stage 2

well after having been in-site for 3 months, i think i've finally advanced past the honeymoon stage of my time in perú. reality is setting in and things are looking harder and harder every day. doesn't mean i've given up -- not at all actually. i am still as dedicated as i was day 1 -- it's just that i'm beginning to notice more and more each and every day the challenges and problems that exist at my site. i am realizing that one person alone -- a gringo probably isn't going to solve all of them. doesn't mean i shouldn't try to at least positively impact the life of some of the people living here. it just means that i'm not going to affect the change that i had hoped i'd affect.

yesterday i attended a capacitación in a place called cruz blanca right outside of chincha. i was warned that i should "watch myself" being that they aren't so used to seeing gringos. i went with a colleague of mine from an ngo i'm working with here. looks like this ngo may have its days in chincha and grocio prado numbered. they aren't advancing with their project with the speed that they're jefes would like them to. vamos a ver en diciembre que pasa...

anyways, back to the capacitación. the project the ngo is doing is meant for my site grocio prado and the provincial capital, chincha alta -- not necessarily for cruz blanca. but, the president of the artisan association has some family members, friends, other connections out there and as a result, the ngo is testing out doing some of their capacitaciones there rather than here in grocio. in order to achieve this, they need at least 25 people. at one point yesterday, there were 30 y pico artisans in attendance. but, in the end, just 9 or so remained. my colleague then went on to praise the 9 artisans remaining for the attendance of all 30 artisans completely ignoring the fact that more than 20 had left.

the problem was that my colleague wanted to take a short break -- that we did. upon returning, we saw a flood of female artisans going towards the bodega to take a break themselves. we waited a few minutes for everyone to return...then a few more...and a few more...and then we started. i went out to let everyone know that we were starting up again but no one listened. at a few points, i mentioned to one of the artisans that did remain at the end that she should let the other women drinking a gaseosa know that we were starting and that they were going to miss everything. she didn't. they weren't coming back she said.

my colleague went on to present on the tema of enfoque al cliente or customer service. i don't believe that he was the one who had created the presentation and i don't believe that he reviewed the presentation. as a result, he read directly from the slides. to me, it seemed like his goal was to get through the presentation just for the sake of getting through it without much regard for whether the artisans were understanding anything.

bueno...i left a bit frustrated and with a massive headache. the house we were in was dirty. it was really dirty. i guess my gringo body isn't accustomed to that type of environment and so upon returning to chincha alta (the city), i had a massive headache. sick again, i thought. qué suerte!


i recount this story not to be negative. there is no doubt that it is a negative story and it was not an incredibly fun experience. was it valuable? yes. did i learn something? yes. am i frustrated? yes. am i giving up? no.

artisan fair y otras cositas

so, it's been a while since i've posted. apologies but i've been extremely busy since my jefe's site visit. most of my attention has gone to prep work for the peace corps artisan fair in lima. all in all, very very happy with the way things turned out. i was supposed to attend the fair with three groups of artisans, but in the end only one artisan attended. i like to think that he was one of the most successful artisans at the fair. our stand was located at the entrance of the artisan fair, so everytime someone walked into the fair, his stand was the first one that they saw.

in the beginning, alex (yes, my artisan's name is also alex) was a bit shy. this was the first fair he'd been to and i don't think (1) he really knew what to expect and (2) he didn't really know how to talk to the asistentes. any time someone stopped to check out his pieces (he brought a chair tipo fred flintstone, two mirrors, and a biombo, pictured below and translated roughly as folding screen or room divider lol), i encouraged him to start up a conversation. at times it was tough being that a grand majority of asistentes were americans and some did not speak much spanish. i told him that they liked his work and wanted to learn more. i encouraged him to befriend them and to take down contact information of those that were interested in learning more and in possibly making a purchase. in the end, alex sold one of the mirrors he'd brought to the fair and a juego de muebles, a set of two chairs and a table for a living room space. but, i think overall he took back home with him his first feria artesanal experience. people here in grocio prado are so used to staying here and at times, actually appear afraid to leave. for example, i believe that one of the artisans i was planning on taking to the fair did not go precisely for this reason. everyone here always says, but what if it doesn't go right? but what if i don't sell it? yeah, there is always the chance that you don't sell. but you'll never know if you never try. and with good preparation, you're more likely to have success than not to have it.

bueno, in the end, very happy and very impressed with alex. even though not everything has gone right for me thus far, i think this has been one of my early successes and i am really looking forward to working with him for the two years that i'm going to be here in grocio prado.

