My latest project I’ve been working on has been community banks. A couple of weeks ago me and my fellow small business volunteers went to a weeklong training event where we brought a member of our community, our ‘socio’, to learn the concept and strategies for implementing a community bank in our towns. The basic concept of a community bank is to form a group of people within the town of people that you know and have confidence in. The members then start to contribute to a communal fund every week say 10 soles and after a month they can start taking loans from this communal fund, which will have an interest rate attached to it. It supposed to provide a quick and easy loan source (while promoting saving), that people can generate themselves and therefore keep all the interest on loans for themselves as well. That is the basic idea and then all of the specific details (brought forth by a committee of president, secretary etc.) should be spelled out clearly in the rules and regulations that each group comes up with, such as the terms of the loans, who can be a member, how much they will contribute each week and so forth.
So the socio I brought to the event was very receptive to the idea and we decided to start promoting it as soon as we got back. We decided to have a general meeting in the town hall to explain the concept to people interested and then if they can get their groups formed we could give them more one on one attention. To start the promotion we talked to the mayor and asked him to help with the location of the meeting, use of their projector, and maybe some of the cajas (the box where the money is actually held with three locks). He seemed interested in the idea as well so we started by makings some invitations with my name and signature on it and then space for the mayor’s as well. Shortly after I went back to the mayor for him to sign the invitations, but he said just go ahead and send them out the way they were. I thought it was a little strange that he didn’t want to sign it anymore but didn’t think too much into it. The next day my socio and I went out in the community to hand out the invitations and basically talked to anyone who would listen. We also had the chance to go to a meeting of all the vendors of the local market and pitch the idea. From there my socio recommended that we borrow a loud speaker and drive around the town announcing the reunion for the next day. I thought the idea was a little strange but thought why not, so I convinced my host dad to drive us around in his moto while we promoted our event.
The day of the event I went to talk to the mayor to confirm everything I had planned for my presentation. That day he decided to inform me that the projector ‘isn’t working’ conveniently so I had to scramble to find another projector all morning. Luckily my socio had contacts at a NGO a few towns over and went and got a projector from them for us to use. I figured that we were good to go after that so I prepared to go on as planned. Then we went to go get the key for the town hall about an hour before the event, where we were pleasantly informed by the guard that he had heard nothing about this event and that people had been painting in their earlier and that it wasn’t ready. Again this seems like it would have been good information to know beforehand that my mayor conveniently forgot to mention. Yet, once again my socio came through and got the keys to the Church’s meeting space right across from the town hall. So we set up and waited for the people to come. The meeting was planned for 7:00 p.m., and at said hour there were a whopping total of two people in attendance. Now I know that Peru is infamous for being late to meetings but I was still pretty worried. 7:15 a few more people come in, but still not feeling too good. Then 7:30 we start to get a steady trickle and at about 7:50 we decided to get started. The presentation went pretty well, and we even got a nice discussion going afterwards with some well targeted questions.
The next day a group informed us that they already had their members formed and that they were planning their first meeting for next week, which is all I could ask for and more. On another note, I have since learned about some differences among not only the socio I’m working with but also my host dad with the current mayor that made it clear why he became so unsupportive so fast. However, I’m hoping he can look past that for my work and realize that I’m not involved in it. But anyway, since the meeting I´ve had countless people asking me about this community banks idea and ojala it will materialize.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A Peruvian Christmas
So it has been quite a while since my last post, and I would like to attribute that to me being busy, and while at times I have, other times not. This past month has really been a blur and it’s hard to believe I’m now writing in 2011. Since my last post, among other things I’ve been to what seems like countless family celebrations of one sort of another, helped in the organizing of a college fair in the town over, and had my first Peruvian Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. So while there is a lot to reminisce upon, I think the Christmas was one of the most interesting cultural experiences, interesting in the sense of not just differences from my own experience with the holiday but also the similarities (the first one being that it was about 85 and sunny as opposed to 20 and snowing).
To start, since Peruvian is an overwhelming catholic nation I noticed a lot of similarities in the way many of us celebrate in the states. They have nativity scenes and a Christmas Eve mass just as I have experienced but yet were a little different. Leading up to the holiday I had been asking people what to expect. What were the customs, what do people do afterwards, do they exchange presents etc. I found that some families will exchange gifts but there isn’t much emphasis on it, or at least not in my town, probably due the economic status of the families, the most important thing is to have a large family meal. Also leading up to the big day there are a wide array of ‘Chocolatadas’ that are held in the town from the plaza to neighborhood corners. As the name suggests there is hot chocolate served but also with Paneton (fruitcake), and usually chicken sandwiches. And to digress for a moment, Fruitcake is a craze in Peru. Leading up the holidays it’s almost in impossible to enter a store without finding a tower of the popular treat (although I must admit it is better than what I’ve had in the states). It is customary to eat it with hot chocolate or even some times soda I found, starting from about December 1st onward. But back the event, it is held for the kids, where they group together to dance and play various games from musical chairs, to trivia. Then at the end, they receive a gift, such as a doll or toy car. People form committees to raise funds far in advance, and since my host mom was on one I got to help out a little bit and experience it firsthand.
