There is just nothing like drinking boxed sangria out of the plastic cup provided with the sangria (total of four U.S. dollars) on Saturday night in Peru. Sadly I did want to go out tonight but got sucked into a few episodes of “Freaks and Geeks” on the youtube. In latest developments, if you have not heard, Lauren and I are not too thrilled about staying in the area where our nonprofit works. In short, well, we dislike the idea of going back. After spending about nine days in the area, we devised an exit strategy, largely due to the fact that I wanted to celebrate my birthday in a city (not a pueblito of a few hundred people, where they dance twice a year for certain festivities and the only booze sold is chicha (made of corn) on Sundays (I know this due to the unpleasant argument I was awoken to Sunday night between the wife and the drunken husband right above the paperthin ceiling of our room- and the kids were in the room--- that angers me so!) No I wanted to be in a place where there is movement of people and especially where there is culture. The city of Huancayo is located in the sierras of Peru by the highlands. I just love being close to the Andes again. There is just something majestic about the range (especially the snow capped mountains) and the people who live on them. Yesterday for my birthday we saw a Peruvian foklorica band with guitars, charrangas, and the Andean flute. It made me ever so happy! I just cannot explain the feeling I have wandering the marketplace (which I must stop doing) and seeing the brightly colored garments with finely threaded, ornate flowers or the dusty streets of small farming towns. Maybe my love stems from the fact that the area reminds me of where my parents are from in Poland. Both of them come from small farming villages and my grandma used to paint bright flowers on her small cottage. Maybe yes, maybe no, whatever it is I am happy to be back in the highlands. Here Lauren and I are trying to see if we can find a tourism circuit from the Central Highlands to the central cloudforest (where our communities are located) in order to get tourists traveling from here to consider visiting our communities (we have a purpose).
However, I should give the area we are working in some justice. Speaking of the surrounding forest, it is breathtaking. The greenery is plush and full of birds, butterflies, and waterfalls- a stark contrast from the communities. Due to our need to be constantly connected with the outside world, we are staying in the largest town of the district, a town the nonprofit does not actually work with. They actually work with two communities higher up in the cloud forest- both are only a row of houses for about two or three blocks. There, the people are been very inviting to us and the little time we spent there we actually preferred to be there than back in the bigger, connected town. There is either no place to stay or is too cut off from civilization (the community that has the temporary hostel is 1.5 hour away from town, with no realiable bus service that runs through, no electricity, and only has 25 residents).
So you may be asking, what the f- are we doing there?
Good question, a question that has been asked by my mother a few times. I explained it to her and she is almost sold- I had to explain to her that I am not “saving” the world, like curing jungle diseases or rescuing orphans. As a public policy students, I am doing what public policy students do best- collect information and make recommendations! I have worked on this project since September in the Austin office of the nonprofit. I was told what the project was lacking and given general directions of how to remedy that. But after 9 months, very few developments occurred during that time frame. I thought that was because of my doing- I was not putting enough time and effort into the project. Mind you, I was just a part-part time unpaid intern that got little feedback from her supervisors- What was I to do? However, seeing the project firsthand after observing successful ecotourism projects in Peru and Ecuador, I now understand that this project is just not given the time and attention it deserves from the nonprofit. It is a project of many layers- community development, community education, infrastructure development- new buildings, better roads-, nutritious food development, land conservation, etc. The nonprofit relies on volunteers and very little funding- there were times at the office where I felt like the project was never brought up in discussions on future development. Now being here and seeing how many years and dollars are necessary to build up a “successful” community owned and managed ecotourism industry, my mind starts spinning. Wow it’s just so overwhelming. We are here and want to help, but damn… start where? We are going to help build adobe ovens for the communities- there is no oven in the area. The problems are a) we do not much construction experience, b) the communities are not so construction savvy- all their buildings show poor craftsmanship. Nope they are relying on Lauren, myself, Charles-the new volunteer, and google to build the ovens as well as teaching them how to bake bread (also something we have never done before). And they are putting all their trust in us to make this happen. Oh god I do not want to continue failing these communities. It will just be another step back in moving forward with the project. Oh gosh oh gosh. Where was I going with this? Oh yes we have a solid purpose of being here. To deliver the best f-ing writeup for this project… so a) the nonprofit can approach this project the right way and b) so we can apply for some monies for this project.
Ok must brace myself for the return!