on another note, on thursay, i had the opportunity to present in the u.s. embassy in lima on the tema de cómo armar un stand que llame la atención or how to put together a stand that attracts attention. i did it not so much because i am an expert in desiging artisan fair stands, but more for the experience speaking spanish in public -- not an easy task. on that note, yesterday i had another opportunity to put my spanish public-speaking skills to use in cañete. there are two business volunteers from my promoción within an hour's drive of me -- patrick and jason. we are planning to do talleres on how to write a business plan in each of our sites, starting with patrick in cañete. yesterday jason (from pisco) and me (from chincha) headed up to pat's site for a charla to discuss what cuerpo de paz is, what we do, and why a business plan is so important. the audience was primarily made up of farmers from the area and it seems like they could really use our help. we are going to do our first taller in cañete in january and then go forward with talleres in pisco and chincha after. all in all, a very successful charla. everyone in attendance seemed excited about our presence -- hopefully everyone shows up for the taller in january!

in other news, no one showed up for the first reunión of my club de orientación vocacional tipo career club today! this past tuesday, we had the second reunión of the club we're doing with high school juniors. today's meeting was supposed to be for seniors. the seniors are going to be graduating in december so if this tema is important for anyone, it would be them. qué se yo...


so, yeah, having finished up with the artisan fair, it looks like alex (the artisan), gino (his brother, also an artisan) and i are going to continue working together. looks like our first goal is getting a website going which we will then send to the people we met during the artisan fair in lima. other than that, i am going to keep the club de orientación vocacional going with the juniors.

it's truly amazing that i've already been at site for three months. have learned a lot during my short time here. have learned that i take my education for granted. that as a develoment worker, you can't work with everyone and shouldn't work with everyone. that sometimes you are going to fail. that sometimes you are going to succeed. that sometimes you don't really know if something is a success or a failure -- at least at first. ya.


all in all, been having a great time. hopefully i can keep this going for another year and nine months...

estrés y éxito

so today was a semi-big day for me. after a few weeks of anticipation, we had the first reunión del club de orientación vocacional (o sea career club) and por casualidad today was also the day of my site visit with the APCD (o sea Associate Peace Corps Director del programa de pequeños negocios), the regional coordinator for ica, and the PCVC (o sea Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator for el programa de pequeños negocios).

preparation for the career club has been in process for a while and although i had planned everything out, somehow, as always, i end up leaving stuff for the last minute and getting a bit stressed out.

my day:

7.30am to 8 - wake-up and go to the colegio Melchorita Saravia to collect permission slips and to remind the kids from cuarto año de secundaria (the equivalent of junior year in high school) that the first meeting was to be today between 3pm and 5pm.

8am to 9 - sleep

9am to noon - cleaned my room since we were told that the site visit would include a quick look at our rooms, showered, shaved (which is not something i've been doing so often!), breakfasted, and lunched.

noon to 1pm - went to the comedor to prepare materials for the career club -- papelotes (o sea big pieces of paper -- not actually sure what the english translation is) and cut-outs of my hand for one of the exercises we were going to do.

1pm to 3 - went into chincha to print some documents for the career club, to buy tape and markets, and to print out some photos to show everyone at the beginning of the meeting.

at 3pm, i was at the school en punto ready to go. sadly it was just me and Miss Lidia, the English teacher that is working with me on the career club project and on some other things i am doing at the school. thankfully, helping me avoid the potential embarrassment of no one showing up, kids trickled in one by one. at about 3.30pm, we had 25 kids. 33 had signed up when i had gone classroom-to-classroom signing people up last week, but just 16 had turned in their permission slips. thus, i was a bit surprised!

i kicked things off by talking about my life in the united states, showing pictures of washington, then talking about buenos aires, showing pictures of friends, family, and alejandra (sorry 15-year-old grociopradinas, i'm taken jaja).

at that point, my colleagues from peace corps showed up. i introduced them to the class and then alfredo, the APCD gave a short talk on what peace corps is and basically what i'm going to be doing here for the next 2 years (which is now just 22 months!).

Miss Lidia then spoke for a few minutes, talking to the kids on a more personal level about her life and about the three years she spent in the united states. in perú, schools are extremely formal and there is not much one-on-one personal contact between teachers and students. teachers come (or don't come), dictate class, and leave. in the u.s., based on my experience, i feel like kids and teachers are able to form relationships, talking with each other outside of the classroom and just getting to know each other on a more personal level. anyways, Miss Lidia did a great job.

i then had the kids get in groups, having them introduce themselves to one another, talk about their interests, and finally their expectativas for the club (i.e. why they were there). after a few hick-ups (in that the kids weren't speaking with each other!), we got things rolling. after giving the kids a chance to talk in small groups, they came up to the front of the room one-by-one to introduce their partners to the rest of the class. seems like this isn't something many kids are used to, but i think it really helps build self-confidence (o autoestima) in the kids, so i hope to incorporate more excercises like it in the future.

