Translation: Maybe. We're talking.

Hey all!

Blogging from Peru is hard. We’ve been in Huancavelica for the past 5 days, a region high in the mountains (4000 m). There is only one computer with Internet in the small village of Aurahuá, but it is so slow that we decided to wait until we got back to Chincha to update.

So the break down is that we will be updating as much as possible about our progress on the project. If you are not familiar with our project already, our most recent proposal is here. Before we kick things off, we’d like to thank the Public Service Center, the Kelly Douglas committee, Flip Video, the Council for the Arts at MIT, the MIT museum, the Visual Arts Program, our advisor Sebastia Ferreira, and Salman Aldukheil for making everything possible. Also lots of other people that we can't think of right now, but you know you're out there. Oh, and parents. Supportive, awesome parents. And grandparents..


4 June Thursday – Took today to chill.

3 June Wednesday – Went back to PNUD after a slow morning. Since the director was in a meeting, she couldn’t talk for long but promised us a list of contacts if we sent her an e-mail. We went next door to the ITDG office and did so immediately. My stomach felt a little funny but nothing serious so we ate lunch back at Choche’s house. Peruvian food is seriously quality. We rode our bikes to Tambo de Mora to find a place to stay there for the upcoming surveying and workshops we will be doing. We’re expecting José in a few days so we need to find a place big enough for 3. The town sort of forces reflection. Back at Choche’s house, we decide to hang out with his family all night.

2 June Tuesday -- Early this morning, we decided that we would update the blog from our friend Choche’s house. We sent out emails, attempted to sync our twitter to the Peruvian cell phone we bought, and posted as much as we had typed last night. This morning, we got a chance to see the farm that Choche’s family owns. They grow grapes and cotton, but the plot is now barren and dotted with withered plants. There is really no crop worth growing at such a small scale that can be profitable. The earthquake destroyed their 800 meter perimeter wine-brewery, vineria, and their prized business crumbled along with it. The family used to make Pisco and Cachina all day long in the best of seasons, but now there is no facility. Choche´s padre dice que the government has a rule of giving out loans to people older than 70 so Choche’s father can’t take one out to restart his business. The youngest son tells us all this while giving us a tour. He stops at one point to look at everything, and he tells us that he is interested in taking over one day. Only the farm, though, because the vineria will take $40,000 to rebuild. Since we had to be back at Choche’s house for lunch only 2 hours later, we returned to the ITDG office to probe them for more contacts in Tambo de Mora and Chincha. However, the taxi driver was a little confused and just brought us to the nearest NGO-esque destination.

From the outside, it looks like a little gated community, and the inside is no different. “Mi Techo Propio” is a government subsidized organization that builds houses in small clusters. They currently have two locations where they build, and the one we saw was really nice. The neighborhood was brand spanking new, and a security guard stopped us at the door to get our names. But this type of for profit organization isn’t what we’re looking for. Instead, we go to ITDG. Roberto smiles gleefully and everyone kisses cheeks, shakes hands, and settles back into their chairs. It was the most help we had all day. ITDG said that their neighbors, PNUD, had an entirely updated list of the NGOs working in every region. Roberto leaned in and said, “and all the contact information you could want.” Total score. Except that next door, there was a lunch break so no one was around to talk to us. Since we were in hurry to return back for lunch at Choche’s house, we noted their horarios and decided to return in the morning. Which we will do. Return, that is.

Yes, we will return tomorrow morning on our new bicycles! After lunch, we searched high and low for high quality, low price bikes. We bought them, installed a back rack, and then rode them to an interview with a community member of Tambo de Mora: Luis Bilbao. This guy had tons to say. As a part of the initial reconstruction committee appointed, Luis was responsible for the communications between NGOs and the community. Our conversation ended up being more than two hours long as he explained the situation in Tambo de Mora. The entrevista deifinitely was useful. We bought platanos, pineapple, and oranges for tomorrow morning. And now, I’m about to pass out.

