The tourist trap of Aguas Calientes

If you do not do the trail to Machu Picchu your only option in a short span of time is a train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes is a small town also knows as El Pueblo de Macchu Picchu. This town is beautiful , nestled in the valley of huge sacred mountains and next to a river full of minerals which are famous for the hot springs. The greens are realllly green and the blue is in contrast very blue.

The town is also ridiculously expensive. Everything is 4-5 times the amount it should be. We also found that not allot was very authentic here. This town has developed and grown like allot of places near popular tourist sites... off of tourism. Our experience here reminded us of our role. These people were probably farmers, or atleast subsisting in some way off the land untill it became impossible for them to compete with corporations.

The train ride from Cusco to Aguas Calientes you see sooo many families living practically a few feet from the train tracks. Some of the children and even family members come out to wave at the people on this overpriced train ride while they live in adobe huts and thier cattle are having to be pushed and harassed by dogs so they wont end up getting run over. I found this very sad.

When you go to Macchu Picchu please be aware that you are supporting a business that is not just helping a few of the Andean Indians that can proffit off of you, but you are also playing a role in the business of displacment.

Macchu Picchu was breathtaking.... a dream of dreams... a place I could never grasp and still cant grasp even though I have seen it. Yet I see hords of tourists ( the controlled maximum at 400 a day) walking around leaving thier plastic water bottles and gatorade bottles around like it was thier own city corner. Our hearts dropped when we saw this and we had to pick up the trash to feel better but knowing that there would be soo much more from so many more careless, selfish, ignorant tourists who don´t give a rats ass they are walking on a historical and sacred ground that has lost the fight in so many ways that even in its preservation it is slowly dieing.

La Casa De Panchita

DRAFT

La Casa De Panchita

Jan 24, I had the pleasure of meeting Johana Reyes who introduced me to the project and space of “La Casa De Panchita”. This project is headed by the NGO Asociacio Grupo De Trabajo Redes which is a private NGO working to empower domestic workers. This project was initially headed by Blanca Figuerao who is the President of the Board of Directors. Blanca was the women that I was in correspondence with and set up a wonderful opportunity for me to know more about the work that goes on there.

The NGO’s primary project is “La Casa de Panchita”. The name of the space is after a fictional character named “Panchita”. The story of Panchita which is one that is understood by many young women who find them in a situation in which they have to take domestic work to survive. The story of “Panchita” is used to communicate the issues which afflict those Blanca explains in a documentary that the situation of domestic workers in Lima is a dynamic of inequality. The workers are of a particuliar past, of a particular demographic. They are mostly from the highlands, they are indigenous, they move to the cities for work and are very prone to discrimination. The most at risk are the women and the children.

La Casa de Panchita is a safe space for many of the youth and women who do not have access to resources. There is an issue of the uneven urban development in Lima and their neighborhoods are plagued by a consciousness of inferiority. It is a complex of lacking the self esteem and the lack of affirmation in the right to ask for more. La Casa de Panchita is a house of several rooms currently being rented for the interest of the people to build stronger communities. The people who need it to be a haven for them to realize their potential and stand up to the possible injustices they will face.

I asked Johanna how she particularly was interested and introduced to this project. She has studies social Psychology and found out about the project through friends in school. Currently at the time of our visit there were a number of volunteers. Funding is an issue because the space is not fully theirs yet. They do not own it. The project of having a space that is fully theirs is important because they cannot fully utilize the space as much as needed without loads of beauracracy. Telefonico is one of the communications company that assists the NGO in thier sunday projects. The pictures below were taken at a sunday workshop in the Telefonico building. Other international sponsors such as Cordaid and Tierra de hombres have contributed to helping AGTR .

The particuliar day we visited we had the pleasure to see the kids involved in one of the interactive workshops. There are three every Sunday with about 60 children of different age groups. The workshops are designed to promote awareness, skills and creativity. The were many art projects that we saw where kids got to decorate and design something so they could ring something home with them.

This was important because many of them live in homes where there is little to decorate or feel proud of. The projects give them something special that they can bring home and share with their family. The day of my visit the kids were in the Telefonico building working with volunteers to make robots that could draw. It was a fairly simple project but it´s outcome was tremendous and engaging!

