Christmas Clean

The rest of Christmas was pretty low key, compared to the turkey killing. My favorite part was watching Anita and Javier, two little kiddos that Hugo's mom has taken under her motherly wing, open gifts. Anita and Javier come from a very poor family and their mom just can't take care of them. They were full of parasites and thin little sticks when they walked into Martiza's door a couple of months ago. She has fatten them up since then.

Anita opened all her doll, clothes and slipper gifts and was in full smiles and amazement the whole night. Her smile was my gift.

On actual Christmas Day there was no x-mas cookies or eggnog, it was all cleaning, all day. The good news is that the house was sparkling by the end of the day as we retired to eat more sweet bread as our reward. We did stop for about an hour at 4pmish to eat our turkey lunch, which turned out to be delicious.

The first of the visitors arrived safely last night. Mom and Ester, after a treacherous journey of missing flights and snow storms, got here in one piece. Hugo and I picked them up, late - of course - true Peruvian style - at the airport. Our taxi rounded the curve to drop us off at the path to our house and the kiddos came running towards us. They saw my mom and Essie and stopped full in their tracks. More white people!

We had a relaxing and fun filled night of spanglish and hand gestures. It is like home having family here; I am ready to start this crazy week now that Bedard love has arrived!

Turkeys Take 2

Warning! There is a picture of a recently killed turkey in this post!

This morning we just couldn't take the turkeys anymore. They were everywhere, dirty everything, and we were afraid they were losing weight. So, we had the killing. It took lots of boiled water and 6 hands in the mix. It wasn't pretty and the smell wasn't that great either. The cleaning took longer than anything. Faustina, our wedding buffet chef, came and directed the whole fiasco. She did a great job and kept everything under control. I, on the other hand, couldn't witness the event, it was too much for me. Javier, the little boy pictured above, didn't understand why we were killing the turkeys - we only had them in the house for a week! He wanted a picture as remembrance of their good times together this past week.
So, I have 3 big fat turkeys in my freezer right now, all seasoned and ready for cooking when the time comes next week. It was an interesting way to start Christmas.

Hope you all have a happy and interesting Christmas, too.

Love, Light, Paz ~ Nora

Wild Turkeys

Part of the wedding feast is grazing on our front yard. 3 Wild Turkeys are fertilizing our grass and making noise all day long. We bought them with the idea of fattening them up, but we have hardly any time to fatten them up. Anyways, take a good look at them now, as they will look completely different on Jan. 2!

Moving

Yes folks, the move went smoothly. (I may have scared you in the last post?) My moving truck was a little rusty and lopsided, but nothing got lost in the shuffle. Hope House (aka our learning center for classes) is packed up in a safe location until Feb. classes start next year.

Why is Hope House moving?

1. We found a more central location
2. With lower rent costs!
3. The new Hope House will have a full kitchen stove - so no more appetizer mishaps, like this year
4. Computers for computer classes are part of the new Hope House
5. And, a room full of sewing machines will also be part of the Hope House!!!!

So, now that I have moved and finished my final report, that means that I can focus on wedding preparation, and with 2 weeks to go, there is still lots of do. Will it get done? Yes. Will I be stressed about it? Yes. Will it all be worth it? Yes.

Inbetween moving DHF and final report I have been helping paint some of the rooms in the house where family guests will be staying. After thinking that I had permanently painted my nails red (not with nailpolish!) I decided, wait a second, I am going to be a bride, I need to not paint anymore and do other things. So, I hired a painter.

Also, Hugo and I have been preparing the musical selections for the ceremony and party. It is going to be quite a show and musical event. This weekend we are going to buy the live turkeys for our wedding lunch buffet. And, there are many other odds and ends, stay tuned as the countdown begins!

