Shilla- Buenos....Entonces....

---

In some ways this seems really short, but on the other hand, twenty days more in Peru seems like forever! It´s hard being here occasionally. I love our group, but I´d really like to get away everyonce and a while, adn the languge barrier is making it difficult to have even a few moments that aren´t intesive learning moments. I just want some down time!!! It´s good though, really stretching my limits. I am in a group meeting right now, with the Shilla mayor. I think that it is mostly about agriculture, so far, about changes, how he governs, how he initiates change, but I´m not entirely sure because my brain is rebeling and I don´t want to have to pay the kind of intense concentration that I need to pay, just to catch one third of the converstation. I do think that it is cool, the level of awareness, and the attempts to manage change in an ecological way, which I think is what Patti is here trying to encourage him do do. He doesn´t seem too impressed with her advice though. He keeps shuffling his papers, signing and stamping, and otherwise asserting his position as mayor. People. Lol. I fell better writing, because at least I can pretend that I am paying attention! It´s better than just staring. THey have a fiesta here, a revival of a traditional Quechua town party that is good because it "consolidates local sense of community." Translated quote from spanish...I guess even Shillites that move to Lima come back for this, which must be good for the local economy. There is a wedding band marching down the street outside that is making it very hard to even pretend. Clothing is soooo colorful here, at least, the women´s clothes are. They all have kneelength skirts with tons of petticoats, adn really bright leggings, sweaters, hats with flowers. I´d love to get one of the red felt hats here. They seem kind of Ingrid Bergman, but they are way way too small. People here are tiny. High hats, like top hats, adn costume jewelry, seem very common here. So bright.
Hmmm, after the meeting we went up to the health clinic in Shilla, which was, basic, to sya the least. It was tiny, packed, and understaffed. I think that it´s cool that they are trying to work in conjunction with the local healers, allowing midwifes to come in and do birthing in the clinic. I guess it´s the only way that they can get women to come to the clinic. Then the bumpy, cramped, hour long ride down the mountian to the Casa and a four, yes, I said four, hour lecture about Peruvian anthropology history, which might have been interesting if I had had even a little bit of an idea of who all the names that our Prof, Alejandro, kept tossing out at us, but I didn´t. We didn´t get to anything interesting, like the Shining Path, until the last hour, which would have been fun, if any of us were capable of more than a glazed stare. Ok, I may be exageratting, but it was pretty bad. Poor Prof, we must have been the worse class ever. At least we had coca tea, so no one actually fell asleep in front of him. Two most interesting points: Alejandro studied the Shining Path in this area when he was younger, and at one point he was black listed by the governmant for his apparent interest. And the local goverments are required to have at least one woman representative on the council. Oh, and participatory budgeting processes, which means that the budgets have to be divided by group meetings, and such. It was a hard day, Saturday...

---