Its a dream about life and you´re the shining star

10 June Wednesday
“I will not be judged by your societal norms. I write in a diary. I'm not girly.”

This morning was like walking through a cloud. The mist was dense, and the sun was hiding. We sprinted on our bikes to the mayor's office for our scheduled nine o' clock meeting, but he wasn't there. Around 9:30, we were informed that he was returning from Lima but his closest advisor would start the interview for him. So we waltzed right on in and started. His advisor is quiet and sits behinds frameless glasses. Words slip out from his lips almost by accident like he doesn't mean to say anything at all. Then the mayor walks in, flinging the door wide open and smiling even wider. He has presence. He has finesse. And he has a whole lot to say in the short span of 30 minutes that he can spare for us. He talks about how the main road down the coast of Lima (the Pan-Americana) is going to be relocated through Tambo de Mora, what it means for the residence living in its new wake, and how the town intends to deal with it. He talks about how the municipality works with all the NGOs, especially ASPEm, on a regular basis. With some, they are in contact every day. And he says it all without missing a step, without being politically incorrect, and without saying something we don't want to hear.

He also mentions that there is one NGO that didn't go through their office: Cruz Roja Americana (the American Red Cross). They provided immediate temporary relief along with the churches in the region. They gave numerous shelters that still stand as homes today, marked with their logo. Three years is a long-lasting piece of aid. In my opinion, they did a fairly successful job of giving things that were needed even if it wasn't given to everyone. Further investigation to be done on their selection process.

The mayor ends his interview by reciting his full name and telling us that we can use it for whatever purpose we like.

Back to the hospedaje! We eye some avocados and other yummy breakfast items which we decide to buy. This is all in the hope that our hotel mistress will let us use her kitchen... pretty please with plantains and eggs on top? It's a yes, and we brew up a mean brunch. I'm talking Holy smokes, batman.

Next, more work. The mayor told us that the best way to collect information from the people here is to go door to door with our survey. This has been a pretty common method for the NGOs that we've talked with so we've decided to employ it. We start out at the corner with only an hour and a half before we have to go to Chincha. An hour and a half later, we're standing two houses from the corner. Somehow we need to get our survey to be more articulate and less inviting for people to ramble. We've gotten some incredible information from just dropping words like NGO, reconstruction, what, do, you, and think. But our survey is mainly for the purpose of comparing the views and perspectives of the people about NGOs with the NGOs themselves. If anyone has any thoughts on how to cut to the chase, please feel free to tell us. Anyways, we discover that the aid given to the street in question is only temporary aid. They receive nothing that could be long-lasting because the land that they live on is considered uninhabitable due to the up and coming Pan-Americana construction. The one woman we talked to happen to host meetings for Cruz Roja at her home so we received excellent information from the first person we talked to. The second was the exact opposite, having no experience with NGOs whatsoever.

So although we didn't accomplish what we set out to do, we ended up with something more than what we had before. Oh well. Chincha! So we grabbed Josie from his post-brunch siesta and headed into town to interview FORSUR (Fondo Organizado para la Reconstrucción del Sur de Peru). This is a satellite of the central governments Ministry for Land and Homes and it was set up to track the central government's funding flow into the rebuilding effort. We had to contact their communications department in the city of Ica prior to our arrival to guarantee permission for the interview. Fortunately, the director of the Chincha Office – Guillermo Esteban was very helpful and gave us all the information we asked for including a large excel matrix with all the data of the projects that FORSUR has underway.

After the interview we ate churros and bought four books at a cheap bookstore at the main square: Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Le Petit Prince, and Cesar Vallejo (a Peruvian poet). These are for Spanish practice after the work-daylight is switched off. Next stop was the market to get ingredients for the next few days. De repente, we were assaulted by a moving oven – the green kind. We smelled him before we met him – and as Josie put it “It was love at first scent.” We decided to buy 1 sol worth of bread – 8 warm delicious rolls. Then we bought another sol of a variety with Manjar (milky honey) inside. They were gone in one minute flat, so we got another 6 filled with cheese before finally deciding to move on to bigger and more healthy foods. Carrots, potatoes, corn on the cob, green onions, cheese, more bread, lime, platanos, tamales, and some goose eggs to be precise.

From there it was homeward bound. Oh and we bought a five dollar radio to listen to while we ride so that we can't hear the horns of the really large trucks as they blow by.


9 June Tuesday
“These kids are psycho.”

Beach run in the morning. Shoes were taken off to run in the sand and when we returned, one was missing. We found it a few hundred meters away – must have been carried away by a dog, yeh? It's time to do last-minute prep for the class we will be teaching at 1pm. We decide to type up the homework for the kids rather than depending upon their attention spans. The class (Videographic Journalism) is meant to be a prototype for how to incorporate youth video as a means of extracting stories from the community on the topic of post-disaster reconstruction.

The class goes passingly well considering our time was only 45 minutes. Our next iteration will try and cover much less information, as the kids didn't have time to finish. We handed out the FlipCams for the first time as well, giving each group of two 11th graders a FlipCam to share for doing their homework assignment. Hopefully we will see the cameras again. We will find out Friday this week, the final day of this 2 class trial.

Next, we head over to ASPEm, an NGO that has been working very closely with Tambo de Mora since the day after the quake. They build homes primarily. The meeting starts well, and we meet the director of the current project, Ricardo Fernandez. He invites us to check out their opening community workshop of a series on Adobe Mejorado (Improved Adobe Construction). It kicks off at a nearby town at 6pm later in the day.

For Lupper we stop by a Cevichería restaurant for some tasty seafood. Though very cheap by American standards, the food is a little pricy for our budget. Its a nice treat though, and Josie caps it off with a liter of Coke. Just after lupper, we meet a couple friends of our former host, Choche, who work for the youth branch of the Rotary Club in Peru. They pitch their plans for a campaign to help with the reconstruction. We have to cut our time with them short, though, in order to make the meeting in Larán Bajo on Adobe Mejorado.

The bike to Larán Bajo is great, and Josie is already riding like a pro. The striking feature of this small town is the once formidable church that is now in ruins. The temporary sanctuary of tarp walls doubles as the meeting place for the ASPEm workshop.

ASPEm has come prepared, hiring a Professor, a Construction Engineer, and a lawyer to help with the land titles. This way they are able to offer new building techniques to people who have up till now been denied new homes since they lack the official land title rights. The judge will help them in the registration process. The meeting goes well and it is an interesting contrast to other NGO meetings we´ve seen.

After catching a ride back on ASPEm´s pickup, we spent the rest of the night uploading videos and sleeping.