Touched

I met an amazing women today, well I meet amazing women everyday, but today I especially felt touched. She is the mother of 6, all children (including the oldest 25 yr. - studying to be a lawyer) still live with her in her 3 bedroom house. She is the secretary in her village bank, which has existed for the past 4 yrs! She complains of a machismo husband that won't let her do everything she wants. She stays up most nights until 2am knitting, so she can sell a sweater for 5 soles (almost $2). She makes up her own patterns of something that she thinks will look good. She is a health promoter and likes helping out her poor neighbors, and this is a women who lives in a dirt floor house. Her family just moved into this house because in her previous house one of the walls collapsed. She told me how she loves to help new, young moms. "If you don't have money for pants for your kid, then you take your old pants, cut them and make pants for your child, here...I'll show you." She has all kinds of animals in her patio (rabbits, ducks, chickens, etc..) and would love to have some land again. Her family use to live out of town, but they moved into town so that they wouldn't spend so much money on travel expenses for the kids going to and from school. She visits the mayor's office to ask for help for the poor, shoe-less kids in her neighbor. The last mayor gave christmas gifts to the kids in her neighbor, but this year the new mayor won't spend a dime. What can I offer this woman? She is empowered, beautiful, knowledgeable, savvy, kind, giving, surviving, and thankful. I am left to re-evaluate myself here once again.

Augh! Mail, Where?

I finally found the post office. I only had to ask a dozen people; and the common response was a deer-in-headlights look and then a slight, non-confident point in a random direction. When I stumbled into the post office after doing circles around multiple blocks from the random directions I got, the lady working there very confidently told me I had no mail. I asked her to please check. Viola! One piece of mail (Thanks cousin Laura!) So despite constant questions from friends and fam, you can send mail to me:
Nora Bedard
Serpost, Cajamarca
Cajamarca, Peru
South America

Some little helpful tidbits about mailing:
-all packages should be able to fit in a padded envelope
-on the green/white customs form you fill out and stick to the package: write “gift”, so to be declared as “non-commercial stuff”
- Writing "Dios te bendiga" or adding crosses on the outside of the envelope is encouraged.
-if it asks for the value, no matter what, put less $ (than $100).

Noche Buena

I did get to celebrate Christmas Eve, twice actually. I ate a turkey dinner with my landlords, which included paneton, hot cocoa, and peruvian wine. It was a joyous dinner with stories and laughs. I then had to rest up for my second Christmas eve dinner with Paola and her family. I met Paola at 11pm in the central plaza, where it felt like there was a street party going on. Food, gifts, music, barbies, you could find it all on the street. Some people were carrying their baby jesus that they had just gotten blessed at mass. We walked through the chaotic streets to get to her sister's house and waited until midnight to toast and eat. Her dad dressed up as Santa Clause for the two little kiddos in the house. We drank more wine, shared stories, kissed the baby jesus at midnight and put him in his place in the nativity scene, and finally put on some dance music so we could truely celebrate. Today I am feeling a little under the weather, too much dance music maybe? I am planning on staying in and reading ''Cosmo" and resting up so that I can celebrate again on New Years.
Blessing to all today and beyond- far in distance, close in heart!

Windows and Water

It doesn't feel like Christmas here, partly because of the 70 degree weather, and because I am not stuffin my face with x-mas cookies. Truely, I am a little bummed, but am making the most
of this beautiful part of the world. Yesterday, my new friend Kenny Richards, a peruvian who is in the mining business, took me to "las ventanillas." They are literally little windows that were used by the Incas as tombs. It is amazing that from far away a mountain can look like it has windows. Then this morning I didn't want to fight with my shower and the lack of hot water, so I went to Banos de Inca, these thermal baths just outside of town. These baths were the location of the beginning of the fall of the northern Inca empire at the hands of the Spainards. It was a toasty hot, egg smelly bath; it was absolutely perfect.

Chocolatadas

You ask, isn't Nora working yet? I have been visiting a number of village banks in order to meet the women I will be supporting this year. Many of the bank meetings turn into "Chocolatadas," a hot cocoa and massive bread eating party for Christmas. It is a great way to meet the women and just chat, explain myself, ask them about their businesses, families, hopes and dreams. However, with that being said I will be glad when the holiday season is over and I don't need to stuff myself with paneton (the holiday bread of choice here). The women are animated and have great ideas of things they would like to be doing, so I have included some pictures of them here (and a picture of the office staff I am working with). In the meantime, I am reading an inspirational book on microcredit, "Ripples from the Zambezi." There is a great quote from it that I am cradling... "Everywhere people ask,'What can I actually do?' The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting; we can each of us, put our inner house in order. The guidance we need for this work cannot be found in science or technology, the value of which utterly depends on the ends they serve; but it can still be found in the traditional wisdom of mankind."

Food, Poverty and Peace

I ate my first meal in the market. 2.5 soles, a little less than $1 and I got a plate of yummy food. The cook offered me "sopa de cabeza," roughly translated as soup of parts of the head of a cow. I declined, but took more lentils. I hear that sopa de cabeza is a favorite here, especially for breakfast because it gives you energy for the day.

I had a completely different eating experience the next day, and it has caused a bit of an internal dilemma. After a morning of soccer I wanted to chow down on some chicken. So, logically, I went to "Super Chicken." I got a plate of fried chicken, fries, salad and the typical sweet chicha drink. I am sitting by the door, enjoying my feast, as I witness a string of people with hard, rough faces make their way into the restaurant with begging hands. The waiter gives them the scrap leftovers, bones, a few pieces of carrot, and then hurrys them on their way. Although the food was delicious, the experience left me with an empty feeling. I know my mission here is to serve and listen to those in poverty, but somehow my super chicken experience made me feel like that isn't enough. I am struggling now with how to find peace with doing what I can, knowing and feeling the pain and suffering that is in my surroundings, and still be Nora. We live in a world where peace and pain exist simultaneously. I need to re-figure out how to live with these two extremes, but I guess that is also the human condition, no?

Make-out capital

I swear that Cajamarca is the make-out capital of the world. Well, maybe Peru in general (see Lima pic of Lovers Park). People here are so affectionate, day, night, young, old, everywhere you see couples going at it. In fact from my beautiful mountain view apartment window I also get front row seats to "Mother´s park," the park that rarely has a park bench open. In order to be culturally competent, I should participate, no?
On an unrelated note, I have also witnessed donkeys grazing from the little grass they can find outside of my house and I found an empty gas container!