Giving a Living to a Life in the Rainforests of Peru

Now that we have been down here for about a month it is probably about time to describe the community of Chipaota where the majority of our work is being done.  Chipaota is a small indigenous village about twenty minutes down the river from Chazuta.  To get there we travel in long skinny boats with motors mounted on back, seated along the wooden sides with chickens and platanoes piled about our feet.  Chipaota is marked by a tall concrete staircase that leads up the bank of the river into the community.  Unfortunately, the staircase collapsed after flooding last year so we are forced to clamber up the dusty sides of the hill, passing women washing clothes and children bathing as we go.  After catching our breath we look up to see the beautiful, quaint little village laid out in front of us.  There are no cars or motorcycles here so only a slender foot path cuts through the grass in the center of two rows of thatched wooden houses.  We start along the path and stop at almost every house to shake hands and exchange greetings with the people inside.  In most houses a gourd full of massato (a drink made of fermented yucca, sometimes chewed and spit back in by the maker) is brought out and passed to each of us to drink from.  All of us have a hard time getting through a few sips of this and we struggle to smile and express our thanks without inadvertently being served more.  The people in Chipaota are extremely hospitable and go out of their way to offer us all that they have.  Each time we go we are given fresh coconuts to drink from or glasses of soda or bouquets of flowers from the children.  We are always made to feel and home and it is obvious that the people there really care for us and are happy we are there.

An interesting thing about Chipaota is that every family has a ‘chakra’ (a small plot of land where they grow crops and raise animals) that is located up in the mountains above the community.  The way it works is that there are actually two parts of the village.  There is the newer section that is located right next to the river but there is also an older part (named Chipaota Vieja) that is located roughly an hour walking above the river.  It is in this higher area that each family’s chakra is located and most travel daily from one area to the other.  Everyone in the community was originally located in the higher area but they all decided to move fifteen years ago to be closer to the river so that their children could have access to better education.  Now the norm is to commute back and forth, staying intermittently in both places.  Just yesterday we had the opportunity to go up and stay the night in Chipaota Vieja and we had a really great time getting to know the deeper jungle there.

We are slowly but surely getting started on the projects that we came here to work on, including working with the group that makes brooms as well as the artisan group.  We have spent the last few weeks getting to know the people in each group and attending meetings to better understand how things work.  Both groups seem well-organized and there are energized individuals who want to see these alternative means of income succeed.  We are still figuring out just how we may be able to help to achieve this goal. The next month we spend here should be more focused on planning sessions with the groups and coordinating to get workshops built for both groups.  We have also started to teach informal English classes in Chazuta and hope to do the same for school children in Chipaota who receive no language instruction.  Our overarching mission is to truly immerse ourselves in the culture and community here and to give back in whatever ways that we can.  This is just as much a learning experience for us as for those we are working with.

We finally made it to Chazuta, the "city" where we will stay most of the time. Chazuta makes Tarapoto look like a thriving metropolis with many (not all) paved roads and throngs of motorbikes flooding the street. Chazuta can be described as a little town on the river with a main unpaved road (avenida chazuta - how appropriate). There's a plaza at the end of the street with a greater variety of stores. There's a back road that parallels avenida Chazuta and serves the residential area. Of coarse there are more roads and facets of the town, but those are just the main roads.

The hotel is probably the most luxurious place to live in the town. Running water is only available early in the morning or at night. What makes this place so luxurious is the fact that the bathrooms have actual toilets (like a toilet bowl and a water tank). To compensate for the lack of running water, the hotel people put a big bucket under a single spigot which seems to be the only one that has water throughout the day. When you're done using the toilet, you just take a small bucket of water and pour it into the toilet bowl to flush (unless you're the lucky first user of the day).

In Chazuta, prices are even cheaper than in Tarapoto. You can get a full meal for 3 or 4 soles: roughly 1 to 2 dollars. Another unique Chazuta experience is when there was a blackout (which is not uncommon here). This is where I must give thanks to Uncle Duane for the awesome flashlight (the mini maglight). Of the Nourish volunteers, my flashlight was the brightest, had the greatest distance, and had a candle light option (where you unscrew the mirror/lens head to reveal the LED - very useful for illuminating a room… or when you're taking a "shower" in the dark).

Speaking of shower, since there was no running water from the blackout, I had to do the old-fashioned "scoop from a bucket" routine… in the dark. It was a really humbling experience, and it made me realize how little water we actually need throughout the day… the things we take for granted… I have to be grateful though, because I could have had to take a shower in total darkness.

In Tarapoto, we couldn't really hang up a mosquito net, so I woke up one day with three bites on my left index finger. Needless to say, it was quite swollen. But in Chazuta we can! So yay for that! In retrospect, however, that´s nothing compared to the 50 something bites on my body (excluding my back and neck; I counted). Next time, I´ll consider bathing in bugspray.

