Alberto

One of the things I love about Peru is how friendly people are. I was wondering around the village of Qua'ana on a plateau in Cotahuasi Canyon when an old man crossed my path.

I greeted him with "buenos tardes" and then asked how he was and he was only too happy to stop for a while and chat.

Davis was with me and I was happy to let him do most of the talking, but I was able to get most of the conversation and also snap a few pictures off.

Alberto, as that was his name, was telling us about some pre-Inca ruins that were a half hour walk away complete with houses, a plaza and a 'church' (iglesia).

At first I was a bit sceptical, but Laura who had been living in the village for two weeks teaching at the local school confirmed the presence of the ruins.

Unfortunately we didn't have time for a half hour treck but I may have to return to the village some time in the future as we might be placing a teacher up there and I’ll be sure to check it out.

4/72

At 6:30 we were woken up for breakfast. I wasn't sure if I had managed to snatch more than an hour or two of sleep at the most with the loud music from outside. The next day promised to be a little more interesting as there was going to be a parade in the town.

The parade lasted for about four and a half our and seemed to consist of anyone from within a fifty mile radius of the town marching slowly down the main street goose stepping where possible and clad in psudo-military uniforms. Goose stepping in 4 year olds = kinda cute, in adults....no so much.
Locked out of the room again, tired and bored, there was little I could do other than wait for the bus which Jose told me we would be taking at 3 (it later turned out to be 5:30) I wondered around the town a bit and after the parade finally wound down at about 3:30 the villagers all went to the large community hall which was normally used for various sporting events.

Three long tables had been placed for the invited guests in a horse shoe and we took seats here. Most of the villages sat on the spectator steps at either side of the hall. Opposite me sat a collection of people in suits, Jose and Davis where to my right, but to my left sat down a couple who seemed like they were local.

The food came and people started to eat. I noticed after finishing his meat the man next to me pulled out a plastic bag and started to scrape the vegetables and other things off his plate. The woman next him didn't touch her plate at all. When he was finished her husband passed her the bag and she put her whole meal in.

After the meal we went to catch the bus back to Arequipa. The bus left at 5:15 to start its journey back through the mountains and the view of the setting sun over the valley as we ascended on the winding track was stunning if a little scary. I tried as best as I could do get some sleep but the road was too bumpy and the seat to uncomfortable. Almost as soon as we hit the main tarmacked road at 1am however fell asleep.

We arrived back at 2am. Jose told me that I had to get up at 6am in order to be in La Mansion by 8 as we were starting the project that week. He had told me to get up early on Thursday too but hadn't turned up till 11ish so I wasn't prepared to leap up on his say so.

If I really was needed I would have gone but I suspected I wasn't. I asked what I needed to do and Jose replied "to do some things". This wasn't a good enough reason so I told him flatly no, I wasn't going to get up at six. I was tired. "Why aren’t are tired?" he asked. Well one reason might be because he seemed to have little trouble sleeping on the road and had certainly had more then the four hours sleep I had managed myself in the last three days. I told him again no, but as we left in the taxi I think he was still expecting me to turn up.

When we got back i told Davis not to wake me unless he wanted to learn some very rude words in English. Wisely he didn't know on my door the next morning.

123rd year Anniversary

I was glad to get back to the pueblo. I had enjoyed seeing the surrounding area but all I could really think about was how much I was looking forward to catching up on sleep. There was a fiesta in the evening but it wouldn't really get going for a few hours. A perfect opportunity for some sleep. Jose of course had different ideas...

Two stages had been set up at either end of the main street in front of the town hall and people were beginning to gather at about 6:30. One of the schools had a brass band there and started to play. Unfortunately they only seemed to know about four bars of the tune they were trying to play and repeated them with constant ineptitude.

The nights event were introduced by one of the media people who had come for the celebrations. Unfortunately the school band did not seem inclined to finish their set (or else wasn't quite sure how the piece was meant to end) and so played over him all but drowning him out.

