Since I have been back in site I have been very busy organizing everything for my Latrines project. The deadlines for the grants I am applying for did give me much time after my vacation to get very organized so I have been very busy. Basically I am going to provide materials for latrines for 65 families in Chipillico that have children under the age of three. Therefore, I have been running back and forth to Las Lomas trying to figure out all of the materials I need as well as the prices for everything. Grant writing is no easy task, it seems like it wouldn’t be too tough but everything is very detailed and specific and you have to be sure it’s all right in order to receive any money, because if I am off by anything and when it comes time to do the project and I realize it, I could be in real trouble by not having the right amount of money to purchase the correct items I need.
There are just so many things to think of, for example, I am buying materials from a town that is 45 minutes out of the valley and it is because these items are not available in my town. So another thing I have to consider when doing a project of this size in a county like Peru is how in the world I am going to get these items to my site at a reasonable cost. Fortunately the other day when I ran into the mayor of Las Lomas and he invited me and my friend to breakfast we were able to ask him about the transportation, with luck he promised to take care of this for us, using either his own personal trucks (he is a miner and has money) or the trucks of the municipality. The 65 granite toilets alone is a huge trip, not to mention the bamboo, bags of cement, tin roof panels, just to name a few things.
The other task I have had the pleasure of work on is trying to find a person to actually do the work for me as well. Each family is required to have their mud bricks and the hole for the dry-well of the latrine ready to go for their scheduled date of latrine. I will also have already completed the cement flooring for each of the latrines, therefore I need someone to come in and actually construct the mud brick house for the latrine, put in the chimney of PVC and the roof and toilet. However, some of the people in town want to charge me much more then this work is worth. The reason the family is responsible for part and I for another part is to cut back on the cost of the maestro. However, the maestro isn’t seeing this, but for what I am paying them for little work, it is more then many of the people living in Chipillico make in half a year and this person will be making in only 2 ½ months. The positive part of this situation is that I know there is always someone else out there who would die to do this work and get the money, so at least I have a little bargaining room.
But again all of these details had to go into my grant and it can be very tedious.
The Mom’s have also been after me, they get concerned when they don’t see me around that I ditched them. So sometimes when I make a trip into the center of town I get attacked by mother’s asking me for the next date of my workshops, they know if they miss a health workshop they are removed from the project, and everyone is very eager to get their latrine!
Other then the burden of the latrine project it has been incredibly hot! Although I remember this from last year, I don’t know if there is anyway to ever plan for it! It makes my days much shorter because when the sun is completely out it is almost impossible to come up with the energy and make trips around Chipillico to smooth out some of the project details I need to get done . Fortunately many of the evenings and mornings have been rainy, which helps cool things off a little, not much, but a little! The other good side is that there is water again. When it rains a little here, it means it’s raining a lot up in the mountains and our creeks and rivers are full of water again. This has made doing laundry so much easier. Although I always have to make a little hike to do laundry it’s less of one when there is water. At times I would have to pay a moto taxi to take me to a spot where there is water, however now everything is in walking distance and has been really nice.
My host sister Betty and her family decided to start up a polleria in town. Which is a very popular type of restaurant in Peru. Basically they roast chicken and you can but it in sizes of a ¼, ½, or whole chicken and a plate is served with French fries and a small salad. I absolutely love it! Unfortunately due to some competition with their pharmacy they had to come up with another idea to generate income, therefore they decided to do this! So Saturday and Sunday nights, my whole family goes down to the pharmacy/restaurant to cook, I go to help out but also to show my support and buy my chicken. Since they are the ONLY one of these types of restaurants in all of the valley they have been getting good business. On the weekends it’s a good excuse for many families not to cook and buy a little chicken, it’s also a little expensive for a typical family so many families see it as a treat and buy from time to time. It’s more of a business you would see in the city. There is a big dance tonight so instead of the usual 2-3 chickens my host Mom buys and kills for a typical weekend , she bought 4 today to kill for later tonight. There are family that raise chickens on a type of feed I think is found more on chicken farms so when they buy chickens to see at the restaurant they are a different type of breed, more comparable to a perdue chicken in the united states, white and fat where typically when my family kills chickens to eat they are small and skinny and just weird looking. I like the big white fat ones better! There is always lots of meat!
There have been a few more problems here in the valley recently. With the stabbing and the robberies of taxi’s and the bus that comes into the valley turned out not to be just a one time thing. Everyone is a little more on alert and kind of nervous to travel. Me included! Fortunately is has been said that the robbers are after gold that is coming down from the mines on the bus. However, if there are taxis that pass through the same time they get stopped and robbed. So with the suggestion of Edgar and the safety and security officer from the Peace Corp I do not travel during these times. The mayor of Las Lomas also wanted to do something to help control some of the crime lately and hired two security guards that work for the municipality. So now they are out and about every night, but it means that I see less of Edgar when we are in Chipillico. He says he and his partner got a little too used to calmness of Chipillico and sort of complacent in their jobs, and now that these security guards are here they feel like they need to step up to the plate a little and he has to spend most of his nights patrolling. Which means I am a little more bored at night. But hopefully a little safer.
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