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.