My last week in Australia, I spent on the beach with my family.  It was wonderful but the weather not so great.  We had three sunny days but the rest of them went from pretty wet to very, very wet.  However one of the blessings of that was that Gem and I went running on the beach in the rain.  It was one of the most amazing experiences, I remember feeling so present, so alive and free.  And I got to share the experience with Gem which always makes something special.

I was reminded of that experience the other day when I was walking in the hills in the rain.  I remembered how much I wanted to blog about it so I wouldn’t forget it.  I also don’t want to forget my experience in the hills.  I set off with Martin but when it started to rain a little he and Nina turned back.  I kept going.  I thought I’ll turn back when it gets really heavy.  It didn’t get heavy until I was right up the top.  I got really wet but the view over Chulu and the Andes with the rain pelting down was incredible.  I again had that feeling of being so present, alive and free.

Walking back home I encountered a few families also out in the rain with their soap, all having a shower.  I guess if you don’t have running water you have to take advantage of any water and they were having lots of fun.  We smiled at each other.  I do feel for them though their whole houses get pretty wet in the rain and with dirt floors I don’t imagine they are very comfortable.  I felt very grateful to have a dry house to go home to, well mostly, this place does leak a little but after seeing their places I tried not to let that worry me that night.

As part of the research for his compost project Martin has been going around to different farmers and talking to them about buying the product.  One of the farmers is an organic farmer and lives in a place called “Palo Blanco” which is in the mountains almost an hour from Chulucanas.  Here he is outside his home with Nina.

Last weekend he invited Martin to have a look at his farm as he was keen for Martin to give him some advice on a few things.  Nina and I went with him.  We had a lovely meal with his family and few other farmers.  It was so beautiful there as you can see.

This man has a number of crops on his farm, including mangos, limes and cocoa. Conventional farming tends to only have one crop but Martin tells me it is more sustainable to be growing a number of different crops together.  Cocoa is originally from this region although now most of it is produced in Africa.  I found all this pretty fascinating as I am pretty ignorant about all this stuff especially cocoa.  I had no idea how it looked and tasted as a fruit.  If you are like I was here are some pictures.

This is the cocoa pod.

When you open it up there are the cocoa beans.  A typical pod has about 40 to 50 beans (but you need about 600 beans to make 1kg of chocolate).  They are covered in a mucous type substance that is rather sweet.  You can suck on the bean and it tastes lovely.  Don’t do what I did though when the farmer gave it to me and bite in it.  For one it is disgusting, very bitter and dry and for two people will laugh at you.  You can see it here.

Once you have sucked it you are left with the bean.  The beans go through a rather long drying process (in the sun is best so as not to ruin the flavour with smoke) and then are shuffled and trodden on (usually by human feet) before they are sent overseas to be roasted and then ground into cocoa butter which makes the chocolate we all enjoy.

Maybe you find that little lesson on cocoa boring or you already knew it but I thought it was interesting.

Anyone read anything good lately they would recommend to me.  Both fiction and non fiction.  Really feel like something good.

Last time I wrote a bit of an update about where we were at I said that Martin was trying to get a social enterprise project started.  He has worked really hard on it for the few weeks but we have decided that we are not able to start it ourselves.  Martin spent hours and hours working out costs and how much we could make and it turns out it will cost three times more than we first thought and would take 2 years before we would get our investment back.  I guess this is fairly normal but we don’t have the money it would take to start or the money to live here for that amount of time without a wage.  However, one of the local councils in the regions we have been talking to farmers in is really interested in the project and have said they would like to put up the money and pay Martin a wage to get it going.  He has another meeting with them next week to go through the details with them and they’ll tell him if they’ll be able to or not.  I am trying not to get my hopes up too much as we have been promised things before that have fallen through but it would be so fantastic if this were to happen and I do have a quiet faith.  The project is such a good idea and would really assist the community economically, environmentally as well as socially.  Not to mention Martin has worked really hard on it.  I am praying heaps if others would join me we would really appreciate it.

