Hiking, Chasing Dogs & Our Last Service in Huánuco

Orgullio and I with the Incan Crown. 

My friends, Katrina and I have had our last church service in Huánuco. Thursday we fly back to Callao and fate will decide if we ever see our Huanucenan friends again. Let’s recap.

In true Huanuco style, this week began and concluded with a few hikes. Monday we loaded up in a collectivo (shared taxi) and headed to Corona del Inca (the Incan Crown) with Orgullo, Victor and Olinda. The Incan Crown isn’t ruins, it’s actually just a collection of giant rocks in the shape of a crown. We crawled in and out of all of the rocks, taking sporadic jumping pictures along the way and taking turns falling down on the way back. After the crown, we went had a little Picante de Cuy (guinea pig) for lunch, then headed home.

Katrina, Eynor and I gettin' our Bingo on. 

Wednesday was our next big day, starting out with a trip to the pool with Eynor. Unfortunately, Eynor’s favorite pool was closed, so we had to go to the awkward pool that’s inside of a bar. This means that you flop around in the water and creepy men in a corner drink beer and watch you. Fun, right?

Anyway, after our pool show, we showered up and got ready for the Unheval Anniversary Celebration. Unheval is the school that Eynor attends and where Orlando teaches and apparently its anniversary is a big deal, since the students got three days off school to celebrate it. After sharing some coffee and fantastic tamales with Orlando, we headed down to Unheval to watch dances the students had prepared.

Guinea pig anyone? 

We showed up in time to watch 4^th – 11^th grade perform their dances. A majority of the classes chose to perform dances from the jungle and were decked out in face paint and grass skirt. A few groups chose to pefrom dances from the mountains and a few chose the ever popular dance of the “negritos.” After the dances, we treated ourselves to some less than healthy food from street vendors and prepared for the main event: BINGO! I’m not sure why, Peruvian Bingo is a little different; instead of making a line across the board, you form a letter out of your bingo markers. For example, one round you had to make the letter C around the edges of the Bingo board. Unfortunately, nobody from our group won the 300 sole main prize, but we rather enjoyed ourselves while trying to.

Friday we had a home visit in Junin with Victor and a few of his children. While we had some fierce competition (the season finale of Esto es Guerra was on tv) it was nice to sit and chat with them. Victor and his family often don’t make it to church in Huancachupa, but they are undeniably an integral part of the family and the community here.

(From top left) Henry, Silveria, Cristian, myself and Eynor. 

Saturday was our next hiking adventure, this time in Huacora, the pueblo where Orlando and his brothers and sisters grew up. We started the day with breakfast at Silveria's house in Pampas, the pueblo just below Huacora. We chatted, had some sopa verde and played with the cuy that were scampering around her kitchen (yes… we played with our food.)

After that, we made the 40 minute hike up to Huacora, where the altitude kicked my butt. You get out of breath at that kind of altitude and it hurts to get it back. Eventually, we made it up to Huacora, put on a little sun block, and took a siesta in the late morning sun.

After we regained our strength, we hiked around Huacora, jumping around the rocks and running down the hills (while trying not to fall on our faces.) Hungry and exhausted, we hopped a collective back to Huánuco, then went straight to Pizza Hut to treat Eynor and Cristian to their first ever slice of pizza. The verdict: Eynor says pizza is a 1 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being delicious.)

Cristian, Katrina and Henry jumping for joy in Huacora. 

And that brings us our last church service in Huánuco. Things started out a little slow—the service is supposed to start at 5 p.m. and by 5:30 p.m. we only had two attendees: Eynor and Grandpa Antonio. Determined to make things happen, we went ahead and started the service, and by the time Katrina started preaching our attendance was up to 12.

Perhaps my favorite part of the service was singing a round of “Gloria Al Senor” where everyone sang in rounds, jumping up and down campfire-style (Grandpa Antonio included.) After that, there was a little time for testimonies, and it gave me a lot of hope to hear Vanessa, Orlando, Eynor and Grandpa Antonio happily share their stories.

Mojada's new boo. 

