¡Saludos!
Happy weekend!
Today marks the end of our second
week in Junín – hard to believe it! It was also the first day (since my very
first day in Lima) that I was able to sleep in as late as I wanted, which was
pretty great (even if I only made it until 9:15). The rest of the day has been
similarly relaxing, though terribly cold - rain off and on, and sort of windy. I managed to do some laundry (which
was probably fairly stupid in retrospect, since now I don’t have enough layers
on to keep me sufficiently warm, and my clean clothes aren’t dry yet – oh
well!).
Work has been going pretty well.
I’m amazed at how timely people here are! If we have a meeting scheduled for
8:30, that meeting happens amazingly close to 8:30, especially if it’s with the
mayor – nothing like my time in Africa! We’ve completed several more interviews
with various members of the community and have a good chunk of transcribing to
do.
After two weeks, we’ve secured a
hefty amount of reading material, both from the Mayor and Municipal Office and
an organization here called SERNANP, which is in charge of the Reserva Nacional
de Junín. The guy in charge there has been tremendously helpful so far. He invited
us to a meeting in Carhuamayo (a town about the size of Junín, roughly half an
hour away) this past week – all the presidents from the ten communities that
surround the lake met with some authorities (representatives from the power
companies and others) about getting compensation for the land the communities
lost as a result of the installation and poor regulation of the electricity
generating facilities (for lack of a more eloquent explanation on my part, the
communities lost land due to flooding, which is a problem they are still facing).
The meeting was… interesting, for lack of a better word. It was in a big,
echo-y room (which certainly didn’t help my comprehension of the goings-on);
people had no problem coming and going as they pleased (through a squeaky door),
and silencing of cell phones was clearly not part of meeting protocol (indeed, it’s apparently
acceptable to answer and have a short conversation on your cell phone, even in
the middle of a meeting, even when you are the one “moderating” the meeting).
The three “main” guys (I guess?) sat at a table at the front of the room while
everyone else sat in rows facing them; it was very obvious that they (and a few
select others in the audience) were in charge, and not to be messed with. It
was fascinating (if a little disheartening) to see the power dynamics and how
all the men interacted with each other (not many women in the bunch); it sort
of seemed like an “us vs. them” sort of thing. It was hard not to get
worked up when the leaders were very clearly disrespectful to these community
leaders who have the best interest of the members of their respective
communities in mind, but it certainly was not my place to say anything.
At the end of the meeting, the
participants resolved to gather data on their respective communities and bring
it back to another meeting in three weeks, with the hope (as I understood it)
that this information would help in their attempt to get compensation for the
damages done to their lands. I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to attend the next
couple meetings, so it will be really interesting to see how things unfold; I’m
cautiously kind of optimistic that this is the beginning of a big change for
the lake and surrounding communities.
Another big thing this week was
that we managed (on the third try) to conduct our first focus group; this too
proved to be very interesting. We had a group of 8 late high school/early college-aged
students from schools nearby sit around a table and Zoila prompted them with
questions about their communities and the lake. They were fairly quiet,
responding that yes, they knew about the contamination of the lake, and yes, it
affected health and livelihoods. When Zoila got to the last question (“Is there
anything else you want to share about the topic?”), several started asking us
questions. What are we doing in Junín; why we’re here, from a different
country, only to gather information and then leave again; why we couldn’t
actually give them a real solution. It was sort of tough trying to explain
ourselves, especially because I know it’s something we’ve all struggled with
individually as well. It’s hard because our purpose here is really only to
gather (primarily qualitative) information regarding the awareness of the
contamination in the lake, not to make any sort of change or snap our fingers
and have the problems go away (as much as I would love to be able to do that). It’s
hard (for me, at least) to fully mentally grasp our project’s role in the grand
scheme of things (if it will indeed be used in the grand scheme of things)
because even though the mining companies have been contaminating the lake for
decades, we’re still at a relatively early stage in trying to make this all
right. Also, we’re not trained hydrologists (or whatever water scientists are
called), health experts, agriculture experts, or in any way really trained to
be able to offer solutions. Above all though, we’re not from this area, and
possibly one of the worst aspects of international development is when people
go to a place and tell the people living there what to do and how, in order to
develop economically or socially. This approach has failed time and time again,
so I think our project definitely has merit in that it is all about the local
knowledge and perceptions (that’s what I’m going to tell myself at least). We’re
working in the community, with the community, for the community.
