Makin´ it happen.

As a part of my New Year’s resolution to write more to my friends and family at home, here it is, an unprecedented second updated within the month of January.

Since being back, things during this rainy season have been going great. There have been more people than I’ve expected, or at least this year I know who is willing to work with me of the people who are here. We’ve been hitting the theme of garbage management hard, and it looks like it is going to pay off. What does that mean, to hit the theme of garbage management? Let me tell you.

As you know, I live within the boundaries of the Reserva Paisijística Nor Yauyos Cochas. This is a protected landscape reserve, which according to Peruvian law means that people still live within the area in harmony with nature. The RPNYC was created in October of 2005 and each year it makes many advances to achieve this goal of harmony between man and nature. This year the push with the park service (SERNANP) is to build sanitary landfills in each of the nine districts of the park. That is where Peace Corps and I come in handy.

Since the first of January, we’ve located a place in my town to build the landfill (a challenge to find a flat space 50 meters from the river), we’ve had a solid waste engineer come do a site evaluation, and we are in the process of studying the garbage that we produce each day per capita so we know what size of landfill we need. We have the support of the Municipality (very important, since they have the funding), SERNANP, a local NGO called Instituto Rural Valle Grande, and the conservation committee of Tomas. All these players are helping, and I am specifically working with organizing all of these and helping with the logistics of moving a project like this forward.

The plan is to have all 9 districts of the RPNYC have a sanitary landfill before July of this year. This is an ambitious goal but with the right amount of push from many players, it is possible. Tomas is in a great spot since we have already acquired most of the resources that we need to get this project done. I’ll keep you updated. It is exciting.

Besides this ambitious garbage project, we are slowly moving with forward with planting the 4,000 eucalyptus trees we have. We are having weekly showings of the series Planet Earth by the BBC as a part of environmental education on the community level. I have 2 English classes each week, and a few other small projects always seem to be popping up here and there (such as restoring Andean Terraces). I’ve been busy, and except for the Vikings NFC Championship game loss on Sunday and a depressing amount of rain, I’m really happy with my time here. I’d love to hear from you all in emails or whatever form you choose!

And now some pictures for you viewing enjoyment…

My family coming home from the cows one day. Notice the shoes of my cousin Angie (blue pants), she stepped a little deep in the mud.

A meeting with all the Mayors of the RPNYC and the park service (SERNANP). Makin´it happen.

My dog, Oso. He´s grown quite a bit since the last picture.

One of the two rivers in my town. This is the same afternoon that further up the mountain there was a large landslide, which turned the water the color of hot chocolate.

Notice that little white oven on behind Brad? That allows for such bonding times as cookie baking here in Yauyos. I can almost guarantee those were the first M&M cookies baked in the region. MMMMMM, delicious dough, too.

My host borther, Dany, crossing a small landslide on a small road. Lots of landslides make things a little dangerous.

Some Andean Terraces up the hill that we are restoring. To make the restoration complete we need to plant something...

Fellow Yauyos PCV, Sarah, posing with a model of trash recepticales that her town´s schools are getting.

My first and only trout caught in Yauyos. Fishing in a lake is much different than the river. My host brother caught 11 and my host dad 9...i just need a little more practice.

Working with my community on the Terrace restoration.

Happy New Decade!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

After a three-month hiatus from blogging, I’ve re-entered the blogosphere from the Southern Hemisphere. MUCH has happened during this time, much more than I’ll be able to say in this blog. I’ll put some highlights up here and I promise (maybe I should have made this a new year’s resolution?) to update this my blog often.

1. On November 28 I completed one year as a Peace Corps Volunteer! This is a big milestone for many reasons, including the fact that I’m over halfway done in Peru. It is scary and exciting because now I’m counting down days instead of up, but I fear that I won’t have time to accomplish all that I want to here in Tomas.

2. The Peruvian school year ended. Surprisingly, that was not my doing, but it does mean that I made it through an entire school year of English club, helping with science classes when teachers weren’t around (essential I am my town’s substitute teacher), and doing a few other projects such as making micro landfills and working with students in our tree nursery.

3. I’m a Padrino! No, I didn’t agree to take responsibility of a Peruvian child as their godfather (although I am asked to do that a lot). Rather, my niece, Elsa Jean Lee, was baptized on December 27^th, 2009, while I was home visiting over the holidays and I was given the honor of being godfather. In case you’re wondering, she is super cute and a ton of fun. Luckily, she’s more like her mom than her dad…

4. I visited one of my favorite places on Earth, MINNESOTA! (it really was Mjnnesota nice) I was home for 12 days over Christmas and New Year’s, which was a great time. I got to see almost all my family and many friends. The time went REALLY fast, but it was well worth the trip to the States to be back to my own holiday traditions. If you are reading this blog from the USA, remember how fortunate you are to live where you do. Peru is an amazing place that I highly recommend visiting and experiencing for yourself; although we have SO many opportunities and comforts in the states we really are lucky.

