Saturday, March 23, 2013

1 year olds have the coolest birthday parties

March 9th was the regional meeting for all the volunteers in Cajamarca.  It takes roughly 7 hours to travel from Tacabamba to Cajamarca, but it’s worth it when all the volunteers get together.  When we gather it feels like for a little while you can just relax.  Only a volunteer would understand when your host mom tells you that you got that cold because you took a shower at night, or when the municipality lost your document for the 5th time, or when you walk 2 hours each way for a meeting that no one bothers to show up for.  In Cajamarca there is a big grocery store where we can buy cheese, peanut butter, and pringles.  It always feels like a mini vacation when we go to Cajamarca.

On the way back from Cajamarca Diamond and I were invited to Ellie’s host sister’s daughter’s 1st birthday.  Kaory’s birthday was a huge event.  Diamond and I showed up a little late, but we jumped right in.  Every kid in the whole town was invited for this party.  There were snacks, music, some older cousins dressed up like Minnie Mouse and Strawberry Shortcake, and I think there were at least 8 cakes.  We arrived in time for the ‘hora loca’ or ‘crazy time.’  Ellie’s job was to pass out whistles, paper masks, headbands, and other party favors.  My job was to shoot confetti over the whole crowd from this tube that opened kind of like a role of Pilsbury crescent rolls.  Also I tried to take pictures on Ellie’s camera.  It was wild, dancing, kids fighting for favors, and so much fun.  I am definitely planning on having a ‘hora loca’ at my wedding, just maybe minus the whistles.
After the ‘hora loca’ it was time to pass out jello cups, then sandwiches, then sing happy birthday, cut the cake, the piñata (which by the way was not the way we do piñatas in the states; the small kids where shuffled forward so they wouldn’t get trampled and then the bottom of the piñata simply was pulled out by an adult), and finally each kid upon exit was handed a balloon with a picture of baby Kaory’s face printed on it.  Each activity was executed by a team of adults that included Ellie, Diamond, and I.  Some parts were accompanied by a special song; happy birthday, there was an ‘hora loca’ theme song, and also I believe there was a piñata time theme song.
I overheard Ellie’s host sister and mother talking about food running out, because there were some party crashers.  Apparently some mothers from a nearby community were passing by and had their kids walk into the party.  Since the all the kids in Conchan were invited, the doors were open and everything was so wild, I guess checking invitations or saying something to the party crashers directly was not something they were willing to do.  In the end it all turned out okay, it didn’t seem like they ran out of snacks or had to exclude any of the kids whose moms invited themselves.  After all the towns children left it was time for the adult party.  We all got big plates of rice, potatoes, and chicken with chicha morada drink (a beverage made from blue corn and sugar).  Then it was time for huayno dancing and drinking circles.  Of course Diamond, Ellie, and I really brought our best dance moves and broke up the huayno with some old favorites; the shopping cart, sprinkler, running man, etc. 
Huayno dancing is basically a two-step.  Depending on the person there may or may not be arms involved, but if you are really into the dance it is a lot of jumping around.  I like it because it is easy and everyone can participate.  I don’t like huayno, because when you dance you are not supposed to make eye-contact with your partner.  This is not something people have told me, but rather something I have learned from observation.  If you watch a line of people huayno dancing everyone will be looking at their feet, to their side, anywhere except for the person across from them.  It is kind of funny to watch.
This week started off kind of slowly.  At Monday afternoon exercise class I was the first person to arrive and the municipality turned out to be closed.  I waited for a little while, but no one has attended the class except Diamond and I for at least 3 weeks.  Well, not counting the time that my host brother Sergio and his friends came to the class-it was really cute.  The point of the story is that Diamond and I had heard so much positive feedback about doing an aerobics class.
It was not surprising that no one showed up, but for some reason I just started crying in front of the building.  A guy that I recognized as an employee of the Municipality was watching me and I told him about how everyone I had spoken to had told me how much they wanted aerobics classes, how Diamond and I had paid for radio spots advertising the class, how we had printed copies of calendars to pass out, and still no one would come to our classes.  He told me that the people of Tacabamba are ‘verguenzosos’ or ‘embarassed’ to say ‘no’ to me.  I never thought that that would be something that I missed or wanted to hear, but I really do miss people just saying ‘no’ when they don’t want to do something.  I hate how people say ‘yes’ and then just don’t bother to show up.  I fall for it every time
Later on in the week I walked out to Solugan; the community where my former sitemate Laura did a latrines project, to talk with the teniente (an elected community leader recognized by the municipality).  Ronnie is a very polite kind family man.  I went out to Solugan with the intension of pitching the idea of my ‘old person health’ classes, but Ronnie had a long laundry list of things he needed help with.  The stuff he was asking for wasn’t about getting free stuff, or English classes, or agreeing to project work he had no intention of following through on.  He asked me for small things that would make a big difference in his community and it made me feel so happy to be asked for real help.
