Episodio Diez (July 18, 2011)

Buenas noches, amigos!

Well, here we are... my last full day in Peru! I begin my voyage home tomorrow, and then I pretty much turn right around and head down to Kansas to start my teacher training. Crazy! Daniel will remain in Cusco for about another week and a half to help give things a final push before he flies back at the end of July. So hopefully we can wiggle at least one update out of him while he´s still here. =)

Our highlight of this chunk is that Jeffrey is here!! (In case you don´t remember, he´s our professor/mentor from Gustavus.) He arrived yesterday, and after resting up last night we went on a rather whirlwind field trip today! Since our time together here is short, we took Jeffrey on a little tour of all the places relevant to our work here. First we hopped in a taxi and took the 30-minute drive out to Occopata. It´s a BEAUTIFUL drive... all up in the mountains and out in the country. Lots of sheep.  Buuuuut I didn´t take any pictures of the scenery. Just the posta de salud! (health post)

It´s super cute and little -- and happy inside! Lots of light and very clean. Occopata (in case you don´t remember) is the small community on the outskirts of Cusco that we hope to work with on our first project. Basically it´s a bunch of adobe-brick houses (ie made of mud and straw in brick form) plus a primary school, the posta de salud, an almost-finished colegio (like a junior high/high school), and a church. It´s surrounded by a lot of fields and (it seems) almost as many sheep as people! The couple people we talked to were very friendly -- it seems like a great place! 

After we got back down the mountain (the road was under construction, so we had to sit for 40 minutes and wait till the ´down´ part of the road opened up again at noon), we headed to a sweet restaurante criollo (criole restaurant -- basically Afro/indigenous food) for lunch. Jeffrey shared that one of his favorite dishes is ´tripa´ (tripe... aka intestines...) and Daniel decided to try it!

Yes, those onion ring-looking things are bits of pig intestine! I tried one -- they´re actually pretty good, albeit rather chewy. Think calamari.

Then after lunch we headed down to Belenpampa (where Daniel volunteered last time) to check it out. We were lucky to run into the three awesomest people in the whole hospital all at once -- Nora, the head of personnel and volunteer go-to lady, Esther, the head nurse, and Dra. Haydee (aka Mamita!), the new boss of Belenpampa! It was fun to introduce Jeffrey to all of them -- plus Mamita was lookin GOOD!!! Last time we saw her we just went to hang at her house for dinner, but today she was wearing a SUIT and looked like she RAN the place! (Which she does!) It was fun to see her being all in charge of things. I think she´ll be really good. =)

Finally, after a brief jaunt around parts of Belenpampa (it´s too big to look at all of it), we took a taxi up to Siete Cuartones, the hospital where Adolfo works now, to meet him and introduce him to Jeffrey. It was so fun to finally see the two of them meet! They´ve both been so instrumental in the bringing about of Wiñarisum and this whole idea of community partnership, that it´s fun to watch our mentors actually get to meet and talk face to face! We had a great chat.

Then on our way back to Jeffrey´s hotel we wandered around el Mercado San Pedro (the St. Peter Market... by St. Peter cathedral) and I got a sweet Peruvian apron! (It has lots of pockets, since the women here generally wear them as they go about with their fruit carts or whatever, so they need lots of pockets for change.) We decided to give the aisle of dead sheep a miss.

Now I´m just packing up... and hoping everything will fit in my luggage. Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with UNICEF... which I will try to focus on, haha... and then after lunch it´s off into the wild blue yonder with me!

Thanks for reading along with us! Like I said, hopefully we can get at least one update out of my lovely husband before he comes home. Other than that, if you want to keep following us out to Kansas, we will probably start a blog for that soon. (Once it exists I´ll send out the link.)

I will leave you with this lovely sunset view from our balcony a few days ago.

Enjoy your last Spanish lesson! Hope you all are well, y un abrazo muy fuerte del Perú!

Rebequita y Danielito

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT SPANISH PHRASES

Lesson Eight: Viajando (Traveling)

Soy un turista. (I am a tourist.)

¿Puedo llevar una bicicleta a bordo? (May I bring a bicycle on board?)

¿Hay enchufes eléctricos a bordo? (Are there electrical outlets on board?)

Ésta es una trampa para atraer turistas. (This is a tourist trap.)

¿Puede recomendar un buen albergue juvenil? (Can you recommend a good youth hostel?)

¿Tiene un catre para el niño? (Do you have a cot for the child?)

Me gustaría armar una tienda de campaña aquí. (I would like to pitch a tent here.)