After about 15 minutes however the band finally got bored and with a triumphant cacophony decapitated the music. A few acts seemingly of national recognition had been drafted in for the celebration and so took over the stage. However much of them sounded pretty similar and monotonous to me to the extent that I was almost wishing for the return of the high school musical.

The minutes dragged by, not helped by the fact that I was utterly shattered. Jose and Davis were completely unsympathetic and at 9:30 I'd had enough and declared that I was off to find the key to the room. This was no easy task as everyone was busy with the festival and only one person from the hostel had the key but I managed to track him down and finally crawl into bed.

Unfortunately the hostel was right next to one of the stages...the music stopped at about 5am...

The Ghost Town and the Gold Mine

We had been invited to Orcopampa by the pueblo’s Alcalde (Mayor) to look into establishing a project combating malnutrition in school aged children. The invitation coincided with the towns 123rd Anniversary of founding so the place was buzzing with activity. There were several media types from the national television and radio and some performers had been drafted in for the celebrations.

At 6:30 (yes, an hour after finally finding a bed) We went to the Alcade’s office to be welcomed along with some of the other guests. After breakfast one of the Alcade’s men, Jorge, took us around to see the area. The town of Orcopampa is basically built around the gold mine located just outside of the town. I asked Jorge if there was any other industry in the town and he said there was not. Nearly everything that came in and out of the town was linked in someway to the mine.




The village of Orcopampa is in a valley plateau, some 3’600 feet high in the Andes. The area is steeped in history extending far beyond the Orcopampa’s 123 years. Pre-Inca terraced fields climb the mountain sides and several colonial era churches are scattered through the valley in various states of disrepair. “Nothing grows here now.” Jorge tells us. The area used to be largely self sufficient, growing potatoes and other crops, but now there is no water and the area and the ground is dry. Most food must now be imported and the children, as well as their families are suffering from malnutrition. That’s we’re here.

We travel to a nearby village, “un pueblo fantasmo” Jose observes. A ghost town. A few houses lie clumped around the crumbling church although it’s difficult to know which are occupied and which have been abandoned. Many of the houses on the edge of the village are little more then roofless shells. We knock on one of the houses, there are clothes hanging in the court yard, presumably signs of life, but no one answers.



It would be easy to blame the areas woe’s on the mine, and very tempting to do so. The mine not only consumes vast quantities of water that would other wise mean that the people could be more self sufficient but contaminates the supply. However if it wasn’t for the mine would most of the people be there? Or would there be a scattering of smaller pueblo’s growing crops for their own consumption and living in isolation? Is this ‘Development’?

Many things in the town are financed by the mine. On the outskirts of the ghost town there was a project financed by the mine that was growing trees to local to the area to combat deforestation. Further along the road there was some kind of ‘research institute’ for horticulture and agriculture that had a few shambling green houses and a pen containing a couple of dozen Llamas.

As we entered a woman came out to meet us. She was young and when Jose addressed her as ‘Senorita’ (Miss) she corrected him. Jose asked how old she was as she seemed pretty young to be married. “Twenty –Three” she replied. She had been married since the age of fourteen and was mother to three children. As she spoke to us a toddler shambled out towards her. I considered asking if he was her eldest or youngest but said nothing. However two more children soon emerged the eldest looking at least nine or ten years of age.

We viewed a few more pueblos and another project financed by the mining corporation. This was “aquaculture” Davis informed me as I tried to make sense of the various tanks of water on the mountain ridge. I had first thought it was some kind of water purification facility but each tank was crowed with fish of different sizes.

We returned to Orcopampa and I was still trying to figure out my thoughts on the mining corporation. They did seem to be at least trying to give some support to the local settlements but I couldn’t help wonder that when the pueblo had a gold mine sitting on its doorstep there was nothing but dirt roads from the town hall to the highway 7 hours away.

The Road To Orcopampa

On the Thursday, my boss informed me that we would be travelling to a town about four hours away to see about seeing up a project. I was told to have my bag packed early as we would be leaving at 3pm.