At the end of Laura’s latrine project there had been some materials left over and the community voted on what to do with the extra latrines.  One of the extras was going to be built for the local kindergarten so the kids didn’t have to hold it during class time.  However, due to the location of the kindergarten and some disagreements from neighbors about building a latrine on their land, the latrine would have to be built in a tricky spot.  Ronnie asked me to help them get one of the municipality engineers to come out to help them build.  They needed some professional advice and Ronnie was having trouble getting anyone to help him out at the Municipality building. 
That afternoon when I got back from Solugan I went into the Municipality talked with one of the engineers I know, got the name of another engineer who knows about latrine construction and water table stuff, and wrote up a formal document asking this engineer to go out to Solugan to help.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m a gringa, because I live in Tacabamba, or because I am really not so ‘verguenzosa’ to be pushy and make a fuss, but I was able to get the ball rolling for Ronnie and those poor kindergarteners in just a couple hours.    
Ronnie also asked me about the possibility of doing a cuy hutch building project.  Almost everyone I have met in Cajamarca raises cuys.  In the more rural communities (read: poorer) a lot of times people just have all their guinea pigs running loose on the kitchen floor, which is really unhygienic.  However, if people are really poor or also really stubborn they will argue and argue with you that their cuys die from cold when they take them out of the kitchen.  Maybe that is true, but even if they put all the cuys in a hutch that was in the kitchen it would still be so much cleaner.  Ronnie told me that people in his community were too poor to buy all the materials needed to make hutches to get their cuys off the kitchen floor, but could I help them ask for materials from the Municipality.
Asking for money from the local government has been a super frustrating pass time of mine since I moved to Tacabamba, but what Ronnie was asking me to do was to teach him how to do something for himself and his community.  This is what Peace Corps is supposed to be all about; helping people learn how to do their own projects.  Most of the time I feel like I am shoving Peace Corps project goals down people’s unwilling throats-especially when I work with moms on nutrition and hygiene.  People are busy, why should they care what some foreign girl with bad Spanish has to say about how they should live their lives, I totally understand why they do not want to come sit in a class that I am giving.  This is different though.  This is his idea, his project; he wants to work with me to learn how to do this for his community on his own in the future.  I am going to teach Ronnie how to write up the documents that he needs to ask for money and I’ll sit in the municipality with him waiting to get face time with someone to whom we will pitch the idea.
On some level I am worried that this might not work out, because nothing really does seem to work out how you plan it to.  However, I am going to give it my best pushiest without verguenza gringa shot and we’ll see if we can get the wire mesh and nails to build the hutches for the families in Solugan. 
Although, it’s all still in the planning phase right now I feel more hopeful.  And if I can’t get anything to really work at least I know I tried my best and it’s not time to give up yet.  Rainy season makes everything feel so difficult; your clothes don’t dry on the line, people don’t show up to things because they don’t want to be out in the rain, and also hiking in mud out to a community tires you out so much faster, but school started 2 weeks ago and the health Center is finally done with their work plan for 2013 (even though ahem, we are ¼ way into the year).  So, maybe I will get to be a good volunteer in the end.  Fingers crossed my sex ed classes don’t fall through at the high school.
Thanks for reading and chau for now,
kb
PS: I wrote this blog post last week, but we had no internet.  Some updates include: I have permission to teach sex-ed in a rural high school in a community called El Naranjo.  It only took me about an hour of the 4 hour long parent association meeting to convince the community that I was not in fact a spy working for the American mining companies that work in Cajamarca.  I start classes on Monday.  Ronnie never called my back and I haven't heard from him in about a week.  I wrote up all his documents and we are ready to get this engineer thing going whenever I get his signature.  Tomorrow is Palm Sunday or Domingo de Los Ramos-I am so excited for the procession and religious ceremony.  Pictures to come soon!
Here are some pictures of Kaory's 1st birthday celebration:
Ellie passing out the goodies the wild kids
during the hora loca
the Peace Corps ladies with Diamond's host momma Adelaida-one of my favorite people
Photo opportunity with the birthday girl and her cakes
Ellie with the balloons with Kaory's face on them
the pinata, plus you can kinda see the camera crew (really it was only 2 people; one person with the camera and another with the light) to record the whole event
post- hora loca we are all exhausted and the place was pretty much trashed.  So then we danced all over and drank a lot of beer of course.
 
giant glossy poster with Kaory's face on it, check!  They nailed it!







 
 
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