It’s time to go into what we’re actually doing here in the Andes at this time and why we’re spending two months here.
But first, let’s talk about the rainy season, OK?
We planned this trip around the cruise ship’s departure from San Diego on the last day of October. They most likely chose that date because the beginning of November marks the end of the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season. Avoiding those Mexican hurricanes seemed like a good idea to us. It also seemed to work out well in other ways, like avoiding the big tourist season when people from the northern hemisphere take advantage of Summer Vacations to travel. And like allowing us to skip from Northern Summer to Southern Summer and avoid taking a lot of heavy clothes along. We knew it would be brisk at night in the Andes at 9,000 feet no matter what time of the year we visited, but light jackets and sweaters would take care of that.
But we hadn’t really accounted for the rain. When we got here it was raining. And then it rained every day, sometimes all day long, through the night and all the next day. And then it rained some more. There have been times when it rained buckets and the cobblestone streets became torrents. Kind of pretty torrents, but torrents nonetheless. Walter, our host’s driver seemed to see nothing out of the ordinary about this. For him, it didn’t even merit wearing a hat. When asked, his replies were along the lines of, "Well, it’s the rainy season."
We’d packed a Lonely Planet guide to Perú for current information, and I looked under the Weather section. After we got here, of course. It says Perú has two main seasons – wet and dry. The wettest months are December through March. We will be here from mid-November through January. Local people tell me the area is yellow and brown for about half the year, but now we can watch it growing greener by the day. It began to dawn on us why this was not the prime tourist season.
Oh well. It’s a good thing we brought Zont. Several years ago, we were in the Russian Far East near Vladivostok and were lucky we’d thrown in a couple of umbrellas. That area is at the latitude of Portland, fairly green and well-forested, and we used them a lot. We also learned the Russian word for umbrella is zont. There are no articles (like "the") in the Russian language, so we’d ask each other, "Do you have. zont?" before leaving the apartment. We carried zont everywhere, and usually needed it. And here in the Peruvian highlands we always carry zont in the backpack. So it is what it is, and we’ll just take the good with the, uh, rain.
As for what we’re doing here, Carolyn’s very old (in his mid 80s, in fact) friend, Dr. Aquiles Lanao Flores is an economist. When he heard we were retired, he suggested we come to Ayacucho as volunteers to help with Finca Perú. Aquiles -- fondly known as Wircocha (a Quechua term) has a very active mind and is always looking for symbiotic connections. If we showed up, he'd find a way to keep us busy.
The Wikipedia entry for Finca International (one of the more successful charitable organizations around) lists Aquiles as founder John Hatch's Peruvian partner. Aquiles was the Peruvian Director of the Peace Corps Liaison office for cooperative programs for eight years, among many other roles through the years. He and his wife, La Morenita, were founders of Finca Perú.
Actually, it was mostly her doing, and he gives her full credit. Together, they attended a micro-credit conference in Guatemala City many years ago. La Morenita was supposed to do the usual 'spouse thing' and spend her time on local tours, shopping, etc. But Aquiles couldn't get her out of the conference, where she took prodigious notes. On the plane home, she turned to Aquiles and said "Let's start a bank!" Aquiles said, "But we don't have any money to start a bank." She said, "Don't worry, I'll get it!"
La Morenita's desire was to help the women of the Ayacucho region who had been so severely affected by the violence of the 70s and 80s between the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerilla movement and the Peruvian military. Thousands of families were devastated, and women were left without husbands, fathers, sons -- often with little in the way of resources to care for themselves and their remaining children. The need was nearly incomprehensible.
La Morenita contacted the US Ambassador's wife, whom she had helped with other projects, and the two of them put together a grant proposal. It was so successful that within a few years, it was generating all it's own income and required no further outside funding. Today, Finca Perú has expanded far beyond Ayacucho and has 7,000 socios (associates), almost exclusively women. The primary mission of Finca Perú is to form community banks made up of mostly women and provide training of all kinds to increase their professional and life skills, self sufficiency, and self esteem. Finca Peru now inhabits a lovely building on one of Ayacucho's primary streets. The building is dedicated to La Morenita, who passed away five years ago. It is a bevy of activity, with women of all classes coming and going continually -- meeting for their weekly bank accountings, attending training sessions. Children of all ages accompany their mothers, and there is a colorful childcare space in the garden where they can play while bank meetings are being held.