Packing up Hope House

Folks, this is an exciting, busy, and emotional time. The Hope House is turning into boxes. Since Hope House will be changing locations next year, it is my task to make sure with the move all of DHF materials make it from point A to point B. The moving task is a bit stressful, as it involves going to the designated location in Cajamarca where you negotiate with guys that have big trucks. Once you strike a deal, the moving begins. Moving has to be done with two people - why? - because you leave the stuff out in the truck on the street by itself and it may not be there when you return with the next load.

The exciting part of this time of the year (besides on the verge of getting married!), is reflecting back on the year and punching the numbers of goodness that DHF has created. I am so proud. We've done good this year. Women have generated more than $3,500 of additional income as a result of our classes. We've held more than 240 activities to support women in their personal and business growth. And, we've reached more than 800 total participants in all our activities this year. Amazing!

Thanks to all the supporters out there that make the DHF machine run smoothly and impact women in Cajamarca beyond what we can measure.

The Big Chocolatada

Hot Chocolate and Paneton and craziness. The basics for a Christmas celebration in Peru. In other words: The Big Chocolatada

DHF and Afider held our last big event together for the year this afternoon, the 2009 Chocolatada. We invited more than 200 women to join us in celebrating the holiday season. Thankful only half of them came because otherwise there just wouldn't have been room in the office. We were scheduled to start at 3:30, which means 4:30 Peruvian time. At 3:30 we had only just begun to cut the Paneton (sweet fruit bread). We filled 3 big boxes with cut Paneton and served pipping hot cinnamon hot chocolate all afternoon. There was Christmas music, speeches reflecting on the year, little gifts for the kiddos and Santa hats.


For me it was surprisingly an enjoyable afternoon. I usually get stressed out during these big events: starting late, making women wait, is there enough crackers? But not this afternoon. I enjoyed the presence of the women present that have shaped my life these past two years. Women that have inspired and challenged me. And I gave them thanks and upon popular demand even sang Jingle Bells in English to show my gratitude. And, let me tell you even though I didn't remember the 2nd verse of Jingle Bells the women still gave me a standing ovation. Only in Peru.


Happy hot chocolate drinking and sweet bread eatin',
Nora

Coding

Some of our loan recipients had a new experience yesterday coding their jewelry. Why were they coding? A fellow in the chamber of commerce that had heard about our Export Facil endeavor was curious to help us out. As an export 'expert' and professor he offered one of his business students who was looking for an artisan group, the chance to work together with our women on a jewelry catalog. A win-win. Ever, our lucky business student gets to do his homework for international business class and the women get the chance to put their products into a catalog. Ever was asking the women sizes, prices, material costs - very detailed questions that our women hardly ever answer. It is good food for thought for them to put more detail into their jewelry. If they are thinking export in the future, they need to be able to answer those questions and much more. The coding represents the different models that the women make. Even if we don't go international with our sales - if the women can streamline and develop many replicas of the same model they can start to expand their businesses and enter into new, bigger markets. Don't worry U.S.A. - we have you in mind, depending on how the catalog turns out, we would love to send it to Austin, Texas and place orders!

Window Washers

Yesterday was the most window washing I have done in my life. Hugo and I are getting married in a house with a lot of windows, and currently only about 1/10 of them are clean, which means a lot more window washing in the next couple of weeks. We had some kiddos helping us yesterday, but their work threshhold lasted only a little bit. As the countdown to wedding time is less than a month I am a little bit more worried everyday about things getting done. Peruvians are so good at doing things last minute and being calm about it. I am not so good at last minute preparations. But, my cousin Laura made a good point when we were talking over Thanksgiving. It doesn't matter in the end if there isn't enough chairs, as long as you get married at the end of the day then everything else is just the details. I just hope the details of the leaky rofttop and kitchen stove (where we will be cooking the wedding buffet) get done. End of the day photo - the alpaca checking out our cleaning job.

Selling on the Bus!

