Lands Less Traveled

Six months in Peru

2012-02-29T06:16:00.000-08:00

February has arrived and along with it the torrential rains that mark Summer here. I think we were going on 27 straight days of rain when finally the sun came out for a few precious days. Along with the rain, our power and phone service has been intermittent as well as our ability to travel out of La Jalca as mudslides blocked most of the roads and the Utcubamba River overflowed its banks. People here are saying it’s the worst rain they’ve seen in years. They are also saying March is much worse!

Losing a boot in the mud

On the bright side…our Environmental Club is awesome. We went to the museum in Leymebamba last week and because the electricity was out all over the region, we were the only visitors that day and got VIP treatment. We got to go inside a climate controlled room where archaeologists are doing research on 300 mummies unearthed from the Laguna de los Condors nearby. The mummies were buried with their possessions inside large statues carved into the cliff sides. It’s one of the most abundant, intact archaeological finds in this region so far which remains largely unexplored. Afterwards we visited a native tree reforestation area and a fish farm. So that was pretty cool for us and the students. Another week we made popcorn and showed the Planet Earth Fresh Water movie with Spanish subtitles and the community authorities came and watched. This week, the students wrote letters to kids in the States and it was so much fun. Translating their letters before sending off was illuminating. Every single student wrote about their dreams, what they want to be when they ‘grow up’: Doctor, policewoman, astronaut, lawyer, agro-industrial engineer, civil engineer. Now is their summer vacation but every one of them goes to their families chacra’s (farms) at the crack of dawn to work in the fields. They all said they didn’t like it because it was back breaking work but it was a way to help their parents, who are all subsistence farmers, and a motivator to study hard and do well in school. I hope they all get the chance to go to University after they finish high school. One student wrote about how much she loves books. She said “Books are my life”. It’s a real challenge to find books in Spanish here and they are unbelievably expensive. There’s no library in this region, which has gotten me thinking about another future project…

Brian and I with some of the Environment Club in Leymebamba

Our plans over the next few weeks are to finish up our community diagnostics to present to our Directors and the community and to do some traveling over the Semana Santa holiday at the beginning of March. I’ve been collecting hundreds of seeds and saplings for the tree nursery and we’re planning a community seed gathering day for March. Hopefully we can really get the nursery up and running soon. Brian is doing his thing and charming, ahem, educating, the whole town into wanting to chlorinate their water. Poco a poco, or little by little, good things are ahead.

Thank you to everyone sending notes, emails and care packages our way. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate reading news from home and all the tasty treats.

With our host family at Danny's 16th birthday party

Feliz Año Nuevo

2012-01-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

It’s a new year and the beginning of mango season here. We’ve been spending our free time getting to know the hiking paths around La Jalca, visiting the spectacular ruins in the area and on Sundays we usually head to the weekend market in Yerbabuena. It’s a couple hour trek down the mountain out of the “eyebrow of the jungle”, the name for the cloud forest climate region where we live. At the bottom, in the village of Ubilon, we hike along the Utcubamba River for another hour or so and arrive to the bustling market where we stock up on spices, meat, mangos and avocados and then hop on the truck for a butt numbing ride back up the mountain to La Jalca. We bought beef at the market for the first time and it was rather amusing. We picked the most crowded of the vendors in the row of meat stalls and pointed at the part of the skinned cow we wanted that we thought most resembled a filet. The petite señora slapped the carcass down on the wood stump, pulled out an axe and in a few bone crushing hacks we had about 3 lbs of meat from which we made a steak dinner and fantastic stew the next day. At the spice stall we found dried truffles for about $1 and they were a perfect accompaniment.

The amount of biodiversity here is incredible. On a hike with one of the community officials I asked about medicinal plants and within minutes she had plucked an armful of different leaves that are used for everything from soap to curing malaria. There is a lot of discussion at meetings we’ve attended to make this region a natural protected area in order to preserve the biodiversity, which is exciting for us to be a part of.

