viernes, octubre 27, 2006
miércoles, octubre 25, 2006
A small victory.
Well last night before I was headed off for another night in at church I herd the sounds of guitar cords being strummed. Normally I don’t pay any attention to it and just keep on doing what I am doing. But this time it was a bit different. Instead of a hymn song I herd the rhythm of a song that I recognized.
I put down my book and walked upstairs towards the sounds of this oh so sweet song. I walk in the kitchen and he was playing Santana. So I am humming the beat of the song, and he surprised to know I knew the song.
There we were walking down the street and he went down a list of musicians that enjoys listing to. From Pink Floyd, The rolling Stones, Neil Young, CCR, Buffalo Springfield, to the Bee Gees. But the two that I thought were funny for him to mention were Guns ‘n Roses and Cat Stevens.
But we made a deal. He can listen to all the music he wants, if he teaches me how to play the songs on the guitar.
Next I am going to push for less time in a church pew.
I put down my book and walked upstairs towards the sounds of this oh so sweet song. I walk in the kitchen and he was playing Santana. So I am humming the beat of the song, and he surprised to know I knew the song.
There we were walking down the street and he went down a list of musicians that enjoys listing to. From Pink Floyd, The rolling Stones, Neil Young, CCR, Buffalo Springfield, to the Bee Gees. But the two that I thought were funny for him to mention were Guns ‘n Roses and Cat Stevens.
But we made a deal. He can listen to all the music he wants, if he teaches me how to play the songs on the guitar.
Next I am going to push for less time in a church pew.
viernes, octubre 20, 2006
Humility
My time in Peru has taught me much about humility, but yesterday I think I finally hit my peak and now just don’t care when I am perceived as a complete idiot. Wednesday, in the afternoon I was told that we were going to have a human rights workshop for about 40 youth in and around Huancavelica.
Sounds great.
Then I was told to research human rights online.
Ok. Where do I find this information?
Google (as if there were any other place).
Ok, which human rights and from where, Peru, international…?
Just do a summary of human rights.
Ok…. Thinking that there are quite a few.
So I went down stairs to the office with internet access and started researching human rights. If you type in ‘human rights’ and ‘Peru’ in the search bar of Google you will receive hundreds of thousands of pages dealing with the terrorism years between 1980 and 2000. That’s when it first hit me that a gringo from the US should not be researching this topic for them. So I stuck to the good ol’ UN’s website where they lay out 30 fundamental human rights. I returned up stairs an told my co-workers that I had some pretty good information concerning human rights. Then I asked what they wanted me to do with it. Apparently that was a dumb question.
You’re going to present it tomorrow for the youth.
Haha, I don’t think I can do that.
Why not?
Because I have a hard enough time talking to you guys in Spanish, how am I supposed to do a presentation in from of 40 youth over the topic of human rights?
(Laughing) Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
Shit!
Now keep in mind that the night before the same co-workers and I had a language class. I taught a little English, and they tried to help me with Spanish. Seeing that they were not going to be much help on the grammar of Spanish (How many of us know the grammar of English?) I decided to ask them for some verbs that I should learn.
They thought for a minuet…. ‘’Comer’’ – to eat
Then some one else chimed in with ‘’Hablar’’ – to speak
My head hit the table.
Now how is it that the same people who thought I didn’t know the words in Spanish for ‘’to eat’’ and ‘’to speak’’ are asking me to do a 20 min presentation on international human rights?
After fighting them, I realized that I was going to do the presentation the next day whether I wanted to or not. So I created a presentation which I could pretty much just read of the slides, say thanks and sit down. Of course I had to practice this many times because there are big words in the realm of human rights.
The next morning they asked me how the presentation was.
Short.
Well make sure you just don’t read the slides, you need to expand.
I have done many presentations before and I agree completely but, you really don’t understand, I don’t have the language in Spanish to expand on Human rights.
(laughing, again) You’ll be fine.
Damn it!
So I sat down and expanded a bit on my notes, hating everything.
