Is El Niño coming?

February 21st, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

Monsoons

Peru experiences what is referred to as a rainy season. Last year that was a fair description of the period from December to March. It tended to rain a few hours at night, a few times per week. This year more closely resembles a monsoon season. Every day it begins raining around 5pm and continues off and on until about 8pm where it begins pour. This continues until about 8am. The entire town is complete mud. The streets are impassable. Several times I have had to ditch my sandals for bare feet because my sandals become lodged 2 inches deep in mud and refuse to accompany my feet along the path.

From January to May, a river runs from the mountains in the sierra through town to Piura and all the way to the ocean. Last year I visited the river several times with neighborhood kids to cool off. At its widest point last year, the river spanned the width of a basketball court. This year is a different story. I think at some points the river spans more than one football field.

I went to visit the families whose houses back up to the river. Although their homes normally set about a football field or so away from the riverbanks, the overflow is approaching disaster. Several homes showed me where the water had entered their animal corrals. If it rises any higher, it will seep into their homes. I offered myself in the case of any need. These people are rightfully scared.
Although the town is a disaster, which makes visiting families difficult, the rain is actually a blessing for several reasons. The farmers are delighted because it is softening up the hard soil. The rain considerably cools the town off at night, making the task of sleeping much more comfortable. The roofs are made of tin, so the pitter patter is quite soothing. My family gets somewhat annoyed because at times the drumming is so loud they can´t even hear the television

The Grapes of Wrath

February 13th, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

The Grapes of Wrath

Due to the rather laidback lifestyle, many Peace Corps volunteers read more books during their service then most people read over a decade. Or in the case of a small town like mine, the sum of all the books read by the population of 3,000. I have read several good books, each which has influenced my outlook or perspective on various topics.

Several books have been enjoyable reads, but The Grapes of Wrath and The Mystery of Capital have by far had the most profound impact on my worldview. Anyone who desires to understand why underdeveloped countries struggle to catch up with their Western neighbors should read the Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto. The Peruvian author offers several insights into why capitalism doesn´t flourish in certain areas.

The Grapes of Wrath has also provided insight. Although not an academic publication, this novel about a farming family from Oklahoma during the Great Depression has offered an unique perspective into the lives of the extremely poor. Over the last year and a half I always had this hunch that the poor of the Great Depression handled their poverty differently than the people with whom I have spent the last year. This book as well as a couple conversations with my roommate from college, a current volunteer in Uganda, have confirmed that different people groups react to poverty in drastically different ways.

The thing that bothers me most about Peru is the complete lack of class. This can be observed several times throughout a typical day. From the pushing that takes place in the bus line to the petty theft that occurs everywhere, the total lack of class is obscenely ingrained in the society. I am told that in Uganda and other parts of Africa, there is rarely any petty theft because it is totally untolerated by the people. If someone legitimately screams “Thief”, the apparent convicted will surely be beaten by a gang of fellow strangers in the street. In Peru, don´t waste your time because even if you are chasing the thief, the general population will buy popcorn and watch.

Throughout the Grapes of Wrath I noticed that the people continually conducted themselves with class in all situations. I understand that it is a fictional novel, but I am every bit convinced that it is an accurate recollection of the times. There are some similarities between the two epochs, such as the fact that at times “the system” can be quite screwed up. Also when there was no work, the characters fled to the golden country of California much like the people of rural areas here flee to Lima. However, I also noticed a stark difference in the way the characters overcame their situation.

I find very few people here who have a vision. Some dream but few ponder what they need to do in order to make their dreams reality. The Joads were always sharing their dreams and how they planned to implement changes in order to realize their desires. More and more I am of the opinion that the States is an incubator for dreamers. Several people criticized my major claiming, “You can´t teach entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are born.” Although I agree that certain persons are born with innate personality characteristics that make them more likely achieve success as entrepreneurs, I disagree that entrepreneurship is not something that can be fostered and encouraged by culture.
And in defense of the Baylor University Entrepreneurship Department, the point of the program is to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the tools they will need to survive in such a risky atmosphere, not to make entrepreneurs out of nothing. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need the entrepreneurial spirit within your soul. The spirit can´t be attained from a text book, but can be found by surrounding oneself with likeminded thinkers.

Teenage Girls Youth Group

February 5th, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

Joyeria “Mi Colorado”

Most nights I spend about an hour or so hanging out with some teenagers down the street. The girls used to complain about how there isn´t really anything to do. I didn´t disagree. I asked them what they wanted to do. Several wanted to learn how to make jewelry. I don´t have any such experience but Angela, who learned in high school, offered to teach us.

