Top 10 reasons to run along the sequia.

So for those of you not lucky enough to live in a dehydrated desert that is being planted, irrigated, and fertilized into a not very productive agricultural area, I will begin by explaining a sequia. Sequias are essentially irrigation ditches that channel water from any available source (in my case a river) and distribute it via mini canals to acres and acres of farmland. These canals are always dirty, mosquito infested and most often serve as the community dump for all sorts of garbage and human wastes. If you are lucky enough (as I am) this sequia also serves as a place to bathe and wash clothes. An the really lucky ones (like me) also get to drink water that is siphoned off from the sequia. Oh the luck I have! For hours I could discuss the intricacies of sequias, how the are the center of life in my little town, how the availability of water to drink, cook with, or bathe in, depends on a sugar cane industry’s willingness to allow us access to the sequia, or how private farm land has been vacant due to the lack of water for the past 5 years. I will save these discussions for another day because the nature of this article is actually fairly positive (or if not positive at least comically sarcastic). Below I give you the top reasons why I have decided that despite everything, the sequia marks the best running routes.

10. Crops along the sequia (when they actually grow) provide the runner with shade otherwise unattainable in the desert. Sugarcane is an especially good provider of shade.
9. The dust that you will kick up (and that will inevitably stick to you the sweatier you get) will give you the appearance of having a beautiful sunkissed glow. Hint: Don’t tell people who comment on your new tan that it is really just dirt, they are generally repulsed.
8. During mango season there is always plenty of fruit you can pick during your run and take back for breakfast.
7. The garbage mixed with mud and dead animals that is occasionally drudged out of the sequia by employees of “La Empresa” is deposited along the sequia. The imaginative runner can pretend these pile are beautiful mountains or rolling hills.
6. If willing to get a bit dirty, said “beautiful mountains” or “rolling hills” can serve as challenges to the typically flat,0 altitude running route typically enjoyed in the desert. They can also serve as project idea for bored volunteers (ie garbage clean up day or a “what are we really drinking?” lecture)
5. They provide a quite, car free running route, which is particularly pleasant when the main bridge along the panamerican highway (due to poor government planning and coordination) is flooded and must be diverted through your site across a one lane bridge, thus increasing the amount of traffic along the one road through site by about 1000 times what it was designed to handle.
4. A quick run along the sequia will give you a fairly good estimate of the availability of water for drinking of bathing for that day. If the sequia is full you know that you will be able to bathe, if it is empty, you know you can look forward to a week without bathes or drinking water.
3. Animal life. Running along the sequia gives the runner a chance to enjoy the diverse bird and animal life in Peru. Unfortunately it also exposes the runner to Peru’s ugliest most obnoxious species, rude men. The mating call of this sadly prevalent species ranges from a series of hisses and whistles to the occasional “will you marry me” “oh yeah baby” “lets exersize”
Hint: there is a great 2 step method to dealing with this obnoxious species and their ridiculous mating calls. Step 1: Envision slapping, kicking, kneeing in the groin, or spitting on the offending animal. Step 2: Glare unflinchingly, without smiling and continue on your way. In particularly persistent cases sometimes it helps to mutter insults about how poorly educated and rude said animal is.
2. When not inundated with an overabundance of above mentioned rude men species, the sequia generally provide the route with the fewest encounters with curious onlookers who always feel the need to comment on that absurdity of someone running.
1. Protein, due to the garbage and often standing water there is an abundance of bugs willing to fly into any available orifice (mouth, nose, eyes, and ears being the most common but certainly not the only ones), thereby injecting you with a quick shot of vital proteins that your rice and potato diet has not provided you with.

Playing Catchup

So I guess I’ve fallen a little bit behind on the whole blog thing huh? I’m not really entirely sure where to begin honestly. It’s a bit disappointing that all the interesting idiosyncrasies that used to make my experience in Peru so unique have just become such common occurrences that I can’t even think of anything worth reporting. There used to always be something that made me stop and wonder what exactly was going on but now I’ve just taken to chalking it all up to the “it’s Peru” excuse and don’t even notice when someone explains to me that I’m sick because I drank cold water on a hot day or that rice can’t make you fat because it’s a white grain. So I guess I’ll just give a quick synopsis of the (somewhat) recent events.

