Observations

Fernando & I built a new entry for the biodigester

Another completed Cocina

Completed installation of biodigester and greenhouse hoops

Inflating the biodigester bag

                                                                    Completed two more of the improve cook stoves this week. Turns out that I’m a pretty fair brick/adobe mason. I’ve watched some good ones at work and the osmosis thing took over. There is an art to getting the adobe mud just right – like a big tub of chocolate pudding. The worst is when I get rocks in the barro. Unlike most Volunteers, who use hands, I prefer to sling and smooth mud with a trowel. While I do marvel at the brilliance of the human hand (and there are times when nothing else will do), my Grandfather taught me well that the right tool makes the job easier and better. I don’t get the “Peace Corps Rustic” look, but the locals like my smooth.

 Also, got the new entrance to the bio-digester set up. Chevo can now mix the pig shit soup in the 55 gal drum and dump it in, instead of dealing with the 5 gal buckets. The thing is slowly filling up – he only does 50 gallons a day and the tube holds well over 1,000 gals. Hoping the thing gets going and produces some good fertilizer (and methane) to use with compost from the eco-banos, compost from the Town’s compost pile, for good starter soil for the tree planting projects – Synergy in action.

More about eating in Peru : Most Peruvians don’t eat much breakfast. Usually just a couple of bread rolls with a sweet sugar spread or a nasty black sausage (that I don’t even want to remember the name of). My morning habit, on the way to the field/beach, is to stop for a big glass of fresh squeezed OJ and a bread roll with tortilla and onion slices for filling. Or sometimes fresh cheese and avocado. BTW, tortilla here is a fried  egg / potato / mixed veggie batter, which gets nice and crispy on the edges and tastes just fine. Another morning favorite is the baked potato, stuffed with bits of chicken and veggies – for 18 cents, it can’t be beat. An extra “pancito” and a plastic tube of home-roasted peanut for snacks, my trusty water bottle and I’m good for a day’s work.

Lunch is the big meal of the day, usually eaten about 1 or 2pm. There are some order-from-menu restaurants, but the most popular is the “Menu” (pronounced Men –oooo). Here, they serve soup, a main course and a drink for about $1.75 US. Soup comes to the table instantly, at which point the second is selected – there are usually just one or two choices. It is served well before soup is finished and beverage – usually fruit juice with water and sugar added – comes at the end. Everything is home cooked and so far, I’ve yet to find a meal I didn’t like. Today’s soup was “Minestrone”, but not the Italian version. This was a creamy, cheesy broth, with noodles and mixed vegetables. The second (there was no choice) was a beet/pea/lima bean and onion salad, with rice and a nice piece of fried fish. These folks got McDonald’s beat – faster service, better food and cheaper prices.

The “eating club” (no, nothing like Cottage or Ivy at Princeton) is another lunchtime option. There are usually a few in each town. The members pay 90 US cents per day. It is BYO plate, bowl and flatware. The places are a little shabby and frequented mostly by single, older, poorer men. There is just one item on the menu, but you do get a good meal for very cheap.

Dinner is usually just leftover lunch and eaten around 8pm. My program is to bring my Tupper, eat just half of lunch – the portions are huge – and have the rest (with an avocado, mango or figs) around 6pm. This has cured my bedtime acid-tummy and may have contributed to my recent 6 kg weight loss. Though, I credit manual labor at the beach for most of that. I’ve had the made a new hole in my belts, as well.

Mail service in Peru is provided by Serpost, which is by no means the equivalent of the good old US Postal Service. There is no home delivery, except “Special Delivery”, which costs about $9 and is rarely used. They are only in larger towns – some PC volunteers have to go hours just to get mail. Even in those towns, few people have P.O. boxes (Carilla Postal), though there is a Peace Corps box in San Vicente, where I get mail, to wit:

RGP, C.P. # 43, Serpost San Vicente de Canete, Lima, PERU

(any and all care packages greatfully accepted)

BTW, my cell is : 01-51-979-584-896 (incoming calls free to me)

Serpost service is slow and expensive. A letter to Lima took 3 days (80 miles away) and cost about $1.50. Post cards to the States are almost $2. Many folks send letters and packages via the various bus lines. Again expensive and only terminal to terminal, but MUCH faster. Never, EVER take the USPS for granted again. They do an amazing job for CHEAP.

This morning was last hard work for a while. Holiday parties have started and as a PC Vol, I’m expected to make the rounds. We are semi-celebrities and get lots of invites. I went the party at the Health Post today. Most parties here serve a full meal and cake and goodies. Pantone – a very light fruitcake, which I love – is the traditional Christmas treat. And, of course, HUGE quantities of Inca Kola, the Peruvian national soft drink, which tastes like the Bazooka bubble gum I used to get at the Barber Shop as a kid. Everyone sits on chairs around the outside of the room. Jason was there to say his Good-Byes – he officially retired from the Corps yesterday. I got introduced and made a speech, which surprisingly came out quite well and easily – unaccustomed as I am to speaking in public….. After the meal and speeches, there was some mingling. My hosts took great care to introduce me to every single lady in the room – and repeat several times that each was single. I did manage to get some business done, discussing plans to do classes on HIV/sexuality in the schools and tuberculosis education/mitigation in the community. One of the San Luis annexes, Laura Caller, has a particularly high incidence of the disease.

Strikes are quite common here. The air traffic controllers are out, which has virtually shut down ALL airline service in and out of Peru. Unlike US strikes, which go on until resolved, they tend to fix a time limit in advance. Though the Canete strike went on for 2 days after schedule. The ATC’s are out for two days. There is also a strike going on just south of here in Chincha by the taxi drivers. Neither one affects me like the Canete strike did. And these are more like the normal US strike – over wages and benefits.

Just noticed the motto on the local elementary school – “Discipline and Punctuality” – so much for scholarship. From what I hear, schools here are similar to schools in the US decades ago. Lessons are read from books and repeated back. Everything is rote memorization. Art classes consist of tracing and coloring. Freehand art is not a priority. Attendance and punctuality are. Volunteers who hand out blank pages are met with equally blank stares. Most schools are still sex segregated. On the other hand, I did see  a Montessori school in Canete.

Finally, the calendar says it’s two days before Christmas. But it’s hard to tell here in Peru. There are no trees up and very few lights. No one has mentioned the number of shopping days left. But, there have been parties and good cheer and a quiet peace. Feliz Navidad to ALL.