How the Peruvians party -

Last Friday we were invited to a surprise 50th birthday party for our bishop, Luis Salazar.  We were told we would be picked up at 8:00 but Roberto and his wife Pilar didn't get to the hotel until 8:30.  The party was held in a rented room about the size of half a small church cultural hall.  We arrived just minutes before the Bishop did and he was totally surprised.  He even got a little teary.

Waiting for the guest of honor to arrive. Note the piñata hanging from the ceiling.

The sign and the cakes waiting for the party to start.

The Bishop with his sombrero and the loud MC with the band.

The first thing they did was give him a huge, Mexican sombrero and then he walked all the way around the hall and shook hands with everyone present while the band played, loudly, "Las Mañanitas", a traditional birthday serenade in Latin America.  Then the leader of the band (which consisted of a keyboard, electronic drums, and electric guitar all hooked up to huge speakers) started announcing the "program".  Actually he yelled into the microphone the entire evening! He had additional speakers for the singers and announcing. The bishop spoke for a few minutes and then introduced his wife and four children who had planned the party.  Each of them said a few words.  Some sisters passed around some juice in very small cups and everyone participated in a toast to the family.

The Bishop and his wife and four children.

Then the band played a waltz and the bishop started dancing with his wife.  After a few minutes all the sisters started taking turns dancing with him and giving him hugs.  Then everyone started dancing--this lasted for maybe 30 minutes.  Those who were not dancing were seated all around the walls of the room.

The first dance went to the Bishop and his wife.

They served dinner about 10:00.  The sisters brought out plates of roast pork, some corn that looked like huge hominy--very plain, no gravy or sauce and some onion salad (finely sliced onions with a vinegar dressing).  I couldn't even begin to eat all the corn but the pork was good.  After everyone had finished eating they brought around plastic cups and we each got a cup of chicha morada, which is a deep red drink made by boiling purple corn and adding sugar to sweeten it.  It is very tasty and is served in all the restaurants (and safe to drink because they have to boil the water for so long.)

The MC hamming it up. As soon as he realized I was taking his picture he posed for us.

By now it is about 11:00 and the band and singers start up again.  It is so loud no one can visit--just like in Guatemala, Mexico and the youth dances.  We cannot figure out why the music has to be soooo loud.  Lots of people danced with the bishop and his wife.  We just sat and watched all the festivities.  We were asked if we could dance (since the young elders and sisters cannot) and we said yes, but that we preferred to watch.

Every party needs a clown!

About 12:00 the guy who had been videoing all of the activities came out dressed as a clown and took over and had some games with long, thin balloons and more dancing with balloons and everyone blowing on whistles.  There was a dance called Hora Loca (the crazy hour) and it did get a little crazy.  Then the bishop broke a piñata and everyone scrambled to get the candy and plastic toys.  We were told later that this part was supposed to be for the kids but there were only about four kids left by this time and the adults loved it.

Let the dancing begin! This is called the "hora loca", the crazy hour.

After the piñata, they finally cut the cakes and served them--not nearly as sweet as our typical cakes but tasty. This was followed by another half hour of dancing--mostly some "típica" music and dance steps.  We finally left the party about 1:00 and we don't know if they continued but our escorts could see that we were past ready to leave.

The Bejaranos, Roberto and Pilar, dancing up a storm. We video taped them but it is too large to add to the blog. They had all the moves.

Finally, the birthday cake(s)!

Miraculously, we were able to find a taxi not far from the party place and got home about 1:30.  It was really very interesting and entertaining but LONG.

We were told that this is more or less the format of parties here in Peru--depending on the event being celebrated and the ages.  They asked us if we celebrated parties the same way and we said no, not generally so elaborate :)

What is records preservation? What are we doing here in Huaraz?

If you are wondering what we do from Monday to Friday, here is a brief summary of what our mission is all about. WARNING, this is a little techie, so you may skip over the text and just look at the pictures if you wish.

Background -

For many years, the LDS Church has been microfilming vital records (basically birth, marriage and death information) around the world to preserve them from loss and deterioration and to help people find their ancestors. With the advent of the Internet, these microfilm records are being digitized (a process called indexing) and put into searchable databases and made available to anyone who wishes to access them. Microfilm has its limits in terms of quality and duration. Digital cameras are now being used worldwide by the Church to continue this work. At present there are over 250 digital cameras in use with many more planned.

