Cold Spaghetti

This time next week, we’ll be back in the States. I’ve been mum so far on our State-side situation, letting Paul take the reign on discussion of our thoughts and conflicts. Reading about what is going on back home is sickening enough… I haven’t been able to stomach the thought of taking the next step and writing about it.

The bottom line is that we don’t have a clue what we are going to do when we get back — the choices eat away at us daily. Katrina changed our worlds drastically, even if those outside of it seem completely unable to comprehend the level of destruction and chaos that fills the lives of Gulf Coast residents — most especially those in Southeast Louisiana. We feel both the draw of going back to a city and home we love and the pull of leaving, because unlike so many others, we actually can. The choice is not one we take lightly or one that can be easily understood.

What hurts the most is the continued play of politics at all levels at the expense of the people of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. A consolidated levee board is the right thing to do (do we really need another committee to be formed to help the levee committees work together?) yet long-standing tradition, politics, and stubborness halt any change. Blanco, finally showing some backbone, called a special session for Louisiana’s elected officials in New Orleans (rather than Baton Rouge), which began with a bus tour of the city. Many Louisiana officials have yet to see the devistation in the city. As those who know say over and over again, you absolutely cannot even begin to fathom the vastness and terror of the destruction until you have seen it. Some of the responses from officials who took the tour:

Rep. Jean Doerge, D-Minden, who was on her first trip to the area, said she was amazed at the extent of damage. “This is an eye-opener to what we are really facing,” she said. The bus tour “has had an effect on me. . . .I know better what we are up against. It is absolutely unbelievable. You look out here and say it’s been five months and you still see devastation.”

Rep. Donald Cazayoux, D-New Roads, who has made a few trips to the area, most recently in November, called the lack of progress in clearing debris “incredible. I was expecting some movement. It is just so vast. It is a disaster and we need to see it. I think we need to come every three months. There is no change at all.”

Rep. Monica Walker, D-Hessmer, who had toured the area earlier, said that based on what she saw Monday, “it doesn’t look like anything is getting done. This (tour) helps the cause. I don’t think that we are the ones who need convincing.” Walker said more members of Congress and the Bush administration should be on the buses.

All true and poignant thoughts. What is most sobering and painful is that out of Louisiana’s 39 State Senators, only 23 of them took part in the bus tour. To pull from a wonderful Times-Picayune editorial:

“…Gov. Kathleen Blanco had good reason to ask lawmakers to take a bus tour of the metro area Monday to kick off the special legislative session. Legislators are going to be considering bills crucial to the recovery and long-term security of greater New Orleans. They all need to understand the urgency of these matters, and seeing how much is left to do five months after the storm would drive the point home.

Unfortunately, a significant number of lawmakers declined the governor’s invitation. Fewer than half of House and Senate members took the tour.”

How can anyone take any position on the situation in New Orleans without seeing it first hand? In my opinion, they cannot. Choosing not to see it is a strategic political move because it allows continued ignorance of the situation. Seeing the situation would mean accepting responsibility, feeling shame of lack of response, and having to make a commitment to work towards a solution. Ignoring the situation or belittling it (ahem, State of the Union) allows for politics as usual.

The Bush administration rants on and on about the monies it has allocated to Gulf States… but just who is getting the funds? Although Louisiana suffered well over 75% of the housing damage from Katrina and Rita, saw ten times more businesses destroyed, experienced five times more jobs losses, weathered more than 75% of the total property and infrastructure damage, the State is receiving only 54% of the block grant funding. Further, many of the complaints lodged against Louisiana (and New Orleans, in particular), given as excuses as to why the area is getting shafted for relief attention, are false.

But who can fight with a government that rules without law and reason?

Long-standing dreams and goals for both Paul and I are what drive us to live abroad in these coming years of our lives. But the on-going decay of our country and government makes it harder to justify why we would fight to return.