31 May Sunday and 1 June Monday – Implemented the survey all day in Aurahuá as a test run. It definitely needs to be refined. It’s much harder than we thought. The next day, we ended up on a 9 hour bus ride (longer than our airplane here) back to Chincha. The bus had 3 flats. We fixed two. The third one was so close to Chincha that we just stopped every twenty minutes to fill it up just enough to run it for another twenty minutes.





30 May Saturday – Early the next morning, we decided to talk about our agenda, settling small details. We decided we needed to return to Aurahuá to complete our observations of the town to prototype community input without seemingly NGO affiliated. We worked out a survey on the side of a mountain slope near the river where a local staple, trout, is fished. On our way back from our walk, we ran into a family herding goats and cows. Talking with them, we found out a lot more about the rebuilding of Tantará. Back on their farm, we ate fresh cheese and oranges. The family was made up of an 84 year old grandfather, his wife and their children. Their kids had moved away to Lima or other big cities to work as 2nd hand car salesmen or to open salons. However, the sons and daughters had come back for the fiesta and to visit their parents. It’s pretty typical for children from these rural areas to move away when they are old enough. Their daughter-in-law estimated that almost 80% of the kids here do. However, the sentiment on returning was shared. All of them thought that coming back to raise their own children here would be better than in the cities.

On the way back to Tantará, they point out where the earthquake had destroyed the main aqueduct that their father used for his farm (which he runs entirely by himself). The water main was almost 100 years old, but the earthquake shook it apart. 2 years later, no one has had the time or money to repair it.

Back in Tantará, we purchase notebooks for keeping track of contacts and our budget. Ate dinner with Luis and Nahum with this amazing tortilla de verdura and said good-bye. Finally, we settle in to complete our plans for tomorrow in Aurahuá. Below is a view of Tantará. The weather is as low as freezing during the night and early morning, but the hot sun creates a shorts and t-shirt weather during the day.

29 May Friday – In the morning, we decide to go to the Instituto to interview some of the professors, directors, and students there. Imagine a public school that offers practical courses in things like organic farming and basic health. Then imagine that it is entirely free. Add in a small vegetable garden, a few classrooms, llama-like animals, and a few guinea pigs and you’ve got the Instituto. The basic complaint that they had was that their funding was so low and that the NGOs never paid them any mind. They suggested it would be more sensible to have the NGOs teach the Instituto rather than small, random groups of people from the town. That way the knowledge being brought to Aurahuá could be distributed much more effectively. It would be like leaving a teacher behind to continue spreading the information. However, the NGOs in this town are definitely working directly with the communities rather than going through another party. This much is apparent from our interactions yesterday.

After three very different interviews with people within the Instituto, we hopped on a truck on its way to Tantará. The doctor who had given the first aid talk at the CARE meeting sat next to us, and we all dangled our legs over the sheep pen below us. Somewhere in the mix, we made good friends with Dr. Juan “Nahum” Lopez and Luis, a licensed nurse. The education system in Peru is surprisingly good. Both of these guys were incredibly knowledgeable. In the health care track of schooling at Peru, the Ministry of Health requires at least a year of service in a rural area. Since Nahum was from Tantará, his rural service was quite easy in the town of 1,000. Luis, being from Lima, traveled to a town a little bit higher than Aurahuá to complete his volunteer work. Since it wasn’t economically practical for him to return to living in the muy caro cuidad of Lima, he is staying in Aurahuá until he has saved up enough to go back.

Between Tantará and Aurahuá, we stop in at Chupamarca (chew-pah-mark-uh). A school age girl hops on in front of us, and we start up a conversation in broken Spanish. She giggles at my terrible grammar and asks if I can help her with English homework. She is supposed to be writing a love letter in English.

We had heard that there was a lot of reconstruction work going on in Tantará, but when we arrived, we found that the town was actually quite put together. That evening was the first day of a six day celebration for the Espiritu Santo. So, we settled in a hostal, helped kill a goat, and watched the town explode into festivity - a full week of fiesta! The main event were the Lanzantes de Tijeras (Scissor Tumblers). Along with a violin and a large harp, the dancers keep rythym with large metal scissors. Flips and other choreographed feats are done without losing the beat.

