Holidays, Marches and Quechua

We really enjoyed staying put in Cusco last weekend and loved listening to the LDS General Conference. We attended all but one of the sessions at church so we heard it in Spanish. After the morning session on Sunday the rain and hail hit with a vengeance so we stayed home and were able to watch the last session in English on the computer.  We are always a little sad when it’s over but have enjoyed listening to the talks again as we work in the archives.

Monday and Tuesday were holidays remembering the Battle of Angamos.  Here’s a little history lesson: The Battle of Angamos was fought on October 8, 1879, during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific. The Chilean Navy, commanded by Captain Galvarino Riveros and Captain Juan Jose Latorre surrounded and captured the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar, commanded by Rear Admiral Miguel Grau Seminario, who died heroically in combat. After the battle, the crippled Peruvian Navy was unable to prevent the invasion of its territory. The decisive victory at Angamos allowed the Chilean Army to freely decide the course of action to attack the Allies, and the land invasion of Peru and Bolivia began.

Peru and Bolivia still have hard feelings over this battle, especially Bolivia because the Chileans took their seaport and they are now land-locked and one of the poorest countries in South America because of it.  Every city in Peru has a Miguel Grau street, statue or park. The days were marked with parades, speeches and lots of happy, legitimately truant, school kids roaming the streets.  Since we couldn’t work, we relaxed, enjoyed walking around town and tried to ignore the constant barrage of firecrackers!

There is usually something interesting going on in the “Plaza de Armas,” the big central plaza in Cusco. It has two big catholic churches and is very pretty.  The Plaza has changed a bit since we were here five years ago. There is now a Starbucks, McDonald’s and KFC! Happily, they are housed in beautiful old colonial buildings so they are not obtrusive in any way to the Plaza.  We go to Starbuck’s to download books on our Nooks because they have Wi-Fi and really good hot chocolate. We haven’t been to McDonald’s or KFC because the Peruvian food is SO MUCH BETTER! The police now prohibit any car that is over 5 years old from entering the Plaza. They want to keep it nice looking for the tourists.  That really eliminates a huge number of cars around the Plaza, so you can actually cross the streets and walk without too much fear for your life. Pedestrians technically have the right-of-way, but no one, not even the police obey that law. You really have to be on your toes when you cross the streets and of course no one uses turn signals so it’s a total guessing game when there is traffic coming in all directions! It’s always an adventure when we go out!

Along with Aymara and a host of indigenous jungle  languages, Peru has two recognized, official languages: Spanish and Quechua. Quechua is a spoken language and therefore spelling of it engenders a kind of linguistic schizophrenia and much debate. Further, the Quechua spoken in Cusco is different from that spoken in Huaraz, which differs from that spoken in Ayacucho, which differs from that spoken in Ecuador and that from Bolivia etc. The word for water is Onu or Unu in some areas and Yaku in others, for  example. Anyway, Cusqueños figure that theirs is the only true language and the same goes for those in Quito, Ecuador, both of these being the two capitals of the Inca Empire. You get the picture. We have seen Cusco spelled: Cuzco, Qosco, Quosco, Qusoqo, Cusco and so on. The other day, we noticed that the  street name Huayna Ccapac, on street signs, spelled three different ways in two blocks, revealing older to newest iterations of the spelling. Small wonder tourists cluster around with maps trying to find their way to their various destinations.


Another little history lesson - Cusco was founded about 1100 AD and the Inca ruled from the 13th century to about 1532 AD. A lot of the buildings are from that era and are literally trying to fall down. There are wooden posts propping up walls all over town and we try to avoid them whenever possible! We have also found many streets to avoid in an earthquake because of the precarious rock walls that line them.

Cusco is also very hilly so we walk up or down regardless of where we are going. San Francisco has nothing on this place… We walk every morning up to the center and into another plaza then make our way to the steps on Amargura Street (Bitterness). The steps are killer but Julie is feeling much better about her ascent as the school kids go slowly and are out of breath at the top too! We’re both getting faster and it is a definite feeling of accomplishment when we reach the top!


Little girls with halos and wings marching in the plaza

What do you think is wrong with this picture?

