pavos and panties.

23 Marzo 2011

one of the many luxuries of living back in the states is the use of a laundry machine. here in the campo (and actually, in pretty much all of peru), people do their laundry by hand. luckily, we have a few ladies in Catache who wash clothes for very cheap. of course, that just leaves the panty washing to me, which is probably the most dreaded weekly thing i have to do. not that my panties are disgusting by any means, but you get the idea. one big bowl with soap to scrub them clean, another 2 bowls to rinse, and then they’re out on the line to dry. it’s time consuming - and it just isn’t any fun.

so, today - among other things - was panty washing day.

my friend and fellow volunteer, andrew, called me in the middle of my panty washing. we chatted for a bit, and then the end of our conversation went like this:

me:  whelp, i’m going to get back to my panty washing.
(turkey gobbling on andrew’s end of the phone)
andrew:  yeah, you do that. and i’m gonna chase this turkey that just got out of the corral.

and this is normal.
oh, what unusual lives we have now-a-days!

give me a “P” - give me a “A” - give me a “C” - whew.

finally, this week, i was to start my community bank. my socia and i recruited our brains out - all over Catache - armed with foletos and a signup sheet. after a mound of solitudes to the municipalidad and colegio, and countless days of tweaking our presentation, we were more than prepared. and today was the big day - our PAC information meeting!

the meeting was to be held on the 3rd floor of the municipalidad from 3-5pm. we got there at around 2:15pm to get things situated. we set up the chairs - hung up some papalotes - hooked up the computer, projector, microphone, and speakers - and then, we waited…

“la hora peruana” is basically: not punctual. it’s a well known fact that even the peruvians joke around about. so we waited patiently… and waited and waited. 3:45pm rolls around, and my lovely artesana from El Monte arrived. (i knew i could count on her!) 4:15pm - and finally some other people show. a total of 6 people came to our charla, which was basically just sitting around in a circle and informally chit-chatting about community banks. it was great, because they were able to ask us every question under the sun.
after 5:30pm or so, they came to the conclusion that they really liked the idea and wanted to have some time to get their friends on board, too. so we decided to reschedule and have our meeting next week.

alas, this means: solicitudes all over again… and definitely some more recruiting - but, at least the ball is FINALLY rolling!

paint, water, and windows.

Carnaval in Catache:

let me tell you a bit about Carnaval…

this crazy peruvian holiday is held before the beginning of lent. the festival is nine days of dancing, eating, parades, costumes, drum circles, and water fights. everywhere in Perú celebrates this tradition of mayhem. but, the biggest and most popular Carnaval celebration in peru takes place in Cajamarca City… which is where all of us volunteers ventured off to last weekend to join the festivities - and it was loco!

one day is completely devoted to paint. mobs of people roam the streets throwing paint (in addition to the water balloons and water gun ammunition) at each other, and all of us were drowned in paint from head to toe (to hair, to ears, to mouths, to armpits…). is was a blast! it rained throughout the entire weekend, but none of us minded the weather because everyone was so wet and dirty anyways.

one of the nights, we all went out an extremely large dance party - and the next day was an elaborate parade, where people marched in costumes representing their caserío.

the parade:

on the last day, casandra and i decided to do some site-seeing in Cajamarca, which i had yet to do. we went to el Cuarto Del Rescate, which is the only Incan building still standing in Cajamarca. This is the room where Atahualpa was imprisoned.

Cuarto Del Rescate:

in the entrance to the site, there are some modern paintings of Atahualpa’s capture and imprisonment.

paintings:

after this, omar joined us, and we ventured off on a combi to see the pre-Incan Ventanillas de Otuzco. these are funerary niches built into a hillside (hence the name “ventanillas” or windows). when we arrived, we paid a little boy to give us a quick history of the structure, and then we went off exploring.

with our little tour guide:

Ventanillas de Otuzco: