell everyone in Chijnaya that la profesora Kate says hello. I miss them!
Kate
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