Friday, September 25, 2009

The Many Meanings of Moto Horns

{{Tantas cosas que contar}}

Motos are little taxis that you can take anywhere in Urubamba for 1 sol. They (along with everyone in Peru) drive like complete maniacs (we've decided that every Peruvian driver drives like a 16-year-old), weaving in and out among other motos, cars, bikes, and pedestrians without hardly touching the brake. You think that they might be slightly cautious on some of Urubamba's crowded streets, especially during market days, but you are actually the one who needs to watch out for them.

Motos--and truly all Peruvian vehicles, but motos are the worst--use their horn for every possile reason, often instead of using their brake. Here are a few examples of moto-horn-use:

-Signifies that they are at an intersection and are not slowing down (the one time I was in a moto that stopped at an intersection, I thought the driver might be sick or something. They just don't do that)

-Signifies that they are empty and they're wondering if you need a ride

-An annoncement that they are bearing down on you, so hop out of the way quickly

-A warning to other cars and people that they exist

-An impatient way to tell other cars and motos to get a move on

-Signifies that they are getting in the opposite lane to pass someone who is a) driving too slowly, b) parked or getting passengers, c) stuck in traffic, d) just in the way of their crazed path through the city

-An annoyed remark to someone who didn't get out of the way fast enough and forced them to move over a little from their pre-determined path

-Signifies that, if you're trying to flag one for a ride, they already have a passenger

Those are the main ones I can think of; I think that to be a moto driver you have to pass a test in horn-significance-recognition or something!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Fall, By Any Other Name, is Spring

{{Son mis amigos, en la calle pasábamos las horas}}

Tomorrow is the first day of fall in Peru, called the "Day of Youth". All the children have the day off from school to celebrate with parades and fiestas, and in the big cities, teenagers will spend the evening going out to bars and clubs to celebrate their youthfulness. I can't believe that at home it's the first day of fall, where you can feel that chill in the air, you start to see the leaves change their colors. Spring here means the beginning of rainy nights (rain completely flooded the streets on Sunday) but hot hot days. I had always thought, when I came here, that the seasons, even though they were opposite, would still have the same names; it never occured to me that September could be anything other than fall. This year, however, I get to enjoy two springs!

I realized as I was writing about my adventures earlier that I mentioned the other interns by name but didn't say anything about who they are or what they're doing so everyone can understand my references to them. They are quite a great group and I am definitely dreading the beginning of October when two will leave, breaking "the original bunch".

There are 10 volunteers in total: 5 from the Princeton Bridge Year Program and 5 NGOs. We all get along really well, laughing as we paint a museum in Pisac, scheduling movie nights and nights out and trips to see the local sights. Everyone is easy to get along with and unique in their intersts, reasons for being in Peru, and stories. The 5 Princeton Bridge Year students are Tugce (from Turkey!), Brian, Leah, David, and Agnes; they'll all be staying for 9 months. Tugce, Brian, and David will start working on the stoves and filters project with me once they finish their intensive Spanish classes in October, while Leah and Agnes are working with a woman's group and an after-school care program for young children from rural communities.

The other 4--Maddie, Liz, Michaela, and Claire--are a mixed bunch, staying for varying amounts of time. Liz is taking time off between university and work and is from just outside London; she works on the stoves and filters project with me and is leaving in only 3 weeks. I know my project is going to feel quite different once she's gone; I mean, I am used to having her around almost all day, every day! Maddie is also taking a bridge year before going to Harvard; she works as a 1st-grade teacher's assistant and will leave a week before I do. Michaela is taking time off between university and work and is from Nebraska; she works with the women's group and the children's care center and leaves in just 4 short weeks. We had a big celebration for her 23rd birthday last Thursday. Claire just arrived on Saturday and will be doing some manner of education project; she is a junior in college taking a semester off and will leave in late November.

So quite a mixed group, everyone brining varied interests, accents, stories, and senses of humor to the table, which makes for lots of fun conversations and moments of "What did you just say that was? Wicked sick??". I know that this experience of being with everyone in a foreign country is going to make us tighter friends with a bond that will last across continents and for years to come.

Bricher@s, Adventures, and Soup



{{Princesas que buscan tipos que colecionar}}

That quote pretty much sums up the idea of "bricher@s": Peruvians, either guys or girls (hence the @) that go after foreign men and women to have relationships with them simply for their money. I haven't had any encounters with those yet, but the other night as we were walking home with my friend and his host siblings, a group of bricheras started talking loudly about how he'd be a "good catch". Oh goodness!