I had the girls make a list of the necessary materials and then loaned them the $20 to buy them. Since November, the girls have been meeting twice a week to make jewelry from plastic beads. They then sell them to other girls around town or purchase them for their own adornment. With the profits we hope to eventually buy a volleyball net.

Although I teach basic accounting and business skills, I primarily use the opportunity to encourage women´s empowerment. I never enter the day with the intention to broach any particular topic; rather when the girls´ conversations leave windows of opportunity, I take advantage. We discuss gender roles, why some girls feel the need to marry at 16 years old, and whatever else comes up. I have seen a substantial improvement in the self-esteem levels of almost all those who participate.

I personally believe that the only way to change the machismo culture, that plagues Peru and most underdeveloped countries, is to work with the young women in town and encourage the development of their self-confidence. I think confident women raise respectful boys.

You can watch the Superbowl here

February 3rd, 2008 Cajamarca, Peru

What a Superbowl!

We woke up around 8am and proceeded to clean the mess we had created the day before. The paint actually cleans up pretty easily. The rest of the day was spent shopping for Cajamarca´s famous dairy goods, particularly the cheese, and playing cards.

At 5:30pm we headed to a nicer hotel bar to watch the Superbowl. They sported a huge big screen TV where we planted ourselves for the big game. Since the game is broadcasted on ESPN´s Spanish version, there were no commercials. The next day I YouTubed the best ones. We reserved the two seats in front of the TV for Kevin and Steve, our resident Massachusetts volunteers. The game was fantastic. Personally, I was rooting for New England for three reasons:

1) Brady is my boy from Michigan
2) I wanted to see a perfect season
3) I do not want to see a year of Eli and Peyton Manning commercials

As you all know, the Giants came up huge the last 2 minutes of the game. I think Kevin cried. Since we had to catch an overnight bus back to Piura, we all rushed back to the hotel and headed straight to the bus terminal.

Fun in Cajamarca!

February 2nd, 2008 Cajamarca, Peru

Carnaval Fun!

The real Carnaval is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is an elaborate festival known worldwide. Cajamarca is the capital of Carnaval in Peru and hosts a milder version of the Brazilian celebration. Its kind of like Mardi Gras minus the nudity plus paint. By the end of the day, several people claimed that this ranked as one of the top ten days of their lives.

Basically, for the month of February people throw water balloons at those who pass by from either balconies or behind the shelter of doors. A certain Saturday (determined by the lunar calendar) is designated as the all out war. This day people throw water balloons like crazy and even paint.

Volunteers knew from previous years to reserve a particular balcony in the Santa Rosa Hotel. Starting at around 10am, we began filling bucketfuls of water balloons. From the balcony we tossed balloons at those in street or others standing on their balconies. Perhaps our greatest weapon was The Launcher. Evan had brought back one of those super balloon launchers from the States. We could launch balloons as far as 3 blocks. Those people had no idea where the balloons were coming from.

Around noon, Ryan and I decided to venture out to the streets. Armed with a bag of water balloons each, we would soon learn we were underprepared. We were fine until a large group of 10 attacked us with buckets of paint. Ryan took some straight to the eye and fortunately a nearby bakery offered him water to flush it out. I took a passion fruit (kind of like a small apple) to the chest. That wasn´t cool. We returned to the hotel to round up the troops.

Everyone armed themselves with balloons and buckets of paint. Groups of about 10 to 15 people are formed and then march around the streets. Several groups have drums and chant as they parade the streets in search of victims. When two groups come upon each other it is all out war for about 3 minutes. Then the groups move on to find other groups.

What is really cool is that just about everyone participates. Although the groups are primarily high school and college kids, several groups included adults. Even older women participate. They might be the trickiest of all. One lady in her late 60´s asked if we would like some more water to mix with our paint. We accepted and while we were preparing our watered down paint mixture she came up from behind us and dowsed us with buckets of ice cold water and then scurried back into her house.

Around 3pm all the groups meet in the plaza (the city´s central meeting place) and unload any remaining ammo. There is lots of music and drinking and dancing. This goes on for a couple of hours before most return to their respective dwelling places to wash up. All the hot water was out, so we took freezing cold showers to remove the paint.