If it falls through Martin is still hoping to be able to work with the farmers who were interested in the product.  They have invited him to speak to their associations about various things including teaching them how they could make some of their own compost using their own waste.  Obviously it would be a smaller scale but at least the time wouldn’t be fully wasted.

In regards to me I have my first doula client who I have been meeting with.  She’s a cousin of Martins and we have had some exciting chats.  The hospital still hasn’t got back to me though despite numerous phone calls so I am also praying that they will soon.  Again I would value your prayers about that too.

As always we just keeping trying in hope with as much patience as possible but it it is getting frustrating……

I have some very exciting news.  It’s been literally 11 years coming…..

I can roll my r’s.  Yes that’s right I can roll a single r, a double r, I can even roll an r when it is the first letter in a word.  I know that might not mean much to some people but for me it’s very exciting.  I remember back in 2001 sitting in a cafe with Ryan with him trying to teach me how to do it.   We had just started Spanish classes together and I discovered that I needed to roll r’s to speak Spanish and I couldn’t.  Since then I have had various teachers and practiced and practiced and practiced and I can finally do it.

Yay for me!!!  Now I really can speak Spanish.

I am a bit sad that I am not participating in the Scavenger Hunt but I just knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it happen.  Not only the time factor but I don’t think I would have been able to get a lot of the photos here in Chulucanas especially not any that are worth high points.  However here are a few little shots of our life in the last few weeks.

Martin’s dad came to visit.  It was quite a special time.

Family shot

Walking in the mountains, still not over how beautiful it is.

Nina likes it too. She’s definitely an outdoors girl.

Always a cross to be found in the hills in Peru.

It is still really, really hot here.  I am getting a bit over it really but Nina quite likes playing with cold water and she is very gorgeous.

Our niece turned five.  Here she is.  She is very similar to Nina in both looks and personality.

Today* is International Woman’s Day.  It is actually quite a big deal here in Peru.  Everyone says “Feliz Dia de la Mujer” (Happy Women’s Day) and people have lunches etc.  In one way this warms my heart.  In another I find infuriating.  It feels so false, words without action in a culture that is so macho.  It is one of the things that I find most difficult about living here.  Here is why.

Almost all the men have very little involvement in raising the children and even less in housework.  Whenever people see Martin caring for Nina or cooking they say to me, “Martin helps you a lot doesn’t he?”  While I am grateful for Martin and express that I also  keep trying to say to people, “it’s not that Martin helps me, it’s his house and his daughter as well”.  Why is it that any man who does stuff around the house or looks after his child is seen as “helping his wife” not just his duty like it is hers.

Infidelity is unbelievably common place among men.  In general people wouldn’t say this is “right” but they consider that it’s normal for men who mostly cannot help themselves.  People tend to just laugh about it and men who have various partners do get a certai amount of respect.  On the other hand if a woman is unfaithful there is no respect for her and there are hundreds of derogatory terms for her.  Women even share this view.  One of my very educated female friends told me that her father cheating on her mother is not good but normal, whereas if her mother ever did she “could never look at her again”

As a doula one of the issues most close to my heart is that women have almost no rights to choose the way they birth.  They give birth with their legs up in stirrups and episiotomies (cuts to the perinium) are routine.  My nurse friend even told me that for men from certain communities, if a daughter is born they do not even acknowledge her as their own.

I have on occasion met with some female friends in the home of one the women.  It’s nice but I mentioned that maybe we could have a drink somewhere in one of the “cantinas” (closest equivalent is bar).  However, I was informed that a group of women having a drink there would be seen as provacative.  What???

I run to the pool in the mornings and the comments and carry on that are directed at me are certainly not what you would call respectful.

I could keep going on but it’s bed time and you get the point.  But I guess I will have a “Feliz Dia de la mujer” when women are actually given equal respect and rights here in Peru and in the rest of the world.

*It was actually yesterday but I wrote most of this then but didn’t finish it as some family came over for dinner to celebrate International Womens Day.  The conversation eventually landed on driving and how women can’t drive.  Happy Day Women Drivers???

