Break for the Border

The weather her in Arequipa is perhaps what most people (i.e. those without light skin and prone to sunburns) would call 'perfect'. In my time here there has been about three or four over cast days and the rest of the time there has been glorious sunshine. No wonder that most of the tourists seem to have bought entire outfits consisting of little more then shorts and flip flops (which do look a little strange on the odd overcast day).

It was a little surprising then when we arrive at Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca at 11:30 PM to find driven rain and freezing temperatures that reminded me of home. Now all we had to do was find a hostel for the night, catch the 6am bus to Desaguedero, cross the border to Bolivia and we were sorted…

The excursion to Bolivia will probably not go down as one of my best thought out travel plans. In fact I only realised that I needed to go to Bolivia a day or two earlier when my soon-to-expire visa date was suddenly brought forward after I committed to teaching English in one of the local language school.

"You start next week, on the 1st" said Samantha, the Sarah Palin look a like who had almost literally begged me to take 3 classes as they were losing 4 teachers over Christmas. "Next week is December?" I replied stupidly, suddenly realising that if that week was full of teaching I wouldn't have a chance to get to renew my visa before the 4th. "Yes," she said smiling, "Not a problem?"

I had got back to the house and tentatively enquired whether it might be possible to get to Bolivia or Chile the next day. Thankfully, despite organisational problems I've had with Jose, his daughter Jerenie has yet to let me down. She sorted everything out and I was more than happy to let her take the lead.

…We selected our hostel in Puno carefully, trying all the nice looking ones first and finding they were full we then went looking for hostels that weren’t too grotty looking. We managed to find one, however they said that unfortunately they only had one bed. I chivalrously offered to sleep on the floor, but when arriving in the cell (the room was about 8 foot by 4 foot and with a hard stone floor and a thin window near the ceiling) I decided to ask if Jerenie minded sharing the bed. This was a little tricky. I have shared beds before when staying at friends with both guys and girls but wasn't too sure what the local custom was and sharing a room might have been awkward enough. I ended up lying on top of the covers and trying my best not to move over the next five hours so as to give Jerenie a chance to sleep.

At 6am we caught a bus to Desaguedero. I had expected we would take one from the main station, a large comfortable one like the one we had taken from Arequipa. The buses to Desaguedero however all turned out to be microbuses, the kind where leg room is not deemed compulsory.

We arrived at the border an hour or two later to find the weather here even worse. The heavens had opened and there was a large queue to enter the border office. The queue lasted about an hour an a half however fortunately there was a roofline we were able to huddle under to avoid getting drenched too much. I had asked if it would be cold before I came so had packed a jumper and a coat (which I ended up giving to Jerenie in an attempt to stop her shivering like a pneumatic drill) however there were several foreigners in the line who evidently hadn't packed anything other than shorts and flip flops.

After getting my passport stamped to leave Peru we crossed on foot over to Bolivia where the incoming line was less then five minutes. Often countries try and make border towns relatively attractive to welcome people to the country. However Bolivia had decided visitors would find a rather confusing pueblo with no clear main road, signs or tourist information and a few locals selling confectionary for half the price of the same thing in Peru much more preferable.

We wondered around the pueblo for about 15 minutes before stumbling across a busy main road with various touts offering taxis and microbuses to La Paz and other destinations. We were unsure where to go and the three hour trip to La Paz seemed a little too long for a day trip. There was meant to be a nice touristy town about an hour away so we made enquiries into this only to find the price for the bus horrendously inflated with the drivers asking for more money then our coazy 5 hour Arequipa-Puno bus had been. The weather had not got any better and neither of us had slept well/at all the pervious night so after half an hour we decided to leave.

Perhaps another time Bolivia.

North South, East West, First, Second and Third

I realised in my last post, when I was talking about the difference between a Peruvian and a European organisation that I used the term 'Northern' and 'Southern' and that these terms may perhaps be unfamiliar to some people reading this.

Most people would probably refer to a European Organisation and way of thinking as being 'Western' although they would then run into some trouble on defining a Peruvian organisation as Peru is of course further West than the UK.

They might instead refer to Peru as a 'third world country' although like me they might be unsure where the first and second world begin and end exactly.

