Dec-Jan (Moyo-Lima-Huaraz-Huacachina-Lima-Moyo)

Blog:

It has been a while since I wrote my last blog.  For the most part a lot has happened.  I have spent my first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years away from home.  I have thrown up well above 17,000 feet while hiking a mountain.  I have also stayed in Lima for about 4 weeks attending forums and meetings. 

I honestly can say now that I really enjoy my time here in Moyobamba.  I have made friends and I have gotten to know my co-workers and my family better.  I have started to play a couple games at soccer each week.  We play every Saturday morning at 6:30am.  I have missed playing sports so I have enjoyed that a lot.  Even if I have to get up at 6:30 it is still worth it.  Although, I wish it was hockey because I am definitely the worst soccer player out there.  If I whiff less than two times on a one-timer, than that was a good game for me.

I have also fixed my coffee problem.  My friend showed me a coffee place here in Moyobamba.  The owner of the place, Jose, grows his own coffee than serves it at the café.  I can order mochas for 4 soles which is a little over a dollar.  It beats 12 soles for a mocha at star bucks.  I have gone there so much that now he will give me a cup for free, here and there.  That was actually my goal, to get a free cup of coffee.  Jose invited my host brother, Roberto, and I to go visit his coffee farm.  His farm was beautiful and very interesting.  

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

The farm also has this huge tree behind me.  Its about 50-60 m tall.  And has vines that hang down from the canopy.

He has a shade grown coffee farm so almost his whole entire café farm is covered by shade.  He has banana trees and mango trees along with the coffee.  Inside his family’s cabana, which is located next to the farm, there are a lot of guinea pigs running around on the floor.  And those are not pets.   

Jose is the second from the left.  The others are his brothers.  

One weekend I was invited by my co-worker, Ronald, to go visit a small church.  We took a cambi (which is a shared taxi) for about 2 hours and from there we had to hike to this small village.  This village had no electricity.  They had one water pump that everyone shares.  We stayed pretty much in a barn.  There were four of us total and and only two beds.  For some reason, Ronald didnt want to sleep with Luis so he squeezed in with his friend and I.  And if you know me well enough you know that I was not happy about that.  

A view from above. 

Luis on the Left. Ronald on the Right

However, the time there was special.  The people treated us very well.  Luis gave a couple of sermons to the village.  It was very interesting to see a small church to come together and give praise to God.  They worship very differently than what I am accustomed to but they have more energy and they seem to have more to give thanks and praise than what I have seen in the churches in the USA and even Moyobamba.  I felt honored to be able to witness something like that and it was also refreshing because it was a good reminder of what worship is suppose to be.    

Spending Christmas here was not hard for me at all.  Mostly because living in the jungle region of Moyobamba, well it’s hard to feel that it’s xmas time when it’s warm and sunny.  I definitely did not have a snowy xmas.   They also celebrate xmas very differently here.  The Sunday before xmas they did a sermon on the birth of Jesus, so instead of celebrating Jesus birth on xmas eve or on xmas they celebrate the Sunday before.  I did not know this before I attended the service so I was very confused why they were talking about the birth of Jesus a week before.  My host mom explained it to me later on. 

I also did not feel lonely being here during Christmas because it felt more like a mix between Thanksgiving and the 4^th of July.  At midnight, they shot off a bunch of fireworks throughout the whole city.  After all the fireworks, we ate a thanksgiving dinner, well almost, everything but gravy and biscuits.  In Peru, they also do not celebrate with gifts or anything like that.  Although the week before (host family and visitors), we all had a secrete Santa and that was it.

The day after Christmas I flew down to Lima.  I had to stay there a few nights to wait for Todd who came down to visit me.  It was almost surreal to have a friend down there or someone who I actually knew from outside Peru or outside my program.  The first few nights we stayed in Lima.  Lima is actually a pretty interesting city despite what most people say about it. 