The workshop was supposed to start at 8:30am. So in typical Peruvian fashion everyone started showing up at 10:30am. I was told to go ahead and give my presentation while we waited on the rest of the youth and presenters to show up.
Sweet, there were only 6 youth in the room. I got up gave my presentation, we talked for a minuet, I said thanks and sat down feeling pretty good.
Finally about 40 youth showed up and the rest of the presenters. A woman stood up and gave a very detailed description of her organization in Huancavelica that works for legal representation of human rights. I was feeling pretty good that I had gone before her, when they announced that the next presentation would be me.
Son of a Bitch!
Reluctantly I got up and started my presentation. Now imagine trying to tell 40 youth, who have worked to earn money for their family since they were probably 8 years old, that the UN says they have a right to a paid vacation. This concept made many laugh out loud. After a few questions during my presentation I suggested that we wait till I finished to discuss the rights. At the end I repeated that they should not think of these rights as laws, (because many are not in Peru, or the US) but rather a guideline for which they should be working towards.
Questions? (as my heart leaped to my throat)
Of course there were questions, and in Peru when some one has a question it can sometimes be longer than the presentation.
First question: You’re up here talking about UN human rights, but didn’t your country invade Iraq, against the will of the UN? (It was a solid 3 min question, but I think that was the gist of it)
$%@&!
That’s a great question, for which I have no answer. I stumbled to tried and explain the faults of my country, but I realized by some confused faces that I should try again. I then tried to explain that we are all in the struggle for human right together.
Question two was prefaced by ‘’you don’t speak much Spanish do you?’’
Thanks for pointing that out.
After a few more questions I sat down, relieved it was over and hating every, single one of my co-workers.
I’m afraid after a year I’m going to be like the 40 year old dad who embarrasses his kids by wearing the really goofy hat and shorts because it makes him comfortable and he really just doesn’t care anymore.
- Dave
Sounds great.
Then I was told to research human rights online.
Ok. Where do I find this information?
Google (as if there were any other place).
Ok, which human rights and from where, Peru, international…?
Just do a summary of human rights.
Ok…. Thinking that there are quite a few.
So I went down stairs to the office with internet access and started researching human rights. If you type in ‘human rights’ and ‘Peru’ in the search bar of Google you will receive hundreds of thousands of pages dealing with the terrorism years between 1980 and 2000. That’s when it first hit me that a gringo from the US should not be researching this topic for them. So I stuck to the good ol’ UN’s website where they lay out 30 fundamental human rights. I returned up stairs an told my co-workers that I had some pretty good information concerning human rights. Then I asked what they wanted me to do with it. Apparently that was a dumb question.
You’re going to present it tomorrow for the youth.
Haha, I don’t think I can do that.
Why not?
Because I have a hard enough time talking to you guys in Spanish, how am I supposed to do a presentation in from of 40 youth over the topic of human rights?
(Laughing) Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
Shit!
Now keep in mind that the night before the same co-workers and I had a language class. I taught a little English, and they tried to help me with Spanish. Seeing that they were not going to be much help on the grammar of Spanish (How many of us know the grammar of English?) I decided to ask them for some verbs that I should learn.
They thought for a minuet…. ‘’Comer’’ – to eat
Then some one else chimed in with ‘’Hablar’’ – to speak
My head hit the table.
Now how is it that the same people who thought I didn’t know the words in Spanish for ‘’to eat’’ and ‘’to speak’’ are asking me to do a 20 min presentation on international human rights?
After fighting them, I realized that I was going to do the presentation the next day whether I wanted to or not. So I created a presentation which I could pretty much just read of the slides, say thanks and sit down. Of course I had to practice this many times because there are big words in the realm of human rights.
The next morning they asked me how the presentation was.
Short.
Well make sure you just don’t read the slides, you need to expand.
I have done many presentations before and I agree completely but, you really don’t understand, I don’t have the language in Spanish to expand on Human rights.
(laughing, again) You’ll be fine.
Damn it!
So I sat down and expanded a bit on my notes, hating everything.
