Light

Everyone has a story. A heartache. A survivor of something. A secret that comes out when it needs to or when it finds a door to leave. This week I had very touching conversations with two of our loan recipients. Two women that have been working really hard these past couple of months, coming to our classes and making a go of their businesses. Two women, that from a casual conversation, you would never guess their heartache and struggle. Both of these women are older, retired, but are still working in order to support their families. Common threads they share and may not even know it. They both have husbands that haven't contributed to the family needs, money that goes to alcohol, absence that pains beyond the lack of material needs. Tears that needed to come out. Picking up bottles to make extra money. Businesses destroyed. Entrepreneurs by necessity. Possessing internal Power and Light beyond their own knowledge.

In listening to their stories and providing the small words of comfort and strength I could find, I can only wonder, what are the stories behind all the other women? Do they all share a similar pain? A similar light? The beautiful thing about these two women is that they show up. They are taking advantage of opportunities. They are why Discover Hope is here right now. They are going door to door to sell jewelry - jewelry that they learned how to make only a couple of months ago. They have strength. They have beauty. They have light.

Energizer bunny spotted in Peru

Warning!!! There is lots of pictures in this post (and many more on Flickr if you don't get enough here).
Dad just left today and so far he receives the award for "American in Peru with the most energy." Let me show you an example: We went out on Thursday night until the wee hours of the morning (1am) to Usha, Usha bar for some traditional Peruvian music, clapping, singing, story telling, drinking and dancing.

Then on Friday early morn we woke up hours later to venture out to hike out to the "windows in the mountains" of Combayo. We didn't know the route or how we would get back into town, but all agreed we would embrace the adventure. We took an hour taxi ride through breath taking curvy mountain roads - my Dad described it as an amusement park roller coaster ride. No seatbelts or safety features though. We arrived in the town of Combayo after an hour plus of our roller coaster trip. We hiked through amazing mountain country - all new sights for me. Hugo seemed to know where to go, we only had to ask a couple people along the way, all of which said, "you're close, it's just over there." 3 plus hours later we saw our first ventanillas, windows, in the mountain. These windows date back to pre-Inca times as burial sites. These windows are much more preserved than the windows of Otuzco, closer to Cajamarca, so Dad got an out of the ordinary tourist experience. Along with cows, donkeys, sheep and angry dogs we also witnessed lots of precious little jewel flowers along the way. Upon arriving to the highway we only had to wait an hour before we found a ride half way back to town. We rode with a group of 5th grade girls on a school trip in their school minibus for about 40 minutes back towards Cajamarca. 40 minutes of song, dance, and absolute craziness. They stopped at the fish farm and we got off just in time to catch a different crowded mini bus that took us all the way into town. A full day, arriving in Cajamarca close to 5pm. And, my Dad still wanted to go out that night. Hence, he holds the energizer bunny title.

Proud of my Macrame-er's

While I was away in the Amazons with my Dad, life as I know it continued in Cajamarca. I left Cajamarca with one Macrame (knotting art) class under our belt. We had 10 women start a month long Macrame course (once a week) and what I witnessed the first class was the women learning their first knot and making bracelets. When I returned two weeks later some of the women were working on their second belt! I was so proud. We have one more class to go next week and I have a feeling we may have to offer another month of class come July.

It is exciting that my Dad gets to witness all this cool stuff happening with our women. It's funny because so many people in Iquitos thought my Dad was my husband, "he is so young." Well in Cajamarca I prepared my groups for my Dad's visit so that no one would call him my husband, but they still say, "he is so young." He is taking Spanish classes in the mornings and visiting my groups with me in the afternoon. Starting tomorrow we are going to start to squeeze in some touristy kinda stuff, like thermal baths and waterfall and window mountain hiking. My Dad has been a trooper, we both had some leftover bugs from the jungle, but both got up in the morning and tackled the day, bugs and all. We are feeling better now and are packing in activities with the days that remain of his visit.

I think it has been really great for the women I work with to meet my Dad. It was, and still is, a little hard for people who come from a total family focused culture to understand why would I come down to Cajamarca alone to work? Why would I leave the U.S. and my dear family? It was never an easy decision I explain, but when I continue to say "this is my calling, what I believe in, and what fills me up" - well that just doesn't cut it here. So I think it helps the women understand a little bit more about me and where I am coming from.

Note to future Cajamarca travelers: When planning to come to Cajamarca plan to get sick at least one day, put that in your itinerary (Because that is what has happened with visitors so far).

Amazonas in Color

We have arrived back safely to Cajamarca with lots of pictures of the Amazons in our head and in our cameras. I would just like to share a couple... of our all inclusive paradise lodge, a shrimp tree, birds putting on an unplanned flight show, houses and faces of kids from the village close to our lodge, boat transport and Amazonas from above.

Stuck in Jungle

HELP!!! Can anyone out there send a plane to Iquitos, Peru? Anyone? Anyone out there? Hello!

So Dad and I returned back to Iquitos after a magical jungle adventure. We stayed at an all- inclusive lodge deep in the jungle. Imagine heaven on earth. We were there. Birds beyond your wildest imagination, stick houses, canoes barely floating above the water, slothes in slow motion, poisonious animals in little corners everywhere, every shade 0f green and beautiful, wonderful, generous people. We returned to Iquitos to explore the city for the day before flying home. Iquitos, the only city (?) in the world that is only reachable by boat or air. No roads to or from Iquitos to anywhere. While we were on this amazing jungle retreat our airline decided to ¨temporarily¨go out of business. They left us high and dry (or more like wet and pissed). No refunds, no other flights, no answers, to staff to direct us one way or the other. I don´t think I have even been so mad in this country and never had such a negative experience with an airline. Luckily we are only delayed one day and were fortunate to find another ticket with another airline tomorrow. So we will spend Father´s Day in the air, on the road and in uncomfortable positions while traveling from jungle to coast to mountains. I am sure we will laugh about this in the future. Let´s hope so.
Note to self: Don´t buy airline tickets with airline that is going out of business while in jungle.

