Another long day has come and gone here in Huancavelica. Our day started off with an interesting community meeting. We showed up to by far the best community center we’ve been to and set everything up and no one showed up. So after waiting for a while and trying to recruit people off the street, we decided to go door to door and find participants. Just a side note: in Huancavelica, the women are the dominant person in the households, making the decisions, since they take care of the homes and children and spend a majority of their time in the homes. In today’s community, there were many women who were hired to work in the construction of water and drainage for a project occurring in the neighborhood. Because it was a Friday and they had to work, we believe we lost a lot of participants there.
About halfway through sampling our first home, we were informed that we had about a dozen people waiting for us in the community center. So we finished the home and headed back for take two of community presentation number three. The turnout the second time around was much better: 28 adults, 12 children, a dog, and two lambs. Yes, I said lambs. The dog in attendance was the keeper of the lambs and herded them around and kept them out of trouble. Towards the end of the meeting, as one of the lambs returned from outside, it decided to pop a squat and pee on the floor. Susan and I had to do all we could not to laugh too hard during the meeting.
We recruited many participants for our study and were able to sample all 15 homes today, although the process took a bit longer than yesterday. The community had many, many interesting animals we saw today: cats, dogs, lambs, sheep, chickens, roosters, ducks, rabbits, pretty much anything that can fit in a house was there. One woman was ready to give me her puppy because it was adorable and I enjoyed it so much, and I think she was only half kidding in her offer for me to take it.
It’s not getting easier to walk into the homes of people here and see how they live and hear their stories. It’s absolutely heartbreaking the way these people live. They are the nicest people in the world (at least to us) and they have absolutely nothing. They’re embarrassed to let us into their kitchens and bedrooms to take samples, but there is not a chance in the world that someone could judge these people. They do the best they can with what they have, right down to keeping every single scrap of food (I can’t count the number of bones in kitchens and vegetable and fruit peels fed to animals). I’m not sure how I’m going to readjust to the consumerist, selfish, judgmental American lifestyle when I get back. I can already see myself getting on people’s nerves with my references to Peru when they buy a $6 Frappuccino or $80 pair of tennis shoes, or when they throw away leftover food just because they don’t want to eat the same thing tomorrow or when they take for granted the ability to use a toilet, take a shower, and have running water.
Tomorrow is our last big sampling day in Huancavelica, as Sunday is only a half day of sampling thus far (assuming we stay motivated and finish the entire community tomorrow). Fifteen homes in one day is definitely rough, especially without a bathroom to use, but it’s worth it because, in all honesty, how can you say no to people who are begging you to come test their homes?
To correct an earlier post: I did not, in fact, stand face-to-face with the Santa Barbara Hill, although I swear someone had told me that’s where we were. We’ll be checking out the mine on Sunday and doing some sampling, so I’ll repost exactly what I said before when I actually experience that.
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