After church wrapped up, we shared some bread and juice with the family to celebrate our last service in Huánuco, then spent a few hours playing Phase 10 with Henry, Noel and Vanessa. Something I love about the congregation is that there are so many people in Katrina and I’s age group that are game to just sit and play cards for a few hours. There was a very church-camp relaxed feeling about it and it was a wonderful way to end our last Sunday in Huánuco.

And—that’s about it. We’re trying to plan some fun things for our last few days here, then Thursday it’s Adios to Huánuco. In the meantime, my newest hobby is kicking all of Mojada’s “suitors” out of the yard. Mojada is in heat for the first time in her young life and I believe she now has more boyfriends that I’ve had in my entire life. I’ve taken up the hobby of chasing them away and locking them out of the yard like an overprotective father, although I must admit, she has some very handsome choices. They’ll just have to wait until her mother hen goes back to Callao. Until next time!

Farewells and Fiestas

The day has come: the Herrera house is two men short. Last week, both Jimmy and Tonio left Huánuco to start a new chapter of their journey in the medical field.

Now—there’s a lot to explain with how the Peruvian medical field works, and I’m going to try to do it as briefly as possible, so bear with me folks.

Tonio (left) and Jimmy. 

The majority of health workers in Peru want to work for a government-run health facility. Why? Better pay, better job security and the government gives medical students some kind of tuition break. How do you work for a government health facility? You jump through their hoops, including six years of college.

Jimmy and Tonio are both in the process of finishing up those six years. Jimmy is further along and this year will be his last requirement for the program: completing a one-year term working as an obstetrician. On the other hand, Tonio is working on a one-year internship; afterwards, he has more classes and his one-year work term to complete. Are you lost yet?

Anyway, for these mandatory internships and work-terms, the government can send you anywhere in Peru—the coast, the jungle, the mountains—anywhere.  In Tonio’s case, his placement was partially determined by a test score, and he was a sent to a place a few hours away from Huánuco called Puerto Inca.

In Jimmy’s case, placements were completely random; and with over 300 students looking for placements and less than 200 places, not everybody gets a position. If you get selected, great—if you don’t, you look for something private until you can find something better. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn’t receive a random placement, but went to Iquitos in spite of that and has already found some private work.

A dose of potatoes for papa rellena. 

So—to begin these new adventures, Jimmy left last Tuesday and Tonio left last Thursday. Our goodbyes for our two brothers reflected their personalities. Jimmy is an extroverted, sociable person with a contagious personality. For his goodbye, there were cheers all around, a few tears from the family and a photo shoot in the living room. Tonio, on the other hand is more subtle and calm than Jimmy. For his goodbye, we simply exchanged hugs, well-wishes and bid him farewell. While the goodbyes were different, neither was particularly easy; yet, it’s comforting to know that they’re leaving to tackle exciting new adventures.

With the boys’ absence, it became clear more than just their presence would be missed—they were an essential part of Orlando and Carolina’s morning routine. Carolina is a street vendor that sells papa rellena and a few other dishes. Carolina and Orlando wake up around 4 a.m. every day to peel potatoes, make papa rellena, prepare sauces, cook rice and spaghetti and do a number of other chores around the house (cook meals for the family, feed the chicken and the cuy (guinea pigs), hand wash laundry, etc.) So, in a feeble attempt to help with this list of chores, Katrina and I decided to wake up at 4 a.m. on Friday to see what we could contribute.

Katrina and I with the birthday boy, Antonio! 

The morning began with Katrina, Orlando and I sitting around a large container, peeling the skins off potatoes with spoons. After that, Orlando mashed the potatoes, cleverly using the juicer, while Katrina and I peeled hard-boiled eggs. From there, we formed the mashed potatoes into cylindrical lumps, stuffing pieces of hard-boiled egg and adding spoonfuls of a sauce made with paprika and onions. For our first day, that was as far as our help could go, but it was fun to be in the kitchen to watch Carolina and Orlando perform their magic: making mayonnaise (nobody buys mayonnaise here, everyone makes it), making ají (a spicy sauce made with chili peppers), adding ingredients to make arroz chaufa (Chinese rice), etc.

By the end of the affair, Katrina and I were exhausted (and we didn’t even do the hard work.) And here’s a window into the work ethic of Carolina: she prepares the papa rellena and does chores from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m., sells papa rellena from her street cart from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., does shopping for supplies in the market from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., gets home around 8 p.m., then heats up dinner for everyone. Her moment of rest during the day is watching a telenovela with Katrina and I from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., then she goes to bed to prepare to do it all over again. She does this six days a week, only resting on Sundays. You won’t find many that work harder than Carolina.

