Beginning at the end

The last several months have been a whirlwind. We had our close of service conference in Lima and are slowly packing up our things in preparation of leaving. It has been an exciting and emotional past few weeks. 

Throughout my time here in Peru I have struggled with being able to communicate what our life is like to our family and friends back home. As I read over my blog posts from the last 27 months I am struck at how I have barely scraped the surface. Since early on living in La Jalca, the abyss that separates where we live from where we are from has seemed to continuously widen.

To condense a few weeks here into a few paragraphs is a formidable challenge. Sometimes reflecting on how to communicate this experience to others makes me resent blogging all together. As the months have grown between posts, I’ve realized putting such a personal journey into words isn’t something that I always want or am able to do. As profound changes are happening to us personally, professionally and emotionally, sometimes it’s all we can do to just hang on for the ride and live it. 

I assure you this experience has been so much more than travel and work projects. Over the last two years we have built a life here. We have fallen in love. We have been inspired. We have crashed to rock bottom. And we have never been so incredibly happy.

As this adventure is coming to an end, we are struggling with the finality of leaving. Our friends here have a hard time understanding why we are leaving. They say don’t abandon them, that we are Jalquinos now, we can buy a house, have a farm and have a family. To hear these things from people here is at one time the greatest compliment and at the same time breaks my heart a little. For us we always knew we would go after two years. But in those two years our barriers we came with have been totally deconstructed.  We gave it our all. We opened ourselves up to people as they opened their lives to us.

It is a comfort to know we will keep in touch with people here. Thanks to the internet a goodbye doesn’t have to be so final. We know we will come back someday, although under very different circumstances and only temporarily. In the meantime we are looking ahead to the next adventure(s) and new beginnings.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those of you who kept us going along the way with your patience, love and support. I struggle to think what we would have done without the cards and letters, skype calls, and amazing care packages with comforts from home. 

“I came here searching for Peace

And it came for me in the chaos”-me

Sí, Se Puede

   We last left off with our first Eco-Fair and the festival of Raymillacta (or ”Town Party” in Quechua) approaching. I´m happy to report the Eco-fair was a huge success and Raymillacta in La Jalca was unforgettable.

   At the Eco-Fair we sold all of the native Aliso and Putcaro saplings in the first few hours. Our artisan group Pachamaytuna also sold a lot of beautiful scarves, ponchos, shawls and tapestry´s. The turnout from other communities was fantastic too. There was organic coffee, honey, vegetables, sugar and tons of other delicious regional products.  It was so inspiring to see so many people come together to appreciate and support sustainable, organic industry here. 

At the Ecofair in Chachapoyas

                               

 
        Raymillacta was incredible. In La Jalca we had great weather and Brian and I really felt like part of the festival this year. We marched in the parade in our traditional clothes and I even got to "model" the Artisan goods in a fashion show.  

La Danza del Oso (Dance of the Bear)

    We are getting ever closer to establishment of the conservation area and recently finished the biological studies in the field. The team of biologists found over 30 different types of orchids, evidence of the endangered Spectacled Bear (Oso de Anteojos) and some beautiful hummingbirds and tanagers. We can´t wait to get out in the field for more investigating. 

"Llamapampa" future conservation area

Tanager

Orchids

Hummingbird

    This week we returned from a three day camp in Tarapoto where we took part in teaching an environmental education camp to underprivileged kids. We camped in the jungle, went on nature walks, talked about conservation and had bonfires with s´mores. We learned how to play the Peruvian equivalent of dodgeball which is called Mata gente (Kill people). We can´t wait to show our friends back home this version of the game.

Easter on the Equator

    This has been an exciting and productive few months for us.  Our work projects have really  taken shape and have kept us wonderfully busy through the rainy season. 

    Brian is a Cocina Mejorada expert now and leading a project in La Jalca to build 20 cocinas or ´´better cook stoves´´. The families seem to love them and the only problem is that everyone seems to want one. 

    I´m still working with the community and two NGO´s to create a 70,000 acre community conservation area. So far there have been many ups and downs. I had no idea what was involved in a project of this scope when we started, but I´ve learned something new every step of the way. I hope that I will be here to see the formation of the area before our time here is up.  Go conservation!

     I´ve also started working with an artisan textile group here called Pachamaytuna. There are 20 women in the group who weave on wooden looms with sheep’s wool. They make beautiful things  but it´s been a challenge for them to find markets to sell their products. So, beginning in May we´re going to participate in the first Eco-Fair in Chachapoyas. Wish us luck!

Some friends admiring the artesania from La Jalca

   

Presenting Maria Jovita with a leaderhip award for InternationalWomen´s Day

    

We´re both looking forward to a week-long festival called Raymillacta in June because La Jalca is going to be hosting a day of the celebration. We´re working with the tourism commission and the regional government to organize traditional dances and foods, an artisan fair and a fashion show for the artisan groups to show off  their products.

 

  In between work we try take advantage of seeing more of Peru. Over Easter we traveled to the northern border near Ecuador. We spent Easter camping on the equator on a beautiful beach and celebrated Brian´s birthday. At night  we made a campfire and watched the bioluminescence in the crashing waves.  Pretty amazing.