Witch doctors, hexes, weird tales and pork...

Julie with Sister Oscarson

Little girl we see all the time

Little girl we see all the time

Little girl we see all the time

Sugar roses and the artist

Hanging outside of the local market

Hanging outside of the local market

Hanging outside of the local market

Just a little too tiny

All the popcorn in the world

Our little buddy

All lined up

Little dancin' man

Cool rockk we had not noticed before

Construction and dog

T'antawawa

Lunch room girls

Mama waitress

We have learned his name is "Oso", meaning, "bear"

A big heap of pigs

Roasted pigs

Rich's painting "Bodegón Andino" 45cm x 60cm oil on canvas

Monday was a busy, hectic day. The best part for Julie was that she was able to attend a meeting with Bonnie Oscarson, the Young Women General President of the church. The stake and ward Young Women Presidents were invited and Julie was able to sit in on this meeting.  It was extra special because Sthefania Agüero, the young woman from downstairs, translated for Sister Oscarson and Julie was there to give Sthefania some moral support. Sister Jean Stevens, First Counselor, Primary General Presidency was also here and spoke with the stake and ward Primary presidents. They are lovely, humble women and Julie was able to visit with them at some length about Peru and their visits to Puno and Arequipa. They were so excited to be in Peru and visit with the sisters here. They were also excited to visit Machu Picchu on Tuesday! It was a great day.

Tuesday was as our Preparation Day since we were traveling with the mission president last Saturday. We usually have Saturday as a preparation day since the archives are closed and we can’t work. We use our “P-day” for shopping, running errands, laundry, preparing talks and lessons and anything else that needs to get done.  Our Saturdays are going to be tied up now traveling to district conferences, so we’ll have to do things a little differently. 

Wednesday night we had Kati and Paul for dinner. Kati is the Agüeros daughter, Paul is her husband and they have an almost two year old, Matias. They are a young couple and we always enjoy visiting with them. We made “Sticky Fingers Pizza,” and had mint brownies for dessert. They finally left at midnight, and we dropped into bed. 

On Thursday we spent all morning running around trying to get papers notarized to help get our resident visas renewed. What a headache! The first two notary offices we went to were open, but neither notary was in. We finally remembered that we knew the Gaona family from Espinar and they have a notary office here in Cusco. We were able to get our papers signed and finger printed and then we jumped in a taxi and dashed to the mission office, because they needed the papers. When we arrived, one of the young office missionaries said he was sorry, but we needed to get another paper legalized! He had forgotten to give it to Rich. Fortunately, there was a notary not too far from the church, so we dashed down and got these new papers stamped and put our fingerprints on them. After the hectic morning, we decided we deserved ceviche for lunch so we jumped in a taxi and went to our favorite ceviche restaurant.  We relaxed and enjoyed our afternoon. 

November 1st and 2nd are holidays in Peru.  In Peru, November 1 is celebrated nationally, but in Cuzco it’s known as Día de los Santos Vivos, or Day of the Living Saints and celebrated with food, particularly the famed suckling pig and tamales. The Andean emphasis is agricultural, since November 1 is in the spring time here. It is the time of returning rains and the re-flowering of the earth. The souls of the dead also return to reaffirm life.  During this time, the doors are opened to guests, who enter with clean hands and share in the traditional dishes, particularly the favorites of the deceased. Tables are filled with bread figurines called “t’antawawas.” These are usually in the shapes of wrapped up babies or horses. Sugarcane, chicha, candies and decorated pastries are all part of the festivities.  November 2 is considered the Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. At the cemeteries, the souls are greeted with more food, music, and prayers. Rather than a sad occasion, the Day of the Dead is a joyous, happy celebration.  

The plazas are full of vendors selling the t’antawawas and other sweets. Early Saturday morning, the “lechon” or roasted suckling pig will be for sell. It is delicious. Halloween has crept into some of the celebrations here, but it is not part of the Peruvian culture by any means. On Halloween night, all the kids dressed in costumes, go to the main plaza, parade around and go to all the stores around the plaza and get treats. Kind of like our “trunk or treats” in the states, but without any trunks!

On Monday, a friend of ours asked Rich, what phase the moon was in. When he asked her why, she told him that her uncle, something of a shaman, says that one should never wash clothes during the new moon since that makes the clothes wear out faster… This prompted us to do a little bit more investigating into some of the local and not so local beliefs and practices. Some were not so new, such as the prohibition against handing someone scissors or a knife. We learned this before and knew that it is supposed to spawn conflict and downright fights between the participants in the hand off.

However, we learned a few more such as:

One must never taste the soup with the big mixing spoon. Hygiene is not the reason, rather something to do with impacting prosperity.

When one boils potatoes, those that burst in the process must not be fed to small children since that will result in them marrying someone older.

One should not sweep at night; this will result in loss of blessings, wealth and other good stuff.

In the rural communities, store owners will not sell salt or needles at night. This also results in diminished wealth and in some cases, the outright loss of the business. The woman who told us this said that she even tried to borrow salt from a neighbor who told her that it was, “very dangerous,” to trade in salt at night. They wound up having to bust off chunks of a salt lick and grind it up to flavor the soup. I did not ask if the cow saliva was a benefit or detraction from the overall project.

We have seen folks washing the sidewalk in front of their stores every morning. We assumed that this was just to make it clean. Not! It turns out that this is done to get rid of any salt that may have been sprinkled there during the night by “enemies” seeking to wreck their businesses. It turns out that many sprinkle sugar around or just put it in the water since this attracts business.

Our friend told us that her uncle throws a red cloth over a mirror; face up, to clear up a cloudy sky and she says it works every time!

Of course, asking about these things opened a veritable flood gate. Another friend told us that her mother’s stroke resulted from a neighbor stealing some of the mother’s clothing and stashing it in the cemetery to kill her. This crime has never been resolved. 

Witchcraft is big juju here and she told us that to reverse someone’s curse on you, you can wear your underwear inside out and always carry a clove of garlic somewhere on yourself. When Rich asked how to tell if someone had hexed you, she said, “Just stick your left hand into your food. If you’re hexed, it will make the food foam. Clearly, you would not want to eat that food.”

Anyway, back to the curse on the family; she told us that their family property used to have a spring on it. Their spring was benefitted in some way by some witchy stuff a local curandero/shaman did for them. However, suddenly, about the time of her mother’s stroke, the spring dried up and the curandero died some sort of awful death (undisclosed), all evidence of a curse on the land. She said that further evidence of the spell lies in the fact that all of their animals die. Our friends mom then told her that a black woman appeared to her in a dream, the, “real Pachamama (mother earth).” The black woman told her that if she would bring home a mute and bury him/her alive in the yard, it would restore the spring. They would also discover a cache of Andean gold on their land, maybe while burying the poor mute… not sure about that part. 

We missed the link to this next one. The Soq’a is the name given to the evil spirit. Soq’a wayra is the bad wind that causes such things as Bell’s palsy and death in some cases. Anyway, it turns out that this Soq’a has been responsible for some women becoming pregnant in the mountain communities. These are not natural pregnancies and result in births of human beings of pure bone that turn to smoke as soon as they are born. The women in danger of these unconventional Soq’a pregnancies put a pair of men’s trousers or a knife under their beds to ward them off!

Halloween is not just one night a  year here…