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!