We explored Lima for two days and the other day we went surfing just outside Lima, called Punta Hermosa.  To get there we had to take a few different buses, which was always kind of fun trying to figure out which bus we were actually suppose to take.  Once we got there, we found a board to rent and we went out in the cold water without wetsuits.  I only started to shiver after an hour and that is when I got out.  Todd enjoyed surfing; I enjoyed getting crushed by waves.  The waves did not seem too big from shore but they were pretty big once you got out there.  Every so often a really big wave would come out of know where.  With those waves I would either get crushed trying to escape them or trying to surf them so I usually tried to surf them.  I just usually prefer a little mental properness before trying to tackle a big wave. 

New Years at the hostel, World cup of futbal (Brasil, Argentina, USA, Puerto Rico, Chile)

Next Todd and I headed up to Huaraz, Peru because we wanted to see Cordillera Blanca/Andes Mountains.  The city of Huaraz is located in between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra.  It sits at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet.  We took a bus that left from Lima at 10pm and we arrived in Huaraz around 6am the following morning.  Our goal was to climb a mountain and from the little research that I did this is suppose to be the bad time of the year because of all the snow.  After we settled in a hostel we found a guide.  We were barely in Huaraz a full day before we started our climb.  We took a taxi along with our guide to Huascaran National Park and from there we started our hike with our backpacks.  Besides my boots and my hat I literally had to rent everything.  Since I live up in the jungle I didn’t have enough room to bring warm clothes.  It was a good thing that this hike was an all included package.

I have climbed about four 14,000eners in Colorado and I have never had a problem with altitude.  I started the hike pretty confident.  However, I never took the time to really properly convert meters into feet.  I wasn’t even thinking because when I contacted a couple tour agencies before I got there they told me that I would only be able to climb a 15,000 foot mountain.  That is only 1,000 ft taller than the other 4 I have climbed.  But it was a lot taller.  We attempted to climb Mount Vallunaraju, elevation of 18,650 ft.      

Base Camp

Anyways, Todd and I arrived at our base camp without any problems.  I am not sure what the altitude was at the base camp but I am sure it was at least 13,000 feet.  We set up camp than rested a little bit.  Todd and I were sharing a 2.5-liter water bottle.  Later when we got out of our tent I went to full up the water bottle.  But when I looked at our tablets we had to wait 3 hours for it to properly clean the water.  This was a problem because we were already a little dehydrated from the altitude.  By the time it would have been ready, we were planning on being asleep.  And when the water was ready it was too cold to drink.  I could not drink it fast; I had to sip it like it was hot water.  Neither of us drank enough water.  At this point Todd was starting to get a headache.  I was feeling good until dinner.  I was eating fine then my stomach just started to lose its appetite.  We both had some coca tea to help with the elevation.  We later started to chew it.  It didn’t help me either way. 

Later, we headed to bed but trying to sleep at 13,000 feet is difficult considering 2 nights ago we were sleeping at sea level.  Todd brought his sleeping beg which was not built for cold weather so he never really kept warm.  Neither of us slept for more than 20-30 minutes at a time.  Our guide came to wake us up at 1am and we were hiking by 1:30am.  It was fun trying to hike in the dark with just our headlamps to light the way.  We reached the snow in 30 minutes.  From there we put our spikes on, took out our ice axes and tied each other up to one another.  We had about 30 feet of rope between each of us.  The snow was deep at times.  And the mountain was plenty steep.  I would be walking nicely on top of the snow then all of a sudden I would sink down to my waste.  It became really difficult and frustrating when I tried to get out, I would take one leg out just to have it collapse through the snow again.   The worst part of the hike was that I never woke up.  All I wanted to do was take a nap on top of the snow. 

We were still able to smile after we hacked 

Todd was the one who seemed to be really hurting at first.  At times I was trying to keep up with the guide so that he would not pull me down.  The guide was leading, I was in the middle and Todd was the anchor.  At times when I tried to keep up with the guide and I would pull Todd down in the snow.  Todd at times seemed to be at the point of throwing up but he would get back up and continue.  I wasn’t feeling at all 100% but I never felt like throwing up but then all of a sudden it happened.  I was just hiking a long then all of a sudden I started to cough really hard then all my breakfast came out.  However, I did feel a little better after I got it out.  It was still dark at this time.  I threw up around 17,500 feet.  Less than an hour later Todd followed me.  I puked first but he puked more.