No words are perfect to fit the situation of course, but North and South are generally a little more accurate and less linked to ideologies. It is likely that in a few years time it may seem patronising as these things move in cycles, but for now I prefer it to referring to Peru as a third world country.

23rd November

The last few weeks have been pretty quiet here so I really don't have much of an excuse for not having written here other than there simply wasn't much to write about.

We had two or three very busy weeks coinciding with the group from Germany coming out here, the trip to Orcomampa and Alca and the start of the project in La Mansion. At that time I felt I wasn't getting a moment to myself so it has been strange these last couple of weeks where nothing has really been asked of me.

The Comedor (kitchen) in La Mansion seems to be running along successfully. I went most of the first week and a few times the second week but of late I've been a bit pre-occupied with trying to get the website in order and the two hour round trip has also been a factor.

For those reading this post as a one off, La Mansion is a pueblo joven, a shanty town on the edge of Areuipa where malnutrition and parasites affect many, in fact post, of the residents especially the children. CIESCU's project is designed to combat these issues by providing nutritional meals for primary aged children. A secondary aim is to aid the capacity building of the community, mostly the mothers, who learn how to prepare these meals under the supervision of two trained nutritionists. Also it is hoped that improved nutrition will have a beneficial effect on the school work of the students.


It's great to finally see a project get going and to get a tangible understanding of what CIESCU actually *does*. When I signed up to come out here I had been under the impression that there were several projects already under way here but as of yet I have not seen them.

On the website there seems to be some projects planned and awaiting finance but these seem to range from restoring colonial era churches to setting up mobile dentists and optromocists however I'm still confused as how this is meant to be accomplished. Jose has explained that my role here is to raise funds for the projects and get volunteers to come out to take part, but without being clear on what the projects are, or even if they currently exist this is proving difficult. At least now that my Spanish is improving I should be able to broach some of these subjects. I also need to find out more about how much money the organisation has and where this goes as any potential funders will want to know this before they send out any money.

I should at this juncture highlight that it is not my intention to complain or gripe about my situation here. My role, however ill defined, is allowing me to learn and explore avenues that would not otherwise be open to me. If all I get out of this year is the experience of living in Peru for a year and improved Spanish this will be enough. I raise these points and problems to illustrate some of the challenges faced in working in Development, especially when you are working with a Southern organisation where stricture and accountability are sometimes not given the same attention as they are in Northern countries.

Bus's

Taking a bus in Peru is sometimes feel like being on an aeroplane moments before parachuting into enemy territory. Most of the busses are cramped, with seats squeesed in to maximize capacity. The lack of space is even more noticeable on the small microbuses where the seats seem to have been borrowed from nursery class rooms and bolted to the floor. Even on the crowded city roads the drivers do their best to get as close to Mach 3 as possible.

What makes it most like a parachute jump however is the exit. Buses never stop for longer than they need to so when you are approaching your designated drop zone you must cautiously exit your seat and try to make your way to the exit while the turbulence of the road buffets and bounces you off co-passengers as the vehicle navigates pot holes, speed bumps and small children.

Once you have signalled to the conductor he tells the driver to stop and the bus invariably breaks as near sound shattering speed as you grip onto the metal support bars in order to prevent yourself being thrown through the front wind screen. Even before the bus has come to a complete stop the conductor is already shouting "Baja! Baja! Baja!" (Down! Down! Down!) and so you leap off at the first possible opportunity, relived to feel solid ground beneath your feet.

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.

La Mansion

One of the projects that CIESCU is involved in is in a part of Arequipa called 'La Mansion'. La Mansion is a pueblo joven that, if the gateway welcoming people to the district is to be belived, was founded in 1996.

Like many pueblo jovens it looks very much like a building site with half constructed houses and building materials along the side of the road. Many of the people construct additions to their houses as and when they have the money so it is very common to see shafts of metal sticking up out of walls for when the home gets the next level of investment. Only a handful of homes that I saw had a completed second floor.

Many pueblo jovens and rural area's have high levels of malnutrition and paracites and anemia is common. CIESCU's project in La Masion is centred around bringing nutritional meals to school children of primary/elementary age. The idea is to use local grown ingrediants as far as possible and to have volunteers from the children's parents and families help prepare the meals under the guidence of a qualified nutritionist.