¡Utilice un casco de protección! (Wear a helmet!)

Episodio Nueve (July 14, 2011)

Buenos días otra vez, mis amigos!

Another foggy morning in Cusco. First, an update on Daniel´s (and my, I guess) health, since he was sort of the headliner last time. We are both doing well, and are cold-free! (Although I still have a cough I can´t quite shake, but I think that´s more the dust and my reflux than anything else.)

Our big  news (such as it is) for this week is that last night we had our first informal team meeting for the prospective members of Wiñarisum Alianza de Salud (Wiñarisum Health Alliance). So far our team consists of Adolfo, Rica (the obstetrician I talked about a while back), and Wilbert (the missionary I mentioned a while ago also). Last night we talked through the objectives and organization of both the project and Wiñarisum itself, as well as our next steps (aka go to Ocopata as a group and meet with the community leaders). It was a wonderful, productive meeting -- we are planning to make our first trip to Ocopata hopefully this weekend, if all goes well.

So that was super duper exciting!!!

In other news this week, Daniel and I have just really been enjoying each other´s company. I think we´ve finally figured out how to be ´chill´ about having to wait for people´s busy schedules here, and it´s been really nice this week just to play some games and read interesting books and enjoy each other´s company in between the work sessions. I will certainly miss my wonderful husband when I leave Cusco in SIX DAYS.... I can´t believe it´s already the end for me! But, I know it´s important for Daniel to stay that extra 10 days, and I am also anxious to get going on my stuff for school! So we´ll make it work. (And we´ll try to get Daniel to post at least one blog entry while I´m gone. Jejeje. [That's hehehe in Spanish!])

Yet to come before the end of this trip:

• First (and second... and maybe third...) visit to Ocopata! Can´t wait to meet our potential partners! Hopefully this will take place this weekend.
• Jeffrey Rathlef, our professor, collaboration mentor, and the Director for Community-Based Service and Learning at Gustavus, gets here on Sunday!! He´s here to do some study-abroad scouting for Gustavus and is also going to help us troubleshoot and make some connections. Can´t wait to see what he thinks of our progress -- and to introduce him to all our people here! =)
• Second (and third... etc) meeting with UNICEF (and later, training!). This will probably mostly take place after I leave, but it will be super exciting to see some examples of successful projects and be able to take advantage of their experience and their willingness to train in our team.

Many exciting things are about to happen with regards to Wiñarisum Alianza de Salud... and so with that, I bid you adieu. Hope all is well, feel free to shoot us a line, and enjoy your Spanish lesson!

Un abrazo fuerte, 

Rebequita y Danielito

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND USEFUL SPANISH PHRASES

Lesson Seven: "En la tienda" (In the store)

¿Puedo pagar los artículos extentos de derechos de aduana con Euros? (May I pay for these duty-free items with Euros?)

¿Tiene usted un producto inalámbrico? (Do you have a cordless product?)

¿Vende jabón antibacteriano embotellado? (Do you sell bottled antibacterial soap?)

¿Qué tan rápido puede revisar este rollo? (How quickly can you develop this film?)

¿Dónde puedo comprar un transformador eléctrico? (Where can I buy an electrical transformer?)

El pollo es una buena oferta esta semana. (Chicken is a good deal this week.)

Me gustaría tener una bolsa de congelador para mi helado. (I would like a freezer bag for my ice cream.)

Tengo problemas tratando de encontrar las aceitunas. (I´m having trouble finding the olives.)

Episodio Ocho (July 8, 2011)

Buenas tardes, amigos!

A little more of a laid-back week this week. Unfortunately Daniel's come down with a cold, so he's bundled up and munching oranges at the moment, poor dear. We're hoping lots of sleep and vitamin C will cure him sufficiently that he can be functional at our first informal team meeting tomorrow!

He doesn't look so good... but that's mostly just cuz he's got papel higiénico (toilet paper) up his nose. Overall, he has a really good attitude about it! He just says, "It's all part of the game." He's a trooper. =)

Here's what's been going on this week:

Experiments with Peruvian cereal!!! I've been missing home a bit lately, so (because I expressed my excitement to have a bowl of milk and cereal when we got home) Daniel got me a box of cereal.

"MegaTrigo" -- breakfast of barbarians! (His name is "Breno el Bárbaro" according to the box.)