These women include small farmers, sellers of vegetables in the market, owners of restaurants and fine pastry shops, and producers folk art products, to mention just a few. Finca Perú has provided them with the tools to benefit, and participate in, from the country's rapidly expanding economy. The organization is run by a highly qualified and dedicated staff, and also has regional programs in Lima and Huancayo. Aquiles' daughter, Iris, is the executive director; but Wiracocha is clearly the much loved father figure. When he shows up at the offices, he is immediately surrounded by adoring staff and socios.
In early December they celebrated a beautiful misa for La Morenita, and held a feria to showcase the work of the socios. Lots of fine crafts, good food, and a bike race were part of the festivities. Most of the family arrived for the misa and they are a remarkable family indeed, highly-motivated, well-educated (granddaughter Viviana is a Harvard Grad), and very interesting to be around.
When he found out about my background designing solar homes and other projects, Aquiles put me to the task of helping with some building projects of his own. I had brought along a metric scale that I'd used in Mexico, and thought that if the occasion arose, I'd just buy whatever else I needed on-site. But when I went to find some triangles, templates, and other gear at the various little shops along the Plaza by the University, they looked at me in disbelief. The expressions on their faces said, "Where do you think you are, fella, in some Third-World country? We don't use that stuff here. We use computers these days."
Each little CAD shop along the Plaza politely suggested that maybe the next shop two doors down might have what I needed. I finally found a sort of Starter Kit with a couple of triangles in it, and later I found a template with a few circles and squares on it, along with a couple of mineras (mechanical pencils – called lapiceros in Mexico), and a decent eraser. At a ferreteria, I found a good tape measure (called a 'wincha' here) and a wide paintbrush to use for sweeping away the eraser crumbs. Then I bought a piece of white cardboard, masking-taped it to a table for a drawing surface, and I was ready for business. Which was a very good thing, because Aquiles had lots of ideas to keep me busy.
Among these were: Designing a green room for his visits to a place he has in the countryside at Acos Vinchos. Coming up with an idea for a wheel chair ramp for Finca Perú – not an easy thing to do where the slopes are so steep. Designing a new building for Finca's Wari Project directed by Derek Visser, a long-term volunteer from Holland. Designing a small solar home in the local style. Designing a housing community for 100 families. Aquiles is an endless font of ideas to make things better here. I started drawing soon after we got here and have stayed busy ever since.
As for what Carolyn is up to, I'll turn the keyboard over to her and let her tell you, herself:
My job here is to work with Finca Perú Exports, a project begun in 2006, mostly using volunteer effort, to help Fina Perú socios who are artisans to increase their self-sufficiency through selling their artisan products. Previous volunteers managed to put up a very attractive web site and to make some significant initial sales; but as their volunteer terms ended and they went back to Oregon or Wisconsin or Holland, or wherever else they came from, sales dwindled to almost nothing. My job is to look at what was done, what the situation is now, and what should happen with Finca Perú Exports in the future -- a sort of analysis and then strategic plan, if that is appropriate.
I had worked with artisan development here back in the 60s as a Peace Corps Volunteer, so I already have a great love for and some knowledge of the people and the products. I've been stunned to see, however, how much folk art has grown in both production and sales. When I was here before, there were no shops visible; one had to go find artisans working in remote areas or communities, and there was real fear that Peruvian folk art -- which, of course, was first created for practical use, in both religious and daily life -- would be lost as the market was flooded with inexpensive commercial alternatives. Now, there are folk art shops on every block, with a wide variety of items small and large for the tourist market; and the finer weavers, potters, tinsmiths, stone carvers, etc., are recognized internationally as true artists and command fine prices for their collectable work.
So, my remaining time here will be filled with surveying, meeting with groups of socios to identify their abilities, desires, and training needs; learning about the rigors of exporting; exploring possibilities for internal as well as external markets; and hopefully building a base of information that Finca Perú can use to more effectively help its artisan socios in the future.
Next: Street Life in Ayacucho