I have been in Peru for 3 days. It was a crazy trip, one that should have lasted 24 hours and ended up lasting 38 (?) hours with one unplanned night in Miami. The other highlight was when the airline lost my bags for 4 days. Finally, I picked them up yesterday and could change into clean clothes. The last 3 days have been crazy, but I will try to sum them up.
I arrived in Lima at night on Saturday and at 6am on Sunday we set off for Cieneguilla, the place we will call home for the next 3 months.We had the inauguration ceremony to open the sala de computo. The entire town was there and the mayor of cieneguilla came down. It's actually really amazing to see the people's reactions to the computers and compare those to how I feel about my computer. They seemed fascinated... I see my computer as a necessity, but something I can't wait to free myself from when I can. After that, we got to explore the pueblito. It is very small with one main street, uno o dos bodegas (like the depanneurs in Montreal)
I am living with a pretty young family, but they've been really kind to me... always making me hot plate of rice with some typical peruvian food and I have alot of private space. Comparing the food here to the food in Canada or USA is kind of funny. For breakfast here, we eat alot of Pan or something savory, with alot of potatos and rice. I never really have sweet stuff, and very few vegetables... and some fruit. We drink alot of tea (en español se llama aguita) becuase it is alot safer than drinking water straight from the tap.
The other awesome thing about Peru is the transportation. They don't have a public bus system around Lima...so we take Combis or Carros. The Combis have specific routes and fixed prices for different distances, and there are stops but they aren't as fixed as in Canada. Bajas cuando quieras bajar y Subes cuando quieras subir. They're fun tho because its like going on an amusement park ride without having to pay alot of money. You kind of bounce around and if you're lucky, you get a seat or you can stand... and then have to hold on for dear life. As Matt said before I came, It feels abit like bullriding.
The weather is... not very nice. It{s winter here, so there isn't alot of sunshine. It's about 15-25 degrees during the day, but its very humid, so it feels alot cooler. It's always very cloudy, in peruanese, we call it Nublina. Its a very thick cloud that comes up from the sea, and doesn't go away for most of winter. APPARENTLY, where we're living, it is sunny on some days. I hope so!
We went to the other school today in Villa Maria del Triunfo, another pueblo o cuidad close to Lima. We took around the other aulo del computo and tried to salvage parts from the computers that were there before. It was pretty funny, most of them had massive screens and specs like pentium II processors at 500 ghz with 360 mb ram or something (round numbers) but it was still pretty funny. Needless to say, they were pretty ancient and of 9 computers, we decided to keep 3 or them. In the second school, we will probably get 13 computers in total- for a school of 500. This will stop me from ever complaining about the computers at McGill ever again. Hopefully the computers we're buying will last a while. They are running much better processors at 2.8 GHZ and 2 Gb Ram. Matt will post pictures from our little adventure later.
In the coming days, we are meeting with the profes and the APAFA from each school to discuss the horario and the contenido for each program. We should have a good idea of what we'll be doing for the next 3 months in the coming days. After that, we have to sit down and plan the various activity sessions for the kids and parents from each school. We are all realizing that our days are going to be very long as we run sessions in each place, shuttle por combi between the two places, eat and plan.. and some how have downtime. Although, I don't think the days will be as long as during EMC summer, so at the moment, I can say that I've survived worse. In the mean time, I need to keep working on my spanish to that in 2 weeks I can do our presentation at Villa Maria and run the activity sessions. Luckily I have Matt to act like he doesn't understand me when I'm being lazy! hehe jk Gemelo!
Long post.. but alot has happened in the last fews days. At the moment, I am feeling very optimistic and excited about the next 3 months. It's going to be very hard, but so far things are going well and I hope that the trip down turns out to be the worse part of the whole trip!!!

Hasta Luego,
Katie

Inauguración

Soon I'll get some pictures up from today's inauguration celebration at La Libertad. Let's say it included a ribbon cutting as well as a champagne bottle. Fortunately the champagne was contained away from the computers. The mayor was there, along with a good number of parents, teachers, and people from the town. The excitement was evident, as everyone milled about the computers and peeked through windows to catch a glimpse of the action. You get a sense of wonder from all of it. I really hope to take this energy and build on it with our activity program.

It was a full day: Seeing Katie as she soaks in the new country, trying to remember names as I meet everyone in the city within the space of an hour, crazy combi rides and it's all new but it has a familiar feeling to it. I've done this before, just in a different context and a couple years ago. It's been great meeting up with old friends from Villa Martha and there are stil others to track down.

It's very difficult to think in long phrases. I think switching between English and Spanish is harder than just sticking to Spanish. At least I know what to expect then...