i then talked about the topics we will cover between now and the end of the school year in december and had the kids make a list of rules that they then agreed to abide by. to end the session, i passed out cut-outs of hands to the kids and told them to write in the center of the hand their dream and then in each of the five dedos, a characteristic of theirs that will help them achieve their dream. the kids then taped their hands on the árbol de sueños. i thought this excercise was a bit corny, but it was actually a great success!

after the reunión, my colleagues from peace corps and i had a meeting with the head of the office of tourism in chincha and the head of fovida, an ngo that is doing a tourism project here in grocio prado and chincha. we talked about ways that the office of tourism (dircetur), fovida, and peace corps can work together on projects designed to improve the situation of the artesanos in grocio prado.

needless to say, it was a long, stressful day. but, in the end, it was a successful day! one recommendation the apcd had for me is to slow down, to not try and do everything at once, and to not try to do too many things at one time. i think, the fact that my last "real job" was in investment banking makes me prone to want to get things done quickly, efficiently, and comprehensively. i am realizing that things here in grocio prado don't function like they did at the investment bank. things take longer. and maybe the results and successes are not as concrete as they were at the i-bank. after having pushed really hard over the past couple of days, tomorrow i'm going to try and take it easy. next week, i'll be in lima for the peace corps artesan fair (thursday). on wednesday, i will present during the day of talleres, or workshops, given to the artisans. so, basically, i'll have a lot to do the rest of the this week, this weekend, and next week. should be a great experience -- i'm really looking forward to it!

field trip

today i helped another ngo doing work here in grocio prado/chincha with a field trip they were doing for three private elementary school classes from the city of chincha. at 9.40, two busloads of 10- and 11-year-olds rolled up to the plaza de armas de grocio prado to begin a circuito turístico with the goal of introducing the kids to the artesanos and artesanías of grocio prado.

one of the directors of the ngo asked me to help one of the groups out and so i picked the group that was first to go to the house of an artesan i'm working with who lives less than a block from where i'm living. there, the artesano (his name, José), did an incredibly good job describing his work, how he learned the trade, who he sells his product to, how to creates his product, why he enjoys his job, etc. he also showed an incredibly accurate understanding of how the market works here -- basically artisans do all the work, purchasing the raw material, weaving various artesanías, and then selling them to comerciantes who then re-sell the artesanías to the final consumer. this process repeats itself over and over, generation to generation, until someone says that they want it to change and leads by example.

anyways, from there, we went to the house of another artisan -- suprisingly, after having reminded his wife about the visit, he was not in his taller. this meant that the kids from chincha had pretty much nothing to do for the half hour they were supposed to have been listening to the artisan talk about his work in much the same way that José had done earlier on. i asked the artisan's wife to come speak to the kids a little bit just to give them an idea of how the chairs, mirrors, and other artesanías are created, but she declined until just before we were to leave. after instisting and insisting that someone speak to the kids, she finally spoke.

from there we went to the taller of gino and alex (the two artisans i will be taking (hopefully) to the peace corps fair in lima. alex was at school i believe, but gino did a great job explaining to the kids his trabajo.

to finish the day, we went to the taller of margarita and her family. their artesanía is, without exaggerating, the life of her family. they get up, they work, they go to sleep and they do the same thing over and over again. and it appears as though they are extremely content with this life. the only thing they are a little bit discontent with is the fact that they are not paid as much as they should.

this last visit was extremely frustrating to say the least. the kids were to try their hand at making the same artesanías as margarita, her husband, son, and daughters. they had no limits. they were supposed to take two pieces of junco (the vegetable fiber used in their artesanías), but they were not content with that. they kept taking more and more junco and i appeared to be the only one telling them no -- that it was not theirs and that they could not take it. it was not free and they had not paid for it. the artesanos were doing them all a favor by taking time out of their day to give them a demonstration and teach them. they didn't realize or didn't care about the fact that their taller is also their house. dropping scraps of junco where they pleased, taking things that weren't theirs, going places they shouldn't have gone, they did things that i have never seen before out of 10- and 11-year-olds.

to end things, one of the directors of the ngo leading the field trip asked me to start cleaning up the taller. i said that the kids should do it since they were the ones that made it dirty in the first place. she did not agree -- she said they wouldn't do it and that we should discuss it in the office. i was surprised and extremely upset. afterwards, she went back to chincha with the kids and i stayed to help clean up.

in the u.s., i think we grow up with a sense of respect for the property, time, and kindness of others. it appears that these kids falta un poco when it comes to this...

me duele la panza

translation: my tummy hurts. yes, i've been like this since friday when i ate some dubious-looking lettuce and tomatoes masquerading as a salad. so now i am taking cipro and spending a lot of time feeling tired and resting since i really don't feel good enough to go to the gym. it also sucks because the peruvian diet is not really so conducive to getting me the food i need to feel better. lots of oil and fried things. but i will survive. just trying to be optimistic...

bueno, in terms of the projects i've been spending my time on, i've got a few in-process.