Other workshops aim at helping the mothers. There are workshops that, learn basic skills like cooking as well as interactive workshops that help them learn how to speak to employers or learn their rights as domestic workers. Joana reminded us of how important this was because they wanted to empower the women to know that to ask for more was something that they were entitled to do. In many of the homes where these women and children would clean or help out at, they are barely given enough to survive but at the same time made to feel like that is enough.

The most impressive thing about this NGO was that they were able to accomplish soo much with handful of workers and volunteers that they had. There was a schedule and plenty of work for the paid staff to do, but the volunteers and interns were paid in different ways. They were given access to more resources like computers, services etc..
In addition all the workshops are evaluated by the children and women to see if there is any way to make them more efficient and helpful to them. Suggestions are taken to improve affectivness.

Other than the amazing projects and work I saw at ``La Casa de Panchita`` there was an amazing sense of solidarity, warmth and patience there. As soon as you come in I was greeted with kisses. I saw the children in the workshop playing, growing , learning and delighted…being allowed to be children. This space is a crucial part of building the lives of so many people. The rewards these people feel are immesurable . Johana would tell me how she would see children and women come into the projects and space feeling standoffish and shy and then see them blossom into self aware, affectionate strong people.

Many thanks go out to Blanca Figuereo and Johana Reyes for their warm welcoming of me into the space, of taking time to tell me what they do and how they do it. I hope to carry on the struggle of these people and share it with anyone in interested in knowing more about this organization and the amazing home you have helped build.

Peru- setting a tone

What I wrote below was initially jotted down in my notebook, while taking a train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes...

I wanted to share it with you first among the many emotions I have felt while being in Peru....

I saw Inka temples and sacred places that had been demolished by the Spaniards in order to build their churches and institutions on top of. To solidify their hegemony. It was heartbreaking...

We saw

Qorikancha the temple of the sun in Cusco.. it had been made by civil engineers hundreds of years ago to pay tribute to the gods, the sun, to keep track of the days and constilations. The temple had been excavated while archeologists started looking at the structures of a colonial cathedral and found that they built the cathedral directly on top of the Inka temple in order to deligitimize their way of life, their amazing advancements in science, astrology, engineering etc...

We (The developed World) are like the Spaniards, we are a society that has decided to build on top of what is sacred in order for profit and commerce. We are a culture of destruction. We are a society built on death.

We are the disjuncture of civilizations before us that praised the sun, and everything living from it that would sustain their lives.

We are a people that worship what dies

not for us to sustain ourselves..

but with the arrogant notion that everything here (on earth) is for us... and IT IS NOT!

Why are we the first to not get it??

Looking up at the mountains, on the way to Aguas Calientes, I saw amazing lush but jagged Mountains , lush green vegetation decorating it´s sides. I saw a violent river below the train with crashing waves carrying sulfur and minerals to the rest of the region..

I wanted to cry..

Wanted to fly into the low clouds.

Wanted to pay tribute to all that was greater than my own meager life.

Humanity, ecology, life, history of life... as a whole.


Wanted to cry because there were civilizations before mine that had understood this, and cry for the introduction of commerce , typhoid and the greed and interests of colonials and clergy that sought to exploit the very people that praised life and not money.

I wanted to cry for all those that didn´t know this beauty that didn´t feel the urgency to fight to keep our livelyhoods and future generations from seeing the same destruction. Those that didn´t know what was at stake to fight for. Those of us that forgot how to plant our feet in the ground and realize we too are a part of the earth and all of life.


Wanted to cry for those that did not see this current space and time as the fragile state that still had amazing new narratives that needed to be written by us.


People that forgot we make history.... even by being silent.



Seeing, feeling and knowing this... surely they too would not go on with¨business as usual¨.


This is the most rewarding thing to me right now.. to realize my life will never be the same, to know that I would never be comfortable with the same kind of comfort in my bubble. I have a responsibility to consider how I play into this .. how my actions are in twine with all of this.
I have a responsibility to change it... with all I have seen... observed.. digested

I must never see new things without thinking , never just see for escapism purposes, I must consider every social, economic, global, political implication I can that comes to mind.. or else how can I grow? How will I really learn?

In Flight...

Jan 22-23



While in flight on route to my first stop to Lima, Peru, there were a number of things on my mind.