This is the sign of a true business woman:
After our last class of the year - Crochet Christmas Boot - one of the students told me she was going to take her Boot on the Combi and show it off and maybe sell it. Now that is a true business go-getter. "I am not going to wait for someone to come to me and maybe buy something I make, I am going to go out there and show the world what I got."
That's the attitude!

Ribbon End

Our 2nd to last class of the year: Ribbon Designs on Pillowcases. Something you might find in a craft fair. Church basement. In a chest in a closet somewhere. Since our first pillowcase course last month, pillowcase have become the new favorite thing. What the women make I personally wouldn't use in my bedroom, but it is the high fashion here. When I do a mini-evaluation at the end of each class I try to get an idea about what the women learned and how they will use what they learned. They usually tell me they will try and sell it and make their new craft a business. Today their teacher pushed them to use it as a business. "Don't take this pillowcase and put it in your house where no one will see. Exhibit it. Sell it. Make more." I hope her push does push some of our women into business.

On the business note - I experienced the worst customer service today (well, almost everyday I experience bad customer service in Peru, but today was especially bad). I wanted to find out if this little corner store had envelopes.
"Yes."
"Can you show me the sizes?"
"No."
"You can't show me the sizes of envelopes you have?"
"You have to bring in a model of the size of paper you want to use for the envelope."
"But, I don't have the exact size, actually I want to see the sizes of the envelopes so that I can tailor my paper to the size you have."
"I am not going to take out all of my envelopes to show you. I have too many."

This conversation was repeated about 3 times. Can you believe that? I would think a business owener would want to sell her products, thus show them to her customers. I never got to see the size of the envelopes. We got a long way to go to improve businesses in Cajamarca outside of DiscoverHope Fund's reach.

Yearly Evaluation

As everyone has had, I am sure, a delicious turkey feast today I was chowing on dry guinea pig for lunch, preparing for my afternoon evaluation session. But, I am not complaining, don't get me wrong, just craving the thanksgiving feast that fills the stomach and soul when surrounded by family.

I will have to take the satisfaction that the year end evaluation brings as my thanksgiving treat. This afternoon I met with the leaders of our village banks to evaluate our year as it comes to end in a short couple of weeks. We looked at photos that women took with a disposible camera to evaluate the difference DHF has made in their life. Giving a voice to the women through photos. The room was filled with good comments and positive feedback. Surprisingly, the feedback that I didn't expect to get was from our leadership workshops. I held in total 7 workshops throughout the year and according to the women they made a big difference in their lives. It has translated to more courage and self-esteem, that has translated to more sales as they have put aside their fears of selling to an unknown customer or going out on the street to offer their products. I got that warm, fuzzy feeling when I recieved this feedback from a number of the women. Tis true that our footprints, actions, and simple presence does something more than we can feel or measure in the lives of others. On this day I give thanks that my path that has brought me here to do this needed work and those who have crossed my path all along the way. Thanks Be to those that have enrichment my life and in one way, shape, or form, I hopefully have enriched theirs also.

Paz y Gracias ~ Nora

Spirit of the Season

I always remember that Christmas marketing season always comes too soon in the U.S.. The malls are filled with red and green and Santa Clause before Thanksgiving. Well, in Peru the same thing happens. And, I was part of it this week. Peruvians are mostly Catholic and heavily celebrate Christmas. They make all kinds of crafts to prepare for the holiday. We made one of those crafts yesterday, a Mama Noel made out a re-used plastic bottle. The women loved it although they continually burned themselves with the silicon glue gun. Our new craft was a great way to re-use plastic bottles and create a little work of art that can be used as a candy holder for the holidays. Women that came to our baby blanket class today were bummed to have missed the yesterday's class.

Are you all getting ready for the season?

First Solo Expo

Hugo's first solo art show was a success - despite the hour late start, dry appetizers and dirty walls. There was a full crowd and lots of congrats.

More Bumps and a Cleaning

I thought last week was tough with wedding planning problems - things proved to be even more difficult this week. I will spare you a play by play of my week, but give you a highlight of the tough things.

