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| Apollo astronauts on a float |
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| Lalo led the young drumming group of thundering cjons |
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| Dancers on a float |
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| Celebrating the farm heritage of San Luis |
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| And there were professional singers and dancers |
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| This is the UFO I built with the boys on my street - hysterical !! |
No sooner had the Christmas and New Year’s festivities
subsided, when my little town began its week-long Anniversary celebration. It’s
a fairly arbitrary date – the date when incorporation papers were approved Jan
12th, 1871. Still, it is, by far, the biggest celebration on the
calendar. Imagine your best 4th of July party – now do that EVERY
night for a week !!
While virtually all projects with the Muni are on hold, it
has opened time for me to work with the new Canete PCVs. I spent a productive
day with Ingrid – now the oldest Peru PCV – consulting on her playgrounds and a
water system. Despite an earlier mugging, she has jumped right in to multiple
community projects and is learning how slowly things can move here.
Ingrid, Kate and I spent the whole next day on a grand tour
of Canete. We visited the Unanue castle, Arona hacienda, Cerro de Oro burial
grounds, took a walk around downtown San Vicente, San Luis, Santa Barbara and finished at the goat farm,
taking in the biodigester, solar pump system, Cocina and some delicious,
nutritious goat yogurt and cheese. They went home, loaded with dairy and big
smiles.
The Anniversary celebration kicked off with a concert by
singers, dancers and drummers from all over southern Peru. While I love our local kids,
the pros added a whole ‘nuther level of excitement. Many town relatives came in
from out-of-town. Since there are only 2 small hostels here, the entire town
opened its doors to the visitors. In addition to our 4 vacant bedrooms,
Fernando offered 3 extra mattresses in the living room, so it was a very full
house – another example of the fine community spirit and generous heart in this
little town.
I was invited to be a judge for the Miss San Luis contest.
It was not a typical “beauty” pageant. The 8 young ladies competed on the basis
on an essay, cooking, talent and dress – no bathing suits. A couple of the
essay were quite good – “ I walk in our Plaza, in the shade of beautiful trees.
I hear the birds and see the flowers. The smiles are all around me.” Others
were clearly kiss-ass tributes to the elected officials – all of whom were
judges – listing all the recent Muni projects. The cooking was all deserts ,
ranging from superb to ornate, but awful. I was later told that the treats were
likely not made by the contestants. This may sound shocking, but not dissimilar
to the common practice of parents doing their children’s homework. The talent
was mostly recitation of poems. My vote went to a lone, but very good pan-flute
player. The dress portion was pretty dull and many of the girls had WAY too
much make-up. The 1-3 rating system presented challenges, but there was comfort
in the large number (18) of judges. The winner was certainly not the prettiest,
but did write a great essay, played the pan-flute with passion and presented
the best-looking, worst tasting desert.
The big parade was indicative of the real community spirit
that exists in this little town. There was such a festive atmosphere amongst
the huge crowd. Aerial bombs exploded overhead and music and chatter filled the
air. The 20 or so floats were whimsical and creative. Many were atop donkey
carts, towed by everything from cars to tractors to real donkeys. There were
astronauts, alien space monsters, dancers, farmers and some adorable little
fish. While none had the glamour and glitz of a Rose Parade float, and all were
very low-budget, the innovation, imagination and enthusiasm was undeniable.
This relatively poor little town is indeed rich in community spirit, courtesy,
and passion. It is community in the very best sense of the word.
All week long, there were seminars on everything from
healthy eating, to domestic violence, how to get a deed for your property,
along with a one-time amnesty on late fees for unpaid taxes. I was proud to see
some of the kids that we trained in the HIV program, lead a class on HIV and
STD prevention, wearing their PEPFAR/Peace Corps t-shirts. I brought my
hand-washing display out of mothballs and showed off the Tippy-Tap and
Soapy-Tap devices. Judging from the good-sized audiences, I’m guessing there
was not much work getting done around town.
Cultural aside : "Thank You for Smoking" - The last two days, there's been a
street vendor selling "Golden
Beach" cigarettes
for $0.77 a pack - 70 cents if you buy a carton. I don't even want to
know......
At least they're not handing out
free samples to kids, like they did in Mexico.
A second parade was more interesting for me, as I spent part
of the day helping the kids down the street build a flying saucer. I was
undoubtedly tapped for my good tool set and being a “soft touch” , Providing
the US$7 of materials. We did the frame out of very thin rebar and wire and
covered with white paper and did a little painting. It looks pretty good. They
had no vehicle, so the “float” was totally kid-powered. The hardest part was
figuring out a command system to get everybody going in the same direction, at
the same time. The favorite maneuver is , without question, the spin. They have
a little tape recorder that plays a sound effect, which sounds more like an
ambulance siren than space, but they like it. They got a pretty good reception
in the parade and managed to complete the route without injury or
motion-sickness. There was so much excitement !!! That was the fun part. I'd
almost forgotten how crazy wild creative 8-10 yr old boys can be. That was 20+
years ago for me. Most of my work here is with adults or teens. The raucous
laughter whenever they spun the thing, just cracked me up. After the parade,
they were spinning their little hearts out in the Plaza. Best $7 I’ve ever
spent.
The big finale concert , on the anniversary date, was 2
national bands, with back-up by locals. Unlike past years, it was all free,
with the whole Plaza and adjacent streets serving as dance floor – uite a scene.
It is a tribute to the new town leaders, who replaced a corrupt prior government.
They have done more meaningful public works and thoughtful entertainment in
their first two years, than many older governments combined. It is a pleasure
and an honor to work with these community-minded folks, who really push our
town forward. It was a blast. And I’m thankful it is O V E R !!
And, speaking of “forward”, that’s just what happened with
the Cerro de Oro project. As many of you know, I have
an utterly amazing ancient burial site and ruins right next to my little town
here in Peru.
And that I've been frustrated in efforts to get responsible excavation and
protection for the site. Well, color me happy !!! Through an extraordinary cosmic
conspiracy, new PCV Kate Hanson put me in touch with her aunt Lisa Hanson, who put me in touch with
Francesca Fernandini, a Stanford PhD student, who has actually done a
preliminary dig on the Cerro !!! So, I now have a qualified partner to work
with and get this puppy done. Is this a small and wonderful World or what ??
I pondered, for a bit, the extraordinary sequence of events
that happened to get to this point. Sheila came to do a contamination study,
Laura suggested we go see the ruins, I took Kate and Ingrid on a tour, Kate
talked to her sister, who led me to Francesca. Without any one of the links,
the project would likely not be happening. I’m often struck by how pieces just
seem to fall into place in my life. I’ve never had any sort of a plan. I’ve
just said “yes” whenever possible, felt that wherever I am is the best place to
be and given 110% to whatever I am doing. Maybe, that is a plan. Of sorts.
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