Those are the big events, although daily life continues to be busy and always full of adventure. Recently, since there are no classes and it rains every day, this is what I’ve been up to. I’ve been teaching a new set of English classes, this time to anyone who wants to come, not just students.We are working of planting some 4,000 trees, which involves finding places to plant and people to do the work. We are starting compost piles with a few individual families, and I’m even learning the tricks to cultivating potatoes (hard work, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!)

I promise it won’t be another three months in between blog updates! Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Peace and Happy New Decade, Jared

And for you viewing enjoyment...

This is my families dog, King Kong, climbing into the sink to look for food scraps. He only goes in there when he thinks nobody is looking. Unfortunately for him, I caught him from my balcony.

Heather and I on our first official date. Ice skating in Rice Park, St. Paul.

Who's excited about being and Uncle/Godfather? This guy!

A teacher in my town: "Yared, can you be Santa to pass out these gifts?"

Me: "why don't we have a fat person play Santa?"

Teacher: "Because Santa is white."

Honestly, how can I go against that logic?

My family's new puppy, Oso (means bear), which I convinced my family to keep because he is SO cute.

Some other PCVs and I on top of Volcan Misit, a volcano 19,119 feet above sea level, which we climbed the day after Thanksgiving. It was tough, but a worth it.

This picture is the kindergarten graduation. I took their pictures. For some reason, if you put gowns on a 5 year olds, they behave like little angels!

The primary school kids took formation for Tomas' anniversary party on October 16th.

What happened to september?

It has been a VERY eventful and busy two months since I have last updated my blog. You may (or may not) have been wondering what I’ve been up to, so here is my best attempt at an update, although one blog is not nearly enough for two months worth of Peace Corps adventures.

First, my parents came! They spent 17 days in Perú with me, including 3 days in my site of Tomas. I’m pretty sure they had a good time, and if not they at least had a few out of the ordinary adventures. For example, riding in a taxi (which we had rented for the day) and the driver picking up a few more passengers so that we wouldn’t feel lonely. How kind of him as we cruised on the mountain roads with 8 passengers in a Toyota Corolla wagon. We ate Ceviche (raw, delicious seafood), alcapa meat, some Peruvian fruits, and even McDonald’s (happy birthday dad!)

We visited Machu Picchu, which really is one of the seven wonders of the world. We saw some other Incan Archeological sites, some great waterfalls and mountains, and even did a three day stint in the jungle. In the jungle we were welcomed by tarantulas, spider monkeys, red howler monkeys, caiman (alligator family), a variety of birds and butterflies, and a the largest rodent in the world, the capybara.

After the wonderful visit from my parents, my friend Heather came to visit, which again was another incredible week. We did some work in my site of Tomas, including my English club with high school students, worked with a group of moms in the tree nursery, and did some general Peace Corps schmoozing with the local Tomasinos, who were all excited to meet her. Overall, it was a blast to have Heather here and it was great for my town to get to know another American.

Work wise things have never been busier. A high school science teacher has been away for a few weeks with appendicitis/ appendix removal surgery. I, as the most qualified member of the community and by far the most interested, have been teaching his share of the classes of (C.T.A., or Ciencias, Tecnología y Ambiente, or high school science and environment classes). It has been fun to get more time than normal with the students, although the fact that I have no written curriculum has been quite the challenge. Not to worry, because I have my St. Olaf liberal arts education to help me overcome this challenge. Thanks black and gold!

In our community tree nursery things are advancing nicely. We have over 4,000 tree saplings in plastic bags, including Pine, Eucalyptus, Queñal (an endemic Peruvian species), and Tara (another Peruvian species). Some will be ready to plant this December/January when the rains begin more frequently, and others will wait until Dec. 2010. I won’t even be here to plant those in 2010, how quickly time flies.

During the last 2 months, here are some brief events that don’t need much explanation.
1. I got 5 stitches in one toe on my left foot.
2. I’ve completed one year in Peru. As of now, less than 14 months to go (is that enough time to get my projects done?)
3. Travel continues to be dangerous, as a mini van on its way to my town fell into the river and 11 people died (including 3 from my town).
4. I became an Uncle! Elsa Jean Lee was born on October 3. Can I get a shout out to Liz and Tippy for that!
5. Last night I watched the first half of Monday Night Football here in Tomas, Vikings vs. Packers, because I talked to the municipality about changing one of our two channels on the Direct TV satellite. They gave me from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. It was amazing…

Well, that is what I remember as of right now, although I’m sure I’m missing a few things. I hope that all is going well stateside, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this update!

