2nd and 3rd goal work

I didn't get a whole lot of good work done this week, but Laura, Diamond, Ellie, and I did film a music video. I know, I know, being a Peace Corps volunteer is so much work, right? Well, we decided that filming this music video was really all about Peace Corps third goal-which is to promote cross cultural understanding amongst Americans. Our music video is 'Cajamarca Girls' sung to the sound of Katy Perry's 'California Gurls', but with some different lyrics about our region of Peru.

Our music video is in the style of the Huayno music videos we have here in Cajamarca. Huayno is a genre of music that is typical of the sierras. I find the music to be annoying at times, but also I catch myself humming and singing along in the combes (big vans that serve as the only form of public transportation here in Cajamarca). Along with the music Huayno also has a typical dance. It is basically a 2 step and depending on the dancer's enthusiasm may or may not involve spinning, hands, or switching places with your dance partner. Huayno is danced at all the parties here, and it can be danced in pairs facing each other. 

I enjoy Huayno dancing because it is so simple, but since it is so simple it gets kind of boring after a while. If your partner is an enthusiastic dancer it can be more of an aerobic experience involving a lot of jumping and spinning. Normally it is repetitive and both parties awkwardly avoid eye contact throughout the entire song.

Our music video is in the style of Huayno music videos because they are really low budget and have a charmingly formulaic quality. There is a lot of dancing in a line doing the huayno two step, very bad transitions and effects, and weird nature shots randomly sprinkled in between. Here is a link to a Hermanas Ayay music video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of61wje1RQY   , they are a super popular huayno group from Bambamarca.

Last week Laura and I bought our traditional outfits so that we could wear them in our music video. So we set out to make the video in our campo outfits with our 12 year old cameraman Leo; Diamond and Laura's neighbor kid who amazingly followed us around for about 3 hours. We picked several locations around town to film, but wherever we went we attracted a lot of attention. I wish we could have filmed the people just stopping what they were doing to stare at us, but Leo kept the camera on us. So we still have some editing work to do, but by next Wednesday we should have the video all ready to put up on youtube. The master plan is to put it up on youtube and we can all become mildly famous. We will then send our video into Ellen Degeneres and she'll obviously love us and fly us out to be on her show. Cross your fingers it all works out....we have so much free time on our hands to scheme and daydream.

It was really fun hanging out while we did the music video. The four of us speak in a lot of spanglish, because weirdly I often catch myself forgetting words in English. The worst part is that for all the bad English my Spanish is not really improving either. I have plateaued and I am too lazy to be serious about studying. Some of my favorite things said where; toe thumbs for big toes, unbathens for people that don't shower, cookie snacks/chip snacks for cookies or chips, and I can't think of any other good ones right now.

Laura made homemade bagels and Ellie brought cream cheese from the grocery store 6 hours away in Cajamarca. We sat around eating bagels, reading about the elections and hurricane Sandy the day after the music video. Laura is leaving really soon for end of service; she has been here exactly one year longer than I have, and it was nice to have some quality bonding time together. We are all going to miss her so much, but we are also excited for her since she is staring her new life back in the U.S.

Today we had a Halloween party at the elementary school.  The second goal of Peace Corps is promote cross cultural understanding in our host countries, basically to teach Peruvians about American culture.  There wasn't a huge turnout, but I think it was better that way. As it was the kids were a little wild and I don't know if there would have been enough candy to go around. Diamond, Laura, and I were probably the most dressed up out of all the kids. We did Halloween relay races; walk like a zombie, hop like a frog, fly on a broom, etc, danced, and played a game Laura invented similar to pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey but instead pin the ingredients in the witch's cauldron.

Thanks for reading and Chau for now,

kb

 

**my pictures are not loading.  I'll be sure to post them next time I have better internet.  Also I should be able to post a youtube link to our amazing huayno music video...