(1) in the high school here, i'm trying to get a pen pal program going with peruvian 10- and 13-year-olds here and kids of the same ages from a bilingual school in d.c. turns out that the 5th grade teacher mentioned something about a trip to perú that the school is trying to orgranize -- not sure if it would be community service-ortiented or what but it would be awesome if we were able to get a written correspondence going. then when the kids from d.c. visited, they could meet the peruvians they'd been corresponding with.

(2) un club de carreras. i did a survey of kids in the last two grades of high school and it seems like there is a great lack of preparation for careers in that kids grow up without any real goals or plans. they leave high school and they don't know what to do or how to do it. basically with the career club, i want to teach kids to set goals, think about what kinds of careers they want, and finally achieve their goals and become, for example, a doctor or a lawyer. i'd like to start the club with about 25 students. i've been working with the english teacher at the high school (i'm also working with her on the pen pal project) and she seems really optimistic about both projects.

(3) this saturday i will be starting a boys club at the comedor here in grocio prado. kids 11 and up are invited to participate and my goal is to focus on getting the kids to talk, teach them leadership skills, talk to them about safe sex, controlling their anger, eating well, having goals and aspirations, etc. this saturday i am going to start with a "getting-to-know-you" thing and to try to develop some sort of trust. then, in future sessions, we can begin to talk about more serious temas. if anyone has recommendations for things i could do, please let me know!

(4) the artisan fair in lima. all of the sudden, prospects for the fair look pretty dim. i've just been informed that it doesn't look like we are going to be able to bring furniture into the embassy in lima. my star artisans are artisans of furniture made of wood and vegetable fibre -- think beach house stuff like chairs, mirrors, tables, etc. it's all really nice stuff but now the peace corps is telling me we can't bring it into the embassy. fock. so, i'm not really sure what i am going to tell the artisans. we have already started the capacitaciones and it would be a shame for them not to end up going. also, the other group of artisans i was going to take is not interested. after having told me that they were going to attend, they received another large order and said that they will have to spend their time filling that order rather than preparing for the fair. they also left me hanging today after having told me this morning that they would be attending my training session at 4 p.m. ¡qué boludo!


(5) other than that, i've started working with the owner of a restaurant close by with marketing. he is 23-years-old, just opened a restaurant in the center of town, and is a really nice guy. he moved back to grocio prado after having spent 4 years in Ica (the capital of my departamento, or state) and has a vision muy amplia for what his restaurant/hotel empire will eventally look like.

i've also started talking to people about a women's artisan group that would meet on wednesdays to talk about temas like marketing, pricing, costs, accounting, attending artisan fairs, etc.

i've got a lot of good ideas -- hopefully some of them actually come to fruition!

late peruvians

i love peru. the people are great (most of the time), the food is great, and things are always interesting. but i don't like lateness and i guess tonight i get a taste of my own medicine. i know that i haven't always been the most on-time of people and tonight i have to admit that it sucks. and the even more suckier thing is that there is probably a lot more of it to come.

basically, i was supposed to have a training session with two artisans that i am going to bring to lima for the peace corps artisan fair (this group makes some really cool chairs, mirrors, couch-type set-ups, etc.). they are 24- and 20-years-old and i guess the positive is that they are young enough that i can teach them to not keep me waiting!

the session was supposed to start at 6pm in the comedor. at 6.30pm i walked over to their taller and one of them was in the house and the other was in the taller or workshop. i asked them what the deal was, and they asked me if just alex (yes, one of their names is alex) could attend. i said no, that they should both come. we then settled to meet up at 9.00pm at the comedor.

i was at the comedor at 9pm en punto y nada... at 9.30pm i left the comedor to come back to my house. i'll deal with them tomorrow.

update: setbacks

just got back from the house of the artisans that i want to take to lima for the peace corps fair and i've somehow convinced them to come. crossing my fingers that everything works out!

setbacks

just got back from the house of a family of artisans i was working with. i was going to take them to the peace corps artisan fair in lima at the beginning of november. we were going to begin preparation for the feria on wednesday. i arrived and they told me that they couldn't go -- that they had just received an order that they had to have ready in 5 weeks and that they wouldn't have time. based on my calculations, they will be making 1.350 soles which is not a small sum. but the sad thing is that they are going to be working extremely hard for a month just to give the product to someone else who will be re-selling the product for two times the price she will have bought it for. i tried explaining to them that they have to be the ones selling their product to the final consumer but they are older and have little formal education and just don't get it. it's unfortunate and i am not giving up just yet, but it was hard news to hear. i was really excited about working with them but a little bit nervous about their lack of education. looks like i've got to look for some other artisans to take to the fair!

