We've arrived in Cusco, Peru and have been staying with and learning about CCAIJO. CCAIJO is a Jesuit group committed to helping communities of what we would call in English peasants. We have visited three CCAIJO houses in the districts of Andahuaylillas, Occongate, and Ccatca.

On Wednesday we visited the house of CCAIJO in Ocongate. Juan Carlos, our guide gave us a tour of the facilities. The work they were doing was simply amazing. We toured the classrooms where free sewing machine and computer classes were given to women and children of nearby communities. They also ran a bakery where bread and pastries were made and distributed to local stores to help feed the people (we bought some and it is delicious).

The thing that struck me the most was the nursery for pine trees. Each tree was hand planted and grown until old enough to be moved to the hillsides. We drove around the hillsides meeting people of the community and saw the result of the CCAIJO's tree planting. CCAIJO has planted so far 20 million trees. I wish I could post the pictures I took because it is amazing. The trees were covering hillsides all over.

Now my point, back when we visited Ate in Lima, we met the mayor of Ate who gave a discussion of how the local government is helping their people. One major point was that the government was planting trees along the mountains in Ate to secure the soil and beautify the city. There is one major difference, we saw trees planted on one half of one mountain. Here in Cusco the trees cover the hillsides.

We have met the people who work at each of the houses of CCAIJO. The house in Andahuaylillas had only three people working. The house in Ccatca has four people. From what we have seen so far, the work of  CCAIJO has accomplished much more than the government in Ate. The differences are appalling.

CCAIJO works by engaging the people in the community. People know when the planting season is and visit CCAIJO to get trees. One man we visited singlehandedly planted near 1400 trees himself to re-forest his land.

Additionally they teach nutrition classes for free and physically visit homes of the community to help build improved houses. They taught people how to build improved kitchens complete with stoves and ovens that vent smoke outside and even ecological refrigerators. When they build these they have the homeowner with them. This way if it breaks they can fix it themselves and can also help neighbors build their own.

One thing I have to make clear is that the community people fund their own projects. CCAIJO simply facilitates them. In my opinion this is what government should be like; Less bureaucracy and move work done. We visited a large rain water reservoir outside one village yesterday. The people of the village pay for the water and the profits go back to maintaining the reservoir. A committee of villages, elected by vote every two years, is in charge of the maintenance and money. CCAIJO helped facilitate this project. If government worked more like CCAIJO, maybe we would see improvements occurring more quickly and a better community.

Class,
I hope you are enjoying your visit to the Imperial City of Cuzco!
I woke up early to review your postings and I was pleasantly surprised. You are doing great at seeking a sober way of reconciling all the stimuli that hit you and your own personal assumptions. It pleases me to see that some of you spent time interacting with the real people, asking them questions, and the way you have transferred their answers into the blog being careful not to reinforce stereotypes. I know this is not easy to do and I commend you for the effort!
As a way of clarification,
- From 1980-1990 Latin America experienced a great depression also known as "The Lost Decade." It was the result of a large foreign debt and the raise of interests of this debt by Ronald Reagan administration. Country borrowed money at 4.5% and in the 1980s this interest rate was increased to 21%. Whomever carries credit cards should imagine the impact of changing interest rates on your personal budget. Well, countries found themselves devoting up to fifty percent of the GNPs in paying the debt. Long story, so little time to explain.
- Peru had its own version of Lost Decade. As it were not enough, we had economic depression along with an insurgency led by two well organized guerrilla groups Shinning Path (Full name: In the Shinning Path of J.C. Mariategui) and MRTA, both were extreme Left wing militarized movement.
War and Depression is not a good combination. Among man things the country lost most of its professional class due to immigration. Those who remained, saw their lives trashed by lack of work or violence. The countryside was emptied because most migrated to Lima. Another long story with so little time to explain. The country infrastructure was severely damaged by Shinning Path. Most electrical towers were blown apart... The irony was that the country was in debt in order to complete the electrification of the territory, while Shining Path was blowing these towers in order to create terror.
Basically, what you are seeing is a country that desperately is trying to re-build itself after the Lost Decade.
On the issue of police force. The ratio is 1 policeman for 1500 people in Lima. Nor enough for a city of over 8 million people. Police presence varies depending on the District. In Miraflores, for example, between policemen and Municipal security personel, the ratio approximates that of the USA, 1 policeman/securite per 350 people. Alas, social inequality again!
The police display that you saw during your visit of Lima had a very important reason: This week  President Humala denied Presidential Pardon to ex-President Alberto Fujimori serving jail time for human rights abuses. Their followers threaten with demonstrations in support of Fujimori.
That's it. Continue enjoying your stay in Peru!!!

Our visit to Lima has left me with many questions. These last days, the group has helped a group of mothers paint the daycare Caritas Felices in the San Juan de Miraflores district in Lima. I spoke with Estel, a mother at the daycare, while I brushed and she held the paint. Her family is from Cusco, which she describes as where the Incans lived. She says the Incans are there, but they are not there. They are there in their descendants. People are a mixture, una mezcla. In Cusco, many speak Quechua, so she was teaching me some words for our trip there next week. I asked her if the kids at the daycare were learning it. She said no, because it is not necessary. What does it mean when a parent does not teach their child their parent's language?  What separates us more:  ethnicity, class, or language?

