I just posted a new video update for my very best friend Shaina up on youtube. It can be found here.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Friday, November 14, 2014
The Arpahuancas (and my current state of mind)
Word of warning. This
is not the most coherent thing I have ever written.
The past couple of months have been slightly difficult ones
for me. I joined the Peace Corps for a
variety of reasons—I knew I wasn’t ready to continue on to grad school, but
didn’t want to join my fellow grads in trying to find a job in the US. I wanted adventure. I wanted to travel. I wanted to work doing something that would
have impact, however small. I knew from
the experiences of my family members who had been in the Peace Corps that in
many ways serving in the Peace Corps changed the Volunteer more than it changed
the community the Volunteer was serving in.
I was, and to a certain extent, am prepared to accept that reality. But as my sex ed classes are wrapping up, I’m
discovering that several of my kids still can’t define birth control, can’t
tell me what HIV and AIDS stand for, and forget some key steps in how to use a
condom (Always, always pinch the tip!).
I’m moving forward with my project of house visits to mothers with young
children, and as I get to know the women and they grow more comfortable around
me the visits are growing immensely more pleasurable to do. But I have little to no support from my
health post. This is in part my fault,
because I no longer reach out and ask for the support. I’m just too used to have them make promises
they don’t keep. So I very much feel
like I’m flying solo. And some of the
problems I face with these mothers feel a bit unsurmountable. What do I tell a woman whose son has chronic
malnutrition? I teach her about foods
and dishes with greater nutrition, more vitamins, more protein, etc. But what about when her son has been sick for
the last two weeks and has no appetite?
When she lives an hour hike away from the nearest store selling fresh
vegetables and meat (and I use the word fresh lightly)? Sometimes I feel woefully unqualified to be advising
these women. Sometimes I’m certain that
a key bit of information has been lost in translation. After all, her first language is Quechua and
mine is English. We’re trying to meet in
the middle with Spanish.
I have now been in Peru for over 14 months. I have another year to finish my service the
way I want it to end. A year sometimes
feels like a lifetime and other times it feels like no time at all. How do I want to finish my service? Do I want to focus my energy on working with
individuals, or with trying to start something sustainable? Can I even use the word sustainable without
simultaneously wanting to laugh out loud?
I don’t ever want to feel like I’m staying here out of sheer stubbornness. That’s not fair to me, my family, my host
family, my community, or to Peace Corps.
And that’s not what I’m doing yet.
I’m writing this all and sharing this all with you, because I want to be
honest about what this experience has been for me. I complain a lot. I miss a lot of things in the United
States. But one of the things that
drives my complaining and unhappiness is the fact that Peru is a very unique
country. The vast majority of the people
live in poverty. But it has a HUGE
tourism industry that means that you can visit Peru without ever seeing that
poverty. It has so many first world amenities
available in the bigger cities—amenities that include hot showers, Starbucks,
Papa John’s, high-speed internet.
Volunteers here see that it is possible for comfort and efficiency and
stability to be achieved. But corruption,
greed, and classism keep it from reaching the communities where we live. And that is a hard thing to see day in and
day out.
I’m rambling a bit.
Perhaps in the coming months I will be better able to compose my
thoughts. But this is all a sort of
preface for the next story I want to share.
My town’s Patron Saint Fiesta was in mid-October. The fiesta lasted about a week and mainly
consisted of people dancing through the streets in traditional costumes. One night, they were dancing right outside my
house. I stood on the balcony with my
family, watching as the Arpahuancas danced.
They took a drinking break after a little bit and as they passed the bottle around, drinking in the uniquely Peruvian drinking circle, I wondered why they were doing it. Why they still pulled on these old costumes, why people walked with them through the streets as they danced the same steps hour after hour. And I realized right then, that I was very much an outsider watching this. These were not my traditions. I didn’t feel the same connection to them that I assume everyone else around me did. And that’s okay, because I have my own traditions that fill me with joy, my own traditions that I practice every year simply because they are comfort to me, because they are part of my culture.
But then I started to worry if these traditions will
last. If I visit Huantar thirty years
from now, will there still be men and women who know the steps? Is it any of my business how their traditions
change? I know that I am causing little
ripples by being here. I’m not the first
person to do so. I’m the fourth Peace Corps
Volunteer to live in this site, and there have been Italian missionaries for
years before that. But what exactly am I
doing here? Am I here, living so far
from home because I want to feel this differentness? This foreignness, this exoticness? Is
that fair, is that right? Why am I doing
house visits and teaching these classes?
