I have made it back from Solo safe and sound, and the experience was really beyond words. I find myself at a loss for putting everything into an entry, so I have decided to just choose a few photos and explain from there.
The Children
When we pulled up to the village, everyone was there waiting for our arrival. The children bombarded us the second we piled out of the van, asking our names and following us wherever we went. We spent hours with them- playing Frisbee and volleyball, learning Spanish phrases, fooling around with cameras, and writing in notebooks together. They all had such amazing personalities and spirits, it was hard leaving them at the end.
Doña Jesus
On the 2nd day we visited the chakra (farm) of Doña Jesus, a 78 year old woman who had the power and youth of a 30 year old. Her energy was immediately apparent as within only a few minutes of walking up to her tambo she turned to all of us and said “now let’s sweat!” and scrambled off to show us her chakra. The way she worked with her machete and navigated through the forest terrain was amazing. She took us around her land and showed us her oranges, squash, guava, beans, and a range of other crops. It was truly mind-blowing the amount of work that she had done. Even more astounding was the fact that she walked around the unsound terrain with no shoes! She paraded through mud, prickers, and unbeaten paths without a wince or grimace. She was happy in spirit, despite that fact that she was making hardly any money on her crops. She told us 100 oranges would bring only 4 Nuevos Soles, about $1.30, making her work hardly worth the efforts. Nonetheless, an amazing woman.
Big Old' Pile of Compost
A lot of our time spent in Solo was learning about their methods of agriculture. A part of this was actually creating the fertilizer they used. To begin this process we first had to go into the forest to gather special microorganisms (aka fungus) to be used as part of this special fertilizer mix. After learning about the process making these microorganisms usable in the compost, we went out to the biohuerta (basically a garden) and started making up our magical mix! I won’t get into too much detail but we added cow manure, chicken manure, rice husks, crushed brick, and a bunch of other wonderful ingredients and mixed them all up with shovels, as seen above. It was actually a really cool process and we were able to use the fertilizer and plant some onions in the fields later that day.
Planting Trees :)
As part of our efforts to offset the carbon used to travel to Peru, our group planted trees in Solo. The community selected the trees they wanted (coconut trees) and we set about planting them!
Ouch.
To say I got a lot of bug bites would be an understatement. A very large understatement. The combination of bugs outside and mites in the mattress made for some very unhappy legs. Guess that’s what I get for wearing shorts…
Party Time
As a final part of our stay in Solo, we had a giant community dinner and dance celebration. The women of the village were kind enough to lend us their clothes, and decked us out in traditional dress and makeup for the night. We spent the beginning of the evening doing traditional Kichwa dances which mainly consisted of a back and forth two step and random bursts of running hand-in-hand with a partner around the room. It was dancing like none of us had really seen before, but we all had so much fun. As a part of El Carnaval (an approaching holiday) people would also shove fists of flour in one another's face randomly throughout the night. Not too sure why this is a custom, but it is. Around 10 o’clock we all gather around in a circle and the Apu (the community leader), Lizardo, got a bottle of handmade rum and passed in around the circle, thanking us for our work and good spirits. Then things started to get, well, a little weird…that is to say, the whipping began. Once again, not too sure why this was happening but it was. I believe it was because they wanted to demonstrate to us this part of their culture, but still an interesting end to the night. It was all in good humor though and the night ended on a very positive note.
In all, our time in Solo was really eye-opening and rewarding on so many levels. Being able to learn from one another and experience the Kichwa culture was an experience like no other. While I may have been eaten alive and hygiene was not the best, I wouldn't have missed it for anything and am excited for our second immersion in the town of Shucshuyacu this Saturday.
