Getting busy and Canoñcillo

During these past couple weeks I would have to say I’ve been fairly busy. The tourism idea is taking a bit more form, and we have some good people to start working with. Also I’ve started working with a fellow volunteer on an annual international marathon in the town over that was started by a previous volunteer 3 years ago and is growing stronger year by year. Also, we’re trying to get a college fair together for all high school students in the Province. In addition, this past Wednesday there was tourism fair, where all high school tourism clubs in the area were invited to partake in the sharing of culture, dance, and gastronomy. I must say that my town’s stand we was well put together and my opinion, the best in the fair. It gave us the chance to showcase the ancient Moche culture, artisan work, and the two biggest companies in my town, a national yogurt producer and hydroponic lettuce farm.

And as the title precludes, I went on a trip to Canoñcillo with my host dad, some friends, and another volunteer. Now this was an experience all in its own, from just the planning to the trip itself. This trip was borne out the initiative of my host dad. Canoñcillo is known as a ‘national park and archaeological complex’. And more simply it’s a forest in the middle of the desert. But anyway my host father has had the ideas for years to take horses from my town to this forest and we had been mulling it over for quite some time. After a while my dad finally found someone willing to lend us five horses to take from my town to the bosque, for what my dad says is a hour and half trip but I think in reality would be closer to three. But anyway, we supposedly had them ‘guaranteed’ and the Thursday before our Saturday trip my dad and I went to talk to man who we were going to get the horses from. Well by went to talk I mean, I waited in the street for him to come back from working in the fields, and was told to look for a “man driving a cart with a grayish horse, younger than me with a hat”. Seemed strange but simple enough and on the second try found the man I was looking for. After a quick and mildly decipherable exchange I realized the horses were longer available, and that they were in fact not his own, but rather horses that he cared for and since we had struck a deal he had gotten in a fight with the owner, long story short there goes the horses.

So my dad and I were rightly disappointed and on such short notice it proved impossible to get other horses, however we decided to hitch a ride there and go on with the trip on foot. After a 5 am wake up we all met up in the next town over and got on combi to a neighboring town called Cruce de San Jose. From there we found a taxi to take us near the entrance to the forest. From there we started our journey, water and lunch packed away (I was lucky enough to get the 2.5 liter bottle of limonada in my pack). After a short while we arrived at the entrance and it was truly impressive, a lush forest in the middle of sand and bare mountains, with multiple lagunas and various forms of wildlife. It’s not a secret but certainly not visited very frequently and it was a breath of fresh to see no paper or bottles littered throughout the ground. After a few of hours of hiking we neared the end of the forest and came to the huge sand dunes. From here we took a little break and my host dad started to charge on toward what I would describe as a mountain. Myself and the rest of the group thought he was kidding when we said we’re going to the top but after a few minutes, we realized he was on a mission. After trekking through the sand we stopped to where we thought we were going to turnaround, but sure enough my 67 year old host dad kept going and eventually went out of site. We decided to go on in the hopes of finding him and mid way through the trip reluctantly decided to finish the journey to the top. After what seemed liked hours of trekking up we reached the top and got to enjoy our deserved sense of entitlement and spectacular view. The mountain had a huge streak of sand going down the middle of it and we decided to race down, mid way through having to stop to take a rest.

We then meandered our way back through the forest and stopped at the largest lake to eat our lunches and enjoy a little siesta on the banks. We then finished our journey back the way came and after passing through some fields got back to the beginning where we celebrated with a Cusquena Negra (a dark beer they have here, that almost tastes sugary) and relaxed. We then took some moto taxis to the next town where we found a taxi back my town. Shortly after arriving home and eating some ceviche my host mom had made I settled in and took a long awaited nap.

Getting into a Rhythm, Mas o Menos

The Peace Corps schedule can be both a breath of fresh air and a source a frustration. I say this because it is really up to each individual what schedule, what projects, which people they choose to work with so on, but sometimes it hard to schedule meetings, and to find punctuality in general. Some days I’ll find myself busy from sun up to sun down and others I’ll spend most of my time trying to find things to do. So essentially we have a lot of freedom to pursue what we see fit so long as that we can articulate what we are doing in either conversations with our coordinators or monthly reports to our directors. The volunteer’s goal for the first three months is to get to know the community they have been placed in and to write a community diagnostic. The community diagnostic is a holistic report where we are told to write about the social, health, economic, etc. factors of our site and then draw from this some conclusions and some directions we would like to pursue. Every report is undoubtedly different and the focus depends on what program you are in (business development in my case). I have certainly started this process, trying to meet as many people I can, trying to build some relationships with organizations in my town, conducting formal interviews, and just hanging out.

I find it difficult to express what a typical day is at site as I’m sure many of my other peers are experiencing, but after about a month and half I have at least a general outline. As of the now the organization I’ve been working most with is an artisan group in my town that makes ceramics. It was the result of an initiative by the municipality to create some work opportunities in the town, by supplying a decent sized local to house their workshop. Currently the municipality has also contracted a professor from a neighboring town to teach them new techniques Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ll generally go in on these days to observe, actually learn myself, and to try to figure out ways to help build their business. In about a month we have an artisan fair at the U.S. embassy where volunteer’s can bring two representatives from their group to sell their products and to also have a full day of workshops. I attempted to have a workshop about product design and strategy of my own this past Monday but arrived only to realize that half the group was there… However, I did have it on Wednesday and it went fairly well. I think they got the concepts I was trying to teach but the test will be if they will actually use them in the future.

Also there is also a group of young and adolescent workers (affiliated with a larger national group) that were formed a number of years ago. Since one of my goals here is to promote youth entrepreneurship this group seemed to be a perfect fit; however there appears to be some improvements needed. It seems as they are pretty loosely organized and could use a little more motivation and some more ideas as far as revenue generating activities. I have been going to their meetings and also a workshop put on my some NGO’s in a neighboring town where they were invited to learn about some broader social issues and how they affect Peru. Apart from those two groups I have been trying to interview some various organizations in my town and trying to find other ways to obtain material for my report including a survey I made and will proctor next week to try to find out some beliefs attitudes toward small business opportunities in the area. Another thing that I know I will work on is trying to get more tourism to my town. My town really has a lot to offer with its nice climate, fertile valley, and some great archeological sites dating back to a pre-Incan civilization called the Moches. The only problem is that there aren’t any established guides offering neither tours nor a museum to showcase the artifacts that have been found here.

So while it may be a little while before I get busy, my work seems to be taking shape at least. I’ve found myself getting a little more comfortable with my Spanish day by day and think that I’m getting closer to my host family as well. I’m looking forward to the upcoming artisan fair in Lima and will keep my eyes open for more opportunities to take form.