Fiestas Patrias, Pachamama and We Still Took 11,000 Photos!

Stairway to Heaven

Potatoes for breakfast

Cusco Sunset

Stars and Stripes in Cusco

Artsy Alley

Should be spelled Q'ollority... very enthusiastic doubling up the consonants

Apiculture distributor

One of our Usual Suspects... giving us a very large berth!

Fiesta en el mercado

Meeting of the minds

Pachamama confetti

We decided not to travel on Sunday because Monday and Tuesday were holidays for “Fiestas Patrias.” This is the Peruvian celebration of their independence from the Spaniards. We were surprised that the week leading up to the holiday was full of the usual marches and parades. July 24 is celebrated as Countryman’s day, July 28, is the commemoration of Peru's independence won by José de San Martín and July 29 honors the Armed Forces and the National Police of Peru. By Friday evening, Cusco was pretty dead as apparently everyone who can, travels for the four day holiday. There were no celebrations or parades in the main plaza on the 28th or the 29th. We understand that in Lima there are some celebrations, but nothing here. The celebration of Fiestas Patrias in Peru coincides with the winter vacation periods for the local schools as well as some businesses, so it was a quiet four days.

During the whole month of July, homes, office buildings, public and private institutions, schools, and restaurants display the national flag. It is obligatory and it is rare to see any of these places without a flag, they get fined if they don’t have the flag flying.

Since we stayed home and attended church nearby, we invited the Rhoades, and two sister missionary pairs for lunch on Sunday. We served roast beef and roasted veggies and the Rhoades brought some cut up tomatoes, cucumbers etc. We had a fun and relaxing afternoon and enjoyed our visitors.

Monday was a holiday so we didn’t work; we slept in a bit, did some things around the apartment and went to the cevicheria for a late lunch. We had a lot of fun. Before we left work on Friday, the guard, Jorge told us that he would be working on Tuesday so we could get into our office if we wanted to. We decided to go in and plow through some more books. The next big groups of books are all about the same size so we turned the camera so we could take two pages at a time. We are moving quickly along, and have a renewed energy to get this project completed.

Julie is teaching two more little boys English. They are the sons of the sisters that we buy our breakfast drinks and sandwiches from sometimes. The boys are Marvid (yes, with a d) 6 years old and his cousin Yahir who is five. They are so excited to learn, we’ll see how long the enthusiasm keeps up. Julie had a lot of fun working with them on Thursday and teaching the finger play “5 Little Monkeys,” among other things.

 

We  met with the director to give the archive another  terabyte disc of photos we have taken. We asked for an update on the internet in our building. He said, "You are not alone. The whole of the  department is without  internet and telephones." He went on to explain that the amount due appears to actually be about s./1,000,000. Each area is expected to come up with its own payment. As a result, we are at the total  mercy of the clash between the efficient telephone company and a bureaucracy that is in arrears. It does beg the  question, why the phone company waited for the  debt to become so extreme before reacting. So far we are working around the problem but don't know how it might affect our work. Despite this and the holidays, we managed to take more than 10,000 photos this week!

In a couple of comments on our last blog, we realized that we may have lacked a little clarity about some of the photos. While water is the universal solvent in our world, in Peru toilet paper is the universal napkin/handkerchief/washcloth/dishcloth/… At the very least everyone carries a wad and some pack their own full roll wherever they go. There is a chicken and egg question that doubtless, no one can actually answer. Certainly, it speaks volumes about cultural differences.

In our culture, when one goes to the bathroom, he/she checks to see that there IS a roll in the stall, while here, one finds where THE roll is located, estimates potential need and then packs along their stripped off paper with them. In more “rustic” settings, the aforementioned kits come into play. Using public bathrooms, there is an attendant who charges you for the privilege and distributes a set amount of toilet paper that also serves as towel for drying your hands after you wash up. Though hand dryers have come into vogue, most places use the more conventional approach.

In fact another Peru centric behavior that bears mentioning relates to this. It is the wet hand wave or wet hand shake. Most often, there is no paper of any sort in the bathrooms because they either ran out or never put any in there in the first place. Not so many years ago Peru suffered a devastating cholera outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people. Resulting from that and subsequent health campaigns, people wash their hands with a frequency that would have family members considering you for an intervention for obvious OCD behavior, in the United States.

Well, you see people walking in hallways, down streets or in bus stations, waving their hands to air dry them. Likewise, you will frequently get offered a wrist or even elbow for a handshake because of the lack of success at air-drying.

Another question that arose from the last blog had to do with the Christmas decorations left up since last December. We were questioned about our leaping to conclusions and maybe this might be just good planning for the upcoming Christmas season. For starters, this is Peru, well, really, for starters and enders I suppose. We usually consider ourselves lucky to get hours of notice to attend a meeting or a dinner. The concept of planning ahead is simply rare in Peru. So, we could be wrong but the final nail in the coffin is that we walk by that window every day and we have seen the painting since it went up last Christmas.

August is the “Mes de la Pachamama” (Pacha is Quechua for earth and so this is the month to pay mother earth.) Rituals to honor Pachamama take place all year, but are especially abundant in August, right before the sowing season. Because August is the coldest month of the winter season in the southern Andes, people feel more vulnerable to illness at this time. August is therefore regarded as a “tricky month.” During this time of mischief, the Andean people believe that they must be on very good terms with nature in order to keep themselves and their crops and livestock healthy and protected. In order to do this, families perform cleansing rituals by burning plants, wood and other items in order to scare evil spirits who are thought to be more abundant at this time. People also drink a tea called mate which is thought to give good luck.

On the night before August 1, families prepare to honor Pachamama by cooking all night. The host of the gathering then makes a hole in the ground. If the soil comes out nicely, this means that it will be a good year. If it does not, then the year will not be bountiful. Before any of the guests are allowed to eat, the host must first give a plate of food to Pachamama. Food that was left aside is poured onto the ground and a prayer to Pachamama is recited. They also sprinkle yellow confetti around the outside of their homes or businesses to protect them from evil or mischievous spirits. Consequently, there is yellow confetti everywhere on the sidewalks and inside the doors of restaurants, businesses and homes.