1. Almost got robbed in the bus. Two very shady guys sandwiched me in the crowd and showed me their pocket, as if they had a gun. I fell on the floor. Screamed a little. They got off the bus. Too close for comfort.

2. My internet modem, that hardly works anyway, fell on the floor with my personal computer and broke. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So now I am really without internet at home.

3. Getting out of a mototaxi for my house one night a big truck almost ran us over. Granted, we were parked right on the curve, but still, another life threatening moment wasn't what I needed this week.

4. And I got a stomach bug.

Talk about bad luck. I wish that one of my women would have "cleaned" me with newspaper. At our artisan bag class one of the loan recipient's baby started crying and another women suggested a "cleaning." Everyone agreed that the baby had seen too many eyes and got scared. Everyone started looking for newspaper to "clean" the baby. Once the newspaper was located, then the "cleaning" procedure started. While mom rocked the baby, another women passed the newspaper over the baby as if she was taking away the bad energy. They then took a candle and started to burn some of the newspaper, pass it over the baby. And surprisingly the baby stopped wailing. No more cry. The "cleaning" worked. I could have used that this week, too - who knows if "cleaning" works for bad luck.

Tomorrow Hugo has his first solo art show, so things are about to turn around as far as luck. We are turning on the positive vibe channel to hope things go well. I will have to post some pictures this weekend, so stay tuned and stay safe out there!

Jewelry lingering

Yesterday DHF held what I think will be the last jewelry class this year. We are in our last month of classes for the year, as I get ready to compile 2009 information to report out to our DHF family. This jewelry class was held in Banos de Inca and we filled up the patio of one of our loan recipients. This month's model was very simple, so the women finished early. Although the women finished their jewelry, they stayed around to make more jewelry, knit, crochet, and just chat. The lingering around for me equals joy, success and growth. It is proof that women enjoy the company, their teacher, and their thirst for learning continues. The lingering continued to the small fried chicken restaurant next to the patio, where another loan recipient has her business.

Happy lingering to all my readers!

Wedding Planning Update

So I may have left a great big space of worry and doubt in some of your minds with my latest wedding information. Since then, Hugo and I have found that we can get married in Los Banos, just outside of Cajamarca, for a not so small fee, but we can make it happen when we want. Which is Jan. 2nd. The money talk that moves the world.

Hugo and I also chatted it up with a 'criollo' (traditional music) band that we want to play at our wedding party. We asked them this past Saturday if they were available on Jan. 2 to do a show in the afternoon. "Jan. 2? We usually do contract like 2 weeks ahead of time!," was our response.

Basically, the message I am getting is that everything for our wedding should be done in the last minute. Why do things ahead of time? No one else does. So that is the latest and greatest.

Literacy End

Just a little taste of what my weekend looks like:Our two literacy circle with the village banks Jehova es Mi Pastor and La Perlita finished their 7 month literacy courses at the end of October. Between the two groups they completed a total of 107 literacy sessions and 15 individual tutoring sessions. The two groups surprised me by making huge improvements on their post-literacy test (compared with their pre-test in April). We have women that can write their name and national ID number now. Women that can add and subtract. Write letters. Write descriptive text. Even multiply and divide. Huge, huge learning steps were made this year.

Yesterday and today I am celebrating with the 2 groups and their literacy teachers with a close-of-classes mini ceremony. The women received/will receive literacy certificates for their participation and efforts this year. On top of that I felt it also worthwhile to give little gifts for the women that scored 20/20 in their post-test (4 out of 5 in Jehova group)!!! Part of our mini ceremony is to partake in the famous Peruvian Christmas Paneton, a little early, but Peruvians can never resist Paneton (the sugary, soft fruit cake found in every corner store in Nov/Dec).

Rejoice with me as I celebrate with the women today, one less bump in the road for DHF women.

