Rain Rain Rain

As if coming back to from an amazing beach vacation to a busy work schedule wasn't hard enough, this past week in Ayacucho was certainly frustrating as water was cut off from the city for almost a week straight. Apparently heavy rains last week caused a landslide that broke a part of the main pipe that brings water to the city. While it was being repaired, Ayacucho received water sporadically from another sources, but for a few days some parts of town(such as the apartment) were completely dry. It was very frustrating but surely one of the realities of living here. I think the water is back on for good now but am not willing to celebrate yet. We still have a few buckets of water stored just in case...

For those of you that don't know, "summer" in Ayacucho is actually the rainy season, and though it doesn't rain daily, when it rains it really rains. I'm talking about strong strong down pours that often leave the streets so flooded, it is impossible to cross them without soaking your leg up to your ankle. Some of my friends and co-workers describe this year as the worst rainy season Ayacucho has seen in 20 years. Many seem to also agree that climate change is the culprit. What I do know for sure is that the rains have been particularly damaging this season and last. Last December, a flash flood and landslide occured in the city itself and caused a fatal multi-car pile up in the center of town. Because of this, the city is now finally building a huge drainage system to deal with rainwater. They have actually been working on it since we arrived and though aren't done, have made quite a bit of progress in the past six months. This season, besides the water pipe breaking, many homes have been damaged outside the city and several roads in the area have washed out. In fact 7km of the main highway between Ayacucho and Lima was washed out last month. We ended up purchasing plane tickets at the last minute to Lima for our trip instead of taking the bus.

The good news is that the worst of the rainy season should be coming to an end. Typically February is the worst and should be over by the the time April comes.

Travel post coming soon but for now, check out my pictures here!

Lindsay

Images of Carnaval in Ayacucho

Carnaval!

Well once again it has been too long since my last post but fortunately we have lots of interesting stuff to share that should take up a least a few posts in near the future. Sara and I did recently take a 3 week vacation to the beaches of northern Peru and up to Cuenca Ecuador. It was amazing and there will be more posts to come on that, but for now, I want to share a bit about the festivities of Carnival that recently took place March 5-8.

Carnival in Ayacucho (and I suppose in other parts of Latin America) actually started a month early, the first week of February when the children begin playing with water balloons...Traditional carnival games are water fights - specifically young boys douse each other, women and foreigners with water when they walk down the street. I'm not kidding. For about a month straight, though it was always worse on the weekends, we were walking targets to be soaked. We were hit with countless water balloons and buckets of water in the month of February. While it was admittedly pretty annoying, I felt lucky when I learned that in some places the tradition is to throw paint, foam, and even urine at passerby's!

When most of you think of Carnival, you probably think of Mardi Gras or the festivities in Brazil (at least that is what I would have thought before). I imagined bright colored costumes and masks, dancing in the street, and non-stop parties. While there certainly elements of that, Carnaval in Ayacucho is far more traditional that any Carnival celebration I have ever seen pictures of. For four days straight there were parties and dancing in the street, yet instead of the elaborate floats, masks, and cross dressing I have seen pictures of in other parts of the world, people dress in various versions of traditional Huamangina (Ayacuchan) clothing and dance and sing regional Carnaval songs. In fact, almost every group of traditionally (and beautifully) dressed men and women do almost the same dance. I learned however, that the major difference are the variations in lyrics that often are hilarious, political and quite crude. Sara and I got back from vacation on Sunday night we so actually only experienced two full days of Carnaval but certainly got a good taste of the festivities. On Monday, FINCA employees joined the dancing in the street and I while I wasn't able to dance with the group, I followed alongside taking pictures and filming to really take in the scene.

View Carnival dancing from main plaza.

Ayacuchana?

FINCA staff

FINCA socia having a great time...In her hand is baby powder - tradition is to put it all over your face and throw it around while dancing.

More pictures and video to come tomorrow!!!!