A Pyramid Complex at Ucupe.

Go to any small village in the Lambayeque Region. Ask anyone you see if there are ruins or archeological sites in the area. The answer will almost always be no. Ask if there are ‘huacas’- an object that represents something revered, typically a monument of some kind, and chances are they can direct you to several of them. That was the case recently in Ucupe, a very small village on the Pan American highway 25 miles south of Chiclayo. A forty minute ride in a collectivo (private passenger cars that serve as public transportation) is about the only method of transportation.

The pyramid complex of huaca el Pueblo is one-half mile west of the village. Looking at the complex today it’s hard to imagine that in 2008 it was the center of archeological focus with the discovery of the tomb of the “Lord of Ucupe” and a fabulous wealth of artifacts. See “The Lord of Ucupe” for photos and description.

The main pyramid designated E-1 by the excavation team has several obvious places where excavation (or looting) had taken place and afterwards attempts had been made to restore the original appearance. There is no security or restrictions at the site. In fact there is nothing that distinguishes it from the rest of the desert landscape. The lack of recent looter digging or any other signs of activity seems to indicate that locals and archeologists have no further interest in the pyramids.

The ground of the complex is covered with more pottery shards than I have seen anywhere in the region. Most of the pieces appear to be of the Moche culture and are practical rather than ornamental. The young girl is Kathy. Her house is near the base of the pyramids. She told us that two years ago several gringos had visited the site to “study it.” This would have been the excavation sponsored by the National Science Foundation. She said that “after the study stopped and everything was covered with dirt” to her knowledge there have been no visitors to huaca el Pueblo.

Beside the many pottery shards another feature unique to this site is the horizontal lines on the adobe bricks. I have not seen that at any other site in the region. The lines are on all four sides of the bricks, and are in the interior as well as exterior parts of the pyramids. Bricks at the site of Señor Sipan have markings that supposedly indicate the person or group who made them, but those markings are only on the top of the brick.

At the base of one wall there appears to be remnants of a mural. The colors and placement remind me of several murals at the Ventarron site near the town of Pomalca.

Kathy told us of a legend regarding the gap at the top of the main pyramid. According to her none of the villagers come to the pyramids at night, because the gap opens and swallows anyone in the area ”and they are never seen again.” When I asked her if she believed the legend, she simply smiled, but added that she doesn't come here at night.

It had been an interesting but very hot day and after hiking back to Ucupe I was looking forward to returning to Chiclayo. During the next half hour we watched several full colectivos zoom by. I didn’t want to let on to the ladies, but I was starting to get a little apprehensive about our prospects for the evening. Knocking on doors begging for tamales and sleeping under the stars on a bed of sand has never been my strong suit. But not to worry…when the women had talked themselves out, Maribel got up and motioned to an approaching bus. It was one of those big double deck highway busses with reclining seats and air conditioning that travel the length of the Pan American highway. To my amazement it pulled over. It didn’t completely stop, but it pulled over on the shoulder, opened the door and slowed down long enough for us to board, which Maribel and Betzy did with style and I somehow managed with all the grace of a drunken peg-legged pirate. It felt good to get home.

Tom

In Today's Newspaper...

...there is an article about our effort to help the school kids in Collique Alto. The article is featured in La Industria’s Chiclayo edition. It talks about donations from the United States and Canada and also about our philosophy of helping people to help themselves.

Thanks for your help. Without you this doesn’t happen.

Tom & Maribel

Awww…do I have to go to school?

Wednesday, March 9th and it’s the first day of the new cycle at I.E.P.N 10841 Jose Carlos Mariategui school in the village of Collique Alto. National schools officially open throughout Peru on March 1st but in the less populated areas opening day is determined by the individual communities.

This is the class room of Mrs. White; one of 11 such classrooms. Her students are in the second grade of primary, which contains 6 grades in total. The secondary level has 5 grades. Mrs. White has been teaching at Collique Alto for 8 years. Today will be mostly orientation. Students will receive their government supplied text books and be given the notebooks, pencils, pens, rulers, erasers and paper provided by you, some of which are displayed on the desk. Thanks to the amount of donations received we were able to purchase additional items for the younger kids such as scissors, glue and a coloring notebook, and for the higher grades bi-color pens.