I couldn´t help thinking about how much I forgot to acknowledge factors about how much my trip itself was unsustainable. I want to feel responsible for my actions, I want to be aware of the impact I alone have. If we want to build a movement of citizens engaged in a global struggle all with the agenda of sustaining healthier lives, for everyone and the earth as well as maximizing democracy I didn´t think enough about my own ecological footprint.





Air travel uses an enormous amount of fuel and oil . In the future I have to give this issue more thought and attention. It is an excellent idea and amazingly easily to look up your own ecological footprint in relationship to travel, especially air travel and see how you can be proactive. There are dozens of tools and articles online that one can use...



Moving right along...



Random things that crossed my mind on the plane while in route...



* There was a Muslim man in front of me in security, he wore a long gown and was most likely
Pakistani . It disturbed me that this was not the first time I saw Muslim men being checked an extra 20 minutes and everyone moving along side of them not caring or paying attention that these men were being racially profiled. Some people around him even looked hesitant being close to them, I could almost sense their fear. Scenes like these never cease to hurt me deeply.



* I played language games on my Lan Airlines flight on the touch screen infront of my seat on the plane. If I want to communicate, relate and create bridges with people , organizations and movements I will have to talk to people that don´t speak english. I have to make an effort to try to learn and go outside my comfort. I wrote down appropriate phrases in my notebook.



* All the flight attendants assume I´m Latina and speak to me in spanish. I realize because of my dark features I can pass for allot of different ethnicities so I will encounter this often.



* I feel amazing to be on this plane now- I feel like I have already liberated myself with all the complications of not letting myself believe I deserve to do a project like this... because even though travel stems from privilege to move... I have never enjoyed much privilege in my life as the daughter of a working class , immigrant family in the US. I will stop feeling guilty for this and make this trip amazing and productive.



* I will read ¨Earth Democracy¨ by Vandana Shiva to get my mind on issues that I want to think about .. about thinking of an alternatives that promote democratic participation, that protect indigenous cultures, local economies and are ofcourse sustainable.



* My mentor, Dr. Sue Harris had reminded me that this trip would help me feel like I belong to humanity. We often forget how much we feel alienated from people, especially in a capitalist, commodity obsessed, workaholic American pace life. I am blessed to feel have the opportunity to do a project like this. Even though I want to share my experience and be the most productive on this trip, I know that ultimately the most rewards will be felt by me. This project will help me with my own internal liberation, with finding truth and inspiration in other struggles, in other wins and give me the insight and strength to keep fighting. I am not tired!

Definition of "Global Citizenship"

For those that have not heard of this term before. Here is an intro and a general definition from Wikipedia

"Global Citizenship is both a moral and ethical disposition which might guide an individual or groups' understanding of local and global contexts- and their responsibilities within different communities. It is motivated through a complex set of commitments to local interests (love of family, communal fairness, self-interest) and a sense of universal equality and notions of care for human beings and the 'world/planet' in its entirety. Global citizenship, as participatory action, entails a responsibility to alleviating local and global inequality, while simultaneously avoiding action that hinders the well-being of individuals or damages the 'world/planet'. This notion is closely linked to an understanding of globalization and cosmopolitanism."

Where it began

It began before I was born. I have always been struggling with defining who I am and how I got where I am.My story like many stories is one of struggle. It is a struggle in the battle for freedoms. Freedom from patriarchy, freedom from repression, from exploitation, freedom from lack of expectation and opportunities.

I was born to two Indian parents in Oct 30 , 1981 in New Delhi , India.

My mother left India after divorcing my father when she was 21 . She was young, hopeful, and in search of a better life for herself and her daughter. She had a dream of following her potential and letting go of the traditional societal limitations imposed on her as a single parent in India. For the next few years I would live in Ethiopia. My aunt, (my mother's older sister) had married a diplomat. A Sudanese man working with UNICEF in Ethiopia. This is where I would spend the the next 3 years.

This is where it began for me. This is where I started to abstractly think about identity, development, injustice and poverty. Seeing my uncle , Abdulla on assignments. Going with my family to villages to hand out food and clothes. This is where I would first learn that poverty is man-made. It is not a natural phenomenon.

This is not the only experience, but this is one of the most formitave that I can identify as what planted the roots in my journey to becoming a global-citizen.