The holidays here were quite a different experience. It feels like we’ve stepped back in time. There were masses and processions through town and celebrations of the Saints with music, dancing and eating. In the days leading up to Christmas, we attended our first celebration in the community complete with a candlelit procession to the 500 year old cemetery. The band played traditional folk music and men carried a beautifully decorated float of San Roce on their shoulders while women and children followed behind with lanterns. The stone church in the cemetery was filled with candles and calla lilies and we were unexpectedly welcomed by the priest at the mass and introduced to the congregation. Afterwards, a feast was held with more live music and dancing well into the night.

For Christmas we found a small synthetic pine tree in the store, decorated it with some lights and played our Ella Fitzgerald Christmas songs playlist way too many times. Thanks to our wonderful family and friends in the states we had cards and gifts under our tree to open Christmas morning and a mini ‘Nacimiento’ or Koresh. It was a quiet holiday but we were happy to have each other to share it with.

Our year in review - a family tradition.

On New Years we visited Kuelap, an ancient, sprawling mountaintop ruin that rivals Machu Picchu in size. It was spectacular.

Our first week

2011-12-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here in La Jalca for over a week. And what a week it’s been. We spent our first couple days ‘decorating’ our one room home and making it more comfortable to live for the next couple years. We had a carpenter make us a bigger bed frame and bought a straw and cotton mattress that sort of fits the frame. We splurged on nice sheets and heavy wool blankets. We made a kitchenette with a desk, a two burner gas stove, new pots and pans and added some tacky yet charming Christmas lights shaped like grapes for ambiance. Since installation we’ve been cooking some tasty Peruvian-American fusion meals with ingredients like quinoa, lentils, ají, saffron and queso fresco.

We’ve both had great meetings with the community leaders and are really excited to start on projects here. Brian has a lot of community support for improvements to the water system and I have plans to start a native tree reforestation project with the fledgling nursery here. Right now they only have Eucalyptus and Pine seedlings, both invasive. We had a chance meeting with the national and regional directors of Agrorural, a government land management program, the Director of the Inter-American Bank, and other NGO’s in the region and it went great. Everyone was really supportive of a native tree nursery and reforestation project. We are feeling like our arrival here is welcome and needed.

Our plans over the next couple weeks are to build on the momentum we’ve got, start planning projects with the community and hopefully take some time to go exploring and see the fantastic ruins that dot the landscape around our town. We discovered a book in the municipality that was written in 2003 by a German Anthropologist with hand drawn trekking maps of the region dotted with ruins, caves and tons of information on the history of the area.

The road to La Jalca

2011-12-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday we packed our suitcases and ourselves into a Volkswagen and headed from Chachapoyas to La Jalca. A half hour later the pavement disappeared. We rattled down the road alongside the Utcumamba River for an hour before the driver stopped.

He pointed to one of the green cliffs towering above the river. On cliff face vegetation obscured stone fortifications. Pre-Incan the driver said.

How old? A thousand years? The driver smiled. “Much older,” he replied.

The driver stopped the car a few miles further in front of a stone laid near the road. Someone had carved a puma into the rock centuries ago.

An hour-and-a-half into the journey, our driver turned into the dirt path that led to La Jalca. It’s a half hour of switchbacks in a car or grueling hour-and-half 2,200 feet up the mountainside.

A rusted sign points to a dirt path, which leads to the lost city of Ollape - built by the same people who carved the puma and laid the stone along the cliff faces. Our driver headed straight and dropped us of off at our new home for the next two years.

Heading to Site

2011-11-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

Our first bit of news is that we know where we'll live for the next two years. Our town is La Jalca Grande in the Department of Amazonas. We'll be the first volunteers in our region and pioneers for the Peace Corps there.

Amazonas (the narrow yellow one on the map!)