The project hasn't quite got off the ground yet however. The director of the school apparently doesn't think it's his responsability to be concerned with the childrens nutrition, only their education and has refused to allow the project to take place on the site of the school.

On Sunday I went with Jose to try and find another place where we could provide school dinners. A few of the houses had garages or large yards and we had a look at but I wasn't convinced they would be large enough to fit 100 studentshave space to cook the food.

We kept asking around and finally ended up knocking on the door of a lady who took us to a newly build house just around the corner. no one had moved in yet and there were no appliences in the kitchen, but the space was large and looked promising.

I'll be returning to La Mansion some time in the next week and hope to have more details then. But so far it's looking promising.

Pueblo Joven

Not all translating is as straight forward as I'd like. There are many words and phrases that, when translated literally, lead you down the wrong path or don't make any sense at all. Pueblo Joven is one of these.

"Pueblo" often means a "town", "village" or "settlement", although it can mean "people" in general, and "Joven" generally means "young". Initially I was led to translate it as "young people" or, because of the context as "young town". Much of these young towns suffered from poor conditions and nutrition and eventually I found out that another translation for Pueblo Joven in English is "shanty town".

When we talk about shanty towns in English we think of those areas on the edge of large cities where the poorest people from the countryside eek out an existence of poverty and hunger. However the Spanish, or Peruvian term "young settlement" carries different connotations.

The people who live in the Pueblo Jovens arn't necessarily trapped between hardship and margalization, they're just living in area's that haven’t yet matured and reached their potential. This, I believe is an important crux of Development.

I've visited a few shantytown and one in Lima struck a chord that I still remember. I was seventeen when I visited El Chancheria, the pigsty, and its only now, nearly ten years later that I begin to appreciate what I saw.

The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the car was a dog, lying dead on the dune, it's eyes burrowed out by insects and left to rot. The road was in a valley between two steep dunes, the sand wet and damp despite the fact there had been no rain there for many years. The houses that clung to the hillside were made of posts and tarpaulin, the floors the same inside the abode as outside, moist earth.

We visited a few of the houses. At the time I was with a Christian Organisation that was running several projects in the area to help the people become more self sufficent. One was a duck project, where the people were given two ducks, one male, one female. The ducks laid eggs for the peoples breakfast and, when they had chicks, these were then eaten or passed on to other families.

This micro development slowly allowed families to find other means of raising money and feeding themselves then selling sweets on the streets of Lima. There were other projects to, but sadly I don't remember them all.

The other thing that struck me was that although there were no lights or concert floors here at the expanding edge of Lima, several hundred meters up the road the houses had both, as well as more developed walls and rooms. The people still lived in what we in the comfortable rich West would term poverty, but the town was less young, more mature.

There are of course other important factors, and it is not as simple as saying that if we give enough ducks to poor people they will develop to some semblance or a shadow of our own lifestyles however I think that the idea of Pueblo Jovens is much more useful to dialogues of aid and development then simple concepts of shantytowns.

First Week

I've just finished my first week of in Arequipa and am still alive, so yay! Most of the work has been focused around translating various things into English, a report on malnutrition, some aricles from the local newspaper and some of the pages from CIESCU's website.

It's hard work, especially when you've been doing it for five hours already, but I'm happy with it. I didn't come here for a holliday and so I expected it to be tough at times. I'm glad that I can contribute in some way.

I know that sooner or later we'll go out and visit some of the pueblos and projects and that that will be more or an adventure, but to be honest I'm a little worried that I'll be just along for the ride which isn't the reason I came here. So for now I am glad that I can help out by translating.

I've actually surprised myself with how well I've taken to it and I seem to be getting the hang of it (or at least better at finding websites that do most of the work for you). It's also helping me get a greater understanding of some of the issues facing people here (I know know that low levels of albumin are a clear sign of malnutrition) and its also very good for the language.

My Spanish is coming along slowly I think, although the idea of being fluent or or understanding clearly what people say seems like a very forign idea still. I can still barely get my head around the idea of ever being fluent, but ask me again in six months time and then we'll see...

