Friday, June 19, 2009

This is really interesting stuff, actually

quick note: we've changed around the blog so that the most recent day is at the top of each post so you can read backwards in time. if you want the entire story, start on the bottom and read up. Also, weve added pictures since the internet here is pretty quick and were more up to date now. disfrute.


19 June Friday
She sets down some spinach. He sets down a doughnut. “I got you something!” “What?! This crap? I get you sweets, and you give me that?”

This morning, we had scheduled an interview with PNUD's office to find out more about exactly what they do. The interview was with four people from the office who seemed to work very well as a team and believed in what they were doing and found their role in the rebuilding as rewarding as when they first began two years ago. It all goes really well, and we learn that PNUD plays a much more active role in Pisco than in Chincha. They seemed to have a clear understanding for why we are focusing our research on how communication is carried out between the communities and the organizations, since they exist to coordinate the actors on the ground and organize and inform the outside world of these events.. They are operating at a slightly higher level than the NGOs since they have a unique reputation as a branch of the UN, but this perspective is useful. In addition, as we learned yesterday in the meetings, PNUD in Pisco continues to play a very pivotal coordinating role between the communities, local government, national government, and NGOs – basically everryone.

Then we get bread and juice. What more is there to life? The lady doesn't blink twice when we ask her to add a handful of spinach to the mix. Grapefruit, papaya, banana, and spinach. MMMM. 3.5 soles worth more of bread and we're set for the afternoon. Afterwards, we call NGOs in the region all day to set up meetings for our upcoming week. We set up meetings with the following NGOs: Federación Cruz Roja, ADRA, CEAS, Peace Corps (not really NGO?), and CARITAS. In the meantime, we have to sort through backlogged footage. By some, I mean a lot. In any case, the day is filled. We peruse through Pisco on bikes a bit and then head to bed.




18 June Thursday
“How was your day?”
“Great!”
“Oh, cool. Where did you go? What did you do?”
“Absolutely nowhere. Absolutely nothing. That's why it was so amazing!”

Originally, we were supposed to conduct our PNUD meeting on Monday morning, but we were still in Chincha by the time Monday had rolled around. PNUD stands for Programa de las Naciones Unidas para Desarrollo (UN Program for Development). Since it took us all day yesterday to bike here (thanks sosie), we had no time to evaluate the situation in Pisco and pick out valuable NGO partners to work with. Instead we woke up early to make our scheduled meeting at 9am. We whip out our bikes and book it out the door after asking around for directions to the Casa de Oficiales. It's a good morning with the beach nearby and a strong breeze. We are in San Andres where the hostal is costing us 20 a night for the three of us in a fairly tiny room. There's hot water and free coffee in the morning, but it's still much more expensive than we would like.

After passing the market three times, turning around in circles, touching our toes, and turning our legs in more circles we arrive at the UN office. The houses here are all lined in a row and painted different colors. Henry Flores in dutifully waiting inside for us, having penciled us into his schedule which looks booked from where we take our seats, but he acts like he has all the time in the world though. We chat a little bit, ask for the names of the NGOs in the region, and ask about upcoming events. So upcoming, that he is running off to it after our meeting and invites us.

So we hop on our bikes and head back towards the hostal on the main road that kisses the ocean front. But first we hit up breakfast. There were definitely some slammed brakes involved as we neared a juice making stand next to a bakery. Fruit and bread for breakfast, what else could you ask for? Our smoothies consisted of carrots, grapefruit, oranges, and bananas. Even though the papaya was begging to be eaten, we vowed it would be blended up and swallowed tomorrow. 8 pans for a sole. We buy 16 pans. There's even wheat rolls. Mmm.

The meeting that PNUD is running has about 50+ attendees. They are representatives of different organizations in the area ranging from the red cross, certain workers unions, international federations, and many more. The title of the meeting is Cafe D.E.L. Which stands for Desarrollo Economicó Local. It takes place at an incredibly fancy restaurant with an entire wall of windows facing the sea. Everyone receives a name tag, a folder full informational packets, and a pen. It is remarkably well organized with a laptop, printer, 2 wireless microphones, and 2 planned meals with coffee. Lunch is supposed to be two courses.













