In the Jungle

This past Sunday bright and early my Peruvian family and I woke up to head hours out to the jungle (aka not the rain forest... apparently there´s a differnce that this midwesterner was not aware of). Here are a few photos from my adventure en la selva.

On our way to Satipo we stopped off at a tourist trap - an area where the ¨nativos¨attempt to sell some goods... mostly neclaces, bracelets, bags and alcohol. In the lower left hand corner is Iris, the mother of the family I´m staying with in Perú. Her son Richard is in the lower right hand corner. Next to Iris is Nati, who lives with Richard and Faviola in Lima and acts as their housekeeper while they go to Universidad.

Here we ran into some Aussies and a strange animal... the Aussies said it was like a wombat. I´m not sure what a wombat is exactly and I´m not sure what this animal was but it seemed satified to be sleeping while people poked at it and picked it up.

Believe it or not, here the nativos are dancing jovially. In Che Guevara´s ¨The Motorcycle Diaries¨he talks about the natives in Peru saying, ¨These people who watch us walk through the streets of the town are a defeated race. Their stares are tame, almost fearful, and completely indifferent to the outside world. Some give the impression they go on living only because it´s a habit that cannot shake.¨ Most of the people I´ve incountered in Perú have a certain sadness about them, as was noted in Che´s diary over fifty-five years ago, and it is no different for this group we came across on our way to Satipo. Smiling is sadly a rare thing.

Iris like to play dress-up with me. Here I am in some of the natives´usual dress. Look behind me and see how tall I am compared to everyone else.

Un mono!!!

Once we arrived at Satipo I was told that I would be staying at a hotel. Iris, Victor, Faviloa, Richard and Nati would all be staying at Iris´parents´ house deep in the jungle where there is no electricity or plumbing. Thank goodness for the hotel and I was forever grateful for clean sheets and hot water (showering was devine). This picture is a morning view of the jungle beyond but unfortunately it doesn´t due the place justice. Absolutely stunning!

Here is Iris at her parent´s house picking me an orange from one of the many fruit trees in her parents´ yard.

To save ourselves from sweating under the strong summer sun Faviola, Richard, Nati and I wandered to a nearby restaurant to cool off under some shade. At the back of the restaurant was a sad caged monkey. Poor thing seemed starved for attention. Faviola and Nati petted the animal while we fed him some of our chifle (fried banana chips).

All types of crazy fruits in the jungle including this overgrown green been looking thing.

To eat the fruit you crack it over your knee and open it up. Inside is fruit that looks like cotton balls. You pretty much just suck the sweet cotton looking stuff off the seed inside. Not too bad but somewhat difficult to eat.

Besides going to the restaurant we also headed out to a Zoologico. A very sad zoo that didn´t have a wide variety of animals but did have on showcase chickens... they may as well have put dogs on display as well. Anyway, the most exciting thing I saw at the zoo was on our way out when Nati pointed out this strange plant that plays dead when you touch it. I mean, seriously, who knew these things existed!

During my stay in Satipo I was told that there was a girl from Berkley also staying there. We met up at Iris´parents house and then later hung out at the town square for a couple days. She was a life-saver and told me all about the research work she was doing into cacao cooperatives in Peru for her PhD at Berkley. Very interesting and where did she go to undergrad? ... Harvard, where she worked for Let´s Go travel books. Harvard sent her to France and Viet Nam to write for them... you can still find her picture and bio in the 2005 editions. Anyway, I had a great time with this girl and I´m very inspired now to go back and get my PhD, especially if that means traveling the world to do research. Sounds ideal!

A hike through the jungle.

More jungle.

July 28th and 29th are Peru´s independence days (aka Fiestas Patrias). We celebrated by cooking an elaborate feast of meat and vegetables in the ground. This way of cooking is very common in Peru... I wish I could remember the name of it right now. Anyway, a hole is dug, hot charcol is put in the hole and then stones are placed on top. Next the meat and vegetables go in and the hole is covered with banana leaves. Great way to cook... everything tasted as if it were grilled. Moving clock-wise, Victor is in the upper right hand corner of the photo, then Iris, her father, and her parents´housekeeper.

