The latest from Chijnaya

I hope this works. I can´t publish to my blog for some reason, so I´m trying to publish via email. Here goes!

 

Tuesday, June 20, 11 a.m.

Guess what? We have Internet in Chijnaya now! It’s in the school, and it’s only connected to one computer for the moment, but it’s a start. Of course, my time here is almost done. It’ll be good for the remaining volunteers though, and I can help them out from home if they need me.

 

I’m waiting for another volunteer to finish using the Internet, but the connection is slow right now. It’s satellite, but the connection seems to go in and out. Sometimes it’s really fast, sometimes it’s really slow. Maybe I’ll wait to upload most of my photos in Cusco or when I return home.

 

I’m leaving Chijnaya on Monday morning. I’ll take an 8-minute ride in a taxi to Pucara for 30 cents, and then a “combi” (a minivan, which is how we normally travel) to Cusco, which is about 4 hours away. The ride will cost a whopping US $1.25.

 

Once I get to Cusco, things get more expensive. My hotel will cost around US $30 per night. On Tuesday I’m going on a day trip to Machu Picchu. I decided not to spend the night there, mainly because it’s too much of a hassle—and another $45—just to see the sunrise.

 

Machu Picchu is a huge tourist destination, so it’s expensive. The transportation and entrance fee alone will cost somewhere around US $100. The train ride out there takes 4 hours each way, and then you have to take a bus from the train station to the site. You’re not allowed to bring in food, so I’m sure they gouge tourists for that, too. But hey, it’s a 500-year-old Incan ruin. Where else can you see that?

 

We had a good weekend in Puno with our hot showers, warm beds and restaurant food. We went to Los Uros, which are “floating islands” on Lake Titicaca. Basically there are these thick reeds that the people slash down and live on. They build their houses out of the reeds, and the water is literally about a meter below them. It’s a strange sensation to stand on the island. Even though you’re not visibly moving, you are floating. The few times when the area around the lake has flooded, these islands floated.

 

Los Uros are a big tourist attraction, but it wasn’t crowded the day we went. Hugo went with us to Puno, and he only paid 1 sol (30 cents) to go to the Uros. Tourists pay 10 soles (US $3). I understand why, but I still feel cheated somehow. J

 

Yesterday we walked up 618 steps to the top of Condor Hill, a tall hill overlooking Puno and the lake. It must’ve been about 14,000 feet. I thought I was going to die climbing, but it was worth the view. Unfortunately it was after sunset when I reached the top. Some others who left earlier got good photos of the sunset.

 

We left Joanne in Puno yesterday (she had food poisoning but got meds and hopefully will be in Chijnaya today), and this morning Becky felt sick and started vomiting. Hopefully hers will pass in a few hours; otherwise we’ll have to decide whether or not she needs a doctor.

 

I can’t believe that this is my last week here. I have four more days of classes, then the weekend. I miss home and I can’t wait to get back, but I know I’m going to be a mess when I leave. I’m sure I’ll cry. I’m going to write a going-away speech in Spanish, and I’m sure I’ll be halfway into the first sentence when I break down. The people here love us and they’re so kind and hospitable. I really wish there were a way for me to return, but I just can’t afford to pay my own way. I’d love to make this experience into a continuing one, and I’d like Diego and Josh to be able to come, too.

 

If any of you are interested in a volunteer experience like this, you can contact Dr. Ralph Bolton at the Chijnaya Foundation. We’ve discussed the idea of having volunteerism as part of tourism, so someone could come for a shorter time to assist. I will be in Chijnaya for a total of 23 days, and I feel like I’ve just settled in. If I had my family with me, I wouldn’t mind staying longer. This would be a very rewarding family experience.

 

However, if you knew you could only be here for a week, you could plan out your time so that you felt like you had time to make a genuine difference. Perhaps the community could plan short projects that can be completed in a short period of time. With English classes, it’s a little harder. You want those to be continuous, and it helps if the teachers are all teaching the same thing. If you’ve never taught English, I think it takes a few days to feel like you know what you’re doing.

 

This week, the volunteers are going to help my host family build a second adobe stable. Having an extra eight helpers will make a big difference. As I mentioned before, improving their stables is very important for them here, so these kinds of projects could be available for future volunteers. Of course the people at the foundation will coordinate all volunteer work, so everything must go through them. I have no say in how that works.