Then back the holiday itself, the main thing I got early on was that there is a difference in the timing of our celebrations. In the states where we typically celebrate on the 25th with a dinner around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, Peruvians celebrate at 12, midnight the night before. This traditional is simply called the Noche Buena. My family and most of the others in the town went to the evening mass that started at “8:30”, so we strolled in around 9:30. I had been to the church for various other things, but I think this was my first mass since I’ve been here and it certainly brought me back to my days growing up, fighting with my parents about having to go, but it was also kind of nice feeling to just be with so many people in my town and to not stick out as a foreigner whatsoever.
Then after all the farewells we all started back to the house for a long awaited meal. Now, going into the holiday I was expecting the meal to be lot different, being halfway across the world, yet to my surprise the most traditional meat served in Turkey. In addition to turkey people serve other meats, bread, empanadas, tamales, hot chocolate, and the much beloved, Paneton. We all managed to hold out till 12 am where it is customary for everyone to kiss a baby Jesus doll and then put him into his place in the Nativity scene in the home and then dig in. After dinner is where the tradition will vary from family to family, but there is generally drinking involved in the house or elsewhere. Some families will party till the wee hours in the morning, others will go out to a bar or club. My family stayed in and we enjoyed some wine and music, till about 3:30 or so, when I fell into bed exhausted from the day’s festivities.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Artisan Fair Lima
So this past week I attended the long awaited artisan fair with two representatives from my town. The fair was held at the U.S. embassy and was meant to be not only a fair to sell products but more of a learning experience in general. It was a two day event, with the first full of workshops on customer service and commercialization of their products. In the case of my artisans that would be ceramics. They have been making ceramics since 2007 at a workshop provided by the municipality. The idea behind the initiative was to teach some marketable skills to people in the community and provide another source of income. It apparently was very popular to start out and there were about 25 students that would show up to learn some techniques. When I arrived to my site they were down to 6… so I suppose it lost some of its popularity but nonetheless the ones that remain have picked up some pretty good skills and I think they have a lot of potential, just lack a little organization.
Being that they lacked the organization they also lacked to resources to travel to the fair. The peace corps was able to provide a portion of the costs but for the other costs we had to petition the municipality for some help. After some formalities and multiple conversations I got the municipality to donate their bus tickets to and from Lima. So after some last minute finishing of pottery and packing we got on the bus headed for Lima about 10 pm and arrived next morning at around 9 am. Overnight busses are pretty common here being that the airports aren’t available or affordable to most of the citizens. After the not so comfortable ride we got to the Peace Corps headquarters and dropped off our stuff, relaxed a little bit and then headed over to the embassy for our afternoon of various presentations. The presentations were put on by present and past volunteers mostly to illustrate some of the basic concepts to selling. Overall they were well done and I hope that my artisans learned something from it. After the presentations I went with some other volunteers to share an important cultural element with our artisans, Papa John’s. Now I’ve had some pizza in the next town from my site but nothing quite compares to an Xtra large from the Papa. Afterwards we went to the hostal to reunite with some other volunteers and to get some much needed rest.
We awoke early in the morning on Friday to get the embassy to set up our stand. Everyone was working feverishly to get all their products situated just right and to make all the last minute preparations. In our preparations back at our site we had forgotten to bring bags so another volunteer and I went out on a search and got back just as the fair was starting. Overall the fair was a success; the employees from the embassy came in generally during their lunch break to do some shopping for themselves or friends. It was pretty slow for my group at first and I could see the look of disappointment on their faces. However, a couple of hours in someone came along and liked what they saw and bought 4 pieces at once and little by little they sold some other works. As the fair was winding down another gentleman came along and bought a smaller piece, a turtle for 8 soles. As he was awaiting his change he then started looking at one of the other pieces, and began pondering another purchase. The piece he was looking at was a 3 foot tall pot with the giant face of an owl, something I was even skeptical about them trying to bring. After some deliberation and convincing on our part he bought it for 220 soles, (and doubling their sales for the day). Shortly after we packed up the remaining pieces and I helped them get back to the bus station and helped send them off.
Overall I think it was a success. My artisans may have not sold quite as much as they had envisioned but I’m convinced there will be some positives from the event. For example they realized they have to have various sized pieces and make more things that could be packed into a suitcase and survive a trip in an overhead storage bin. Apart from that I think they just need to work out some new designs including making their products more functional rather than ornamental.