Before we left to go back home we needed to bathe Topsi, the families uber-beloved dog (one of four), in the river.

And finally we stopped off at one of Iris and Victors´chakras (basically farm) where we picked some fruit and tried some cacao fruit. Good stuff!

Now I´m back in Huancayo, safe and sound but exhausted and happy to be back in the winter of the mountains. I hope to make it out again before I leave but maybe next time I´ll go to Iquitos where the Amazon actually is. Perhaps if Justin comes and visits it will give me an excuse. Until next time...

A Glimpse of the Road Ahead

In a few short weeks I will begin working at PROMYPES - la Promoción de las Micro y Pequeñas Empresas (the Promotion of Micro and Small Businesses). Based in Huancayo, PROMYPES is a micro-finance NGO that recently raised approximately $300,000 USD in start-up capital from local private investors. Like other micro-lending organizations, PROMYPES makes loans to those who otherwise would be unable to secure a loan from a traditional bank usually due to a lack of collateral, the small nature of the loan, the inability to comply with the traditional terms of a bank loan and/or illiteracy. Early last week I got a glimpse of my life ahead and was able to spend about five hours at the organization´s office and out in the field talking with potential clients.

My day started off in the office, a brightly colored building that just a month prior was a jardín de niños (kindergarten) and is located only about a block and a half from where I live (who would have thought that my comute would be better than the one in Chicago!?!). I was greated by approximately ten people all about my age... I think... althought 27 here is not what it is at home. I´m constantly asked if I have children (no), am I married (no) and on and on only to receive confused and pitiful looks in response... but that´s another story. Anyway, each person introduced themselves, gave me a kiss on the cheek (which is customary here) and asked me a few questions about myself. We then commenced collectively analyzing the financial statements and proforma of a man who wanted to borrow S/.300 (approximately $120 USD). This lasted for perhaps an hour or two until the group could go no further as they were arguing over how much money should be allocated to the consumption of beer over the course of 8 weeks. It seems as though more questions needed to be asked about the man´s budget that he initially gave us.

The office then broke into teams of two to visit potential clients out in the field. I tagged along with two women to la oficina/casa del zapatero (a shoemaker´s). The shoemaker, his daugher and his two year old granddaughter were living/working together in a one room concrete shelter approximately 20´x 20´. The space was cold and dark with only one window and a door to let in the outside world. One corner of the space was quartered off by sheets draped over a rope. Behind the sheets was the family´s sleeping area and a place for the toddler to play. The rest of the shelter remained quite bare and was filled with only two chairs, a work station that consisted of a sewing machine and long table, and materials - rubber, cloth and glue - piled up in the corners.

During our stay the shoemaker told us about his business: the process and timeline of making a shoe, what everything costs, where he buys his materials, etc. He described these things in great detail while we scribbled notes, facts and figures, and carefully fingered the materials that would soon become part of a sneaker. Then, after a few hours, we left promising to return sometime tomorrow morning.

I´m not sure what happened the next day; if more questions were asked, if PROMYPES analyzed his situation, or if the organization okayed or denied his loan. Either way I feel proud to be part of the process... this new form of banking created by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. My half day of job shadowing at PROMYPES resparked my passion for the micro-lending industry and I know at this moment that I´m exactly where I need to be.

Observations... Todo, We´re Not in Kansas Anymore

There is something about flying someplace that makes you unaware of the distance that has actually been traveled. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz I was picked up by a tornado in Chicago and dropped down again in Peru in a relatively short amount of time. Still I´m reminded, nearly every moment, that I have now entered the Land of Oz. Following are just a few observations from my new life in Peru.

