Mountains Beyond Mountains

July 9-10, 2011

So I have the app “Overdrive” downloaded on my Iphone. It allows me to check out books from my library in Grand Haven while I am in South America. I am currently rereading Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book is so powerful. Paul Farmer has sacrificed so much and has made such a difference in the world it blows me away. He seems to emphasize the distribution of wealth and how so many problems could be solved by allocating resources to the poor. He uses impeccable research along with personal stories of triumphs over disease. I am riveted once again and suggest this book for anyone reading this blog.

I wondered what this motorcycle trip might do to me. Even though I am still in the beginning stages of the trip working for Rustic, I am becoming more and more sensitive to the plight of the poor. It is definitely a subject that I need to do a better job of self-education. I wish I had taken more classes in college about social justice and poverty.

I posted an article written by Nicholas Kristof for the New York Times a while back on my Facebook. Essentially it talked about how the trend in America is starting to reflect how many developing countries operate. The wealthy grow wealthier by passing tax breaks and cutting public services. As the separation grows, they send their children to private schools, hire personal security, buy generators, and leave the masses to themselves. I most certainly am not trying to start some sort of political discussion, but am I seeing a version of this in Peru? No transportation for kids to go to school means girls’ education ends at grade 5. Corrupt men can easily manipulate the system to gain more land and wealth. Teachers are paid so little they often don’t even show up. These are things I have seen so far, I wonder what else I will discover here. This clearly isn’t a very well thought out paragraph, but these are the thoughts running through my head as I grapple with the differences between our current village, old village, the Sacred Valley Project, and my own town in Michigan.

On a lighter note, Saturday night Carlos and I played guitar together. We have the same taste in music and it was really fun. He is teaching me a few Spanish songs which I am pretty excited about. It reminds me of the days back in high school when Marcus, Justin, and I used to play guitar.

I also showed The Girl Effect video last night. The two girls from Michigan came into our tent to ask more questions and see how they could get more involved!!! Awesome, maybe together we can educate the next generation of young women and create some positive change in the world.

This (Sunday) morning we created a couple long lines passing roof tiles to the houses spread throughout the village. I am reminded of all the times on Interact trips when we formed long lines passing supplies or bricks from one place to another.

After that I helped Grace and Lauren finish the bricks at their house. We had a great talk about the dorm and girl’s education. They also are interested in getting more involved! I am so impressed with this group’s energy, togetherness, and willingness to learn everything they can from this culture, allowing it to expand their worldview to include the people of the Sacred Valley.

I finished Mountains Beyond Mountains this afternoon. Here are a few quotes that struck me.

#1 Paul calls white liberals (this includes people of all races, it is just his way of grouping them) WL’s. He says, “I love WL’s, love ‘em to death. They’re on our side. But WL’s think all the world’s problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don’t believe that. There’s a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It’s what separates us from roaches.”

I can’t say I understand fully Paul’s meaning here, just that I can relate to the sacrifice part. I am here to try and actually do something about an issue of education I feel strongly about. I don’t mean to compare myself to Paul, I only am comparing myself to my own life and how I feel that I need to sacrifice certain things to help who I can.

#2 Paul makes this comment after being asked about the fact the he spent $20,000 on a young child to bring him to the US in order to try and save him from cancer. He ended up dying a few weeks after arriving. Some people questioned this use of money. “I have fought the long defeat and brought other people on to fight the long defeat, and I’m not going to stop because we keep losing. Now I actually think sometimes we may win. I don’t dislike victory.”

I needed to hear Paul say this and it somehow makes me feel way better inside. I often quote the starfish story and explain how much I hate it. Paul’s quote helps me. The starfish story goes something like this: “A man was walking on the beach during low tide. He saw someone in the distance lean over, grab a starfish, and throw it into the ocean. The person continued to do this over and over as he approached. He asked the stranger what he was doing. The stranger explained that the sun beating down was killing the starfish stranded on the shore. But the man argued, there are thousands of starfish here, you will never make a difference. The stranger then reached down, grabbed a starfish and threw it back. He replied, I just made a difference for that one.” This story drives me crazy because all I can think about are the other 999 starfish dying on the beach. But that is the long defeat I suppose. I assume Haiti is beyond repair, but his hospital is an oasis of little victories that inspires me. Maybe I should worry less about all the people I can’t help, and more about the tiny few I can.