Josefina brought us a CD of pictures of Will and friends over the past few days. Jude (mother to 3-year old Adam) acted as photographer (thanks — what a nice gesture!) Now we have an idea of the kinds of things Will’s been up to during the last 3 days!

The bad news: it doesn’t say “Mom.”
The good news: it is removable, but waterproof. Will is very aware of it’s waterproof status; he’s been pointing to it constantly after his shower tonight saying, “waterproof!”

Today’s events:
– Looking into why the dryer broke yesterday and finding that the non-vented lint was being sucked back up into the machine, jamming the motor, and clogging the heating element (“what is that burning smell?”) We managed to fix it (clean it out) but may have the headache of negotiating repair folks for our last week here to install some type of venting.
– Looking into why the doorbell no longer works. (We can fix it but think that the owner may prefer his electrician do it, which is fine, but again: one week left.)
– My cell phone dying, twice, in the middle of Paul trying to order a pizza. We figured out the credits were out, I went across the street and bought a 20 sole card, only to have the security digits rip off making it impossible to decipher two of the code numbers.
– The home phone not working (started last night) which, thankfully, due to the help of Jim Rudolph (the afore mentioned history professor/Lima contact extraordinaire) was working in time for us to call back the pizza place and finish our order. Will enjoyed watching the fix-it man up the telephone pole, listing back and forth while I held my breath.
– Sugar ants discovered that the lid wasn’t completely sealed on the cookie container. Have I mentioned that the number one reason I’m pressing for an apartment when we move back is because I *hate* sugar ants??
– Will being gone all day on a playdate (we missed him!) and coming home with his first tattoo.

The rest of the week:
– Class tomorrow morning for me, then an appointment at PRISMA to turn over an interview tape for transcription. Friday will be spent in Pachacutec, a fairly new pueblo joven on the far outskirts of Northern Lima — I’m going here with Barbara, the nun Gwen and I had breakfast with a few weeks ago. Saturday, we’ll have lunch at Jim’s in Chorrillos (a community south of here). Hopefully, we’ll be able to get together with Jude (who recommended Josefina and is here visiting and whose son Will is spending his days with lately) before we leave next week.

Here is Will, in bed and ready for “binky time” after his long day of hard and fast playtime. 

Will has a great time with Josefina. The general daily schedule is that when she arrives at 8, they leave for the park. Usually, she comes back with him around lunch time for food and a nap — although most days (and the easiest days) he falls asleep in the stroller on the way back to the house. While he sleeps, Josefina helps around the house (cleaning, cooking, laundry… whatever needs to be done) and generally Paul orI play or help out with Will after his naptime and do our best to make sure Josefina goes home around 5. (Note: she offers to stay late and even expected to stay until Will was in bed each day when she first came! We encourage her to rest each afternoon and go home at 5 to be with her family. She really exemplifies the hard-working ethics and attitudes of so many of the wonderful Peruvians we’ve encountered.)

The last few days, Will has been off visiting with the family that Josefina worked for prior to coming to us; they are back in the country for a visit. (Side note: we are completely enamored with this family — our conversations reflect similar ideologies, we both are vegetarian, etc., etc.) Today, Jude (free-lance journalist and general cool-mom extraordinare) called to check whether it was okay for Will and Josefina to join them into the afternoon. It ended up that Will spent the entire day with them! We didn’t see him until 6:30 this afternoon — I don’t think he missed us a bit. When folks remark on how independent, confident, and self-assured our kid us, we must admit — they aren’t kidding!!

“What Mom? Can’t you see I’m busy here watering? Sheesh!” 

It’s time to come clean about my new obsessions. And no, none of them involve Inca Cola.

