PERU: KivaFriends Forum's Honorary Country of the TwoWeeks #2

[Guest]

.

[Jill]

      RETABLOS:
http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_peru_retablo2.html
http://www.zanzibartribalart.com/retablosbyJimenez.htm

".... The term retablo traditionally applies to a broad variety of religious images which are painted and sculpted over much of Latin America. The word is derived from the Latin retro tabula, which means behind the (altar) table, where devotional images were typically placed…..

The Peruvian retablo is… a blend . Figures of individual saints may be sculpted of a mix of plaster and cooked potato, or as in the case of the Gonzalez family of Huancayo, carved of maguey wood and set in a shadow box…. But frequently….they take the form of a three dimensional painting of a scene, consisting of many figures in very complex environments. The boxes form miniature houses or shrines, often with opening doors and a gable above the opening. Typically both the doors and the sides of the box are covered with an ornate, polychrome floral decoration. The Peruvian retablos traditionally serve as household shrines, which combine folk and Christian tradiions. The art form has evolved to include the depiction of secular scenes of daily life in peru, such as markets, shops, harvests, weddings and other ceremonies. In some cases the subject matter may even be political, depicting the turmoil of the last few years.
..."

[Jill]

      You said, "Mas," didn't you?

[Natasha]

Alfajores (Filled cookies with caramel)

Ingredients Cookies:

2 C of all-purpose flour

1 C of corn starch

1 Whole egg

1 C of salted butter

1 C powdered sugar

3 T milk

Bakers Joy Spray

Powdered sugar for sprinkling

 

Filling (caramel "manjarblanco"):

1 Large can of condensed milk: place unopened can in pot and cover with water. Boil it for 3 hours checking water level and adding water as needed. This will make the necessary consistency for the filling

 
1 Sift the flour, cornstarch and powdered sugar at least once. Set these dry ingredients in a large bowl and cut in butter.

2 Add the egg and mix until it forms a soft dough. (Add a spoon of milk -one at a time- only if necessary to soften the dough). Let stand for 15 min.

3 Cut dough in 4 pieces

4 Spray cookie sheet with Baker's joy.

5 Sprinkle some flour over a smooth and clean surface and lay out a piece of the dough, stretch it with a roller to 1/8 inch thickness. With a round cookie cutter make the cookies and lay them on cookie sheet.

6 Bake at 350° for approximately 12-15 min. or until they are golden brown. Making the cookies...

7 Let the cookies dry completely at least 4 hours.

8 Apply a small amount of the caramel to one cookie and attach another cookie to make a sandwich

9 Roll cookies in powdered sugar to coat all over

http://www.culturalexpeditions.com/peruvian_recipes.html

[Diane R]

Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful information in this thread.  Charlie and I have just booked our 2008 vacation, and it will be to Peru where we will visit several cities and hike the Inca Trail for 4 days.  I cannot tell you how excited I am, and I thank you for the window into this new (and very old!) place we will be visiting.

--Diane.
(And since we may be in Juliaca, and Puno, and then La Paz, Bolivia, at the end of the trip... I may just have to contact some of the MFIs through whom we have made Kiva loans in those cities...)

[Jill]

          This one is too short, but it’s a smile**. 
Especially the little kids, but there seems to be something, here, for just about everyone.
Peru Afro Dance of Chincha

**Speaking of smiles, there’s one worn by a young woman about 41-42 seconds into this
that is about as bright and happy a smile as you’re going to run across any time in the foreseeable future.  She’s beautiful.

[Natasha]

2007 Amnesty International Report:  Peru

Right to health

Hundreds of women and children from marginalized communities continued to die unnecessarily because of
discrimination in the provision of maternal and infant health care. Despite the development of state health
insurance for those on lower incomes, the scheme was not reaching many women and children from poor
communities.

Maternal and child mortality rates remained among the highest in the region. In the rural areas the likelihood of dying from maternity-related causes was twice as high as in urban areas, and considerable differences persisted between urban and rural areas in access to medical care.


Enclosed is the full report on Peru (word document).

[Natasha]

Inti

Inti was considered the Sun god and the ancestor of the Incas. Inca people were living in Ancient Peru. In the remains of the city of Machu Picchu, it is possible to see a shadow clock which describes the course of the Sun personified by Inti.

Inti and his wife Pachamama, the Earth goddess, were regarded as benevolent deities. According to an ancient Inca myth, Inti taught his son Manco Capac and his daughter Mama Ocollo the arts of civilization and sent them to the Earth to instruct mankind about what they had learned.

Inti ordered his children to build the Inca capital where the tupayauri fell to the ground. The tupayauri was a divine golden wedge. Manco probed the ground with the wedge, and at one point threw it into the ground. The tupayauri sank into the ground, and so the search for a site was over. Incas believed this happened in the city of Cuzco, which has been founded by the Ayar.

Inti is celebrated even today in Peru during the Festival of Inti Raimi in Cuzco where an Inca drama related to the Sun god is re-enacted.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/inti_sun.html&edu=high
http://www.jqjacobs.net/andes/inti_raimi.html

Photo 1: Door to enclosure of Sun temple at Machu Picchu, Peru.
Photo 2-4:  Ceremony of Initi Raimi which is celebrated sunrise of Winter Solstice

[Terry*]

Peru seems to get a disproportionate amount of the loans on Kiva.  It is the country to which I have loaned second most often.  When I look at the GDP per capita, Peru also appears to be significantly more affluent than all but a handful of the countries served.  I wonder if the money would be more beneficially used in some of the less affluent countries.

[Dottie b]

Peru seems to get a disproportionate amount of the loans on Kiva.  It is the country to which I have loaned second most often.  When I look at the GDP per capita, Peru also appears to be significantly more affluent than all but a handful of the countries served.  I wonder if the money would be more beneficially used in some of the less affluent countries.

My guess is that Kiva loans - being just a drop in the bucket - don't make a difference to the overall affluence of a country, but do make a considerable difference to the individual borrower. I doubt that the women embroidering shawls in Peru are particularly affluent, but they may be more or less so than another individual borrower somewhere else. I think to help the neediest, one would need to make a best guess at the neediest available borrower, based on the clues we're given.

Dottie B

[Claus-Peter]

Brown Alpaca: a relative of the llama, bred for its wool





Hikers, wishing they were back at hotel, on a trek in the Sacred Valley near Cuzco





Lights from candlelight procession, Arequipa