ngo slackers

was walking around town earlier today with my ngo coleague when she mentioned to me how one of the guys she works with wasn't really pulling his weight. i.e. pushing his own responsibilities onto her, facebooking the day away, not giving her credit for work she did, etc. sound familiar? interesting to note that this kind of stuff doesn't just happen in investment banks.

its so interesting to me. never have i been so motivated to get things done in my life. earlier today, walking to the taller or workshop of some artisans i am working with, i realized that 2 years is not a lot of time. i've already been here for a month! 2 years is going to go by like that. i see the work i've done so far and i think there is a lot of potential to get things done. the only thing left to do is get the people i'm working with to be as excited as i am to get stuff done.

on that note, yesterday walking home from the medical post, i stopped by the taller of another artisan i'm working with. the last volunteer here in grocio prado got an artisan fair project going with some of the artisans on the block I live on. she left and the project died more or less. i talked to one of the artisans yesterday and he sounded like he wanted to get it going again. so i told him to talk to some of the arisans that were involved in the project. looks like he did! they ended up forming (or mejor dicho are in the process of forming) a new association. i'm going to try to get them ready for an artisan fair that will be going on for a little more than a week for the fiestas de Chincha in october. wish me luck!

buen fin de semana a todos!

reality check

it is becoming increasingly clear that here in grocio prado/chincha "social conscience" doesn't translate so well...

a full

it's amazing. i remember sitting in an office on the 35th floor of 181 w. madison in chicago basically dreaming about what it would be like. and i'm here! thanks to so many people (they know who they are) who helped me. and every day i am learning un montón about what it's like to live in a developing country. from walking into a home furnished with a laptop and flat screen tv with a floor made of tierra to learning about why the artisans here don't like working with each other. from what i gather so far, most things come down to confianza or trust.

got some cool things in the works, including a pen pal program involving a bilingual school in dc and the local colegio here in grocio prado, an artisan fair project, an artisan association project, and seemingly an endless array of other opportunities. every day i am learning something new about myself, about the people of grocio prado, and about the world. sometimes things seem like they are lost as in when on a survey i gave today to about 200 high school students here almost all responded SÍ when asked whether they like reading when some couldn't even spell simple Spanish words. and then i remember i have two years here.

so much to do...

knock on every door

you really never know what you'll find behind the next door you knock on. on several occasions i've gone out walking with some business cards, my notebook, pen, and some surveys in an effort to introduce myself to my community. i can't tell you how many times i've really not wanted to knock on a door. maybe there is a dog barking on a roof, maybe the place looks deserted, or really dirty. whatever. sometimes i just don't want to. and then i think about whether i have a good reason not to knock on the door. and most of the time, i don't. so i knock.

here in grocio prado, women for the most part have been marginalized in that they are the designated amas de casa. they take care of the kids, cook, and knit artesanías when they have some spare time. few have more than a high school education. however, most of the artesans are women. and so it occurred to me as a bit strange that their artisan association, and basically everyone in control of the artisan community, is headed by men.

i've been looking for a female artisan with an education to serve as an example. to be the face of the female artisans. something like that. today i was walking, hungry for lunch when i passed by what looked like a kindergarden or pre-school. i'm a business volunteer, but i am in the process of getting to know my community and so i decided to introduce myself. it turns out that the teacher of the kindergarden is a young 20 something female with knowledge of how to use the computer. not counting my chickens before they hatch but she could be someone good to work with.

one month

i've been here in grocio prado for a month now -- i can't believe how quickly it has passed by. basically getting to know the community. every day waking up, going out and just chatting with people. trying to get the lay of the land before i start my projects. i've got to say that back when i applied, i thought it was going to be easier. i had this vision that i was going to come into my site and change things right away. here in grocio i'm confronted with behaviors that have been passed on generation to generation and a way of life people are used to. as a gringo, the first thing people assume about me is that i have money. i'm here to give people things. peace corps is about giving people the tools they need to provide for themselves, without having to rely on hand-outs on others. and so i say no -- that i have no money to give but that i'm willing to give my time and do the best i can to teach people everything i know that can be of use to them.

one of the first things i realized upon arriving to grocio prado is that it is a town of artisans. very very talented artisans who have learned their craft from their parents who learned from their parents and so on and so forth. tremendous talent. but a lack of business know-how. that is where i come in. my job is to teach people with little formal education how they can make more money and salir de la pobreza.

grocio prado, just like any other area in the world is complex. and so getting to know it takes time, it takes sitting down and talking to people, having conversations, asking questions, taking chances, and looking in all nooks and corners. if you asked me tonight what i'm going to do tomorrow, i'd be hard-pressed to tell you exactly what i'm going to do. that is pretty much the story day-to-day. generally, i have a loose plan as to what i am going to do -- but that plan quickly changes.

