A lot has happened in the past couple of days. Work ended last week with little incident; the waterline trench was well on its way to completion, and some tiling had begun. We then moved into one of the best weekends of the trip thus far.
Saturday started at 7:00 am when we were picked up by Nancy and Senor Elies (save three group members who were sick), and began one of the most amazing, most uncomfortable bus rides I have ever experienced. We travelled across the Mantaro River Valley, and then ascended an extremely steep, extremely bumpy gravel mountain road. It crisscrossed across the mountain feet as we slowly climbed over a thousand feet. The road was barely wide enough for our small bus, and 95% of the ride involved one side of the road ending in a drop off to valley floor below. Many times there was barely eight inches between the van and certain death (to be dramatic). As harrowing as it was at times, it was also very exciting, and I never once felt in danger. Half way up the road the bus pulled over, and we all filed out to enjoy the phenomenal view (we could see the entire Mantaro River Valley). We stayed for about 30 minutes, took many photos, enjoyed the breathtaking view, and listened to the silence. After that, it was back to more bus riding, which eventually leveled out.
The rest of the day was incredible. We travelled through the mountains and visited about a half dozen small towns. We had the privilege of seeing where Senor Elies grew up, and each small town presented something new and interesting to us. The little towns were amazing, hidden amongst the hills and mountains; it felt very secluded and peaceful. We visited a colonial town where a Spanish church from the 1600’s still stood, and we stopped at another town for one of the best meals we have had yet. The last major stop of the day was at a local dairy farm where we were able to purchase delicious yogurt, and were given a small tutorial on how cheese was made, and the social program the dairy farm had underway. After the dairy farm, it was time to begin the long journey back to Huancayo. By that time in the day everyone was exhausted, so the drive back down the mountain was not as fun as the drive up. We trudged through the doors of our house around 5:30 pm, tired, sore, but altogether still excited about the wonderful day we all had.
Sunday started even earlier than Saturday for a few of us: 5:30. We took taxis to the bus terminal, met Eric there, and hired cars to take us out to La Merced and the jungle. There were only six of us; the rest of the group wanted to sleep in and spend the day at the Sunday market on Huancavelica Avenue. After another crazy drive through the Peruvian countryside, we arrived at the town of La Merced. Once there, we hired a tour guide to take us to the jungle. This was one of my most favourite days of the trip so far. The tour began with swimming in the river underneath a beautiful waterfall. The water was very warm, and we never wanted to leave; it was too much fun. However, our guide had other ideas. After a brief walk and tour of the jungle there, we filed back into our van and headed out to go and catch a ride on a riverboat.
The riverboat was interesting. We got in, put on ridiculous orange life jackets, laughed a ton about that, and then the boat was off. We travelled across the river, then up a little ways, then back down a little ways, and then we docked. It took all of ten minutes. Amusing as that is, it was still a fun ride, and we took lots of pictures. After docked we were herded back to our van and told we were going to visit an “authentic” native village. Instead of authenticity we got a tourist attraction. Upon our arrival, we were garbed in “traditional” clothing, our faces were painted, and we were sat down for a little speech delivered by an elder with a bow and arrow, a parrot, a drum and a rattle. We all thought it was quite hilarious and enjoyed the little speech (which none of us understood). Due to time constraints, we had to leave before the elder’s performance was over. However, that wasn’t until we got to take some pictures of us holding the parrot. Our way back to Huancayo was another long journey, and we didn’t walk through the doors until 9:30 pm. However, we were all still smiles as told the others about our day. Those who remained home had a wonderful day that began with pancakes, involved lots of market purchases, and lots of relaxation. It was a pretty great Sunday for the entire group, regardless of what each person did.
Monday marked the beginning of the end of our work at the project site. The trench was complete, and rubble clean up began. Tuesday was our last official working day. I spent the majority of the day tiling wit h Kelsey, and the others continued the clean up and making sure everything was in order. Wednesday was our last day on the project site. However, it wasn’t spent working. Instead we helped prepare the pacha manka that were going to enjoy with the Arguedianos members. We visited, had refreshments, and engaged in the whole process of the wonderful traditional meal. While everything was cooking, we walked over to a concrete soccer field where the DWC men played the Arguedianos men in an epic soccer match. The girls sat on the sidelines and cheered on our guys. At the end of the 45 minute game, DWC was victorious with a 3-1 win over Arguedianos. It was a great, good-natured came, and everyone was ready to enjoy the pacha manka by the time it was over. The meal was absolutely delicious (especially the umitas for dessert), and we were all groaning with full stomachs by the time it was over.
