Hasta luego,
Lauren
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Rally Vicco
The end of June celebrated the “world-renowned” event, the 2nd annual Rally Vicco, highest Rally car race in the world! (Peruvians from the department of Pasco will take any opportunity to brag that it has an event that is the highest in the world…highest city, highest marathon, highest Rally car race…you get the idea). From day one at site (actually day zero? during our field based training/site visit before the end of pre-service training), I heard people from the town of a fellow PCV, enthusiastically advertise their version of Rally car racing. As with any Peruvian celebration, it was a multiple day event with variations on car racing, including a extreme off-road race track. When I attended the event with the other PCVs, we staked out a location for prime-viewing of the long distance race through town and onto the nearby highway. We held our breath every time a car approached because we had a view of the ridiculously dangerous section of the race where the drivers speeding down a straight highway had to skillfully make a 90 degree turn onto a narrow bridge. It was honestly a disaster waiting to happen. Fortunately as far as I know, there were no deaths. I never in my life expected to see this during my Peace Corps service, in a small rural town where a fellow PCV was placed, but hey, there are always surprises.
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Cosecha de Maca: Fotos!
1. Me with the maca (I will admit while I harvested some maca, that large pile of maca was not my work…), 2. Harvesting maca is more time consuming then harvesting potatoes (instead of digging up the hole soil and then searching for potatoes, with maca you can see the small stem/leaves and pick them out little by little), 3. MACA (you can see the diversity just in one small plot of land in my town, yellow, purple…) 4. Difference between fresh and sun-dried maca
Maca: Cosecha y Festival
The weekend of June 19-20 my community harvested maca. You are probably wondering, what is maca? Only the most incredibly nutritious tubular plant in the world, native to the highlands of the Andes (aka Junín, Peru at 4100 meters)!
According to an information sheet I received at the Maca Festival in Junín:
Maca, Lepidium meyenii, originated from Junín, is a vegetable cultivated at over 3,800 meters above sea level, mainly in the central Andean region. It has the following benefits:
1) Raises energy levels, and combats physical and mental fatigue and stress.
2) Strength the immune system because of the specially proline, lysine and vietamin C synergic action.
3) Balances the diet avoiding malnutrition with its high and varied content of carbohydrates, aminoacids, minerals, vitamins and fatty acids. (Thank goodness, something to combat the diet heavy in white potatoes and rice!)
4) Increases endurance in athletes promoting mental clarity.
5) Slows the aging process, reduces unpleasant side-effects of menopause.
6) Helps to control osteoporosis.
7) Stimulates the endocrine system in both men and women.
8) Stimulates a balanced hormonal climate.
9) Helps with menstrual irregularities
And most important!...
10) Increases fertility and sexual functioning.
Maca in other words is the miracle “Viagra” vegetable, something that Peruvians are not uncomfortable mentioning ALL of the time. In fact, I have been explained on more than one awkward occasion (including by a teacher in front of the high school students) the significance of our plaza’s maca monument and other structures (mushroom inside of a pool structure…use your imagination).
Harvesting maca is tedious, but in my opinion more interesting and rewarding, than harvesting potatoes. To harvest potatoes, you basically blindly tear apart the soil and then scope out whatever treasured potatoes you can find. With maca, you can clearly see the little patches of leaves and carefully pick at the soil to find the small vegetable. I quickly learned, harvesting a small plot of maca is a lot more time consuming than a plot of potatoes.
July 9-11, the city of Junín had a festival celebrating the Maca. It was basically a fair displaying various maca products and some organizations had information describing and advising visitors on the process of maca production (see photos). There is a surprisingly large variety of maca, mostly named by colors (white, yellow, gray, black, pink, purple, mixed). Most of the maca products use maca in the dried state; so after harvesting, the people leave the fresh maca outside to dry (often times under a white plastic covering). Examples of the creativity of maca products at the fair: tea, juice, yogurt, ice cream, hard candy, liquor, cake, hot chocolate with maca, etc.
