Safe and (still) Dry in Huamanga

¡Hola from Huamanga!

Huamanga is the colonial name of the city of Ayacucho. The Peruvians use the old name of Ayacucho (Huamanga) to distinguish the town of Ayacucho from the province of Ayacucho. Huamanga is located south and east of Lima, in the Andes Mountains. The town is poor, and is not as attractive as any of the places I have visited thus far. Even San Jose, Costa Rica looks beautiful compared to this place. But it is calm here.
There are many native indians here. They speak Quechua, a version different from that which is spoken in and around Quito, Ecuador. They dress similarly to the indigenous people that live in and around Quito. The poverty rate here is 70%. The literacy rate is 50%.

The government spends little money to support the province of Ayacucho. Most of the money used to support the people in the province of Ayacucho comes from the cultivation of coca plants. The type of coca plant that is grown in Ayacucho provides a larger yield of a more potent chemical that is desired for cocaine. About 99% of the coca grown here is used by drug dealers. Drug dealers pay farmers alot more money for coca leaves than they would receive growing other crops. And there is a supporting industry in the growth, processing and transport of the leaves and paste that provides a source of income for many, many people in the region. Jobs are scarce here, so coca agriculture supports many people.

The remaining 1% of the harvest is used by the people for private consumption. People make tea from the leaves (it alieves altitude sickness), and chew it to for energy and to alieve hunger. Coca leaves are not addictive.

I arrived in Huamanga early Sunday morning. I arrived in Lima from Quito at 10:30 PM and had to wait in the airport overnight until 4 AM to check in for my flight to Ayacucho (Huamanga). That I was able to stay awake through the wee hours of the night is amazing to me. As many of you know, I´m not a late night person. There were ten volunteers who joined me in the cafeteria awaiting the same flight. We had time to talk and start to get to know each other.

The managing director of the Ayacucho Program came to Lima to flew with us to Huamanga. He was there to attend to any glitches there might be. And there was a glitch: Since were were a group traveling together, they made us pile all of our luggage on the scale at once. The combined weight was more than the weight allowed for the tickets we purchased, so we had to pay more money (over $80). But it was impossible to determine whose luggage was overweight. Rudy was able to convince the airline to charge us less money for the overage. Thank you Rudy.

There are 14 volunteers who started with me in Huamanga. Three others from a previous group are still at the residence finishing their time here in Huamanga as volunteers. Most are from the USA, but two are from Canada, one is from Ireland, , one is from Scotland, and is from England. Two are men, the rest are women. And the ages range from highschool on up. We all live in a residence house. There are two to a bedroom, but each room has two sets of bunkbeds (and a private bathroom). Four people to a room would be awful! My roommate, Rosemary, is from San Francisco. She´s older. A former stock trader. A very smart woman. So far we are getting along fine.

Today we took a tour of some of the places where we will do our volunteer assignments: a soup kitchen, a boy´s orphanage, a prison, a school, a health center/ clinic. I´ll be working in the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is a cooperative started by several local women to provide inexpensive meals to women and children. The kitchen itself is small and smokey. Very low tech. They use wood to heat the stove. I start tomorrow.

Yesterday a group of us took a walk around the town. As we walked, we had to dodge boys throwing water and water baloons. This is week preceding Carnival, and the boys have a habit of throwing water at women and each other for Carnival. This peril lasts for about ten days. they appear from out of no where. They are on the tops of rooves. The roam in packs. They carry balloons and buckets full of water, and super soaker waterguns. Yesterday I avoided getting hit. Only my feet got wet. Other volunteers weren´t so lucky. But I expect my time will come soon. It´s only a matter of time.

Time to get ready for this afternoon´s activities.

cheers,
Stacey