Vamo' pa' Chincha familiaaaa

So I am just now finishing up my first week at site and so far, so good. After having requested a site change and having it be granted, I chose to come to a town called Grocio Prado in the provincia of Chincha in the departamento of Ica. Grocio Prado (technically a district) is a town with about 20.000 people about 2 and a half hours south of Lima. Chincha is known to Peruvians as the home of afro-Peruvian culture and everyone I told that I´d be going to Chincha said the same phrase to me in the same deep, seemingly uneducated accent -- ¨vamos pa´ Chincha familia¨. Needless to say, I have seen some morenitas, but Grocio Prado doesn´t really have many and you can´t really observe the presence of an afro-Peruvian culture here.

I am living with a family here two blocks off of the main square – the Plaza de Armas. I have a host brother named Jean (20 years old), a host sister named Cristel (15 years old), a host mom named Mirtha (40 years old), and a host father who recently found a job as a watchman in another city. I think he is coming in next week for Jean´s birthday.

I´ve been eating all of my meals with my host family. Breakfast being coffee, bread with either cheese, tortilla (a pancake made of eggs, milk, and onion), or avocado. Lunch being some sort of soup, a plate with rice, potatoes, yucca (some sort of Peruvian cousin of the potato), and a piece of meet. And finally dinner being basically a repeat of lunch. Needless to say, Peruvians don´t eat many fruits and vegetables.

Other than that, after not having run much during training, I´ve run each of the past six days, today having run to the beach, which is about 40 minutes from my house. I´ve spent a lot of time with the previous volunteer, Alana who recently departed for the United States. She gave me a run-down of what she´s been working on and introduced me to her community counterparts and other people she has had the opportunity to work with during her service.

Regretfully, I have yet to meet the mayor who is literally never in his office. I have met the head of the artisan association with which Alana was working but I have yet to meet any of the other artisans. It appears that the people of Grocio Prado (denominated Grocio Pradinos) lack trust in other people, and most definitely in foreigners. I am guessing that in my two years here, I am going to encounter a great deal of resistance.

Also, it is interesting to note that the town has many tourists who come to see the Melchorita, the house of a Peruvian Ghandi. They come to see the house, pray, eat (Grocio Prado is known for having fantastic food), buy artisan products, and the leave. My first day in Grocio Prado, I went for a jugo de fresa (strawberry and milk shake) and was charged 4 soles. Over lunch, I told my host family about how delicious I was – turns out I was engañado – it should have costed between 1.50 and 2 soles.

Welcome to Grocio Prado :-)

I'm hereeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Helloooooooooooooooo/Holaaaaaaaaaaaaa a todos.  Here I am in Perú in the middle of my fifth week.  I am staying in a small neighborhood about an hour away from the center of Lima.  It is called 3 de octubre (3rd of October).  Every weekday (and some Sundays) we go to the Peace Corps training center in Chaclacayo (about 15 minutes away from my house by combi).  My fellow volunteer Lindsay picks me up at 7.45am and we arrive at 8am or shortly thereafter.  At the training center, we have between 2 and 4 sessions per day—language/culture class, classes on small business concepts, safety and security sessions, and medical sessions (sometimes we are lucky enough to get shots, too!).

I live with a Peruvian family with a mother (Trinidad), her two sons (Enrique y Gustavo), and one of her son’s esposas.  I see Trinidad’s son Carlos, his wife Rebecca, and their two daughters almost every day (Yanela y Yerlin).  I have a lot of fun with my family and I think they have a lot of fun with me.  They get a big kick out of my Porteño dejo and like to make fun of me for it (much like the other volunteers do), but it’s all good.  It’s kind of sad that in another 5 weeks, I’ll be in another part of the country probably a few hours away from my host family.  (Volunteers from this group are going to be sent to Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Cajamarca y Arequipa).  Arequipa is supposed to be a beautiful mountainous department south of Lima.  The other four departamentos are to the north of Lima.

This weekend in fact, we are heading to Cajamarca for “Field Based Training”.  We will be teaching a three-day class (apparently from 4pm to 10pm) on entrepreneurship to students studying in a technical institute.  On the fourth day, the plan is that they will simulate a business of their choice using a loan from el banco del Cuerpo de Paz.  Should be a lot of fun!