Ok, enough on that.
Friday was Día de la Bandera, Peru’s
Flag Day. After a run, a shower, a quick meeting with the mayor, and breakfast,
we headed out to the plaza right in front of the Parroquia (where we stay) to
watch (what seemed like, and very well may have been) every school-aged child
in Junín participate in the parade. Some carried banners, some carried flags,
some just marched (straight-legged, which didn’t appear very comfortable), but
everyone was out in the plaza in one form or another. I took quite a few photos
- check em out! My
favorite part was definitely the small children, bundled up and watching the
festivities with mom or dad (hence all the photos of small children), or the
old women in all their colorful layers. It’s really cool how patriotic this
town is. It’s also pretty neat how quickly we’ve gotten to know the place – the
people, the markets, the family we have at the Parroquia… It’s hard to be away
from home-home, yes (especially when it’s winter here and summer there), but it’s
also going to be hard to leave; the people here are incredible.
Last night we huddled in the living
room with a (very smoky) fire in the small woodstove and watched the
Ecuador/Peru game (in black and white). It never ceases to amaze me how huge
soccer is in countries other than the U.S. Zoila spent the first dozen years of
her life in Ecuador, so naturally she was supporting her roots, but the others
were cheering for Peru (who ended up winning, 1-0). It’ll be fun to be in Peru
for the next few games of the World Cup qualifiers. It was such an amazing
experience to be able to go to World Cup games in South Africa. Not sure if
I’ll make it to Brasil 2014, but maybe some other year…
I’m hoping to get a long-ish run in
tomorrow, assuming my lungs hold up; I found a gravel road that eventually winds up around the west side
of the lake, and even though I won’t get close to the lake (that would be a long long run), I’ve enjoyed
running on that road. It’s wide open and quiet, there are no barking dogs and few
people, and the ground is more even than the “streets” in town. Along that road, its 20km to the
next town (Ondores, another town where we’ll be working); I definitely won’t
make it that far tomorrow, but maybe as a long run in a few weeks. I’m also
hoping to find a place in Junín that rents bicycles so I can go exploring on wheels. I’ve seen plenty of bikes around town, so I’m assuming (and hoping!) that
it’s a possibility.
I am proud to announce that I am
learning to knit (much thanks to Janelle’s patience). My (wonderful) sister
Caroline has tried to teach me (at least once), but to no avail. The fact that I
have now knit several rows (of practice, but still) should say something about
other options as far as entertainment goes. I’ve already finished the one book
I brought, and am well into the book Janelle loaned me (Mountains Beyond Mountains, very good so far!). Yes, I have movies
and TV shows on my computer, but a) I don’t usually watch a lot of movies/television
and b) when I do, it’s usually as I’m multi-tasking. Knitting could be the
perfect complement!
Next week will wrap up the first
three-week “trimester” of our work. We have an interview set up with the
director from the hospital here in Junín, in order to learn about the effects
of the contamination from a more medical point of view (which, I think, will be
really interesting, but then again that could just be the scientist in me…). We’re
hoping to have a second focus group, this time with people involved in
agriculture and animal-raising (Ranching? Livestock holding? Not sure what the
English word is?). We should also be able to actually go around the lake,
which, I’m told, will take the better part of a day. I’m not sure when we’ll be
able to really dig into working in these other places in terms of talking with
people, but I’m hopeful that will happen next week too.
Well, I think that’s a pretty solid
update on most aspects of my life. It’s now almost 9pm, and I’m getting hungry –
might be time for a snack since I guess we’re waiting until after Saturday
night Mass for dinner…
I’ll write more soon!
¡Abrazos de Peru!
-k
No comments:
Post a Comment