We returned from our site visit last week and are ecstatic about our placement. We're located in the Northeastern highlands of the country in what is called the "Ceja de la selva" or "Eyebrow of the jungle". The elevation is 9,840 feet above sea level in a cloud forest. It's unbelievably green, rustic and like stepping back in time. There are about 3,500 people in La Jalca and several smaller villages nearby. The main modes of transport are via horse and good old walking. The climate is temperate, between 55-75F year round and pretty chilly at night. We'll get an intense rainy season starting when we arrive. Our host family seems lovely and we have a huge room that needs lots of love. The community seems really excited to have us there even if most have never heard of the Peace Corps. It seems like there are a lot of great projects we're hoping to start working on. We'll be about 2.5 hours via car from our department capital of Chachapoyas. We'll also be about 24 hours via bus from Lima but we did hear that starting in May there will be a national flight service from Lima to Chachapoyas. Just in time for us to have visitors!

Plaza de Armas, La Jalca

View from our site, La Jalca

Chachapoyas

The region has a lot of ecotourism opportunities like Gocta Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. There are archaeological ruins like Kuelap and Revash. We can actually see the walls of the ancient city of Kuelap from the secondary school in our town. When we asked how far of a walk from our town one of the professors answered, "not too far, about 10 hours!".

Gocta Falls

We'll head to site next week after we swear in as volunteers. Our next posting will be from our new home in Amazonas (new mailing address on home page). Lots of love.

Our First Few Weeks in Peru

2011-10-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that today marks the one month anniversary since we’ve arrived in Peru. Life in Santa Eulalia is never dull and from sunrise to sunset we’re busy with training, getting to know our host family and experiencing all the wonderful things Peru has to share.

Alpaca sighting

Our view

Our room

We wake up every morning to the sounds of the chachareros (street vendors), roosters crowing, roof dogs barking and Peruvian music from the street. Our host mom Lilia makes us a hardy breakfast of quinoa, fried eggs, bread, fruit and (hallelujah!) coffee. Then we head to our training center about 30 minutes walk away with our lunch in a basket. We start with four hours of language immersion training which can mean we’re out in the community working on projects or, for example, learning how to cook Peruvian food like Pachamanca and desserts like Tres Leches. From there we go to our Technical Training and work in our specific program areas. Brian learns about water & sanitation systems and water filtration and I learn about environment projects like tree nurseries, composting, recycling and protected areas management. It’s hard work but pretty exciting.

Tres Leches

There are about 30 trainees at our center and we’re a pretty diverse group. Brian and I aren’t the only married couple either! We’re already about 1/3 of the way done with training and everyone’s anxious to find out their placements for the next two years. Peru is incredibly diverse, with coastal deserts (Costa), highlands (Sierra), jungle (Selva) and everything in between. Hopefully by the next blog posting we will know where we’ll be living after training.

Last weekend was the Pachamanca Festival in Santa Eulalia and we had a great time eating, listening to live Huayno bands (Andean folk music), and experiencing the festivities. This weekend we’ll be celebrating our host mom’s birthday and making her a chocolate cake.

Pachamanca Festival

cooking Pachamanca

Thank you for the letters and emails from home. We love hearing from you.

Plaza de Armas, Lima

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go

2011-09-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

As we countdown our final week to departure it seems hard to believe we're really going. We've packed everything we can into four bags for two years, which is exactly how much we brought for three weeks in Europe. Funny, it just doesn't seem like enough now! Minor travel anxieties aside, we're as ready as we can be and so fortunate to have had these past months to spend with our family and friends. We've gotten to learn a lot about the fascinating country we'll be heading to and while we prepare to meet Peru, we wanted to share this video of Peru meeting...Peru. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, Peru- A glimpse of the diversity in the gastronomy and the country.

