Yeah, uh... Happy Reading!

Where to start... Hello! Yeah, I have been out of contact for a little bit. This is going to be another book of an entry, or rather as one of my friends has put it, a bio-epic. Picking up where I left off last Friday... Saturday morning I had to go, completely packed for the week and running a 101 degree fever, to the Agraria for a powerpoint presentation on the biodiversity of Peru. Peru is top 3 in Latin America for bio-diversity, running effective ties with Brazil and Columbia. Mexico receives honorable mention, if my mind serves me correctly. After this brief, distinctively non-hands-on session, the business volunteers bade farewell to the youth volunteers and preceded on our quest for grand adventure. We had time to kill until our bus left for Cajamarca, so we kicked around Surco and Jockey Plaza (Short Hills Mall of Peru). Knowing my week was about to become a little native, I ate a Chili's Burger and went to the movies, which I regretted because Hancock doesn't break my top 200 movies ever made list. Wall-E isn't out here. The movies in Lima offer you the choice of dublado or subtitilo, so naturally I picked the subtitled version, and was rewarded with the chance to see Will Smith drink and fly in all his actual voice and glory. Walking out of the movies in Peru is a surreal experience. For more than 1 hour, I had completely forgot I was in Peru. I felt like I was sitting in the AMC in Rockaway. I walked out of the theater, realized it had been a mirage, shook my head around a few times, reoriented myself, and told myself I hadn't been dreaming. Continuing on from Surco, where the Cuerpo de Paz is headquartered, we took a taxi to the bus station, and waited. What, we all worried, would a 18 hour bus ride have in store? Dennis, our tech trainer, had told us that the first 8 hours were no problem, but the rest of the way the road isn't paved and furthermore, that busride was only the first 2/3 of the trip. Further complicating that prospect, he advised us to bring with us plastic bags, as since the ascent is 3300 meters to Cajamarca City, altitude sickness is quite common. Dauntingly the bus does not stop, for security reasons, as apparently frequent stops lead to frequent thefts, and yet despite this fact, the on board bathroom was designated numero uno only. Numero uno and numero dos is a universal expression. Anyway, scary stuff right? We boarded the bus at 8, dreading our plight and looked around. Unbelievable! I had never seen a more luxurious way to travel short of cruising. Was this a Peruvian bus line? There were maybe 40 seats on the entire double decker bus! Each seat reclines almost fully with a footrest, and the entire seat is completely encased in leather. There's a bunch of TV's and, oh my god, I think I just spotted some American movies chilling out on the shelf next to the DVD player. Each seat has its own airplane-like console with air blowing in my face. My own reading light.. I don't even have a lamp in my bedroom in Yanacoto! I can call the bus attendant if I have a problem? This wasn't going to be so bad! In truth, it wasn't bad at all. I fell asleep just fine at 10 pm and didn't wake up once until the road stopped being a road and turned into a path winding through the Sierra. They fed us both a dinner and breakfast and as much soda as we thought we could handle. Continuing, we arrived in Cajamarca and after eating lunch, the group had to take a 2 hour combi/taxi ride down a mountain into a town called Chilete. Again the road wasn't paved, but the taxi driver didn't top 40 mph as he weaved around the mountain so that wasn't that bad either. Once in Chilete, the business group, there's 18 of us, split into two, half of us going to Contumaza and the other half to San Miguel. Each group consisted of 9 volunteers, one tech trainer (for me Ivan), and one language trainer (Beatriz). I was headed to Contumaza with my group of 3, Camille, Natan and I, and in addition 2 other groups (David, Vince, and JP) and (Zach, Ken, and Marian). Contumaza is a quaint little Sierra town nestled 3100 meters in the air. Its approximately 3 hours from anything. The combi that we took from Chilete to Contumaza was both one of the most beautiful rides I've ever been on, and also the bumpiest and most miserable. With possibly the worst seats ever manufactured and put into a moving vehicle, they packed the 10 of us (North)American's into the van, plus 3 Peruvians, all our stuff, and for good measure 2 Peruvian's on the roof. This ride was awful, and as a result, we all fell out of the car when it was time to get out, trying to crack our backs and collapsing for lack of breathable oxygen. Following this adventure, the hostel's beds seemed inviting. What miraculous deception! I can't describe the mattress I just spent a week on, because doing so would make your back hurt to read about. We did however, have lukewarm showers. Take it from me, lukewarm is way better to shower in than freezing. Anyway, we had the rest of Sunday to ourselves, and we spent it walking around Contumaza, a town of about 9000 people, and eating. We ate at one restaurant, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At this restaurant the menu consisted of whatever the lady had to give us, no choice was involved. It was standard Peruvian fare: eggs and bread with jam for breakfast, some sort of rice and meat dish for lunch, and dinner depended on the left over ingredients from lunch. Often there was a soup, and of course there was a large portion of ahi, which is Peruvian for light-your-tongue-on-fire-if-you're-not-careful-sauce. I wasn't complaining. I wasn't going hungry, and I wasn't sick anymore. Ciproflomaxin is, for the record, a miracle to grace this earth, Anti-biotics are a top 3 or 4 human invention right up there with the wheel and language. Monday the work began. Our classes started at 4 and ran to 10 every night, as we were getting these students after they had had a full day of class. Speaking of "had had", I've finally "mastered" (meaning become