Now, with cereal from foreign countries, you pretty much have to guess. Some are basically American cereals with different names, and some just seem that way but are different. We gave the "MegaTrigo" (trigo = wheat) a try, and it tastes sort of like honey nut Cheerios. But then we noticed a kinda weird aftertaste... so Daniel read the ingredients: "Trigo (wheat), azúcar (sugar), esencia de anís (anise extract)." ANISE!! I mean, they have anise-flavored tea here, but anise-flavored cereal??? Daniel said, "I feel like I just ate an anise bush!"

We met with someone from Occopata!!! Just to clarify, Occopata is one of the two small communities we've been planning to work with. It provides a lot of opportunity because it's small, on the outskirts of Cusco, and (unfortunately) in extreme poverty. The only other NGO there is WorldVision, and it seems like they're just doing sponsorship for individual families. So there's not a lot of nonprofit activity there (especially as compared to some other small communities). There are also a lot of home births and a lot of distrust of medical professionals. Anyway, yesterday we (Daniel, Adolfo, and I) were able to meet with Liz, an obstetrician who also serves as the jefa (boss, manager) of the health center in Occopata. It was a super great meeting! She has in mind a few women leaders from the community who might be interested in working with us, so she's going to go talk to them and see if we can't get a community meeting set up to chat with interested folks. Liz is super friendly and seems like a really solid advocate for the community and the health of its members, so we're SUPER excited that she likes our objectives and is on board with our project!

Machu Picchu turned 100!!! ...Wait, what?  Yes, that's right. Yesterday the city of Cusco declared a city-wide día feriado (festival day) -- aka no work and no school -- to celebrate "the centennial anniversary of Machu Picchu." Now, let's think about this for a second. We're talking about Machu Picchu here. Like the big tall mountains, with the Incan ruins on top... you know, the ones that date back to pre-Colombian (or pre-Cortezian, rather) times... and were "discovered" by Hiram Bingham in 1911 -- OH!!! I get it... that's a hundred years ago! So Machu Picchu only started existing once some old white dude "found" it (with the assistance of "local indigenous farmers") and stole a bunch of stuff. Sounds great! I know -- let's make a picture commemorating this fantastic event and put it EVERYWHERE!!!

Yes, ESPECIALLY in the airplanes going to Cusco, so that this simplistic half-picture of history will reinforce any gringo tourist assumptions that Peru = Giant Tourist Attraction Playground and any local assumptions that History = The Story of Europeans. Great idea!!

Adolfo's quote: "How is this the 100-year anniversary of Machu Picchu? Is the Incan culture 100 years old??"

Needless to say, we stayed home. 

Many many lesson plans were imagined!!! Daniel and Adolfo have continued to work hard on the "founding documents" of Wiñarisum, and I've spent the majority of the last two days researching and brainstorming in preparation for my impending school year. One of my future colleagues was kind enough to send me a copy of the 8th grade curriculum map for next year, so I've been reading over it and trying to get a handle on what will be our first few units. It's super fun!! When I think about being in charge of like 100 8th graders all by myself I kinda freak out a little... but when I look at the map and brainstorm all the cool things we're gonna learn this year, I forget to be afraid and just get EXCITED! I am definitely looking forward to getting into my classroom and seeing where all the learning (mine and theirs) is gonna happen this year! =)

That's basically what we've been up to this week. Oh, and we've discovered a deep and abiding love for Peruvian cheese. But that's neither here nor there.

Hope you all are enjoying your summers -- and we've got two special shout-outs! One to Bethany Jackson, who just celebrated her 21st birthday, and one to the Schulz clan, who is currently chilling at the lake! Love you!!

Un abrazo fuerte,

Rebequita y Danielito

VERY, VERY USEFUL SPANISH PHRASES

Lesson Six: Around the House II

¿Está bien ventilado el departamento? (Is the apartment well-ventilated?)

¿Hay elevador de carga? (Is there a freight elevator?)

No soy muy hábil. (I am not a very handy person.)

¿Prefiere cortinas o persianas? (Do you prefer curtains or blinds?)

Tengo que utilizar un vaporizador de alfombras para remover estas manchas. (I need to use a carpet steamer to remove those stains.)

Hice que deslindaran la propiedad. (I had the property surveyed.)

Esta casa se está derrumbando. (This house is falling apart.)

Mi llave no deja de gotear. (My faucet won´t stop dripping.)

Episodio Siete (July 4, 2011)

Buenas tardes! (Good afternoon!)

It´s been awfully rainy down here the last four days -- which would just be dreary anywhere else, but here it´s also STRANGE! Winter is the dry season here in Peru, so for it to rain is odd, let alone for four days straight! But, despite the odds, each morning we´ve woken up to a muddy, cloudy view like this:

The mountains are quite pretty, I´ll grant you, but the muddy slush all over is a lot less appealing! There is a giant lake spanning the whole road on one entrance to our neighborhood... it always gives the taxistas a bit of pause before they plow through it somehow.

