Peruvian Planning

The energy that goes into Peruvian planning far surpasses planning I have ever had to do in the U.S. These past couple of weeks I have been working diligently to plan a trip for our women to the famous (tourist) co-operative Granja Porcon. Porcon is known for many community elements: reforestation, yummy milk products, textiles and above all of this the ability to run a community co-operatively. A number of the village bank women in town have commented about the desire to form a business together and rent a space to jointly sell their goods. So I thought what better place than the Granja Porcon to take our women on a field trip? Exchange experiences with the Porcon women and get a sense of the steps they need to take to jointly work together.


I worked on a number of official letters (oficios) - the only slow way to get things done around here - this month. One of the oficios I personally took up to the Granja (1 hr. north of Cajamarca) to hand deliver to the General Manager to ask for a group discount for entrance fees. After a month of back and forth Oficios we got our reply - YES, we were welcome, come, visit!


So I called yesterday to confirm that our educational encounter with the women was being set up and we could exchanges experiences and have time to ask questions with these savvy co-op women. The reply I got, contrary to previous replies throughout the month, we can not attend to you the day you want to come up. Pedro, the 2nd guy in charge, is out of town and so are all of his back-ups.


I kept my cool and tried not to yell to much at Pedro. Could he not have told me this in the beginning of the month? Before I signed up more than 30 women for this trip? Alast, my heart sank as I couldn't fight with the forces that be in peruvian planning. I had made a good faith effort, but this time my effort wasn't going to lead to a field trip to Porcon.


On a positive note, my dear friend and DHF rescue worker Vicki, came to our rescue. Vicki works in the office of tourism and she offered to let our women take advantage of World Tourism Day next weekend (when we were planning our Porcon trip) and take a free city tour of the tourist sites around the Plaza de Armas. It's not Porcon, but it will have to due for those that have their heart set on site seeing.