Now that I’ve got your attention with that title, let
me explain. The culture of Peru is, needless to say, quite different from that
of the States. Most differences are pretty easy to adapt to, but there are a
few commonly found in casual conversation that are a little further removed.
The first I’ll refer to as “calling it like it is.” This means whether you’re
skinny, fat, tall, short, light, dark, et cetera, no one will have any problem
calling you exactly that. It’s not done to make fun or single anyone out, it’s
simply done. Menda remembers learning about this particular cultural phenomenon
while in high school Spanish class, mentioning it to her uncle later, and him
carefully informing her that even if it’s commonly done, that doesn’t mean it’s
not rude and inappropriate. Can’t say I disagree, yet I’ve witnessed a sweet old
man greet a teenage girl with the Spanish equivalent of, “Hey, fattie!” and the
girl took no offense whatsoever. Imagine even bringing up the weight of a girl
that age in the States. You simply don’t do it.
The second shocker is inviting yourself to things. No,
not to parties, sporting events, or any other kind of social gathering, but to
food, drinks, or whatever else may be within eyeshot. I might be walking down
the street with a single piece of chocolate purchased at one of the bodegas by
our house – for Menda of course, and a kid passing by would have absolutely no
problem saying, “Invííítameee!” I’d actually understand... maybe... probably
not... if I was walking around with a giant bag of candy with plenty to share
and a kid shouted, “Gimmesooome!” but amount, anonymity, and item have zero
impact. If you’re carrying something (anything, really)consumable
in plain sight, expect even a perfect stranger to ask you to share. The flip
side, of course, is we can invite ourselves to their stuff as well, but I’ve
still not quite become comfortable with it yet.
Something else I’ve encountered in Peru (albeit only
once) that I’d never seen in the States is a double banana. Don’t worry, you
read that correctly. A double banana.One banana peel, two bananas inside. Don’t
believe me? There’s a picture included in the linked album below.
In an effort to play a greater role in our community,
and because we still understand so little of the situation regarding potable
water, we recently attended a meeting in the plaza in hopes of understanding
what the issues are that everyone’s always complaining about. Well, we still
didn’t find out, because the meeting was focused solely on the illegal use of potable
water by the construction company building the new school. First, they took
attendance. They called the name of every family from the community to see who
was there. Our community’s small but not that small, so we baked in the sun for
a good twenty minutes or so. Then, anyone that wanted to speak had the
opportunity to do so, with the head of APAFA (PTA minus the T) intervening
between every comment to make some minute detail clear. From what I could tell
(which wasn’t a ton, because a lot of the comments were in Quechua), everyone
there had the exact same opinion, but a good portion of the people wanted to
put their own particular spin on it, sometimes two or three times. After a
couple hours of this, everyone agreed that the only thing they could do was to
cut off the water source for the construction company and let the situation
develop from there. So the whole group of people at the meeting stood up and
marched to the school where they cut off the water. Of course, in Peru, that
doesn’t mean flipping a switch or turning a knob, it meant digging a meter and
a half down in two locations and literally cutting the water pipe. We got bored
before they reached the pipes, so we didn’t get to see the climactic moments,
but this whole situation is case in point one of the “main” (That one’s for
you, Tessa) issues found in Peru: an extreme willingness to act but without any
great consideration of the consequences. For one, if the company decides to
back out of the deal, who’s going to finish the school? For two, the people
working for the company are the men of the community, so carrying the water
buckets from the drainage ditch to the construction site falls upon their backs.
On the other hand, the company had apparently already used several thousand
soles worth of water for which they weren’t intending to pay, so maybe cutting
the pipes really was the only feasible solution. In the States we probably
would have halted construction, taken the company to court, and five years
later the school still wouldn’t be finished. But this is Peru: incredibly
well-intentioned, not always able to see the big picture, but unwilling to be
taken advantage of in the meantime. It has its perks; it looks like the school
is going to get finished.
In other exciting news, I had a stomach ache for about
two weeks straight. The pain was the only symptom, so it wasn’t a bacterial
infection, but after I shoveled some poop into a jar for a lab tech, the test
came back negative for a parasite. Still, they treated me for giardia, because
poop tests are notoriously inconsistent, and I got better. Either that or the
parasite got smarter and decided to lie low for a while.
Menda recently started teaching environmental classes
in one of the caserio’s grade school, and this past Monday was Earth Day – as I’m
sure you’re all aware. So after some research on what will grow at this
altitude and some prep work, we dug out a space with the students for a tree
nursery (vivero), and on Earth Day the kids got to plant over 150 cherry tree
seeds. Having never grown cherry trees before, we’re crossing our fingers they
sprout, but if not, I guess we’ll try another species.
Here are the pictures: [VIVERO AND A DOUBLE BANANA]
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