The band for Antonio's birthday party. 

And here is why this blog post is giant: because the goodbyes and our papa rellena experiment were just the prequel to the weekend ahead of us. Saturday was a huge day, because it was Grandpa Antonio’s birthday. I asked various people how old Grandpa Antonio was and I always got the answer, “Uhhh, eighty-something.” So, happy eighty-something birthday, Antonio!

Now—we’ve seen our fair share of birthday parties in Peru, including the grand celebration we had for Aunt Chachi’s 50^th birthday—but I’m going to go ahead and say that Grandpa Antonio’s birthday celebration takes the cake. There were at least 35 people there and the occasion called for Rollen, Orlando’s brother, to kill one of his big pigs for us to eat. We had chicarron, which is essentially fried pork, and it was one of the best things I’ve eaten during my year in Peru. Simply fantastic.

Lots of Antonio's grandchildren at his party! 

After stuffing ourselves full of chicarron, the music and the dancing began. For the really big parties in Peru, it’s common practice to hire a band. The bands require three types of payment: money, food and beverage. No beer? No band. The family provided all the required and the band played from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. And the family danced the entire time (which basically meant someone grabbed Katrina and I’s hands and WE danced the entire time.) Huánuco is known for a type of music called wino and I’m not going to try to describe it, other than saying it’s distinct and you should Google it. There was also the Peruvian version of drinking, where there is a bottle of beer and small cup, and everyone passes around the beer and small cup, filling the cup up with about a shot of beer, drinking it, then passes it. The final effect, after the bottled slowly winds around the crowd, is that nobody gets intoxicated, but everyone gets a little bloated.

With Noel and Cristian at Antonio's party. 

After the band left, the party wound down, but continued. About 10 people, including Katrina and myself, pulled chairs into a circle, bundled up against the night air and chatted until 10 p.m. when Victor had to get his family home. As much as I despise dancing, the day was wonderful; it’s the most time we’ve ever spent with the extended family in Huánuco, and everyone here has their unique personality and sense of humor. I especially love watching the older women put everyone else to shame on the dance floor, stomping and twisting in complicated but natural patterns.

The weekend wound down on Sunday with our Mother’s Day celebration. About 15 members of Orlando’s extended family trekked to nearby park to eat, relax and celebrate the hard-working mothers. We made the journey there in the back of Rollen’s truck, which was a bumpy, yet entertaining experience. After hours of volleyball, chatting and relay races, we began losing daylight and headed back to Huancachupa.

All of the weekend excitement has overflowed into this week—yesterday we spent the day with Orgullio (Orlando’s uncle) and his friend Victor, roaming around some ruins called the Incan Crown and today we’re taking Eynor and Fabrizio to the pool; however, since this post is already gigantic, you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about that. Until then!  

Our New Career as Peruvian Party Crashers

This week, Katrina and I have discovered we suffer from short-term memory loss.

Mojada aggressively show her affection. 

We finished our last stay in Huánuco last December, just five months ago; since returning, we’ve settled into some things effortlessly (chiefly family dinner.) However, other elements of Huánuco vanished from our minds. Where’s our favorite bread shop? How much does the B bus cost? Which street is Leoncio Prado? Has Mojada always been this bitey?

Little by little, it’s coming back to us (though the bread shop still eludes us.) We got back into the swing of teaching English classes in Huancachupa (with Eynor and two of the neighbors, Estefani and Joseph.) We’ve gotten used to the 4:00 a.m. rooster crows and pig snorts, and a new addition to the morning routine: the 4:30 a.m. wake up bell. We’ve remembered which buckets are best to hand wash your laundry in, which internet cafes have the best connection and carrying around rocks with us as feeble protection from vicious dogs.

This time around we have some new goals for Huanuco, including making regular home visits to. Our two families: Melania’s and Victor’s. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Melania  doesn’t have a phone or method of contact right now. Victor has a new baby, under a month old, and works six days a week. Our first arranged home visit was a flop where nobody showed up, but we did have the chance of meeting a new family member, Noel, who happened to be the only person home in Junin when we stopped by.