Pachacutec, Arequipa

The journey from Lima took fifteen hours. After half watching the Italian Job in Spanish my body finally relented and allowed my consciousness to sink into a sleep for a solid five or six hours. My seat on the bus which had initially seemed relatively comfortable slowly began to rebel and conspired against me to allow no further rest past five in the morning.

By now a milky dawn was beginning to descend and allowed me to look out at the window and take stock of surrounding landscape. I had anticipated a view of mountains, but the visa that appeared out of the window was an eerie landscape, flat and desolate covered in moonlike sand and dust. It was only when I caught sight of something grey rising and shimmering on the horizon that I realised that this was no mountain plateau but that I was actually still at sea level.

The road had followed the coast as far as I could tell and passed compound like settlements that seemed to have been built on the sand. Presently the road began to rise and soon enough the pressure in my ears informed me that we were now raising in altitude.

At around nine in the morning, some fifty or so hours after setting off the bus pulled into Arequipa where I was more than relieved to find myself finally meeting Jose, the director of the organisation I was to be working with.

It would have been nice if this had marked the end of my exertions for the time being however it seemed Jose had different plans. After taking me to one of his homes and introducing me to his son, daughter and ex-wife I had barely time to take my bags to the room before Jose was taking me off in his car to show me the office.

I had visited Arequipa once before, some ten years ago, and at that time had not realised quite how large the city was. It took us about thirty minutes to drive across part of the city to where CIESCU’s main office was. Here also was Jose’s second house and family who I was able to meet. I had some lunch here and then Jose took me off again to show me some projects.

My this point I wasn’t particularly together and although I tried my best to focus on what was being said I wasn’t sure how much I followed. As the afternoon drew on we finally left the project we were visiting and went back to the office. I managed to get a brief nap here and at six had some food with Jose’s second family.

It was now getting dark and I was informed that Jose was too tired to drive me back to the place where I’d left my gear and toiletries and I was offered the spare bed adjoining the office for the night. With no other choice apparent I accented and after using the internet for a little while in a vain attempt not to go to bed too early I finally retired at about 8pm local time, closer to 1am according to my body clock. Sixty –five hours or so after I had last been able to get some proper sleep.

Out of my Depth

There can have been few occasions previously in my life where I have been so completely and utterly out of my own depth.

I do not know, nor might I ever discover what precisely went wrong with my pre-arranged meet with Jose. It had all seemed so simple; get met at the airport, driven to a hostel, and then the next day ride across with Jose in his car to Arequipa. What could go wrong?

The last time I managed to speak to Jose on the phone, a conversation part-broken English and shattered-Spanish, he was already in Arequipa and truth be told I am not sure he was even in Lima the last couple of days.

From our last conversation, and the use of a friendly intermediary, I gathered that Jose had wanted me to take a taxi from the airport to a Hostel and there he would meet me the next morning.

As this conversation took place at 2am I decided against taking an unfamiliar vehicle across the strange city and opted instead to take what sleep I could on the floor of the airport where access to internet and coffee were in limitless supply.

I took a taxi round about 6:30 and made it to the Hostel an hour later. I asked to wait for my friend in the lobby but when Jose hadn’t appeared by 8:30 I decided to give him a call.

I’m not sure where everything went wrong, and I am prepared to accept that perhaps I should have confirmed plans at an earlier time, but when things are done through two or three intermediaries this can be a little difficult.

Jose, as already mentioned, was in Arequipa and given the cities distance from Lima I can only assume he was also there last night, so I am not sure what was meant to happen at 8 in the morning. Perhaps that was when I was meant to ring him?

Again through the kindness of strangers and mine and Jose’s less then perfect foreign language skills I understood the plan to be to get a ticket and to take a night bus to Arequipa in the evening.

I say “I understood the plan to be” to allow some flexibility for, already I have understood the plan to be that I would be met at the airport, and understood the plan to be that I would be picked up at the hostel. So you will forgive my reservations.

Despite these tribulations I am feeling good. I managed to sneak about four hours broken sleep in my room and these small snatches seem to sustain me. However I am sure that when I am in a suitable location I will crash and probably sleep for about four or five days.

