Saturday, January 13, 2007

Mangos and Computers

January 13th, 2007 La Encantada, Peru

Mangos (dried)

The price of mangos here is an atrocity. One of the major ways to earn income here is to farm mangos. They sell for about $3 a case which holds about 25 mangos. Mangos in the States sell for about $1 a piece minimum. I decided we have to find an alternative. So we have begun drying them.

Solar power is a very economical way to dry fruit, if you have frequent access to it. Considering it tops 100º F here just about every day, this is not a problem. About 3 weeks ago we built a dryer out of plywood and began drying mangos. We plan on selling them in supermarkets and some other specialty shops that have nuts and other dried fruit. Other Volunteers are already lined up to purchase any leftovers we have. That is for this season. The season lasts from November to February. If we have success we will try to export next season and find some profit margin for the farmers. So far so well. I´ll give you an update when we make our first venture to sell. We are still waiting for enough bulk. Currently, we can only dry a kilo every two days.

Computer Classes

I started teaching computer classes this week. I have twelve students in two different classes that last two hours each from Monday to Friday. It has been interesting experience. All the kids want to do is draw since I taught them Paint. Next course I will teach that last. The teenagers have been learning Excel and it is rewarding to see their faces when I teach them shortcuts and tricks like Autofill. I think soon I am going to teach a course on how to design a catalog. The kids are excited everyday for class and that makes it worth it when they drive me up the wall.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

New Years Festivities

January 1st, 2007 Piura, Peru

New Year´s Day

We pretty much didn´t do anything day. Pretty much just watched some football and played cards and used the pool in the neighboring hotel. They let us use the pool if we buy a $1 lemonade. It’s a pretty good deal.

December 31st, 2006 Piura, Peru

New Year´s Eve

We had planned on going to the beach for New Year´s Eve but it turned out everyone in Piura had the same day. Apparently you need reservations like 3 weeks in advance and all the prices pretty much triple. So instead we decided to just hang out in Piura. It was pretty fun. Some of the volunteers from Lambeyacue came up and together with the volunteers from Piura we rolled about 15 deep. We didn´t get into the club until about 10 minutes til midnight only to find out there was no countdown. That makes two years in a row I have missed it. But we didn´t let this get us down and proceeded to have our own countdown for each time zone we are originally from in the States.

And then the dancing began. I danced mostly with some volunteer friends and then with a Peruvian friend of ours until around 4am. I thought I was done at this time and was about to lean against a wall for a short break, when out of nowhere a beautiful Peruvian girl comes out of nowhere and asks me to twirl her around like I was doing with Ottilia. Of course I couldn´t decline. My friend Ryan noticed some of her friends snapping photos and corralled Steve into dancing with her friends. Finally at 6am and after numbers had been exchanged we left the club. We headed to a little burger joint and then sat in the plaza to watch the sunrise. At 7am we retired to the hostel for a comfortable 2 hours sleep. For one of the worst Christmas day celebrations I have ever experienced, this was one of the better New Years Eves.