Bumps

This week there have been a couple of bumps in the road. There usually are bumps, but this week they were big. The bumps have made life more difficult.

Hugo and I finally got all our paperwork together to apply for a marriage license at the municipality. Turns out all the paperwork I got done in Lima in August, well, I got it done 1 month too early, because my paperwork expires on Dec. 4. Can you believe? Only in Peru can you get something done too early. So now we are faced with the decision: Do we get married this month? Or do we find another town close by that will accept our paperwork? We have no answer yet, but it has made life a little bit more difficult.

Hugo has been busy preparing for his first solo art exposition. It turns out he has been working with a jerk to coordinate everything. He prepared 35 paintings, but the Director of the art space selected 10. 25 paintings can't enter into the expo. Why? Because the Director doesn't like them. So, this expo is next Saturday and Hugo is scrabbling to find another solution. Another space? Fight with the Director? No answer yet, but it has made life more difficult.

Life is full of bumps. Little ones. Big ones. Gotta get over it. Find a solution. I'll post again when the bumps have passed.

"Easy" Export Facil Adventure

Let me share a little story about "easy" export with all you readers. On the week of Oct. 19 I started to fill out "easy" export forms with the local mail service Serpost. I filled them out with Brian Horsley online, but not without a handful of glitches. It took us 3 whole days to figure out the "easy" 1 page form. After getting the required signatures I was ready to take my package to the Serpost office. I packaged up our women's jewelry in a small box and walked with excitement to the office, as it was the first time DHF has entered into the export adventure.

I arrived at the office at 12:30. The woman that was behind the counter seemed a little confused when she saw my forms. But, she took them anyway and started typing away into her computer. She had a little problem with the coding and getting the computer to cooperate with her (or her cooperating with the computer?) After close to an hour of back and forth with the computer, the poor thing shut down. No screen. No service. "Just a minute, Senorita, we will process your paperwork."

A half an hour later I was still waiting for the computer to come back to full force. When it finally did, it was obviously that the woman that was helping me had no idea what she was doing. She called the Serpost office in another city to get some technical assistance. By 2:30 - 2 hours later - my forms were processed and I paid the $50 fee and said Thank You. I left the office with less confidence and patience than when I arrived. Will this package really make it to Austin? My confidence dropped even more when the Serpost woman called me at 3pm and said "Oops, we actually need your original receipt, not a copy." (contrary to what she had told me in the office). So, I went back to the office and mustered up a smile and handed her the official receipt.

The following week I received a phone call from the Serpost Director. He congratulated me on being the 1st! "easy" Export Facil customer in their office. That explains the horrible service! They had no idea what they were doing! The Director assured me that he would follow the package daily and give me a full report then it arrived in Austin. Furthermore, he invited me to talk to the press to help them get the word out about how easy Export Facil is. I told him that I didn't have the best experience in his office, but I was willing to talk to the press. The press and Director stood me up for our interview the following day.

Amazingly enough, yesterday the Director called me again. "We have confirmation that the package arrived in Austin, TX." This is a good reminder that sometimes you got to have a little bit more faith in the unknown.

Todos Santos

Sorry to disappoint you readers...I didn't celebrate all 3 holidays this weekend, I went to a birthday party instead. Although, Hugo and I did go to the cemetery to visit his brother's grave yesterday and I got a little taste of Todos Santos, which like most holidays around the world, have become commercialized. There was a guy walking around with cotton candy, soccer balls and gelatin in the cemetery. It was like a Fair - Inside the cemetery!!! INSIDE!!

The one sight I have enjoyed during this week is the decorated breads. For All Saint's Day there are breads made into dolls with sparkly ribbon attached to them. The kiddos love them, but truthfully they don't look that yummy to eat. I think they are more eye candy.

Yute

Trying a new craft with present knowledge. Women in Peru Knit. Crochet. Sew. But, DiscoverHope women before yesterday didn't know how to combine all three skills to create a Yute Bag. Now they do.