The weather is definitely something in Chazuta. One minute the sun is beating down on you from a cloudless sky, and the next grey clouds are saturating the ground with water, and then the clouds go away. When the weather decides that it actually wants to rain, the unpaved streets turn into mud (yay rubber boots!)

Random things I noticed:

This past Saturday morning we woke before dawn, scrambling bleary-eyed to brush teeth and cram miscellaneous items into our bulging packs.  We piled our bags on top of a tiny, worn-out sedan and set off for the town of Chazuta.  In the wee hours of the morning Tarapoto seemed almost peaceful with only one or two stray motorcycles wandering the roads and a notable absence of blaring music.  We departed so early for Chazuta because the road that connects it to Tarapoto is under construction, meaning that cars can only pass between the hours of 6:30 pm and 6:30 am.  The hour and a half journey bumps chaotically over the mountains and drops gradually into what can truly be called ‘jungle’, where dark tangled trees saturate the land and a huge muddy river pulses below.   On the way we narrowly dodged oncoming traffic barreling in the opposite direction on the one-lane road and had to stop while our driver fixed a flat back tire.  Fortunately the breathtaking scenery and low-floating clouds reflecting the sunrise were enough to calm our frazzled nerves.  It wasn’t until later that we heard a story about how, just two weeks prior, a four-by-four carrying five passengers slipped off the road and went flipping down to the river below, chucking three of the passengers free and taking the other two into the water.  As if that isn’t scary enough, the car and the two people sank and still can’t be found!  A little unsettling, to say the least.

                We arrived safely to Chazuta at about seven in the morning and drove along the main street which runs parallel to and sits directly along the Huallaga River.  Compared to Tarapoto, Chazuta seems small, poor, and dusty, though much more beautiful and tranquil.  We got dropped off at a nice little ‘hotel’, named Los Cedros (The Ceders), which is unlike anything I have ever seen but very pretty in its own way.  It is completely open and full of plants with dirt and wood floors and some little wooden rooms that remind me of cabins. There are only one or two other people staying here besides ourselves so we pretty much have the place to ourselves.  The only real difficulty is that there is only running water early in the morning or late at night, so we are learning very quickly how to bucket shower and manually flush toilets.  However this is only a small inconvenience, especially as the price (roughly $45 a month per person) is so agreeable.  We are moving around furniture and cleaning a bit as we unpack our things and get settled for the next two months.

                Quickly after we arrived to the hotel on the first day there was some commotion in the street and then a parade, led by small children waving white flags, began to pour through the town.  There were people from many of the indigenous communities just down the river (including Chipaota) dressed in traditional clothing and chanting and beating drums.  They were marching to mark the one-year anniversary of the deaths of about forty indigenous people and local police who were killed by the government when protesting the entrance of big companies into the forest.  We followed the parade in the scorching sun and, once they reached the central plaza, listened to a few speakers talking about how important it was to commemorate the deaths and to maintain resistance through peaceful protest.  It was a really moving event for us to see right off the bat and gave us some insights into the struggles that persist in this area.   I hope to learn more about this over the course of the summer.

                We will finally get to visit Chipaota, the community we will be working in, on Wednesday when Lucia, the awesome Peruvian coordinator of the Rainforest Partnership, comes back down from Tarapoto.  For now we are just getting more accustomed to our surroundings and to the day-to-day life here.  We walked to a smaller river today and swam around between the many people washing their clothes and children washing each other’s hair and jumping off of rocks into the shallow water.  Just down the way some men had driven their cars into the river to be washed.  It is hard to watch so many heavy soaps and chemicals mix with the water and get carried down to the Huallaga.  This is just such a beautiful place and it is hard for us, as privileged outsiders, to fathom doing such a thing.  However it is clear that for these people this is just how life is and the river is the most convenient option.  There is not really an understanding of the detrimental effects of such chemicals and, even where there is, necessity takes precedence.   Similarly the people here eat massive amounts of fried foods (chicken, platanos, etc.) that would make people in the US cringe.  However this is what has traditionally been made and what is affordable, so it continues.  We are getting acclimated to it quickly enough, though, and I am already craving the fried sweet platanos that we will probably cook up for dinner.

For now it is off to find some coconut popsicles and a nice cold shower…

Hasta luego amigos!

- “Cuanto cuesta?” = How much is it?

- “Diez soles” = Ten soles (1 sol = 0.40 US dollars)

- “Le doy nueve soles” = I’ll give you nine soles

- “Esta bien” = Ok

Such is the typical conversation I’ve noticed here in Peru. Whether you are getting a cab or buying something at the market, there is almost always a brief tug-a-war over the price of the commodity. In a sense, it is quite comical that we (as in, the locals and foreigners as well) will go through this process merely for the sake of a sol (i.e. 40 cents). Sometimes the savings is more substantial and one can save up to 10 soles ($4) as I did today when I bought a pair of sandals.

