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.