The workshop was supposed to start at 8:30am. So in typical Peruvian fashion everyone started showing up at 10:30am. I was told to go ahead and give my presentation while we waited on the rest of the youth and presenters to show up.
Sweet, there were only 6 youth in the room. I got up gave my presentation, we talked for a minuet, I said thanks and sat down feeling pretty good.
Finally about 40 youth showed up and the rest of the presenters. A woman stood up and gave a very detailed description of her organization in Huancavelica that works for legal representation of human rights. I was feeling pretty good that I had gone before her, when they announced that the next presentation would be me.
Son of a Bitch!
Reluctantly I got up and started my presentation. Now imagine trying to tell 40 youth, who have worked to earn money for their family since they were probably 8 years old, that the UN says they have a right to a paid vacation. This concept made many laugh out loud. After a few questions during my presentation I suggested that we wait till I finished to discuss the rights. At the end I repeated that they should not think of these rights as laws, (because many are not in Peru, or the US) but rather a guideline for which they should be working towards.
Questions? (as my heart leaped to my throat)
Of course there were questions, and in Peru when some one has a question it can sometimes be longer than the presentation.
First question: You’re up here talking about UN human rights, but didn’t your country invade Iraq, against the will of the UN? (It was a solid 3 min question, but I think that was the gist of it)
$%@&!
That’s a great question, for which I have no answer. I stumbled to tried and explain the faults of my country, but I realized by some confused faces that I should try again. I then tried to explain that we are all in the struggle for human right together.
Question two was prefaced by ‘’you don’t speak much Spanish do you?’’
Thanks for pointing that out.
After a few more questions I sat down, relieved it was over and hating every, single one of my co-workers.
I’m afraid after a year I’m going to be like the 40 year old dad who embarrasses his kids by wearing the really goofy hat and shorts because it makes him comfortable and he really just doesn’t care anymore.
- Dave
miércoles, octubre 18, 2006
Work...
So today, I learned that I was expected to edit six hours of footage down to an 8-minute video... and it's all in Spanish! Woo! (For those who are interested, it's a meeting they had at Paz for/about indigenous peoples...)
Returning from Huancayo
Why is it when you are trying to find a beer in a city it can not be found?
I don’t get it. I’m in a country that calls the Quarter Ponders “Royals” and apparently know less about Mexicans then we do because their “Mexicana” burger is a burger with nacho cheese Doritos on it.
You can buy beer from a Bembo’s, which is the Peruvian equivalent of McDonalds, though they are here too.
You can buy beer at KFC, and Pizza Hut, and if you really want to go big you can get wine there too. They have liquor mixed in with their ice cream, you can also get a shot on the side or many, if you so desire. Grandpa has his morning oatmeal with a glass of pineapple juice and rum.,,
But there are three of us mindlessly wondering the streets of Huancayo in search of a nice frothy beer, and non to be found. Why is that?
Well it might have been just as well because I was stepping on another seven hour bus ride to Huanta. Yes the same unpaved road. Oh the joy of this bus trip.
What a delightful bus ride it was too. I took the 8:30pm bus to Huanta because I wanted to get there as late in the morning as possible. But about three hours into the rid my bus pass the 8:00pm bus.
There I was in the middle of a bus race, on the edge of a cliff with the other bus honking it’s horn and flashing it’s lights for the next four hours.
I was sitting there trying to drown out the sound of the high revving motor of the bus I was in listening to Neil Young’s Harvest album as I looked out the window and saw a valley and river about a thousand feet below and had those thoughts once again.
“I’m going to plummet to my death tonight on some remote cliff in Peru”
I pulled into Huanta at 4:30 in the morning as I was listening to Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusher Man.” It was one of those stops were the bus stops for two minutes and if you are not off in that time you are riding another hour to the next town.
The bus was already in motion as I stepped off of it.
Walking through Huanta at four thirty in the morning is very interesting. As I walk through the town with a duffle bag full of a weeks worth of smelly clothes, that I was so looking forward of wash them by had that afternoon. And my backpack, containing my lap top.
