Giving a Living to a Life in the Rainforests of Peru

Note: this blog was written about two weeks ago, but I’ve had difficulty in getting it uploaded due to a poor (or sometimes nonexistent) internet connection.

A decade ago, the District of Chazuta, which encompasses the town of Chazuta and many surrounding indigenous villages (including Chipaota), had an economy that thrived on the production and processing of coca leaves, which apparently was/is common knowledge that such is used for the production of cocaine (though many people are not willing to talk about it now). Six years ago, the district made a concerted effort to transition to an economy that relied on the production of cacao (used of course for the production of chocolate, one of the basic necessities of life).The transition to move away from the drug industry appears to have been quite successful, though poverty is still pervasive in the district. [Above statements are based on casual conversations and general observations]

An interesting note on poverty here in Peru: I rarely encounter people simply asking for a handout, such as the homeless people that we so frequently seen on street corners in the states. That is not to say that begging and such does not occur here. What you will commonly find here are poor individuals offering you something to buy (such as pieces of candy or small packages of gum) or offering you some kind of service (such as shining your shoes, playing music or simply covering your motorcycle seat with cardboard so as to protect it from the blazing sun). I could probably count on one hand the number of individuals I’ve seen here that are simply asking for a handout, and such individuals are usually seriously impaired somehow, with blindness or something of the sort. However, as is always the case, sometimes the people resort to doing things that are…how shall I say…destructive and/or harmful, as was the case with drug industry here. I personally encountered a different situation recently when we traveled to Tununtunumba, a nearby indigenous village, for the San Juan festival.

During our stay in Tununtunumba, I was approached by a young man who lives in the community and who was passionately telling me that he has a monkey at his house that a gringo like me would like to buy. I informed him that even if I wanted to buy the animal, I would not be able to do so for obvious legal reasons. Nevertheless, he insisted that I follow him to his house to see this “monkey.” On the way there, we passed a small group of people who had a small pet monkey tied to a string. When we arrived to his home, I discovered that his “monkey” was a cute, tiny, yet terrified squirrel attached to a string as well. I really wanted to just yank the string off the poor lil fella and let him run away, but somehow I found some restraint. The guy offered again for me to buy the animal, but I declined and walked away. Now I must admit that I do not know how prevalent such activity is there in Tununtunumba or simply in the greater District of Chazuta, but upon having had this experience, I felt very glad to be a part of our current project in Chipaota

I feel like our projects in Chipaota will be quite helpful in various ways. For one, by establishing sustainable & environmentally friendly businesses for this community, we are helping to reinforce the transition away from participating in the drug industry. By providing alternative sources for income, we are also helping to prevent situations like I described above, that of collecting and selling animals from the rainforest. These businesses are designed to help these people find more value in keeping their rainforests standing rather than being cut down, so they are serving to protect the rainforests and the abundant biodiversity within them.  Perhaps more importantly, these businesses will simply help provide income for the families in this village, which in turn will allow them to keep their kids in school and will allow them to receive/pay for health care. As I digress, I just feel so glad to be a part of something like this.

As for our involvement with the development of these businesses, the process has been moving along seemingly very slowly, which is apparently quite normal in Peru- especially in indigenous communities. Many of the simple things that we tend to take for granted in the States as being quick-n-easy are now much more time-consuming. Anyhow, things have been moving particularly slow in the community for various reasons. For instance, it took about a week for us to get introduced into the Chipaota and to gain their approval for working within community. Also, meeting up with the members of the broom-making business and of the artisan group has been somewhat challenging.  Furthermore, some of the community members have homes (very primitive homes…nothing like our homes in the States!) within the main village, and then everyone has a “primary” home (also very primitive) on their chakra (i.e. farm), which are located 1-5 hours in walking distance away from the main village. Hence, it is not an easy to task to simply meet up with the 39 members of the broom-making business or the ~15 members that make up the artisan group.

Nevertheless, after having various meetings with both groups, it appears that the pace is about to hasten. We will be working with both of the groups to build tallers (i.e. workshops) for them to do their work. A piece of land was recently purchased for the broom-making workshop, and another piece of land will hopefully be purchased soon for the artisan group’s workshop. The land for the broom workshop already has two buildings on it. We will be meeting with the leaders of the broom-making business soon to plan how we will modify the buildings to make one large building for the workshop. Also, we will be ordering the broom-making machine soon, which will take about two weeks to make.

As I alluded to above, things tend to get done according to Peruvian time down here, which is a much slower pace than we are accustomed to within the States, and such is even more “severe” when working with indigenous communities (as we have been told by others). The leaders of the broom-making business very excited when I asked them if we (the volunteers) could help with the construction of the workshops. We are making a concerted effort to keep this excitement alive so as to encourage significant momentum and drive within these two groups so as to get their workshops fully constructed & functional by the end of this month. We the volunteers are certainly willing and able to do our part to make this task happen, but much is dependent upon the community (i.e. supplying wood, tools, manpower, initiative, etc) as to whether or not we will finish these workshops before our departure in August. Anyhow, we are feeling quite optimistic and are sure we’ll make some significant progress by August. Stay tuned…more updates coming soon!