Peace

Jared

Now, for your viewing enjoyment

Mom and Dad eating "Pollo a la Brasa", a Peruvian treat.

The Yauyos volunteers at a training in Lambayeque

Doing some tree nursery work with the Mother's Club

Dad and I at the Parque de la Indentidad in Huancayo

Parque de la Reserva in Lima. Great lights and fountains.

My two families combined in one picture. Great.

My parents and I exploring around an alpine lake in Yauyos. (near where I live)

Cruisin' in a jungle canoe.

Machu Picchu with the family. Christmas picture?

15,584 Feet

The last week in July is a holiday here in Peru, as the 27th and 28th are independence days. Peace Corps Volunteers are given this week as vacation, so I took advantage of this (along with a group of other volunteers) and we headed to the department of Ancash, the home of Peru’s largest and the worlds largest tropical mountain, Huascarán. I spent a few days in the capital city of Huaraz, enjoying great food and spending time with other volunteers, then I headed into Parque Nacional Huascarán for 3 days of backpacking with a 3 others.

Huaraz itself is nice, has restaurants suited catered for foreigners (I even ate Thai food!), and is surrounded by the beautiful snowcapped Cordillera Blanca. We visited a hot springs, I got to go indoor rock climbing, and spent a day preparing for our backpacking adventure.

But early on the third morning, we let the real adventure begin as we headed into one of Peru’s most famous national parks (Huascarán National Park was founded with the help of PCV’s in the 1970’s).

The crew was Fletcher, Frieda, Lil’ Ryan, and myself. We had all we needed for food, we rented a tent and a stove, and one of us even got some sweet hiking poles (the oldest and wisest member of the group, Fletcher. Although the poles actually take a lot of strain off your knees). Ready for anything, we headed for the famous (although overly crowded) Santa Cruz Trek. Unlike most tourists, we didn’t rent donkeys, cooks or guides to help us at the high altitude, but we just took everything on our backs and headed out.

The first day was an easy 13 Km or so, which was gradually up hill. We camped next to a glacial stream within a Queñal forest (an Andean tree, which is endangered). W woke up with frost on the tents, but all was well. After a granola breakfast and some coffee (or hot water, depending on preference), we were off to a tougher day than any of us had imagined.

The second morning began with a fairly technical, if not intimidating stream crossing on a wet log. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone and all the gear across safely, but we weren’t worried about time (although we should have been). We were hiking at a good pace, and soon we were above 4,000 meters above sea level (13,000 feet). The trail was easy to follow, but soon the altitude began to affect some of us.

We were still making good time, but sometime around before lunch we lost the trail. We knew were we needed to go, but the off trail hiking, over wet, swampy ground, was tiring. We eventually got back on the trail, but by this time it was late afternoon, and we still had a good distance to get to Punta Union, the highest point on the trek at 4,750 meters above sea level (15,584 ft).

With some iron will and some rest stops, we made it up to the point at 5:20 p.m. The sun was still up, but not for long, and we had a long way to go before we would be at a feasible camping spot. We took a little break at the point to take a video and some photos, and we started the descent. The urgency of the situation was starting to kick in, because that altitude gets pretty cold without sun. We were making good time descending, but a little night hiking was certainly in order.

At about 7:15, 45 minutes into the night, we reached a camping spot. We set up the tents, started making dinner, and tried to rehydrate to get rid of the headaches we all had by this point. Altitude, exhaustion, and thirst were all compounding to make us feel pretty miserable. It was still incredible though, as all around us were glaciers and we could occasionally hear avalanches (although we were out of their range). We finished up dinner, and went straight to sleep.

We rose early on the third and final day of the trip to get back to Huaraz to catch our buses that night. We had no idea how much trail we still had in front of us, but we knew it was all downhill, a welcomed change from the day before. The Santa Cruz Trek is 50 Km, and during the first two days, due to our off trail side trip, we still have about 25 Km to go. We were making good time, until the final descent began to wear on our knees and feet under the weight of our packs. The last few kilometers took more time than expected, and we finished the trek around 5:00. It was good to be done, and head back to civilization.

Despite the difficulty of the trek (which many people do in 4 days instead of 3), it was worth it to see some incredible mountains, lakes, streams, and spend time in nature with some good friends. As my former boss told me while rafting on a snowy Montana spring day, “if it was easy, everyone would do it”. This is exactly how I felt upon completion, that I had accomplished something and I had a great time while doing it.

The plaza in Huaraz, with the Cordillera Blanca in the background.

Who wouldn't be this excited about trail mix?

Frost on the tents!

Hiking up to Punta Union

Me with the mountain Huascarán in the background.