Photos

2010-09-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

Trinity House last day

Hotel Florita, Jacmel

Market Truck

Seaside village

Photos

2010-09-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tent city

Jacmel cemetary

View from Trinity House roof

Lulu and me

Photos

2010-09-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

Tap-Tap

Presidential Palace

Mountain road to Jacmel

Breakdown

Photos

2010-09-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Trinity House construction crew

Last day of build out

Andrew at Bassin-Bleu

"Welcome back Baby Doc"

Reflections from Haiti

2010-09-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

Arriving home from Haiti last week, I threw myself into editing and sharing hundreds of photos and hours of video with my family and friends. I couldn't believe that two weeks had gone by so fast! Then again I couldn't believe how attached I felt to Haiti after only two weeks.

A lot of people I talk to want to know about Haiti. How do you describe everything? It's true, there are Haitians starving to death. It's true that very little aid seems to have made its way where it should in the capacity many believed. Rubble is everywhere. Nine months after the earthquake, people living in tent cities do not have access to clean water or enough food. They are packed in unsanitary, filthy, unsafe conditions. In tent cities, rape is an epidemic. Young girls are forced to have sex for food and supplies.

http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/in_haiti_tent_cities_are_becoming_rape_epicenters

It's true that of the nearly $10 billion in reconstruction aid promised at a March UN donors conference less than 10% has been delivered. None of this is what people expect to hear when they ask, but it's true. International news has seemed to move on over Haiti, besides Wyclef's much hyped presidential run. Now that has passed too.

If I can convey anything from my short time in Haiti it is that there is an unbelievable amount of hope and tenacity, right there along with the bad, that will overcome. Haiti has been knocked down, but it's no where near being out. Now more than ever the international community needs to support Haiti and deliver the pledged aid. Haitians need jobs. There is a large, skilled labor force that is unemployed while aid organizations pay to bring in foreign contractors, planners, etc. Projects like St. Joseph's and Trinity House are saving the lives of kids and preparing them for the future. There just aren't enough places like this...yet.

Jacmel

2010-08-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Week one is complete and we are now well into week two. Access to the internet (and electricity) remains intermittent but I have come to see both as a blessing when available. We have taken to sleeping on the roof of the school where it is much cooler and waking up every morning we are greeted by a panoramic view of mountains and the sea.

Sunday, we hiked to Bassin Bleu waterfalls in the mountains and cooled off in the aquamarine pools. It was the perfect reward for an intense week.

The computer room construction project is well underway and the crew we are working with is incredible. Several are working barefoot and everything is done by hand with few tools and meager supplies, but the progress is amazing. Knowing our work is going to produce a computer room is a rewarding feeling at the end of each day even if we won't be here to see the finished product. Boss Niki, who heads up the construction crew, invited us to his 80th birthday at his house and we were treated to a delicious meal and opportunity to meet his family.

When we're not working we are getting to know the twenty-eight boys here at Trinity House. Many are Restavek kids or orphans. Each has seen more in their young lifetime than I could ever imagine. St. Joseph's is a unique home where they have been adopted until age twenty-one. They are now one big family and it is an amazing family to be welcome into. Last night, the boys put on a riveting dance performance for us. All their passion and pain and joy explodes when they are performing and doing what they love.

Yesterday, Melshi, the Director of Trinity House showed us how to cook a traditional Haitian meal of poisson (fish) Diri Djon Djon (creole rice) and fried plantains. We began with a trip to the local market to pick up the ingredients which was quite an adventure. The market was a maze of tightly packed vendors hawking their goods and bartering back and forth. Some of the women in the market started singing and pretty soon everyone had joined in. It was a true feast for the senses. The food was delicious and I have a new appreciation for what goes into every meal here.

Outside Trinity House, about 40 families are living in tents on the soccer field. We ventured out and ended up being great entertainment for the kids serving as part amusement and part jungle gym. They brought out their carnival masks and gave us a quite a parade.

It's hard to believe we have only a few more days here. Time has passed so quickly. Haiti truly is a place of incredible contrasts. There is so much beauty here and so much hope.