Yute is a natural thread that has become popular in Cajamarca for making artisan bags. DHF women have learned how to make bags out of artisan hand woven material, but haven't actually crocheted a bag before. This afternoon we had 15 Yute Bags completed, some of which were already "sold" before they were finished. Our participants had advertised their bags to family and friends before they were actually done. That's business in Peru for you. Hey, if our DHF class means more business for the women, mission complete and I am happy.

On the verge of a full holiday weekend, not only Halloween, but also All Saint's Day and Criollo Music Day in Peru, I am not sure how all 3 holidays will unfolded in Cajamarca, stay tuned....

Bocaditos Baker Trouble

Let me explain: Bocadito Baker Trouble = Plug-in ovens that take FOREVER to cook appetizers.
Yesterday DHF held an appetizer (bocadito) course where women learned how to make three different types of appetizers. It was a chaotic course. First, the rainy season started in Cajamarca about 2 weeks ago, and the rain yesterday came down in full force right at 3pm when our course was suppose to start. So we had some late arrivals (including the teacher) and some women that couldn't cross the river that was formed in front of their houses due to the downpour and just didn't make it.With the 11 women that did come to class we started close to 45 minutes late, which meant that we would ultimately run late. Run late we did. We ran later than expected. Mixing ingredients, following the recipes, listening to appetizer tips was the easy part. Baking the bocaditos was the hard part. The HopeHouse doesn't have a 'real' oven, so we borrowed two electric ovens that were known to bake things "very quickly." Very quickly turned into 8pm. Class started at 3:45pm. The majority of the women had to leave before 6pm to catch a car back to their houses, but some die hard appetizer bakers stayed til the end.

It was definitely most frustrating for me (everyone else seemed to not mind the baking delay) to not be able to finish the class in a timely manner and have everyone go home happy with the taste of bocaditos in their mouths. Our women brought home uncooked appetizers to bake in their own houses. I'll hopefully get the full report about the appetizer turn-out in the next couple of days when women trickle back to the office.

San Marcos Castles

This weekend with a group of friends Hugo and I went to the town of San Marcos (1.5 hrs. from Cajamarca) to celebrate their towns' festival with 10 burning castles (castillos) of shooting fireworks in the central plaza. What is a burning castle like? A long and lanky castle structure made out of dry cane that has anywhere between 6-10 stories of different layers of moving, shooting or rotating fireworks. Craziness, in other words.

We were practically underneath one of the castles; looking up as the fireworks rained down on us. Not the safest way to celebrate your town's Saint, but very fun! As the town band was playing tunes all night, we danced in the street with our case of beer as fireworks showered the sky.

Lots and lots of Guinea Pigs

Yesterday afternoon was the official close of the Health Project with the last village bank group preparing yet another plate of guinea pig. With Tula we attended 2 clausuras yesterday; the 1st village bank started at 11am and the 2nd group started at 2pm. Both groups prepared fried guinea pig (Cuy). We went from one Cuy lunch to another. On top of that, I was given a whole fried guinea pig to take home 'to eat as a snack later.' This week I have hit my weekly record of eating guinea pig.

In addition to being incredibly physically full, I was also full with gratitude and happiness. Gratitude that as an institution we were able to provide this type of assistance. Provide an opportunity that our village bank women have never had to make improvements in their homes. Santos, one of our active participants in this project, asked me over and over, "Please don't leave us. Please continue helping us." Happiness in that the houses of our women have been transformed in the short 7 months of our Project. We have touched and transformed lives, I am a live witness to this.

Close (Clausura) of Health Project

So last week was our Health Evaluation week and this week is the Close of Project week. We have been going out to each village bank to hold a 'clausura' where participation prizes and diplomas are given to each woman. We have gone to 2 banks this week and still have 2 more groups today. There have been speeches, applause, and warm words of sincere gratitude. Oh, the speeches. Peruvians are famous for long winded speeches that have no end. Tula caught me off guard when she asked me to give a speech to close the project with our first village bank clausura. I managed on the fly and made it as little winded as possible.

