Halloween

It's Halloween, and I still have no idea what we'll be doing tonight. We were invited to one party that seems like it'd be a big get together, so that might be our best bet. We haven't gone out and gotten costumes, so if anything, we'll have to be a little creative. I immediately thought of Jim's 'Facebook' costume from  The Office. Simple, and effective. I might even get away with it since no one watches The Office here! Who knows...


Jim and his "Facebook" disguise from The Office.

 Ironically, our apartment current has a macabre touch. I bought two mannequins here in Arequipa to take up to Tuti museum. As you can see, I had to bring them bagged up in parts from the store: torsos here, legs there, a few creepy fingers rising up over there. A little spooky. The male mannequin is a coppery brown with a spray tan mustache. Classic. The female is all pure white (it was on discount). So we went to their version of Lowe's yesterday (everyone calls it HomeCenter, yes, in English with a Spanish accent, but I think the actual name of the store is Maestro. Hmmmm...) and bought spray paint to make the guera appear a little more 'kissed by the sun'.  Luckily, thanks to Halloween, there were plenty of wigs on sale, so I was able to get our little model a new 'do, too.

We're not building a haunted house. These are mannequins for the Tuti museum.

After much searching, we also found a runner that I can nail to the museum celing and from which I can hang exhibition panels and photos. When I return to Tuti this coming week, I will be painting the wall yellow and trying to cover up any stains I see. I would hate to starts hammering nails into the fresh paint, only to have to take them out and move them later on. I've also seen how some nails, once stuck into the cement, are stuck forever. I definitely don't want to leave behind a wall full of nails or holes!

I saw a similar type of runner used at the Contemporary Art Gallery here in Arequipa, so I knew it could work. What we bought actually was a runner for a curtain, but it works just the same. To cover the whole length of the wall, I bought two runners 3 meters long. It was fun trying to bring it back to our apartment. You can see below how the runners almost reach the ceiling in our apartment!

Giant curtain runner!!!


Speaking of the Contemporary Art Museum... When we first arrived, I visited the art museum and by coincidence was speaking with the staff on call. I mentioned I was looking for a space to paint in my spare time here in Arequipa.  The man I was speaking with turned out to be an exhibiting artist and had a studio near the Plaza de Armas. Unfortunately, I was so busy the first few months, I never got the opportunity to go!

I made up for that this week.

It was actually a great week of art and crafts. Saturday I went to the studio and took advantage of the great view of the cathedral and the mountain range behind it. I worked small, but it was nice to get the paint moving again. When I got home, I started working on a painting I had previously started, of the mountain just behind the municipality in Tuti. Both are unfinished, I'll have to upload photos later. In the past I concentrated on the figure, but since coming to Peru I've been working principally on landscapes, and with a more muted color palette.

Monday, a friend of ours invited us to go to a Chirstmas arts and crafts fair held in the gym of a local high school. It was great. There were two techniques that really caught my eye. One is called ceramica fria. You buy a mass of white play-doh which sticks to a hard surface (wood) with water and pressure. Then you can paint over the sculpture/painting with acrylic paint. Its a great way to give three-dimensionality to a painting. We started on our first paintings, below is an image of mine with only the drawing and the white mass.  I'm still working on the color; the acrylic painting isn't working out like I thought and I might have to switch to oil.

Drawing supplemented with ceramica fria to make it more 3-D.

Here is the box I finished during the workshop. The mixture of the mass with dry brush paint made for interesting textures.


First attempt working in ceramica fria.

 Returning to the museum, I've received a revised version of the information to present in the paneles from a professor who has done investigations in the region. After translating it to Spanish, and having my husband revise it (better a native speaker look it over before it goes to press!), I sent the document to be translated to Quechua.  I hope to have them done in a few months!

Currently, I am waiting to here from the mayor to see if there is a private car going to Tuti that will help me carry all the supplies I bought for the museum. I cringe thinking of trying to take everything up to the valley by bus! A few more clothes to wash on the roof, and then I'll be ready to enjoy Halloween night. Here's hoping everyone has a great holiday!

