We arrived back from Juliaca on Monday, June 16, in the early afternoon. After spending a few hours in the FONDESURCO main office, we headed out at about 6 pm in a truck owned by FONDESURCO, driven by one of the credit analysts who works in the Valle de Tambo agency. I slept part of that ride without even meaning to fall asleep.
We arrived in Cocachacra, a small city in the Valle de Tambo where the FONDESURCO agency is located, around 8:30 pm, and stayed in this city all week as we did the work. Here in the Valle de Tambo, we had a bit of a changeup in how we did our work. The instructions on how we wanted our focus groups with the people set up got a little mixed up somewhere along the way, and the manner in which the employees in the Valle de Tambo office set it up was to have one large gathering each evening at 5 or 6 after the work day was over, to which 60-100 women showed up, and then each of us 4 students took a part of the group and did a discussion with them. They gathered the women by announcing the meeting earlier in the day with a loudspeaker strapped to the truck. This new way of working was tricky for us because we were used to having 2 of us working with 10-15 participants, but we were forced to work alone with a group of 20-30 women. It was a little out of hand! But we just did the best that we could with what we ended up with, and that is how we did the work for four evenings. The first evening we worked in a town called El Arenal, the second evening in Cocachacra (where the FONDESURCO agency is located), the third in Alto Ensenada, and the fourth in Punta de Bombón. Each evening after we students had finished our discussions, the FONDESURCO employees held a drawing, giving out several pots and a grand prize of a portable cooking stove. They usually had us draw the numbers in the drawing, because the people liked it. It was fun and interesting, although we students later agreed it was a little awkward to be the focus of a publicity stunt for FONDESURCO in that way. Each night after the discussions and drawings, the employees signed new clients up for loans.
Highlights from this week's visit to the Valle de Tambo include an experience that I had with Henderson, a Peruvian from Lima that was working in that area and staying in the same hotel. He'd already been there for several weeks, and had several more to go. He is an archeologist, and works for a firm in Lima. Their main work is getting hired by the government or by companies who are building things, and they identify archealogical sites that shouldn't be destroyed. There is a surprising amount of archealogical evidence here in Peru. Anyway, I met him the second night we were there, and we chatted for quite a long time. We talked about many things in Peru and archealogical sites of interest, and I asked him what I should visit when I go to Cuzco at the end of our trip. We also shared details about our work, as well as our families and personal lives, and I talked to him a little bit about the Church. A couple nights later, I had a longer talk with him about the Church, and talked about the Restoration and more of our beliefs. He was very friendly, and maybe in the future will have more interest. I would've given him a Book of Mormon, but didn't have one to give away at that moment.
Another highlight of Tambo was on Thursday, when we saw bats flying around in Alto Ensenada, and on Friday of that week Luís Urquizo, one of the FONDESURCO workers, took us around the valley in their truck, and showed us some sights. He also took us to the beach, where we took pictures and touched the water, but didn't go swimming. It's too cold! This was a neat place, I liked it here.
Here's some ají pepper.
And here are some of the sights.
And the beach.
We headed back to Arequipa with Luís in the truck on Saturday morning, and spent the weekend there.
We arrived in Cocachacra, a small city in the Valle de Tambo where the FONDESURCO agency is located, around 8:30 pm, and stayed in this city all week as we did the work. Here in the Valle de Tambo, we had a bit of a changeup in how we did our work. The instructions on how we wanted our focus groups with the people set up got a little mixed up somewhere along the way, and the manner in which the employees in the Valle de Tambo office set it up was to have one large gathering each evening at 5 or 6 after the work day was over, to which 60-100 women showed up, and then each of us 4 students took a part of the group and did a discussion with them. They gathered the women by announcing the meeting earlier in the day with a loudspeaker strapped to the truck. This new way of working was tricky for us because we were used to having 2 of us working with 10-15 participants, but we were forced to work alone with a group of 20-30 women. It was a little out of hand! But we just did the best that we could with what we ended up with, and that is how we did the work for four evenings. The first evening we worked in a town called El Arenal, the second evening in Cocachacra (where the FONDESURCO agency is located), the third in Alto Ensenada, and the fourth in Punta de Bombón. Each evening after we students had finished our discussions, the FONDESURCO employees held a drawing, giving out several pots and a grand prize of a portable cooking stove. They usually had us draw the numbers in the drawing, because the people liked it. It was fun and interesting, although we students later agreed it was a little awkward to be the focus of a publicity stunt for FONDESURCO in that way. Each night after the discussions and drawings, the employees signed new clients up for loans.
Highlights from this week's visit to the Valle de Tambo include an experience that I had with Henderson, a Peruvian from Lima that was working in that area and staying in the same hotel. He'd already been there for several weeks, and had several more to go. He is an archeologist, and works for a firm in Lima. Their main work is getting hired by the government or by companies who are building things, and they identify archealogical sites that shouldn't be destroyed. There is a surprising amount of archealogical evidence here in Peru. Anyway, I met him the second night we were there, and we chatted for quite a long time. We talked about many things in Peru and archealogical sites of interest, and I asked him what I should visit when I go to Cuzco at the end of our trip. We also shared details about our work, as well as our families and personal lives, and I talked to him a little bit about the Church. A couple nights later, I had a longer talk with him about the Church, and talked about the Restoration and more of our beliefs. He was very friendly, and maybe in the future will have more interest. I would've given him a Book of Mormon, but didn't have one to give away at that moment.
Another highlight of Tambo was on Thursday, when we saw bats flying around in Alto Ensenada, and on Friday of that week Luís Urquizo, one of the FONDESURCO workers, took us around the valley in their truck, and showed us some sights. He also took us to the beach, where we took pictures and touched the water, but didn't go swimming. It's too cold! This was a neat place, I liked it here.
Here's some ají pepper.
And here are some of the sights.
And the beach.
We headed back to Arequipa with Luís in the truck on Saturday morning, and spent the weekend there.
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