The meeting is structured around three questions:

1. ¿Cómo se hace el Desarrollo Económico Local en Pisco con nuestros propios medios?
2. ¿Quién debe participar en el D.E.L. Y quién debe liderar el proceso?
3. ¿Qué compromises asumo yo para fortalecer el DEL en Pisco?

The moderator poses the question, the people break into groups, write down their ideas with big paper and thick markers, and then discuss it amongst themselves and the tables surrounding theirs. The introduction consists of clearly outlined objectives and desired outcomes as well as an overview of the upcoming schedule. The speakers are almost all engaging, and frequently ask for audience participation. We've started to record the time spent between lecturing, interacting, and audience activities. We expect this will help us compare the many meetings we have and will be attending.

Immediately afterwards, we hopped in a Combi headed for the region of Pisco called Huáncano. It is in the mountains on the same road that Tambo Colorado is on. We are headed for Quitasol for another PNUD led meeting with the people concerning risk assessment. There are three partners hosting the meeting, each hosting a different session within th meeting. We play soccer with the kids beforehand and get bit by mosquitoes.

The first part of the meeting is a lecture by an INGEMMET representative. INGEMMET is the national geotechnical and geological research and outreach branch. The lecture is basically Earth Hazards 101. We learn about landslides, earthquakes, mudslides, liquefaction, and a whole bunch of other things. The soil engineer discussed the situation in Tambo de Mora and Tantará, which caught our ears. It was very enriching to hear more about those environments. Don't blame me. Blame my vocabulary. Enriching is the best word I can imagine at this moment. The second lecture is done by two engineer reps from the National Ministry of Housing . The lecture focuses on providing facts for why the government cannot afford to cater to all the rural communities of Peru and therefore they must learn to limit risks on their own and also be content with travelling towards designated central locations to receive medical services and secondary level education The third portion is run by a group of university students from the Universidad Nacional de ICA (UNICA), specifically the Department for Fish and Food Engineering. It is a participatory discussion on being more cognizant of environmental concerns in the area.





Afterwards, we all hopped in a Combi back to Pisco. Tupc Amaru, to be exact. It's us and the university kids. Even the engineers at their school have to take English lessons, 6 hours a week. So Brooke and a pair of them banter back in forth. Brooke in Spanish and responses in English. Meanwhile, the rest of the boys talk engineering and AUTOCAD. Everyone hits it off, they invite us to see their school, and eat dinner together. We learn some funny Peruvian words, eat chicken and fries, and end the night by exchanging phone numbers. They were pretty sweet chicos and even offered to help us look for cheaper housing in the area during our two week stay instead of our mad expensive hospedaje. They invited us to return in early August to give a presentation on our research and MIT in general at their school.

By the way MIT costs approximately 165,000 Soles per year. Their university costs 130 Soles the first year and 40 soles the four years after. They also pay a grand total of 5 soles per week for 15 meals and pay 100 soles for living per month. This all comes to a total of 5,090 Soles for five years of education. MIT costs roughly 660,000 Soles. Their engineering undergrad education costs 0.7% of an MiT education.

At home, we have to upload a lot of backed up footage. It takes a long time so when we fall asleep, we hit the pillows hard. Real hard.


17 June Wednesday
“Are we going out or what? (touches himself) No, seriously, I need to know what to wear.”

We woke up and ate a breakfast of avocados, bread, poached eggs, and a fruit smoothie. After packing and saying goodbye to Sra. Miriam et all (and payed for the 10 days we had stayed with her), we shouldered our packs and headed out at 11:50am. The ride to Pisco is around 35 kilometers, but we are on mountain bikes and we have heavy packs full of electronics and underwear. 9 minutes later and we are in Chincha Baja. 28 minutes later and we are at the Panamericana highway. 1 hour later and we are cruising at a 10 mile an hour pace with only a few stops. Then we stopped for a light lunch of oranges and raisins and figs.