Why am I showing movies that show a reality no here will probably ever experience? How can I ever let myself feel at home when I
know that I’m going to leave? The
obstetra (midwife/obstetrician) in Huantar told me that she was really close
with the volunteer before me, like sisters, or so she felt. Then the obstetra transferred to another town
to work, and the friendship changed—it stopped.
And that made her sad. She felt
like it hadn’t been an equal relationship, it had been a friendship perhaps of
convenience. That is what I felt
weighing down on me as I watched the dancers drink, laugh, and talk in
Quechua. That I, without even realizing
it, am making promises that I can’t keep.
The Arpahauncas started to dance again. And as they moved around in a circle, to the
sounds of tubas and accordians, pulling women from the crowd in to dance with
them, I did not feel any wash of certainty fall over me. I just watched them for a little bit
longer. Watched until I had seen
enough.
Besos.
Happy Halloween from Huantar!
How does one celebrate Halloween in a country that normally
ignores it altogether? Why by doing a little cultural exchange in said person’s
English classes, carving the largest melon around, and traveling to the coast
to hang out with a bunch of other Americans on the day itself!
Part I.
I introduced Halloween to my students by playing
Pin-the-Nose-on-the-Jack-o-Lantern.
Blindfolded and dizzied, they did their best to give ole Jacky a
nose. Nearly all of them were acceptable. I had
a video of the greatest fail (the student managed to wander all the way to the
opposite side of the classroom, all the while being cheered on by helpful
classmates shouting, “You’re almost there, you’re so close, that’s it just keep
going right!”), but it has been, by means I know not, been transferred to a file
called LOST.DIR and is un-openable. On a
sidenote, if anyone knows how to retrieve photos and videos lost in this
manner, please comment or contact me in whatever manner you can. You will be rewarded with good karma and a
sincere thank you note. Here are a few of the photos I was able to save:
I finished up class by explaining the definitions of a series of words I’d made into a word search for them all. Word searches are so popular. I cannot even begin to explain how much they all seem to love word searches.
Part II.
Calabaza is the word for pumpkin in Spanish. And there are lots of calabazas here in Peru, though none of them are orange. But in the spirit of resourcefulness, my host sisters and I used a lovely white and green calabaza for their first Jack-o-Lantern.
Nicole demonstrating both her personality and the edible qualities of the calabaza in question
Scooping out the innards
Nicole pretending, for the sake of the photo, to cut the pumpkin. She was not allowed to actually cut as she is an extremely uncoordinated seven-year-old.
Lesslye and I hard at work
Melly initially didn't want to be in the photo because she wasn't actually helping us carve it.
Jack in his completed state.
Jack in his completed spooky state
Nicole, refusing to sit at the same level as Lesslye and I for the photo. At this moment I was trying to teach Melly how to use my camera. There were a long line of mistakes before this triumph below:
The three pumpkin carvers. Nicole at long last pulled down into the frame of the picture. Her expression I think sums up how she feels about it.
Part III.
The night before Halloween, with a few other friends from my training group, I traveled to Chiclayo, a city on the nortern coast in the state of Lambayeque. I was only there for a day, but it felt so wonderful to celebrate Halloween with other Americans. We all got into the swing of things, a fact aided by the fact that I received a candy-filled care package from my Aunt Judy just hours before I headed out. Here we all are, ready for a night of trick-or-treating:
The galaxy--best group costume ever. I'm the sun, if you couldn't guess :)
Besos! And a very Happy Belated Halloween!
The Cord
I’d like to tell you all a story,
a story I like to call “The Cord.” Our
story begins months ago, innocently enough, when I decided to start having
movie nights in the municipality’s auditorium.
The auditorium is a lovely space—stage at the front, twelve rows of
tiered seating sloping up towards the door.
Each seat is cushioned in pleather, and each seat folds up and is
accompanied by its own small table that conveniently folds up into the armrest. It is space that was built using community
funds, and by god, it should be used by the community. So I submitted a solicitude for the use of the
auditorium, kindly received permission from my health post to use their
projector, and bada-bing bada-boom, I was in business.
On the day of the first movie
night, I arrived early, in order to smooth out whatever kinks were sure to
appear. My laptop connected to the
projector, both power cords worked, and my little external computer speakers just managed to bring the words, music,
and laughter of the movie in question to all the corners of the
auditorium.
That is, until the children
arrived.