Crashing Nelle's birthday party--Feliz Cumpleanos! 

So, frustrated with our lack of success, we hatched a plan: just going to show up unannounced in Junin with a class and if anyone consents, we’ll teach it. Solid plan, right?

We showed up in Junin and found the door wide open. Perfect—someone’s home. We let ourselves in and stumbled upon a kitchen and dining room bursting with people. Grandpa Tonio, Grandma Fausta, Victor and his entire family, Henry, Vanessa, and more faces. Seriously, there were probably about 20 people there. Shocked, we quickly learned it was Nelle’s birthday and we had officially become Peruvian party crashers. We made a bit of conversation, slightly ashamed of imposing, but the true awkward explosion came when pollo a la brasa, complete with salad and French fries started being dished up.

Horrified that our party crashing now included eating someone else’s food, we made for our great escape, only to be told that if we left now it would be considered offensive. So after saying goodbye to everyone, we wandered back into the dining room, sat down and ate dinner. Peru excels in hospitality and Katrina and I excel in making normal situations anxiety-ridden and weird. So, we shared, dinner, cake and a little bit of tea with the family, sang happy birthday and headed out when the party was over (determined to, at the very least, not overstay the crashed party.) So—that counts as a home visit, right?

Emily and Imelda at Nelle's birthday party. 

Sunday marked our first church service in Huánuco without Wilfredo. It was rag-tag, but cozy. Our music my favorite part of our service because nobody knows how to play the guitar or keep rhythm with the tambourine, but it didn’t stop us from trying. The result is an out-of-tune guitar strumming random cords, a clinking tambourine, passed from person to person as different people give up on keeping rhythm, and voices desperately trying to find the melody of the song. We might not have rhythm, but darn it, we’ve got spirit.

This week
I preached on the topic of “Break Bread Together” which finally a comfortable theme for me. Lately, writing sermons has been grueling; it makes me question what exactly I believe, if I’m worthy of preaching, if I have any insight and, perhaps most distinctly, if I’m on my soap box (otherwise known as preaching.) Yet this time around, after months of struggling, things came easily and I think my delivery was decent.

In true Peruvian fashion, church started over 30 minutes late and most of our attendees arrived about an hour late; however, the important part is that we HAD attendees, including Noel.

Estefani from English Class. 

After church, we went with Jimmy, Noel and Henry to see Spider Man 2. Lately, we’ve been trying to plan more things with Jimmy, because tonight he leaves to start an exciting year of his obstetrician residency away from Huanuco; this is a fantastic and amazing stage in his life that unfortunately, forces Katrina and I to address the elephant that’s been in our room for some time: final goodbyes are coming.

Let me stop here clarify. A year and a half ago I spent an amazing two weeks in Guatemala. When it came time to say goodbye to my host mom, Melida, she told us, “Don’t say ‘I’ll come back and visit,’ because everyone wants to, but few do. Life happens. Just say, ‘Goodbye’ and if our paths meet again, let it be a happy surprise.’” Those words stick with me; because I would love to come back one day and visit Peru. I plan to do this—but not any time particularly soon and, like Melida said, sometimes life happens. The point: you can’t count on us all seeing each other again. And even if we do, it won’t have the same feeling and sentiment that this year has had.

Jimmy & Eynor trying to be tough. 

Spider Man 2 hardly justifies the notion of, “Goodbye, forever, thank you for your amazing influence in my life.” but it was a first feeble attempt. Tonight, we shall have a final one, sure to be tear-filled and sappy and not remotely similar the adventures of Peter Parker.

And—that’s about where we stand. An odd limbo where we’re settling in, yet facing those goodbyes that we’ve consistently avoid talking about. Until, all we can do is carry on. Capture the dogs with Eynor and forcefully bathing them, serving the family 9 p.m. coffee (because that seems to be the only time anyone wants to drink it here), and laughing with the family about life. Yet before I can get too sappy on you about all of this, I should probably end this post—because the next one will include not only our sappy goodbye to Jimmy, but our sappy goodbye to our other host brother, Tonio as well. So prepare your Kleenex boxes folks—because Katrina and I are preparing ours. Until next time!