It turns out Josie was riding for the first time in his life. So towards the end we stopped a bit more frequently. In the end however we arrived at our final destination of San Andrés, which is a small town just south of Pisco. It is cheaper and less touristy, and will hoepfully serve as our base for operations for the next two weeks. The town is both more destroyed as well as more rebuilt. Both of these seem to be a function of more infrastructure in general.

We spent the next hour completing a thorough search of the hospedajes (hotels) in San Andrés. After comparing around 7 we found a place we could stay for 25 soles a night. Not bad since the first place we found was 125 a night, though we had to give up WiFi. Josie was ok with it though since we still landed hot water. Finding dinner was a little more difficult as the only thing that was available seemed to be deep fried chicken. We decided to settle for a reestaurant along the beach that was a little more expensive than we would like ($5 a meal) – but it was tasty.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with a UN Agency, Cruz Roja, and some new NGO called Making A Difference (MAD).

We are currently uploading video from the past couple days and Josie is enjoying cable TV: We are all into checking out our new playground, but hopefully, for the project´s sake, we are able to establish some quality contacts early on and get our feet on solid ground.

Good night.


16 June Tuesday
“Mexico is a valid country.”

This morning, we split up. One with Cruz Roja for a capacity building meeting and two for PNUD. First, we dropped by the school to pick up the flip cameras from our students. Some had made movies, others had not. After having previewed them, only one out of 6 seemed to be useful to include in the documentary. It seems many of the kids were confused about how to do the basics of using a video camera. Our next iteration will have to be more basic and less comprehensive. Then off to thee PNUD office to conduct our scheduled interview. Our appointment requested a call at 8 am to remind her of the meeting, which we dutifully fulfilled, albeit at 8Ñ30am. However when we arrived, all the office could tell us was that she wouldn't be returning until tomorrow. So we walked to Hotel Estancia del Sur where the rest of our group was already filming the Cruz Roja workshop.

The Cruz Roja meeeting consisted of representatives from each of the nearby towns. Sometimes two from a town with a total of 28 people (24 woman and 4 men). Each had an invitation sent to their homes because they are either community leaders of the presidents of their town's Cruz Roja chapter. Afterwards, they are supposed to reteach the class to their communities. Everyone gets really nice packets at the beginning of the two day workshop (8-6pm). They include two workbooks, a pencil, a pencil sharpener, and a pen. One of the workbooks is more of a textbook whereas the other is a workbook for writing in. They serve a small breakfast that gets passed out about 1.5 hours after we start that consists of two small sandwiches and a soda. They follow along in the workbook, filling out a matrix that helps to identify problems and pick out best solutions. Then they run a simulation of how they think they would react in the case of an emergency. They break into three groups and assign roles like grandma, mom, daughter with broken leg, and really really old grandpa. They assign different situations like “what to do when you're not at home,” “how to help old people out of the house when an earthquake happens,” and “in the case that your primary exit becomes blocked.” The entire thing is hilarious to watch as they run outside to the kids playground and call for help. After a really nice sit-down meal for lunch, we go walking to a nearby town to conduct a risk assessment for practicing when the representatives return to their towns.

We then returned to Lurin Chincha for our last workshop. Yesterday the people invited us back to chop on a typical Chinchan platter: carapulcra con sopa seca. It was delish. We recorded for a little more, and then stopped by our friend Choche´s house to say goodbye before leaving for Pisco. Choche´s mom was disappointed because she had expected us to stop by last Sunday but we had worked instead. Apparantely she had made ceviche and some delicious-sounding relleno with ham. She now begs us to come visit them this next weekend. Since Pisco is so close it is certainly possible, but we tell her we will have to let her know when we found out more.

From there house we head home. These late night NGO meetings are killing our travel budget. Since the meetings ake place at night, we can´t bike back, so we are forced to find the cheapest means of transportation we can, which is microbuses at best and taxis at worst. For instance today was especially expensive since we split up and were moving around from 7am to 8pm.
After arriving home we went for a quick run on the beach and hung out on the dock before heading home to plan for the trip to Pisco the next day.

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