#3 This quote I read to the students last night. Paul ended a lecture with this simple quote from a woman in Cange, “You want to stop HIV in women? Give them jobs.”

This one fits perfectly into the message of the Girl Effect.

In the afternoon we played a couple soccer games against the locals. We lost but only by one goal again. Our girls (Katie and Maddie) were amazing, and Sam had a couple awesome headers. It was fun.

Tomorrow is our day off and a badly needed shower. I can’t wait to head back to Huilloc and do the incredible mountain bike followed by river rafting.

Stark Contrasts

July 8, 2011

Friday morning the kids were up early. Raul got up to lead a run at 6:30! We have a lot of athletes on this trip and they want to stay in shape. Very impressive. After breakfast we met our families. Each student introduced his/her self and each father introduced himself, wife, and family. I cracked the same lame joke I always do, since every man here my age already has a wife and at least three kids. I said, “My name is John, I am 35 years old, and my wife is my motorcycle.” It gets a laugh every time.

The houses are very close together which is great for me and Molly. Last session one house was a 30 minute walk, now the furthest house is 15 minutes max. But the contrast is so profound that we talked about it all day and we are still dealing with it. In the last village, everyone wore traditional clothing, lived in meager single houses, and were very poor. There was no electricity, cell phone service, or any luxuries of any kind. Potatoes were the only thing that grew at that altitude, and the land was not very fit for grazing. There were no roads, and the people said that no one ever climbed up to help them before.

Palomar: A metal plow?

Here, every single house has a bathroom!!! The city built them for each household 4 years ago. The houses are separate from the kitchens, and most homes have a garage-like area too. The houses have plaster on the sides, and have electricity too. One family picked up the students in a van!!! It is the wealthiest village I have ever worked with. Even the abode bricks were the double-wide ones that the wealthier families use.

We are framing this project in our minds to understand that the guinea pigs are still making a difference for these people. Even comparing this village to the other one, there is a lot of need.

The scenery here is once again stunning. We are completely surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Tonight the moonlight is reflecting off the snow caps and is so amazing. I think I will do alright living here for five more months.

Beautiful Scenery

Group #2, Bad News, and Palomar

July 5-7, 2011

About an hour after we said goodbye to our first group, the second group came through immigration. I almost missed them due to constant trips to the bathroom, I am still having stomach issues. Good times. We had two international students that came in on earlier flights, Carlos from Madrid, and Asmita from India. The other 16 came in and we headed out to the bus and our first night hotel in Lima. There are two girls from Detroit as well, good to see Michigan represented!

On the way out of the airport, I got a very interesting phone call. It was Gabe (my boss) telling me that we were switching guides at the last minute. Instead of Max, Allen’s twin brother, we are now going to have Raul as our guide. He has always led the mountain biking and river rafting portions of our trip, but is now going to do everything. He is a great guy and working with him will be interesting. His English isn’t so good, so I also get to use way more Spanish, this is great for me.

Wednesday we got up and flew back to Cusco. I had laundry waiting for me that I dropped off the previous day, and Molly and I grabbed our packs from the hotel. I did discover that I lost a black stuff sack with two pairs of Smartwool socks, long underwear, regular underwear, and a winter hat. Not cool, everything I packed had a specific purpose for Rustic and the motorcycle trip. But whatever, I will try to replace it. Good news though, on the way to lunch we ran into Allen. He had amazing news. He just proposed to his girlfriend the previous night!!!!! Allen is engaged! I know the kids from the first group will freak out to hear that.

After lunch it was off to Pisac. It is such beautiful city and the hotel is so nice. We had a good evening and the sun was actually out. It was the first time in a week we had seen it. We interviewed the students and took our last shower for a while. Asmita told me how she studied Pisac specifically in one of her classes. They talked about the negative impacts of tourism. The city depends entirely on its extensive market. The market contains so many beautiful items and is great to see, but apparently people have stopped farming and working in order to take advantage of the opportunities to sell to the dozens of tourist filled busses.

