Archive for December 2012
Our House Here in Molinopampa…
Looking NE from the corner of Jiron Amazonas and Jiron Jose Olaya, you can see our house to the right of the white bldg. & Mirador Restaurant
We moved into the room with the small window, on the right of our room is a store that our hostmom will sell soda and crackers from. To the right of the store is our host sisters room.
The front entry to the house is through a corridor next to the store.
Then you can reach our backyard and living space. Gotta dry cloths where-ever there’s a covered space from the daily rains.
Tough to capture the entire backyard, plenty of useful wood and chickens running around, behind all of which you’ll find a small vegetable garden.
On the side there’s some covered area to store guinea pigs and firewood, conveniently right next to the kitchen.
More to the left, you can see where our door is in the main house. Right next to the room of our blind host aunt.
For a more detailed tour of our room, remember you can go back to the blog entry of December 16.
On the other side of the backyard, you’ll find the bathroom, just put in the last couple couple months for our arrival. There is a multipurpose sink attached to a cement wall shielding off the cold shower. Plenty of water here in Amazonas.
And the roof of the bathroom, and kitchen area is corrugated metal sheeting making it easy to replace.
Here’s Andrea going around the backyard with a similar tour as well, enjoy…
M. Christmas and F. Navidad
The heart of the season is upon us here in Molinopampa and we’ve eaten enough Panaton to make up for all the past Christmas’s we missed here. Morning mass was relatively calm and not any larger or more packed then the average sunday service. Very nice nativity scenes around here as well. After mass we got a taste of the ‘Baile or Danza de Las Pastoras’ (Shepherds)…including ‘un viejo’ (old person) and ‘un nergo’ (black person) to represent different people in the community.
Peruvian Chocolatadas and Fresh Sugarcane Juice
When it comes to Christmas in Peru, it’s hard to stay away from the large gatherings called ‘chocolatadas’. Really anytime throughout the day a town or village or classroom or workplace can get together to drink hot-chocolate and eat large chunks of Paneton, a sweeten bread with raisins and dyed fruits inside.
When on a trip to Huamazan village, on the other side of the mountain from Molinopamap, to attend one of these chocolatadas, got to see and learn about sugarcane juices.. When it is fresh pressed the Peruvians tend to call it ‘Caldo de caña’, after fermented for a bit of time it is called ‘Guarapo’ and after this fermented mix is distilled to really isolate the alcohol, the drink is often called ‘Cañaso’. None the less, the original pressing is mostly milled by hand, as seen below:
El Comercio Article About Swearing In…
National newspaper, el Comercio, put together an article on December 1, about our swearing in last month and suprisingly decided to feature the Galbavy pair (w/ Prom Type Photo). Read through the article labeled: Young Hands Impel/drive Development in Communities.. (below)
Go Figure…
Chachapoyas Burning Garbage Cliff
Sometimes it’s just a bit easier to dump all municipal garbage into the river valley.
– E.g.
Ubicación:Ayacucho,Chachapoyas,Perú
Dedicating the Lose in Eñara
A lose is basically a concrete slab put down to play sports and congregate, but when the 1st one was installed in the annex of Eñara, an all day party was called for.. with a local food spread and champagne breaking..
demonstrations of black-faced faced local dances and plenty of chica de jora (dude w the jug)..
and plenty of sport and dancing.
– E.g.
Ubicación:rodriguez de mendoza,,Perú
Peru or Bust, one couple's journey to represent USA abroad and aid in ways small and large. 