28 May, Thursday – Aurahuá.
The hotel that we stay in has packed dirt floors, a kitchen full of guinea pigs, and the only internet in town. We wake up early to record ITDG’s meeting with the alcalde of the town. ITDG created a project document to be signed by themselves, the recipient town, and the financing party. Afterwards the materials for the new radio emergency system are brought in, and they take inventory.

ITDG is incredibly organized. They grab their laptop, projector, and paper materials for their meeting. They’ve invited the community of Aurahuá which includes the people who live in the town, nearby towns in the hills, and NGOs who are working in the region. We walk to the nearby school where they’ve requested a room for the reunion. Even though they’re only expecting 60 or 70 people, a total of 90 community members attend. ITDG hands out folders that include the schedule for the day and summaries of the lectures to take place. Each folder has a pen attached to it and everyone waits attentively for the meeting to start.


The meeting consists largely of lecture. ITDG explains the current structure of the civic committees in the town. There are already several committees of people who are supposed to have specific functions within Aurahuá which range from communication to logistics to law and order. ITDG proposes consolidating a few of the commissions for more effective action. They explain their new system to the people, ask for questions, and solicit opinions. Afterwards, there is a short break where ITDG provides bread and small snacks. People mill about, and we ask a few for their opinions on the proposed consolidation. In addition we find out how people were invited, how they traveled here, and their previous experience with ITDG.



Next, ITDG runs a small simulation with the emergency response system. They bring everyone outside and organize the workshop with a megaphone while curious kids in school lean out the windows. When the alarm goes off, a designated leader gathers people up from his neighborhood. Everyone is supposed to get to a safety zone, far from hazards associated with earthquakes. Things run very smoothly, and the people seem to understand the importance of explaining the new systems to the neighbors who aren’t attending this meeting.

After a short elaboration of evacuation methods, ITDG serves lunch. There are several more lectures afterwards, but everyone is content with food. It's a long 5 hours, but the response from the people is still very positive throughout. There are a few dissatisfied members from the community that are all from the same organization: Instituto Superior Tecnologico Publico de Aurahuá. We set up an interview with them for the next morning. We also run into a representative from CARE who invites us to her workshop that evening. There is going to be a first-aid lesson from Doctor Juan Lopez and a few organizational things to figure out how to best start building new homes in the region. For us, this meeting represents the first of many meetings...

27 May, Wednesday – We have to be at the bus station at 6 am so we stay at a hotel close by. It’s about 10 dollars for the evening. The ride from here to Chincha is 3.5 hours, and everyone snores quietly. In the outskirts of Lima, people have built up small villages along the roads. The squatters don’t own the land that they live on. Size and quality of the homes grow worse as the bus drives further. The damage of the 2007 earthquake was non-existent in Lima, but Chincha is still obviously recovering. ITDG’s headquarters is in Lima, but they also have a branch in Chincha. They build homes here and in the surrounding towns. Currently, their project focuses rebuilding 90 homes in the Quincha Mejorada method. The homes are modest and framed with wood. The quincha is a bamboo-esque material that is woven and placed between the studs like drywall. The walls are completed with adobe, a finish layer of concrete and sometimes a reinforcing metal mesh. This is just the start of their work though. From Chincha, they have begun to work in the sierras nearby. Nearby is a relative term though. The drive from Chincha to Aurahuá is estimated to take 5 hours by truck. So we all grin and pile in the car.

Before we leave, we grab an extra tire just in case. Last time, a flat forced everyone to walk the rest of way towards Aurahuá, a several hour endeavor. Fortunately, the view of the mountains makes up for the long drive there. The line that defines mountain from sky was absolutely astounding, framing the view of stars in a sky with no light pollution. The weather at night is incredibly cold here, but our beds are made up with so many blankets it’s impossible to tell.

