• I had a very productive meeting with representatives from a program named AguaGol, an organization who holds tournaments for schoolchildren. The schoolchildren have three manners of scoring points; they have to prove themselves proficient in environmental awareness, their school has to prove that it is also implementing successful environmental initiatives with the children, and the final part is a showcase of the various tricks possible on a small soccer ball on a string. Each schoolchild involved will receive their own ball. I will be in charge of supervising, ensuring the schools of Matucana are following through and assisting teachers in projects when necessary. This project has already had success in other countries and it is a great way for children to enjoy learning. I cannot wait for it to start!
• Although we missed a deadline for the solar energy project, the next one is coming up (June 18). It will actually be better this way, because the application will be very well done and we will have everything in place, since we now have the time. Also we will be using a much better option than the lanterns we previously thought we'd use. Since this is a pilot project for both Peace Corps Peru and Matucana, the delay will be more than worth it once the project is done right.

-Carpeting is Awesome. I can’t wait to experience it again.

-Thank you, Mom and Dad, for the moccasins! It’s colder at night now. And thank you, Native Americans, for inventing moccasins!

-Little-known fact: Robots with the capability to climb have to date proved able to climb any surface material except Teflon.

With Vitis Ayllu, one of the Ayllus (groups of families) in my town, I am working with an NGO in a forestation project. Of importance is the Quinual tree, a famous tree native to the Andes and in danger of extinction. Here is a Quinal in Vitis that is about 100 years old. We planted 1,500 quinal trees in the forestation project and are now setting up an irrigation system to water the trees year-round.

This is from when we cooked Pachamanca. “Pacha” is Quechua for “Earth”, and “Manca” is Quechua for “Pot”. Pachamanca involves heating up stones, then putting meat, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sometimes humitas (like tamales) on top. Then an herb named Warmi Warmi is put on top of the food and the whole thing is covered in dirt. It cooks for about one and a half hours, and always comes out delicious! May is Pachamanca season, since it is harvest season and it is typical to end a day of hard work harvesting with a shared Pachamanca. Here they are putting the meat on the hot rocks.

The Mets suck!

Algunas Notas:

America was amazing. Coming back has been very tough. Fortunately the bed in my hostel for my first night back had fleas, to remind me where I was again.

Inca cola is delicious.

Sometimes people speak Quechua, not Spanish, in my town. I can proudly say “sheep”, “donkey”, and “I don’t understand” in the language of the Incas.

Electric has been great, I believe due to less severe weather this rainy season. El niño?

Go Vikings! Even in another continent, nothing annoys me more than reading about a Dallas Cowboys playoff run.

So here’s a story. In October the town of Vitis destroyed its high school and started building a new one. I asked why we got rid of the school when there was still more than 2 months left in the schoolyear. I was told the NGO that provided the money was going to take the money back if it wasn’t used right away. I believed this for months until the mayor of my town explained that it was the local provincial government that provided the money (so kind of the opposite of a Non Governmental Org.) and the money had come about 2 years after it was needed; the school shouldn’t have had been in use since damages from the 2007 earthquake made it insecure and unsafe. So some classes were held in back rooms of the primary and kindergarten buildings, and at times outside. And sometimes there was no class because there was no spot for it.

I’ve started a club with the kids who are still in town during the rainy season. I teach some basic English, we play games and will hopefully watch videos, and they are doing a self-esteem workshop that includes responsibility, positive thought, and group support. It’s a great workshop developed by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who also served in Peru. It’s getting us through the slowwww rainy season.

I have five bars on my screen but can’t make phone calls with my cell phone in site. It rains every day for what seems like eternity but is apparently only about 6 months, yet the town runs out of water every day due to strict rationing for at least half of if not most of the year. There is usually electric but not in the streets, actually I think there are whole streets that have posts with light bulbs that have never been lit in my 14 months here.

Vitis uses the system of Ayllus, which means “Family” in Quechua, to do many community projects. No other town that I’ve heard of still does- it’s from the Incan or perhaps pre-Incan times. The 3 Ayllus are composed of different groups of families and each has its own president. Vitis itself also has a community president. There are, from what I hear, 500 people in Vitis. And they have 4 presidents.

Recently I was told about the Chunba, a spirit that enters houses and eats the guinea pigs (guinea pigs are cheap and larger here and are kept for food), as well as the Carcacha, which apparently lives in the high altitudes, has two heads, and eats your face. I am not worried though, because I don’t own guinea pigs, and have not yet met any person in Vitis who has not had a face, telling me either 1) the Carcacha doesn’t exist or is at least very endangered, or 2) it is very easy to escape from.

I could go on with more examples, but the point is, there is no place like Vitis anywhere else.

I want a tomato. I can’t find a tomato.

So the past 9 days have been amazing, two friends from home, Eric "Eggster" Kriczky and Joe "Cheesefeet Murphy" Skomorucha came to visit. We spent a few fun days in Lima, even watched American football!, and then went to Lake Titicaca, which is like the largest lake or highest large lake in the world (something like that) and the largest lake in the continent. It is located at 12,500 ft above sea level and absolutely gorgeous.

The altitude was a bit of a problem, but by the last day we took a small hike high up to the top of the hill to look down on the lake and city of Puno. Up there some old lady was herding some sheep and started yelling at us, and I realized i couldn´t understand her and told her in Spanish and Quechua (native language) that i didn´t understand Quechua, and then she raised her stick in the air and waved it. She was about 25 feet away, down a small hill. She then bent over as if to pick something up. Thinking she wanted to throw something, we decided to walk away. I had my Phillies shirt on and Joe hypothesized the Quechua lady was a Mets fan.


Soooo a little about my living situation. I have no bathroom in my house and have to walk 3 blocks to use the town medical post´s (when it´s open) or about 3 blocks in another direction to use the public bathroom. (not as clean, just a hole in the ground). Some people in my town do their business into a plastic bag (like if it´s late at night) and carry it out to the trash cans in our town´s plaza later on.

A couple Sundays ago I woke up and really had to use the toilet. I knew the health post wasn´t open yet and the plaza is full of people Sunday mornings, so getting to the other bathroom could be tough. So I thought, When in Rome, and decided that for just this one time, I´d do the plastic baggy method. Unfortunately I had never shat into a plastic bag before, and completely missed. Instead there was a pile of turd right on my floor. So I had to open my windows to get in light so I wouldn´t step in it (there was no electric), hoping nobody would look in and mention I had poop on my floor. I quickly got the poop into a bag and wiped the area with cloths. And by cloths I mean a couple of my own socks soaked in soapy water, because I had no real cloths to clean the contaminated area with. In the end it made me down a couple socks and feeling dirty, since I had just shat on my bedroom floor.


GO PHILS!!