In Peru there are cameras, operated mainly by senior missionary couples, in 8 locations with more planned. There are two cameras here in Huaraz, one being operated by Juan Montalván, our trainer, and the one we are using. Since Huaraz is the capital of Ancash Province, there are records here from many towns in the Province. Currently Marilyn and I are working with death records from Chimbote, a large city on the coast, and part of this province.

This is the Regional Archive for Ancash Province. Most of the vital records for the province are stored in the rooms with the white walls, windows and red doors. This is where we work.

 

Here we are in the area where the Provincial President's office is located. A little nicer buildings and grounds than those of the archive.

 The process -

Once an image is taken of a document, it is transferred to the hard drive of special computers than can hold up to two terabytes of data. Each Friday we transfer that data to an external hard drive (see photo below), also with two terabytes of capacity and those hard drives are expressed to Lima in special cases (see photo below) and on to Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. Once they are reviewed for quality and accuracy, they are made available for indexing and then uploaded to the Church's website, FamilySearch.org. Anyone in the world can access this website at no cost to locate information on their ancestors. The entire process from camera capture to placement on the Internet generally takes 4 - 5 months.

This is the 2 TB external HD.

This is the Pelikan shipping case.

  



The equipment -

The cameras and the lighting are the key elements of the image capture process. We are working with an Illumis 50 megapixel B/W camera and Juan is using a Nikon 800 color camera with 29 megapixels. The Nikon camera is new and they are testing them in the field. Each morning we calibrate these cameras using the books and documents we will be working with that day. Calibration involves, focus, whiteboard, gray scale and LSI adjustments. Once the lights have reached their maximum illumination, about 15-20 minutes, we are ready to go to work. All of this equipment is located in a small room, about 6 ft. by 11 ft., so we are a little cramped.
 

Juan, our trainer, sitting at the camera we normally work with. As you can see, space is at a premium. The archive has said they will remove the metal shelves with the red boxes which will gives us more room.

Juan at his computer. Notice the old, tattered document he is working on.

Working at our camera. This was a particularly dusty volume so we put on the masks. The gloves are in place of rubber fingers to help turn the pages. Our hat and visor help keep the glare from the lights out of our eyes. Likewise, the black paper hanging from above.

We mentioned the lights. Here are the six on our camera when they are turned off and without the black paper glare shield.

This is the light setup on Juan's camera, the Nikon 800 that takes color images. He has also added black paper to cut the glare from the two banks of lights.

This is a typical book that we are working on. These are death records from Chimbote, Peru from 1966 - 1970. Each of these books contains 250 records, one individual on each page.

Our Illumis 50 megapixel camera.

The Nikon 800 29 megapixel camera.

Our workday -

The archives here in Huaraz are open from 8:00 to 1:00 and from 2:30 to 5:00, and we can only be there while they are open. The Peruvians eat their big meal in the middle of the day, thus the long lunch hour. We have eaten out with Juan every day at different local restaurants.  (More on the food in a later post.) There are security guards at the front gate who control entrance to the facility. Sometimes power outages, local holidays and protests (see photo below of one on Thursday, but we were able enter by a different gate) or strikes close the archive or make it so we can't work. Because we are asked to dress like the local archive personnel, you will notice that our work clothing, or Juan's, does not include white shirts and ties, or dresses or skirts. We love this aspect of our assignment.

This was our first full week of production. We took 4,749 images from 19 books. Juan said this was very good for our first week of actual camera work.  He may be gone next week, in which case we will be on our own. Hopefully, we will have a good week with no camera problems or shutdowns.

When we arrived Thursday morning there were several hundred protesters, including these ladies with hats, and two rows of police blocking our entrance. We entered by a different gate. The protesters left after an hour or so.

A view of some of the records that await us in the archives.

These are all tied together with string.

 

               Some nicer, better bound records.    

Moving day at last! - March 16

Finally, we are in our apartment!  We were in the hotel three weeks exactly.  And after six weeks of living out of suitcases, we were ready to make the move.  It wasn't that the hotel wasn't comfortable and I didn't have to cook :)  but nevertheless it is good to have a little more space.

