getting out and about

It has been a good few weeks for me with lots of interesting stuff at work and a few beautiful hikes. Two weeks ago Sara and I went with two friends to see Wari, the ruins of a pre-Incan civilization that populated what is now the Ayacucho region. Aside from seeing artifacts, walls, and tunnels that date back over 1000 years, it was a wonderful escape from the city and a nice chance to enjoy the Andes scenery of this area. After hiking around the ruins we went to the town of Quinua for the

second time sinced we have lived in Ayacucho. Quinua is about 10 minutes up the highway from Wari and popular weekend destination for Ayacuchans. We walked around the scenic area near the obelisk, which was once the last battlefield in Latin America against the Spanish. We also visited a number of artesian markets as Quinua is known for its' handcrafts.

Last weekend I went back to the area, but this time for a more intense hike and more exclusive look at ancient Wari territory. A friend of mine took a few others and myself on a hike from a town called Pacaycasa up to the Wari ruins. We hiked through highland farms, climbed over a huge quartz mine and walked through currently unprotected Wari land. In fact, while walking along it is impossible not to find artifacts such as clay pieces of pottery, obsidian stones that were once part of arrowheads and tiny turquoise stones that were used in Wari jewlery. We saw some incredibly views of the mountains and once again, I was thrilled to be outside the city taking in the beautiful area in which I live. We also went to Quinua afterwards but this time to ride horses and hike to the famous waterfalls of Quinua, We ended up completely immersing ourselves under the freezing cold water of the waterfall. It was perhaps one of the best days I have

had yet in Peru.

Here are my pictures from that adventure!

Sara and Else didn’t come on this hike but instead had an amazing adventure of their own this past week. They traveled with FINCA out to the rural areas to take pictures and interview socias. Only one or two of us can go on such trips at a time and I recently started a new session of teaching English so it made more sense for them to go this time. I hope to go soon though because it sounds really amazing.

Much love from Peru! I miss you all!

Feliz Año 2011

I am a bit embarressed to realize that so much time has passed since our last post that we have celebrated Thanksgiving, my birthday (Lindsay), Christmas, and New Years. We also finished AFALTOUN for the school year (since it is summer vacation down here) and also now have two new volunteers working with us at FINCA. Else, from Holland, has been here for the past three weeks and has become a great friend of ours. Truman is from the US and just arrived this weekend.

In general, the holidays were nice though it was definitely strange and a little sad to be away from our families. We spent Christmas eve at our house with friends. We bought a roasted chicken and made some side dishes. At midnight, we went up to the roof of our apartment to see the spectacle of fireworks that occur all around Ayacucho. I would probably have been kind of scared to be down on the street but seeing them from above was pretty cool. We spend Christmas day at our friend Diana's grandpa's house with her and her family. They served us tasty friedfish, soup, and potatoes and then we spent the afternoon just chatting with herfamily and playing with Diana's 4-year old Theryus who is just a character. The pictures seen here from Christmas are Sara, Else and I with Diana and her grandpa and then one with Theryus. The Christmas tree is, well, Ayacucho's best attempt at a public christmas tree...

With AFLATOUN ending and new volunteers in the office, work has certainly changed for us in the past few weeks. While I continue to do KIVA interviews when I have time, we also have started a few new projects. For one, we are helping FINCA put together their memoria annual, which is essentially their yearly magazine/report. Our job is to take and collect pictures, write up text for a few of the pages, and collect testionies and quotes from socias and staff members. Perhaps the most exciting part for me is that we will get to travel a bit this month to the rural zones to collect pictures and stories. Viviana also asked us to start the next cycle of AFLATOUN which will begin sometime in March and teach until we leave Ayacucho. This means we have a lot of preparation to do such as lesson planning and putting together a more complete volunteer packet for future AFLATOUN teachers. Finally, I am started a few video projects which I will give more details on later, but I will say that I am loving it because it means I am now filiming bank meetings and interviewing socias on almost a daily basis.

If you go to my picasa picture page I have recently uploaded several new photo albums. My personal favorite are the pictures from the "enuentro de bancos rurales," which was an event for rural banks to come to FINCA for a banquet and to perform traditional dances and songs. They also had a contest showcasing their products (hand crafts, yogurts, agricultural products etc...) It was really beautiful and I learned a lot. Below is also a few videos of performances from that event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y5PxHPDyzk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGYOFI1mFQU

Since one of my new years resolutions is to write more, you should be hearing from me soon!

Feliz Año Nuevo!