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