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Photos:
1. My town invested a large amount of money into rebuilding the plaza with a lovely statue “homenaje a la maca,” while attention grabbing, it takes a prompting to realize it is a maca, not a beet, 2 and 3. Display of the large variety of maca at the Maca Festival in Junin, 4. The collection of maca seeds, 5. Poster explaining the complete process of maca production from collecting seeds, planting, harvesting and drying.
According to an information sheet I received at the Maca Festival in Junín:
Maca, Lepidium meyenii, originated from Junín, is a vegetable cultivated at over 3,800 meters above sea level, mainly in the central Andean region. It has the following benefits:
1) Raises energy levels, and combats physical and mental fatigue and stress.
2) Strength the immune system because of the specially proline, lysine and vietamin C synergic action.
3) Balances the diet avoiding malnutrition with its high and varied content of carbohydrates, aminoacids, minerals, vitamins and fatty acids. (Thank goodness, something to combat the diet heavy in white potatoes and rice!)
4) Increases endurance in athletes promoting mental clarity.
5) Slows the aging process, reduces unpleasant side-effects of menopause.
6) Helps to control osteoporosis.
7) Stimulates the endocrine system in both men and women.
8) Stimulates a balanced hormonal climate.
9) Helps with menstrual irregularities
And most important!...
10) Increases fertility and sexual functioning.
Maca in other words is the miracle “Viagra” vegetable, something that Peruvians are not uncomfortable mentioning ALL of the time. In fact, I have been explained on more than one awkward occasion (including by a teacher in front of the high school students) the significance of our plaza’s maca monument and other structures (mushroom inside of a pool structure…use your imagination).
Harvesting maca is tedious, but in my opinion more interesting and rewarding, than harvesting potatoes. To harvest potatoes, you basically blindly tear apart the soil and then scope out whatever treasured potatoes you can find. With maca, you can clearly see the little patches of leaves and carefully pick at the soil to find the small vegetable. I quickly learned, harvesting a small plot of maca is a lot more time consuming than a plot of potatoes.
July 9-11, the city of Junín had a festival celebrating the Maca. It was basically a fair displaying various maca products and some organizations had information describing and advising visitors on the process of maca production (see photos). There is a surprisingly large variety of maca, mostly named by colors (white, yellow, gray, black, pink, purple, mixed). Most of the maca products use maca in the dried state; so after harvesting, the people leave the fresh maca outside to dry (often times under a white plastic covering). Examples of the creativity of maca products at the fair: tea, juice, yogurt, ice cream, hard candy, liquor, cake, hot chocolate with maca, etc.
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Photos:
1. My town invested a large amount of money into rebuilding the plaza with a lovely statue “homenaje a la maca,” while attention grabbing, it takes a prompting to realize it is a maca, not a beet, 2 and 3. Display of the large variety of maca at the Maca Festival in Junin, 4. The collection of maca seeds, 5. Poster explaining the complete process of maca production from collecting seeds, planting, harvesting and drying.
Inseminación – Ovinos Mejorados
One of the major institutions in my town is the “Unidad de Producción Comunal,” which is basically a livestock farming cooperative. Early June, I watched the insemination process firsthand as they inseminated a total of 17 sheep. One lady who has studied the process in university is in charge of the procedure working with other young university students to genetically breed better quality community sheep. Starting 5 or so years ago, they have selected the best community sheep (various traits signifying health and the quantity/quality of wool production) and isolate these male and female sheep to prevent mating. They collect semen of the high quality male sheep and then using microscope determine which samples will have a high success rate (choosing healthy sperm by their movement speed). Starting May 24 this year, the insemination lasted for 20 days; the timing is important as the birth of the offspring will be the end of the year during rainy season when the pasture is the healthiest (green and rapidly growing with the abundance of rain). This community of shepherds is quite advanced!
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Photos:
1. Equipment for genetic insemination, 2. Cleaning the light probe, 3. Extracting semen with the pipet, 4. Sheep lined up for genetic insemination
Hasta luego,
Lauren
Photos:
1. Equipment for genetic insemination, 2. Cleaning the light probe, 3. Extracting semen with the pipet, 4. Sheep lined up for genetic insemination
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