Presidential Election

Living in a Latin American country can be described as unpredictable, loud, and crazy at times, and living in a Latin American country during a presidential election is all of that and then some. 

The past Sunday, Peru held its presidential election, congressional and Andean Parliament elections. There were 11 candidates competing for President, but only five had a real chance at winning.

Here’s how voting works in Peru. First, voting is mandatory for everyone. If you don’t vote, you have to pay a fine, which the cost varies depending on where you live. Because of this mandatory voting, people go back to where they were registered and hence, transportation costs go up. Depending on where you vote, the transportation costs are higher than the fine, so people just don’t vote. Another anomaly about voting is Peru is that there is “dry” period starting the day before voting until 5:00 on Election Day, which means the consumption of alcohol is prohibited. For alcohol to be prohibited, it pretty much means that this has been a problem in the past and continues to be one, which is why they make it a national law.  

Here’s a recap of the top five candidates that were running for president. I’m by no means a political savvy person, so have compiled the following descriptions from news sites, friends, and town gossip:

-Ollanta Humula: Ex-soldier and basically the only left-winger in the group. He’s good chums with President Morales (Bolivia) and President Chavez (Venezuela), who aren’t the best friends with the United States. Ollanta ran is the last presidential election, but lost only barely. Some say because of his close ties with Chavez, so this time around he tried to distance himself a bit. 

-Keiko Fujimori: She is both the youngest and the only female in this election and besides that is best known by her father, who is a former president and who is now sitting in jail for crimes against human rights committed during his presidency. He is a controversial person in Peru. Some say he got rid of terrorism (Shining path), while others believe the way he did it was unjust. A lot of people have been wondering whether or not she is going to pardon her father if she gets elected. She’s mentioned it before, but has since said rescinded her answer. 

-Pedro Pablo Kuczynski: A former World Bank official and finance minister, and who I’ve just heard is a professional flautist (Score!). They call him the “gringo” and coincidently is also married to a gringa and has lived in the United States for a while. He’s a German immigrant’s son who was also the economics and prime minister under Toledo back in the 2000’s. From what I’ve heard, he’s the only candidate to name of things he plans to do and not just things people expect him to do, which I commend him for. 

-Alejando Toledo: Ex-president of Peru, (2001-2006) who also has ties to Peace Corps. He’s the one who invited us back in 2002, mainly because back in the 60’s he knew some PCV’s who helped him go to college in the states (Hello Ivy league). He was doing well in the early polls, but then came under attack under accusations of heavy drinking and cocaine use. 

-Luis Castaneda: Former mayor of Lima and apparently did a good job. I don’t know much except some people said that the candidate that is favored in Lima has a good shot at being elected. 

And the winner is???

It was close with Ollanta (31.7%) and Keiko (23.3%), so they are the two candidates advancing to the run off. If a candidate doesn’t win 50% of the votes the first time around, the top two contenders go at it again on June 5^th. The third place finisher was Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (18.3%), Toledo (15.9%), and Castaneda (9.9%).

What’s surprising about the two picks are that they are the most extreme out of any of the candidates. Recent Nobel-winning novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, has compared them as a choice between terminal cancer and AIDS. Ouch 

Now again, I really don’t know much about politics, especially here in Peru, but for me, Ollanta means bad news for Peruvians and for me. 

First, Mr. Humala plans to distribute wealth more equally through a “national market economy,” which basically means kicking out foreign companies’ and having Peru take over, specifically mining and gas companies. Secondly, he also wants to change the constitution, which President Chavez of Venezuela has done. His surging in the polls and then being the first runner up for the run off in June has caused the local economy to drop, as people have been quick to sell-off their shares and flee the country.

What does it mean for me? Well not much except that Peace Corps may be included in the “foreign company” byline. A similar situation happened In Bolivia 2 years ago, and could very well happen in Peru depending on who wins the presidency.  

So at this point, there’s nothing much I can do, but sit and watch democracy take place. It’s particularly excited to be living in a Latin American with histories of governments being over taken by the people. You never know if a revolution will happen or not. Now where did I put my pitch-fork?

For more  information:

http://www.economist.com/node/18486281

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135306509/leftist-ex-officer-tops-peru-vote-heads-to-runoff

Fresh from the Farm

There are many assumptions on the part of Peruvians about how they view the United States. Some true, some funny, and some adopted from TV. It is our job as Peace Corps volunteers to abolish those stereotypes and teach Peruvians how the United States really is. Some examples of stereotypes are: everyone is white, everyone gets divorced (One of my teachers has mentioned Britney Spears as an example), everyone is rich, no one is racist (because we elected Obama), and everyone eats food out of cans. 

Now I would have to say that these stereotypes are drastically exaggerated, but the last one “everyone eats food out of cans” started me thinking. 

I love cooking and pride myself on cooking from scratch. But my version of cooking from scratch consists of using canned beans, jarred applesauce, frozen shrimp, etc.  My point is cooking from scratch in the United States is different from cooking from scratch in Peru, and there are reasons why that is. 

