Peru in the news again...

In the headlines on BBC an article about the illegal loggers and indigenous communities in the jungle part of Peru. This will have to suffice as my post-bday party post. This news story is sad because unfortunately the government just doesn't care to bother with illegal loggers and miners, who are damaging the environment not to mention the irreversible damage to indigenous cultures. For the government, those are issues worth worrying about. Unfortunately the communities at stake have little representation or power to make changes happen. After I graduated from college I interned at a cool non-profit, Cultural Survival, in Cambridge that does a lot for indigenous people around the world. They have a weekly online news source reporting on current news about indigenous people that you might be interested in checking out. I'm not sure who the "you" is that I'm referring to, but whoever you may be, person interested in furthering their knowledge on this subject, enjoy it.

Water is the blood of the Pachamama

So as most of you know, water is kind of my thing. I first became interested in it taking medical anthropology before going to Bolivia. We read a book by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a controversial medical anthropologist, about health in a shantytown in Brazil. I thought it was really revolutionary when she reported on how NGOs and health organizations encourage people to take Oral Rehydration Therapy (a powder you add to water to rehydrate yourself after lots of diarrhea) when people were just adding it to the contaminated water. Or they didn't have water to add it to. So these organizations thought they were really helping the people, but they weren't at all. Then of course Michael, my anthropology teacher, encouraged me to check out the current water situation in Cochabamba two years after the Water War there in 2000. I have now seen lots of articles by people reporting on the state of the water in Cochabamba after the Water War. In Cochabamba, I got interested in water and health, and water and community organizing. Anyway, here I am, 4 years later still interested in water. I kind of feel like I still know very little, but I am learning a lot. Last week's World Water Day events were incredible. It has been a while since I felt so alive here. I just live in such a bubble here sometimes, so it was really awesome to be exposed to all these indigenous organizations and women organizations fighting for water. At the march I met a couple women who run Acorn International in Peru, who handed me funeral flowers to carry at the front of the march. The flowers marked the death of the rivers due to extreme contamination. Here's a link to an article I wrote reporting on the events on a Peruvian news site for English speakers. Here's a picture from the end of the march:

"El agua no se vende!"

Feliz Día Mundial del Agua

Today is World Water Day!!

The UN organized this day with this year's theme: Coping With Water Scarcity. A reality that unfortunately Peruvians are too familiar with.

I can't write much because I participated in the march this morning, and my arms are tired. I was with the women dressed in black, carrying flowers for a funeral to represent the death of the rivers in Lima because they are so contaminated. The arrangement was pretty heavy, literally. Anyway, it was a really awesome march. Ended in a quechua ceremony to bless the water. Also experienced tear gas (or some kind of gas) for the first time. The BBC has a cool article about water in Peru. I'll put some pictures and local news up soon.

Va-cay

So the other night as I was trying to fall asleep, I wrote a whole blog entry in my head that sounded great at the time, similar to a Carrie Bradshaw voice over commentary. In any event, now I completely forgot what was in this half-asleep blog entry, so I'll just move on.

I had a wonderful visit from my family a couple weeks ago, (which I'm not just saying because I know my mom is my most faithful reader.) First they all showed up in Lima, the over-grown city that has somehow grown on me. (must be the sneaky sun and warm weather) At one point they were meeting me at work to take me out to lunch, but they had been a while. I decided to peak my head out the front door of the office onto San Borja Norte, and sure enough saw three very white confused tall Americans. My family! Forgot to tell them that the street numbers don't go in order on my street.

We took an amazing trip to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, which has totally revived my love for Peru. Or maybe didn't revive, but made me love Peru. Before going there if you had said you wanted to visit me, I probably gave you a response something like, "OK, that'd be cool. You know I do work a lot." (Although obviously I would love to see all of you down here.) Which is true, I work a lot and can't easily take time off. But man, after going to Cusco, come on down! I don't care what my crew of bosses say, I'm taking time off. I want to share the beauties of Peru with you! Anyway, people really do talk shit about Lima, and it offends me. I realize that it's huge, overcast, not pretty, dangerous, blah blah, but it's my home. Recently a couple of Zehra's friends came down and were in Lima for a day. They loved it and it made me so happy. Guidebooks really make it sound awful.

When we got to Cusco, anyone who heard I worked/lived in Lima would kind of look at me sympathetically and say, "Oh, how do you like that?" At the beginning of our time in the Sacred Valley (the area that surrounds Cusco which includes Machu Picchu and many other important Inca ruins/cities,) I was all about sticking up for Lima. Saying that oh yeah, it's big, but I like it. Dude, by the end of the week, I had completely switched teams. Was totally rooting for Cusco, and not Lima. We went to this town that has water problems, and my mind immediately started churning about how I could convince my boss that I should be transferred to the town of Maras to do a water project there.