At this point, the sun was coming up.  We could finally see the mountains below us at this point it made it all worth it.  We could barely see the summit.  We continued to climb but we were both hurting a lot.  At one point Todd could only walk 10 meters or so before he would crouch down on his knees to rest.  Later Todd told me that I one point he looked up and everything was pink. I also, was not feeling great; I really had nothing left in the tank. The guide told me that we both pretty much had every symptom of altitude sickness.  So we both made the decision to turn around.  We didn’t make it but the views made it worth it and we are proud that we puked.

Day Hike after getting off the mountain

After Huaraz we went down to Huacachina to go sand boarding.  The place was an oasis in the desert.  It was a small town built around the sand board tourism.  It was a lot warmer than Huacachina.  We met a lot of fun people there that we hanged out with and sand boarded with.   We took a dune buggy tour that included the sand boarding.  The dune buggy drivers are crazy.  I was plenty scared for the first 10 minutes of the ride but just the ride alone made it worth it.  

The sand boards were made out of wood so I really didn’t try actually boarding down the dunes.  I rode it like a sled, which was fun because you pick up a lot of speed.  I did enjoy watching people who attempted to ride the boards like they were snow boarding.  They always crashed and the sand doesn’t have a lot of give to it. 

Todd and I parted ways for a few days.  I had to go back to Lima to start work up again and he wanted to go to Cuzco.  We both had a great vacation and we wish we had more time in Peru because there is so much to do down here.  Lima was enjoyable.  I didn’t love it but I liked how there was something always to do.  I went surfing a few times.  I found a place where I could watch hockey games.  I went to a live blues music concert with a couple of friends from Lima.  Apart from the ceviche that was my highlight of living in Lima.  I lived in a apartment so I had to cook my own food.  I thought I missed cooking but I was on a budget and I didn’t like having to prepare food when I was in a rush.  I would usually begin cooking at 8 or 9 because of work most of the times. 

However, I am back in Moyobama.  I didn’t realize how much I missed my host moms cooking until I was back.  There are a lot more different dishes here in Moyobamba and she cooks them all very well.  I am currently busy with work.  We are beginning the new year and there is a lot to do.  I will be working directly with the coffee farmers in the next few weeks.  I will be living with different coffee farmers for about a week at a time so until then I am planning out what are our goals and how we are going to reach them.  As in, how to help improve their harvest sustainably and once they do that how can we improve their leverage in the market. 

Over all I am very happy with my experience here.  I have a lot to thank God for.  For the opportunity that He gave me to work down here.  For the opportunity He gave me to learn a different language and to live in a different culture.  For a great host family.  For the great people I work every day.  And also for the support I have back home.  I am looking forward to my last 6 months here but I hope it doesn’t go by too fast. 

I hope everyone is doing well,

James

Moyobamba, Peru

Moyobamba, Peru

Nov. 7, 2010

In this entry I have to careful about what I say about my Spain friends.  They can understand enough words to put some sentences together but I will say they love ketchup and mayonnaise on almost everything.  It’s impressive.

Life in Moyobamba has been going very well so far.  There is not much that I can complain about.  Besides the same things like trying to find a good cup of coffee proves to be very difficult.  I have pretty much given up on enjoying a good beer.  The last time I had a beer, which was a month ago, I could hardly finish it because it was too sweet for me.  But there are some things here that I absolutely love.  Like Papa Rellena, they take a baked potato, mash it up, then they put it back into the form of a potato but before that they place meet and some seasoning in it.  Then after that they cover it with flower then they slightly fry the outside of it.  It is amazing.  There are plenty of other dishes and juices that I love here also. 

I enjoyed watching the World Series games here, in Spanish.  It made me feel not so far away from home.  And it is very difficult trying to explain the rules of baseball to my host brother.  But I think I got him hooked on baseball.  When I go back to Lima I am going to try and find a wiffle ball set so we can play baseball here.  I have been playing a little pool here but it’s a little different compared to the states.  The pockets here are a lot smaller so you really have to make a perfect shot.  There are hot springs here so we all go once in a while after a long day of work.  A couple of times I have been to some natural springs.  The water is fresh and cold, very pleasant on a hot day but the natural springs are about 30-40 minutes away.  I'm still waiting for my friend to bring me to the coffee factory to try some coffee that they grow here.  