Thursday morning we hit the famous market and then headed off to lunch at Urubamba. We didn’t meet the mayor because it was the 100^th anniversary of Machu Picchu to the day. The authorities had the day off. Alex met up with us at lunch. He is the president of the Sacred Valley Project and had dire news. The city lost the lawsuit and the dorm is going to be leveled. It is a good portrait of how corruption works. The man is highly connected and has done this many times before. He pays off police forces, lawyers, and judges in order to win lawsuits, and builds hotels. Apparently he is dangerous enough that I shouldn’t even write about him here. The education of young, indigenous women matters nothing to him. Worst case scenario they have to be out in five days and the project will be cancelled for the remainder of the year. If that happens, I am not sure what I will do, but I will worry about that later. Best case scenario, they are allowed to stay until the end of the school year and will start building the new dorm on the land promised by the mayor of Urubamba. When I get details I may start asking my community at home to start raising funds to help with this cost. At least with the new dorm they will have their own title and no one will be able to take it away.

At lunch, I had the best conversation with Carlos, the student from Madrid. It turns out he has hiked El Camino de Santiago twice! He made me promise that I will finish what I started someday, as I have only hiked it from Pamplona to Burgos. He also has a trip planned to bike from Madrid to Paris. He talked about a Spaniard he knew who did a long distance motorcycle trip and I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about my trip. He is definitely a student after my own heart and we talked a lot about stories of great travelers. I also borrowed Walden from him and hopefully will finish it during this trip. During the bus ride to our village, he pulled out his guitar and started playing. Song after song he played were ones I had in my set when I used to play at coffee shops. It was great and made me miss playing, hopefully I will have more time after Rustic is done.

We then reached our new village, Palomar. The people greeted us with music, flowers, and confetti. I love these greetings we get at each new village, and our campsite is awesome. We are on a very nice soccer field with an amazing view of the mountains around us. And we have a bathroom!!!! Yes. We played soccer with the local kids, had tea and dinner, and went off to sleep in our tents. We are only at 9,300 feet so it is much warmer. That is a nice break for Molly and myself.

Welcome to Palomar

Tomorrow we meet the families and get to work on building the galpones.

Machu Picchu and Goodbye

July 3-5, 2011

The famous ruins lie around 1200 feet above the town. There are two ways to get to the top, hike up the Incan stairs or take a bus. The main reason to take the stairs is to get to the top quickly and wait in line at the entrance. Why would you want to do that? Next to Machu Picchu (Old Mountain) lies another small mountain 1000 feet higher up that overlooks Machu Picchu. This mountain is called Wayna Picchu (Young Mountain). On top of this mountain is another city with a breathtaking view and incredible drop-offs. The Peruvian government is concerned about too much tourist traffic there and only the first 400 people in line each day are allowed to climb up it. You have to get up pretty early to make it in the top 400.

The day started with rain and intense cloud cover. We assumed (rightly so) that the very early rise and intense hike to see Wayna Picchu would be a wasted effort due to cloud cover so we slept in and took a bus to the top. Even though there were clouds obscuring parts of the ruins, it was still amazing. Pictures just don’t even come close to revealing the beauty of the city in the clouds. There are endless terraces, buildings, and temples. It seems like there are millions of stones that have been cut and carefully placed to create what is considered to be the home of Pachacuteq (the great Inca). Often times we joke that aliens are the only ones who could have built it. This was my fifth time visiting Machu Picchu and it still hasn’t gotten old.

Ben and I

We did hike up to the Sun Gate after our tour. The Sun Gate is almost as elevated as Wayna Picchu but on the opposite side of the city. It is on the Inca Trail and is built at the pass connecting two mountain ranges. It is normally quite a spectacular view, but we still enjoyed hiking on the well-built stone road that was the main thoroughfare hundreds of years ago.