1.) Dogs and children are everywhere. When I first arrived I was told that the average family has five children. Victor himself comes from a family of twelve. Then to make things just a little more crowded and unruly, I am also positive that for every child born the family adopts five dogs.

2.) Despite all my efforts to color my hair dark I am considered a blonde here. While men on the street yell to me ¨¡Rubia!¨[Blonde!] I considered the call to be just another name for people from the north like ¨gringo.¨ This is what I thought until Iris told me my hair was a beautiful color (btw, I´ve also been told that my eyes are the color of a peacock... I love this country!). Victor chimed in and said,
¨Yes, it´s the color of gold.¨
Gold!?! ¨You think I´m a blonde, not a red head or brunette?¨
¨Nope, you´re blonde.¨
Hmm... very confusing and I look forward to seeing how they react when Amy Fisher, a real blonde, comes to visit.

3.) Like Chicago, Huancayo is a city with many pedestrians but here cars always have the right-of-way. Stop sigs, while extremely rare, are merely a suggestion and a horn must be honked at every intersection. Needless to say, walking or driving must be done ¨con cuidado.¨

4.) Whoa is me. Please prepare yourself for a little bit of whining... Every morning, weekday or weekend, I wake up at 5am. I stumble to the bathroom, turn on the water heater to give the water some time to reach a temperature above freezing and then go back to bed until 6am. When my alarm goes off for the second time I return to the bathroom and turn on the shower only to get a small trickle of luke warm water that doesn´t even have enough pressure to rinse the suds off my hands. Ten minutes into my shower I´m usually shaking it´s so cold. I jump out and dry off with one of my long sleeved t-shirts (there is only one communal towel in the bathroom and it´s usually wet, stinks, and hasn´t been washed since my arrival). This process makes me long for a hot shower back home and I wonder what those of lesser means have to go through if this is what it is like for my upper-middle class family.

5.) Jesus and topless blondes are regarded with nearly equal fervor and passion. In fact, pictures of both, usually one right next to the other, can be found in almost every public place.

6.) It´s nearly impossible for me to describe where Chicago is.
¨¿Is it by Mexico?¨
¨No.¨
¨¿Is it by Texas then?¨
¨No, it´s north... kind of by Canada.¨
¨¿Oh... Chicago is in California, right?¨
¨No, Illinois.¨
¨Never heard of it.¨

7.) Shopping presents its own set of challenges... one type of food can be bought here, another type there. Notebooks and pens are only available at the store down the street. I have yet to find hairspray and foolishly spent $9 USD on a tube of mascara.

8.) I have been asked many times if Chicago looks like Huancayo. This is a difficult question to answer half due to my inability to speak Spanish well and half due to the limited exposure to life outside of Huancayo that the questioner usually has. The only place I´ve seen in the US that can somewhat be related to Huancayo are portions of Appalacia although that is not even an accurate description. I have never seen such a juxtaposition of the wealthy and poor as I´ve seen in Huancayo. Modern architecture, a house that would seemingly cost millions in the US, sits next to a one room home whose mud walls have collapsed. So how do I describe the glass and steel skyscrapers that block out the sun, the lack of grass and trees (at least in my part of Chicago) and the relative cleanliness of my city compared to Huancayo?

9.) I live in a house with two other women and one man and yet the toilet seat is always left up. Perhaps this is just a small indication of the male dominated society in which I now reside.

10.) Everything that I am in the US (at least appearance-wise) is exagerated in Huancayo. I am tall at home... I am Andre the Giant here. ¨¿How tall are you in meters?¨¨¿How big are your feet?¨¨At such and such celebration no boys will dance with you because you are so tall.¨ Please excuse me as my 6th grade insecurities come rushing back. In the US I´m considered fair skinned. Here I´m gostly and have been told many times that my skin in the color of milk. I am aware of this fact but after spending a day with Peruanos whose indigenous blood runs much thicker than that of any European ancestory, when I look in the mirrow I even startle myself at times.

