Kick it

12 June 2009
“Oh, I'm not asleep yet. I only crack my toes when I'm awake.”

Woke up early to check the equipment with the school. The director isn't there, but we are told to come back at noon to teach instead of 11:30 because of a school-wide teacher meeting. Supposedly, this will work out much better. Quick breakfast. So fast we shove oranges and avocado sandwiches in our mouths as we bike to ASPEm to talk with Daniel. The interview goes over very well because he understands what our project is about. We talk for almost 2 hours as he shows us the community that ASPEm has built up.

ASPEm brought a comprehensive aid strategy to Tambo de Mora. 112 homes of quincha, infant and youth education, latrines, and psychological support are a few of their main projects. This is just one of their many programs that they have running here. They tried to keep a very transparent process of selection and made their selection criteria very clear. He sort of sighs because it's hard to tell one family that they are less affected than another family. ASPEm is an experienced, Italian organization that focuses on marginalized populations. The priority was given to people who had disabilities, a multitude of children, and single mothers. Meetings were held every week. One for ASPEm to talk amongst themselves and another for the community to bring their concerns to the NGO. They are the only earthquake relief organization that established an office in Tambo de Mora, and their door proudly boasts a sign that invites people in. If any one ever has questions or concerns, the office is incredibly well staffed and very helpful. There are only 4 desks inside the modest house with a small table in the front for meetings. Like cafe in Paris small.

The level of engagement by ASPEm definitely has improved their quality of service. They are very well known. He tells us that it is incredibly important to keep the NGO open, listening, and responsive since most Peruvians distrust any authority. It's basically a given characteristic of the relationship so ASPEm works very hard to build, gain, and keep trust. The community of people that they have built is sort of stunning. During the day, we've walked through here many times. There are always people working, music playing, and friendly hellos. In the evening, the people come out in the streets to gather and talk. ASPEm's homes consist of a small bathroom, kitchen, and sleeping room. He tells us that they've found it really important to provide at least the basic needs for a family within the home. Temporary shelters have no bathrooms and some of the newly provided homes from the government don't either. ASPEm has also built a center for bathrooms/washing. You bring clothes there or use them if your house doesn't have those amenities. Although they would be able to provide homes for more people if they downsized their services, they are happy to be providing at this level. The community is especially happy since ASPEm built more than the 80 originally promised homes.

The interview runs a long 2 hours because this guy just knows what we want to talk about. It's awesome, but we have to cut it short to run to the school for our second follow-up class. After deciding on meeting with Georgio tomorrow to do some community member interviews in the early morning, we streamline outta there towards the Collegio where we encounter a stream of school kids being let free for the weekend. Apparently misinformed, we have arrived 20 minutes past the end of school. Two of the kids in our class sort of kick some dirt up with the tips of their shoes and look a little sorry for us. We just decide to come back on Monday.

Back at the hospedaje, Brooke naps while the boys hit up the local restaurants for lunch. Then the beach. Then more cooking for more lunch. The family that runs the hostel doesn't know what guacamole is and politely declines. Then we head out to Lurín Chincha for another ASPEm meeting.

The ASPEm meeting is very participatory and focused on how to construct with adobe. The people take turns shovelling dirt, water, and straw back and forth. Josie points out that there must be a better way to do this. The meeting is especially interesting as the Professor, who works for ASPEm, gets his hands dirty alongside the people. It is clear that the pobladores (people) have a lot of respect for the Professor and are very respectful. Three members of the community basically run the logistics of the meeting, a strategy implemented for more than we have seen in any other meeting. After the meeting, we find out that these people are leaders of the community that have volunteered to help coordinate things.

Adobe done right takes days of treatment with certain soil and water mixtures added periodically. The pobladores are split up into groups to manage this coordination, a process which took quite a long time, but was done completely by them and they seemed to have fun.

After a cab ride back with ASPEm, during which we learned that the fish mills at Tambo de Mora are filled with workers imported from Pisco and Chincha, Josie ate his 18 flautas, Brooke slept, and Adam hung out with the hospedaje hosts. Turns out that the father was the Presidente of the Lurín Chincha Cooperativa, which apparently ran like clockwork back in the day. Wanna know how it came to be? Israeli agrarian training. For reals. Random town of 1000 people max if you include all the farms.