The two groups we have gone to this week have prepared huge, enormous plates of rice, potatoes and guinea pig. Huge as in a mountain of rice. Countryside families outside of Cajamarca hold the tradition to serve lots of food when celebrating something. I tend to compare the enourmous food serving with their overflowing gratitude towards the Health Project. 'May God pay you for all you have done' are the words the echo out of Melchora, the president of our first village bank clausura.

Party practice!

Do you all remember Sebastian's birthday last year? Clowns and the works hiking up to the countryside house with huge, enormous bags of animating games and costumes? The same thing happened this year, but the difference was that this year I was prepared. Sebastian turned 8 on Sunday. I was preparing the night beforehand making carrot cake that didn't cooperate with me. I tripled the batch and it all crumble before my eyes. That meant a last minute run to the bakery store on Sunday. Sunday was a full lunch for the family cooked in oversized cooking pots over an open fire on the ground. In the afternoon the clowns, etc... came and did their show, including song, dance and a full range of costumes. It was equally a show for the parents as the clowns made the kids do ridiculous things. The kids were increasing their possibilities of cavities as they sucked on suckers, ate gelatin, popcorn and other birthday sweets. Cake time came at about 8pm, after the 3 hour clown show. You could tell the adults wanted to go home, but like good Peruvians, they waited til the end.

Sang Happy Birthday, put Sebastian's face in the cake and everyone was happy. The birthday party was a good excuse for the adults in the room to drink lots of alcohol. Which, meant crazy dance moves at the end of the night. It was a long birthday day...however the advantage of hosting the party at 'our' house is that we got all the leftovers. Cake for breakfast! The disadvantage - cleaning everything. At any rate, the party was good practice for our wedding celebration in January. There were only 30-40 guests (less than 1/2 the expected in January), but it helped me visualize the house bursting with celebration!

Health Evaluation Hike Time

It's Health Evaluation Hike Time. This week with Tula and the presidents of the 4 village banks we are making the rounds. Visiting every participant's house and evaluating their progress. In the beginning of our Health Project in May, Tula made a Health Promise sheet with each family where they discussed the improvements the family wanted to make in their houses and who was going to be in charge of making those changes. As we hiked house to house, not only were the Health Promise sheets full, but the changes were evident. Humble families with little income increased the size of their kitchen (or in some cases built a new kitchen!), organized their kitchen utensils and cooking supplies, separated children bedrooms from their parents and even built brand new latrines! Many of the improvements required some money, but more so TIME. The families met with Tula every other week to learn about a new health topic related to their house and their daily hygiene habits. Tula gave the families homework and each women then went home to find out how she was going to implement the house homework in her house.The health promise sheet is full!!!

Seperating Adult and children's beds with plastic curtain to create "bedrooms."

Yosebia uses an old fridge to store her plates, cups and cooking supplies. This latrine top was made out of an old beer sign.

Tula with Andrea in her new kitchen - hot lunch is just coming off the stove!
I was really surprised and touched to see such grand improvements in spaces that according to Melchora, "We never received this kinda of help before where we live. Nobody cared enough to show us these things." I know Tula worked long and hard with some of our families to get them motivated and out of the "I don't have money for this" mentality. Only a couple of weeks ago there were families without roofs on the kitchen and animals (pigs, chickens, etc..) running around freely. Now there are rooftops and animal corals. Some corals made out of un-used wood or cut up rice bags. The same with kitchen walls - Covered with cardboard and newspaper. Granted, there are a few cases where the families just couldn't fill up their Health Promise sheet - alcoholism in some families, another woman abandoned by her husband - but, these cases call for help above and beyond the scoop of our health project.