The following week will be a short one (Fiestas Patrias are celebrated on Thursday and Friday—the 28^th and 29^th).  However, I should note that that week I will find out where the Peace Corps will be sending me for the remainder of my service.  Wish me luck!

prepping for perú

i tell people i'm leaving buenos aires at the end of may and nobody really understands why. i do, but at the same time, i don't really want to leave. i mean, i want to go but at the same time i want to stay. i know what i'm going to do there is going to be life-changing (or at least i hope so) and i'm excited. but at the same time, i've found some really awesome people here and it's going to be tough to go.

i remember coming back to buenos aires in february. when i was in cayman, and israel, and in the us, all i wanted was to be back here. the day i got to buenos aires was the day before a really good friend of mine left for a month. it was strange to be back. with my friend danny leaving and my friend arielle back in dc, i remember that first friday night staying home all confused. that night, two of my friends in buenos aires had made plans with each other and some other people (tipo date) and i was alone. and it felt strange. i look at my life right now and i love it. i've made some great friends and i don't want to go. transitions suck -- i think everyone can agree on that.

a few days ago i was walking on the street thinking about transitions and about how many times i've changed my life from going from emory to texas to chicago to buenos aires. and i've realized that it takes a lot of effort and the beginning isn't always easy. here's to hoping that transitioning to life in perú won't be too difficult...even though it's going to be...

a little bit about the foundation and my role

i've had some people ask me about what i'm doing with the foundation, what is does, etc.  i thought it'd be nice to share a little bit about what we do and a little bit about my role here.

i think it makes sense to start with where the foundation works.  we work in the provincia of buenos aires about 50 minutes drive to the west from the city center in a place called moreno.  in moreno, they lack a lot of the infrastructure we take for granted in the united states -- clean water, paved roads, street signs, street names, natural gas, etc.  these are things few people think about in the united states and few people think about in the capital of buenos aires because we take them for granted -- they're more or less a given.

the foundation works to bring these infrastructural conveniences to the people of moreno by way of community organization.  the government in argentina and in buenos aires does little to help these people and so the reasoning goes that if no one will help them, they need to help themselves.  that's where the foundation comes in.  after conducting surveys/studies/etc. to determine what the area needs most, the foundation decided to focus on natural gas.  the natural gas project is what the foundation hopes will be a mobilizing event, or an event that, given its success, will hopefully gateway into other infrastructure-focused projects in the future.

two weeks ago, the foundation signed a contract with the inter-american development bank and a local argentine bank for a pair of loans totaling us$6,000,000 (to be used for the construction of the physical gas network), with the inter-american development bank donating us$689,267 for expenses to be incurred during the course of the project.  Having secured two other donations, amounting to us$167,400, the foundation is lacking a total of us$527,150 that will be neccessary to complete the project.  what i do is write grant proposals/requests that will hopefully go a ways to filling this hole.

additionally, i've been working with the inter-american development bank multilateral investment fund group within the foundation.  this group takes care of all of the administrative tasks the foundation must comply with to be able to access the funds its been promised by the idb.  needless to say, this experience has been extremely rewarding and a nice education to how an ngo works and how a project of this nature works.  it'll hopefully serve me well in peru and beyond.

rock stars

flaming lips playing lollapalooza in santiago de chile. april 3, 2011.

quick story. last weekend, i was coming back from santiago de chile after having gone to the first lollapalooza held in latin america. i had just arrived at the airport with a friend of mine when i saw on line at the air canada counter none other than wayne coyne, lead singer of the flaming lips. got a picture with him, struck up a conversation, and he ended up inviting my friend and i to his show in buenos aires. he took down our information and said there shouldn't be a problem but if there was, he'd call me.

two days later, we arrived at the venue, next to los bosques de palermo, only to find out that we were not on the list. i pleaded with the woman at will-call, telling her we had met the lead singer and that he had personally invited us to the show. she said there was nothing she could do. my friend and i were about to go when a woman at the next window said to come here. she asked us what happened, where we were from, etc. and then gave us two free tickets to the show. this woman didn't know us and had absolutely nothing to benefit from in giving us the tickets.

in the end, i learned two things: (1) don't trust rock stars no matter how nice they appear to be and (2) sometimes people do good things just because of the mere fact that they are good people.

here are some other shots from the weekend:

wayne coyne y yo en el aeropuerto de santiago de chile. el 4 de abril de 2011.

yo, pedro, anna y jorge. lollapalooza day 1. el 2 de abril de 2011.

la casa del escritor pablo neruda en santiago de chile, la chascona. el 3 de abril de 2011.

