What am I doing in Peru? I am working with the Environmental Section of Peace Corps Peru. We work in three main areas: Reforestation (or forestation), Environmental Education, and Solid Waste.  But we can do other projects as needed for our communities because our most significant job is helping the communities we live in in whatever way we can.

I work in three communities. Two of these Cerro Alegre and San Isidro have sufficient resources to solve most of their problems on their own. The third, Cerro Candela, is a very poor community and the individuals do not seem to understand how to “get it together” enough to solve their problems.  They seem to be overwhelmed by their poverty rather than focused on the resources they do have, as many desperately poor people are.

The other problem these communities have is that the Mayor of the District of Imperial, the district in which these communities are, either pockets the money his district has, or is spending it on things various communities desperately need. Like electricity and potable water. But I am the only one who has suggested the latter possibility.

All of these communities have a problem with garbage. Although the garbage is picked up twice a week many people throw their garbage outside of their homes, on the streets but especially in the small river and the irrigation canals, which run inside and around the community. When I was doing the interviews with people in these communities someone said that people burn their trash because there is no water.  Although only one person said that I found it a really interesting comment. But most of the people thought that throwing their trash was a bad thing and on the other hand burning it was acceptable. In actuality burning it is far more dangerous to the health of the community than throwing it in piles. Both are bad for the environment.

In Cerro Alegre and San Isidro I hope to

1. Install baskets that can hold the garbage above the reach of the dogs that roam the streets.

2. Educate the people in these towns to use these baskets rather than throwing their garbage in inappropriate places.

In Peru people do not have garbage cans, they do not have space to put garbage cans in my town. Although mine are small towns the houses are right next to each other with no space between then. The people put their garbage in plastic bags within the house and then in a 5-gallon bucket or rice sack. The garbage men take the 5-gallon bucket or rice sack, dump it into the garbage truck and then throw it back on the ground for the people to retrieve.

In Cerro Candela I hope to:

1. Help them get electricity to their water pump. They need to be more organized for this bureaucratic process.

            2. Help them get money to install water pipes for the houses that are above the main area of town.  At this time they carry water up a 45 or more degree sloop to their houses.

There are other small projects I could do. One person I work with wants to put an area for the young people to play chess in her small park; maybe we could install an area for younger children to play also. In another town there is a playground that needs to be repaired.  In Cerro Candela the children have essentially nothing, so a library or a play area would be a great addition to their lives.

I have really just started here. Three months were spent in training and three months to get to know your community. Now I start the real work.

Jan and everyone,

Yes the small spoons are very much like demitasse spoons, except everyone uses them here. They don’t use teaspoons. (But if you are really a well-mannered person from the Sierras  (the mountains) you only use a large spoon, meaning no fork either.) Actually hot dogs are only rarely served here. White rice is served almost twice a day. The best cooking secret from here is to put your sweet potatoes in the full sun for 5 days and then in the shade or inside. They are very sweet that way you don’t need to add any sugar (if you ever did add sugar.) They also have a purple sweet potato, which is also very good, (only the outer surface is purple.) Of course, there are various types of potatoes, actually about 2,000 to 4,000, but I see 10 or so in the market every time I go there.

They grow artichokes and asparagus around here but rarely eat them. They are canned for export. In fact 100% or 50% (I don’t remember which) of Costco’s jars of artichokes hearts are canned about ¼ of a mile away from here.

There are several varieties of corn that are commonly served, usually on the cob, in soups. Tamales are usually served Sunday morning. The Tamales are wrapped in banana leaves and pieces of meat and olives and peanuts are mixed into them, rather than the masa wrapped around a filling.  The Corn masa is courser and more brilliant orangish yellow color than what I have had in the US.

mayacoba beans: I had to read a little in the Internet before I could answer this. I was served a dish of yellow beans, three kinds of yellow beans, this last week. Nothing especially different about cooking these but they call them either yellow beans or canary beans. Apparently these were crossed with another bean to arrive at the mayacoba variety.

I have had Quinoa here as well as the U.S. Mostly it is served the same as they serve oatmeal, a soupy drinkable breakfast with canned milk, or it is added to soups.

The food here is excellent, but I can’t really tell you why, the biggest difference I notice is that they use way too much salt, (and sugar) and that they really care about their food. They have a great deal of pride in Peruvian food.

I have had so much ceviche or cebiche that I have no interest in having any more for a few months.  But it also is very good. We only eat ceviche when we are close to the coast and I am about 30 minutes from the ocean. I also had excellent (to die for) goat yogurt last week.

Sopa Seca is the specialty of Cañete. Basically spaghetti with a spicy sauce. I will figure out the recipe and add it to my post one of these days. My father is more than glad to teach me how to make it.

The diets here on the coast generally lack vegetables, there are some but not many, except for the sweet potatoes.  Fortunately they are cheap as well as good. A truck was driving through town offering a sack (50 to 100 pounds, I don’t know but a large sack) for 15 soles (less than 7 dollars).  Fruit is easy to obtain and there are many different varieties, many can be found in the US some cannot.