From what I witnessed from our Door to Door evaluation was one long success story. Families in poverty making huge changes in their homes and lifestyles. Washing hands. Drinking boiled water. Cooking in a smoke-less kitchen and preventing respiratory illnesses. Creating separate spaces for animals. Covering their latrine opening and placing toilet paper (or whatever paper they have) inside their latrine. It was as if I entered into completely different houses compared to only 6 months ago. With Tula's great energy and motivation, I give witness that change can happen in the humblest of place. You just need someone to care, someone to give of their time, and to show people that there is in fact another way to live. Through this project we recognized the dignity of each of the 30 families that participated and gave them the tools and ideas to make changes in their own lives. And, they did!

Lunch with Perlita

This past Saturday Hugo walked with me to the Village Bank La Perlita where 3 of the loan recipients are participating in literacy classes. Their classes started in April and will be finishing this month. The group told Nelly, their literacy teacher, that they were so grateful that someone cared enough about the 3 of them to send them a teacher that they wanted to make me and my boyfriend a lunch. Maria Cruz, one of the 3 loyal students in this group, had attended literacy classes in a different community but "the teacher didn't teach us like Nelly does. She gives us individual attention and explains things when we don't understand." La Perlita has been learning addition and subtraction skills through activities that allow the women to practice 'making change' with fake money. One of the group goals was actually to learn how to make monetary change because, according to the women, "when we go to the market we don't know if they are giving us the right amount of change when we buy things because before we couldn't add very well." This group is also working on their grammar and writing skills through children's story books.



The women made one of my favorite dishes - hot yellow pepper cheese sauce with potatoes and rice. During our meal we had lots of animal visitors come in and out of the patio to join us. One of those visitors - a 1 month old kitty - came home with us in a to be our mouse hunter. Thus, our new kitty cats' name is Hunter.

Timing

This week during one of our class we had the bad case of timing. I plan educational activities every month and give the village banks a class calendar so that the women can choose the classes that they want to attend. Jewelry, Bakery, Business assistance, Sewing with Ribbon. You name it. I plan my month a month ahead of time and often times can not predict the inconvenient planning clashes that are bound to happen. The women in our village banks are often called to school meetings for their children the very same day mandatory meetings are held. Imagine, a woman signs up for one of our classes and then her child comes home at 2pm and says, "there is a meeting at 3pm for all the parents." But our class starts at 3:30pm. This happened during our jewelry class in Baños de Inca this week. For good timing planning purposes, we held our class outside of Cajamarca in the small town where many of our loan recipients live - so they started their necklace with us when class started, dashed to their meeting, and then came back to class to finish. If we would have held this class in Cajamarca we would have had fewer participants, so we just have to work around the timing issues.

Laguna San Nicolas Weekend

Oops, I told you all about my pre and post weekend plans, but not what happened on Sat. and Sun. It wasn't a weekend like most - no planting, painting, house work. Just Hugo and I and a tent in the open rusty red mountain paths, an hour outside of Cajamarca, that led us to Laguna San Nicolas. It felt almost foreign to be backpacking again, it has been so long. We started our hike from the small town Namora and hiked 2 hours to reach the laguna in time for sunset. Once nighttime arrived the big full moon rose over one of the mountains and lite up the laguna as if it were a nightlight plugged into the sky with full battery. We had to yell to one of the dark adobe houses in the distance to ask permission to camp on the shore of the laguna. "Just don't start my dry straw reeds on fire" was our response.

So we set up camp. Ready for bed, but the boys playing soccer next to our tent tempted us to play a game. Under the full moon we played a short soccer game before settling into sleep. We awoke to donkeys and long straw reed canoes. Maybe a mini-Puno experience? Hugo watched longingly as a little boy jumped on his canoe to gather more reeds in the middle of the lake. (He really wanted his turn on the canoe).

Since we didn't have water we started our hike to the town of Jesus where we enjoyed a feast after our short-lived hiking adventure.