Bedtime. Tomorrow we have interviews with people who received homes from ASPEm as well as randomized surveys in the town. Josie plans on skipping for the beach.


11 June 2009
“Dame doce de esos (hand gesture) y una porción de papas fritas...Next time remind me to get 18.”

We had nothing in particular to wake up early for this morning. We cooked a large breakfast that consisted of the usual plantains with a twist of tamales. We also brewed some quaker- which is pronounced kwah-ker here. In Peru, you boil water with Canela and Clavo which is cinnamon and some other mystery spice. Then when the water starts boiling, you add quaker oats. Instead of having really thick stuff that you might eat with a spoon, it's more of a drink. So the ratio of water to oats is much different than you would expect. There is about 2 liters of water to every cup of oats. Then you boil boil boil. When the consistency is right, thick and aloe-lke, you simmer it for another ten minutes with a few tea bags of manzanilla and Voila, quaker! It definitely tops hot chocolate any time.
While everything was simmering on the stove and Jose, our chef, was looking over the plantains, we did laundry. The white shirt to other color shirt ratio is about 5:1. It took forever to get any of them clean, but at least you can tell when they are. Bright and shiny.

Breakfast is an ordeal here in the morning. We have so many fruits to choose from, so many foods to decide between, and so little time. It's a hard life. But after we downed it all (maybe “wolfed” is a better word?), we split ways. Jose hit up the internet cafe while we sat outside the school, calling NGOs in Pisco. We are trying to get their addresses before arriving. We are also making sure there isn't a complicated process for setting up interviews as there was with FORSUR. You have to call their communications office in Ica to okay an interview in the Chincha office. The office here consists of three people, and it's amazing to think even the smallest institutions have such bureaucracy. It's not surprising, considering FORSUR is a government organization. Anything said in the interview can be interpreted as an opinion on the Peruvian government. Maybe not that extreme, but that's essentially what they claimed.

The calling is ... slow. Splitting the work, one calls while the other compiles data from the surveys we've been conducting in between NGO meetings, interviews, and expeditions into the city. Essentially, we are trying to compare the communities perception of the local NGOs with what the NGOs think of themselves. The encuesta is rather short, only consisting of 5 questions: What is your name, what NGOs do you know of, which have you worked with directly, how many times have you worked with approximately, and how did you work with them? We also try to glean if the community member knows what the NGO's mission is and what communication methods they prefer most. Usually, this ends in a really long conversation.

For lunch, we cooked a potato and carrot soup with Ají in it. Ají Picante is this hot spice that basically accompanies anything and everything and should at every meal. Jose has disappeared so we scour the city for him and his Yosemite National Park hat.

We hop in a cab to Larán Bajo to attend the second ASPEm meeting there. Peruvian time is an hour late. This time it is an hour and a half late. By the time a critical mass has shown up., ASPEm has decided that the lack of community interest is an issue. They decided to cancel the remainder of the adobe construction workshop and draw up a draft of an agreement that says the community members present are still eligible for legal help concerning land titles as well as technical advice.

One of the major issues here is land titles. After the earthquake, each family received 6,000 soles to rebuild their homes. From what we've heard, the paperwork to receive the money was rather complicated and sometimes families would mysteriously only receive 4,000 or less. Another option is to give up the title to your land to a foundation called Techo Propio (my own roof). They keep the land, and you get to move into a little community that they've built. There are two of them in Chincha, but if you live in a small town off of Chincha, this gated community is far from your neighborhood and your old home. The other issue is soil. Most of it has been deemed uninhabitable, but we've already had this conversation. Between these two, there are a huge percentage of people who don't have a way of rebuilding. During our encuesta yesterday, a man explained this as he pointed to his tarp home.

So ASPEm's course would have been a month and a half long commitment to learning how to construct adobe homes. The course would also include some legal and emotional counseling. As the agreement circulated and people signed off, theories emerged. The demographic was rather old, and a few older women said that the young should be ashamed to deny such aid. The other theories were that the cold (it's winter here) had convinced people into bed early. 6-9 pm is rather late and by then, the weather is frigid. It's also possible that the long-term commitment scared people off. With incentives like legal help and starter kits for building homes, it surprises me that there was such low participation.

On the way home, Jose told scary stories about Chupacabras. Then we went to bed.