I have been attending a small church here and some times I will go with my host mom to her church.  The small church that I have been attending has less than 15 people who go.  It is a young church.  I also help out with the youth group here and there.  Since the church is so young they can’t afford a nice place, the roof of the church is hardly a roof when it rains (it has many holes).  A couple of times they had to end the service early because of heavy rains that seem to appear at any time.  One time heavy winds came ripping through Moyobamba and almost ripped the roof right off.  I have never seen so many people leave a building so fast. 

The rains here remind me a lot of the afternoon showers in Florida.  One time I was walking back to the office and we literally got dumped on.  The rain seemed to come from every direction.  The moto taxi had to stop because he couldn’t see anything.  He stopped about a half a block away from the office so I decided to sprint to the office.  That was a mistake because no one else was at the office yet so it was locked.  In the end we returned home to change clothes because it looked like we just jumped into a pool with all our clothes on.       

Work is going well but there isn’t too much that I can do here yet.  Everyone is finishing up on their projects so in December they will decide what projects they want to do for the next 6 months or more.  I will be given the opportunity to choose my own research project/case study to complete for my time here.  I am very excited about that.  I am hoping to do something that involves social and economic aspects that are directly affected by the health of the ecosystems here.

If we are in the office I am usually studying or reading articles in Spanish.  When we go out into the campo about once a week or more.  I really enjoy going out into the campo because it gives me an opportunity to see the different side of Peru.  We have been going out to talk to students in there schools which is always fun.  One time, when I walked into a classroom all the students stood up.  I had never seen or witnessed that before.  It was kind of awkward for me.  I just walked to the back of the classroom as fast as I could.

We not only teach them and show them the importance of their environment and how the actions they take either affect them in positive or negative way but we show them what they can do and how they can help.  We have showed farmers and students how to make traps for the Broca. The Broca has caused a huge problem for the coffee farmers because it destroys the quality of the coffee bean so then they are not able to sell it on the international market.  We have also showed students proper farming techniques for planting seeds on hills by building a “compass” that allows them to follow plain levels on a hill so help prevent soil erosion.  There are many problems here that people in Moyobamba face: deforestation, soil erosion, not being able to sell their coffee harvest, water shortage, and the list goes on.  I just wish that people that don’t care about protecting their environment or using it sustainably would be able to see the cause and effect of their actions and how the environment directly affects the livelihood of so many people.

Over all I can say that I am used to the life here now.  My room is finally looking more like a room.  I printed out some pictures to put on my wall.  I traded my big mirror to Laura for a chair to read in.  I made a huge calendar to take up space on one of my walls.  I’m slowly getting back into running but I will always miss the trails and lakes in Minnesota.  Spanish, who knows, some days I feel I am learning a lot or getting better but other days I feel that I have not learned anything.  I will be heading back to Lima for Thanksgiving.  I plan on spending a couple of hours in the airport because they have a starbucks and dunkin donuts.  I am excited for the thanksgiving dinner but thanksgiving wont be the same without my family and home.

I hope everyone is doing well.

James

        

First Week in Moyobamba, Peru

My first week in Moyobama was very interesting.  For the first 4 full days I had a fever.  Two of those days I pretty much just slept.  I didn't start checking my fever until the third day.  And I am really glad I didn't check it before because I would have probably gone to the doctor.  Since, I was resting a lot I wasn't really interacting with my family.  I couldn't.  It is also really hard to try and learn spanish when you can't focus on anything.  My host family thought I didn't like to talk or eat, which is true when I have a fever over 100.

However, my host family is great.  My host mom Magda is great and everyone is very friendly.  I live with 2 host sisters and 2 host brothers.  There are two other brothers that moved out of the house but always stop by to visit.  There are also 6 other girls here: 3 girls from Spain, one from Holland and one from Florida.  I have a very hard time understanding the girls from Spain.  I couldn't even understand them when they said gracias.  There accent is so strange and they say or ask different questions than what I am use to from Costa Rica.  Although I have a hard time understanding the distinct accents of Spain and Moyobamba, everyone is very friendly and nice.  I have gone to the hot springs a couple of times with everyone from the house.  There are a few natural hot springs within this inclosed area.  Each spring has a different temperature but they all are warm.  One is exceptionally hot which feels great at night.

