Carnaval in Cajamarca

So last weekend was my second experience with Carnaval in Cajamarca. I met up with a bunch of other volunteers and spent the weekend in Cajamarca. It was a lot different than last year, and there was probably only half the number of volunteers. Last year about 20 people from my group were present, and this year only 4. It didn't matter though because there was a good number of volunteers from other groups present and we still made sure we had a good time. I feel like I explained Carnaval pretty well last year so I won't go into too much detail. Basically the nights were spent in the plaza where drinking circles, drums, and carnaval dancing took place until dawn. Saturday was the paint day. This year half of us stayed at the hotel right on the plaza. At first we thought this would be a bad idea because it is a nicer hotel and we didn't want to trash it. However it worked out perfectly because they had a slop sink downstairs so we were able to easily refuel without making a mess. The location was key because it was right on the plaza and didn't involve a 15 minute walk. I filled up a water gun with paint water and this was a ton of fun. People don't expect water guns to have paint in them so it was enjoyable to see the expression on their face when they realized that their shirt was not just wet, but also splattered in paint. The other thing that was great was that this year I got smart and wore glasses to protect my eyes. It didn't completely stop paint from entering but it helped a ton.

On Sunday there was some kind of parade that passed through the Plaza. The weather wasn't the best and it was raining on and off. This didn't stop people from watching though, nor did it stop people from throwing water balloons. I watched a little bit of it but these parades go on forever! I'm talking hours and hours. Monday was the big event/parade. I had every intention of going to watch it but I had a little phone trouble. My phone had gotten wet and wasn't functioning probably and I wasn't able to access all my contacts. I tried calling several people to find out if there were any cars going back to Cochán later that day but I was unable to get ahold of anyone. Idealy I had watned to watch the parade and the reinas and then get a ride back to Cochán later in the afternoon. However, I had told everyone that there would be computer classes the next day so I needed to make sure that I got back in time. I didn't want to risk not finding a ride so instead I just went directly to the paradero at noon and found a ride back to Cochán. Everyone in my site was shocked that I didn't stay and watch the parade. Of course, for them that was the highlight of Carnaval. For me, the highlight was the paint, something many Peruvians actually try to avoid.

Squirting paint in the plaza

Province of San Miguel represent. Matt, Bron, and I after a long day of playing with paint.

Below are a few pictures I stole from Bron of the parade. She had a lot more patience than I did and sat in the rain and snapped up tons of good shots.

Expert Typers and Peruvian Music

Computer Classes, where do I begin? I have been teaching for 6 weeks, 2 more to go. There was a good turnout this year with over 60 kids coming, with an average of 50 a day. I'm a numbers person so I put this all in excel and can tell you that the kids ranged from 10-17, with an average age of 13.3. It makes it a little hard to teach with such a wide age range, but typing is one thing that everyone can learn. The kids in Cochán are going to have some kick ass typing skills, that is if they ever get to use a computer again. That's pretty much all we focused on. Well that, and playing games, Encarta, and a brief intro to the basics of Word, Office, and Powerpoint. My host cousin was in town one day and she has been studying to be a secretary for a year now. She also learned how to type in Cajamarca so she wanted to show us what she had. So we went into the computer classroom along with 2 of the boys that are my students. They pretty much kicked her ass. I tried not to cringe as the noise of finger pecking filled the room. I guess at one point she learned how to type without looking but once that part ended she abandoned that and started finger pecking. Her typing isn't ridiculously slow, but it will never get better with that bad habit of looking and finger pecking I am sure a few of my students will resort to finger pecking if they ever get in a front of a computer, but the wide majority are way past that.

One thing that I had to deal with this year was music. Last year the sound wasn't working on the computers. It was a shame because they weren't able to hear encarta. So once computer classes ended I fixed the sound. As a result, every single kid wants to listen to music on their computers. They don't understand why I don't want to hear 5 different songs blasting on five different computers at the same time. They don't even bat an eye at all the noise because they are Peruvian, and therefore used to loud music that all sounds the same. So that was one war I was having. Constantly telling people to turn off their music. I solved this probably by having turns to play music, but every once in a while someone else turns on music, thinking that I won't notice that there are two songs playing at the same time. I should also mention that there are about 15 songs on the computers. I am in the classroom for about 10 hours a day. So I hear every single song at least 20 times a day. It's a good thing I am one of those people that likes songs the more that they hear them. Another problem is that I think most of these kids are deaf. At every fiesta I've been too, the music has been so loud that I can't even think. There is no such thing as music that is too loud. In fact, the louder the better. It is perfectly acceptable to blast your music at all hours of the night. There are no noise complaints here. Now combine that with the invention of the mp3 player and you can imagine how much hearing is damaged. I am constantly telling people to turn down their music and they claim that they can't hear the song. The music will be hurting my ears and I find myself having to shout to be heard, yet the kids claim they can't hear it.

Finally, most of the kids can't find a simple document on the computer, yet EVERY single kid has figured out how to find the songs on the computer, even when I move them and put them in different folders. In fact, I let some of the kids look at photos on my laptop and they figured out how to use the touchpad and open up my iTunes to play music. This was on a mac, something that they had never even used before.

The boys trying to annoy the girls as usual. Shortly after this photo was taken there was some hitting involved. I've never seen so many girls hit boys in my life.

Practicing typing of course. Look at that posture!

Little ones learning how to use a mouse.

