Relax, Stress, Relax

Since we didn't have water this past weekend we had to relax and bathe in the hot thermal pools just outside of Cajamarca on Sunday. Relaxing. The next day the water came back to our apartment, so my bucket entertaining days ended. I then put Kirsten and Erica to work picking our jewelry and bags at our Discover Hope Fund Buy Day in the office this week. This proved to be more stressful than planned. We had a huge turn-out of loan recipients hoping to sell their goods to us. We spent a good almost 3 hrs. working hard at choosing, picking, placing money in envelopes and just basically trying to keep 15 women and their children under control in a very small space. Kirsten and Erica were a huge help, but the whole event tested my patience and prepped me for a stiff drink by the end of the afternoon.

Then tonight the Madison crowd headed to the hot springs again to receive the full sauna and spa treatment. Again, relaxing. So we managed to squeeze some stress in between our relaxing thermal water nights.

Timing!

Yes, folks it is all about timing. My good friends and roomies from Grad. school in Madison came down to visit - they had a safe arrival yesterday on a beautiful sunny mountain morning. Only minutes before their arrival I was yelling from my patio at my landlord,"I don't have any water." No water in the kitchen, bathroom, anywhere. So I thought to myself it will come back on a little later in the day. I went to pick up my friends, brought them back to my waterless apartment and we were catching up already on all the past year's events. There was no luck with getting water later in the day - or today for that matter. I filled up a couple of buckets from my landlord's faucet this morning, so now I am entertaining guests among buckets of water (hey, at least now we can flush the toilet and wash the dishes). But Kirsten and Erica are in good spirits - look at all they have done this weekend (without water); we - very randomly - got to see a kinda cool procession and a sawdust carpet just right outside of my house, they checked out the meat market and found a fresh cow head, and hit my favorite bar in town that has music and storytelling that will make you lose track of the hour and clap until your hands hurt. I think this afternoon we will need to bath in the thermal pools outside of town, because I am not counting on having water tomorrow either. Lovely timing, really.

Photovoice

I kinda put behind me the fact that I am soaking wet, cold and tired... when I see the faces on women that have taken pictures of their lives, themselves and things important to them, all the other stuff kinda fades away. DHF is doing a type of Photovoice evaluation with some of our village banks. We give a group of women a camera and they take pictures of their lives. The women have seen me take pictures all year. They turn their heads, smile, show a grin of embarrassment. I show them the photo on my digital camera, but that is where the photo stays. The idea of photovoice evaluation is giving the women another way to express themselves besides just answering evaluation questions. And I have been surprised because all of the groups (6 so far) that I have approached this year, not one of them has used a camera before. I told them this is their chance to become a photographer, show the world their world. At first there was some hesitation and uncertainty(from the women) about being able to take pictures. But so far we have had a decent turnout and good conversation around the photos. (Note the great pig photo from Angelica in La Perlita Village Bank)!

Ridiculous B.day Bash

I need a weekend rest after my weekend. I worked on Sat., which is nothing new. But then on Sunday I went to Hugo's little brother's 7th Birthday party. I have only been to one other kid's B.day party here in Peru and I didn't realize until yesterday that they are all the same - the same level of crazy, ridiculousness. I'll give you a little play by play. The party was in the countryside, so that the kids could run around and go crazy without breaking anything. Good thinking mom. The party invitations said 10am. Kids came with their parents between 11-12. Lunch was served at 1:30. We sucked lolipops and painted faces until 3:30. Then the "animadores" (women that dress up in a million different outfits and sing, dance, and make the kids look so cute and ridiculous for 3 hrs. straight - great entertainment for the parents!) started their show. There was no electricity, so the party wasn't as loud as it could have been, but I was still exhausted when Hugo and I escaped at 6pm. By then they still hadn't sung Happy Birthday or broke the pinata or served the cake. Hugo's mom told us today that they left the house at 9pm last night. The party went until 8ish. Do we have parties for 7 yr. olds in the states that go from 11am - 8pm? I don't have kids, so I guess I don't know. But, to me it seems a bit long...and ridiculous (oh, wait I mentioned that already).

Hungry?

Give you a little taste of classes this week (pun intended). Our same super bakery teacher from last month offered a cooking (appetizer) class this week. Two days. 10 appetizers. We had a small group of 9 women. They worked hard getting their hands dirty to produce some really delicious appetizers, through the direction of our teacher Luisa. Like our bakery class, the women hope to use these new recipes as an additional income generating activity. Of course they won't start off right away this weekend being contracted for parties - but if they start practicing with family and friends the "word will pass" that they are good cooks and can hopefully start a domino effect to attract more paying customers.
P.S. on an unrelated cooking note - 6 out of 8 of out literacy students passed their first literacy test with flying colors last week. That is SUCCESS! The two didn't quite ace the test don't feel so bad, because as they say, "at least now I am write my name and my ID number - I couldn't do that before." Again, SUCCESS.

Bags for export, Literacy tests, and everything inbetween

The past couple of days have been filled with lots and lots of stuff. It all blends together and becomes part of the struggle to create hope.
Evaluation starts. Interviews. Questions. Reflections.
How has Discover Hope changed your life?
I have more skills. I can make a little bit more money.
Sewing artesian bags - another skill, another group of chaotic women and screaming kids.
One sewing machine breaks.
I take the combi back to Cajamarca late at night with our teacher, Socorro. Pay her in the dark.
The group starts to take their test just as the rain decides to fall.
The rain finds it's way through the tin roof that has sporadic holes.
What, you don't like the color of the ribbon? That's the only color we have.
These are the colors that North Americans like.
Hope you participate in our Buy Day - we want to show the world what you are learning.
Walking down a dirt road - hoping all the students are present today. Big day. Test day.
One women struggles with her literacy test - she can not finish, but she can write her name.
Exhausted with videos, pictures, and small stories of hope.

