Hi friends & family!
First of all let me tell you that I figured out a way for you to see my (*Jessīs*) fotos! To date, aside from my blano y negro fotos from Zapallal, all the others have been from our digicam and I havenīt been able to share the fotos from my nice plastic holga camera and my 35mm. Well, necessity does breed invention, and I realized that by setting our digicam on macro, I can take a photo of my contact sheets and then post fotos of my fotos! YAY! So as soon as we get the software downloaded onto one of these Puquian computadoras, you can except some new fotos from moi pronto!
Anyhoo, Mike and I are settled in Puquio, and other than the unrelenting c-c-c-cold, itīs quite a charming little town. *Okay, the last couple days have been a little warmer, and believe it or not, I had a scalding hot solar shower two days in a row!*
Being in Puquio has been so far the biggest change from Edmonton. It is a really tiny isolated town, with no newspapers, no billboards, no Peruvian franchises nevermind American, and one good restaurant. There isnīt even a supermarket, only sporatic tiny corner stores, and a really nice but small veggie/fruit market that daily lines the sides of a narrow dirt street. A couple days ago, while shopping for dinner ingredients, a man on a pedal bike with a big cart welded to the front passed through the market, his cart full of various cow parts; huge rib cage, legs, etc etc. Here you share the road as often with cows (dead or alive), sheep, donkeys, and llamas as with cars. Everything is walking distance, and the town is surrounded by a strangely beautiful landscape of rugged hills with huge rocks reaching up into the sky.
We have made a few friends here in Puquio, a lady who works at a corner store I befriended while buying some wool. *Yes, itīs cold enough here to wear scarf, mitts and touque every night!* And when we were looking for the post office the guy we asked directions from not only told us where it is, but walked us there, took us out for lunch, and invited us over for a movie! All the while engaging us in almost perfect english.
And yesterday, when we actually went to the post office, the man who runs it was in the middle of partying with his friends and family next door. Of course we got pulled into a small sweaty living room where a harp and violin were being played while drunk women danced, shriekded, and sang along in quechua. We were served chicha and cerveza, forced to crazy dance with numerous intoxicated women, while an old even more intoxicated women made a sort of swooping motion with an empty pop bottle towards everyones private parts while laughing hysterically! Not sure if she was just being goofy or if the gesture maybe had some good luck superstition or something! It was really bizarre, and really funny!
So far our duties with Manos Libres have been small. In fact, we are the only two here from the NGO representing in Puquio, while the others are in Lima planning the workshops that will take place in Puquio in Setiembre. Our first mission was to collect drawings by kids from different schools, which are being entered in a contest out of Mexico. So yesterday I went to one of the schools and took fotos while the kids were drawing. It was really cute, although I didnīt realize until after, a little embarassing too! You see, I am still learning espaņol of course, and I got my verbs mixed up. So instead of saying " I am here to take your photo for Manos Libres", I was actually saying to 6 classrooms of kids " I am here to touch your photo for Mano Libres". That must be why the kids just sort of looked at me confused... ! And I thought the strange looks were because of my accent!
However, they havenīt held it against me because as Mike and I were walking through the streets later that day, a group of four kids *too our surprise* called my name and then followed us around as we shipped their drawings for the contest off to Lima. Then again! This morning the same three; Daisy, Fanny and Danny, came to visit us so we shared our pancakes. And we also shared dance styles; Danny asked how Canadians dance and I think only my parents (and Mike who witnessed my dance demo)would fully understand when I say that most Canadians would not want me to represent how Canadians dance!
Well, the next two days we are attending workshops by another NGO called Amares, and in the meantime we have various duties like planning a soccer tournament and finding an artist who can help us with some murals we will be painting with the kids in the middle of Setiembre. (Funding for the murals coincidentally from the Edmonton organization Change for Children!) Then in the late teens of Setiembre I am off to Hualhaus to spend a week polishing up my weaving skills! We will write soon,
Love Jess
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