This is a nice, new apartment and very Peruvian. Remember, the outside of the building is bright purple and the interior walls are coral, baby blue and yellow.  The floor is tile that looks like wood parquet.  All the rooms have doors that lock with keys.  And the two bathrooms and kitchen have drains in the middle of the floors.

You walk into the front room where the couches are really big and not terribly comfortable but are OK.  We still don't have any blinds in the front room, office or bedroom so we have sheets up for privacy.  Just behind the front door you step down into a TINY half bathroom with a toilet and a half sink. (See photo below)

The  kitchen is to the right off the front room and just behind the kitchen door is our Harry Potter room.  You step down into the room under the stairs.  It is all tiled and has a light but we can't stand up in it--would be great for food storage.  All the appliances are nice, new chrome. The stove is a Bosch--didn't even know Bosch made stoves.  The cool thing is the glass top that comes down over the gas burners so you can use it to work on.  Oh, and it has a griddle you can put over two burners for cooking pancakes, etc.  The fridge and microwave are Samsung. 

 

One thing about the kitchen is that there are no drawers anywhere and only about three feet of working space. You can see we have purchased a couple of small tables so that helps. We also got some plastic racks to put under the sink. And the hot water is an on-demand gas unit that doesn't work as well as it could. 

Speaking of water--we bought a five gallon box of water.  I found out last night that you have to be VERY careful when you cut the box to get the plastic spigot out.  I nicked the inner plastic bag and by morning the bottom of the box was soaking wet so I had to pour the water into lots of containers--quite the mess.  I will let Tony do it next time.

The little patio is off the kitchen. It has a sink and a place for some lines to be strung up.  When our washer/dryer get here they will go out there under a corrugated plastic roof O&M is going to put up.  In the meantime, we are taking our clothes to a laundry.  There are no self-serve laundromats here in Huaraz.

The office has a large table for our lap tops and printer and we may get another small table.  You know we have to have a complete office.

The queen bed was purchased elsewhere and came with all white linens.  But the bedspread isn't heavy enough for the cool nights so we bought some material and had a lady at the market sew it together to make a queen blanket.  It is so interesting, there must be 15-20 little stalls at the large central market with commercial-grade sewing machines set up where you can take things to be mended or sewn. We didn't ever see that in Guatemala.

The bathroom is regular size and the shower worked fine this morning--good news.  But again, no drawers or shelves anywhere so more plastic racks.  And the spare bedroom is empty except for some extra chairs and all the suitcases open before we got them unpacked today.

So Saturday we spent cleaning (Marilyn did), filling out our weekly report (Tony did)  and shopping for food and more essentials.   

This morning we went to church at 8:00 and I fixed BLT sandwiches--with no lettuce for lunch.  I used my new grill and it worked great and the sandwiches tasted great.  So for dinner, we had French toast and bacon, cooked on the griddle, of course.

There is a little girl named Zoe, about six years old, who lives on the third floor that has to come in to check how our apartment is looking--very curious and cute.   A new young couple with a baby just moved in on the second floor but we haven't heard much from them. 

 Some photos of our apartment.

The bed is a pillow-top but is still very firm.  The pillows here are just batting--not the best. Notice the sheet for curtains. 

Our dresser in the closet.

Preparing our Sunday dinner in the new kitchen - French toast and bacon. YUM!

 

 

This is the little patio off the kitchen with the scrub sink and gas water heater. 

Looking out the office window to the parking area.  All the front windows have bars/rejas--very secure.

Notice the extra tables, shelves under the sink, the box of water and the small drain in the floor.
 

We got a big table so we can have company :)  The open door goes to the Harry Potter room.

Notice the gap under the door--to let the critters in.  And the cheery coral/orange walls and floor.

We don't love the couches but didn't have many choices.  Aren't sure about the big heater they bought.  We bought a small portable heater that we just move from room to room where ever we go.

Don't you love the slanted half-bathroom door!

They can park four cars in this area.  You can see our front gate and the entrance for the vehicles down the walkway.

Second bedroom. Lots of unpacking left to do.