While in Lima, a good meal at a nice restaurant (as in something akin to Red Lobster) might cost you about 20 soles ($8), though if you asked around, one could certainly find quite tasty meals for under 10 soles ($4). As predicted by Margo who has prior experience traveling in Latin America, it did not take long for us volunteers to become acclimated to this new culture and to redefine the value of money.

Suddenly, things that we would have considered to be a fair price in the US became expensive. Here, it has become a big deal to spend more than 10 soles on a meal (and this would be at a sit-down restaurant where you get a waiter, not a fast-food joint). Here, we bargain for a couple soles (less than $1) before taking a cab somewhere, yet in US we’d simply have to pay 4 or 5 times the entire costs for an equivalent cab ride. We volunteers have even laughed at ourselves once or twice over haggling over one or two soles for a cab ride.   

This behavior is somewhat difficult for me to completely understand. I certainly am aware that some people, especially us volunteers, are on a budget and cannot afford to waste money, but sometimes this behavior seems to be somewhat…excessive…dramatic…unnecessary. Like I said, sometimes we haggle over 1 sol (40 cents) with a cab ride. However, I think that such seemingly benign decisions (i.e. the choice one makes to bargain the price down as low as possible) have important implications that should be considered more in depth.  

My personal feelings/thoughts on the matter is that this “heckling-for-the-lowest-possible-price” behavior is somehow contributing to the impoverished condition in which Latin America continues to live. I do realize that the impoverished situation within Latin America is very complicated and that the contributing factors are numerous. However, it does not take an expert in the fields of business and economics to understand the basic principles of running a business for the purpose of making a profit in order to be able to support yourself (and perhaps your family as well).

Imagine that you are a business person and that you are selling a commodity for $4 or 10 soles. Now let’s say that it cost you $3.20 or 8 soles to pay for your commodity. And now let’s say a guy comes along and offers 9 soles for your commodity. You, being the desperate person in need of many to take care of the family, must decide if say no and risk losing the customer. If you agree, then you’ve just cut your profit in half, going from 2 soles to 1 sol. And perhaps the situation is more complex (as is often the case).  The business person does not simply have the cost of the commodity that he/she is selling. There are fixed costs to be considered (such as rent & taxes), as well as variable costs (such as paying employees, utilities & supplies).

Obviously, I have made a fair amount of assumptions/generalizations and that such a topic is truly worthy of a much more in-depth analysis. However, I still assert that we as consumers possess a purchasing power and that the manner in which that power is utilized does in fact have consequences. In the US, the power comes in the form of the decision to buy or not buy. Here in Latin America, such power is taken a step further by giving the consumer the ability to bargain for a suitable price. But why do these business men/women here in Latin America allow such a thing (i.e. relinquishing more power to the consumer) when it seems to be to their disadvantage?

I believe that the truth of the matter is that they are simply poor and are desperate to earn anything at all. These people would rather make a sale that brings a tiny profit than simply lose the sale altogether.

So this is where I invite you, the reader, to participate and ask for your feedback. What do you see as part of the solution? Should Latin America conform more to a system similar to the US, such as having fixed prices that don’t allow for bargaining? How would the informal economy be integrated into such a scheme? Or do you disagree with what I’ve stated above and believe that this bargaining process is somehow helping the economic situation here in Latin America? What are your thoughts on the matter?

(to Kesha's Tik Tok)

Wake up in the morning hearing roosters in the city,

I've got my bug spray and my boots; I'm gonna see those monkeys

Okay, really quickly; a  vocabulary lesson is in order. When we met up with Margo's friends, we learned a few important words. Chichis means brests, chucha means a woman's privates, and pinga (said with extra annunciation and a fist thrust) is a man's privates.

But enough about Lima, let's talk about Tarapoto. Tarapoto is like that last bit of "civilization" as we know it, located on the other side of the mountains with a single highway connecting it to the west. The population is somewhere between 25 and 50 thousand (the people we asked couldn't agree on a number). Our "hotel" is located just outside the city center and is well covered with greenery. The showers are very cold (not even sitting-water cold, but colder). Everyone here uses motorcycles or motorcycles with two-person carriages. Occasionally, we'll see a "huge monstrosity" of a 4-door sedan. Most of the roads in the center are paved, and as you leave the center the turn into dirt roads.

Everything in Tarapoto is so much cheaper (Lima was pretty cheap, but Tarapoto is extremely cheap). You can get a full meal on average for about 5 to 7 soles (2 to 3 dollars). You can get Juanes for two soles; Juanes are rice cakes with pieces of chicken wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over a flame. Ninajuanes, on the other hand, (and Mom, you'll love this)are similar to juanes, except there is no rice, and they use the chicken head, neck, feet, and internal organs in a watery broth wrapped in the banana leaf. I ate everything except the eyeballs; I'd say eating brains, heart, feet, and other organs is an accomplishment enough, right? Besides, the eyeballs are a little tough to eat.