Here in the sierra of Peru, we don’t have a local supermarket to just pop on by if you forget one ingredient, instead we have a market. And instead of stopping on the fly, most people only go to the market on Sunday, market day. So during the week, we get by harvesting food from the fields: potatoes, beans, wheat, corn, and carrots. This means we eat seasonally, which may get boring, but I kind of like now. We are now in Habas season, which are huge lima beans. We also have an abundance of carrots, potatoes, and soon to be corn. Corn season is the awaited season year round, in which we get to enjoy humitas and mote. Then comes wheat, peas, lentils, and then it starts all over again. 

Obviously in the United States, time is money, so using some canned beans for a casserole will save you time from having to soak the beans overnight. Processed foods also give us the advantage of having something whenever we want. For example, frozen chicken or shrimp can be had whenever we want since it’s just sitting in the freezer. And not really wanting to get into it, but all that processed food is cheap, which is why penniless families choose cup-o-noodles instead of making fresh chicken noodles soup. They don’t have the time or the money to spend it on fresh produce.

For a long time, I would have said food in the states is healthier, since all I’ve been eating here is potatoes and rice. But, on the other hand, I’m eating less processed food. Instead of snacking on chip (which the closest store to buy them is 4 hours away), I snack on fruit. I’m also not consuming food that has been radiated (ex. Microwaved) or genetically modified in the lab (ex. Trans fat). I’m simply eating directly from the land.

So I would have to say that my food policy has changed a bit since coming to live in Peru. While it is more work and takes more time, I prefer eating closer to the land. That means eating seasonal foods, having my own garden, and eating less processed foods. But in the end, I’m happier for caring more about where my food comes from and in return, caring about my body’s health.  

Little Fat Girl

If there is one thing that Peruvians are good at it is telling it the way it is. Whether that may be about your weight, height, cleanliness, and even race, they will say it out loud.

Now coming from the states saying that someone is fat, to their face, would be considered rude. So naturally when I first got to Peru, I was shocked at what they were saying, but here it is just how they describe people.

For example, in a restaurant, you may call the waitress “gordita” (little fat girl), “china” (if she’s of Asian descent), and “joven” (because she is young.) All of those descriptors would be acceptable in getting her attention.

Depending on my mood, I can usually take a “gringita” here or a “gordita” there. But the other day, I was at my high school waiting for some meeting to take place, when all of the sudden, one of the teachers (who mind you, isn’t exactly Peru’s Next Top Model) goes to me: 

Teacher: “Oh Annie, you are a little fat girl now. 

Annie: [Blank stare]

Teacher: “Yes, yes, you’ve definitely gained weight. How much did you gain?”

Annie: “Actually, I haven’t gained weight.”

Teacher: “No really, you’ve gained. Just look at you (meanwhile pinching my side)”

Annie: [Blank murderous stare]

Now the clincher to this story is that I had seen this teacher only a month before when I took her to a free English teaching training in Lima (key word: free). And I’m not going to lie, being fed a straight diet of potatoes and rice hasn’t exactly gone well for me, but come on people, you don’t need to remind me of this fact! Geez.

So needless to say, that little “gordita” remark, left me in a foul mood. But at least I’ll have a great motivator when I’m back in the states on the treadmill...playing it over and over again in my mind…

Community Partners

We all come into Peace Corps hearing these golden projects of town-wide projects in which the people are so motivated to change their situations, but what it always comes down to is your community partner. And what they didn’t tell you is that a good community partner is worth its wait in humitas!

Being from another country and not always knowing the culture or the language, Peace Corps volunteers try to always with community partners or people in the community that you can trust and work with on projects. Ideally, a community partner should be someone that lives in the community and is motivated to help out their neighbors, someone who is willing to give their time away for the greater good, someone intrinsically motivated.  You get the idea.

But what is ideal is not the norm, unfortunately. As a community health volunteer my officially community partners are personnel of the health post, as well as some leaders in the community.  But out of a total of four people who were my original community partners assigned to me, I work with maybe one. 

What I found out to be the case in my community is that practically all (but two) professionals live in the community below, which is an hour walk away, so trying to coordinate with them is a nightmare. Add to that the fact that they don’t live here; hence there is no real reason why they would want to help out the community in their free time. In addition, the people that can help me, can only help me two-times a month, which in my line of work of health promotion, is nothing. 

So what do I do? Well, I do things on my own and hope that someone comes along. This isn’t always the best strategy, but last year when I was waiting on my community partners to help me, I just decided to do it on my own time, since I had more of it. I started teaching English and health classes in the schools. I started a youth group in the afternoons. I did a school garden with the primary school. Little by little, things started picking up and then all the sudden my community partners wanted to work with me. 

I’ve had the pleasure of working with practically everyone from my health post, along with high school teachers and primary school teachers. Even professionals from Bambamarca that I randomly meet have come and helped me in my town, including a nutritionist at the local hospital and an agriculture engineer that works with the Ministry of Agriculture. You never know who you will bump into and start working with in the future.