At 7:30 there was an impatient beeping outside of the house as Jose rolled up in a pick-up truck driven by one of the guys from the village and his wife in the passenger seat. This meant that me, Jose, and Jose’s son, Davis were forced to pile into the back seat. Both of the chairs in the front were pushed back so there was next to no leg room. Davis had kindly let me sit in the middle and even before we set off I knew this was going to be a rough ride.

Initially we followed the main highway which was pretty packed with slow moving busses and HGVs that seemed to struggle up any incline. Fortunately after about two hours we turned off the main road. Unfortunately this was onto a single lane dirt track which ran through the Andes and was no less full of HGVs than the road we had just left.

It wasn’t long before I realised that Jose’s prediction of the journey had probably been taken from somewhere beyond the top of his head. I often struggle to sleep in transport, even airplanes, and so on a bumpy dirt track I wasn’t going to be in for much luck. Davis and Jose seemed to have little trouble. For much of the journey Jose’s head lolled forward and kept resting on my shoulder. This didn’t make me feel any more comfortable so I made sure that every time we went over a bump in the road I jolted my shoulder forward in order to discourage him.

At about 2am (six and a half hours into our four hour journey) The drive pulled over to the side of the road to take a nap. Pushing his chair back to feel recline, and meaning I had to squeeze my knees between the two front seat, he caught some shut eye for thirty minutes or so.

We arrived in Orcopampa at about 5:30, an hour or so after dawn. We were taken to a hostel where finally there was a bad to collapse into.

Face Book Blast

So I don't like junk mail, ok *no one* likes junk mail, but sometimes the best way to contact a group of people in order to advertise an event is just to tick everyone in your address book and fire of an email in the hope that some of them will read it and only a handful will decide to block you for good.


As part of my role here seems to be trying to recruit volunteers and tourists I figured that the best place to start was my friends. Also the fact that I would quite like to hang out with them out here was just as a significant factor if not more important. I fired of an invitation to an event on facebook to 178 of my friends and contacts there. I was tempted just to tick everyone but I knew those with young families probably wouldn't be able to come and didn't want to pester more people then was necessary (probably not a good attitude if I'm hoping to get into fundraising or publicity where you to pester everyone possible, but oh well.)

The event is an invitation to come out to Peru sometime between May and June 2010 as that’s probably the best time, both for the climate and price here, but also it gives people a few months to start thinking about if it's something they would be interested in doing. Other times are possible to of course but I felt it was a good idea to give people a specific time frame.

I'm not sure yet what, if anything, will come of this approach. I know myself all too often when I get this type of invitation I delete it with out reading. But even if only a few friends come out I think it'll be worth doing as it will be a great chance to catch up with people as many of my fb friends are people I haven’t seen for years and would like to catch up with.


As it stand I currently have 4 yeses (although two of them came immediately without any other communication and one is me)There are however 19 maybes and its this group that is important as hopefully they're people who would seriously like to come and need but want to give it some thought. But after all, that’s why I sent out the invitation 6 months in advance. As long as people start deciding yes or no by the New Year they can think on it till then. (For the record there are 50 'no's' and I'm still waiting on 110 people to reply.)

The group can be found here http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=152511233186&ref=mf It's open invite and if you're interested in coming out just let me know. I just used facebook as it seemed the most straight forward way for me at the moment.

La Mansion: More about the Project

Just had a chat in the kitchen with Jerenie and Davis about some of the specifics for the project in La Mansion. I couldn't understand why a project was not taking place in the school since it so obviously benefited the students. Sadly it turns out to be corruption...allegedly. (Probably won't get sued for anything written here but best to be careful eh?)

The Project was run successfully for about 12 months however the school's director grew to dislike the project as he wasn't receiving a cut. Apparently he turned the staff against it until it was wound down in December of last year. The new project will have more freedom as it will be on a venue outside of the school. However I'm not sure how long the venue will be available for as I was with Jose the day he went around the pueblo looking for a potential venue and he told the owner it would only be used until December. Whether we can extend this date, or find another venue will have to be seen.