1. Peruvian politics, and most especially, the current elections
2. The Huacano region
3. Delicrepes

I love talking to folks about the current elections. Political parties abound (I love this) and there are a ton of candidates. Many (most?) of them have tasty backgrounds of embezzlement, human rights scandals, illegitimate children, and other stories that make interesting reads in the papers. I’m trying my best to get my head around the characters candidates. What is most exciting (to me) is that the forerunner is a woman: Lourdes Flores. One of my Spanish tutors reasons that she is the best candidate because she is the most prepared in terms of education and experience, and her single, childless, personal life assures the country that her life is truly for service to the people. I find it fascinating that a country with one of the highest rates of interpersonal violence in the world is set to possibly elect a woman to it’s top office – apparently machismo is not enough to keep a woman from being president of Peru! Other candidates include current president Toledo, who came into office with more than half of the country behind him and quickly whittled this away until he earned the distinction of having the lowest approval ratings of any South American President. He seems to have an endless sea of siblings that keep the papers full of Toledo-related scandal. Former president Garcia, an excellent orator whose presidency saw incredible inflation, human rights violations, and all sorts of ugly financial messes for the country, is back in the running and considered a top three candidate. Even persona-non-grata Fujimori put his hat back in the ring for this election – or, rather, his daughter did it for him since he’s exiled in Japan to escape the trial which awaits him here – and was actually in the running for a few days in January until he was officially disqualified. It is all very fascinating and I love asking everyone who cares to talk about it about their opinions on the elections.

A combination of novels, history articles, data, and personal stories are creating an obsession within me of the altiplano region of Peru, particularly the Huanuco region. A physician I’ve befriended extended an invitation for me to travel with him to Huanuco to visit the maternity clinic there (run by a friend of his) where maternal mortality is the highest in all of Peru and one of the highest in all of Latin America (his claim). I am looking forward to doing this when we return. One of my Spanish tutors tells me stories of witchcraft from the region (her mother grew up there) where women can be cursed by evil mother-in-laws to give birth to snakes and mountains must be appeased into stillness by sacrifices of human blood. This area is also the birthplace of Shining Path and suffered at the hands of both terrucos and government-backed militias. If I had my druthers, this area would be my dissertation focus.

My final obsession? Crepes! Paul and I finally made a point to try the local crepe restaurant and after three incredible crepes for lunch (vegetables with cheese, mushroom, and nutella) with awesome drinks for less than $20, we’re feeling like we’ve hit pretty close to heaven.

We took off Friday afternoon for Paracas, a fishing village about 250 km south of Lima. We rode with Ormeno bus line — the Royal class — which provided a double-decker bus, sandwiches, and a movie that we would not characterize as family friendly. The ride was not bad, Will slept for the start of the trip and was only antsy for the last 40 minutes or so of the 3-4 hour trip.

Checking into the hotel was a bit of a bummer. We were hoping to upgrade to a garden-view bungalow in order to get two rooms (ie: a separate quiet room for Will’s early bedtime and napping). None were available and we weren’t about to pay a ton more for an ocean view room. In the end, we splurged the extra $10 or so per night for a crib — it worked out great and we would not hestitate to use this arrangement again. That night, we visited the super-friendly concierge and booked an 8am tour of the Islas Ballestas and inquired to possibly getting into a tour of the Reserve as well (they need a tour to reach a certain number of people before it can be booked).

The tour Saturday morning was wonderful. (See details below). We lucked into a 2:30 Reserve tour — at first the concierge suggested 10:30, right after the island tour, but because of Will’s naptime we passed. We weren’t sure we’d be able to do the reserve, so it was nice to have the opportunity. With the timing of lunch and nap, there was no pool time on Saturday. This was probably a good thing: the sun was out in force and it was a hot day! Because dinner is served so late (after 8pm) we ate the “lonche” sandwiches available from 4-7 each night. The food was great — although expensive and fancy compared to normal Peruvian prices. The hotel sort of sells itself as an “all exclusive” with meal deals, activities, and the like. We opted to pay a-la carte for each meal and it worked out fabulously. Our average meal was maybe $15 and included generous tips to the staff and drinks and food plates for all three of us. I ate meat much more this weekend — vegetarianism is difficult in Peru and cheese is not enough for a pregnant mother! Paul subsisted on alfredo pasta, mushrooms, cheese sandwiches, and rich chocolate and ice cream crepes. (Will and I enjoyed a cheeseburger, the “completo” — egg, ham, and cheese sandwiches, and the “mixto” — hot ham and cheese.) Breakfasts were a rich assortment of scrambled eggs (only made with ham, but easy to eat around if you so wish), breads, jams, fresh-squeezed juices, coffee and tea.