26 May, Tuesday – Since we didn’t have a chance to visit all the NGOs in Lima on Monday, we had one more stop left: the Lutheran World Relief office. Our advisor suggested that we visit to talk with Pedro Veliz to uncover the names of more post-disaster organizations. In the neighborhood of Miraflores, there were amazing amounts of tourists. It is a very rich part of Lima with stores similar to the States. At the front door of LWR, there were roses growing up the walls. All the architecture here is strongly reminiscent of California with plaster white outsides and red-shingled roofs. After being invited in, we sat face-to-face with Pedro. He was amazingly inviting and began rattling off the names of several people that we could work with. Then something incredible happened: Eduardo. Eduardo works with LWR as a representative. Since LWR sponsors projects globally, they need some way to ensure the quality of the work that they are financing. Eduardo is sent along with LWR funded NGOs to evaluate their work. When he walks into the room, he shakes our hands eagerly and launches into a very detailed explanation of work being done in the small village of Aurahuá in the Huancavelica region. LWR is funding an ITDG-led project in Aurahuá to install an emergency response radio system. Tomorrow, ITDG is traveling there to host a meeting on risk management. The idea is to increase community awareness and gather opinions on the new emergency alert system. The idea clicked immediately, and we agreed to go. This would be the perfect chance to see exactly how the post-disaster work was being conducted between NGO and community. After trying to pronounce the name of the town right several times (Ah-ooh-rah-WAH), another surprise knocked on the door. Antonio DiLiberto walked into the office (godgraceandguineapigs.blogspot.com). Redheaded and rambunctious, Antonio is dedicating two years of his life to leading missions into Lucamo, a small town near Lunahuana. He is responsible for taking volunteers from the States into the region to work on projects with the community. He also works very closely with the chief of the pueblo to determine its needs. Hands in his pockets and a smile on his face, Antonio invites us out to lunch. First interview!

25 May, Monday - The next morning, we contacted several NGOs in the region via email. Afterwards, we bought a cell phone so that we could stay in contact with them. After calling a few NGOs to announce our arrival and arrange meetings, we decided to set out by foot. After taking a combi to Jesús María, we talked with CARE, ASPEM, and CESIP. We received more contacts in the cities of Pisco, Chincha, and Ica. Most of the NGOs who have headquarters in Lima want us to work with the main office to make appointments with their regional offices out in other cities. That evening, we relocated to stay with an American from Pace University named Aimee. Her apartment was located on a cliff overlooking the beach. While trying to figure out more logistics about travel and research methodologies, we walked towards the shore. Cars full of people and trucks full of trash rushed by us. The driving here is dictated by horns and speed. Initially, it is heart stopping. With time, it is easy to see that every one knows exactly what they’re doing even though it seems dangerous. When we arrived, the beach was nothing like we expected. We stopped to survey the waves crashing into trash-covered sands where a truck full of construction waste was being unloaded.

24 May, Sunday - Our flight from Las Vegas left at 9 am in the morning, and we landed in Peru at midnight where Frank Vasquéz picked us up. We were lucky to have such a gracious host. His house is situated far north of the center of Lima in a neighborhood called Codiva. The entirety of Lima is so large that there are neighborhoods that function as small cities themselves. During our short stay in Lima, we had to travel between Codiva, Magdelena del Mar, Jesús María, and Miraflores. Traveling between these “neighborhoods” is much further than traveling between Fenway to the North End. But moving between them is very easy: COMBI (pronounce that... comb-bee). Combis are vans with different colored stripes on the side that run haphazardly throughout Lima. You can tell where they are going based on the order of the stripes on the side so green-white-red is one line and white-red-green is another. Although it seems entirely random, these small buses operate between the neighborhoods regularly enough that people use it to travel to work or school in the mornings and afternoons. It’s so organized that you would imagine it is a governmentally subsidized business. Surprisingly, all the buses are privately owned and have managed to standardize themselves. They charge the same rates and same colored buses run the same routes. It’s a very bottom-up system that’s somehow efficient, public, and cheap. It’s no more than 2 soles per one way. Just 60 cents. For future reference, the translation for currency is about 3 soles per dollar.

We will be posting more later!
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