My job at Paz y Esperanza is suppose to get going this week.  This week we will traveling to two different smaller towns about an hour outside Moyobama.  Around Moyobama they have a lot of commercial deforestation which causes a lot of water problems.  So we will be talking to different members of the community about what needs to be done ect.  Work Hours are from 8-1 (2 hour lunch break) 3-6.  I am not a huge fan of the big break.  I'd rather have a 30 minute break and get off earlier.  There is a lot I can't do right now because my lack of spanish.  My main goal right now is to really improve on my spanish.  I am hoping in the next month that I will be where I need to be.

Things I miss and things that I am not use to:

The first thing I miss is good coffee.  It is a tease down here.  They have a lot of instant coffee here.  I have never had instant coffee until I came here.  Its awful.  I have to put sugar in it to make it taste decently.  Last week I went out to breakfast with 3 people from my work and we all ordered coffee.  They just gave me a cup of hot water.  Than with the coffee, they brought a little creamer container like a restaurant but it wasn't cream it was our coffee and we all had to share it.  This coffee that was in this little creamer container was very concentrated (which I love) and we poured only a little amount like you would pour cream into your coffee.  That tasted worse than the instant.  My first goal this year is to find a place that serves good coffee.

The other thing that I have to get use to is the toilet seats at my house and at my work don't exist.  And the water in the entire city is shut off during the day.  So we have to use buckets of water if we ever have to go.  Cold showers are not fun to take in the morning and my hair is getting really long for me.  Because I have to take more showers than I want to because my hair get really messy really easy.  So trying to grow out my hair this year has not been fun yet.

Other than that I am grateful for all the chance that God has given me down here (besides the 3 hour + church service).  My host family is great.  The people at work seem to enjoy their work and they are glad to do it.

I appreciate all your support,
James

First Week in Lima, Peru

Lima, Peru has many similarities to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Besides the traffic.  I thought San Jose had crazy drivers but in Lima it is a different story.  There are stop signs but no one stops.  There are intersections with no stop signs.  Hardly any stoplights.  I have never really been scared riding in a taxi before but every morning we have to take a taxi over to the office.  Since there are few stop signs the taxi driver pretty much has to play chicken with the on coming traffic.  The drivers switch lanes often and fast.  No one ever really stops.  They will drive down the middle of two lanes in order to go around a car that is trying to turn.  If there are two lanes going in one direction many times the car will make a left turn while they are in the right lane just cutting of the other driver.  This is common.  There are no rules.

My room is upstairs on a rooftop.  We are living with a host family in Lima until we move to our different locations.  I guess we live in a "bad" neighborhood.  My host mom wont let me run by myself she wants me to run with a Peruvian.  I have someone to run with but I really dont care to run in the city with all the traffic and cars so I think I'm taking a small break.  Riding the buses hear are fun.  They are really small.  They are like large VW buses in a way.  Some day we might be able to ride the bus more but for now we have to take a taxi to the office were we meet to learn about the organization we work under and Peru in general.  I usually have a good since of direction but each taxi driver has taken a different way to the office or to our house.  Even if they took one way the streets with all the turns and traffic would make it difficult to remember.

 It is winter here.  People dress up for the cold.  Many look like they are prepared for a winter in Minnesota and it is only in the low 60's.  So Dad you would fit in well.  There is no central heat in any of the buildings.  None.  And I forgot my sweatshirt.  My warmest thing I have is a long sleeve shirt but I wont have to be in the weather for long.  The one thing that my Mom told me to pack was a belt.  I had it on my bed ready to be packed away (along with my sweatshirt) and some how I forgot that too.

I leave sept 11 for Moyobamba.  I here the weather there is nice and hot.  Since it is a warmer climate they can grow more over there so I hear there is a lot of fruit to eat.  So I guess that is better than potatoes and rice all the time which I was expecting.

The spanish is coming along well.  I have retained more than I thought from costa rica but I have a lot to learn.  I am trying to learn 20 new words a day.