Probably the worst part of winter rains, though, is that they make everything considerably colder, which is somewhat of a deal since few people here have central heating. (Why bother when they´d only need it for like a week out of the year?) We´ve been keeping warm, though, with extra pairs of socks, our knitted llama hats, and nice hot meals -- our favorite of which is our morningly "Huevo McPan" (Egg McBread, literally...) with tasty queso andino (Andean cheese). Mmm!

The highlight for Wiñarisum business this past few days was definitely Friday afternoon, when we met with the director of the Peruvian chapter of UNICEF to chat about collaboration opportunities. It was a really great meeting -- as I´ve mentioned before, the mother and infant mortality and health focus of Wiñarisum goes right along with the millenium goals set by the UN, so Daisy (the director) seemed very excited to work with us. We talked a lot about goals and issues, and then she offered to help us with the formalization process for the asociación civil (civil association) here as well as with training in our team to work more effectively with the folks in our target communities. Very exciting stuff! It´s reassuring to know that we have support from people with as much research and experience behind them as UNICEF! (Oh, and they also said they´d be happy to share their research and the results of previous projects with us so we can learn from them. Sweet!)

So that was pretty awesome news. Our other non-work-related highlight of the weekend was that Saturday morning Daniel and I went on a little field trip with Cheryl and Rafael (Adolfo´s wife and son). At Rafo´s school, each child plants a tree in this forest preserve place when they begin, and then each subsequent year their class goes on a field trip to water the trees, see how they´re growing, and hang out with the other kids and families. This year it was (as I mentioned) raining all day... so only like 4 kids came (out of three classes!!)... but Rafo, Cheryl, Daniel and I had fun anyway! 

Rafo (who we nicknamed "calabaza" or squash because of his orange jacket) led us on a little hike across a stream and up through the trees. It was beautiful! We wandered all over this nature preserve place, looking at plants and teaching each other words. (I said "moss", Cheryl said "musgo", and Rafo said "musgo green!") Then, when we got hungry, we found some fluffy "musgo" under tree cover (still raining) and had a little picnic.

After we ate, we went back to the entrance building and found that the teachers and the four kids who bothered to show up had already left! Our taxista wasn't supposed to come back for us for another two hours, so we decided to just start walking down the hill (aka mountain). It turned out to be a beautiful walk despite the rain -- we could walk on the pavement alongside the road to avoid the mud, plus it was a gorgeous view of Cusco!

We could see the whole city stretched out before us. Rafo picked out the stadium where he plays soccer games on Sundays, and we could see the airport (long skinny thing above left) to one side and the historical center to the other side. Lovely. We took a few pictures of us up there too...

And here's our intrepid calabazita (little squash) and his mom:

Cheryl and Rafael

After a while, we got tired of walking all the way around all the bends in the road, so we decided to take the shortcut stairs that are built into the hills periodically to allow for easy access to the hillside communities, and also quicker ascent and descent for residents and passers-through. They were pretty slippery... but we made it.

Afterwords, we were pretty tuckered out, but it was a super fun day!

So those are our highlights for this session. Other than that, we've just been hanging out, working on stuff, resting, and visiting with old friends. Sunday (yesterday, I suppose) we went out with Mamita (Dra. Haydee) and Gabriel (her 9-year-old son) for ceviche, which is basically raw fish chemically "cooked" in an acidic lime-y juice-sauce. Daniel loves it... but I had cooked trout instead. =)  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them again, and it was nice to do something different (although we do like cooking in our house too).

Well, hope you all are enjoying whatever 4th of July festivities you've got going on back home! We don't have any fireworks, but we'll be thinking of you. Hope you're well, and enjoy your Spanish lesson!

Un abrazo fuerte de Perú,

Rebequita y Danielito

VERY USEFUL SPANISH PHRASES

Lesson Five: Mascotas (Pets)

¿Compró lechos para gatitos? (Did you buy kitty litter?)

Tengo peces tropicales. (I keep tropical fish.)

Me mordió un perro extraño. (I was bitten by a strange dog.)

Necesito una vacuna contra la rabia. (I need a rabies shot.)

Mi gato ha sido castrato. (My cat has been neutered.)

A mi gata le han extraído los ovarios. (My cat has been spayed.)

Mi pena está en celo. (My dog is in heat.)