Short Week, Lazy Weekend, New Week

The week after Dias Patrias was only three days, but I think pretty much everyone felt as though it should have been shorter.

Firstly, my Quechua teacher, who I was supposed to begin lessons with on the Wednesday we got back, had decided to continue traveling, so I kept up with the Spanish instead of switching. Secondly, we had fairly poor attendance from Durazno Ti'kay on Wednesday and Thursday, and I think we only had good attendance on Friday because it was Michelle's last day at work.

Wednesday we were planning to do a lesson on competition (and what we could do to beat it) and brainstorm things to add into our business plan related to competition. We were hoping the women could come up with some new ideas for products they could create that were not already readily available on ever street corner of Cuzco. However, only four women showed up. The combination of just coming back from a holiday, plus a funeral in the town, was a bit prohibitive for the other women. We ended up just sitting on the patio (occasionally being amused by two dogs having sex) and chatting about competition. Surprisingly, given the small number of people we had and sense of sluggishness, the discussion turned up a lot of good ideas, although not about how to beat the competition. Most notably, the discussion reanimated a previous discussion over the various benefits and disadvantages to having a quota system. When that previous discussion had been had quotas had been rejected outright. However, as soon as the idea was brought up a second time (and this time from one of the women, not from one of the volunteers) the idea was seen as positive.

I also got a good sense that day for the prise of materials here. Apparently, a cone (about a kilo) of alpaca wool mixed with sheep wool is 37 soles (about 14 USD) while a cone of 100% alpaca wool is around 110 soles, approximately 40 dollars.

Thursday we had a slightly better attendance rate, eight women, and did a lesson on the color wheel and reviewed some basic business English. The color wheel lesson was all about how to effectively combine colors in combinations that are appealing to the womens' target audience: tourists. It had been prompted by a poncho that was neon orange with neon green accents (enough said). In English we reviewed a basic conversation one might have between a tourist and a woman selling her wares. We went over the phrases "how may I help you?" "what are you looking for?" "what do you like?" "how much is it/that?" and "it/that is X soles." It was a little difficult for the women to grasp the phrases, and pronunciation in English is always difficult for them, but I think it was helpful. To practice, we had the women partner and go through a basic interaction using the above phrases. It amused them to pretend to sell goods to each-other, and it especially amused them when I was the 'seller' and they were the 'buyer'.

Friday we started off with some yoga, or at least what we call yoga. It's effectively a mixture between movement activities and basic stretching that you would do as a part of a high school team. However, we were interrupted when two women said that the food for Michelle's despedida (good-bye party) was ready. It was a really sweet gesture, even if I wasn't hungry and had to force myself to eat so as not to hurt feelings.

The way these despedidas work are a little awkward for me. In our room there is one small table, about big enough for four people squished together, a bunch of stools and two benches. When we're teaching, the table usually just has our materials on it, and we're standing writing on the white board or going amongst the women, making sure they've grasped whatever concept we're going over. When we're just hanging out with the women before or after we begin a lesson, we're sitting with them on benches or stools, interspersed among them, talking and making jokes. However, when there's a despedida, the volunteers sit at the table and eat while the women sit on the opposite side of the room, on the stools and benches, and eat. It's a bit like a staring contest but, more often than not, I feel like an animal at the zoo being observed by tons of people.

Anywho, it's a lovely gesture and a great way to say good-bye. After the food, there was singing and dancing. For a brief period we convinced the women to model their own goods, as we took pictures, which will eventually be included in a catalog of the Durazno Ti'kay's goods. When we left it was dark (a rare occurrence), signifying that we had stayed longer than normal.

The weekend was fairly uneventful. I had planed to travel to Puno but, as the vast majority of the people that had come down to Peru at the same time as I were leaving, I decided to stay and hang out with them. Saturday night was the official good-bye party so, after having a bite to eat, we all strolled over to one of Urubamba's two clubs. Michelle and a friend convinced the bar tender to let them bar tend, which was amusing, and we all danced a bit. My host-sister, being home from college for the weekend, dropped in with her aunt and joined us for a while.

Sunday I took a trip out to some near-by salt mines, which were absolutely beautiful. They sparkle incredibly in the light and seeing an entire red-rocked hillside covered in patches of white is different and interesting. On the way down from the salt mines (they're located on a hillside which is a short but strenuous walk uphill) we noticed a house with what looked to be a replication of Orwell's 'Animal Farm.' An older dog lay outside, observing everything, ducks and baby pigs strolled around together and two adult pigs payed no attention to anything but their food. It was one of the strangest mixtures of animals that I've seen to date.

I decided to walk back from the salt mines, about an hour along the highway, and ran into some interesting ceramic places, some adorable kids, some angry dogs and more breath-taking views than I can describe. It was a great walk home because it is the route I travel to get to work, but have never been able to fully enjoy (as we're speeding along in a crowded combi).

Monday was back to work as normal, but with a few changes. As it was the first week in August the new schedule that we had decided on two weeks ago went into effect: meetings three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with a time for individual work form 3:30 to 4:30 and a time for lessons from 4:30 to 5:30. The week was also different because... new volunteers arrived! My project has two, Katy and Carly, who will be here for three weeks and three months, respectively.

