A long day, a hard life.

A South American Adventure The introductory Post
Peru, A Different Perspective: Includes Slideshow
Peru and the Inca: Back to the Future Inca Agricultural Research

This post seeks to compare everyday life in rural and small-town Peru to our lives in Canada. While I think people in Peru are generally happy with their lives (in terms of family, friends, and neighbours), life does look to be far more difficult than in Canada. It makes me wonder why, in Canada, we seem to complain about the least little thing when our standard of living and level of privilege appears to be considerably higher than in Peru.

1. To what extent does luck play a role in our lives?

A man about my age (late 70s), pushed what looked to be a backbreaking load along a street in Aguas Calientes (I), the last small town before Machu Picchu. He stopped and leaned over breathing hard. After resting a few moments, he straightened, stretched, and with gritty determination grabbed the handles of his wheelbarrow and continued.

As we passed, our eyes met, he nodded and we smiled. While he was obviously weary, the smile and sparkling eyes suggested a happy man. As he continued along his uphill path, I continued down taking more photos of life in small-town Peru.  A few minutes later, I met another man pushing a similar barrow full of goods (photo in the footer), and he too wore a happy smile accented with sparkling eyes. We also exchanged smiles and passing nods. It looked to be a tough life for the two men their later years.

Later that day, while passing through another small town, a group of townspeople (photo taken from our bus as we drove through) was cleaning (or rebuilding) a drainage ditch. We are told by our guide that everyone in small towns sprinkled across rural Peru, have a standing obligation to help build, then keep public works systems clean and functioning.  It looked to be a tough way to spend the weekend, but there is also the aspect of a community working together to make life better for everyone.

This photo shows only one part of a large group of people spread over two or three blocks on the edge of their village. They were working to build or repair a drainage system, an essential part of these high mountain communities (we were outside Cuzco at about 12,500 feet at the time). 

The photo below, along with a slideshow) provides a glimpse of a group of women, ancestors of the Inca, who, with the help of a National Geographic grant, started a weaving business a few years back. They now have a thriving operation that caters to an increasing number of tourists passing through their village of Chinchero, a community of about 20,000 Quechua (catch ur ah) speakers, located on a 12,500 foot plateau a few miles northeast of Cuzco.

While they work exceptionally hard (by our standards at least), their efforts provide only a modest living for their families. A full outline of their business venture is described in a National Geographic article of some years back. Such is the working life for many ordinary men and women in Peru and other South American countries.

These women may work several weeks creating one table cloth or a day creating three or four little belts that are sold for $2.00 each.. They may sell one or two belts per day and a table runner every week or so. It may be weeks before they sell one of their intricately woven table cloths. Every part of the weaving process uses natural products of Peru including the dyes which are handmade on site. (Chinchero Cultural Centre)

WEAVERS SLIDESHOW

Think about this. If we were dealt different cards in life, we could be any one of these men or women, and they could be us.  Whether we carry a heavy load in the third world, or we lay back watching a big screen TV in Canada (a smartphone tucked by our side) a good part of the reason we are where we are, is based on the luck of our birth.

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Moray Archeological Site: These concentric rings, each raised by a height of four feet, reach a depth of 100 feet. The rings and partial rings create twenty-five distinct climatic conditions. This arrangement allowed the Inca, using scientific methods, to develop seed crops best suited to many different climatic conditions across the nation. (1)(2)

South America Post Links (these South America posts are not written in the order of travel)

A South American Adventure The introductory Post
Peru, A Different Perspective: Includes Slideshow
Peru and the Inca: Back to the Future Inca Agricultural Research

Back to the Future:  How the Inca Nation Lead the Way

There are many things to be learned by visiting civilizations past and it’s doubly so with the Inca Nation.  Although we only had seven days in Peru, it did not take long to realize just how influential the Inca people were, both in history and in the Peru of today.

In history, the Inca left behind cultural, religious and scientific legacies that continue to astound scientists, historians, and visitors to this very day. In the present day, and since the near-destruction of the nation in the 16th Century, ancestors of the Inca continue to rebuild the historical sights, traditions and religious practices which served their ancestors so well. It is a history about which our world can learn much.

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(Click to open to full size)
(A 12-minute slideshow can be linked in the footer)

This photo, taken while en route to Cusco, along with several others in the slideshow linked below, was taken through the windows of buses, trains, and aircraft as we traveled around Peru.  As you can see in the above photo, the rivers, roads, and towns very clearly come into view (click photo to open to full size)

Surprisingly, with a little touchup work to remove some of the reflections, the photos provide some insight into the travel challenges faced by Peruvians as they go about their daily lives. 