After the ruins we headed back for lunch and caught the train back to Ollantaytambo. Sunday evening was our trip to the dorm!! We bought pizza and brought it there to share with the girls. They were very shy at first but after introductions and a tour around the facility the girls opened up and our students had a great time. We also delivered the donations, and used the dry erase markers right away on the special tables where they can be used. It was a great night. The Rustic students also were so moved by the dorm they started donating money right from their wallets! I am so impressed and thankful for those donations.

Monday was supposed to be bungee jump day, but the facility was still running safety checks and does not operate in the rain. So instead we drove to Cusco and took care of business there. We started at the great cathedral in the main plaza. It is insane. It is so big that mass can be said at five different places at once. There are endless statues, paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, and altars. Wow. We learned about how the Spanish forced Catholicism on the Andean people and it was interesting to see how the native religion meshed with the Catholic traditions. My favorite painting is the one depicting the Last Supper except all the disciples are eating guinea pig!

We had lunch at an Indian restaurant then headed off to several markets. We started at the San Pedro market, which is a huge local market. Families can buy everything they need there. The meat aisle is my favorite because every part of an animal is available, including heads, intestines, tongues, hooves, etc. We also had the famous old woman there skin some frogs for us. Which means of course we headed to the fruit smoothie aisles to enjoy a little Espiritu de Rana (Sprit of the Frog). The woman mixes up an amazing fruit smoothie and blends the frog right in it with everything else. I feel a little jumpier today.

After that we went to the Artisan Market where they have endless rows of souvenirs. Then it was off to Fusiones, a fancy restaurant where we eat our final dinner. We dressed up and the food was amazing.

Tuesday morning we visited the famous Cusco ruins, Saqswuaywoman. This is the enormous Sun Temple overlooking the city. Holy crap. The stones are the size of small cars and fit exactly together. I’ve seen stone work like this before, but only on a small scale. There are three full levels of these massive stones. How the Incans built this I have no idea. There are also natural slides made out of stone coming out of the side of the mountain. We slid down those, and then walked through a dark cave maze. It was a great experience that I have never done before with a group.

After Chinese food for lunch, we said goodbye to Allen our amazing guide and headed off to the airport. In Lima, we had the traditional Papa John’s pizza dinner and loaded the students on their flight home.

Yes, there were a few tears. We had a great group and thinking back at our adventures I can’t help but laugh. We had a great time. I miss them a lot already.

Rustic is an interesting company to work for. With my students in Grand Haven, the end of the school year doesn’t mean much. I know I will see them again next year or when they come back to visit from college. At YMCA Storer Camps or Special Days, there was always a chance of seeing them at reunions or even visiting at another time. But with Rustic kids, I will probably never see any of them ever again. They are scattered all over the country and world; the likelihood of crossing paths is just very small. It is hard on me meeting such interesting students and then parting forever. I just hope I see their names on the news someday doing great things and learning lessons from the experiences here.

Rainy Season???

July 1-2, 2011

The rain continued all day Friday. It just poured and poured. Many people in Peru are blaming Global Warming. Winter (April through September) here means the dry season, and summer is the rainy season. Rain during July is unheard of so people associate higher global temperatures as a cause of the crazy amounts of rain that has fallen over the past two days.

Friday afternoon we had a photo scavenger hunt and the $2-a-day project. The $2-a-day project was started by Elyse last year even though I got credit for it in the staff manual. One-half of the world’s population lives on $2 each day or less. So we broke the kids into groups of two and gave them $4 worth of Soles (12). I got a list of items the girls needed at the dorm from Elena and broke up the items amongst the groups. Their job was to buy as much as they could with the money they had. They had to bargain and search around town for the items. When they all came back we had a reflection. We had each group tell the story about how they found the items (sometimes these get pretty crazy) and line them up according to how important they would be for the family they worked with over the two weeks. Each group could change the order if they wanted.

The order was simple, food items first, hygiene in the middle, and school supplies last. We talked about the order and then I explained how the families would never make it past hygiene because then the food would run out and they would have to replace it. The families never made it down to the end of the table where the school supplies were. That is the point of the galpones. The guinea pigs were not going to make anyone rich, but allow families to move further down the line and be able to buy things for their children that they otherwise would not have been able to. It was a good lesson and many of the students took pictures of the items on the table. I can’t wait to give them to the girls on Sunday night.

