San Miguel, Cajamarca

I finally made it to my new site, San Miguel! I’m located about 14 hours north of Lima in the Department (their word for state) of Cajamarca. This region is known for its green rolling mountains and production of milk products. Right now as I look out my door the hills are kind of brown, but after the rainy season (Jan-Mar) the whole place becomes a vibrant green. I can’t even imagine how beautiful this area is going to be.
We are located at 2,620 m or 8,800 ft above sea level which at first made it really hard to breath. I’ve been forcing my lungs to adjust by going on long runs up gradual hills. At first it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest but I think I’m pretty much acclimatized now.
My site is relative big (for the Peace Corps) and therefore I was the only non-married volunteer fortunate enough to get a site mate - her name is Tiffany. I think there are about 6,000 people that live in my town with another 5-10,000 people that live in the surrounding hills. (I’m not sure how many because everyone will gives you a different number). The “camposino” people (term for the people that live in the middle of know where) are always walking in and out of town to get the supplies they need. They are always dressed in bright colored traditional clothing, the women spinning yarn and the men walking with assortment of animals. On an normal day, it would be strange to not see cows, sheep, pigs, donkeys, horses, and chickens.
Although I didn’t really have much say, once again I was lucky and ended up with the exact type of work I was hoping for. I’ve been partnered up with an artisan association of female weavers. My group is wonderful and I couldn’t ask for more. They make a variety of products including; scarves, table cloths, table runners, places mats, napkins, pillow covers, ponchos and purses. Personally, I think the scarves are beautiful and I plan on creating a collection of my own over the next two years. I’ve already taught myself to weave and I enjoy using it as a way to intimately know the process and to help build relationships with the artisans. It was only my second day in their workshop that I heard the women exclaim “Ah, la senorita esta aprendiendo radpido!” (The senorita is learning fast!) Other than weaving, some of the things I’ll be working on are teaching about accounting, quality, design, and helping my group to find new markets. Also, hopefully I’ll be able to travel with them when they participate in fairs around the country.
One of the best parts about my experience in San Miguel so far,has been my new host family. They are amazing. I have two brothers, Alejandro -14 and Jhair – 8. My mom’s name is Flor and she works at the health post in administration but she is trained as a nurse. My dad’s name is Marcelo and he is policia, but secretly I think he is Tony Soprano’s long lost Peruvian cousin. He’s great but at times l definitely get the feeling something shady is going down. Quite possible with the police in Peru. Oh, I can’t forget about my chica, Teo. Teo is nineteen years old and seven months pregnant. She cooks and cleans during the day and attends classes to finish up her high school degree at night.
We live in a reasonably large 2 story adobe house with my room acting like a walk out basement. For as nice of a house as it is, I was surprised to find out that there is no running water in the house. This means to wash your hands, brush your teeth, clean your vegetables, or wash your clothes, you have to go outside, down a bunch of stairs to the one sink for the entire household. It’s outside the bathroom so for the majority of uses it’s really not that inconvenient. But, imagine trying to cook a meal with out having easy access to water to wash your hands, food, dishes etc. lAlso with the chica doing the cooking and cleaning for the entire family, she spends about half her day occupying the sink. Sometimes I have to wait in line just to brush my teeth!
Out bathroom is outside separate from the house but it has a flushing toilet and a shower. Rumor has it that we have hot water but I have yet to experience it. The electric showerhead has been busted since before I moved in and “supposedly” the man that is supposed to fix it is “out of town this week”. As a result, I’m still on my water conservation plan to only shower once every three or so days. When the grease in my hair combined with the stench from running becomes too strong, I give in. The problem is, the water is straight off the mountain so it is extra frigid and you get that ice cream headache feeling every time you wash your hair. It’s pretty painful and you don’t even get to enjoy ice cream while you’re at it. As for the rest of my body, I’ve been working with the “Martini Method”. It’s a Peru 9 term for washing your body in the shape of a martini glass: armpits, crotch, and feet. It’s too cold to waste time cleaning anything else.
The day I moved into my room, I decided it would be a good idea to scrub the floors and the walls because the entire place looked pretty dirty. I started washing the bottom two feet of my walls (which are black like the floor). Oh, they weren’t black for long. Whoever the hell painted them, used washable paint! Instantly wall turned white and there was a puddle of black water on the floor. Ooops. As for the rest of the walls, they are painted a very uneven shade of light blue and are covered with marks, scratches and holes. One of which actually goes through to the other side. Don’t worry, I patched that baby up like a true engineer - with some cardboard and masking tape! First thing that morning I had swept the floor but after my wall cleanings and bug removal project, I had to sweep a total of three more times that day. Somehow, every time I managed to fill an entire dustpan full of dirt. For the most part, I can I live with the dirt, it just gets a little gross when I sit on the floor to stretch and do yoga. Oh what I would wouldn’t do for a Swiffer right about now….
Today I made pasta for lunch and I had to drain the excess water into a bowl and then throw it out the second story door onto to the dirt ground. I didn’t even bother rinsing the pasta because that would have involved getting more water from outside then boiling it to make it usable. I made some sauce to go with the sticky pasta and what did I use to heat it up? The same pan I cooked the pasta in, with out even rinsing it out. Not to mention that I never washed it after cooking my veggie burgers last night. And where did I leave my leftovers when I was done with lunch? In the same pan sitting on the same stove. Waiting to be heated up for dinner. Yummm.