What Peace Corps has taught me, among many things, is to work with what you got. When you first get to site you are imagining that everyone will want to work with you and that all the families want to change their lives for the better, but of course, that is never the case. People have a hard time understanding what you are here for and they have their own lives to concentrate on.  Everyone’s situation is different, so you just try to do what you can with what you got. 

With the month of March, school is back in session, which means plans need to be made, meetings held, and lots of work to be done. Now only one thing awaits...who wants to work with me?

When do you know you are a volunteer?

When do you know you are a volunteer? Is it when you get your blue envelope in the mail? Is it when you swear in? Or is it when you have successfully completed 30 new latrines for your community? I suppose it’s different for everyone, but for me, it kind of snuck up on me.

It wasn’t what I imagined it would be, like curing a sick child or finishing a hand washing taller. For me, it was those moments in between my “work.” It was teaching my 5-year old neighbor how to bake a carrot cake. It was washing my clothes by hand with my host mother while talking about town gossip. It was witnessing my first birth of a child late at night at my health post. 

I have officially been a Peace Corps volunteer in the northern sierra of Peru since November 23, 2009. I live in a small rural town in the department of Cajamarca with about 3,000 people and work in community health mainly with mothers and children. Yet still, 15 months later, I still wonder what my job is supposed to be here and what I’m supposed to be accomplishing. 

The beginning of one’s service is always a big rocky, of that I am sure. RPCV’s always say the first 3 months are the worst, and that’s for certain. There were times when I was afraid to leave my room because I didn’t know anyone and could barely communicate. You are just hoping for something, anything, to do. By month 4, you’ve met most of the people in town and enjoyed some cultural activities, like making tamales or dancing your first huayno. Then the possibilities come by month 5. You start seeing all the things you can change in your community for the better. You imagine these great projects like building a school library out of plastic bottles or starting a garbage system with all the members of the community, stuff of PCV’s dreams. By month 6, you start having a normal schedule. One day walking to your caserio, the next day teaching English in the school, then a hygiene charla with some moms the next day. Before you know it, you are actually busy. So busy that you are wishing you had those days back in the first three months when you had nothing to do. You go along at this pace until the one year mark comes by. 

The 12^th months officially marks one years as a volunteer and that’s when  you start looking back at all that you’ve done that first year and wonder, did I change anything?! I know I went through a solid month of questioning what I was doing and if I was even making a dent in the community. It was a month of reflection and serious thought of whether I would be better just going back to the states. For me, it took me a while to get back on track again, buy month 13, I realized that I was making a difference in my host family and the people closest to me, and that’s the most I can hope for. 

So that’s where I am at today. I started out my Peace Corps service hoping to change the community, but now I’m hoping to change a few people’s minds, and that’s all I can ask for at this point. This year, instead of worrying so much about whether I’m working enough or accomplishing all my goals, I’m instead focusing my time and effect on a few quality projects and the rest is just going to be enjoying life. I don’t want to leave my home here thinking I should of milked more cows or played more soccer with the kids. I want to leave knowing that I not only worked in this small community in the mountains, but that I really lived here with the people doing the same everyday tasks that they do, battling the same rain, and hiking up the same mountains. 

Many RCPV’s have told me that they left thinking there was so much more to do, and that’s going to be the same for me. But what I take with me is the belief that I can make a difference wherever I go and that, for me, makes me believe that I have finally become a real Peace Corps volunteer.

Partying like it´s 1499

“There was once a bunch of robbers in town, then the Rondas happened, and now we live peacefully in town”

This is paraphrased from my friend Barbara´s health promoter, but is a typical story you would hear in any Serrano town of Peru. And to hear this story, it would sound a lot like Batman-vigilante stuff, only it is done in the open, and not under the cover of darkness, like a winged-friend. 

The Rondas Campesinas are the keepers of peace in the sierra. They consist of practically every man in town, and are probably the most organized group around (including governmental positions—not joking). In a country were the police are scarce and corrupt, the Rondas were the answer to the rising crime in the countryside. Cattle going missing, tools being stolen, etc. The Rondas came in to keep the peace, but ironically, the way they keep the peace isn’t so peaceful.

Finger nails being pulled off, almost-drownings, whippings, public humiliation. These punishments sound like an excerpt out of a medieval time novel, but these are actually happening today, in 2011. There have even been cases of killings, which my host mom tells me happens quite often. 

Each Ronda handles their punishments differently, but perhaps the infamy of their punishments is what makes them so effective. Obviously when you hear about some of those punishments, you don’t exactly what to be mercado-lifting your neighbor’s chicken, now, do you? 

The Ronda in my little pueblito has been around for more than 50 years, and like I said, they are org-a-nized! They meet twice a month, both in their caserios and again as a whole group. I’m not really sure what goes on in the meetings, but what I do know is they last all through the night. Cañaso (moonshine) is passed around, and coca leaves are chewed into the wee hours of the morning. In addition to these meetings, all of the men take turns roaming the streets at night as night watchmen. If these men were as effective and organized as their day jobs, I wouldn’t have a job here…

Now every Ronda is different, and they dole out their punishment as they see fit, but one thing is for sure, you don’t want to be stealing no chicken in my town….