Hard at work creating a paint masterpiece.

Playing with my remote.

Tetris. It may not be educational...but it's 2 players!

The boys waiting outside for 2 hours before their class starts and trying to distract the girls with gigantic water balloons.

The gringa is in the sequía!

The fun in Cochán continues. The rain has been pretty much nonstop but that doesn't matter when it comes to Carnavales. My host family continues to play Carnaval and one day several of my students arrived to class soaked. I asked what happened and they told me that my host family attacked them with a line of buckets while they were walking to class. I'm a little jealous that I can't join in on the fun because I am in class all day. However, today was a sunday and it was nice and sunny out. Of course I knew this wouldn't last because there were clouds quickly moving in. Nevertheless there was nothing to do. There was no electricity or cell service because they were doing maintenance all day. It started all innocent. Some of the girls wanted to fill up some water balloons to throw at the cars coming by. I went and filled up a few to throw from the safety of my balcony. I also filled up a bucket hoping to dump it on someone. My host sisters are always up for playing Carnaval and pretty soon is was a bunch of females hiding behind doors in houses with water balloons to throw at unsuspecting males. However, the occasional water balloon soon turned into more once my host sister filled up a bucket as well. She went out into the street while I continued to throw water balloons from the safety of my balcony. Pretty soon I decided I wanted to get closer so I too went downstairs and outside to help my host sister. Well once word got out that a gringa was out on the street with a bucket, a bunch of the men went out and filled up buckets. It then turned into a full on Carnaval fight and pretty soon I was drenched, this time without the protection of my rain pants. I really wanted to get photos of it but I was already soaked and I was afraid that someone would ruin my camera. I can't explain how much fun it is to drench people with buckets of water. Well all fun has to end at some point and this fun ended when I tried to get my host uncle wet. He told me to go to the sequia, or the stream to fill up the buckets. So I followed him down the street thinking I could fill up my bucket there. I went to throw water on him and then my foot slipped and fell into the stream. It didn't matter too much because I was already soaked. However, he then proceeded to push me down so I was completely laying in the stream. That wasn't enough for him so he then took buckets of water and poured it all over me. Unfortunately the water level was low so the water was completely brown and muddy. Being wet was one thing, but being covered in dirt is another. My host sister came down to help me and he got her soaked too. However I was able to pull the bucket away from him and get him back my throwing water all over him as well. Once we got down fighting in the stream I looked at the street and there was a large crowd of onlookers gathered. Apparently one person saw me in the stream and then yelled, "run, run, come look at the gringa who is laying in the sequía"

I should also mention that not only can I not throw water balloons, but I also can't tie them. There is an art to it. I also just learned that there is an art to throwing buckets of water. Who knew? Even though I was successful in getting people wet, my host mother informed me that I didn't know how to throw buckets of water.

The green milk truck that terrorizes Cochán with water balloons.

weekends in site

I decided to stay in site longer than usual because I've been so busy. I am teaching monday through friday, so the weekends are my only down time. At first I thought I might be bored on the weekends, but they have been pretty busy as well. The first weekend I went to a wedding up in one of the caserios. I didn't know many people there and it was freezing. I went with my host parents but luckily they were as cold as well and not in the mood to party so we left pretty soon after we ate. We were still there 6 hours and left at 11pm, but parties here start late. The next weekend I went with my host family to the house where my host mother grew up. It's over an hour walk away and it's in a caserio that I had never been too. I almost didn't want to wear my rain boots because it was so sunny out, but they advised me too. I'm glad I took their advice because the walk was almost entirely in deep mud and I had to do my best not to fall. The sun also quickly turned to rain, making the mud even worse. I am constantly amazed at how sunny and beautiful it can look one minute, and then 30 minutes later the clouds and fog roll in, along with the rain. It was nice going on a walk with my host family because my host sisters, having grew up on the street of Cochán, and now after living in the city of Trujillo, aren't as accustomed to walking in the campo as others. We went to the house to pick sauco, a fruit they have here, but unfortunately there wasn't any to be found. However, on the way back we came across a ton of poporos, another fruit that they grow here. We spent a good hour picking the poporos to bring back and make mermelade. When I say we, I mean, they, because I watched. I am amazed at how easily they can pick fruit way up high with just branches and a twirl of the wrist. The next day it was off on another excursion. On of the girls that I'm friends with wanted me to go to her house. I had been once before, about a month ago, but I was unsure of how to get there. I made her come into town to get me, and then we walked the 30 minutes to her house, while she crocheted while walking, and I did my best to catch up and not fall. The day at her house turned into another photo shoot and I took over a 100 pictures of them in different outfits. Below are a few photos from the trip to my family's house in the campo.

The camino. This mud was particularly delicious. It's the kind that doesn't look too bad but one wrong step and you find yourself calf-deep in mud and have to try really hard not to lose your boot.

Crossing the river. Johana looks like a clown because they didn't want to get her clothes dirty from all the mud.

Peeling potatoes for our lunch.

Out in the campo with my host sister. Sure it looks like a beautiful day but 30 minutes later those pretty clouds rolled in and along came the rain.

The elusive ripe poporo. Usually I just see green ones.

The inside of a poporo. I am just happy to see fruit.

Picking poporos. I am modeling the traditional bag that they use here. Well they don't really use them in Cochán anymore. Just a few old people still have them. They are extremely common in San Miguel, the provincial capital.