More Pictures

2010-08-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

View from the roof of Trinity House, Jacmel

Haitian Dinner of Poisson and Diri Djon Djon

Bassin Bleu

Port -au-Prince

2010-08-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Getting off the plane in Haiti is like a punch in the face of your senses. The heat, the noise, the smell, the seeming chaos, the rubble, tent cities everywhere. The Haitian five piece band banging out a welcome tune and the French Creole all combine to leave you feeling overwhelmed, nervous, out of place and excited.

I'm ecstatic to see both my suitcases arrive and after fighting my way to the van with Jackson, our one armed porter, seeing Andrea's wave and welcoming smile was a huge comfort.

Port-au-Prince is like nothing I've ever seen. The sidewalks hold the rubble removed from the roads so everyone walks along the gutter with trucks and bikes careening a few inches away. It's hard to know what it looked like here before the earthquake. Some say not too different. The buildings sit slanting every which way above the rubble, skeletons on the skyline. The UNICEF tents sit on top of these, laundry airing out beside. These are now the prime locations where you can catch the breeze at night. Most people are still crowded in tent cities with names like "Peace" and "USA" depending who donated the aid. Electricity is intermittent and still no running water at most places.


Port-au-Prince

We arrive at St. Josephs School off 91 Delmas and meet our eclectic crew. After we settle in for the night we have a delicious dinner of vegetable soup and fried plantains. Then we hear the amazing story of St. Joseph's from the founder Michael Geilenfeld and Director and former Restavek child, Bill, who entertained us with some of the best Djembe drumming I've ever heard.

Tomorrow, our crew heads south to Jacmel's Trinity House and the rest stay to help rebuild St. Joseph's.

Pictures

2010-08-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

View from St. Joseph's, Port-au-Prince

Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince

Tent City, Port-au-Prince

Heading to Haiti

2010-08-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Brian and I began this blog with the idea that together we would share our love of travel and adventure with our family and friends, which we surely will. However, for the next two weeks, this blog is going to be about my trip to Haiti to volunteer with a school and orphanage in Jacmel. This will be a solo journey that I have been able to do with the love and support of Brian, who is right now driving home from the airport and planning to fill his free time with fishing and lots of guitar playing while I'm gone.

Over the last few weeks, Haiti has become my obsession and its history has rivaled the best fiction and horror. After colonization by the French in the 1700's, exports from Haiti made it more prosperous than all the thirteen colonies combined. However, the cost of prosperity was staggering. The huge sugarcane plantations were owned by a handful of white men made rich by the hundreds of thousands of slaves brought from West Africa to work the fields. The conditions were so brutal that the average life expectancy upon arrival was less than ten years. While the French Revolution was roaring, Haiti was in the midst of its own revolution pitting whites, desperate to preserve the system of slavery, against blacks, desperate to end it and gain independence. During the ensuing revolt, atrocities were carried out by all sides which horrified the rest of the world. Yet it wasn't until twelve years later, in 1804, that Haiti declared its independence and became the first and only nation in history created by a slave revolt.

The rest of the world then began to turn its back on Haiti. The American colonies were expanding, slavery was still in place there, and Haiti was plagued by one bad dictatorship after the next. The last 30 years have been defined by the reign of terror of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier then Aristide and now the devastating earthquake on January 12 and seem to cast Haiti in a shadow of chaos and destruction.

But make no mistake, the Haitian people are the most resilient. Seven months after the 7.0 magnitude quake thousands are still living in tent cities, trying to move on, rebuild and I hope be able to use people like me for some labor. Enter Hearts With Haiti, an organization that has three schools throughout the country and was in the midst of expanding their school in Jacmel when the earthquake struck. The school where we will stay tonight in Port-au-Prince, St Joseph's, was also badly damaged and has a rebuilding project occurring at the same time. Our project: Complete the construction of a classroom and computer room for the school and orphanage in Jacmel. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity to celebrate my 28th birthday and spend the next two weeks. See you in Haiti.

"To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being."
- John Lubbock- British Biologist

2010-08-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

"A journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step." ~ Chinese proverb