aware of the fact that there is) the verb haber, which has opened up a lot of speaking ability. It's up there with ser and estar as a need to know verb if you ask me. Anyway, it was good that the classes started so late as each group used this time to prepare for their all-Spanish presentations. The people that came fluent were spread evenly throughout the groups, and many of them liked the idea of "winging it". Me not so much. For one thing, in my group neither Nathan nor Camille nor I are perfectly fluent. Camille and Nathan do both speak at a pretty high level; I was absolutely the weak link of the group linguistically speaking. Nevertheless, "winging it" wasn't within our linguistic capabilities. Anyway, Monday we attacked the concept of entrepreneurship, let the students know what the week had in store for them (that they would be starting their own businesses for a day with a loan and returning the money with interest), and had them come up with 3 business ideas for their microempresa. Tuesday was tougher, we had to fit in the main concepts of market surveying, marketing, and accounting, as well as narrow down the business ideas from three to one idea. I was responsible for accounting, and I had made worksheets in Spanish, that dealt with costs, profits, and interest calculations. The worksheet very much prepared them to fill out their business plans, which theyd have to take to our mock bank to secure their loans. Finally, when they had figured out this information, I made them think about break even point, how many of their product would they have to sell to pay back their loan given their costs. This was not easy stuff for them, every price was "mas o menos" and the mathematics was dubious. Algebra wasn't second nature, and statements like, "now solve for x" (in Spanish) would generate 10 to 15 minutes of confusion. I found this surprising, as this was not a high school, but rather a technical school meant to train teachers and the ages of the students were all over 19. With a little help from our language trainer, copious 1 on 4 instruction, and a lot of patience, I would say that it is entirely possible that they did in fact understood us, why we were there, and what we were teaching them. Our group was well prepared in terms of materials. We made for them a lot of visual aides, meaning posters, we had a chalkboard for definitions, and we opened everything with an hour long puppet show. I told my, well thought out and proofread, story of Dennis and Bee-Keepers, to illustrate the importance of keeping accounting books. Wednesday, we tackled the business plans, and once completed we took our students to the "Banco de Cuerpo de Paz" where they were allowed to withdraw, given that their business plans were sound and well thought out, up to 100 soles to start their businesses. Every one of my groups, except one, chose to make food and sell it on the streets. You can't just do that in (North)America, so I was skeptical. Additionally, many of my groups had low returns per product and had to sell a large number to reach their break even points. For instance, my group making gelletina (Jello in a cup, but made with natural stuff) had to sell something like 55 of their product at .50 soles (cincuenta centimos), and their estimated total yield was only like 75. That seemed to me to not be a winning strategy. I was wrong. Every group sold every single one of their products, and every group made a profit. Pats on the back all around. If I do say so myself, that's a hell of a lesson for the Peruvians. The idea that money makes money when it is invested and reinvested into a business is a powerful, possibly life-altering realization for a person.. The group that fared the best was the one group of mine that didn't make food, and chose rather to offer a service. Wednesday night, they rented out the school "theater/gym/area" and had a sports night. There anyone who paid the entrance fee could challenge up to 9 gringos in futbalito (which is indoor soccer, played on concrete and a smaller field). We got destroyed, but we had a good time. I played goalie. The final night, they threw for us a dance at aforementioned miscellaneous activity area of the school. Each girl wanted, badly, to dance with any American boy, and they'd ask us to dance, if we took too long selecting a victim. Once dancing, however, which is a no-contact sport, they don't look at you. If they look you in the eyes, up in these Sierra towns, I believe that means lets find an empty classroom and close the deal. Its funny in reality, they are so anxious to dance, and yet its so awkward because they have their own dances we can't dance to, and they won't look at you. Awkward was a catchphrase of our trip, it doesn't translate into any one Spanish word, and we had a ball teaching its many implications to Ivan, our Peruvian tech trainer. Back to the dance, even worse than the boys, was the fate of the girls. They got asked to dance about 100 times. Changing the subject, Cajamarca is famous for its cheese. One group had a guy they dubbed the cheeseman because this man already had his own microempresa, cheese making and distribution. It is my understanding that he spent the entire 4 day exercise trying to sell his group cheese. Fair enough, right? One last bit I want to talk about concerning Contumaza is internet access. They had an internet cafe in town. I use the term internet cafe loosely, as it had neither functional internet nor cafe. I spent 30 minutes sitting, staring at a computer, waiting for one page to load. Repeating, 30 minutes, one page... At the end of this so called service, they actually wanted to get paid! I protested that I hadn't accomplished one task, loading cnn.com! This was unimportant, so I had to pay 50 centimos for nothing. They literally must have been running 14.4k and splitting it between the 8 computers that were there. One of the other pleasures of Contumaza is that there is already an environment volunteer there, and she was gung ho about hanging out with us and telling us all the