You see, the largeness of the
space and the smallness of my speakers requires near absolute silence in order
for the sounds of the film to not turn into unintelligible mush. And absolute
silence is literally impossible for a large group of children under the age of
ten to maintain. I spent a good part of
the movie night walking through the aisles, shushing as I stepped. I had to pause the movie several times in
order to get the decibel level to a mildly human level. I left the auditorium that night
dismayed. Did the children not understand
that the point of a movie night was not in fact to bother your neighbors, play
on your parents borrowed cell phone, and otherwise disturb the peace? To add insult to injury, the movie I had
shown was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone—a film that to many of my generation is damn nearly holy. Sacrilege, that is what I had witnessed that evening in the auditorium. Nothing but blatant disrespect for the story
of the boy who had lost everything, except his ability to love. And magic
thrown in to boot!
Much as I wanted to end movie
night then and there, I knew I couldn’t.
Too many children had been thrilled by the prospect. They were not turned off by the progressively
deafening voices—Huantar at long last had a movie theater, an activity to do in
the evenings, a way to wile away the hours.
Who was I to now take that away?
I should now mention that the
auditorium comes equipped with four large, professional quality speakers. The problem was that they were not connected
to anything. A rather complicated
soundboard could also be found on the premises, but it too connected to nothing
but air (and a direct line to my fantasies).
Nonetheless, there was a light at the end of this hellish tunnel. I just needed to find someone who knew how
to fit all the pieces together.
So as the next week rolled around,
I put my determination cap on (much more useful than a thinking cap for these
situations) and marched into the municipality. I started with the Gerente de
Servicios Sociales.
“Elida, do you know how to connect
the speakers in the auditorium,” I asked politely
“Ay, no Keisi, you should ask the
Gerente Municipal,” she replied.
The Gerente Municipal. The man in
charge of the actual running of the municipality (excepting the mayor’s secretary
of course, who actually runs the
municipality). I knocked on his door.
“Excuse me, sir? Can I talk to you for
a moment?”
He graciously invited me in and
asked, “What can I do for you?”
“Well sir, it’s a simple matter
really. I’ve recently started showing
movies for the youth of Huantar and I was wondering if someone could connect
the speakers for me?”
Relief played across his face as
he realized I wasn’t asking for money. “But
of course! Hugo’s your man. Talk to Hugo.”
My next step was clear. I needed to figure out who was
Hugo and then find him.
I found Hugo by the next
afternoon. We happened to cross paths
and I asked him if he knew where Hugo was.
I presented my dilemma and he set off to find Yan. Yan apparently is the guy who actually knew
how to connect the necessary cords. Yan
was twining them together in a jiffy and that is when I realized we faced yet
another dilemma. Enter the cord.
“Yan, do you know if there is a
cord to connect my laptop to the soundboard?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure there’s one
around. When do you need it by?”
“This afternoon? The movie starts at five.”
“Sure, sure. I’ll have it all set up for you.”
And sure enough, at 4:45 pm, I
walked into the auditorium to a capably set-up sound system, with the cord in
question coiled up and waiting for me.
And oh what a movie night it
was! The volume was loud enough that
children could talk to their friends without bothering another soul—particularly
the most important soul in the room, and more specifically the patience of that
soul—my soul.
The movie ended and I collected my
things, leaving, per Yan’s instructions, the cord neatly coiled for him to pick
up tomorrow.
Next week’s movie night rolled
around, and, whistling a merry tune*, I strolled into the municipality to find
disaster. The speakers were once again
unplugged and the cord was nowhere in sight.
Don’t panic I told myself. This
can be fixed. I just need to find Yan.
But Yan was nowhere to be
found. The cord, which he had told me he
had borrowed from the almacen, was not in the almacen. The man in charge of the almacen, Lincoln
(who has never particularly liked me), had no idea where it was. All he knew was that it had not been
returned.
With time running out, I was left
with no other option but to start movie night, without the speakers. And once again, I was called upon to patrol
the aisles, shushing with the fury of a hundred librarians.
This would not do.
I returned the next week to
question Lincoln further. Had the cord
returned? No. Well, did he know who had
it? Yan, was his best guess. I hunted Yan down, no easy feat as either no
one has his phone number, or no one wants to give me his phone number. At last I found him walking down the street,
and, bobbing behind like a determined duckling, I tried to get to the bottom of
the matter. Where was cord? No
idea. Well, had he returned it? Yep.
Then who had it now? I’d be
better off asking Lincoln. (Fun Fact. I learned a new verb through the
course of this conversation.
Repartir. It means distribute.) I returned to Lincoln, with, I regret to say, a slightly petulant and accusatory tone creeping into my voice.
“Yan says you were the last to have the cord.”
He stared at me. I stared back. I wanted that cord, and I wanted it bad.
“Well, maybe the high school has
it. Yeah, I’m pretty sure they have
it. The municipality gave them a bunch
of computer stuff. Gave it to the
student body president.”