Sunday was a pool day! Check out was at 3. Our bus didn’t leave until 4:45, so we timed the day to eat lunch late — basically at 3 — and only let Will nap for a little over an hour so that we could maximize time in the pool. The hotel boasts three pools. One is a kids pool, which we avoided because it wasn’t that comfortable for adults and well, you know what they say about kids pools. The second was a longer lap-type pool that the child-less adults hung around — it was by the restaurant and had the “be seen” kind of feel. The third was a round river type pool with an island, bridge, swim-up bar, waterfall, and generous stairs. We chose this one: plenty of stairs for Will to play in and lots of other families. This one also was by the ocean, so it provided a nice view.

After check-out, we hung out in the lobby with the other folks waiting for the bus. We met a wonderful Canadian couple who Will quickly adopted (within a few minutes he spontaneously began calling the man “grandpa” — taking him by the hand around the lobby, showing him all his toys, etc.) They were wonderful and all too happy to play with Will (they are grandparents, too, and had been traveling around South America for over a month! On the bus, we met a super nice Australian fellow down on his luck after having his bag stolen in a bus station — passport, credit cards, all his money, camera, etc. We offered him help in Lima and gave him use of the internet phone for getting through to credit companies and figuring out the passport situation. Will adores him (his name is Clinton) and he’s a high school teacher in Sidney who is exactly 1 day older than Skip. So even the trip back was fun and exciting!

Side note: Pisco, the town closest to Paracas, celebrated their annual “Pisco Sour” holiday on Saturday. Wineries surround this area of the coast and produce a variety of beverages, most notably, pisco. The Pisco sour (a cocktail mixed with pisco, egg whites, lemon juice, sugar, and bitters) is effectively Peru’s margarita — and it’s holiday is the first Saturday in February. We managed to see a little of the local celebration: complete with a stage, speeches, and a Pisco sour queen. The drink itself is light and frothy with bitters garnished on the foamy top. According to Frommer’s, this is the recipe:

2 oz. pisco, 1 oz. lime juice, 1/4 oz simply syrup, 1/2 egg white, 1 dash Angostura bitters. Shake with ice and strain into glass; garish with bitters on the creamy top.

Free drinks were given at meals — Paul tried one and managed to get about half of it down before worrying about his ability to walk. He explained to the friendly locals that it wasn’t that the drink was strong, it was that he was weak. They got a great laugh from that. If anyone would like to try this at home (think tangy, homemade moonshine) send us an email and we’ll pick you up a bottle of pisco.

Saturday morning, we rose at our normal 6:30 (compliments of parenting) had a very nice breakfast (included in our nightly rate) and strolled out to the pier for our 8am reservation to ride out to the islands. We lucked out: because we had made the reservations late (ie: the night before) we were on the second boat leaving from the hotel… and only had about a dozen people on our boat, about half capacity. That meant we could move around the boat freely and truly get a great deal from the experience. Additionally, we found that the boats which leave from our hotel pier are quite smaller than the tourist boats that leave from the downtown pier. In other words — it was worth the few extra dollars to use the hotel tour!

There was a morning fog over the bay and ocean front that wrapped all the floating boats in a mysterious stillness.

Islas Ballestas! Many many islands, strung out off from the Peruvian coast. Also called “the poor man’s Galapagos.” Warm Humboldt currents and a bunch of other environmental and geographical details make this the world’s largest concentration of birds. Also featured: endangered Humboldt penguins, sea lions, about a billion types of birds, and LOTS of guano. A seriously cool National Geographic-esque adventure!