ins and outs of peace corpsmanship that the tech trainers aren't allowed to tell us. I won't go into any of what she said, for fear that management might read this, but it was very nice to meet her. She's got a Peruvian boyfriend, loves it here, and works in solid waste management. I got to accompany and "help" her teach English one morning, which was a special treat. I think that teaching English is a hugely useful tool to learning Spanish. Her students kids, aged 10, were so sweet. Its amazing how these people, who have relatively little maintain their daily happiness and dignity. Since, life in the mountains is agricultural (they live up there because that's where Peru's farmland is) the people wake up early eat breakfast, and hitch a ride to the fields. This area had a large amount of wheat fields. There are few if any tractors, and the work is done by hand. It truly is incredible. Contumaza is a city because there is a stream that runs through it, even during the dry season. There they are able to engage in fish farming (10,000 feet in the air!), and draw irrigation to their crops. I say dry season because in the Sierra, its not a summer, winter, spring, or fall system. Its a rainy season v. dry season system. Each is about 6 months, although this years wet season was prolonged. If El Nino or La Nina comes, watch out. Thankfully, this was dry season, and the temperature, while chilly at night (maybe 50) would rise during the day to about 65. I like temperate a lot more than I like heat, but well see what happens to Peru during its summer, which is gonna kick into gear in September. Friday morning the Contumaza half of the business group boarded a bus, which while it stopped frequently, was a direct service to Trujillo. We had assigned seats, but Zach, the gentleman of the group, continuously yielded his seat next to me to women holding babies. A quick aside, there is no way that all of these women were over 18, and the number of questionably aged pregnant women I saw in the Sierra is much higher than down on the coast, where I've been so far. Back to breast feeding, look I'm down, I just gotta question whether breast feeding while on a bus full of people on an unpaved road could be comfortable for anyone involved. My guess is no. This bus took 6 hours. Out of the Sierra, back to the desert, and to the beach town of Trujillo. Trujillo is Peru's second most dangerous city, and I believe its 3rd largest. It looks identical to Lima in every respect. Its central plaza, while much less elaborate, is laid out in the same manner, its streets are dusty, and its shopkeepers double as multi-faceted con artists. When we arrived, we checked into our hostel, and while others went to the nearby ruins of Chan Chan, Ken, Dave, and myself went to the beach, north of town, called Huanchaco. This was a tourist beach, and has great surf. We were killing time until the other half of the business traineers, who went to San Miguel, reunited with us. Following the beach, we went to dinner at an upscale mall area, where we were treated to american style food-courtness. Oh, then I saw Batman. Its very dark, and also very good. Again, I left the theater surprised to be in Peru. That night, having all been reunited, I went with 5 of the men, to a bar called Hops, which was a microbrewery. I love microbreweries, and they had a live band, so I was sold. Others in the group went to the discoteca, stayed up all night long, and danced. Thats not my thing here yet. The next morning, a volunteer came from his site to meet us, and talk to us about what he does. He works with stone artisans as his primary project, lives in a Surf town, and nearly singlehandedly set up and ran Northern Peru's first marathon, which he used to promote tourism to his town. His secondary project being the tourism industry of his town, which he claims is already world famous among the surfing community. He had 150 people run this years marathon, had corporate sponsorship, gave out prize money, and managed to donate 850 soles from the event to his local school of special education. He was particularly proud that he had provided water hydration stations, bathrooms, and that the whole thing had started on time. American time, not peruvian time (which is the same as Jewish time). Next year, there will be a second marathon, should I start training? I don't think I have the luck to run 26.2 miles on unpaved road and beach, no matter how much water they provide me with. To finish up the trip, the entire business group went to the beach at Huancacho Saturday afternoon. I rented a surfboard and tried my luck at that. To be honest, the surf was roaring, which while perfect if you know what you're doing, was causing me problems. I didn't get standing up once, demoralizing when there's people riding waves for over a minute and a half. Paddling itself was the real challenge. Edson, our groups surf enthusiast (every groups gotta have one) had a blast. The whole rigamarole was only 15 soles (5 dollars) for a board and a wetsuit for the entire day. Very very fun, definitely something to try and get better at. The bus ride from Trujillo to lima started at 1030, and we pulled in at 7 in the morning. It was nice because it was the same bus line as the first huge trip. Upon arrival, Zach, Sal, and myself commissioned a taxi ride home to Yanacoto. Zach, did something to his knee yesterday, and its swollen and he's in pain. He might have to get it drained, and he might have to get an MRI. Feel better buddy. Also, special thanks to Vince, for putting up with me as a roomie for the past week, I had a great time. This post has taken me a long time to write, so thats what I've been doing since. As usual, I plan to spend my Sunday with my family, watching dubbed movies. All in all, Field Based Training was a welcome break from the dullness of Spanish class everyday, followed by symposiums on practical peruvian business practices. I'm glad to be in contact again so send me some gosh darn emails. 2 weeks until I know where I'm going!
Su Pata,Mateo