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.