Back in Pisac

Saludos, Amigos!

Greetings from the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Pisac, Peru. We have been back down here for nearly two weeks and we have been busy! A couple days after arriving here, we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in town, just a few doors down from the Museo Comunitario, the community museum showcasing the cultural traditions of this area. The apartment was furnished except for the kitchen. So, we very quickly invested in kitchen appliances and dishes including the purchase of a fridge, gas stove, dishes, pots, pans, etc. I said to Steve that we must be serious about getting something going here, because now we own a full own Peruvian kitchen! (Well.. we do love to cook!) Not only this, but construction has already begun on our house on the parcel of agricultural property that we purchased last August. More to say about this below. And, the kids have started school once again at Kusi Kawsay. We have reconnected with friends we made last year. In other words, we are already enmeshed down here in the best sense of the word!

So, I keep asking myself the question, "What is it exactly that we are doing here?" Here is my attempt at an answer: Last year, we came to Peru with Steve and Rachel's Evergreen students with their mission of offering Andean Roots students an opportunity to truly experience that which they had spent most of the academic year studying: the links between people, land, language, agriculture and culture in the face of globalization. As a family, our goal was to give ourselves and our kids the opportunity to delve into another culture and language, new ways of experiencing and viewing the world. Personally, my intention was to be open to the experience and to be willing to be changed and transformed by it. We came down last year with a certain innocence. This is not to say that Steve and I hadn't been down in this region before, because we had been here previously. Nonetheless, I use the word "innocence" because we really had no idea how much we were going to end up changing and being changed.

So, we stayed nearly 5 months and we completely fell in love with the Sacred Valley region, the town of Pisac, the Kusi Kawsay school, and the community. It was like a total love affair. This is the best metaphor I have for how we felt about last year. Everyday was wonderful, and in a certain sense, we had rosy glasses on like when you are newly in love. By the end of the 5 months, we ended up pregnant in the sense that we had purchased a beautiful piece of property. Now we are back to tend to the property, to take on the project of building on the property and to build some sort of a future for our family in this region.

So, this time around, it feels like we are "digging in" in a certain way. And, if you came out to the chakra, our land, you would see that there is a lot of digging going on! The foundation on our casa was begun this past week which has included trenches being dug, very large rocks being moved, etc. If last year felt like a lot of play, this year means work. Although we still own the rosy glasses, we now must don new glasses and see things in a somewhat different light. There is a certain seriousness in our current endeavor. And, just like when you have a new baby, and there is a lot to learn, we have a lot to learn. Figuring out where to buy the necessary items to furnish a kitchen was only a baby step compared with building a house. Steve has spent countless hours on the house building plan, and he has a good sense of the local construction style and materials. Nonetheless, it is very different from building a house in the U.S., in almost every way beginning with the very sacred and necessary first step of enacting a pago a la tierra, literally, a payment to the earth. This is a very serious ceremony enacted to the Pacha Mama, the Mother Earth, as well as to the apus, the mountain peak deities. This ceremony had to happen before the workers would even consider beginning work on the foundation of our house. I'll let Steve elaborate on this ceremony and on the other details of the house project in his portion of this blog, but suffice to say that the obligation to living here is very much an obligation to learn about, to adapt to, and to honor a very different cultural paradigm, in every sense: socially, economically, linguistically as well as spiritually. To live here is to honor the ways of knowing and living that are part of this cultural landscape.

I have to admit that I have felt a range of emotions since returning. On the one hand, I am thrilled to be greeted by the mountain peaks, the apus, the incredible natural beauty of this Sacred Valley and also by the familiar faces of the people in the community that became our acquaintances and friends last year. I also have felt awed and overwhelmed by our building project and by the obligation of being stewards of the chakra, the land we purchased, an agricultural parcel comprising about an acre, containing over 300 peach trees! To reconcile these mixed emotions, the metaphor of "the gift of life" strikes me as appropriate. It was a gift to be here last year and the opportunity to continue to spend time in this area is a gift. This gift contains amazing beauty as well as inherent challenges and complexities. The gift is that much more valuable because it contains the challenges and complexities. These serve as the means for our growth and evolution as human beings. Just as raising our children is beautiful, challenging and complex, so too is our relationship with raising/building a house and participating authentically in a life in Pisac.

Of course, it is not a question of doing anything by ourselves. To take on a project like this is to engage in community and in ayni, the Quechua word for reciprocity, a central Andean value that ensures harmony within a community. To build our house necessitates harmonious relationships with our contractor Mauro, and the Quechua speaking workers from the highland communities, as they are those responsible for building the adobe bricks, moving rocks, felling trees, helping us find building materials, and ensuring that we properly and respectfully honor the earth and the land according to custom and tradition. We also must build harmonious relationships with our diverse neighbors, the members of the greater community, and of the school as the success of our project and our satisfaction living here is directly dependent on these relationships.

So, "what is it exactly that we are doing here?" In the largest sense of the word, we are in many ways small and large, engaging it the conscious project of our own growth and evolution as human beings. You might say that this could be done anywhere, and of course, that is what all human beings are doing wherever they are in whatever corner of the world they happen to inhabit or reside. We have chosen to be in Peru, and in this environment, we are learning new skills, and gaining appreciation and admiration for other cultural ways of knowing and acting. We bring to the table our own cultural and personal knowledge, ideas and skill sets which we authentically and openly offer: the skills of sustainable agricultural knowledge and practices, educational skills, yoga, and much more.

I can't say that I have an answer clearer than this, and I really believe that this is the answer. As human beings, we are at times called to be in relationship with people and places, and when we heed this call, we have the opportunity to align more and more with our deepest purposes in a particular lifetime. So, here we are in Pisac. We're here for 3 months, and we are sowing the seeds for future opportunities.

More to come soon!