Donations: Right to Left

Friday night is a special meal called pachamanka. It is basically an Earth oven where several types of potatoes, chicken, lamb, beans, and bananas are cooked. This meal is amazing!! But the students didn’t get to see it made because it was raining so hard. We did eat it at Allen’s house though, and they loved meeting his family. It was a good night.

Saturday morning several artisans came in to teach the students how to sew the souvenir dolls they see for sale around town. Haha!! It was pretty difficult but they took their best shot and they didn’t turn out too bad. I used the time to sew up my old tattered Chaco sandals. Then we boarded the train to Aguas Calientes, the city below Machu Picchu. Tomorrow is the big day where they get to see one of the Wonders of the World. Aguas is a strange city created solely for tourists. It is covered with souvenir stands and restaurants.

Sewing dolls: Alex was an expert

After arriving in Aguas, I took the group to the other side of the river where the local people live. We got to watch a soccer match on the new soccer field. We all bought the standard food, anti-cucho de Corazon (cow heart). I then got my usual haircut at the place right next to the field. Dinner then followed with a good buffet and a pretty cool pan flute band. We danced a little but kind of embarrassed ourselves. The whole time I couldn’t wait for my favorite all time Aguas activity, Peruvian Butt Sliding. Last summer we saw little kids who took empty 2-liter bottles and slid on them down the steep sidewalk. So we started doing it and of course the students had a blast. Many people stopped to watch and take pictures. We finished the night doing Karaoke. Once again, I don’t think we impressed anyone, but Barbie Girl was definitely a highlight.

Now, we are ready to get up tomorrow and see the famous ruins.

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

July 1, 2011

All night Thursday I heard rain pouring down from inside the tent. I kept checking to see if it was leaking in since I knew the tents weren’t used to having to fend off rain, but it seemed to be working so I didn’t get too upset. Toward the morning, I heard one or two kids walking to the bathroom and their feet were making the strangest noise. I just thought the ground was really soaked and it was the sound of mud.

I eventually opened the tent flap.

Really?

Really.

Today is July 1st and I woke up to 4 inches of snow and slush on the ground. I just had to laugh. I leave my hometown which is one of the most beautiful summer resort towns in the world (Grand Haven, MI ) to wake up to snow?!? NOT FAIR!! I can’t wait until December when they are freezing and I am basking in the glory of hot weather all the time. I woke up the rest of the kids who hadn’t seen it yet and we had a great time taking pictures.

Aubrey, myself, and Elenor

But the fun didn’t last long. We had to pack in freezing weather, and all our feet were wet and cold. The families came to say goodbye and all we wanted to do was start hiking down the mountain. This is normally a very emotional time and one of the most important of the trip. Instead, we just wanted to get out of there. I felt so bad because traditionally we buy some of the weavings and homemade items from the mothers of the families we worked with. They started to lay out all their things and we told them to put them away. Everyone had packed up everything already, including their money and we were so cold we couldn’t focus on anything. It was still pouring down sleet and snow, and we started the decent. Some villagers carried our big packs and we struggled down the slippery mud and slush carrying our day packs. It was amazing to watch these men carry 80 lbs of packs down an icy mountain wearing sandals made out of tires.

Harrowing Decent

By the time we got to the bottom, we were much warmer. It was still pouring rain but at least we weren’t so cold. Gabe called me on the bus ride into town with the best news ever. We got a hotel for the night instead of going to the final campsite. Yes. So here we are in Ollantaytambo with a hot shower and warm bed, even though most of what we own is soaking wet.

Finshing Up

June 28-30, 2011

Tuesday morning was back to the campsite. Being sick, it was a rough 800 foot hike. Once I got there I headed straight for the bathroom then tent. I repeated that all day. So basically I missed out on everything Tuesday. The group went to the local kindergarten in the morning and had a blast. A highlight was the entire school (20+ kids) versus the two Alex’s in tug of war. It was a draw. The work in the afternoon was cleaning the bamboo stalks and attaching them to the roof beams.