Ciao!





p.s. We're going into summer down here, so I thought a summer haircut might be in order:

I'm back to brunette!

About the Museum

Since I finally have internet in the house (they sell USBs with internet access, just like Cricket does in the U.S.), I have to catch up on what I've been doing here. Let's see...

A lot of the first few months have been spent making sure I had the right authorizations and permissions to go about doing what I had promised to do. I had to meet with the local representative of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) (National Institute of Culture) to tell him about my intensions of putting up the first exhibition for the new museum, tentatively called the Cultural and Historical Museum of Tuti. I don't think museum titles leave much room for creativity... At the beginning, I didn't think there were any artifacts or any objects of historical value in the museum space, so I promised the INC that I would not include archaeological or colonial pieces in the exhibit.

View of the one-room musem space, with the
Senora Narcissa,  a Tuti restaurant owner, judge
and tourism promoter. Noticfe the dark red of the
back wall and how poorly it reflects the light.

Oops.

Some of the ceramics found in the museum
space.

My first visit to the museum space, I notice there is a three shelf case with 17 pieces of painted ceramics and another 11 pieces of stones, which appear to have shaped as hammers or grinders.  Now I get to figure out a way to re-approach the INC rep and request permission to display these pieces, and ask for the regulations about how to conserve them. The opportunity (fingers crossed) to see how to register artefacts in another country, and eventually have them displayed gives me goose bumps.  



Lithic map/model of the chacras (fields).
I am unsure if it works on this model, but
 I have seen others that allow water to run
from the top down through all the square
fields. That shows that these models were
plans for the irrigation of mountainsides.

This past week  I finally found out that the mayor and town council (regidores) decided that I would not be able to expand the museum into a second room.  The second room is the storange room for the regidores.

Although I will not be able to expand the museum space, hearing the final decision from the mayor was my green light to begin cleaning and painting the one room I do have.  I first painted over the dark red color on the back wall with a white base. Next, I've bought yellow paint which I hope will match the other two walls on either side. A bright yellow should make the small space seem bigger and reflect the light better. I've been thinking of a color theme based on the mountain sides in the Colca Valley: golden yellows for the walls, olive and pale green decorations and text in greens and maroons and browns.  Ironically, walking through a museum in Yanque, a town about an hour and a half away (also in the Colca Valley), I saw basically the same color choices. Hope they don't mind my borrowing!

Panel from Yanque Museum. I really like the
design. I might have to do something similar...

My first and only ever painted wall. Strange, I've spent hours
painting canvas before, but I wasn't sure I could pull off a wall!

I'm also trying to gather some oral histories, when I can find the right people at home. It's a bit difficult to find people. Everyone has responsibilities in their fields, with their livestock, with their families. Even those in the municipality frequently have to travel between Arequipa and Tuti (minimum 4 hours travel by bus and van).  I had to wait two whole days in order to get the mayor to sign a convenio, an official agreement stating the municipality would provide the space and I would provide the first exhibit. Whew! I am definitely learning patience, though, along with all other aspects of acculturation.

Senora Narcissa, who also works in the restaurant and as judge.
She was my first oral history/legend narrator.

Here is my second narrator, the Senor Jacinto Churro, with his wife. His wife only speaks
Quechua. I am still trying to arrange classes, so I can someday at least greet Quechua speakers
in Tuti.

Part of collecting the oral histories was learning how (or rather, where) to transfer to the audio to CD and then which program to use to edit the audio. I can somewhat manage Sony Forge now, but only the most basic cut and paste features. Eventually I need to figure out how to edit out certain tones; there was a van passing during one of my interviews and the honking horn is so loud!