Fortunately, since bricher@s really aren't common in Urubamba (you'd have to watch out for them more in Lima or Cusco), I've been able to enjoy quite a few adventures to the surrounding area during my first two weeks here. Our first weekend the entire group--Leah, Agnes, David, Brian, Tugce, Michaela, Maddie, Liz, and I--went to the Ollantaytambo ruins, Pisac ruins, and the Pisac market. This Sunday we all went to the Pisac ruins, the Pisac market, and the Ollantaytambo ruins, which were all amazing!! I'm so impressed by what the Incas were able to accomplish with limited technology and a simple drive to make the best for their gods. The religious sites were always high up on the mountaintops because the Incas wanted their temples to be closer to the realms of the gods. That is also where they put their tombs (which we saw at the Pisac ruins) because they believed that if they did so, the condor, the symbol of the gods' life, would then swoop down and carry them to heaven. They have 3 main lives they think of: the gods' (condor), the now life (puma), and the afterlife (snake). I bought a cool ring in the Pisac market with all three of those in silver with a few stones from the area.

The Pisac market was really fun but also quite overwhelming...I'm definitely going to go back there more towards the end of my stay when I have the definite idea of exactly what I want because there is just so much everywhere! And all the stall owners trying to get you to buy their products and if you even make a move towards something of theirs, or even gesture towards it with an eyebrow, they rush to assure you that it's pure alpaca or hand made or the finest quality silver. I didn't really get a lot of photos there because there were a lot of people wandering around asking you to take photos of them for money and I didn't want them to all swoop down upon me.

I think I preferred Ollantaytambo because it was more impressive, grander where Pisac was more spread out. Ollantaytambo was an unfinished temple when the Spaniards came and then the Incans abandoned it and the Spaniards used some of the stones to buid their own churches. Pisac was already a working temple when the Spaniards came; they then took a lot of the stones to use for churches. I now can't wait to see Machu Picchu, since the Spaniards never got to that temple and never managed to destroy it!!

This past weekend Liz, Michaela, Maddie, and I had a ProPeru trip to Cusco where we had a guided tour of the Saqsayhuman, Q'enqo, Pukapukara, and Tamboachay ruins around the city. We had tours with ProPeru these first two weekends because the tourist boletos only are good for 10 days. I, personally, had more fun on that tour of the ruins than I had the weekend before because our guide didn't run us from one section of the ruins to the next, but instead stopped and explained different meanings and symbolism. It didn't seem to be her goal to move us from one ruin to the next at lightning speed, but instead let us enjoy them. Saqsayhuman gave us an amazing view of all of Cusco sprawled below; it was used for religious festivals over which presided the Inca (who was actually the king) and his wife. Q'enqo was a special religious site that united the three elements of condor, puma, and snake in one place with underground caves, high rocks, and an open, circular plaza. Pukapukara was where people coming through the area would give tribute of crops to the Inca and his wife; these were planted throughout various areas in the Sacred Valley. Tambomachay consisted of beautiful ritual baths of the Incas that used spring water to purify and cleanse mind, body, and spirit.

Of course, we couldn't be in Cusco without wandering around the town a little bit. We spent the night before in a hostel in Plaza San Blas, just up the road from Plaza de Armas, and spent those two days gorging ourselves on "American-style" food (no more soup for lunch! No more chicken and rice!). Our bodies, however, were not supremely pleased by that sudden change...all three of us did not feel entirely 100% after Friday dinner and retired after looking around Plaza de Armas a little bit. Saturday we had lots of time to explore the city before we were taken back to Urubamba, so we wandered through a book market where I found beautiful editions of books by one of my favorite authors, Mario Vargas Llosa, got ice cream on La Avenida del Sol, and people-watched from a cafe balcony above the Plaza.

Sunday we had our last big outing with our boletos: the four of us hiked 13 km from the highway bus stop to the Inca test gardens of Moray. I thought we weren't going to make it at one point about half-way through when it started pouring rain as we climbed steep, hilly road after steep, hilly road. One taxi driver stopped and told us that we really should take a taxi up because it was far and hilly, but Maddie told him we were "mujeres fuertes" (strong women) and he backed away quickly. Moray was stunning; I could not believe that the Incas had known that they could create different climates to test different crops. The scale was phenomenal and we even got to take our tired little legs all the way to the bottom to be completely surrounded by circular terrace after circular terrace spiraling up, up, up.

That's the low-down on my non-stove adventures for now. I'm off to enjoy lunch with my family...first course, of course, being soup, followed by some insane amount of rice, potatoes, and meat. No meal is complete without at least three different types of starch!!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

To Build A Fire...



