Conima, Carpa, Sicta, Vilquechico, and Puno, Peru 20-24 May 2013

On Tuesday, 21 May 2013, we arrived in Vilquechico this time to finish up the registrations and surveys. We also went this week because I was invited by the folks in Carpa to come for a special lunch. They prepared oca and papa as well as tuna fish salad. They made an in ground oven by making a dome with dried up pieces of chacra and lighting a fire inside the dome with leftover plant stalks from the harvest. Once this fire got going and was really hot, which took about an hour, Mr. Mario came out with a large stick and started caving in this earthen oven dome, a little at a time. This released hot coals and earth into the bottom of this dome, where one of the women started dumping raw potatoes and oca. They did this in layers, once all the of the papa and oca were mixed with layers of coals and hot earth, we waited 45 minutes for everything to bake. Then we ate! Delicious.
On Wednesday, 22 May 2013, we got up early to catch the bus into Conima, which is located in Moho Province, Departamento Puno. The ride took about 2 hours and it covers some higher terrain. Conima is situated on a high bluff overlooking the lake, much higher than the land in Vilquechico which softly curves downward into the lake. In Conima, we conducted a workshop with videos on how to kill and clean guinea pig then I took the floor to talk about a female owned businesses in the U.S. When we were done, once again I took my place as guest of honor as we lunched on papa, oca, maíz, little fried patties and tuna, chicken and beef salad. I met with the manager of agropecuary projects for the province of Moho. His name is Cesar and while we only got to speak for a short time between the workshop and lunch, I have written him an email with the attached stakeholder and focus group questions. Hopefully I will be seeing him again or hearing from him soon with his answers to the ecosystem services question.
On Thursday, 23 May 2013, I entered the Municipal office in Vilquechico once again, seeking a more authoritative voice than just the manager of civil registration. This time I met with the manager of agropecuary affairs. While he did not have time that morning to do an interview, he did make copies of the stakeholder and focus group producer questions and we made a date to do a telephone interview. Unfortunately I inadvertently forgot about our telephone interview last Friday and I have subsequently made contact by voice mail. Hopefully we will get together by phone or I will stop in again this week in order to do the interview. Thursday was a very productive day as I was able to conduct 3 focus groups in Sicta. I found that this community is much more traditional when it comes to paying respect to Pachamama. These focus groups gave me a little bit more variety as far as local practice, thought and custom.
On Friday , 24 May 2013, my coworker Melissa accompanied me to her school, the University of the Altiplano where I spoke to one of the tenured professors of anthropology. He is also on the board of directors of the Binational Organization of Sustainable Use of Lake Titicaca. We conducted the stakeholder interview in front of his anthropology class for roughly 45 minutes. They had all been partying the night before so they did not have very much to add to the conversation. We touched briefly on the fact that for an anthropological type study like mine, it takes more than six weeks to get to know the people in the communities I am visiting. He said this may be why I am not eliciting the more in depth answers to my focus group questions that I was looking for.