All of the 18 registered students for Mrs. White’s class were in school plus one unregistered student (no problem…we had purchased extras so were prepared). When she commented that it was unusual to see so many students on the first day, we asked what she thought accounted for the additional kids (we were hoping to hear her say Promesa Peru…we’re only human). Instead she replied, “Who knows?” :(

We think these kids know. Some of these folks provided money and some are contributing in other ways. Gracias.

Kinder is in a different building on a separate piece of land. Monica (in shorts), who is the kinder director told us 10 days ago that she had 12 kids registered. She phoned two days ago to say she had 3 more. Maribel suggested we plan for 20, and that’s exactly how many kinder students were there.

Did we accomplish anything today? No doubt less than we’d like, but perhaps more than we’d expect. There’s no question in our minds that the large number of kids at school today were there because parents had gotten the word that Promesa Peru was providing school materials. We’d like to believe that what we provided is opportunity. That’s really all we can do. Now it’s up to the kids and their parents to continue the momentum. There may not be a future president in any of these photos (though I wouldn’t bet against the girl looking at the camera) but if not it won’t be because you weren’t there for them. They know that. Thank you.

In appreciation:

I’ve got a dilemma

I’ve got a dilemma, or at least it feels like one to me. The intent of this blog is to record my experiences in Peru, and secondly to provide some insight to daily life in Chiclayo to family, friends and others who may be interested. Since the formation of Promesa Peru – a charitable organization Maribel and I are members of, I’ve been devoting a lot of entries to that activity. The truth is I really don’t want to do that…not on this blog. I’d prefer to write about visits to small towns, or archeology sites, or interesting people or situations, or some facet of everyday life.

What I’m struggling with is this…I believe strongly in the work Promesa Peru has done and is doing and there are still many situations where we could be helping people to help themselves, but not enough people know we exist. Getting donations is all about numbers of readers and until enough people find the Promesa Peru web page the only means we have to reach them is this blog. Now, I’m not interested in having the world’s most read blog and if people lose interest in what I have to say that's okay, but I don’t want readers to leave because every other entry is asking for money.

We’ve recently tried another approach to reach potential donors. We sent emails to fifty Peruvian restaurants across the United States and Canada, asking them to make our brochures available to their customers, and in return offering to list their restaurant on this Promesa Peru web page:

https://sites.google.com/site/promesaperuchiclayo/home/hungry

As of this writing we’ve received eight replies. We know there are hundreds of Peruvian restaurants in the United States alone, but even those with web pages often do not have an email address so are difficult to reach. If you clicked on the page address you may have noticed there is only one participating restaurant in New Jersey, and none in Los Angeles or Miami where thousands of expatriate Peruvians live who might help us if they knew we were here.

So instead of asking you for a donation, can I ask this of you? Do you have a favorite Peruvian restaurant nearby? Would you be willing to ask them if they would display our brochures in exchange for free advertising? After they’ve said yes, and I can’t imagine why any restaurant would not want to do that, send an email to me at promesaperu2@gmail.com with the restaurant’s address and contact name and we’ll have brochures in the mail within two business days.

Please think about it - if we can reach thousands of people through a restaurant network I won’t have to use this blog to ask for donations, which will solve my dilemma, and you won’t have to experience that, "geeeze…he’s asking for money again!” feeling. Sounds fair to me.

Tom

Class room or farm field?

How do you progress from a perennial third world country to a developed nation? While there may be several valid answers to that question, we believe that education is the foundation. Too many kids, especially in the less populated areas of Peru are working in the fields instead of learning in the classroom. It’s not that the parents of these kids want to deprive them of an education – in fact it’s the opposite, but what do you do when the money for a school uniform, tuition and notebooks just isn’t there?

Collique Alto is one of 23 caserios (a community too small to be classified as a town) in the district of Pucala. Many of these villages are lacking in basic services including a clean water supply. Individual homes are often without water and electricity.