This menu stands outside of a little restaurant that we do not frequent. We thought you might enjoy seeing a few delicacies not commonly found in North American breakfast menus.
From top to somewhere around the middle we read:
Canchino Flavor
Offers
Sheep's Head Soup (Sheep is understood)
in the mornings

• Tongue
• Eye
• Ear
• Hoof
• Stomach

Breakfasts
 

Choclo con Queso - Yum!



Many Cusquenos like to dress their dogs up in little jackets  and sweat suits on brisk mornings.

Dog with tusks in camo

Peruvians have the practice of referring to the half-liter sized soft drinks as, “Personal,” drinks. As a result the latest Coca Cola campaign has taken advantage of this expression, putting personal names on each of their full-test Cokes. We liked this in honor of our eldest daughter.

School Kids on their way to school up the Amargura road steps

Wanchaq fruit market

Also, though we have mentioned this before, we include the photo of Aywamanto fruit complete with their little husks for those interested in such things. They taste a little like cherry flavored cranberries with the little seeds inside.

Previously mentioned car names...

Tourist fashion sense?

Izcuchaca On Our Own...

Last Sunday was an adventurous day for us. We left our apartment about 7am and took a taxi to the “Arco Pata Terminal” in the Santiago district of Cusco. “Terminal” is used very loosely since it was a side street with some small station wagons parked along it. We found our ride to Izucuchaca there. There was someone already in the front seat of the car and a campesino women sitting in the middle of the back seat. Rich sat on one side of her and Julie on the other. Then the driver opened the back of the car and two more people climbed in, sitting, facing out the back of the wagon. We were off in less than 5 minutes. Of course the seatbelts didn’t work, so we hung on and were grateful for our prayers we said before we left.  We climbed over the mountains out of Cusco and down the other side to Izcuchaca, about 30 minutes away.  The driver dropped us off at the plaza and had about 30 minutes to enjoy the activities going on around us and to feel the luscious Cusqueño sun on us. It was great!

We were in Izcuchaca for a leadership training session before Sacrament Meeting. We were supposed to begin at 9am, but finally got started at 9:15am with the missionaries assigned there, the Primary President and two newly baptized women who didn’t have a calling yet. About 9:30am the Relief Society President arrived and at 9:45 the Family Group President showed up. In the end we had a great meeting but it sure is frustrating to get people where they need to be on time! The regular Sunday meetings were wonderful and we enjoyed our time with the members.

To get home we had to walk to the third streetlight on the main street and somewhere along there we would hear drivers calling out “Cusco!” We never did hear anyone shouting anything and finally Rich asked a man inside a garage where to find the cars back to Cusco. The man said, “Right here, but there are no more cars!” His car was full so he took off. Happily, seconds later, another car pulled in and we jumped in to claim our seats! Four more people joined us and we arrived back in Cusco at the “terminal” safe, and somewhat sound, in a downpour.  Just another Sunday here!
Tuesday while Julie was working in the Government Building she heard continuous whistles and shouting.  The big metal gates were all closed and locked to prevent anyone from entering and as she watched from behind the safety of the gates, the guard told her that the medical workers were marching and protesting again. They want better pay and working conditions. They have been on strike off and on since we arrived in July.
On Thursday, there was another march with shouting, whistles and locked gates. This time, it was the illegal miners protesting that the government wants them to pay taxes!  The NGO efforts to limit mining have succeeded in driving out many of the “Evil Foreign Companies.” Previously these companies have paid a huge bond to reclaim disturbed lands that they mined off of, should they fail to do it themselves. They paid large royalties, under Peruvian and international laws. They paid for the land they mined from either in outright purchases or with royalties to the land owners and hired most of their labor from the local people paying legal taxes all supervised by the Peruvian government.
Their ouster has opened the way for local miners to get out there and mine the easy to get to mineral, mostly in the Amazon Basin where they use hydraulic mining methods to wash gold from the muds. This destabilizes the banks and washes huge volumes of the jungle away. They also use mercury to get at the gold contaminating these waters. They are completely uncontrolled and, they protest the government’s efforts to tax their ill-gotten gains.  Sorry for the soapbox..
We saw one fail this week. The windshield of a taxi bore the words “Jesus Diving.” We suspect that it meant, “Driving,” but it still lacked sense unless the driver’s name was Jesus, but then, who cares? Speaking of drivers, we were in a taxi that got rear ended at a complete stop on our way to the opening session of General Conference. We felt badly for the driver, a nice kid with a nice new car filled with stuffed Shar Pei doggies. He was obviously dismayed and we had to get out and find another taxi while he did battle with the truck driver.