South America Post Links

A South American Adventure Introductory Post
Peru and the Inca: Back to the Future Inca Agricultural Research
South America: A Long Day, a Hard Iife  Comparisons to Canada

Peru, a view through the glass of planes, trains, and buses.

As we flew to Cusco, the religious centre of the Inka (original spelling) culture and the gateway to Machu Picchu, breaks in the clouds presented our first opportunity to view Peru from a 32,000-foot perspective.  The enhanced introductory photos that serve as the lead in this slideshow, reveal the rugged terrain where people most certainly live and work at the top of the world.  That world ranges from sea level to 16,700 feet.  Eight of the ten highest mines in the world are located in Peru, with the town of La Rinconada, 30,000 residents, sitting at the 16,700-foot level, the highest town in the world.

The majority of staple crops in Peru are cultivated from 1,000 meters (3200 feet) to 3,900 meters (almost 13,000 feet) with several hundred varieties of potatoes being developed and are shipped around the world. Quinoa, another staple of Peru, is grown from about 2,300 metres (7500 feet) to 3,900 metres (13,000 feet).

Maize, another principle crop, is commonly grown to the 3,500 meters (11,500 feet) in favourable conditions.  It was the ingenuity of the ancestors of the Peruvian people (the Inca’s and others) in developing crop strains that grew well under adverse conditions, that allowed them to feed the people with less than 2% of land in the country suitable for agricultural use.

“The highest altitude in the Andes at which people have resided permanently is 17,100 feet (shepherds in southern Peru) and, as temporary workers, 18,500 to 19,000 feet (Carrasco Mine, in the Atacama Desert, Chile).”  (The Mountain People).

In several of the lead photos, you can discern the switchback network leading from one community to the next and when traveling by bus, we seldom covered more than a few kilometers with entering a network of switchbacks.  In one photo, I happened to capture an open pit mine and in another a dust cloud that appears to be from another mine.

Later, when travelling by bus, a perplexing question arose – why were so many towns completely devoid of people.  I’m not just talking about only a few people on the streets, often there was not a single a sole to be seen.  Perhaps everyone left for work before we arrived (late morning) and never came home until late in the afternoon (after we left)?

“The daily life of the residents of Peru’s cities varies with social class. Relatively few of the poorer residents have good jobs within the formal Peruvian economy; often they must work two or three jobs, and they have less leisure time than other Peruvians. Such people make up the majority of the population in squatter settlements that surround the major urban areas.”  (Daily Life and Social Customs)

On landing in Cusco, we had our first taste of life at 11,500 feet, and after walking a short distance from the aircraft to the departure lounge, we begin to feel the effects. It would be good to have the next two days to acclimatize.

Video:  A View Through The Glass

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Uber has the above Molecular Transporter located in the Best Western in Richmond.  A neat machine that not only transports but can also do DNA sequencing as well as give you a complete medical assessment while en route. You simply fill out a checklist.  Photos in FB Post

Heading to South America

This is the first time we have traveled using a Molecular Transporter, a system developed by UBER with one unit situated just outside the Vancouver Aiport. The neat thing about this type of transportation is the ability to experience all the real-time activities you might see and feel when travelling in one of those outdated stretch bodied commercial jets. I have highlighted a few of our experiences while en route to Buenos Aires via Houston and Miami.

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Diversity in Canada Has The Capacity to Inspire The World

Celebrating at a Ukrainian Christmas (1) dinner gave me pause to think about how these cultural
celebrations help to define Canada – that which makes us one. One dinner you ask? Well, it goes much deeper as it also includes coffee breaks at Tim Hortons, restaurants and the Canadian Soccer teams. It all fits into the fabric of our national identity.

1. A Ukrainian Dinner Celebration

On Sunday, January 6, 2019, Lynn and I went to dinner on the eve of Ukrainian Christmas at the home of one of my former police partners. We both retired twenty-five years ago and for years our families lived a stone’s throw from one another in West Saanich. Ukrainian Christmas was, and is, always a big celebration in their home (1). In addition to Al and Mary and their immediate family, three other couples, also long retired police members and their wives, were at the table of eighteen.

As we dined, surrounded by that uniquely Ukrainian bounty, we were not just celebrating a special event in the Gregorian calendar year, we were celebrating what it means to be Canadian. That feast and those friends served to remind us of how fortunate we are to live at peace in a mix of cultures, languages, traditions, religions, and varieties of food types that is unprecedented in the world. It is a mix that accompanies us every day, not just on special occasions.

