The Last Full Week

Monday morning, after getting in late from Puno and then staying up late talking to Mleanies´ parents, I woke up early to go build stoves. We met at the gas station and took a combi to a little town about 10 minutes away (in the opposite direction of Yanahuara) called Yucay. Our first stove was in a rather well off house that sportted two cows, a horse, a bunch of dogs, three ducks and a gaggle of adorable baby chickens. And, for the first time in my history of building stoves, I built a stove outside. Apparently, the outside part where the stove is located will eventually be a new kitchen.

The stove took about an hour and fiftenn minutes, after which Gianna (another volunteer who had helped to build the stove) and I went to Yucays´ municipality, where we were to meet Freddy, the stove coordinator, who would tell us where our next stove/house would be. Ginanna and I followed a set routine that we´d created our first day doing stoves together. We went to a little cornerstore, bought bread and cheese from a very nice lady, and then went to eat it (this time along with a neon yellow Inca Cola) on the steps of the municipality. We waited, but Freddy didn´t show up. It dawned on us that a new group had arrived that morning, and that he was probably busy with them, so we kept on waiting. In time, I began to knitt. A bit later a police man walked out of the municipality and told us about how he had worked at Machu Pichu and in Cuzco, but liked Yucay better. He lived with his wife in teh country side surrounding Yanahuara (but had never heard of Durazno Ti´kay) and, while they had been careful about not having kids at first, they now wanted kids but couldn´t seem to have any. They were both going in for impotency testing in about a week.

This is something that has happened to me a lot here: people are very open with very personal information after knowing me for just a short time. One of my women confideded her mothers´ illness in me a day after we met, and people all over just seem to tell me things that tehy would not tell me in the states. It´s a little hard for me to decide how to act in these instances.

After waiting for two hours, and deciding that even if Freddy came at that very moment we wouldn´t have time to make another stove, Gianna and I headed back to Urubamba.

In the afternoon I continued to read a book on Chile that is required for my study abroad program.

Tuesday we had a meeting with the women of Durazno Ti´kay where we worked on, once again, on the Business Plan. I think we got a lot done; when we finalized a system of fines for not complying with quotas we finally finished the second section (of three). The section was “fortalizar las habilidades de la asociacion y las mujeres en negocios” (strengthen the abilitis of the asociation in regards to business) and included procedures on how yarn will be bought, what activities are necessary to be “organized,” what classes are necessary and other basic things (attend meetings, start keeping track of income and expenses, etc.) After being here for so long, and watching the decisions of the group, I´ve realized that I´m very invested in the group, and that I really believe in the power of this business plan. Because of this, my goals for the rest of my time have shrunk from lofty ideas to the simple pleasue of finishing the business plan and knowing that the women, and future volunteers, have a framework in which to focus their efforts. Because this is my goal, the work we did on Tuesday made me immensely happy.

Wednesday was a particularly cool day because of two things. First, a bunch of the peopel working on health campaigns were heading over to see how water filters that ProPeru is producing are made. I tagged along and got to check it out. ProPeru has decided to make Potters for Peace models. They´re effectively clay pots with tiny holes in the clay to let water seep out. On the inside they´re coated with coloital silver (which, every now and then, volunteers have to bring through Peruvian customs). The coloital silver kills bacteria while the tiny holes in the clay traps parastes. The only thing the filters do not kill are viruses (but neither do most developing world water treatment systems). The machiene to make these filters is ahuge industrial chunck of iron in someones back yard. It requires a lot of man power to move the pieces.

To get the mud used to make the pots the right consistancy is a job within istelf. The mud must be mixed throughly (three hours by hand) and must be mixed with finely ground sawdust (also a job done by hand) until it is perfict. For all of these constraints, I cannot for teh life of me figure out why ProPeru chose the Potters for Peace method. The method, whcih is used throughout Latin America, was designed for locations where mud was a easily acessable resource and where minimal work (into creating mud, at least) was required; that´s the beauty of the system. I think a biofiltration system (making use of rocks, sand and dirty water, whcih are all easily acessable in the Sacred Valley) would have worked much better for this area. Still, it was intersting to see the process.

The second thing that made the day exciting was my excursion to the second market, primarily a livestock market. There were guinea pigs, ducks, rabbits, sheep, pigs, cows and every other manner of edible animal. There was also a used colthing market where I got an awesome Landsend jacket (it´s winter in Chile) that cost the equivelent of US 10 dollars.

Thursday we planned to give the women a break from the business plan; they had been working on it for the last three meeting sessions. We planned a fun activity that combined yoga and team-building (courtesy of Katy, who´s a counselor) and and Englsh class to review basic business English and add in a few new vocabulary words. However, when we got the the meeting, the women were in the middle of deciding who owed what fines (as per the business plans fine system) for the moth of July. The discussion was spurred by the arrival of two women, MIA up until that point, who had somehow herd that there had been a donation of yarn, and wanted to take part of the free material. The women were divided on whether the yarn should be given out, whether the women should be made to pay fines, or whether the women should be kicked out of the group for their habittual absence.

What happened next was incredible- the vice president of the group decided that all women present should speak up with their opinions and then a vote should be taken. Everyone waited patently and listened as all member of the group said what they thought was fair. Katy and I did nothing but watch. The whole process reminded me of traditional Roman democracy (minus only the landed men being able to vote part) in which each person in the community was entitled and encouraged to give her oppinion. It was truely the most egalitarian decision making system I have ever seen.

In the end, the women decided on reduced fines for the two who had been absent, and after the fines were paid gave the women their yarn. The dicussions took the whole meeting time, so we had to postpone our activities until later.

Friday was, effectively, the culmination of my work here. The business plan was finished, with provisions for a very, very basic health insurance, a bank account, classes focusing on empowerment, leadership and relaxation and a marketing plan. I could not have been happier with how the plan turned out; it gave the women huge responsibilites to insure their own sucuess, the suport of ProPeru, timelines in which to complete each enumerated task and a living doccument that could act as a guide, but be changed when necesary. The combi ride back to Urubamba was complete euphoria.

As soon as the business plan is typed up in pretty Spanish, I´ll post a copy.