Treasure, Trash, Treasure

Today was a random holiday in Peru, so I took the morning off to go hiking with my friends. I should know by now when my Peruvian friends say we're going to go for a hike for 2-3 hours, that usually means the hike will probably take twice the amount of time. But no matter, I went along with the hiking plan like happy dog, following my tour guide friends as they lead the way to where-ever we were going.

We hiked along the northern part of the Inca trail and it was a treasure. We got a little lost in the beginning, but really, the first Inca's that paved the way here I am sure got lost too. We walked through pine forest, along a clean, bubbly river, and scald a couple of mountains. It only rained for a short bit of time, which was lucky for us, since the rainy season is starting to pick up speed and hit Cajamarca in full force.

I came home exhausted and happy. And just as I was getting ready to relax and sip a cup of tea, I heard the trash bell. Three times a week the trash pick-up truck comes around and everyone runs out of their houses with their small plastic trash bags to leave it on the curb. I joined the "running with trash" crowd and brought my plastic bags out to the curb; where there were three little smiley kids waiting for me at the curb. I knew it before I left my trash, they were there to find some treasures. I see this all the time. Kids, adults, and yes dogs too, going through the trash. Looking for food for their pigs, bottles to reuse, and who knows what else. I could be sad and dishearted by the whole thing, but one person trash is another person treasure. True statement.

Sushi in Peru!

Another sign of a globalized world - sushi in Peru (and Cajamarca for that matter). Everyone told me that I would love Peruvian cuisine, and I do, most of the time. But I miss certain worldly flavors; to a name a few... Thai, Ethiopian, Mexican, Salvadorian, Hungarian and just good old midwest food. So when I heard about a new sushi bar in town I convinced Hugo that we had to go and try it. It doesn't compare to Maki & Shusak's delicious sushi, but it was pretty good. Hugo didn't totally agree with me, he would take his raw fish in ceviche (one of the many national dishes here) over sushi any day.

Pantalones hechos

Completed pants. After our sewing blouses and skirts there was a huge outcry for sewing pants. That outcry turned into 7 students, 5 of which actually came, made paper pants molds and ultimately sewed their pants. The small group we did have worked really hard and were asking for more pants designs at the end of our third class. This month in October we won't be offering a sewing class - there are other classes we are offering and our year long evaluation has started. One program manager can only do so much. But, I know that some of our most excited students will continue to visit our teacher Rosario, as she has offered an open invitation to visit her house and get sewing advice.

Our classes almost always include little kiddos. Here in this pic you can see Rosario's son. Sometimes (no, most of the time) the kiddos provide for a very chaotic learning environment, but at the end of the day, well the women are in class for their kids. They want to be able to make pants for their children, save money, and give them a better future. So, I figure, if the women can handle the chaos - I can handle the chaos. And it is good for the kids to see their mom's learning new things. Just can't forget the Ibuprofen at classes!

Where no tourists go...

Some days in Peru I am living a dream and experiencing magical things make me feel so fortunate, alive, blessed, amazed and at the same time, so small. My friend Vicky (you may remember from previous posts - she has a ridiculous amount of guinea pigs in her house) invited me to go with a small group of Peruvian tour guides to camp in Tantarica: pre-incan (caxamarcan culture) ruins that spread throughout the very top of one of the highest mountains I have seen in Peru. We traveled through some of the most uncomfortable combi's in the sleepy morning hours to arrive to our hiking destination. The mountain we climbed with our heavy supply of food and water was much like those we passed in the combi - no houses, no sign of human life, but filled with cactus and beautiful shades of brown, maroon and spots of green. No wonder this place isn't bustling with tourists - there is one combi car that travels from Cotumaza to Catan daily; we got off somewhere in between the two in the middle of a beautiful nowhere.

Tantarica reminded me a bit of Kuelap as it held that same magical mountain feel. With the group we explored the ruins that remained somewhat in-tack and found ourselves running up the mountain as if we were little kids in a playground. We set up our tents at the base of the ruins and watched the sunset while drinking coffee and eating toasted potatoes. We awoke to a brilliant sunrise that helped us find the strength to hike down the mountain.

We caught the only combi heading back to Cotumaza once we reached the dusty "highway" the next morning. If we would have missed the combi there was no way to get back into town but walking (or maybe if we got lucky, a donkey). On our way back, our combi passed a number of countryside women, men, kids waiting to get on, but we were full to the brim and there was no way to squeeze more, so our car kept moving, leaving them on the side of the road. Can you imagine having one chance a day to get into town - and if you miss it (or it is full), you have to wait another day?

The tour guide group that was so kind to take me on this trip was actually investigating if they should recommend this site to tourists passing through Cajamarca. We decided it is gorgeous, tell people about it - but bring your own car! Because if you miss the boat (or combi) you make your trip a lot longer than you may want it to be.

Campsite sunrise in Tantarica
Remaining ruins of Tantarica - legend has it this mountain was filled with water, but due to a tragic love story there is no longer water here.
So I am back in Cajamarca working away with a deep peace and regenerated strength that the mountain provided. Although, with this peace and strength it is hard to stay calm as I work through the night, plugging away at documents that yearn and plead for sustainability for our microcredit work here - I just got news that my dearest friend Trish is in labor. I am sitting among candles, saying prayers for health and safety and wellness. You would think being a world away I would be out of the loop, but thanks to technology my friend Lisa sent me a text (A TEXT ON MY PHONE!) and I am in the loop. This is the crazy time travel of Peruvian life - connecting to ancient pasts through a magical hiking adventure and still staying connected to a completely different world far away.