Afterwards I decided to stay an extra night and re-unite with some fellow volunteers to celebrate my birthday. We went out to a bar in Barranco and enjoyed ourselves after some hard work getting our artisans ready and through the fair. On Saturday we hung out in a district in Lima called Miraflores and got our commercialism fix (including a lunch at Chili’s complete with a birthday dessert) before boarding our overnight busses back to our sites that night.
Being that they lacked the organization they also lacked to resources to travel to the fair. The peace corps was able to provide a portion of the costs but for the other costs we had to petition the municipality for some help. After some formalities and multiple conversations I got the municipality to donate their bus tickets to and from Lima. So after some last minute finishing of pottery and packing we got on the bus headed for Lima about 10 pm and arrived next morning at around 9 am. Overnight busses are pretty common here being that the airports aren’t available or affordable to most of the citizens. After the not so comfortable ride we got to the Peace Corps headquarters and dropped off our stuff, relaxed a little bit and then headed over to the embassy for our afternoon of various presentations. The presentations were put on by present and past volunteers mostly to illustrate some of the basic concepts to selling. Overall they were well done and I hope that my artisans learned something from it. After the presentations I went with some other volunteers to share an important cultural element with our artisans, Papa John’s. Now I’ve had some pizza in the next town from my site but nothing quite compares to an Xtra large from the Papa. Afterwards we went to the hostal to reunite with some other volunteers and to get some much needed rest.
We awoke early in the morning on Friday to get the embassy to set up our stand. Everyone was working feverishly to get all their products situated just right and to make all the last minute preparations. In our preparations back at our site we had forgotten to bring bags so another volunteer and I went out on a search and got back just as the fair was starting. Overall the fair was a success; the employees from the embassy came in generally during their lunch break to do some shopping for themselves or friends. It was pretty slow for my group at first and I could see the look of disappointment on their faces. However, a couple of hours in someone came along and liked what they saw and bought 4 pieces at once and little by little they sold some other works. As the fair was winding down another gentleman came along and bought a smaller piece, a turtle for 8 soles. As he was awaiting his change he then started looking at one of the other pieces, and began pondering another purchase. The piece he was looking at was a 3 foot tall pot with the giant face of an owl, something I was even skeptical about them trying to bring. After some deliberation and convincing on our part he bought it for 220 soles, (and doubling their sales for the day). Shortly after we packed up the remaining pieces and I helped them get back to the bus station and helped send them off.
Overall I think it was a success. My artisans may have not sold quite as much as they had envisioned but I’m convinced there will be some positives from the event. For example they realized they have to have various sized pieces and make more things that could be packed into a suitcase and survive a trip in an overhead storage bin. Apart from that I think they just need to work out some new designs including making their products more functional rather than ornamental.
Afterwards I decided to stay an extra night and re-unite with some fellow volunteers to celebrate my birthday. We went out to a bar in Barranco and enjoyed ourselves after some hard work getting our artisans ready and through the fair. On Saturday we hung out in a district in Lima called Miraflores and got our commercialism fix (including a lunch at Chili’s complete with a birthday dessert) before boarding our overnight busses back to our sites that night.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Some Peruvian Culture
I have now been in Peru about three months and I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of cultural differences, some more stark than others. After reflecting on some of the differences I realize that at first there were some things that caught my attention right away but after a little while I’ve just come to accept them and not really notice them anymore.
An easy place to start with this entry is the concept of Guinea Pigs. Yes, Peruvians eat guinea pigs and they are more or less a delicacy. When I or my fellow volunteer’s tell others here that we have them as pets in the states is always good for a laugh. Here they have been eaten for centuries dating back to the Incans and will undoubtedly continue to do so. Peruvians love to go on about how healthy meat is, citing the fact that is has no cholesterol or fat. This may be true but in my experience, there also isn’t much meat. Compared to other food here it’s very expensive and only eaten from time to time. In addition to eating, it’s also used for another purpose, to diagnose illnesses. Now when I first heard this I just thought it was folklore but I’ve come to realize it is still practiced, particularly in the mountainous regions of the country, where they have curanderos (healers more or less) more frequently. The idea behind the ‘ritual’ is to take a live cuy and ‘pass it’ over the sick person’s body. After it is thoroughly passed over the body, it is then cut open. Now the idea is to examine the body of the cuy and if it has a bad liver, the patient has a bad liver or bad heart and so on. There is also a similar practice called passing the egg, where they do the same procedure, then crack the egg into a cup of water, then the curandero will ‘read’ the way the egg is displaced by the water and diagnose the person. Now, these are probably on the more extreme end of the beliefs I’ve come across and not necessarily representative of the country, but thought they were interesting.