Good morning six foot gravel pile blocking the road. Good morning prison. Good morning prison guard in the tower above me with his gun following my every move. Good morning, two guys in a pick up and the four others in the back that is now coming to a stop in front of me.
I throw on that sense that I so well developed during my stay in Lima. It’s kind of like the Spider Sense of Spiderman but instead of receiving bad vibes, it sends them. I began sending out vibes like, but not limited too; I’m going to gouge your eyes out, and break all your limbs in one swift move. Or the look of; don’t fuck with me look, that I think I might have perfected during my stay here in Peru. Because those guys decided that they would be better off driving away then messing with this very agitated Green-go.
Once I got to my room I hit my bed with a thud.
I don’t get it. I’m in a country that calls the Quarter Ponders “Royals” and apparently know less about Mexicans then we do because their “Mexicana” burger is a burger with nacho cheese Doritos on it.
You can buy beer from a Bembo’s, which is the Peruvian equivalent of McDonalds, though they are here too.
You can buy beer at KFC, and Pizza Hut, and if you really want to go big you can get wine there too. They have liquor mixed in with their ice cream, you can also get a shot on the side or many, if you so desire. Grandpa has his morning oatmeal with a glass of pineapple juice and rum.,,
But there are three of us mindlessly wondering the streets of Huancayo in search of a nice frothy beer, and non to be found. Why is that?
Well it might have been just as well because I was stepping on another seven hour bus ride to Huanta. Yes the same unpaved road. Oh the joy of this bus trip.
What a delightful bus ride it was too. I took the 8:30pm bus to Huanta because I wanted to get there as late in the morning as possible. But about three hours into the rid my bus pass the 8:00pm bus.
There I was in the middle of a bus race, on the edge of a cliff with the other bus honking it’s horn and flashing it’s lights for the next four hours.
I was sitting there trying to drown out the sound of the high revving motor of the bus I was in listening to Neil Young’s Harvest album as I looked out the window and saw a valley and river about a thousand feet below and had those thoughts once again.
“I’m going to plummet to my death tonight on some remote cliff in Peru”
I pulled into Huanta at 4:30 in the morning as I was listening to Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusher Man.” It was one of those stops were the bus stops for two minutes and if you are not off in that time you are riding another hour to the next town.
The bus was already in motion as I stepped off of it.
Walking through Huanta at four thirty in the morning is very interesting. As I walk through the town with a duffle bag full of a weeks worth of smelly clothes, that I was so looking forward of wash them by had that afternoon. And my backpack, containing my lap top.
Good morning six foot gravel pile blocking the road. Good morning prison. Good morning prison guard in the tower above me with his gun following my every move. Good morning, two guys in a pick up and the four others in the back that is now coming to a stop in front of me.
I throw on that sense that I so well developed during my stay in Lima. It’s kind of like the Spider Sense of Spiderman but instead of receiving bad vibes, it sends them. I began sending out vibes like, but not limited too; I’m going to gouge your eyes out, and break all your limbs in one swift move. Or the look of; don’t fuck with me look, that I think I might have perfected during my stay here in Peru. Because those guys decided that they would be better off driving away then messing with this very agitated Green-go.
Once I got to my room I hit my bed with a thud.
lunes, octubre 16, 2006
Warning...
So apparently if anything goes wrong while Hunter and Ruth are in Brasil, I am your contact. So, I'm asking you all for a favor: please do not get anything stolen, bitten by a dog or llama or fierce jungle bat, catch TB or thing of that sort, fall off of anything high or rapidly moving, or hit by a car. But, if you do, please let me know as soon as possible. I miss you guys already and am looking forward to Thanksgiving!
sábado, octubre 14, 2006
Just So You Know...
I learned a few days ago that, in Peru, teachers "take" exams and students "give" them--the reverse of what we say. This is what my host sister tells me. It hurt my head.
viernes, octubre 13, 2006
¡Bienvenidos!
Welcome to the official blog of the 2006-2007 Peru Young Adult Volunteers! Surely, many adventures will unfold among the archives of this blog, and we're happy to have you along for the ride.
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