Maintaining Paradise

Quarterly Island Cleanup
Every three months, the whole community gets together to pick up litter. We have participated in past years, and here we are again. While we were walking around, we connected with a couple of tourists from Spain who were so enamored of Taquile, the man kept saying, "This is paradise; Taquile is paradise."
Each of the six sectors of the island had their own territory and everyone participated, even children:

 We brought the sacks of trash to a small dock and waited for our reward;

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 The reward was a bag of sugar! Alicia, sister to my son and comother of my blood-nephew, Nathan, was in charge of dishing out the sugar.

When we finished at the port, we hiked back up the island to Alipio's house where we refreshed ourselves with a watermelon that strong, young, Ivan had carried in Sam's backpack all day, even as he carried trash. I told about the Spaniard who kept repeating that Taquile is paradise and asked the group of Taquileños if they were cleaning up the island for their bag of sugar, or to maintain paradise.

The resounding reply was !Maintaining Paradise!

They know what they have here and it is wonderful.

On the way home, Big Samuel helped carry little Samuel who had been walking with his mother helping pick up litter all day. Two happy, if tired, Samuels:

Preparing for Solar Installation

A household of single women will receive a solar installation, thanks to the YouCaring fundraiser created by Empowered Energy Systems, Brad and Danielle Burritt (see blog post December 2018).

Our dear friend, Fredy Huatta, is now married to Rita and they have a sweet a little 2 year old. Her mother and sister live in a house with an ancient, cracked and barely functional solar panel. Rita sometimes stays here when Fredy is working with his boat and as a guide from Puno.

When we came to measure the house for wiring, and plan the installation, the women made us a fantastic meal:

Chicken Soup and Trout--with potatoes and chuno and corn

We also made a coca-leaf ceremony, offering our prayers for a successful installation, as well as blessings on the union of Rita and Fredy.

So our first trip to Puno includes buying solar panels and batteries:

2018 First week

Arrival on Taquile
We arrived in Puno on Thursday, January 11, after over 24 hours of travel, we met at the Juliaca Airport by Silvano (our son by virtue of being his padrinos de matrimonio) and Fredy, beloved young man we've known since baabyhood. A happy, happy reunion. Friday was a day of shopping for supplies and then immediately on Saturday to Taquile, where the rest of the family helped us carry all the bags and bundles up to the house where our old room and lunch were waiting.

After lunch, a volleyball game broke out. One wonderful thing that happens while we are here is that extended family and friends get together in ways they never do in ordinary daily life. Rains have been regular and everything is green and beautiful.

We slipped away from the games to visit our goddaughter, Natalia, who has recently given birth to a baby boy, Roland Bradley, here wrapped in a crocheted blanked made by my mother, Irene Miller:

Taquile citizens have learned that we bring solar gear for sale or trade, this year our goodies include charge controllers and inverters, efficient LED lights, USB ports and battery voltmeters, as well as rechargeagle headlamps and flashlights. Within a couple of days we have traded or sold a large percentage of what we brought.

controller, inverter and lights traded at Rosa's family

The winter season, is the time to preserve their staple, potatoes.  The technique is to freeze the potatoes at night and then, after they thaw in the day, step on them to break the membranes so the water can evaporate and dry. Thus they can be stored for years. Since global warming, they can no longer do this job on the island and the family has to take their potatoes to a higher altitude place on the mainland to make chuño, or freeze-dried potatoes. To help make this more comfortable, we brought a tent!

The various families will share the tent, and, ¡wow! were they happy!

We also brought gifts of objects and money donated by the many godparents and friends of Taquile who help us make a difference here. !THANK YOU!

It wasn´t all trades and gifts, though, Clever turned Edith's plate of egg and potatoes with tomato into a bearded face!

 And some baby chicks were hatched at Celbia's house. Lizbeth loves their soft fuzzy life:

The school system suffered a teacher's strike last year, so the school year went late. This is the first time we have been privileged to witness the closure of the school year, something like graduation in the US, with honors presented to special students. Our grandson, Ivan was president of the school last year and this photo shows him passing his regalia of office to next year's president, a girl for the first time in history. About time, I say, but Ivan says the boys aren't so sure.

Back at home, Clever and Ivan are in a fierce competition, a chess tournament:

They take time to teach young Charles how to play the game.

Everywhere we go, women are weaving, getting ready for Carnaval:

Kusi has almost completed this chuspa, or coca purse

Alicia, Celbia and Kusi get social with their weaving

And, of course, we meet up with our little kid buddies and play games.