Andean Livin

This past weekend I went on a 3 day trip to my first truly Andean rural village. I left Cusco taking a bus 2 hours to the city of Ollantaytambo (the last city I would see on the trip). There I met a friend who took me another hour and a half by car (about an hour past the middle of nowhere). Here, we left our car and began the 2 hour trek to the village of Challocoacha. The village has about 25 families living within its borders, is at an altitude of nearly 15,000 feet, has no internet, no electricity, and has had running water for only the past year thanks to the help of a volunteer organization. It's a place where sheep, llamas, and alpacas roam freely is in a long flat valley reminding me of old Oregon Trail movies, and has snow capped peaks visible in the distance.

The Children of Challocoacha

The village

Llamas and Alpaca on the mountianside

Oregon Trail??

All of this beauty made up for the frigidly cold water, my alpaca hide bed, and the food.

My bed

At first I enjoyed the local cuisine, if you can call it that, potatoes. The problem was that's just about all I ate for 3 days straight. Perú is home to about 4000 potato varieties of which I feel I am familiar with about 2500 after this past weekend. Being at 15,000 feet, just about the only thing that grows in the area is the potato and sadly is one of the few things the malnourished villagers eat. I really felt like I was in a Forest Gump movie eating not shrimp, but fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, potato salad...the list goes on.

I went to this village with a friend of mine who has a volunteer organization here in Peru. The main purpose of the visit was to improve the quality and publicize the weaved textiles of the village in hopes the villagers will be able to sell more of their products as this village will soon become a part of the Inca trail hike to Machu Picchu. We brought along with us a weaving teacher while I was working taking pictures and on the publicity end of the project.

Weaving a hand bag

Striking a pose

In addition to this, I also had the opportunity to teach English to the children of the village, something I didn't know I was going to do until about 20 minutes before I was alone in a classroom with about 15 Quechua and Spanish speaking 6-12 year olds. That being said, I think my first lesson went pretty well and I was well received by the kids. If any of you reading this ever get the chance to visit I think you should receive a warm "Wecom to Challcoacha" from the kids in the village.

Teaching

The trip was a very interesting chance to see firsthand how people lived thousands of years ago. I must say, however, that I do enjoy some of the comforts we enjoy today in the states such as light, and heat. There are more enjoyable things than sleeping on an alpaca hide in 2 pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, jacket, with fury alpaca socks in a sleeping bag!

Until next time, keep livin' the dream!

Rob takes up acting and helps a friend in the process

So this past week one of my host sister's close friends, Jennifer, was over the house for lunch and was feeling bad. She found out 3 weeks ago that her boyfriend of a year and a half was cheating on her. When she found out, she immediately broke up with him. He told her she would never find someone like him again and that she wouldn't be able to find anyone to date for a while. On Friday, she went to pick up her last remaining things that he, Earrly, had at his house. This included about 30 pictures of the two of them. To her surprise when going through the pictures at our house she found one of Earrly and his "new girlfriend" with a love note on the back dated almost 6 months earlier. Needless to say she was a little bit upset.

After thinking for a while, she asked us what we thought she should do...return the picture in person, mail it, do nothing. I joked with her that I could go with her posing as her new boyfriend to return the picture. Apparently I still need to work on my sarcasm in Spanish because she took me seriously asking if I would really do that for her. After thinking for a little bit about actually going through with the idea, I decided to have some fun with it. You know...when in Perú (I'm not sure if that really applies here, but that's what I said to myself). Jennifer was thrilled by the idea. An hour later I was out of the shower, in my best polo, practicing my lines for the show. With the scene that we had set up, I felt like I was getting ready for a movie shoot!

I went with Jennifer to the university where Earrly was just getting out of class. We waited for him for about 10 minutes before she spotted him walking toward us. She pointed him out to me and I stepped ahead of her to "return" the picture.

Rob: ¿Earrly?
Earrly: ¿Si?
Rob: I think I have something of yours. ¡Este no es de mi enamorada!
Translation: This isn't my girlfriend’s!

