One month in and five random thoughts…

Chacra

Chacra is the word that’s used here for small plots of farm land. It’s what people do for a living- work in their chacras and it’s incredibly hard work. People eat what they grow mostly and they go to the chacras every day. The local town halls own tractors that people can rent but most of the work is done the old-fashioned way with manual labor and extremely rough tools (if you can call a tree branch a tool). I have honestly been dreading working in the chacra because it means long days with no food between breakfast and dinner, and it’s hot, hard and dirty. To some degree it’s not why I’m here but it’s such a big part of the culture, that’s there is really no way of avoiding it if you want to be part of the community. I hiked up to one of our chacras twice with my host sister and watched her milk our cow but I finally bit the bullet and went to the chacra to really work with another volunteer and her family. We irrigated a field. There was water in one corner of a field and we had to manually irrigate the field by taking tree branches and carving out paths for the water to flow to wet the ground (and then later the family will plant). The field was slightly smaller than a soccer field. The first hour in I thought it was surprisingly fun work. By hour two I was getting tired and hot. By hour 5 I was beat but we finished it and it looked like the most beautiful field of mud I’d ever seen. I even came home and told my own family I’d go with them the next weekend to work so guess it wasn’t that bad.

Fortaleza de Chimpa Hike

The hike of all hikes! And it’s right here by me! Okay, so if I haven’t said it enough, I live in an amazing canyon. It’s beautiful and we are frequently doing some awesome hikes. One particular day, I hiked over to another volunteer’s site to visit (not amazing, just long). The next day we worked in the chakra (story above) and the following day we hiked up to a place called the “Fortaleza de Chimpa”. It’s about a 2.5 hour hike up a pretty steep path and has great views of the canyon. On the way, the path goes by some pre-Incan graves. The graves are uncovered so you can see the skeletons and a fair amount of the fabric was still preserved. It’s hard to believe that it’s just hanging out, unprotected and fair game to check out. You basically had to step on bone fragments to walk by. Crazy. Well, after that we continued up, huffing and puffing and ended at about 12,000 feet high in some really cool, reconstructed pre-Incan ruins. We also saw some rock carvings (one was a chair carved out of stone and big enough to sit in and others were models of all the farming terraces), cave paintings, and the ending has the craziest viewpoint of the canyon, which is the first or second deepest canyon in the world so think crazy drop. My knees were shaking. Challenging hike, interesting history, great company- is this my life?! Sweet!

Ghosts

I was in the town hall in a meeting. When we had finished meeting, I walked out of the room and to my surprise, I see my little brother sitting in a chair waiting for me. I asked him what was up and why he was there. He told me that his grandmother (whose is like the equivalent to my mom here) had sent him to tell me to hurry home. A little confused on why I was being told to go home (obviously I was going home), I asked him to clarify. He squirmed a little and then told me not to get scared but that his grandma had heard a “kuko” and that that’s why I had to hurry home. Turns out that kuko is a ghost (maybe in Quechua?). He said that the kukos cry sometimes from time to time and not to be scared but that they were the condemned and that’s why they were crying. It’s funny because at home nothing is ancient and that just seems silly but every aspect of life here sometimes has an ancient feeling and there is so much history. Your mortality really sinks in and if ghosts exist, they would exist in Peru. So as silly as this sounds, I had trouble sleeping the next two nights as I live mainly by myself in a hostel and the family has their own houses. Think I’m back to realizing all those weird noises at night are just donkeys but that is one of the moments I felt most like peoples’ perceptions or realities are totally different here and that I was very, very far from home.

Random accomplishments for the month

Starting to teach English classes, hiking up to the Fortaleza de Chimpa, confirming I do live in the Andes Mountains (just cool!), learning how to do the bridge when I shuffle, washing all my laundry by hand for the first time, irrigating a field for the first time, starting to feel like my life is here and not somewhere else, having a heart to heart with a taxi driver that was seriously depressed and considering committing suicide that ended quite positively and could possibly have talked him off the ladder so to speak, learning the transportation options in the valley, spending some quality big sis time with my little brother (honestly the most rewarding of all for me)

Song lyrics

Roughly translated from an Enanitos Verdes song, Cordillera (which means Mountain Range). Pretty much sums it up!

Who has seen you? Who sees you in the mountain range of the Andes?

You never stop surprising me.

White wind, what else does it give?

And for me, I could pass the hours.

I want to be with you even longer.
And this way, years could pass.

And I could have a thousand addresses.

I know I left the world behind
Always being an idealist
Like a brave hunter in the stars.
Live the freedom.
Feel the freedom.
The magic of the place wraps you up.



 

Adjusting to a new home

How much can someone learn in one week? I can’t believe the things that I’ve done in this past week…I’ve read a book, started a second, helped coordinate a three month training course for local artisans, hiked down to the river, trekked up to the family farm, petted a baby calf and sheep, slept through an earthquake, ate scrumptious, homemade quinoa bread, attended the viewing of our town’s new video promoting tourism here, listened to hours of music, went on my first run at 10,800 feet (and walked over half of it), started PX90 workouts in addition, ate alpaca meat nearly daily, met the mayor and principal, attended mass, sorted potatoes, helped out around the house, drafted syllabi for a business and an English course, celebrated Day of the Elderly, participated in a procession with school kids and their torches or lanterns (further explanation below), watched Avatar (in Spanish so it was studying), attended a display of traditional Peruvian dances and still managed to find a little time to be homesick too. So every day has been really full, even if it’s not rushed or busy in the traditional sense. Right now everything’s still new and exciting and therefore every activity really strikes me as a unique experience.


Out of all of this, the two school activities were particularly interesting. I couldn’t believe how I lucked out at agreeing to go watch my brother dance, I ended up at a performance where each grade performed a different, traditional dance. I think any tourist would have been pumped to see that demonstration (lucky me!) Also, the night before there was a parade and the kids each made their own “torch,” which whatever distinguishable shape that had chosen and made out of wire and paper. Inside they positioned a lit candle to illuminate their torch. While this activity may never fly in the US, it was great. There was also a band which played as we walked through the cobblestone streets of our town. That the kids had made their torches without any help or guidance and with such limited materials was impressive. The torches themselves were so creative and cute as well- birds, corn, helicopters, houses, boats, SpongeBob (my brother’s), bees, ladybugs, etc.

Today I’m in the nearby town of Chivay for the day to enjoy a soak in the hot springs here, debrief and connect with a few other volunteers over our weeks and plan our strategy for the following week. Site is a different experience (just more rural and isolated) but the people are super nice. We pop over to this nearby town for some “modern” conveniences, such as slow internet, international calling, a market and restaurants. I miss you all a lot but am lucky to have such a great family here taking care of me and keeping me in line…and hopefully I’ll master their quinoa bread recipe in time…yum! And write me...I´m homesick!