I’m writing this from my room now, having just had some food in a nearby café, and waiting for 5pm when one of the guys from the hotel will take me to catch my bus. He has already been a great help, taking me to buy the ticket, exchange money (at a rate far superior to the airport exchange rate) and taken me to the café where I have just eaten. I am very fortunate that I have come into contact with the right people as I would certainly not be taking things so lightly if I had to rely on my own limited means.

However as I said I am in good spirits, nothing has gone terribly wrong yet and the bus (providing I catch the right one) will bring me into Arequipa tomorrow morning. What can go wrong from here?

First Blog From Peru!

I write this, my first blog from Peru, sitting in a Starbucks in the airport. My watch, now that I have changed it to local time, tells me that is its 1:45am, however my body, which I have not been able to so serrundipitiously placate, tells me that it is 7:45, 24 hours since I woke from a comfortable bed in Chester.

So far my trip has been eventful to say the least. I had origonally plannd to sort my self out with a taxi and a bus to make my way to Arequipa, but was fortnate to be offered a collect from the airport and a drive to a hostel and then to Arequipa the next day. In the back of my mind though I was always thinking "This is Peru. Nothing will be that simple."

Having traversed customs and collected my luggage with suprising expedience I emerged into the arrival lounge prepared to look for the board "Adam. CIESCU" that would indicate my contact. However no such board was present. I went back and checked four times over the next hour so I would know.

Rummaging through my papers I found Jose's number and finally managed to contact him around 12:30, over an hour after we had arranged to meet. My Spanish is not that great, especially when stressed, and Jose didn't appear to speak much English. From the few words I was able to glean I belive his reason for not meeting me was that he "didn't have time" and he suggested taking a taxi, although to where I was not even sure. (My first thought was that he meant he was busy, but after talking with my mum some hours later she suggest the more likely explination that my arrival time had not been passed on to him successfully and so he did not know what time to expect me.)

Having no experience of translating aural Peruvian place names to paper I promptly hung up on Jose declairing that "I have an idea." It took me a further twenty minutes to find somone who was able to ring Jose on my behalf and get more details. Fortunatly the airport is 24 hours so that fact that it was by now 1am was no great hinderence past the ordinary.

Jose was able to give my new found friend, who worked at the telephone cabina in thairport, the directions and he was then able to write them down on a peice of paper which, or so I am told, should be understood by a taxi driver. The address, all things being well, will take me to a hostel where I will be able to grab a few hours sleep before Jose picks me up, or doesn't -we shall see-, in the morning.

Part of me wonders if I should stay in the familiar confines of the airpor for another 6 hours and then make my way across in the morning. It would certainly be easier. Hmm that plan is now growing on me. As much as I like the idea of the adventure of traversing the city under the cloak of darkness I think a I would prefer it better after the break of dawn. If I could garentee that the hostel would be easy to find, that i would be cheap and convinient i would jump at the chance. But this is Peru, and if I did not know before I certainly do now, nothing is ever that simple.

Fundraising Quiz Night

I had my fundraising quiz last night and was blown away by the amount of support I was given by family and friends. It was important to try and keep my overheads down as I was trying to raise as much funds as possible so that fact that I was able to get the venue for free and that I had friends who made the puddings really helped.

I'd tried to publicise the event as much as I could but with it being the middle of August many people were away. Still, if I could get between 25 and 35 the event would be successful. I would have been surprised if I got more than 50.

I manged to use my local church as the venue and it worked really well. I drafted in my home group on the Thursday evening to help me set up. We were able to push the pews to one side to clear a central space and then move tables and chairs into the middle and create a nice cafe feel. There was only seats in the middle for about 45 people but I wasn't really expecting much more than that. Still, as a contingency I had some long tables brought in and was prepared to set up the pews as over flow seating if need.

I arrived early on the night to make sure everything was set up. I'd asked my brother and another friend to help me with the questions and the hosting of the event. This was defiantly a good idea as my friend Greg had run quizzes before and I was able to rely on his advice to tie things together and keep things running smoothly. My brother was also able to help with the technical stuff as well as another friend from my homegroup so I was able to get the projector and the sound to work without any trouble.