So, Monday we didn't have a meeting with the women, but I did help do an orientation for the volunteers where I went over the general gist of what I'd been doing, what the program was about, etc. Unfortunately, the new volunteers are splitting their time between the two womens' groups (Yanhuara and one other), so they'll only be going to Yanahuara meetings twice a week. The combination of the volunteers of the two projects is something that's got me a bit worked up, as the needs of the two womens' groups are very different and time-consuming. I feel bad that, after I leave, there will not be a volunteer at every Durazno Ti'kay meeting. Of course, the goal is to make Durazno Ti'kay a fully self-sufficient organization, but I feel that, being only two and a half months old, the group still needs support, even if it's just having a volunteer there to facilitate discussions between the women.

Monday, being all of the volunteers first days, was also the orientation on stove-building, a project that builds cleaner-burning, more fuel-efficient stoves out of bricks and mud. I decided to go to the orientation and learn so that I could build my own stove on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning I helped in the construction of two stoves, which was really exciting. They're fairly basic, but include a chimney and insulation, which directs health problem-causing smoke out of houses and which creates a need for fewer logs to burn. So, we're helping health and teh environment all at once. It's a really dirty job, but extremely fun and surprisingly fast (it takes about an hour and a half to build this stove) and very, very gratifying.

Tuesday was also the day when I was by myself at Yanahuara but, actually, I was with ProPeru's director, Sara. We went to finish up the business plan but, instead, ended up outlining a money-management system, which was equally helpful and necessary. What had been happening up until that point was that each woman had been buying her own yarn, making her item, selling it, and keeping all the profits. Which is all well and good for a woman making some items to sell on the side, but not very association-like. Of course, if the women had wanted to continue with that course, we wouldn't have stopped them. But it turned out that they didn't.

We ended up with three options. The first option (A) was that the group , Durazno Ti'kay, would buy yarn as a group (and at wholesale prices) and give it to the women. In turn, the women would give a percent of every sale, high enough to cover the cost of the yarn and a little extra, to the group to be able to continue buying yarn. The second option (B) was that each woman would continue to buy her own yarn but would put a little something from each sale into the group to fund activities, teachers, transportation, etc. The final option (C) was a mixture of the first two. The group would buy yarn at wholesale prices and then mark it up and sell it to each individual member. In addition, each member would contribute a little something to the group pot for the above expenses.

At first it looked like the group was favoring plan C, although there was one strong hold out for plan B. Then the came to the realization that A and C were practically the same (which I don't agree with) and decided that, if they had the starting capital, they would prefer plan A. Well, it just so happened that Sarah, the director who was there to make sure that the plan was remembered well after I was gone, is the woman in charge of the money. And it also just so happened that Michelle and my payments to ProPeru go, in a large part, to our projects and, although we had around 1000 soles to spend, we had only spent about 40. So the group asked Sara if ProPeru could buy the yarn, and Sara said yes, and the group decided on Plan A. Now all I need to do is set up a system of how Plan A will work in practice...

Wednesday I was supposed to be doing background research for Yanahuara but, as my semester program starts so very soon, found myself trying to prepare for it by reading some assigned books on Chile. I also found a scorpion in my room, which was not very fun.

Thursday we continued with the business plan, worked out time-lines and concrete goals for the various parts of the plan that we already had and introduced the women to the new volunteers. We figured out the percent that the women, under Plan A (it sounds a little ominous that way) would have to give back. By figuring out the cost of wool for each product (5 soles for a hat, 7 soles for a scarf and 20 soles for a poncho) and the lowest price the women would sell their goods for (7 soles for a hat, 15 soles for a scarf and 30 soles for a poncho) we figured out that, to cover the cost of wool and then a little extra, would mean putting back 75% of the profits into the group. While this seemed very high to some women, we reminded them that they were not buying the yarn and that, if they were shrewd business women and managed to get higher prices for their goods, they would also get higher profits.

This entire sort of pricing work was entirely new to me, and extremely interesting to be a part of. Luckily, Sara had done development work in the Peace Corps, so she could guide me through it.

Friday we decided, after all the business progress that had been made, all the headaches and debate, that the women deserved a break from business and a time for fun. Thus, a self-esteem exercise and English review. However, as the women were busy trying to figure out what color of yarn each of them wanted, we could only get through the self-esteem exercise.

Katy, one of the new volunteers, is a psychologist, and about to start her work when she gets home. As such, she has some great activities for boosting ones' self-perception, and she decided to do one with the women on Friday. What we did was we had each woman write five positive things about herself and one positive thing about every other woman in the group. After, we went around and asked the women questions about the messages they had received: 'did anything surprise you?' 'what do you most/least associate yourself with from the comments you received?' etc. I think it was a great activity because it created a sense of community, friendship and safety within the group. Many of the women were wearing big smiles at the end.

Some other things that happened this week:
1. I started Quechua classes. Mostly I'm working on basic interactions (Hi, how are you? What's your name?) so that I can talk on a very low level with people. It's a fascinating language both because of the pronunciation, which I'm terrible at, and the grammar. What I find so interesting in terms of grammar is that the language relies a great deal on suffixes. Any possessive or directional word will be added onto the end of the noun, while other endings (that I don't yet know) will be added onto the end of a verb (more than simply conjugation). It's really fascinating.
2. I was taught how to crochet. For a while, I've been wanting to learn to crochet because the women I work with make it look so easy, and because I want to get a sense for the sort of effort they put into their work. I think that once I understand the true value of the work, I'll be better able to advocate for it.
3. I got comfortable with the women. I feel like they're finally friends and companions, as opposed to students. I'm really glad this change has happened, because I feel strange with unequal power relationships.

That's about it for last week. Stay tuned for...Puno! The Urus Islands! and Week 2 of the new schedule and stove-making!