Baños del Inca

Since we were all shivering from cold we decided to head out to the Baños del Inca. These are natural thermal hot baths that were used by the Incas. For about a $1.50 you can rent a private hot tub like bath for 30 minutes. It was quite relaxing after the day´s festivities.

SBD Program Workshop

January 30th to February 1st, 2008 Cajamarca, Peru

Small Business Development Program Workshop

Since Cajamarca is the capital of Carnaval in Peru we decided to schedule the days prior to Saturday as work days. The first day I worked with some other volunteers on my association´s webpage. Joseph and Cheridyn have previous experience with Dreamweaver and were quite helpful. I think I honestly learned more in the few hours I spent learning from them then I did during the entire conference in Chiclayo. Now that I have a better understanding of Dreamweaver, I should be able to construct the webpage in the next 2 to 3 months.
The Small Business Development Program is trying mold the Peru program into a model program for the entire Peace Corps organization. We have been developing several useful tools for those who come after us. One group is developing a manual that contains several lessons plans for how to teach marketing, group financing and organizational management – all in Spanish. Another group is putting together a project book that includes Volunteer experiences working on various projects. Volunteers include technical expertise and best practices as well as valuable contact information. A third group has been shooting film in volunteers´ sites throughout Peru. The film will be edited into a video that will be used during Training to give the new trainees a feel for Peace Corps life. Although volunteers contribute to all the above tools, each volunteer is part of a particular team. I am on the website team. We have setup a Google Group where volunteers can post on the discussion board, as well as find electronic versions of said manuals. Friday we met as a large group to share our points of progress as well as set deadlines for the completion of the projects. It was a successful two days of work

IN and OUT

January 29th, 2008 Chulucanas, Peru

In and Out

Tonight was the championship game. We came into the game 2-0 while our opponent was 1-1. If we win we would be the champions but should we lose another game would have to be played. We were up 10 points with 4 minutes remaining. This was actually quite surprising because Juan Luis, our other star player, and I were having off nights to say the least. The only reason we were up was because Manolo, a solid role player, was shooting the lights out from behind the 3pt line.

Unfortunately, our lead dwindled over the remaining minutes and we found ourselves down 2 points with 14 seconds to play. We called timeout and I proceeded to draw up a play. Mario was to pass it in to me at the top of the key. I would drive hard to hole and then kick it out to Manolo in the left corner, his sweet spot. Since he was hot from the arc, they would surely come running out at him. All he had to do was simply fake the shot and then would have a clear path to the basket. When they collapse on him, he would dish it to Juan Luis who would be cutting to the basket for an easy uncontested layup and we would take them in overtime.

Everything went as planned. The play was executed perfectly. Except when Juan Luis went to catch the ball he fumbled it and it rolled off his knee. With 6 seconds left, it lands in the hands of Manolo who passes out of a double team to Ito. Ito passes it to me where I am standing in my second favorite spot behind the 3pt line.

With 2 seconds left I set up to shoot. They say we only use 10% of our brain. But I think while the adrenaline courses through our veins that number rises substantially. In the mere milliseconds before I shoot, several thoughts race through my brain. The first is this situation is eerily similar to a game last year. Last year, I drilled the shot in the championship and wound up having people buy me beers all night. The second was an analysis of my confidence. Although I was having problems with my runner and short game in general, my outside game had been rather steady. I had already hit one 3-pointer and 2 other deep shots.

I jumped to shoot. The release is good. Its on target and appears good. You can hear people in the crowd gasp. It settles inside the rim, rattles around and pops out as time expires. Everyone exhales. The championship game would be replayed. Both teams are now 2-1.

Recreation Committee

January 21st, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

Recreation Committee

My good friend Ryan, a volunteer in the sierra, gave me a great idea the other day and I am stoked by what has come of it. He is planning on constructing a sand volleyball court in his site. There are very few opportunities for recreation in La Encantada, especially for women. I believe this is one of the reasons the population resorts to drinking as often as they do. Its just like a small town in the country.

Women have practically no opportunities to exercise in my town, besides walking to their fields. On the contrary, the men have their soccer fields as well as most work labor intensively in their fields. I believe this is the main reason why the women in town are significantly heavier on average than their male counterparts. Actually, I read that Peru has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world.

Volleyball is very popular in most parts of Peru and the women are quite good. The national time lost in the championship of the Olympic qualifying round for South America. A volleyball court would be a tremendous addition to the town because it would provide women and girls an opportunity to exercise. Also, I am a strong believer that sports build self-confidence and instill character in those who participate.