People began arriving at around 7.45 and the church began to fill. I soon realised that I had to move into the contingency when I asked people to find seats and arrange teams and was able to pull out the tables and pews I'd set aside. I never managed to make a final count of actually how many people came through the doors but it was well over 60 in the end!

Everyone seemed to have a really good night. Some of the rounds didn't work quite as well as I might have hoped but they were rounds where I'd wanted to try something a little different and if you don't try you don't know. Also, even though I had tried to make the quiz as diverse as possible I think people around my age had a bit of an advantage but I don't feel that others were excluded. Things to work on next time.

Generally everything went really well. A quiz and pudding night proved to be great idea as it kept overheads low and didn't require a terrible amount of preparation. The fact that the puddings were provided by friends and were all home cooked really helped also. When I first decided to do some fundraising I wasn't to provide an enjoyable event that people would be happy to pay £5 for and I don't think anyone left without getting a good deal. Certainly the puddings were good value for money, and I hope the quiz was as well. I

n total I took over £300 on the door but many people handed cheques with other donations in. All together I've raised about £1000 from friends and family which I think is brilliant! Ideally I'd like to raise another £1000 from other funders, but we'll have to see how that goes.

No Luck with the Gov

Well I wrote to my MP to see if there were any government run initiatives that could support young people doing voluntary work in the current climate. The good news is my MP wrote back, the bad news is she wasn't able to do anything :( It looks like the deal is just with Raleigh International which is pretty good for them as it'll mean more people will be signing up. I'm still not sure how much a Raleigh expedition will help someone get a job and to what extent it's just a gap year. I'd love to hear from anyone whose been on a Raleigh Expeditions to see if they felt it helped them develop vocational skills.

Ahead of the Curve?

One of the reason's I'm doing voluntary work overseas is because at the moment it is difficult to actually find a paid work relevant to my long term goals. At the time of writing the UK is supposedly in the deepest recession since the 1930's and, while I think this is probably not quite that bad, it is very difficult to find work for graduates at the moment.

Today I came across this article on the BBC today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8179565.stm The article is about the government encoraging graduates to do overseas work as a way of gainng job experience. They're going to be giving grants for people to work on projects with Raligh International, the organisation the Prince William went with during his gap year.

I'm in two minds about this story. On one hand it's good that I must be on the right track if the governments recommending gap years would be a good way for graduates to get experience, but on the other hand I do have some reservations about the merits of this ideal. As good as it is to go overseas and build school I don't think it necessarily gives graduate any more then the generic abilities of working as a team, being more independent and improving their people skills.

My project is very different in that I'm aiming to use specific work skills which are much more transferable to a job. Things like report writing, working on a website and conducting publicity and fundraising is much more effective for job skills then these gap year programmes. I'm resolved that my work won't just be "helping out" but doing something practical in a work based environment.

I hope that whatever the government decides to do will be similar is setting up effective vocational placements and not just end up contrabuting towards young people 'scarbon footprints. Still, maybe I should write to my local MP on the matter, might be worth seeing if I can get any funds from the government myself.

Tickets and Posters

Now I've got a venue sorted and know what kind of event I'm doing I can start working on publicity and making sure people attend. I've made up some posters that I'll put up at the local churches with all the details about the event and a short blerb about what I'll be doing with CIESCU. If I back this up with a post in the notice sheets and also make a notice in a few of the services I should be able to get people to attend (providing not everyone is away on holiday).

As well as telling people about my event I'll also try and sell some tickets before hand. People don't necessarily have to pay for them at once but if I give someone a physical ticket in exchange for a commitment to be there on the 14th I know I'll have more people attend then if I just sat back and expected people to come.

Arranging a Venue for an Event

I made a few phone calls this morning and moved a few steps forward on getting my fundraising event sorted. I've not arranged a venue, a date, a time, a theme and price for the tickets. I've also arranged to have a notice placed in the newsletters of St Mikes and Christchurch and to give some notices in the services myself in the coming weeks. Phew, not bad work for a morning!

On the downside though, the middle of August isn't the best time to organise an event as many people will be away on their hollidays. Christchurch will be especially hard hit as most of the congrigation are students. Still, I'm hoping that I can approach enough people directly to get 40-50 people to attend (although 20-30 would still be successful) and that should make a contribution to the fund raising.