So these are my observations from my little corner of the world in Peru. Please remember that I have only been here two weeks and I hope my observations are not too naive at the moment. I am sure they will continue to evolve with time.

Photos!!!

Here are a few photos from my adventures thus far. And I´m starting at the very begining...

Self portrait of me hanging out at the Mexico City airport for five hours before jumping on the plane for a six hour flight Lima. Note to anyone going to Lima... Florida is directly north of S. America so go that route. The extra hours of flying from Mexico are not worth saving a hundred dollars round trip. Geography never was my strong suit...

Ricardo, Iris´brother who lives in Santipo, picked me up from the Lima airport on July 2. It was about 1am by the time I got out of immigration and custums. Good times. Anyway, this photo is of us having breakfast my first morning in Lima. He also kindly road with me on the six hour bus ride from Lima to Huancayo. He taught me quite a bit of Spanish on that trip plus I was excited to hear about his life in Santipo. He has a PhD in economics and a masters in political science and is currently in the cocoa (as in chocolate not cocaine) export business.

Lima... I promise there are absolutely gorgeous parts of Lima too, I just didn´t get a picture of it.

Beautiful scenery on my way from Lima to Huancayo.

Today I traveled up to Torre Torre, a collection of unsual rock formations that lie on the outskirts of Huancayo. This is a picture looking down on the city of Huancayo.

The rock formations in the distance is Torre Torre. The climb up to the spot reminded me of my hike with Chrissy at Torre Pines in San Diego last year... although this was a little more strenuous. I don´t know if it was the altitude or my atrophying muscles but it was a little rough and I was huffing and puffing the whole way. On the Paige and David rock climbing scale, I´d give this one a 5.10... I mean seriously, it was hard.

A couple of the towers. Iris´niece who snuck into the picture in the lower right hand corner, was nice enough to accompany me on my travels today.

Taking a short break from hiking.

Torre Torre with Huancayo in the background... absolutely stunning!

Long way down...

I think my legs were shaking as I was standing there for this picture... we were seriously high up!

The money shot... absolutely gorgeous!

Papas y Arroz Todos los Dias

I have to say that I probably haven´t eaten this well since I lived at home with mom and dad. No more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for me! It´s only been fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats since the second I got here and everything´s delicious!

Breakfast is always very simple... perhaps some bread and fruit. I usually drink tea or the lovely yoghurt drink that is oh so popular if France as well. Over the past few days I´ve had the opportunity to try countless new fruits. I´m positive that this small city has more varieties of produce than all of the United States and probably Europe combined.

Around 2:00 Victor comes home for lunch and Iris takes a break from work. Lunch seems to be the big meal of the day and is usually served in courses. First course tends to be soup (so far I´ve had chiken noodle... with a few feathers still stuck to the chicken and some sort of squash soup), salad or ceviche. I´m usually stuffed after that but then Vicki delivers the second course tht will undoubtingly include a huge helping potatoes and rice. Meat is also served but almost seems to be a side dish to everybody´s favorite potatoes and rice. I´ve eaten quite a bit of fish to my surprise, that´s been caught in one of the rivers close by. The fish is always great. Chicken is served every once in a while as well and this afternoon I was given my first taste of Peruvian steak.

Once work ends, usually around 8:00 we sit down for dinner. This is somewhat late for me but I really don´t mind as I´m usually still digesting all the starch from lunch. Dinner is slightly smaller than lunch and we´ll usually have leftovers or a simple bowl of soup. Last night I was served rice with milk straight from the cow. The dish was sweetened with a bit of sugar and raisons. Yummy! Deseret is rarely had here. Besides all the fruit and last nights rice milk I´ve only had one dessert... homemade flan. Very different from the quart of icecream that I used to call my dinner.

I´m really enjoying this new, maybe healthier (depending on what you think of all the starchy rice and potatoes and the benefits of all that calcium in my icecream) lifestyle. Perhaps, I´ll make notes on some recipes and bring them back with me when I come home.