Julie has begun walking up to work with me and then goes home to get ready for work in the mornings. We are finally really adjusted to the altitude and manage our six or seven miles a day and feel better for it. One of the cool things is wandering around the streets with the array of strange Quechua names. There is Wayrurupata (Quechua for "the place where they grew wayruru potatoes.") There is a lane called Qhoña (meaning mucus) but our favorite this week is Amargura (Bitterness), just look at the stairs we climbed!

Since we realized it is autumn at home and we are missing the green chili crop, we began reflecting upon some of the things we miss. Huge jars of peanut butter and chewing gum are among the chief absences. Oh, and we miss New Mexican cuisine and barbecue. However, we fully realize that when we were in the states we missed the fruit (granadilla,(passion fruit), chirimoya, sauco, aywamanto, figs, papaya, etc.) and vegetables that we have come to love here. We missed Peruvain Yogurt, the best in the world. We missed the huge brazil nuts and the choclo con queso. In all, it is a pretty straight trade.
We make new friends and meet old ones and we are thrilled to be in the capital of the Inca Empire, every day. We are blessed to have plenty to do and we are having more fun than we think we ought to. We get to feeling a little bit guilty from time to time. If you are wondering whether or not you should go on a mission, just do it!

Not exactly a Fail, just a mystifying title... Lord of Earthquakes Savings and Loan!

Locutorio - By the minute cell phone rental lady...

Eggs, Bacon, fried Banana, Peruvian Olives and Sauco Jam on Toast for breakfast! Yum!

All Girl Marching Band

Elderly Woman near the main plaza

Leche de Pantera, (Panther's Milk) Ceviche of Black Scallops Juice

Mandarinas, Granadilla (open), Chirimoya (on the bottom) and Lucuma

Chirimoya, also called custard fruit

Earthquake, Strike and Cebiche!

Sunday in Curahuasi was warm and lovely. Julie ended up not teaching her Relief Society lesson she had prepared because they had a meeting with everyone on a lesson from the Ensign. She was pretty relaxed as we moved into another room for Sacrament Meeting. She was preparing the electric keyboard to play the hymns for the meeting when the Branch President asked if she would give a 10 minute talk! She had an opening hymn and Sacrament hymn to panic through, her mind racing furiously, what to speak about in Spanish for 10 min?!! As the Sacrament hymn finished she remembered that she had her I Pad with her. As she quickly opened it, HALLEUJAH! There were some talks in Spanish! A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR DAUGHTER MARIA AND HER SPANISH EXPERTISE! She had translated some of Julie’s talks into Spanish so another foreign language disaster was averted. We just have to always be prepared with a lesson, and now obviously, a talk, every time we attend a church meeting in Peru! Julie is hoping her sanity will survive the never ending unknown factor that occurs every Sunday.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Liliana Sullasi was going on a mission and we heard back from her. She is a young woman from Espinar whose mother named a baby after our two sons. So there is a young man today in Arequipa with the reasonably cumbersome name, even for Peru of, Glen William Sullasi Huisa… Anyway, Liliana is going to the Lima Norte mission. This is news more directly aimed at family who knew the Sullasi Huisa family.

We had a pretty calm week until Wednesday. Julie was at home working on the computer about 11:40am when she suddenly felt dizzy. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her, but it passed quickly and then seconds later it happened again. She noticed the tall, red gladiolas swaying in the vase, and the clotheslines in the hallway swinging back and forth and realized …Earthquake! She jumped up ready to dash out the door when it stopped.  The 7.0 quake hit due west of Cusco, on the coast of Peru near a town called Acari. There was damage there and to some adobe homes in the Arequipa area. Fortunately, it appears that it wasn’t totally devastating.  It was felt as far north as Lima and south in to Chile. Rich was working in the basement of the government building and didn’t feel a thing! He felt left out of all the “excitement.”