15,584 feet above sea level

The whole group made it! Notice the trekking poles?

The view from our second campsite

Making the long trek downhill the last day

Emerald Lakes. It is better in real life.

Nothing in more American than the 4^th of July. It’s a fun, festive, and of course, free time for Americans all over the world. In Perú, though, the 4^th doesn’t mean much in my small town of Tomas, Yauyos. Therefore, I took advantage of this weekend to see a new part of the Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos Cochas, and visited the town of Vilca. Although Vilca isn’t any more patriotic than Tomas, but it is one of the most incredibly gorgeous places I’ve seen up close and personal.

Sarah and I (my fellow PC friend who also stayed in Yauyos for the 4^th) went on a 3 day/2 night backpacking adventure to visit Vilca, a lake called Papacocha, and a forest of queñuales (a native Andean tree). What we found were breathtaking views and up close experiences with birds, waterfalls, trees, and even a local dog.

I don’t have much to write about Vilca, because the pictures and videos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Trying to look tough on the road between Huancaya and Vilca

Dead, down and dry! Firewood in Vilca.

Sarah at a pool in Vilca

Some Quenales and the dry waterfalls in the background.

Some beautiful mossy waterfalls in Vilca

Who's excited to play in the waterfalls? This guy!

Looking pensive above the lake and quenal forest.

The tiny little town of Vilca...look at that river.

Cooking by the fire.

The evening colors, camping in a pasture on the side of a mountain.

Lake Papacocha and the beginning of the quenal forest.

A little video taken at the waterfalls of Vilca.

Let's get ready for Christmas!

You might be wondering why we’re getting ready for Christmas in Tomas, because it is only July. No, it isn’t because we’re in the Southern hemisphere and everything is the opposite time of the year. Actually, when your Christmas party is a 4 day event with free food for 2000 people, it takes a lot of prep work. So here, on July 1st, we began to collect fire wood to cook at the big event.

This event, called the “Saca Leña”, which means “firewood take”, is an old tradition here in Tomas. The tradition has changes a lot of the years, basically due to accessibility to a chainsaw, but it is still a big family event. It used to be that the entire family would spend an entire day walking the mountains collecting firewood, hence the name, but now it has changed to cutting down one or two big trees and splitting and collecting the wood. My “great uncle” is one of the sponsors of the Christmas party this year, so all of my family was helping with the task of bringing and preparing all the firewood.

We started the day with a “mote” breakfast. Basically, it is a soup that has alpaca and corn, and is pretty tasty. Then, we all headed to my family’s garage/house to split a giant Eucalyptus tree that had been cut down the day before. We started working with axes, stakes and sledgehammers, and pry bars to split the massive tree. There were a lot of people working in a very small area, but amazingly nobody lost any fingers or toes. After some time working, we took a break where they started to pass around the beer, caña (gross, hard liquor), and coca leaves. I don’t particularly like the idea of getting a little buzzed while working with tools that could easily take a finger, hand, or eye, but nobody really seemed to notice that mixing these things was a bad idea. After the break we continued as before, although I was working a little more precaution.

The day ended with the splitting of a second tree, although much smaller than the first, and after a quick lunch I went to my regular Wednesday afternoon soccer game. This week was also special though…we got jerseys!

I play in a league that has 4 teams, the Municipality, Tomas Youth, the High School team, and my team, the Teachers. The teachers decided that uniforms are a good idea, since all the other teams have them. A teacher organized the whole thing and for 22 soles (about $7.33) we got a jersey, shorts, and socks. They even have our names on the chest. Everyone used their last name, except me, because having “Jared” on my shirt helps with the pronunciation of my name more the “Brandell”.

The other interesting thing that happened before the game was we had a special presentation by the Priest. We have a Priest in Tomas 4 days a week, and he teaches Religion classes as well as leading the Catholic Mass. So before we donned our new jerseys, the Priest blessed them and sprinkled them with water. It is certainly the first blessed item that I have. I can’t say it did nothing though, because we did win for the first time in 4 weeks…

Life is continuing to go well. I’ve got a camping trip planned for the 4th of July, although it won’t be anything like a weekend at the lake. My work is keeping me busy and as a community we are advancing with a few environmental projects, such as our Tree Nursery. I’m enjoying my time in Tomas, and the days go by so fast! My next 17 months will certainly fly by!

And now some random pictures of my life...

My good friend Luis in our Magisterio (teachers) soccer jerseys.

Some of the teachers and the mayor, after the uniforms were blessed.

Choppin' some wood.

On Father's day, the dads all received jackets from the municipality.

Taking a break from chopping wood, why not chew some coca leaves? (I didn't)

My host dad (left), and some other community members watching the father's day performances by the students.