For Love of our Leader

Hey folks

Happy April! Actually, I think that is a good place to start. Let's talk about April. Better yet, let's talk about the last week of March going in to April. I spent it with my other environmental volunteers in Chongoyape, Chiclayo, Lambayeque (this is one place and it is found in the hot, hot north, on the coast and much nearer to the equator). I could probably right a lot of things right here, right now on this blog about the trip but for the sake of your time and attention spans, I'll share the experience one story at a time. And oddly, we're working backwards. Because, while this story is fresh in my mind, I would like to share with you all, the story of my April 1st in Peru.

First. Some background. We spent all week doing training, giving and receiving powerpoints regarding our own sites, the sites of other volunteers, personal safety, health and well-being and technical work like building worm composting beds. The expositors of these talks were our safety and security officer, one of the Peace Corps doctors, our third year volunteer and of course our beloved APCD. Let me tell you a little bit about this man, Diego.

He is a man surrounded by legends, based on fact, woven, augmented and disseminated by his Peace Corps volunteers. Before working for the Peace Corps, he lived 10 years in the jungle working for an NGO and literally saving the rain forest. While there, he made a few enemies in the logging companies and decided to start carrying a gun after someone shot up his camp one night. This past week, he told us that he found out one of these men had had a stroke and here is the direct quote: "So...I guess that is the good news."

And somehow this BA, no-holds-barred (what a weird phrase), jungle saver came to work in our bureaucratic government agency that is Peace Corps as the director of the community-based environmental management program, a transition which I am told was not easy for him. He rolled in shaking things up in the establishment and flouting some rules. Flouting? I think that's the word. He's since calmed down and learned to work within the system and I think it's safe to say that he is more loved by his volunteers than any other APCD is by theirs. And with reason. He tries very hard to understand where we are coming from and be in tune with how we are feeling. He works hard and will go to the mat to stick up for us. And although he is our superior, he never talks down to us in that condescending tone reserved for misbehaving children. He has the support of his volunteers because he supports us with all that he is.

On top of all that, he is a family man. Happily married with two teenage children. And I think that is how despite all that he has seen and continues to see, he is able to maintain his sense of humor, mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye.

And now that I've set the stage a little, I can begin to recount the things we did over training our of love for our leader.

First off, most of the men in our group set aside their razors for the month of March so they could participate in the "stache-off" to take place at training in homage to Diego, who has not been without a mustache in 25 years. When asked about it, he shared with us his personal philosophy: "Kissing a woman without a mustache is like eating an egg without salt." I don't know from who's point of few, but so goes the philosophy. So the last day of training, our esteemed judge evaluated mustaches from just a straight mustache to a go-tee a la conquistador and decided a winner. Here he is during the judging.

Ok, now I need to back track a little and just state this fact: Friday, our last day of training, was April 1st, aka - April Fool's Day. So naturally, we pranked our beloved boss. Here's how it went. We coordinated with the police in the town where we were staying, as well as our third year, the doctor and the safety and security officer to make sure that it wouldn't get out of hand. Friday morning, we all went to the police station and locked up two volunteers from our group (not me) while the rest of us went to hide. Our 3rd year called the boss and told him that two of his volunteers were in jail. He was there within minutes. The police cooperated beautifully, making up this story that the two co-ed "prisoners" had been found drunk, half-naked and entwined in the plaza during the night and so they had locked them up. Diego was about to explode with fury on pretty much everyone, I'm sure, when all of us came out of hiding and happily yelled "April Fool's!" He was confused for about a minute until the doctor explained that it had all been a joke. Then out came that well-known smile and twinkly eyes.

Here he is with the two culprits. Note the handcuffs on the right. He enjoyed the joke and explained that Peruvians do something like that on December 28, Dia de los Inocentes. He also warned us that "revenge will be sweet." So I will be on the alert come the end of December.

Some believe that his revenge came that afternoon in the form of a surprise water balloon fight between powerpoint sessions. I like to think that that was just good old fashioned fun and a welcome relief from the afternoon heat of Lambayeque. It also turned in to teams of all of us versus our boss and our 3rd year.

And then, like good environmental volunteers, we picked up all of the balloon scraps littered about the street and threw them in the newly installed trash cans nearby.

Like I said, it was a good week. It was a lot of fun and good bonding for everyone. I know that I personally feel a lot more connected to our support personnel in Lima after this week. I have a lot more to share with you but like I said, I don't want this to go from long short story, to novela. It was cool to see another part of the country that is so completely different from where I am living and now I am glad to be going back to my "home."

Blessings.