A new lead! Like a bloodhound on the scent I made my way
to the high school.
I asked the principal if he knew
where the cord was. He plead ignorance of
all matters. I said that the
municipality told me they gave the computer and its accessories to the student body
president. Well, I had better ask her
then, he said. Using the school schedule
we tracked her down to her home ec class.
Single-mindedly I knocked on the door, politely asking her professor if
I could borrow her for just a moment.
She came out and, mercilessly, I pounced.
“Hi Santa. How are you? Good, that’s great. Me, I'm doing good. Listen, I’m really sorry for pulling you out
of class, but I think you have a cord that I need…”
She told me she had given the
computer and all its accessories to the principal. So back we went to the principal’s
office. Ah, he now suddenly remembered,
that computer. Well, the computer
teacher was put in charge of all that business.
Quickly we scurried up a flight of stairs to the computer teacher’s
classroom. The computer? Yes, he knew where the computer was. It was downstairs, in the room next to the principal’s
office. He’d be down as soon as his
class was over, to get the key from the principal for us.
We walked back down and decided to
ask the principal ourselves. “Where was
the key?” we demanded. “Key?” he asked
innocently. "I don’t have that key. The computer teacher has that key."
It was all utter and complete
madness. A quiet voice in my head began
to whisper, “Conspiracy…conspiracy….”
The computer teacher at last
joined us. He too claimed to have no
key. By this time, a large group of
students had gathered around us. The computer teacher reached to the badge around his neck and took it off. It was clear he planned to swipe the lock
through the crack in the door.
“Turn away!” he implored of his
students. “Don’t do this at home!”
But the badge did nothing. The lock was too strong.
It was at this moment that the
principal rejoined us, with, magically, the key in his hand. I was too relieved to press the issue.
At long last I had gained entrance
to the computer and its accessories. But
I as tore through the boxes it became quite clear that I had been misled. There was no cord hidden within its depths.
Enraged, or at least mildly pissed
off, I returned to the municipality and to Lincoln, who I was beginning to
consider my enemy by this point in our tale.
“It’s not at the high school,” I
pronounced.
“Hmmm, well, then I don’t know
where it is,” he replied, making it clear that this was solely my concern.
The trail was cold. I could hardly interrogate each and every
resident of Huantar and the surrounding caserios. There was nothing left for me
to do but try and endure the increasing hell that was movie night. Which is exactly what I did, until this
Tuesday.
Because this Tuesday I noticed
that the high school’s soundboard was being stored in the same classroom where
I taught my sex ed classes. And the
soundboard had an awful lot of cords attached to it.
You see where I’m going.
THE CORD! There, resting innocently, having no idea of
the anguish and heartache it had caused, lay that godforsaken cord. A cord I
wanted nothing more of than to forget, if not for the fact that my peace of
mind was inexplicably tied to its fate.
I rushed to the principal’s
office. “I need to borrow a cord.”
And just like that, the cord was
mine. Mine to use, mine to plug in, mine
to revolutionize movie night with!
Just as it had before, the
cord changed everything. The movie’s
plot was understood and accepted by all.
The children all laughed when it was funny, they cried when it was sad,
they gasped when it was scary. It was
all that great theater should be.
So encouraged was I that I decided
to hold another movie night the very next night. I was mad with glee. That next night I made my way to
the auditorium. I plugged in my laptop
and the projector. I connected the two
and, of course, my laptop to the soundboard.
My final step was to plug in the soundboard into the wall. To give power, electricity, FIRE, to the
whole production.
Do you see where I’m going?
Nothing happened. The soundboard, that had served so
brilliantly just the night before, lay quiet.
No lights illuminated its screen.
No faint buzzing was heard whispering from the speakers along the wall. And worst of all, no sound of the movie could
be heard.
Desperately, I flicked the on and
off switch. Any second now, I assured
myself, any second now it’ll turn on.
Any second now, you’ll awaken from this fresh nightmare.
But it was not to be. The power cord to the soundboard was the same
as the one to the projector. I switched
them, and lo behold, now the projector lay quiet as the soundboard and speakers
awoke with light and sound.
Woefully, I switched the cords
again. The movie once again covered the
wall, but the words, so carefully chosen by the screenwriter years ago, could
be scarcely heard over the rioting of the small heathens come to watch. Once again, I was prowling the aisles. I was a madwoman, confiscating cell phones,
thwacking repeat offenders on the head with a pad of paper. I had been driven
to this point, to becoming this shadow of my normally cheerful self, by the
knowledge that this tale had grown, had doubled, in fact. It had become the story of “The Cords."
* This is a blatant
fabrication. I can’t whistle a tune to
save my life.
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