On Thursday, a country-wide strike against the cost of living, the airport here in Cusco, the price of coca leaves, the weather….and anything else that was bothering people, stopped things up in Cusco. The schools were closed; there were no buses and just a few brave taxi drivers working. Most of the businesses were closed or semi-closed. The semi-closed businesses only had their little doorway open. You have to bend over to get inside. They had their big metal doors/gates shut in case things got nasty on the streets. There were some streets with big boulders and garbage strewn across them and the police had their big bus out ready to haul the riot police where ever needed. The government building where we work was semi-opened, so could continue our project. While we worked we could hear the drums pounding and people chanting as group after group marched past our building. It appears that things remained relatively calm this time. When we arrived here in July, the government building had broken windows, and dried egg had run down the windows that weren’t broken. The results of a strike that wasn’t so peaceful.  Just a few weeks ago they finally replaced the windows and cleaned up the mess. We ran across numerous little sales on the street including the ice cream vendors selling things at a reduced rate on account of the strike. Anything to make a few extra soles.

There must be some “strike rule” because at 3pm, the streets were filled with taxis again and life was back to normal more or less, with more drunks on the street than usual, and a complete party atmosphere in the air! On our way back to the office, after our lunch outing, we were accosted by drunk strikers. They shook our hands when we said New Mexico, “Ah, ya… Yo soy Mexico!” (Oh, yeah… I am Mexico… ) one of them slurred and then introduced himself as Garcia, we are not sure what he meant by any of this but, then, neither was he... They shook our hands and slapped our backs.

Many vehicles in Peru boast labels. We have included a photo of one such car that carries the mysterious slogan “Jo Fear…” Many of these carry dedications to saints “Guíame Señor de Chapi” etc. One day we saw a tiny car that bore the slogan emblazoned across its tiny rear window, “Veloz Como El Viento Y Poderoso Como El Mar!” (Fast As The Wind And Powerful As The Sea!) We could not help but smile.

Of late we have been watching the construction of a six story apartment building. We walk by it every day. It is a pretty snappy looking apartment building and the men are working on the construction at the top. They have a uniquely terrifying system of lifting timbers and rebar to the top. They have a boom with a pulley and a cable connected to two heavy steel buckets, one on each end. When they want to haul the 5 meter (15 feet) long by about 1½” thick re-bars to the top, they tie them to the bottom bucket and let the top bucket drop. Then they grab the bars at the top and drag them to where they do their work. They haul up about five each time. They have no one preventing people from passing beneath the suspended loads. No worker uses a hard hat or a safety harness on this site. Many wear tennis shoes… Suspended loads are one of the most common ways that industrial workers end their careers violently, in the world.

One little neighborhood detail that we have neglected to mention is the fruit cart. A lady and a man make the rounds several times during the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. They have a very garbled speaker system through which they announce their passing. It pretty much defies identification of any recognizable words. We recognize the voices and in a certain Pavlovian way, have come to understand that that series of sounds means fruit.

Rich got into a taxi with a young fellow who started asking about us. We always talk with the taxi drivers about our family, time in Peru, our mission and activities here. Anyway, when he told this kid we have seven grandchildren, he said, “Well, how old are you?” Then, to Rich’s response of fifty-eight, he said, “Well, you are very well conserved.” That, oh so Peruvian phrase, always makes us feel a bit like a jar of Smuckers…

It hailed like crazy on Saturday afternoon and then it poured down rain. It looks as though the rains have started and our dog pack continues to be a source of entertainment.

Cebiche Chef for the school kids



Only tried to bite Rich once



Partial Pack Stalking the Fruit Cart

Sort of closed on account of the strike

"Just in case" police bus

Marching, chanting, whistle blowing, strikers

Clarification of "the" menu... NOT! 



"Jo Fear"

 

Proto Saya Dancers

Dangling Huge Re-bar

Fruit Cart

The Bus Terminal

Wheel Barrow Fruit Cart

Ice Cream Vendor

The  Flower  Market

Julie with her flowers in front of Q'ori Cancha

Mixed Seafood

Cebiche

Trash, Fails and Protests

 All of Peru had a stake conference broadcast last Sunday for the 100 stakes and all of the districts. It went off without a hitch. We heard from Elders Scott and Bednar, Sister Reeves, and Elder Godoy of the Seventy.  It was wonderful to hear from them, sadly as far as we can tell, none of the members from Izcuchaca or Curahuasi made the trip to a chapel where they could hear the broadcast. It is always a struggle here, but we are hopeful.