We stayed in this wonderful Inca town called Ollantaytambo right on the Urubamba river. Directly above the town are Inca ruins similar looking to Machu Picchu. One day, Dad and I took horses out through the valley to these ruins called Pumamarca. Not sure if I loved that day just because we had a cute guide, or because it was just incredibly beautiful. Passing people walking down to market day, wearing their traditional dress (and not for the tourists!) on our way up to The next day, Eric and I went on a mountain biking trip with my crush guide's best friend. We had incredible views, but it was kind of a scary ride for a beginner. I took a faceplant at one point, but made it to the bottom! We passed these crazy Inca terraces that filled this crater-like hole in the earth. We passed a town where they had to build 5 churches, placed on each huaca (temple) since the town was so hard to convert. We passed salt mines that were developed from the Incas and are still used today.

Alright, I'll stop rambling. As you can imagine, it was really hard to come back to Lima and work. But don't worry, I am already planning my trip back to the Sacred Valley. I'll post some photos soon.

Hope everyone is well!

stuffed animal cleaning day

Our apartment has a patio/courtyard area where all the apartments in the building have drying racks and open areas. It's really intimate--like we can easily look right into other people's kitchens and lives. Last night I was standing out there, and everyone's racks were filled with clothes drying. A few floors up the drying rack was filled with stuffed animals. Get out your Bumpy, Puffy, Bruce, Bedtime Bear, and all other stuffed animals. It's stuffed animal cleaning day!

inauguración del agua potable

So it turns out in the town where I went to the cool inauguration of the water tank and water in each house, it was actually a project originally not planned. Or rather, the NGO they were working with was hired by the dirigente/dude I talk to about water to build a school in the town. Before having their own school, the kids had to walk really far, crossing fields, a river (which in the summer time is too high to cross and has no bridge) and highway to get to the closest school. So the NGO built the school, but had some left over bricks. Emilio, the dirigente, suggested building the tank. Before the tank, the houses had piping for water that another NGO years ago had donated, but didn't have a tank to hold the water that they pump up from some spring somewhere. So good thing Emilio is on top of the town's needs. I'm kind of worried that someday we're going to be "that NGO that tested all of our kids' diarrhea to prove we needed to clean up how we store water, gave us some new container and disinfecting tablets, and then left." I doubt that will happen. I would love to test all the kids' poop though and see where the whole contamination is coming from before we incorrectly diagnose the problem. Somehow I just have to make friends with the laboratory and some chemical engineer who can tell me about where we get the chemicals we need to treat the water...Anyway, this is all an introduction to these photos from the inauguration:




Included in these photos, there is a tree that they dug up and then replanted. Later in the evening they'll decorate it, and then try to knock it down. Then it's given to whoever knocks it down. I think. I maybe missed something. Also, you'll notice the cross, and the Mary and Jesus sitting on the foozball table. In between the cross and the foozball table is a dressed up spigot which after the nun blessed it, the president of the NGO blessed. Then other people, too. It was a really cool ceremony, and the nun complimented how impressed she is by the obvious strength and sense of community in the town. Afterwards the whole town was invited to eat. I'm really happily to finally have a town that I feel that people know me where I feel welcome. Also a town where I feel that Socios can help out.

Peru in the news!

In the mornings before work, our routine is to eat breakfast while watching the BBC news. Today Peru was in the news. I yelled to Holly to come in and check it out, as they showed pictures of Lima. Then we both laughed at the news story. Peru's current president, Alan Garcia, is trying to shape this country up including it's lax attitude about punctuality. The famous hora peruana will supposedly be something of the past after today at noon. Supposedly at noon everyone in Peru is going to reset their proverbial clocks and start showing up on time. Unfortunately I doubt it will really make a difference because it feels ingrained into people's bones. When I was in Bolivia, we also experienced and joked about the hora boliviana. Although the BBC news story does say that Bush is very punctual and requires the same of people that work with him, so hopefully it's not a sign of also being a extremely un-sympathetic president. It is true here that meetings start hours late sometimes. Although Carlos just told me that when the teenagers he work with are meeting to go do something fun, they always show up on time. I hate waiting for people--feelings of being forgotten, not a priority, and impatience all come while waiting. But I also am not really good at being on time mostly because I have a very distorted sense of how many things I can get done in a certain period of time. For example last week I was meeting a friend of a friend who was in town for a week with a group of architect students. I was on the phone with him and said, I'll be there in 15 minutes. But in reality I still had to look up where the restaurant was that I was taking them to, stop at the ATM and get cash, and on top of that it takes about 20 minutes to get to where he was. Oh well. Looks like the hora peruana is one thing that I have adjusted to quickly.