Therefore, I have formed a Recreation Committee. It consists of several parents who have in my opinion demonstrated interests in improving the quality of life of those who surround them, especially their kids. We will be investigating various possibilities of recreation activities to implement in town and then soliciting support of community partners such as the municipality, the local NGOs and members of the community themselves.

January 12th, 2008 Chulucanas, Peru

Basketball Tournament

Tonight the basketball league starts up again. This time it isn´t so much of a league as just a 2 week tournament. Our team consists of primarily the same players as last year. We won the first two games pretty handily. I still find it amusing that I play in a basketball league here cause I never imagined playing anything more formal than 5 on 5 on some broken concrete court outside with battered rims. Its good to exercise consistently again.

Crop Comparison and We´re on ebay

January 2nd to 10th, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

Price Structuring and Crop Comparison

I´ve spent the past week working with the mango farmers. We have covered topics such as price structuring and crop comparison. We are contemplating growing the tomatoes ourselves rather than buying them from the regional capital. Most of the farmers agreed it would be more profitable but I wanted to make sure so we did a formal analysis.

We first calculated that we could grow tomatoes for S/. 0.30 per kilo; it costs S/. 0.50 per kilo to buy from the market. Therefore, we would profit from grow the tomatoes ourselves. Unless, the opportunity cost of tomatoes was higher than the current crops we grow. After a brief presentation on opportunity cost we put the theory into practice and did a comparison analysis between tomatoes and a corn (the crop we would be replacing). After crunching the numbers, we discovered that tomatoes yield a 10 to 1 profit to corn.

The farmers were ecstatic because it was the first time they put all this down on paper, which allowed them to see how great the difference really was. Some farmers even developed matrices comparing several different crops.

ebay

When I returned to the States for Christmas I carried 130 bags of dried fruit home. Mom and I set up ourselves on ebay and are selling the dried fruit in quantities of 1 kilo. You can search us on ebay: dried mangoes. Or you can email me directly and I will coordinate your order with my mom.
We put the price structuring theory to practice by comparing our prices to those of our ebay competitors´. Due to our extremely high profit margins, we were able to slightly undercut the closest competitor.

Crop Comparison and We

January 2nd to 10th, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

Price Structuring and Crop Comparison

I´ve spent the past week working with the mango farmers. We have covered topics such as price structuring and crop comparison. We are contemplating growing the tomatoes ourselves rather than buying them from the regional capital. Most of the farmers agreed it would be more profitable but I wanted to make sure so we did a formal analysis.

We first calculated that we could grow tomatoes for S/. 0.30 per kilo; it costs S/. 0.50 per kilo to buy from the market. Therefore, we would profit from grow the tomatoes ourselves. Unless, the opportunity cost of tomatoes was higher than the current crops we grow. After a brief presentation on opportunity cost we put the theory into practice and did a comparison analysis between tomatoes and a corn (the crop we would be replacing). After crunching the numbers, we discovered that tomatoes yield a 10 to 1 profit to corn.

The farmers were ecstatic because it was the first time they put all this down on paper, which allowed them to see how great the difference really was. Some farmers even developed matrices comparing several different crops.

ebay

When I returned to the States for Christmas I carried 130 bags of dried fruit home. Mom and I set up ourselves on ebay and are selling the dried fruit in quantities of 1 kilo. You can search us on ebay: dried mangoes. Or you can email me directly and I will coordinate your order with my mom.
We put the price structuring theory to practice by comparing our prices to those of our ebay competitors´. Due to our extremely high profit margins, we were able to slightly undercut the closest competitor.

New Years Activities

January 1st, 2008 Piura, Peru

New Year´s Day

Unfortunately, the bowl games are not priority here. At night I got to catch one game on ESPN. It was so uneventful that I can´t even remember who played. Nowhere near as fun as the usual tradition my father and I undertake: a few hours at Champps Sports Bar & Grill.

December 31st, 2007 Colan, Peru

New Year´s Eve

I headed out to Colan with Maria and several other volunteers from Peru 9 and 10. Unfortunately, most of the volunteers from my training class were spread all over Peru. We lunched at a little seafood restaurant and then headed down to the beach. The place was packed due to the fact that it was New Year´s Eve. We pretty much lounged around until it was time to get ready for the ball to drop. After showering up, we headed to Club Esmerelda where the night was spent dancing. And the morning. Some of us never were able to find a room, so we danced until 7am. Then we boarded the first bus back to Piura where we crashed until the afternoon.