At 3:00 pm our ride showed up, and we had to go through the difficult process of saying goodbye to the jobsite, our ever present site dog Snickers, and all the wonderful people we have met and come to love here in Huancayo. It was a bittersweet affair. While we are all excited about our cultural tour, and eventually making it back to Canada, we weren’t all ready to leave the project behind. We have all had such a wonderful experience, and it is astonishing how the time has flown by. With our last farewells to everyone, we piled into our work bus one last time, and went home.
Here we come Machu Picchu.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Students in Peru: Another Perspective
After travelling from Vancouver to Lima the previous day, I woke up on Sunday morning to make the final leg of the trip to Huancayo. It was going to be an 8 hour bus ride, and having never been somewhere like Peru, I had no idea what to expect. All I had to go on was a friend of mine who had told me horror stories about his travels though Central America, where he would have to ride rickety buses that were absolutely packed with people—and chickens.
I was quite shocked, then, when I boarded a beautiful double decker bus that put Greyhounds to shame. Not only that, but the ride to Huancayo was absolutely gorgeous; having only seen a small, dirty part of the heavily urbanized Lima, I was all the more blown away by Peru’s picturesque landscapes and the many quaint villages that we would pass by. After 8 hours of seeing the country, sleeping, and battling altitude sickness, I was finally finished traveling and could begin my time in Huancayo.
The house that me and the 11 other people (or gringos, as I would soon learn we would be called) along on the trip was also a pleasant surprise. It had all the necessities, like good beds, a kitchen, a shower, and even a TV! Now, don’t get me wrong—it still took some time to adjust. The stove didn’t work quite perfectly (I’m not saying I’ve been expecting the house to explode from a gas leak, but you never know), the shower electrocutes you a little when you touch the shower head, and, of course, all the channels on the TV are in Spanish. Oh, and apparently in Peru you can’t flush your toilet paper down the toilet, you have to throw it in the garbage. As awful as that sounded to me, it really hasn’t been that bad. You just have to make sure not to accidentally drop anything in the garbage, because fishing it out is not an option.
The next morning, Monday, we went to work and I got to see the actual project that we came to work on. It’s a school that’s being built for children who are forced to drop out of school because they need to start working to help support their families. This school has a flexible schedule, and teaches kids skills that will directly help them in getting a good job. The work itself has been pretty standard stuff, but it’s pretty cool to think about how much this facility is going to help children who would otherwise be trapped in poverty with no way to improve their situation.
While the work we do is mostly things like painting and digging holes, are weekdays are anything but boring; incidents such as the “dog-napping incident” keep things very interesting. Basically what happened there was the guy who drives us to and from work in a little bus/huge van, was accused of stealing someone’s dog one day when he came to pick us up. I believe the exact words of the person who witnessed and reported the incident translated to something like “the van of gringos stole that dog!”
The day of the incident our driver was late, as usual, and in what I imagine was an attempt to make up for his tardiness, he offered Michiah, DWC Team Leader, a bag of oranges. That was nice, but after that he also reached down and pulled up a small white dog and extended that out to Michiah as well. Michiah motioned that he didn’t want it—the oranges were enough. Now, the driver may very well have just been showing us the dog rather than offering it to us as a package deal with the oranges, but due to the language barrier, we may never know for sure. He had to bring the dog back a few days later so that the woman who had had a dog stolen could inspect, and it was apparently not the same dog, ridding our driver of all dog-snatching allegations. Now, if he had stolen the dog, I would assume he would bring a different dog for the lady to inspect, so I still have my suspicions… but I was not in charge of the investigation, so I guess the case is closed.
We don’t do a lot of sitting around here, and we’ve been getting to experience the culture of Peru quite a bit on top of working on the school. The Sunday after I arrived, we went to a traditional Peruvian party (or festival maybe, I’m not sure what to call it… you’ll see why in a minute). It began with us travelling a little way out of the city to a tiny little farming community in the middle of nowhere. Arriving at 11 am, we were handed beers, and a fairly large band—maybe 25 people—started to play. It was a mobile band, with trumpets, saxophones, and drums, and they then led us to a second location, where we were served “breakfast.” The meal was some sort of soup, with what I was told was corn (but it was nothing like the corn I’m used to) and meat. I have to say, I thought it was awful. The “corn” was very strange, and the meat was suspect at best. Having said that, I was very happy to be able to try it; it did not taste good, but I guarantee you will never have the chance to try that dish in Canada.
Next came the really cool part of the day. We were led, again by the band, to another location where some of the locals cut down two large trees. We proceeded to carry the trees on our shoulders to yet another location—that seemed very far, but probably only because we were carrying giant trees—and managed to stick them in holes in the ground, standing them up again. Before we stood them up, the tops of the trees were decorated with balloons and blankets, and then we danced around them for quite a while. I will tell you this: you haven’t lived until you’ve danced with a 70 year old drunk Peruvian woman around decorated trees.