Jahnet's family is from the Amazon. She is the only one in her family in Lima now. It is very important for her to learn English she tells me. This is one reason she is trying to visit the United States for 6 months. From what I can tell, I do not believe there are a great many people from the Amazon in Lima, at least not those that have lived in the jungle. She tells me she met a man who was very excited to meet her because he had never met a lady from the Amazon. Jeanette enjoys Lima, but she tells me living under a roof is sometimes like a prison, un carcel, for her after living in the jungle, sleeping under the stars, and riding horses. Why are Jahnet and Estel in Lima, far from their families? One reason is for a job. Estel works at the daycare while Jahnet studies tourism and works somewhere where she must respond to emails in English.   Another reason might be because they were displaced due to governmental forces or otherwise. Why don't they move back? That is difficult question, and I believe in general, people don't want to. Perhaps they have come to enjoy and revere their new modern life. Maybe having a TV and plumbing is seen as progress, even if you are living on a soft cliff where there are earthquakes.  Also, sometimes "where you came from" is poorly defined. Maybe my grandmother was born in the Andes, but I have always lived in the city. Maybe my  grandmother lived in Cusco, and my grandfather's parents were from China and the Andes. These are Limans.

Lima is a mixture of cultures. This makes me think of a conversation with two very talkative girls we met in Ate, Maria and Nikola, 8 and 9 years old. We dusted off a ledge of a boulder and sat looking at the stars, pretending we were queens. Nikola said she was queen of Peru, and Maria is the princess. They asked each other what I should be queen of. They knew I was from the USA, but Maria asked me if I was from Argentina and Nikola asked if I had Chinese in me as they pulled at their eyes and inspected mine. This may seem like an insensitive question, but from this conversation, it can be seen that the kids question where we are from and understand that the answer can be more complex than where you live.

One of the themes of the trip for me has been how the truth can be hidden. Maybe it is better to say truths, because there is not one, encompassing truth.  Some examples include the following. One, on top of a hill, un cerro, in Lima, there is a cross. This hill was (or is) an apu, a sacred place for the pre-Spainiard Peruvians. Did they so quickly convert to Catholicism? Probably not. More likely, when the Spanish came, they had to adapt their images and adopt Catholic ones in order to continue their beliefs without persecution. In the Mueseum Larco, we saw an Incan artist's portrayal of an angel alongside pottery depicting men with the wings of an owl. This syncretism of culture and faith is abundant. Another example includes the merging of Jesus Christ and the Lord of Earthquakes in an important Catholic festival here celebrated around Easter. Two, there is a precedent of lies for politicians. For example, our lecture from Dr. Carlena Ilizarbe at UARM included details of politicians such as President Garcia who promised the people one thing, but when elected did another. The group experienced this deception firsthand  when we visited the office of the Mayor of Ate. Ate is one of the disadvantaged areas in Lima. One of their problems is the amount of trash that is not properly disposed of.
This problem is compounded by the quantity of homes there. There are many people living here because the city grew rapidly, and there is not enough room on safer lands to accommodate everyone. One of the leaders there claimed to jog every morning and pick up trash to set an example for the community. I don't buy it, but as one of our group members pointed out to me, maybe the lie is not as important as the fact the community needs an example. Even if he doesn't really jog and pick up trash every morning, if stories are told that he is doing this, maybe that is more important.
Another theme of this trip for me includes the preciousness of nature. This is apparent in Lima. We have seen plenty of trash on our stay here, both in the water and on the land. The problem is complex. Why all of this trash? One reason might be that the city grew very rapidly. Another might be that the people who came here have different customs. How do you convince someone of the importance of taking care of the environment? As the group is discussed, this is not as easy as it might seem. This problem of conserving nature will probably deepen after our trip in Cusco where issues also include mining. According to our lecture from Dr. Carlena Ilizarbe at UARM, the state forces extraction, and the culture resists this. This leads to conflicts. The pattern appears to be that conflicts are only discussed after violence. 50% of all conflicts involve mining. In Cusco, I expect we will learn more about this.

Today we went to the Museo Larco in Lima. Learning about Incan history in the United States we were always taught that the Incan kings were considered  Gods. The Larco Museum has a collection of Incan headdresses and body ornaments. Seeing these relics on the mannequins at the museum were breathtaking; to see a person wearing amazing shinning gold ornaments from head to toe. I do not disbelieve they were god-like. I wish I could post my pictures from my camera ( unfortunately I forgot the correct connection).

One thing that struck me was the old musical instruments. One in particular was a large block of a wood with several holes in the top carved to several lengths. Again I wish I could post a picture because it looked almost identical to the flutes played last night at the Brisas del Titicaca show, a Peruvian traditional dance show.

The museum also contained large clay pots/vats. I did not catch the traditional name due to lack of time; the guide from the museum as well as ourselves were on a tight schedule. However, we were explained that the Incan people would brew and share chicha (essentially beer) in them. I wonder if the cultural traditions are the reasons we see such a difference in social behavior. One thing I have noticed since I have been here is that the people are closer to their loved ones than in the United States, or at least it appears so in public. For example, while we were in Chinatown, a portion of downtown Lima, we had about a half hour of free time that I spent resting on a bench. While watching the people passing by I notice that almost 70-80% of the people were wither linking arms or holding hands of their loved ones. Perhaps the sharing of the chicha back in Incan times instilled a culture of people who not only share but are close to one another and build communities together.

Continuing with this notions the amazing experience we had a daycare we visited today. Many mothers who live in the district San Juan de Miraflores came together and built a daycare their hands to house their children. From what I have heard, the mothers largely build this daycare from their own money, and donations from UNO coordinated by Dr. Celle, and no help from the local government.

I thought today was great being able to connect the long ago history with more present history present history. Also making connections with the differences between behaviors of other cultures that stem from their ancestors.