The school at Collique Alto, named Jose Carlos Mariategui doesn’t require uniforms and in most cases forgoes tuition (teachers are mostly volunteer and there isn’t much overhead). But there is no avoiding the need for school supplies. The school’s total enrollment is 155 students from kinder through secondary. The average cost per student for all needed items is about $15 per student, which comes to $2325. We want to help, though we don’t feel that amount is realistically within our means, nor do we necessarily want to relieve the families of all responsibility, in keeping with our credo ‘helping people to help themselves.’ We believe the following is a reasonable goal:

Basic school supplies list:

Notebook (math) $1.10 x 155 = $170.50
Notebook (literature) 1.10 x 155 = 170.50
Pencil (plain) .20 x 155 = 31.00
Pencil (bi color) .25 x 50 = 12.50
Eraser (large) .20 x 155 = 31.00
Ruler .11 x 155 = 17.05
Folder .75 x 155 = 116.25
Paper (poster 100) 5.50 x 1 = 5.50
Paper (plain 1000) 8.00 x 1 = 8.00


Total = $562.30

Thanks to donations already received we’ve got a good start but time is short and we need more help to get the rest of the supplies. School is scheduled to open March 7th. Wouldn’t it be great if all eligible students in Collique Alto were in school on that day with pencils and notebooks in hand?

And there will be other projects following on the heels of this one. For example, the sanitary facilities at the school need improvement. We have had one meeting with a representative of the Mayor from Pucula and will do everything we can to get water connected to the restrooms, and toilets and sinks installed. We’ll need your help. Please visit the Promesa Peru web page. It’s got a donate button. :)

Tom

The Montenegro Family of Collique Alto

This is the home of Magno and Juanita Montenegro and their 6 children. Magno built the house himself eleven years ago with the help of neighbors. The adobe bricks were manufactured “near the river” and hauled to the building site by burro cart. Previously the family had lived in the lush, forested mountain side village of Santa Cruz where they had a small farm with livestock and cultivated acres, but that all changed when their son Samuel at one and one-half years of age experienced an extreme fever followed by convulsions. Unable to get immediate medical help, Samuel suffered permanent brain damage. The cost of medical follow up and medication soon ate up the family’s savings and ultimately took their farm.

Hoping to start over and rebuild their lives, Magno, Juanita, Esther and Samuel, now 16 and 13 moved to Chiclayo where job opportunities were better. They lived in a one room house until a friend offered them the use of her small home in Collique Alto. After living in the home for a few months and earning a living working as a field hand, Magno became aware of a plot of vacant government land outside of the village. He cleared the plot, made application to the government for the land, and with the support of neighbors was awarded the land at no cost. Since then Flor 11, Lisbeth 9, Sonia 3 and Daves 1 ½ have joined the family.

Good paying jobs are scarce in Collique Alto (as they are in most of Peru) so both Magno and Juanita work as field hands when work is available. In addition Magno, who is a young looking 40 attempts to sell Gano Excel brand natural medicine. While the parents are out working Flor and Lisbeth take responsibility for cleaning the house and looking after Samuel, Daves and Sonia. On an average day the family income is about 18 soles ($6.52 USD), but there are days when there is no income. They have a cow for milk, raise ducks for meat and grow vegetables behind the house so they’re self sufficient for the short term regarding food. There are no utility costs; they don’t have electricity, they have well water and cook outside with corn cob fuel and wood taken from the desert.

The oldest daughter Esther spends school vacations living with relatives in Lima and working as a domestic servant. She normally saves enough money to pay for her own school supplies and clothing. Still, sometimes tough choices need to be made between new clothing, school material, replacement household items and other necessities. Magno acknowledged that frequently it is Samuel’s medicine that looses out. We watched Samuel (flanked by Maribel and Betzy) closely during our visit. His verbal communication is limited to grunts. He smiles a lot and obviously likes attention, but without his medication to control his emotions he is subject to brief episodes of rage. We saw him swing a belt in what looked like an attack on his sister Flor.

The Montenegros are good people. When Betzy mentioned to Magno that I had commented about how quiet and peaceful the area is, Magno took Juanita aside for a moment and after a brief discussion promptly offered a piece of their land to me to build a house.