{{Son de aquí, son de allá}}

I have officially completed one week in Peru! The current count: two stoves made, nails and wire installed around another six, 15 wheelbarrows-worth of heavy rocks moved, several documents edited, uncountable amounts of sawdust sifted. Making the stoves is the most fulfilling--and super fun...I mean, you get to play with mud!--activity that you can find, definitely! It's hard work, dirty work (I've come home every stove day absolutely plastered in mud and black from soot), but absolutely, beyond-words amazing. Just to see the stove grow brick by brick, layer of mud by layer of mud, the ceramic pieces aligned just so to make a level cooking surface, each chimney piece further directing the smoke out of the house and away from the lungs of the women and children who cook over them every day. And then, when you reach the end of a stove, having smoothed the last layer of covering mud flat, and you see the face of the happy new owner break into a smile as they try and feed you copious amounts of corn and eggs and peach juice. I love knowing that every stove we put in right away does something absolutely amazing.

But there are some problems with the stoves as well that Liz (the other stoves volunteer with me), Travis (one stoves leader), Jaime (another stoves leader), Kate (volunteer coordinator) and I are going to address in the next few months. ProPeru is pushing hard to get carbon credits for their stoves, and an inspector is coming out in November to test the real efficiency of their model. We need to return to every community, every house, where ProPeru volunteers have installed stoves and talk to the families to see if they really do work well for them. Some families are quite excted to receive a stove but then find that the back burner doesn't boil water as quickly as the front burner, which is vital for them because they need to cook quickly. As soon as they see this once, or even hear it from a neighbor, they revert back to the old stove model, taking away the health benefits of removing smoke from the house. Some families put too much wood in their stoves, which takes away their purpose for reducing wood use.

We want to make the most efficient, most cost effective, most environmentally friendly stoves that make the families happy, so we need to see what everyone thinks about our current model. Liz and I tested the boiling time of the current stove model yesterday and we found that it worked quite well to boil the two pots quickly and evenly as long as we pushed the wood back far enough in the stove so it was under both burners. But we're also thinking of a few other ideas for how to improve the design; maybe adding a second back door to increase air flow and allow for wood to be put directly under the back burner, or maybe using some bricks with channels to allow for greater oxygen to reach the flames. Lots still to explore!

Next post I'll give an update on my life besides stoves so far (which has been absolutely amazing!)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

¿Estudiaste en España, no?



{{España vuelve a casa}}


I am safely in Peru and I am loving every minute of it so far. The past few days have just been filled with meeting our host families and the other volunteers, wandering around Urubamba, orientation, and getting aclimitized to the altitude. There are three other volunteers with me right now: another girl taking a bridge year before going to Harvard and two girls taking some time off between university and starting a job. The Princeton bridge year kids arrive tonight and then the fun of projects begin tomorrow.

Every single person I have talked to in Peru, however, has noted one thing in particular about me: not that I'm American, not that I can't always use subjunctive properly, but that I have a "Castillian" Spanish accent. When I got picked up from Lima, the woman's son said that it made him laugh every time I spoke becuase my accent was Spanish. In Cusco, within five minutes of being picked up at the airport, they asked me when I studied in Spain. My Spanish teacher told me I need to get a Peruvian one, stat. Now it's a family joke with all of my host family here. Qué guay!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

One, Two, Three, Go!


{{¿Qué será?}}

Today is my last day in the States before I depart for Peru at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. All I can think about now is how excited I am to leave and how ready I am to meet my host family. It’s hard for me to sit here in Portland packing knowing just how soon I will be flying away and how profoundly my life is going to change as I grow during these next three months.

I realized while packing that many of you may not know exactly why I decided to take a bridge year before starting college. Simply put, I was ready for an adventure. I yearned to try new things, immerse myself in a different culture, and do public service work. Living in an unfamiliar culture would encourage me to be creative, independent, and innovative, to challenge my assumptions, and to challenge other's by turn. In the process I hope to discover new interests and talents. I am eager to apply my passions -- traveling, speaking Spanish, science and medicine, environmental work -- to a service project with real meaning, and in the process do something good for a local community and the world.

My bridge year would also give me the opportunity to take a breath before I dive head-first into the full-tilt excitement and fun of my freshman year at Dartmouth. Applying to college is a lengthy and daunting process. It’s a test of your character and your endurance. Yet the rewards are many. By putting yourself out there, you learn more about yourself and reaffirm the goodness within. So, while nerve-wracking, you ultimately light up with a smile as you choose your home for the next four years. Despite the positive outcome, I knew that after years of working hard in school, trying my best, both in class and extracurriculars, I needed a change, one that did not involve the structured world of academics. My service work in Peru allows just that. I believe I can achieve more and beyond anything imagined, if I embark first on this unique journey before starting college.

I’m signing out! Next you hear from me, my feet will be quite firmly planted in Peru!