Early looked down at the picture a little confused. He then looked at me with Jennifer in the background. His face showed he was obviously upset. I turned, put my arm around Jennifer, gave her a kiss on the forehead and we walked away with him standing there holding the picture and still a little bit confused. When we got around the corner, Jennifer was ecstatic. She finally got the closure she wanted. The irony was that Jennifer worked had in the Netherlands for a short time about a year ago her then boyfriend kept worrying and asking her if the real reason she was working there was to find a foreigner to date. I think his worst fears were realized!

Until next time, keep livin' the dream!

Some things I've noticed

While I've been in Perú I've been trying to see how things are different from the States. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, below are some things I've found interesting.

In reality I know nothing about growing up in the 50's. All I think I know I've learned from movies. If I had grown up in the 50's, however, I would imagine it would be somewhat similar to living in Perú. While I live in a city of about 300,000 people it seems like it is well divided into distinct neighborhoods and within these neighborhoods everyone knows everyone. For example it seems that all of the friends of my host siblings live within about a 3 block radius of our house. I often see my brother just hanging out in the streets talking with friends, or trying to organize a pick up game of soccer on the next block. When it's time to get in contact with friends, it seems more common to walk to the friends house, knock on the door, whistle from outside, or yes, even throw rocks up to a window rather than make a phone call.

In addition to this, I've enjoyed getting to know the local markets. Rather than going to Meijer (Vons, Ralphs, or Kroger for those of you not from Michigan) once a week to stock up on food I see my host mother almost every day going to the corner market (literally on the corner of our block) to pick up some fresh vegetables or sending my 10 year old host cousin with a few cents in change to pick up some freshly baked bread each morning for breakfast. While the main meal of the day here is lunch rather than dinner, it is always eaten together with the whole family and not whenever everyone has a second to spare, but promptly at 1:30 every day!

After 2 months I'm now feel like I'm learning Spanish a bit better and am finally starting to fit in around here. I am excited to tell that I am officially a regular and known by name at the following places:

• The local internet cafe
• Gladys's juice stand (best place ever...and only $1 for 3 glasses of freshly squeezed or blended juice)
• Lucia's hamburger stand
• Inka Team (An amazing discoteca playing the latest American hits and rigatone)

In addition to this, I've found it very interesting how in touch people are with their Incan heritage. As I truly cannot go one day without hearing something about the Incas, it really feels like they are still alive and well. I often hear about new ruins being discovered, the crusades of in Inca great Pachacutec, or old Incan traditions like cooking the meal watia in an adobe stove. Last week when going to a ceremony where people poured drinks into the ground, buried food, or put leaves from the coca plant in the ground as an offering to the earth I had a 20 minute conversation with my taxi driver about how doing this truly increases crop yield and improves the health and luck of all in the community... truly amazing for me.

I've also been surprised and saddened to see how in some cases people are very well educated, but at the same time very poor, something I really haven't seen in the states. Often times here it is the case that there is not enough work to go around. I have seen lawyers as taxi drivers and in the case of my host siblings for example a dentist and an architect go without finding work for years. With the difficulty to find work, sadly, I realize I have benefited from the low costs of goods and services. For example:

• 3 large glasses of freshly blended juice $1
• A 15 minute taxi ride into the city $1.20
• 4 hour bus ride $4
• Hair cut $3

I have at times been entertained by seeing the joy something very commonplace in the states can bring to people here. For example one time my host sister was reading a book while in a conversation with the rest of the family. I told her that she was a good multitasker and then joked that I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time. With this common US phrase the family laughed for what felt like a good 2 minutes! (I let them think I made that one up on my own :) Other times I have been frustrated by the common culture of those that live in the rural villages pushing and shoving their way through lines and crowded areas. All in all it's been a good experience thus far and I have enjoyed much of what I've seen.

Until next time, keep livin' the dream!