Wednesday was the final day to finish the galpones. I started the morning going to the highest house with Aubrey and Larry. The elevation there is 12,796 feet. We cleaned bamboo, talked with the family, and took pictures with Natalia, the little girl who lived there. After a while, another family stopped by to help. They had a little boy who was blind. I wondered if his blindness was something that could have been avoided if he had received proper medical attention at the time it happened.

This reminds me, I have my GPS with me since I am learning how to use it for the motorcycle trip. I have the waypoints for several spots that anyone could probably look up on google to see exactly where we are.

Our campsite: S 13.20848 W 072.19336 12,440 feet

Larry and Aubry’s house: S 13.20925 W 072.18987 12,796 feet

Lower Huilloc: S 13.20335 W 072.20247 11,669 feet

Wednesday morning Alex was feeling really bad. Molly took him down the mountain and into the clinic in Urubamba. I didn’t realize what an ordeal this would be until later. In the afternoon, I worked at Emma and Maya’s house since they both weren’t feeling so well. It was hard work hauling endless amounts of baro (mud) and tejas (roofing tiles). The weather also started to turn as it got pretty cold, rained some, and actually started hailing several times.

That evening Maya was feeling terrible with severe stomach cramps. Nothing we were doing was helping so I made the call to take her in. We hiked down the mountain which took about 30 minutes, then had to wait for a taxi for another 30 minutes. Then it was an hour taxi ride to Ollantaytambo where Molly was waiting to take her another 30 minutes to the clinic. We are really in a remote village!! So I took Alex (who was feeling better) to a hotel in Ollantaytambo. It was really nice to have a bed and warmth for a night, and we even ate at the Blue Puppy (a restaurant we ate at way too many times last summer…).

Thursday was inauguration day! That is the day where we present the families with the guinea pigs and have a celebration. So we went back up the mountain with Molly, Maya, Alex (both doing much better), Max, Gabe (my boss), Mo (another Rustic guide) and all the guinea pigs for the families. This time, I finally got to ride a horse to the top. Whoa. I honestly thought I was going to kill that thing. It was so steep, rocky, treacherous, and slippery. But the horse made it, and in retrospect it was a fun little adventure.

Larry, Aubrey, Kris, and Natalia

We first dressed up in traditional clothes so we looked just like all the people we had been working with. We also did the traditional dance where the guys whip each other with rope. Alex got the best shot on me, but it didn’t hurt too badly. After that, I went with Maya and Emma to their house since I knew their family the best. We presented the guinea pigs, broke the pot of cheecha, and put the bull statues on the top of the structure. The whole time it was pouring down rain. But we hung out in their house and burned cow chips to stay warm (they didn’t smell too bad).

Breaking the Cheecha Pot

Emma placing the Guinea Pigs with Gito and Edgar

Finshed Galpone with Bull Protectors on Top

Then it was back down to camp for the big dinner. We had guinea pig, chicken, rice, potatoes, tortillas, and a bean salad. The food was good, and it was fun to share the meal with all of our families. Several kids from the kindergarten class also performed the Goose dance for us, it was really cool to see the traditional dance. Earlier in the week we actually bought books written in Quechua that told the history of the dance to donate to the kids.

After the Dance

After dinner we had a huge soccer game with all the guys from the village. The field was very wet and I went down in a puddle. It was fun, but we were so cold and wet all we wanted to do was get into a tent, play cards, and warm up. Emma went down with the rest of the crew because she was still not feeling better. Little did she know how happy she would be to do that…

The weather is one thing that has been totally different this summer. I expected it to be colder at the high elevation, but all the rain is very unusual for this time of year. In 8 weeks last summer, it rained once for about 20 minutes. It has already been two days of lots of rain so far. It apparently never rains during this season, so it is definitely strange.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our families and head to another campsite. I will be sad to go. One thing I like about this village is that it is so remote organizations never come up to help them with anything. I am proud of the kids for putting up with the long hikes in order to help them out.