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:
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| Ellie passing out the goodies the wild kids |
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| during the hora loca |
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| the Peace Corps ladies with Diamond's host momma Adelaida-one of my favorite people |
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| Photo opportunity with the birthday girl and her cakes |
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| Ellie with the balloons with Kaory's face on them |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| giant glossy poster with Kaory's face on it, check! They nailed it! |
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You gotta teach those high school kids to not be silly and protect their willies!
ReplyDeleteit's so weird to see such pretty decorations and thena dirt floor.