We want to help this family. It’s probably been years since Samuel has seen a doctor. We’d like to arrange for that to happen and also determine what medicine is needed and see if we can get it at a reasonable cost so he doesn’t have to go without. We’d also like to buy school supplies for Esther, Flor and Lisbeth. In fact, at a cost of about $15 per student, we’d like to insure that on March 7th all the school-eligible kids in Collique Alto who need help have the supplies and clothing to attend school. If you would like to help us please visit the Promesa Peru web page. It’s got a ‘donate’ button. :)

This is the school the Montenegro kids attend. Jose Carlos Mariategui reflects the extreme poverty of the community. The school has three main buildings that house the classrooms and administration offices. They appear to be in reasonably good condition but could use some fresh paint inside to brighten things up. A forth smaller building located some distance from the classrooms serves as the restroom. It is used by students and teachers.

This is the restroom interior. It may shock you, but we wanted you to see the facility that Esther, Flor, Lisbeth, Sonia and the other kids have been and will be using when school opens again March 7th. The school has water, but there is no connection to the restrooms. We don’t know why boards haven’t been nailed together so people don’t have to ‘squat’ unassisted, or why buckets of water to wash hands are not available. Our questions went unanswered.

We were told that the Mayor of Pucala needs to approve the finances to run and connect water to the restroom. We hope to visit him next week, and if we’re successful in getting running water to the restrooms we’ll see about getting toilets and sinks in place. It’s not possible to educate kids about hygiene using what they have now as an example. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. In the meantime, please think about helping those kids to attend school.

Tom & Maribel

The Mythical Naylamp and the Chotuna-Chornancap Pyramids

Legends differ regarding where Naylamp and his entourage came from, but all agree that he arrived on the shores of the Lambayeque Region sometime after the demise of the Moche culture, and was responsible for the rise of the Chimú and the Sicán (often used interchangeable with Lambayeque) cultures and the rebuilding of civilization in the region. The pyramid complex of Chotuna-Chornancap, located 10 miles to the southwest of the city of Lambayeque and discovered in 2008 is the physical ruin most closely associated with Naylamp.

Chotuna doesn’t see many visitors. Asking someone in Lambayeque how to get to the pyramids results in quizzical looks or at best vague arm motions indicating ‘somewhere out there.” We recently made our second try to locate the site. The first, 8 months ago ended with a terribly lost and confused moto driver dumping us in the middle of nowhere, leaving us to walk back to Lambayeque. This second attempt found us in a moto taxi on what amounts to a goat trail with a driver who stopped several times to ask directions from field workers. The 25 minute ride can best be described as a chiropractor’s delight.

After paying the 5 soles admission charge visitors are escorted to the one-year old site museum. The museum doors are unlocked only when the occasional tourist succeeds in finding the location. Once inside, the tiny museum is impressive with a wealth of written information and artifact
displays.

The artifacts on display are original with many found in the complex. This tumi, or sacrificial ceremonial knife greets the visitor upon entry. Several sacrificial knives were found in a pyramid apparently dedicated to sacrifice.

The Sicán, Chimú and Inca cultures are known to have practiced human sacrifice at the Chotuna location. The museum has the remains of several victims on display, including this young boy.

Most of what is known about Peruvian cultures comes from their pottery, and the museum has fine examples of beautiful pottery dating from the Moche, Sicán, Chimú and Inca cultures.

Many of the more impressive artifacts, including murals and the excavated temple of Naylamp are located at the pyramid Chornancap, seen in the far distant center. We were told by museum staff and the moto driver that there is no possibility of getting anywhere close to Chornancap, and even if we could get there the site is closed to visitors. Which to us is the major problem of the complex.


Tantalizingly close to the museum is the pyramid Chotuna. You can almost hear ancient voices enticing you to walk the ramp to the entrance door, but the voices of the museum staff speak louder. Like Chornancap, Huaca Chotuna is closed to visitors. In fact, leaving the immediate area of the museum grounds is prohibited.

As informative as the museum is, and as rich as the site’s history is, without being able to at least make contact with the pyramids a visit to the Chotuna-Chornancap complex is incomplete and not worth the effort.

Tom