Nina is 18 months today.  What an incredible 18 months it has been.  I continue to be astounded at how fast it seems to go.  If I am honest I feel a certain relief as she grows.  I do not find this mother gig particularly easy.  There are certainly days when I just don’t know if I have the patience and energy for a young a child not to mention I can be really over anxious too.  However, at this stage I don’t imagine that we will be doing this again so there is some sadness as well.  When I look at her first photos and how small she was I do feel a certain longing for that time.  She is also just so gorgeous and I can’t imagine her getting any more so but then again I have had that though many times and she has done it.

In Australia I tended to follow politics fairly closely and usually found it quite interesting. Thus I was surprised at how quickly I stopped caring about Australian politics after I got to Peru. Even though I don’t live there I would have thought I would continue to be interested as I am from there and will return there some day. I have tried reading a few things but it just doesn’t grab me.  I guess even in this global word we are always more taken by our immediate surroundings.  Although I am not fully on top of Peruvian politics as yet, like Australian politics it seems also to be filled with broken promises, back stabbing, patronising one liners for the media, limited focus beyond the next election etc etc although on a larger scale.

However, even I have followed the events of the last few days. Probably not as closely as I would have there but it did grab my interest. I have always had a soft spot for Kevin Rudd and have been very impressed by many things he has done as foreign minister so was hoping he would win but it never looked likely. And either way it is not looking good for Labor at the next election. Not that I particularly like Labor but I really, really don’t like Liberal right now. Tony Abbott as prime minister is scary for anyone in Australia who gives a damn about other human beings.

I think what Australia needs is some new parties. Here in Peru, each election pretty much, there is a choice between a wide range of parties some older parties, some newer. They are all mostly corrupt as hell, and if they aren’t going in to the election they certainly seem to become corrupt fairly soon after it if they win, so I am not necessarily saying we should mimic Peruvian politics but I still like the idea of some more options.

Nina will be 18 months in 10 days and I have to say this age is just so cute at the moment as you can see from this.

She’s really starting to communicate and understand things.  Although there is still much she can’t communicate and doesn’t understand which frustrates her immensely and she gets very cross and we are starting to have minor tantrums that I am sure will get bigger.

She is also able to show a lot of affection for us which is really nice.  She will often come up to us in the middle of the day and say “hugs” or give us kiss.  When we go to the plaza and we often bend down with arms outstretched and she will run across the plaza laughing to give us a big hug.  It makes me so happy.  And Martin too.  Here they are, still very much in love with each other.

She is eating really well and I am sure she is putting on weight fast  Her favourite foods are bread and broccoli.  I know the bread will please her pa and the broccoli will please her nanna.  In the mornings here a man rides around with his cart of freshly baked bread.  When Nina hears his horn she gets very excited and says “pan, pan” (bread, bread).

Her favourite game is hiding things and then asking “donde esta” (where is it).  When you show her she says “alli esta”  She can play tha for a very long time which is good in waiting rooms.  She also got given her first doll by her abuelita and she likes to push it round in its stroller.  The other day I even saw hr trying to share her pan with her doll.

She is still an outdoors girl and loves our trips to the plaza or the park or the mountains or the pool. Here she is at the pool.

She is also very friendly and says “hola” to most people we meet on the street.  Although in general she really only likes to be held by Martin and I.

She loves to look at her photo album before bed and she knows most people although not consistently.  After Bitta, Hannah would be the person she recognises most consistently.  It is very cute when we ask, “who’s that?’ and she says Hannah.  Her favourite bed time book is still ten little fingers and ten little toes.

She sleeps pretty well most nights with only one wake between 7pm and 6am (approx).  She is also consistently napping for 50 mins although sometimes it is even 1hour and 20 mins.  Oh how I love those days.  It takes a long while to get her off to sleep though which I would like to lessen.

She likes Skype especially with her nanna.  When Martin and I get out the computer she always says, “nanna”.  I don’t get the comp out much in front of her now as it makes me feel sad to tell her we are not going to talk to nanna.

She still loves to climb on everything.  In fact she has a bit of a radar for anything dangerous so we still have to watch her all the time which is exhausting.  But despite how tiring she is I am grateful everyday for our wonderful Nina and that she is in general a happy healthy girl.  Here she is climbing on the statues at the park.