Hasta pronto.
Matt

In a few days...

The last month has been a whirlwind, but everything seems so far away now. I'm making the final preparations for the trip. Over the past week, I have been visiting alot of family and meeting up with old friends and they have all asked me how I am feeling about the project. For the first time, it was very hard for me to put how I'm feeling into words. It is a strange combination of being extremely excited about the entire project, about seeing Peru which I've heard so much about, experience the culture and speak spanish for 3 months; at the same time, I'm feeling nervous about the challenge of the project, knowing that its success rests on our shoulders and that there is no manual or template of how to make the project run smoothly. I'm also nervous because unlike school where you can easily predict and know what to expect, with this project, I have no idea how it will go and I can't foresee the next 3 months. I'm leaving my "cellphone" my macbook, the deadlines and english behind for the next 3 months, it's such an awesome, liberating feeling. My Spanish is coming back... thanks to Harry Potter y Las Reliquias de la Muerte and mexican gossip shows....

There are a few things I'm not leaving behind... Books about the Midde East and English Breakfast Tea. My next post will be using the computers in the lab in Cieneguilla!

Hasta Luego
Katie

A photo bonanza

These first photos (edit: which unfortunately appear in reverse order, so the last photos) are from Villa Maria (Matsu Utsumi school, blue) from my visit there on Friday. They have a little room that has recently started functioning as a ceramics workshop, which I think could find a way to integrate itself with the Conectados project.

There was a meeting in Cieneguilla (La Libertad school, yellow) today so I went along with Isaac to check things out. These are a bunch of photos from there. The area is much smaller than the photos make it seem--I was a bit surprised by that. Right now the connection is a bit unstable because the modem is connected directly at the computer, but the plan is to get an extension cable so that it can go up to the roof or outside and get a better signal. They're getting speeds of about 500kbps when it should be around 1300. Of course when the lab isn't open they'll keep it inside, locked behind two padlocks and a deadbolted iron-barred door. Without tempting fate, I challenge someone to break through that.

The teachers (appearing the Cieneguilla photos) are exceptionally motivated by this project becoming reality. There was a lot of uncontrollable smiling in the meeting, and they're already coming up with ideas of how it can expand into other aspects of the community and school. Word is getting out, they say, and kids from outside as well as adults have been asking if they'll get to use it. Happily the answer is yes! We just need to work out a system of when and how to teach them and a schedule, etc. The teachers joked that next year their enrollment will double because of the internet connection's appeal. Although there are still issues to resolve in regards to who takes responsibility when things go wrong, the energy is very positive and everyone wants this to work now that it's actually there and not just hot air.

Yes, it's real.

We stopped by Villa Martha (the orphanage where I worked before) today and since the first school is close by, we stopped by too. Fortunately the people who live here had the door open so we snuck in I suppose and I'm writing this on one of the computers that we bought. They've even got a few webcams that the computer place gave them so be prepared for some sort of videoconference in the future...

Anyway, we'll miss the last bus out of here if we don't go soon. Once Katie is here we begin! No aguanto la espera...

Matt

Let me tell you why I adore Peru.

Today I spent the afternoon in the market, sitting at a table that had been "varnished" with packing tape. A little boy and I spent at least an hour playing with two paper towel tubes, an empty bottle, and two bottle caps. First it's a telescope, then it's a tower. We played Jenga--see who can push it furthest before it fall over. We built houses and found ways to hide the bottle caps inside. We played 3-card monty with one tube and two caps: guess which is where. Then we started to flick them across the table at each other until he discovered a sort of foam tennis ball and now we're really talking.

I'm pretty sure the total cost of that was zero. Oh, the things North America could learn from this boy…

Touchdown!

I've arrived in Lima and all is well. Surreal is the best word, but slowly things feel second nature again, like the dogs and cats in the street, fruit vendors over bullhorns, and cutting electricity to our whole floor by trying to take a hot shower. Sweet, sweet Peru.

The computers are up and running, and everyone is fascinated. I will be going with Isaac to see the area on Fri/Sat, but we won't be formally introduced or start the actual activities until Katie arrives in a few days. It's all very exciting but ever so slightly overwhelming, too. My Spanish is catching up, but it will take a few days. The strangest thing is remembering that everyone will expect me to speak Spanish, compared to hopefully eavesdropping on Edmonton buses only to catch a couple sentences in my adopted language.

It will also take at least a day to recover from the 30 hours of travel, including sleeping overnight in the Edmonton airport to catch my very very early flight and then sporadic naps on the four planes that it took to get me here.

But it's real! I'm in Peru! How can't I love this feeling?

Matt