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!