For those of you who might be wondering Martin didn’t get the job at the municipality.  According to the results he had the best resume but didn’t do so well in the interview.  Well how could he have if they only asked to unrelated questions.  It’s a bit disappointing for us but more than that we feel frustrated for Chulucanas.  How are things going to move forward with such a faulty system?

I still haven’t heard anything from the uni in Chulu but will be doing some weekend work with the university in Piura as of March 03.

We continue to try to meet with people from various projects about how we can be involved but no one seems to have any clear way forward.

The conversation continues about how long we will be able to stay and what we will do.

No photos again today.  Maybe I should try to just do a weekly post of highlights.  I am struggling to make it happen everyday.

We don’t get a lot of cars here in Chulu. People either walk or get around on

Mototaxis

Donkeys

It seems I have failed to take some photos again today.  However, I have been thinking that the photos are all obviously visual images of Chulucanas.  So as I do not have a photo I thought that today I might try to give you a description of the noises of Chulucanas,  an audio image rather than a visual one.

• rooster’s crowing in the neighbour’s yard
• spanish pop blaring from the moto taxis that pass by
• rain on tin roofs
• church bells ringing twice daily
• children playing in the street
• vendors screaming the name of their product, “tamales, yukas, pan”
• horns beeping – as there are no give way signs this is how people let you know they’re coming
•  men whistling at women
• clicking of horses or donkeys pulling wagon

It really is a rather noisy place.

I know I said I was going to take photos everyday for the rest of Feb but didn’t take any photos yesterday.  But I am back again today with some pictures of the mountains. Chulucanas is situated in a valley surrounded by the Andes and they are just stunning.

As many of you know Martin and I are looking for jobs here in Peru.  We were both feeling fairly hopeful about two opportunities but not so sure now.

In early December when we arrived Martin went to the municipality to start some conversations about what they were doing, how he could support them and if there might be some jobs available.  He was invited to attend some meetings with local farmers, NGO’s and the municipality.  He started to talk about sustainability with different people.  He was told there would be a position coming up on the 15th of Dec.  On the 15th of Dec he was told it would be the 15th of Jan.  On the 15th of Jan he was told end of the month.  At the end of the month the position finally became available.  Martin applied and was asked to come along for an interview last Thursday at 8am.  Although, they were interviewing for many positions and he was not interviewed until 4.30pm the next day.  Despite two days waiting the interviewers didn’t even have his resume in front of them and he was asked two questions.  Not about his experience or ideas for the job etc rather about what the municipality was doing.  We will, I believe, find out tomorrow if he got the job.  As you can imagine we are no longer feeling very confident.  The municipality is famous for giving positions to friends and family and certainly in this case it seemed they already knew who they were going to hire before they began for certainly they could not ascertain the best person in those kind of interview situations. I have no doubt that Martin is the most experienced person, the other two were just out of uni,  not to mention he is the only one who is already trying to do things but I guess that all goes flying out the window if one of them as family in the municipality.

I also had a meeting with the Catholic university in late Dec.  They are opening here in Chulu and were pretty much begging me to take the English teacher position.  They just had to assure they had the numbers and would advise in a few weeks.  I have called three times to find out what is going on but still nothing and the last conversation was told that someone else also wanted the position.  I know I am the only qualified and experienced English teacher as well as native English speaker in Chulu but again these things do not seem to count as much as who you know here.

It is very frustrating and makes one realise why things are so slow to move ahead here and nothing ever seems to really happen.  People keep telling us about things available in the private sector but we cannot fully trust their ethics.  We are also both having lots of conversations about community development stuff and again these are very positive but it’s hard to know how to move from conversations to action  As well as trying to support one’s family while doing that kind of work is very difficult.  Anyway, we are feeling very uncertain right now about how long we are going to be able to stay.

I guess we will know more tomorrow and have to continue to hope and trust that whatever ends up happening is the right thing.

Here are a few photos of our house.  I don’t really like these photos I have to say, they make the house Iook a bit bleak, which it isn’t.

This home, (like all the homes we have been privileged to live in over our 9 years together), is such a gift to us.  When we moved in we went around with a candle and prayed in each room and finished by playing John Coleman’s “song of L’Arche” as is our tradition.  And I do pray for God’s blessing on this house and all who enter in it.

This house is a very, very big part of our life here in Chulu.  While there a few things that frustrate me about it, I am very fond of it indeed.  It is a place to call home. A place that protects us from the rain I can hear pounding our roof for the last 10 days at least  It is a big place for Nina to run around in and explore.  And happily, it is a place in which we have been able to offer a lot of hospitality to family, friends and neigbours.

I really like to walk the streets around Chulucanas.  As we are not working I so a fair bit of it.  Some are a bit dilapidated but I think it gives it character.  The rubbish can be a bit depressing though.  I wish I was a better photographer to really capture the feel of the streets but here my attempt.

So here are today’s photos.

Most afternoons we go to the Plaza de Armas which is the plaza in the centre of town.  Most Peruvian towns have one and the people gather there.  Usually we bump into someone we know  Nina loves it there.  She runs around and climbs on things and is starting to play with the other children.  She usually just hands them things but it’s  start.  So this day has lots of photos as I couldn’t resist the cuteness.

The main statue.

Chulucanas is famous for it’s ceramics.  Especially these “fat lovers”.  The plaza has a large version.

Nina in her “vrom, vrom” with her “abuelita”  She can say grandma in Spanish now.  Every time we say “let’s go in the vrom, vrom” she knows it’s plaza de armas time.

And here is my gorgeous girl having a run around.

And my favourite photo of all.  Nina hugging a tree.  She’s a hippy already.

I didn’t put photos up yesterday but it wasn’t y fault.  We had another blackout last night so I couldn’t get on to the net.  We seem to be getting one most nights at the moment.  It is a little frustrating especially last night as I was talking to mum on Skype and her sound had just started working and then the lights went off.  Anyway, here are yesterday’s photos.

One of the things I love about living in Chulu is the 30 metre pool.  It is about 1km away so 3 or 4 times a week I can run to the pool and swim some laps.  It is a beautiful pool and being able to swim is such a blessing for me.

Here is the view outside the pool on my run.

Here is the pool.

And the other side.

I am actually quite excited about doing washing here in our new home.  Party it is because after two months of living in other people’s home and having to do it by hand or take it to someone else’s home it is just really easy to have my own laundry.  But also because my laundry is great as you can see from the photo.

And because I hang the washing up on the roof and this my view.

And here from another point of view.