Moving on, there is the topic of Peruvian parties, from birthdays to town religious festivals. From what I’ve seen they take their fiestas seriously and rarely miss the opportunity to do so. For birthday parties for example, it is customary for the person having the birthday to throw a party, inviting all the guests, provide all the drinks, and even provide a dinner for everyone. Needless to say this can be a big investment and the exact details will vary depending on each individuals or families economic status. But either way they like to start it off with an hora loca. This is where the birthday guy or gal will stand in the middle of the room with the other guests forming a circle around them and then have an hour of dancing, confetti, masks, jester hats, silly string, you name it. The guests are supposed to take turns dancing the lucky guy or gal and keep it up for the hour. After that people will start (or continue) drinking and wait for the food. After food is more drinking, followed by some obligatory dancing, followed by some more drinking most likely. Also in all of Peru, parties or casual get-togethers there is the concept of a drinking circle. Now this was something we were told to get down right away to start our cultural adaption off right. It starts off with one beer and one cup. The first person serves themselves, passes the bottle to the right, drinks their serving and passes the cup to the next person who then repeats this process. So yes there is one beer (maybe bottle of liquor) going around at once with one cup for everyone in the circle. After you’re done with your beer it is customary to shake the glass out, as an effort to keep it sanitary. Also if a man has a woman to his right he is obliged to serve her first before serving himself and if there is more than one he should serve them all before taking his turn. This seemed very strange to me at first but now just seems normal and drinking from my own bottle feels weird.
And the last thing I’d like to add to this entry is that, so far I’ve noticed that Peruvians have been extremely amiable overall. I was worried coming in that I might receive some inhospitable welcomes or negative sentiments towards North Americans in general, but overall everyone has been very friendly to me and my fellow volunteers. People we haven’t even known have readily offered their advice, recommendations, and even cell phone numbers and addresses should we ever get into trouble.
An easy place to start with this entry is the concept of Guinea Pigs. Yes, Peruvians eat guinea pigs and they are more or less a delicacy. When I or my fellow volunteer’s tell others here that we have them as pets in the states is always good for a laugh. Here they have been eaten for centuries dating back to the Incans and will undoubtedly continue to do so. Peruvians love to go on about how healthy meat is, citing the fact that is has no cholesterol or fat. This may be true but in my experience, there also isn’t much meat. Compared to other food here it’s very expensive and only eaten from time to time. In addition to eating, it’s also used for another purpose, to diagnose illnesses. Now when I first heard this I just thought it was folklore but I’ve come to realize it is still practiced, particularly in the mountainous regions of the country, where they have curanderos (healers more or less) more frequently. The idea behind the ‘ritual’ is to take a live cuy and ‘pass it’ over the sick person’s body. After it is thoroughly passed over the body, it is then cut open. Now the idea is to examine the body of the cuy and if it has a bad liver, the patient has a bad liver or bad heart and so on. There is also a similar practice called passing the egg, where they do the same procedure, then crack the egg into a cup of water, then the curandero will ‘read’ the way the egg is displaced by the water and diagnose the person. Now, these are probably on the more extreme end of the beliefs I’ve come across and not necessarily representative of the country, but thought they were interesting.
Moving on, there is the topic of Peruvian parties, from birthdays to town religious festivals. From what I’ve seen they take their fiestas seriously and rarely miss the opportunity to do so. For birthday parties for example, it is customary for the person having the birthday to throw a party, inviting all the guests, provide all the drinks, and even provide a dinner for everyone. Needless to say this can be a big investment and the exact details will vary depending on each individuals or families economic status. But either way they like to start it off with an hora loca. This is where the birthday guy or gal will stand in the middle of the room with the other guests forming a circle around them and then have an hour of dancing, confetti, masks, jester hats, silly string, you name it. The guests are supposed to take turns dancing the lucky guy or gal and keep it up for the hour. After that people will start (or continue) drinking and wait for the food. After food is more drinking, followed by some obligatory dancing, followed by some more drinking most likely. Also in all of Peru, parties or casual get-togethers there is the concept of a drinking circle. Now this was something we were told to get down right away to start our cultural adaption off right. It starts off with one beer and one cup. The first person serves themselves, passes the bottle to the right, drinks their serving and passes the cup to the next person who then repeats this process. So yes there is one beer (maybe bottle of liquor) going around at once with one cup for everyone in the circle. After you’re done with your beer it is customary to shake the glass out, as an effort to keep it sanitary. Also if a man has a woman to his right he is obliged to serve her first before serving himself and if there is more than one he should serve them all before taking his turn. This seemed very strange to me at first but now just seems normal and drinking from my own bottle feels weird.
And the last thing I’d like to add to this entry is that, so far I’ve noticed that Peruvians have been extremely amiable overall. I was worried coming in that I might receive some inhospitable welcomes or negative sentiments towards North Americans in general, but overall everyone has been very friendly to me and my fellow volunteers. People we haven’t even known have readily offered their advice, recommendations, and even cell phone numbers and addresses should we ever get into trouble.
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