visit to the barrio

today, we went to moreno which is just outside of the provincia of buenos aires. it took us about two hours in the train and would take you about 40 minutes by car to get there from the microcentro. this was my second time in the barrio, but the contrast between downtown buenos aires and moreno struck me just as hard this time around as it did during my first visit. its a bit crazy to think that in palermo, recoleta, belgrano, and the microcentro, people more or less have all of the amenities we have in the united states and europe. in moreno, they lack things like running water, paved roads, and natural gas connections. the purpose of today's visit was to help prepare for and attend a ceremony to celebrate the signing of the contract between the inter-american development bank and the foundation for which i work for the loan needed to go forward with the natural gas project. for me, it was inspirational and sad at the same time. the majority of the people in attendance were from the barrio with there also being representatives from the foundation, the inter-american development bank, the natural gas company that has been working in conjunction with the foundation to get the project going, and (i believe) the president of a well-known bank in buenos aires that will be making a loan to the foundation that will complement funds donated/lent by the idb. on one side, you had people in suits looking at blackberries and on the other side, the vecinos. the difference between the two parties was impossible to ignore. i think it's amazing that businesses and ngos like the idb are coming forward to help carry out projects of this nature, but to me its quite sad that we're in this situation at all. i hope and i pray that i can do something to change things or at least make a contribution to the movement for change, but as someone said to me today, businesses are businesses, the world bank and other like-minded ngos are businesses, and at times, governments are businesses. everything's a business.

internship evaluation: halfway point

it's been quite the interesting experience working in an ngo.  meeting a lot of really intelligent people, all with different backgrounds, but all with an interest in what the ngo, albeit at varying degrees.  the volunteers, with the exception of two from argentina, are from outside of the country -- many from the u.s. and most of the others from france.  it's been quite cool learning about how an ngo works in terms of how it gets funding, how it carries out a project, as well as the ins and outs of day to day activities.  it can be quite awesome at times, talking to people who are so passionate about their job.  not once did i observe someone so passionate while i was in investment banking.  i saw people passionate about money and maybe determined to make money, but i didn't see the passion i see in some of the people at the foundation.  with that said, there is also a lot of bureaucracy and it can be a bit frustrating at times when you want something to happen and it doesn't for some reason or another.  what makes it all the more frustrating is the fact that were i at an institution like an investment bank, i can be sure that things that take us at the foundation a week or two to get done get done in a matter of a day or two at an investment bank.  but all in all, after having completed about half of my three-month internship, i have to say that i've been satisfied with my work for the first time in i cannot remember how long.

parque nacional quebrada del condorcito. la provincia de córdoba, argentina. march 8, 2011.

mendoza

today i returned to buenos aires after having been in mendoza for the past four days.  it's funny -- this is the second 4-day weekend we've had in buenos aires in the past month with the first one having been for carnaval.  seems like its a ploy by cristina to win votes in the forthcoming election and an easy way to jump-start the economy via tourism.  anyways, it's been a good opportunity to explore parts of argentina i haven't yet seen.

mendoza is known for its wine with malbec being probably the most popular variety.  it's also known for the andes and aconcagua.  needless to say, the weekend was great.  drank lot's of wine, saw some pretty amazing scenery, rode a horse for the first time in my life, and got to see a new city and a new culture.

in terms of observations, i'd have to say the people i met in mendoza were extremely kind people.  i had the opportunity to walk around the crafts market on the city's main plaza on saturday and sunday and on more than one occasion was asked where i was from, what i was doing in mendoza, what i was doing in argentina, etc.  the fair had a cool laid-back hippy vibe and reminded me why i was in argentina.  it was so great to see everybody out on the plaza drinking mate and hanging out with friends.  no one seemed like they were in a rush to do anything.  could have been because it was a public holiday but i'd bet its like that in mendoza on most days.

another observation -- i had the change to visit a few wine bodegas.  basically, they do the same thing at each bodega.  you walk in, they give you a tour/tell you about the history of the vineyard, and then comes the wine tasting.  for the most part, the tour is a bit impersonal and you realize that just like almost everything else in this world, wine is a business.  one of the vineyards we went to was different.  it felt more personal than the others and less businessy.  i think the friends i went with would agree when i say that they seemed like they made wine because they genuinely like making wine.  in a world where it seems like few people enjoy their job, i think that this is something to aspire to -- that is, liking what you do.

an observation

almost everywhere i've gone in argentina, i've asked people whether they've been to buenos aires. i usually get the same answer almost everywhere i go -- porteños are boludos, very superficial, care too much about their appearance, blah, blah, blah. all in all, probably true to some extent.

just got home from being out with a friend of mine. she studied english in london for about a month with her sister. i said that next time she goes outside of the country, she should go alone so that she could practice her english. "go alone to england?!" she said. "everyone there is so cold." i told her that british people for the most part may be cold (sorry british friends lol), but there's no way everyone in england can be so cold. it'd be impossible.

one thing i've learned over the past year or so being in argentina is that no matter where you are, whether you're in london, buenos aires, chicago, new york, etc. you can always find good people. i think of all the amazing people i've met during my time in argentina and i am really thankful for this. really makes me think that i can go anywhere in the world without knowing anyone and be okay.