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.