Finally we were led to a final location to have dinner. Unlike breakfast, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. It was beans, meat, potatoes, and tamales prepared in underground fire pits. I couldn’t tell exactly how it worked, but it was a big pit in the ground filled with hot coals that cooked the food over a long period of time. It was a long day packed with things I had never done before, and it was easily the coolest experience I’ve had in a long time.
Volunteer Participant
DWC - UBC 2009
I was quite shocked, then, when I boarded a beautiful double decker bus that put Greyhounds to shame. Not only that, but the ride to Huancayo was absolutely gorgeous; having only seen a small, dirty part of the heavily urbanized Lima, I was all the more blown away by Peru’s picturesque landscapes and the many quaint villages that we would pass by. After 8 hours of seeing the country, sleeping, and battling altitude sickness, I was finally finished traveling and could begin my time in Huancayo.
The house that me and the 11 other people (or gringos, as I would soon learn we would be called) along on the trip was also a pleasant surprise. It had all the necessities, like good beds, a kitchen, a shower, and even a TV! Now, don’t get me wrong—it still took some time to adjust. The stove didn’t work quite perfectly (I’m not saying I’ve been expecting the house to explode from a gas leak, but you never know), the shower electrocutes you a little when you touch the shower head, and, of course, all the channels on the TV are in Spanish. Oh, and apparently in Peru you can’t flush your toilet paper down the toilet, you have to throw it in the garbage. As awful as that sounded to me, it really hasn’t been that bad. You just have to make sure not to accidentally drop anything in the garbage, because fishing it out is not an option.
The next morning, Monday, we went to work and I got to see the actual project that we came to work on. It’s a school that’s being built for children who are forced to drop out of school because they need to start working to help support their families. This school has a flexible schedule, and teaches kids skills that will directly help them in getting a good job. The work itself has been pretty standard stuff, but it’s pretty cool to think about how much this facility is going to help children who would otherwise be trapped in poverty with no way to improve their situation.
While the work we do is mostly things like painting and digging holes, are weekdays are anything but boring; incidents such as the “dog-napping incident” keep things very interesting. Basically what happened there was the guy who drives us to and from work in a little bus/huge van, was accused of stealing someone’s dog one day when he came to pick us up. I believe the exact words of the person who witnessed and reported the incident translated to something like “the van of gringos stole that dog!”
The day of the incident our driver was late, as usual, and in what I imagine was an attempt to make up for his tardiness, he offered Michiah, DWC Team Leader, a bag of oranges. That was nice, but after that he also reached down and pulled up a small white dog and extended that out to Michiah as well. Michiah motioned that he didn’t want it—the oranges were enough. Now, the driver may very well have just been showing us the dog rather than offering it to us as a package deal with the oranges, but due to the language barrier, we may never know for sure. He had to bring the dog back a few days later so that the woman who had had a dog stolen could inspect, and it was apparently not the same dog, ridding our driver of all dog-snatching allegations. Now, if he had stolen the dog, I would assume he would bring a different dog for the lady to inspect, so I still have my suspicions… but I was not in charge of the investigation, so I guess the case is closed.
We don’t do a lot of sitting around here, and we’ve been getting to experience the culture of Peru quite a bit on top of working on the school. The Sunday after I arrived, we went to a traditional Peruvian party (or festival maybe, I’m not sure what to call it… you’ll see why in a minute). It began with us travelling a little way out of the city to a tiny little farming community in the middle of nowhere. Arriving at 11 am, we were handed beers, and a fairly large band—maybe 25 people—started to play. It was a mobile band, with trumpets, saxophones, and drums, and they then led us to a second location, where we were served “breakfast.” The meal was some sort of soup, with what I was told was corn (but it was nothing like the corn I’m used to) and meat. I have to say, I thought it was awful. The “corn” was very strange, and the meat was suspect at best. Having said that, I was very happy to be able to try it; it did not taste good, but I guarantee you will never have the chance to try that dish in Canada.
Next came the really cool part of the day. We were led, again by the band, to another location where some of the locals cut down two large trees. We proceeded to carry the trees on our shoulders to yet another location—that seemed very far, but probably only because we were carrying giant trees—and managed to stick them in holes in the ground, standing them up again. Before we stood them up, the tops of the trees were decorated with balloons and blankets, and then we danced around them for quite a while. I will tell you this: you haven’t lived until you’ve danced with a 70 year old drunk Peruvian woman around decorated trees.
Finally we were led to a final location to have dinner. Unlike breakfast, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. It was beans, meat, potatoes, and tamales prepared in underground fire pits. I couldn’t tell exactly how it worked, but it was a big pit in the ground filled with hot coals that cooked the food over a long period of time. It was a long day packed with things I had never done before, and it was easily the coolest experience I’ve had in a long time.
Volunteer Participant
DWC - UBC 2009
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