 

They are considering home stays for tourists, although they’d like to build little adobe casitas where they can stay. They’re also considering the idea of a community shower with hot water. The cheapest way to do this is build stalls of adobe and cement them over. They could have some sort of cistern painted black to heat the water using the sun. Tourists could also use these showers. We also talked about having actual toilets for the tourists, even if they don’t flush normally. All you do is pour water in the bowl when you’re done. The toilet bowl is a big expense, and honestly, you get used to squatting after awhile. At this point, I really don’t mind either way.

 

They don’t have heat in the homes, but wood floors really help. Tourists could rent electric space heaters, but they’d have to purchase them. In my room I dress in layers and sleep in my very toasty sleeping bag. Soup and hot drinks help a lot, and these could be provided to tourists/short-term volunteers.

 

I’m going to make a list of “must have” items that visitors here would appreciate, but there’s no time for that now. After I use the Internet I’m going to my “house” for a cookout for all the volunteers. We bought a bunch of food in Juliaca yesterday before returning to Chijnaya, and we’re having a feast today. I’ll try to blog more tomorrow.

 

Tuesday, June 20, 4: 30 p.m.

Well, I was able to read my email today, but for some reason my journal wouldn’t publish to the blog. I’ll try again tomorrow.

 

I taught a 4^th and 5^th grade class today in the school at 10 a.m., then an adult class at 2 p.m., and another one at 6 p.m. Normally I don’t teach in the elementary school because we have more teachers than classes, and I like to have a little time for other things. Today I’m a little busier because we have two sick volunteers. We haven’t heard from Joanne in Puno, but Ralph and David are both there in the hotel to look after her. David will be coming back here on Thursday, so maybe she’ll just come then so she isn’t traveling alone (although she’d be perfectly safe doing so).

 

Becky was throwing up earlier, but she came to our feast (just for the company) and started feeling better. She hasn’t been sick the rest of the afternoon, but she’s on bed rest until tomorrow. She’ll be fine.

 

I’ve been pretty healthy. The first week here, everyone felt a little bloated, but the drastic changes in diet and altitude account for that. After that, I had half a day of stomach problems two weeks ago, and I’ve been fine ever since. I’ve been eating pretty much everything they put in front of me, including lettuce and raw onions. Either I have a stomach of steel or I’m just lucky.

 

I wanted to tell you about coca leaves. Coca is an evergreen bush, and its leaves are used to make a mild tea that is supposed to help offset altitude sickness, so we were all drinking coca tea as soon as we arrived in Cusco. We drink it here in Chijnaya, too.

 

Another tradition is chewing coca leaves. You put a few semi-dry leaves in your mouth, chew them into a thick paste, press it into your cheek and suck out the flavor. You don’t eat the leaves, but spit them out when the flavor is gone. It’s a mild stimulant, like caffeine, and it numbs your tongue and cheek a little. At first the flavor is very strong, but then it mellows.

 

Coca leaves are infamous for being the plant processed into cocaine. This requires a multi-part process intricate enough that it would be easier to make meth out of Sudafed in your kitchen. Despite this, coca leaves are illegal in the U.S. I can’t bring back one single coca leaf without the threat of serious drug charges.

 

In the past I’ve only chewed coca when they passed it around in groups, but yesterday I bought some in Juliaca for myself to chew and make tea. It’s like something you do instead of having a cup of coffee. Chewing coca leaves and drinking coca tea have no more euphoric effect than a mildly caffeinated drink.

 

One downside to coca is that if I were tested for cocaine right now, I’d come up positive even though I’ve never used it. Whatever they test for is present in coca leaves, even thought the effects of cocaine are not. It’s ridiculous.

 

A few nights ago one of the family’s cows had a calf. I got to see it up close and personal. I took pictures, too. Basically, once the calf starts to appear, they tie a rope around its front legs as they come out. Then, with each contraction, they pull on the calf. Once the calf’s head begins to emerge, two people hold out a feed bag to catch the calf as it comes out (so it doesn’t hit the ground hard).

 

It comes out encased in a thin membrane which the family and the mama cow pull off. The brand new calf looks like a big, wet dog. The mama spends the next hour or two licking the calf clean, and after awhile it starts looking like a cow. It stands after a few hours and starts to nurse.

 

It takes a couple of hours for the placenta to pass, and they wait for it so that the neighborhood dogs don’t come sniffing around and bothering the new calf and mother. The placenta (which I didn’t see because it passed after midnight) is apparently huge. They give it to the dogs once it passes.

 

The new calf is named Derek, after the volunteer here. Wait, I already told you this didn’t I? Anyway, I go and pet him every day. He’s like a big, sweet dog.

 

I just learned the baby lamb at our house died on Sunday. Apparently one of the rams butted it and caused internal bleeding. They tried everything to save it, to no avail. Poor little lamb!