So the first thing somewhat interesting I can think that I have done recently is spend about a week in Lima. Once a year Peace Corp coordinates with the US Embassy to put together an artisan fair where volunteers working with artesania can come with one of the artisans they work with and sell their products. There is always a workshop the first day to teach some business basics and then one day of sales. Last years workshop was horrible so this year a group of us put together the workshop and met in Lima one day early to put it all together. My huge Peace Corps salary hasn’t been going as far as it used to these days so I opted to take the cheap bus in by myself…. I now remember why its cheaper. I am okay with the fact that there is less room and the seats don’t go back very far. What I can’t get used to is the smell of urine and the claustrophobia that I begin to contract. Oh and it also didn’t help that starting about 4 am the wife of the jerk behind me decided she had to go to the bathroom. Rather than tapping me on the shoulder to wake me up and ask me to put my seat up so they could pass by, the jerk decided to start kicking my seat. This continued for over 15 minutes. At first I thought he was just moving around and didn’t pay much attention, after all, it’s a cramped bus and I’m sure my nightly restlessness also bothers people. Then it continued. About 15 minutes in the wife started complaining to her husband about having to go to the bathroom so the man kicked harder. Finally I realized what was going on and put my seat up, but at no point did either of them try to do the unthinkable and ask me (I would have accepted even a rude urging). They just hoped they could continue kicking my seat until I could read their minds, and all at 4 something in the morning. Oh manners! How I miss those common courtesies that are almost a reflex reaction to me that I never encounter here. Finally I glared at the man and I believe I tried to tell him (in my 4am very tired and very irritated Spanish) that God blessed me with a mouth and I have learned to ask for what I need and hopefully he learns to do the same and stop acting like a monkey. Too bad I don’t speak better Spanish in these situations. I’m sure it came out more like “blahs blah monkey no blah yawn”. In the end I just resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to get any sleep.

Lima was actually pretty fun. It was a bit of work because we had the fair and I was helping to present at a workshop but I got to see a lot of the other volunteers and hang out. I met a bunch of people from the new group that came and ate great food. (They have Thai food in Lima!)

Another thing that came with my visit to Lima was another mini-breakdown about what I’m going to do with my life and how. While there, a group of us stayed with a friend I met who works in the embassy. It was incredible listening to what he does, where he has been, who he’s met, what he’s seen. (and he lived in one of the most beautiful houses I have ever seen in my life). It made me think again about foreign service or other work abroad. For a while I had ruled it out because I’m getting anxious to go home and be with my family and friends but being at his house and listening to his stories has made me think again about living my life as an ex-pat, at least for a while. Ah who knows? I think I stress too much about what I’m going to do with my life.

After Lima I guess the next big event in my life was the election. Go OBAMA! Almost all of us went in to the capital to watch the election. It was amazing. I almost cried listening to the acceptance speech. I still get teary eyed thinking about it. I’m so happy Obama won. I just hope it actually means something will change. The problem with politics is that even if Obama wants to stick 100% to his morals and has only amazing plans for the country he’s not the only one making decisions and a lot of time to get what they want, politicians have to compromise on things they shouldn’t. I’m still hopeful though!

And then from there came Camp Alma. It’s a camp Peace Corps Peru (and maybe others) does for young women. Peace Corps hasn’t been really supportive of it lately. They say it costs a lot of money and isn’t sustainable. I disagree. The camp is designed to take young women leaders and develop those skills. I agree that probably many of them don’t become rich or even key leaders in their communities but this camp is the first time most of these young girls have ever stayed overnight anywhere besides the house of a family member. It is the first time they really hear about career opportunities, it’s the first time the really learn about women’s health and STIs. I believe its something that will stay with them forever. It was good to see the girls interacting with each other and making new friends. If nothing else, they learned how to do that.

So that is the brief rundown of the last however many weeks that I haven’t written. I won’t bore you all with a more drawn out version (especially since I don’t have any pictures to accompany this entry).