February

This past week was spent in Colca, an area in the Andes above Arequipa City. Eight of the nine volunteers all traveled to be together for part one of a Quechua workshop. Quechua is one of the primary indigenous languages of Peru, continuing part of the rich Incan history. By the end of the week we were able to go around town meeting people in Quechua and buying things in the market with our new skills. Just the simple “Allilanchu?” (How are you?) would get the senoras all excited that we knew some Quechua (at which point they would start babbling on in a language we todavia do not understand). It was a good week.

My boss, Emilia, came down for Lima to see how things have been going in Arequipa yesterday. Although all my perfectly constructed plans went to caca the afternoon before she arrived (i.e. the police chief left, the class I was supposed to teach was turned into ‘day of sports’ and the gobernadora with whom I had project plans was asked to leave office), things ended up going well. I was able to propose plans for starting a library with the mayor, and it looks that we’ll be getting that under way in the next few weeks. I also have a club for adultos mayors, a project to bring agua potable to town, and a club de adolescents. In a meeting for the latter today we had a waterballoon fight in the plaza to demonstrate how they need to put on more sunscreen after going swimming in the summer. It was pretty hilarious.

I’ve got a lot of things being brought to my plate. I’m really glad, because a lot of what is missing in the community is not the idea of the project, but the organization to get the ball rolling. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going.