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Wow, so a lot has happened in the last two weeks. sorry for dropping off the face of the earth.
Where to begin? Where to begin?
Well, I think that I should get the big tourist-y thing out of the way. I went to Machu Picchu (Mapi) last weekend. Wow. It was completely incredible. Me and three friends went to Cusco on a friday morning, and kinda messed around in the city, eating good food and enjoying how beautiful and CLEAN the city is. It was a much needed break from life in Ayacucho. So, we hung out there for that day, woke up the next and at a BIG BREAKFAST! After having only bread and cheese for breakfast for about 5 weeks, an omelette was much needed. It was incredible. I asked for extra tomatoes and toast because I was dying for a tomato sandwich, something I often eat dozen of per week in the summer at home.
After breakfast we got in a cab and took it across some of the most beautiful countryside, complete with snowcapped mountains and rolling hills, all the way to Ollantaytambo. This was a smaller town in the Sacred Valley (heart of the Inca Empire), where we ate lunch and then hopped the train to Aguas Calientes, the village at the base of Mapi. We stayed there for a night, eating decent food and just enjoying the clean, humid air. These Andes are worlds different from Ayacucho´s. These are towering cliff faces covered in lush green, jungle-like vegetation. Amazingly beautiful to say the least.
So the next day, it was up at 5 to get to the ruins before sunrise. We did the whole windy busride to the top, climbed to the spot the the very very generic/famous Machu Picchu picture, and we got there before the sun broke the mountain tops. The sun hitting the ruins really made it easy to see why these people worshipped the Sun as one of their deities. It was like nothing i had ever seen. To see something built so beautifully, and so long ago, on this towering mountain was phenomenal. We were there for 5 hours. I could have stayed longer, but we had to catch our train.
So we returned to Cusco for another great night of good food and conversation. I feel guilty saying that we tried to stay in Cusco another day, avoiding returning to the dustbowl that is Ayacucho. But we couldnt work out our flights, and we returned by bus that next night. Ayacucho is very different, but believe me, I do love it. It just wears on you over time.
Well, the Hep B Vaccination Campaign for the Second Dose has been completed. So my first day back, I walked around like 5 miles carrying the vaccinations and making sure we had gotten to all the families in our jurisdiction. Given how tired I was, this was a difficult day with not much action other than left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot...
But the next day, I began work on the new intern project my friend Narges and I are heading up with our director. There is a small public school in a part of Ayacucho that is suffering greatly at the hand of regional governmental negligence and the apathy of professors. These children have received no education on basic hygiene. Also, the school has not provided them with latrines, or any place suitable for using the restroom. So these children urinate and "go number 2" in this one corner of the school grounds where there are some "outhouses" that have no place for drainage or anything. To say the least, it terribly unsafe and the pump for their water is only twenty feet from here, a pump where they place their mouths and hands after using the corner.
The teachers, when asked why they allow this to persist, have responded with the defeated, apathetic, and altogether unacceptable retort of, "oh, kids will never learn." This is a self-fulfilling assessment when coming from a teacher.
To compound the problem, since this region is new to the city, the government is not requiring taxes to be paid yet by the residents. While this seems like a gift, along with this "benevolence" come the government´s refusal to provide the district a sewage system or a garbage collection service. This school is covered in garbage that, unless burned in a huge open pile around the kids work areas, remains there for weeks.
So Narges, Marisol, and I are going to try to turn this school into what the villages outside the city have created, nicely called "model schools." These schools receive adequate education for hygiene (both for adults and children in the neighborhoods), and have latrines, places for garbage disposal, and competitions between classrooms over progressive hygiene and education goals. We will attempt to turn this school around, or at least lay the groundwork for future volunteers and interns.
This project began this week. I made my way over to the corner of no return, the place of the outhouses. I dug new latrines for a few hours. I did not finish in one day of course, given that the dirt is largely just rock layers, but I planned to return the next day. Well, some of the "tierra de caca," as my director jokingly called it, got in my mouth. Gross, i know. I arrived for work the next day, turned around, and spent the rest of the day either in bed or the bathroom. Gotta love it.
Well, since my director wont let me dig latrines anymore, tomorrow I will begin digging two enormous holes, one for organic and one for inorganic wastes. These are the methods of disposing of trash used in the countryside in absense of a governmental system. So they will no be able to collect and burn safely their trash, far from the places of learning or play.
These are the immediate plans; however, have I mentioned that the US continually has troops in Ayacucho? Let me tell you. Ayacucho loves that....false. I can´t go to work on Tuesday or Wednesday because their are nation-wide strikes against North-American economic policies in Peru, and the US troops in Peru. They are here doing what, at least on the surface, is humanitarian work. But the rumors are running wild. There will be riots for two days all across Peru. I will likely be staying inside for those few days. They are not violent toward tourist ever, but burning tires and tear gas dont make for a great olfactory experience either way. So instead, I will be using these two days to plan out the rest of our project. We are trying to find city officials to work with and also the best way to conduct our Public Health Survey that we need in order to know the most pertinent needs in Santa Alena. So, that´s where I think my next week will take me.
Sorry again that I went missing in Peru. I´ll try to do better with communication. Email me!
Happy Fourth, everyone! It was majorly uneventful here. haha, hope you guys save me some typical US food. Love you all, or all y´all. Keep in touch.
js
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Jan Deagon
non-member comment
Hang in there
John, I enjoyed reading this entry. You are doing such great work. Sounds rough sometimes, but it also sounds like you are accomplishing alot. Also, the travelling sounds really cool! I am so proud of you and love you lots!