Dad arrives...

My dad got here safe and sound yesterday. It is so great to see him, I can tell he has been walking and working out before coming here in prep for all the walking we will be doing. We took it easy, walked along the ocean and ate some yummy ceviche. He loved it, it gave me the runs. Better me than him. Today we traveled to the airport only to find out our airplane was delayed until this afternoon at 6pm. Not only did we wake up early, no breakfast, but now we had to get back into town to pass the time - had to take advantage of a whole day of unplanned events. We spent the day checking out the historical, old part of Lima. The buildings, churches and walkways are impressive, spanish detailed and very finely decorated. We had a tasty typical lunch that my Dad ate up, but again made me runny. Better me than him. Jungle here we come!

Wool dying teach and learn

Cleaning wool with boiling water....
Taking out yarn from our "coloring" pot.
If you remember a blog from a couple of months ago - there are members of one of our village banks that were learning how to dye wool with natural plants. Those same members were teaching others this afternoon how to dye wool. Teaching is the greatest learning process in my book, because of the transfer of knowledge that the teacher passes on reinforces the knowledge that one holds in their head. Priscilla and Andrea did a great job. They had this group of 6 women wrapped around their fingers. We cleaned their wool and yarn with boiling water, boiled the plants in a big pot, and added the wool for 1/2 hour to "cook" and absorb the color. We were hoping for a green, but got yellow yarn. The general consensus was,"not bad for our first time." The group learned that they need to gather more plants if they want to have a stronger color, their wool needs to be clean (no grease or poop), and they can easily dye wool naturally instead of using chemicals (which is how all of the women currently dye their yarn). I told the group that they need to try it again - see how it goes - and if they need help, we'll call the experts and get Priscilla and Andrea back in action.
Rinsing finished yarn/wool in canal next to house.
All finished, let it dry in the sun.

Taking out the Air

Last night I had a new, surprising cultural experience. Things still shock me after 6 months. I took some folks out to dinner that have been helping Discover Hope in various different ways, a Thank You chicken and French fries dinner of sorts. Dinner was great, we had great laughs and the mayo/ketchup combo for our fries was perfect. I was having a little headache at the end of dinner and everyone seemed to know exactly why. "Because of the air, we need to take some out..." I was skeptical, but everyone was in complete unison agreement, so I thought, "Why not, take my air out." Nidia then grabbed some of my hair on the top on my head and tried to pull it out. It didn't come. She tried again and again. Nothing. My friend Paola also had air, so Nidia did the same thing with her, but this time it worked. She pulled a very small bundle of hair out of the top of her head and there was a popping sound. Paola smiled with relief. Well it just so happened that everyone had air in their head and Nidia took care of it, everyone except for me. She said I was too nervous that is why she couldn't help me. You tell me, how would you feel if someone tried to take hair out of the top of your head?

Pinch me. I am not dreaming

Enough to make your heart stop, or at least skip a beat.

Visitors have come and left. I woke up the next day thinking it was all a dream. I realized it wasn't and now it was time to get on with my life. Well I got on with my life. I worked this week, held a cooking class (see below), went to my first kids birthday party in Peru, organized activities for June, invited my co-workers to wild rice soup, hiked in the countryside and finish my first sweater (actually it is a shrug, but we'll just call it a sweater since I don't know how to translate shrug in Spanish - since we're on the topic my women will be so happy to see this "sweater": Nora 3 months to make a sweater = Peruvian women 2 weeks to make a sweater).

The cooking class was a smashing success, the sweater is a little too big, the birthday party was a chaotic, colorful and loud display of crazy Winnie-the-Pooh entertainment that lasted 3 very, very long hours. Just like my visitors visit, sometimes I feel like my days are a dream. I go from one day to the next thinking - did that just happen yesterday?

Did I just go visit a women this week who lives in an adobe house and it taking care of her nieces and nephews because their mom just died because of lack of money for medicine? Yes. Did I just give her some work and contract her to make a pullover and poncho for my family members on the same day? Yes. Did I just feel like I was in a circus show when I went downstairs to the biggest 2yr olds B.day party I have ever seen in my entire life? Yes. Did I just take a breathtaking walk in the countryside and tell my boyfriends' mom to finish decorating her rustic, gorgeous countryside house and make it into a hotel? Yes. Did I just dance the night away with a sweet, caring, kind, and beautiful man? Yes. Did I just eat octopus? Yes (and it was good). Did the smile of a dirty, small brown face boy just make my heart stop? Yes. Do I hear fighting from downstairs; mom and daughter not finding common ground on curfew? Always. Am I on the verge on planning a huge year long health training for my women? I think so. Do the mountains fill me with energy? Everyday. Does the gift of a piece of bread fill someone up? Of course.

Pinch me. There are so many moments filled with multiple emotions that there aren't even words to describe them all. I know I am not dreaming, I am living a dream. I am breathing new feelings, fears and hopes everyday. I wish the same for all of you. Emotions beyond words and a heart full of everything.