Photo (Web source).  This table represents about half the set for our special meal. All items were prepared at home and served piping hot. 

2. Tim Horton’s and McDonald’s:  The coffee crowd

Earlier in the day (Sunday), I made a couple of visits to Tim Hortons at the Royal Oak Shopping Centre (2). It was, as usual, overflowing. I grabbed a seat beside an acquaintance from Syria. He and his delightful family are making their way in a new country they now call home. When he left for an appointment, I struck up a conversation with the man on my right, a person I did not know.

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December 31, 2018.  RCMP: Civilian Oversight and Unionization take centre stage.

It has taken decades, however, it seems possible the changes announced for 2019 may assist this storied force to adopt the ideals first annunciated by Sir Robert Peel. While the imposition of civilian oversight and the unionization of the rank and file is only a first step in what will surely be a slow and painful process, it may be enough to break the rigid command and control structure that has stifled initiative and rewarded compliance.

In modern times, rank and file members have been caught between the demands of policing in the 21st century and an administrative structure with one foot firmly planted in the 19th. In the process of advocating for change, many promising careers were destroyed by bullying tactics used against members in general and sexual abuse against female members in particular. Such changes began in other city and municipal forces back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

For the RCMP, “These changes are coming in response to years of complaints that the force has a broken workplace culture, as well as repeated calls from outside inquiries for civilian oversight of management functions that are still under the purview of uniformed officers.”

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Frank Yochim (1937 – 2018)

The post opens with two slideshows, one that reveals Franks deep connection to his family, friends, workmates and community and, the second, a look at the family and friends he left behind as they gathered in celebration of his life and in support of one another.

Frank Yochim Memorial

Family Time: Reflections

Songs:  It’s a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, and You’ve Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman from the movie soundtrack, Toy Story.

Introduction:

In December 2018, we bid a final farewell to my brother-in-law Frank Yochim who joined our family fifty-seven years ago when he married my next younger sister, Louise Kathleen McNeill.  In this collaborative post, we refer to the memories of his wife, children and friends to gain a measure of the man, who, in many ways was not easily defined even by those closest to him.

It was his first-born, Gregory Frank Yochim, (photo) who took up the challenge of completing the eulogy for his father. In a short period after arriving from Phoenix, Arizona where he and his family live, Greg along with his brother Lorin Yochim, pulled together a dazzling series of anecdotes from their siblings, other family members and friends, anecdotes that left everyone laughing and crying, often at the same time.

It was a challenging half hour that first-born son whose emotions were always close to the surface, as in his words: “ If I watch a video of two puppies playing, it makes me cry. If you were at my wedding twenty-seven years ago you’ll remember that I could barely make it through the reception speeches.”  The eulogy was then followed by a six-minute slideshow prepared by third oldest son, Lorin Yochim. If there was a dry eye in the house when Greg finished, and I doubt there was, there certainly wasn’t when that slideshow was complete.

Seeing and feeling the heartfelt response of over two hundred and fifty people paying their respects at the Harbour Light Alliance Church, left no doubt Frank will be long remembered not only for his good works but also for the love he quietly spread among those who knew him best, his family and friends. In the following, I have italicized the words of Greg, his siblings and others who lovingly remembered Frank.  We begin with Greg:

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GIANT GARAGE SALE OF ALL ITEMS NOT YET SOLD, PLUS DOZENS OF OTHER ITEMS WILL GO ON SALE AT THE MCTAVISH ACADEMY, 1720 MCTAVISH ROAD, NORTH SAANICH (TAKE AIRPORT CUTOFF TO MCTAVISH ROAD AND TRAVEL FOUR BLOCKS WEST.

DATE:  SATURDAY 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM    May 4, 2019
SUNDAY,  NOON – 5:00 PM    APRIL 5, 2019

FEATURED ITEM:     13. Fluorescent Light Tracks (SOLD)
(Added, March 13, 2019)

Fluorescent Light Tracks (SOLD)   These tracks are fully functional having just been removed.   While the lights are currently attached in 18 and 24-foot lengths, they can be easily reconfigured.  They are perfect for any large space such as a shop or some other workspace needing excellent lighting.   They are not free, but at $1.00 per foot, they are good as free.

Please message or phone Harold, 250-889-1033, or by email at lowerislandsoccer@shaw.ca

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