I also passed through Bolivia this past week. An Italian friend had to renew her tourist visa, so a group of us took advantage of the trip to see Bolivia. I have to say that I had a rough time in La Paz. I won't say that all of Bolivia is the same, but I have not experienced as much open racism ever in Peru as I did in La Paz, Bolivia.  Also, I found out (a bit too late) that most countries surrounding Peru, including Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, charge Americans $140 US for entry into their countries. My husband and I would have been charged this amount, but due to pure ignorance, and lack of funds at the moment, we were allowed to get back into Peru without getting the Bolivian visa. Phew! Unfortunately, it does cut down on our aspirations of traveling through South America. Oh, and in case your wondering, the same restrictions don't apply. Our Italian friend passed through the Bolivian immigration with a smile (before finding out about our problems of course!) and not a cent poorer. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

Speaking of our friend, she's expecting me right now. Better head out. We're lucky enough to live in the bottom floor of a house owned by a mutual friend, and we are only a couple of blocks away from each other, and another few blocks from the main street Avenida Ejercito where the movies and restaurants are. Not too bad. Our next apartment, though, will definitely have to have a kitchen. We're starting to miss being able to warm up food at home!

Ciao!

Saludos from Peru!

October 20, 2010

It's taken me three months to finally get a blog up and going.  Phew!



Man walking with his sheep down a Tuti street.



It's been a nice experience getting to know Peru. We are living in the second largest city in the country, Arequipa. It's at a fairly high altitude, and has an extremely dry climate.  However, we are finally entering into Peruvian spring and I've seen some rain clouds forming around the top of the Misti mountain that overlooks the city, so we may get some rain in the next few months!

View of the waterfall, across the highway

from Tuti. You can see the canals that carry
the water down below. Water comes from
waterfalls, underground springs, dams, etc. to
water the chacras, or terraced fields, the people
of Tuti cultivate.



Roadside altar along the highway.



I spend every other week in the Colca Valley, about a four hour drive from Arequipa.  I arrive in the province's capital, Chivay, and then take combi, a van, another 45 minutes or so to the town of Tuti. Below are some views of the town. You'll notice that its surrounded by mountains, and (although you can't see from the images) sits right between the highway and river.  Some larger buidlings (like a couple of restaurants and the 'hotel' where I stay) are made of brick; regular houses and stores are made of stone and have either tin or straw roofs.



I am working on installing the town's Culture and Historical Museum.  Unfortunately, plans for opening up another adjacent room have fallen through, so the museum will only have one exhibition space. However, I am happy that this museum might serve as the starting point for developing more community based tourist projects.



Statue in the fountain in the Plaza de Armas, center of Tuti.  Still unsure who it represents....


During my time in Tuti, I have gotten to know a few of the movers and shakers in town, especially one senora who is not only a restaurant owner and judge, but also just received an honorary degree from an Arequipa university for her involvement in community projects. It's amazing!



One exhibition idea I had was to collect some of the oral histories from the older residents in the town. I have spoken with two, and after some trial and error, found a place in the market in Arequipa to transfer my tape recordings (that's right, on tiny casette tapes!) onto CD, and then edit the audio with Sony Forge. I've never worked with any program like this before, but I love the challenge of working in a completely new field.



View of Tuti from the street leading to the highway. Far ahead

 you can see the mountain Pumunuta, where the qolcas (ancient

 storage bins of corn, etc.) are located.



Cow-crossing sign, across the highway
from the entrance to Tuti! Funniest thing
I've seen in awhile.

I think that is one of the best aspects thus far of this project. Since the space and the town are so small, I have had to be involved with as much practical work (re-painting, finding translators and printers, etc.) as research aspects (developing a timeline of the local history, working with archaeologists on educational texts, etc.).

View of Tuti from the highway. You can see the school below

(with the terracotta roofs, new), the church of Santisima Cruz

(Sacred Cross) in the background.



Life between the two cities is very different. Arequipa is all city. There are taxis constantly passing, restaurants (including some American, like Pizza Hut and Burger King), and a movie theater. In contrast, Tuti has irregular cell phone service, no cable (the residents pay for downloaded cable on USB, and then plug the USB into a box connected to their television), and vans pass through the town up until about 5pm. After that, you generally have to stay in town for the night.

More pictures and more details are soon to follow!



The caves of Pumunuta, where the qolcas

are.