Running with the Wanka´s

Last Sunday I had the good fortune of piling into Victor´s SUV, with Victor and Iris of course, to head out of the city to visit Victor´s parents in the country. Not far from home, along the city´s edge, we came across a small group of what looked to me like high quality runners. Iris explained to me that the Wanka´s are known for their running just like the Kenyan´s. How did I not know this! Now I don´t particularly remember any Peruvians being front runners in the olympics last summer but I could be wrong. Perhaps Paigie or Steve know better and I guess altitude is condusive to great running performance so who am I to say? But anyway, Iris went on to tell me that these men are training for the Huancayo marathon in November. MARATHON!!! ¨I run marathon in Chicago,¨ I responded and so the three of us decided I will run this marathon in November. Only four and a half months away...

... Hmmm. It really does sound great. I would love to run a marathon in Perú it´s just that my training has been lacking somewhat lately. I´m just hoping that one day in November Iris and Victor won´t say ¨Okay Heather, put on your shoes, jump in the race!¨ It´s just that I´d hate to disappoint.

Is it even possible to train down here? Do they sell Gatorade? How about GU? If I pass out will someone pick me up or leave me to sunburn under the Peruvian sky? If I run will the street dogs chase me? All very real questions that I don´t have the linguistic capabilities to ask at the moment. Looks like this one will be TBD.

Bienvenido a Perú

Everymorning I still have to remind myself I am here; picture a map of South America and place a red ¨you are here¨ dot over Huancayo. Who would have thought that I would end up here in South American in a country were I don´t speak the language... yet. It´s all very unHeather-like but I´m taking a leap of faith. Not only is this an opportunity to experience a culture so different from my own and get an international view of world events but this is also a chance to test myself; see if I have what it takes to thrive in a place that is so different from the life I was leading in Chicago. I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime and in return I´m hoping there will be something I too can give. So here I am, six month in Perú.

As this is blog number one, let me start off with the basics. The family I´m staying with is composed of Iris (pronounced E-Reese) who is the matriarch of the family and Victor (pronounced Bictor) who is the patriarch. They have two children, Fabiola and Richard who are 19 and 18 and are away at school in Lima for an undetermined amount of time. There is one other person who lives here, Vicki (pronounced Bee-Key). She is the family´s housekeeper and is practically part of the family just as Alice was to the Brady´s. I couldn´t have asked for a more giving and understanding family.

Together the four of live in a three-story, one bathroom home that is somewhat reminisant of the house I lived at in France or the house your college boyfriend may have owned with four other guys his senior year. The house is old and charming with a lot of potential but contains a hodge podge of worn out furniture and appliances. It is a house that has been lived in for a long time and at times makes me miss the steril environment of my white walled, white carpeted apartment back home. A mattress rests against the stairs on the ground floor for no apparent reason. Close by is a white board and exercise bike in the dining room and a magnificent stereo system in the living room that could rival any gadget geek´s. I live on the second floor in a brightly painted room the color of cantelope. There is a picture of a tiger on my bedspread; not exactly my taste but it works just fine. Iris, Victor and Vicki also have their bedrooms on the second floor. The bathroom with its testy water heater that I just got to work this morning for the first time sits between us. To be honest, I´m not sure what´s on the third floor but I believe a large dog is living up there. I´m not sure if it lives alone or with others but I can hear his ferocious bark everytime someone knocks at our front door. Ahh... this is home.

In the upcoming weeks I´m very much looking forward to learning Spanish. So far my contribution to any conversation tends to be things like, ¨Flowers. Purple. Pretty.¨ ¨The door... ding dong.¨and ¨Fish and vegetables.... me like!¨ Luckily my understanding of the language is a little more sophisticated so hopefully my speaking will catch up soon. Exploring the city, meeting its people and making connections in the micro-lending world should be equally enjoyable. This is a beautiful city with a lot to see and I will definitely keep you posted on my upcoming adventures.