In the archives, we had a busy week and took 5062 images with some miserable books. As we looked over the shelves we realized that we have some really sad books coming up. They are a mess and will test our patience for sure!

Garbage pick-up is always an interesting event around here. The garbage truck comes every other day or every day, more or less and sometimes even on Sunday. We are sure there is a schedule, but it’s Peru and schedules are not always followed. (Understatement) We always know when the garbage truck is coming however, because a man runs ahead clanging an iron triangle, it’s extremely loud and that’s your warning to get you garbage out quick. They don’t have big cans that you roll out; people usually put their garbage in plastic grocery bags.

If you do get it out a little early, by the time the “triangle man” comes around it has been picked through by women looking for anything  that they can sell, i.e. Used glass and plastic bottles and bits of wire, etc. The dog packs are hot on the heels of the women and they spread the garbage out even more, attempting to wrest toothsome bits of rotting chicken flesh or bones...

The men on the garbage truck pick up what's left. They hang a big gunnysack on the back of the truck and load in crushable stuff. They then roll the truck tires over the sacks when full to compact bottles and cartons.  

Following behind them, a woman with a big plastic garbage can, broom and dustpan, sweeps up the bits of eggshells, bones, papers, fruit peels etc. spread around by the dogs and scavengers. It is quite the effort to keep the streets somewhat clean. By ten in the morning, it is all pretty clean. In all, there are about seven or eight people working per truck.

Scavenger and rubbish pile

Part of the pack, somewhat distracted from the garbage leavings by one of the more attractive pack members.

Part of the trash crew

The archives where we work are right across the street from a huge school. There are hundreds of students dressed in light blue uniforms that hit the streets when school is out about 1pm. The sidewalks are lined with dozens of food vendors selling everything from chocolate covered bananas, mashed potatoes shaped around a hard-boiled egg then deep fried, candy, ice cream, sandwiches, quail eggs and even ceviche. It is quite the sight and you really don’t want to be out on the sidewalk at this time as it is nearly impossible to maneuver through the starving, adolescent throngs!

We went to a Picanteria, a popular Peruvian style restaurant and Rich had roasted cuy, (guinea pig) and Julie roast pork. There are photos from the restaurant that actually caters to Peruvian tourists. The menu turned out to be well translated but, shall we say, interesting? Read it carefully.

While Rich was working this week, he heard whistles and banging drums in the street. Upon investigating, he saw that the mass was a large demonstration. Some of the folks from the government building had gathered and he asked them what it was all about.

“These are people who live under the take-off area of the airport and they are protesting the flights departing after 8pm,” responds the transportation director.

“Oh, I thought that you were planning on building a new airport up near Chincheros. Won’t that take care of the noise problem?” Rich asked.

The transportation director said, “Oh, no! They are protesting that as well. They don’t want us to build a new, better equipped airport up there because it would be too far away… “Too far, remains un-quantified and unexplained.

It would be very interesting to know how much the time spent in planning and organizing strikes, might actually improve things if it were directed to some productive activity. There were two protests/strikes this week alone. The other one was the coca growers protesting the government’s failure to jack their prices up…

We travelled to Curahuasi on Saturday to make a presentation to the leaders there. When we arrived, the wind had been howling and rain had begun to fall. We fairly despaired.We went to the chapel though and the weather cleared up and the lights came back on. We held the meeting and it went well. But, since only the branch presidency showed up, Julie did not get to make her presentation. She was deflated – NOT!

We went to find our local hotel room, only to be disappointed by the fact that the parking garage was full and we would have to leave the car we had rented on the street. We asked how far to Abancay, our driver told us, an hour. It took us an hour and a half. There we found a room but it was not as good as the one we would have had in Curahuasi. We were so wiped out, that we did not care.

We found a few more fails so peruse the photos carefully.


Picanteria Menu

Gunea pig, potatoes and Chuñu (freeze dried potatoes)

Flirtatious dancer

 

"Safety Ladder" fail, see if you can guess

A $20US box of KitKat bars, don't worry, we didn't buy it...

Product name fail...

Artsy B/W photo

Artsy photo 2