I also found more specifics out about the cost and the funding. The estimated cost for the food is about s/3, roughly 70p per child per day. I'm not sure how much the venue costs or how long the funds will last. I need to find these details out and also how to make the project more sustainable and then try and use this information to raise funds. There's a lot to do, but at least little by little, I'm increasing my understanding.

Malnutrition Vs Education Project

This is the name of the project that will be starting up in the pueblo joven of La Mansion in the next few weeks. The general idea is to provide well balanced, nutritional meals for children in the area who are suffering from malnourishment and other ailments. Food will be prepared by parental volunteers with the help of two nutritionists, Daisy and Pamela.

I'm still a little unclear on the status of the project, it seems that a lot of work had been done previously in investigating the extent of the problem and I have translated reports relating to the level of chronic malnutrition and number of parasites present in the primary aged population. I think previously the project had been running in the school but the arrival of a new director changed that. Apparently the Director and some of the parents and teachers had problems with the project and, if I understand correctly, didn’t feel that it was the school concern to provide meals for the students. I sense I'm not getting the whole story here but it's a little difficult to get specifics given the level of my Spanish ability.

Yesterday we had a meeting with interested parents and teachers in a venue that we've found to provide the meals. Around about 30 parents, all women bar two men and with small children in tow attended. I was able to follow most of the agenda given that I'd already translated some documents on the topic, and it seemed to get a good response. (The report can be found here http://www.ciescu.org/ProjectMalnutritionPovertyVsEducation.htm, although you will need to click the "available in English tab to read it) The whole thing was very organised and involved the election of representative from different areas and the selection of a committee including the a president, vice president and treasurer.

It's good that I'm beginning to get a handle on the projects as up to now I was wondering what was going on. I think CIESCU has many plans for projects but not always the funding. The funding for this particular project comes from two German organisations, Claim for Dignity and another one whose name I can't find right now (the web site is still labyrinthine, even for me). I'll have to try and find some other bodies that might be willing to support projects. I know DfID will be worth contacting but if anyone has any idea who else is worth approaching please let me know.

Settling In

Have been here nearly a month now and am starting to feel that I'm finding my feet a little bit. I've begun to master the busses in the city (or at least the ones to and from the office and the centre) and that gives me a little bit more freedom and flexibility to get around when and where I want. Also my Spanish has defiantly improved. It's kind of strange because I don't know how it's improved, I only know a handful of new words since I arrived, and although I've meant to sit down and study the grammar I've sadly been neglecting it. But I understand more and people have said that I'm talking more fluently so something must be going right.

Another thing that has helped me settle is getting to grips with what is expected of me. Before I came out I had a job description of sorts, but it was the kind of document that said alot without saying anything; very ambiguous and open to interpretation. I wasn't surprised at the time because I was aware of how things work in this kind of situation and that I could have a concrete job description before hand, but as soon as I arrived here the realities and opportunities would change this beyond recognition.

Over the last couple of weeks thought I've come to understand my role a little better. At the beginning I was translating the website into English, which was fine until I found out that much of it was under revision. Also the structure wasn't quite right. It was a little convoluted and difficult to navigate around, some parts were too wordy and other didn't answer questions that would be likely to be asked. There were pages about projects and about volunteering but specifics were missing and as I was translating the page I was thinking "If I read this is wouldn't make me want to sign up."

This is then where I've started to develop my role. As well as wanting volunteers to come out, the organisation also wants tourists and for people to be able to donate directly. In order for this to be a success these sections need to be better developed and it's not a question of just translating them into English.

Over the coming months I hope to visit some projects so that I can write more efficiently about them, the needs, wants, what's been done, what needs to be done, how volunteers can help, how donations can help and other things like that. Once I have that down then I need to be trying to attract volunteers, tourists and donations which is no small task in itself. I'll try and go through people who I know, friends who might want to come out, and a few links to universities where visiting development projects or even just visiting Peru is likely to find interest. After that though there is room to contact other agencies and organisations, set up links and partnerships, even advertise in brochures. It's no small job and I don't know if I'll reach the end, but at least I have a plan to follow. However it all starts with getting the web site in order first.