Peru RPCV Alan Stanchfield writes about Tarapoto



Peru RPCV Alan Stanchfield writes about Tarapoto

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Peru: Directory of Peru
RPCVs: Tarapoto RPCVs: Were you ever posted in or around
Tarapoto while you were serving in Peace Corps/Peru?
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By Alan Stanchfield
(ca-arcdca-cuda1-c1b-231.arcdca.adelphia.net -
24.54.193.231) on Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 03:00 pm:

Here is my story about Tarapoto:

My job in the Peace Corps was to audit credit unions all
over Peru. I was one of four volunteers who worked for a
Peruvian government agency that sent us out on some amazing
trips. In the middle of 1965, my Peruvian boss sent me to
Tarapoto, a jungle town in Peru’s interior. I met a lot of
interesting people and here is just one example.

In the evenings everyone hung out at the central plaza. One
evening a Peruvian named Hugo approached and asked me for
the time of day. He spoke good English and he said that he
had twelve years experience working as a bilingual
accountant for the American Petroleum Company.

I learned that he was from Callao, the port city of Lima.
He had come to Tarapoto to visit his 92 year old
grandmother. And he also wanted to establish a
transportation company in Tarapoto. He wanted to buy and
bring in four new Suzuki trucks that would haul goods from
Yurimaguas to Tarapoto.

Hugo invited me to come along and meet his grandmother. She
was very spry and talkative for her age. He told me that
his grandmother was the “first lady” of Tarapoto. She was
the wife of a local hero, a military man who was killed in
the 1911 Battle of Cachita. She had been collecting a good
government pension and Hugo wanted to borrow money from her
to start his trucking business.

Hugo finally mentioned that he had already been in the
trucking business on the coast. He had owned three
International Trucks that had crashed and he had gone broke
because he had no insurance.

Hugo then asked me if I wanted to go to a party that night.
He said that the girls were very friendly and I said OK. We
set out for the party that night, using a flashlight, since
there was no electricity in the outlying barrios. We met
two friends of Hugo along the way. We stopped at a bar for
some drinks and then bought some bottles to take along to
the party.

The party was packed with people. Inside, people were
dancing to the beat of the local orquestra or band.
Outside, people were standing around drinking, watching and
enjoying themselves. In a back room, people were passing
around large bottles of beer, emptying their glass with one
gulp, and yelling “salud”.

The highlight of this party was the selection of the “Queen
of Spring”. Throughout the evening girls had been selling
votes for themselves. Large sums of money were collected
and fierce competition raged among the sponsors of the
various candidates. Throughout this performance, Hugo stood
grinning, with his arm around his favorite candidate. He
had totally forgotten about all his grandiose plans for a
new trucking business.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.