It's all a matter of semantics!

The every-five-year presidential campaign season is upon us in Perú, with elections on April 10th. Among the leading candidates are Keiko Fujimori, daughter of previous president Alberto Fujimori who fled the country during his third term in office and is now serving jail time for corruption, Alan García, who has previously served twice, and who fled the country after his second term and returned when the statute of limitations expired, and a fellow named Cesar Acuña Peralta, who has had a career in education.  

Señor Acuña has based his campaign on the promise of better education for the citizens of Perú, a noble and much-needed goal.  

Acuña  has received two masters degrees, and was awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Madrid, Spain.  However, it has come to light that much of his 2009 thesis supporting that degree was plagiarized. When asked for comment, he said:
     "Plagiarism, for example, is to take something that is not yours.  I say that it is not plagiarism because the title of the thesis is original.  The conclusions of the investigation are original. Therefore, if the title of the thesis and the conclusions are original, it's not plagiarism!"  Well, Duh!  He was also quoted as saying, "It wasn't plagiarism.  I just copied it."

In addition, a book on education is published by the university that Señor Acuña founded and owns, at times with a famous journalist as the author, and at other times with Acuña listed as the co-author, and at other times as the sole author.  The original author, an Otoniel Alvarado, said, "The book is MINE, I don't know what happened to it later."

At an anti-corruption conference (!), Mr. Acuña remarked, while explaining what happened with his thesis, "In the first place, I refuse the word 'plagiarism.'  As I have always said, it was an omission, and this was 25 years ago when I still didn't know that I would be a presidential candidate.  C'mon people!  Applaud for me!"  (Cuz, like, if I'd known I was going to be a candidate, then I would have plagiarized more carefully or something.) 

While we hope that your presidential campaign season is doing better, we have access to Google News, and we know better.

David and Paula

The Bells of Huánuco, or why I gave up and bought earplugs

One of the principal cities in the Mission is Huánuco, found 6-7 hours driving time north of Huancayo.  There are about 180,000 citizens, and roughly 60 of our young missionaries work there.  We visit the city about once a month for one reason or another, and we usually stay at the Gran Hotel Huánuco, which was built eleven years before I was.

It is an example of faded Latin elegance and charm.  One of its only disadvantages is its location. While it is on the main plaza of Huánuco, it is also near the Cathedral of Huánuco.

Unfortunately, for all the good intentions that went in to its design, this religious building is a prime example of not-so-good late 1960's architecture, showing little Latin elegance or charm, and from the outside more closely resembles a movie theatre or an ice skating rink.  

Different tastes in architecture can certainly exist, but whoever designed the tones for the carillon should be tied to a bench in the main plaza for punishment and made to listen at 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM.  

The aural display begins appropriately enough with the booming tones of a large cast bell, but after three gongs, a sound which most closely resembles trash can lids being used for cymbals begins and lasts for at least half a minute.  If you don't believe me, please click on the link below:

Like I said....

We hope that your cathedral bells sound better, and that you are never in Huánuco, Peru at 6:00 AM or PM.

Dave & Paula

PS  It really, really really goes on that long.  And sounds that bad.

Dang! I'm still older than she is!

Is it just that each year is a smaller percentage of the total, or does time really go faster the longer you've been in this phase of existence?  Oh, well, it was Paula's birthday on the 5th of February.
So what did she get for her birthday?  I offered my undying love and respect, she rolled her eyes, called me tacaño (cheapskate), and said, "Nah, I don't need anything, and besides, we'd have to pack it home."
However, one of our office staff, Elder Islas, is from Veracruz, Mexico, and happens to be somewhat of a chef.  When Paula heard that he knew how to make mole poblano, she yelled, "I want summa that!"
So, Elder Islas and Elder Holmes spent a couple of hours in the crazy market and showed up with bags full of all sorts of stuff and got started.

I don't know how many of you have had the good fortune of eating real-live mole poblano.  I was introduced to it 40+ years ago in California when I was a young missionary.  Since then, I've occasionally purchased a jar of Doña María, but it just isn't the same.

I remember a Mexican mom in California commenting that mole is kind of like "walking around the kitchen and throwing in a little of everything you can find."  If you think she was kidding, here are the ingredients for Elder Islas' version:

In case you're not up on your Spanish food names, there's everything from three types of chiles, chocolate, peanuts, raisins, bananas, almonds, prunes, pork butter, garlic, tomatoes, sesame seeds, cinnamon, onions, and a bunch of other goodies.

Pretty soon, the kitchen smelled exotically heavenly.

After several hours of effort, (the Elders sacrificed a lot of their Preparation Day for Paula), the concoction was ready.

I didn't get any pictures of everyone chowing down, as I was busy making sure I didn't get the short stick on the mole portions.  It really was the best I'd ever had.

The Elders outdid themselves, buying a cake,

and adding the proper number of candles.

It really was a happy birthday!

Paula got birthday wishes from kids and friends, from every continent except Africa and Antarctica.

We hope that your mole poblano turns out half as good as Elder Islas', and that you get to spend as many birthdays with someone half as good as Paula.  You'd be lucky on both counts.

Dave & Paula

On the road again

Every three months, it's my opportunity/duty to have a personal interview with each missionary.  To accomplish this, we travel around the mission so that they can stay closer to their areas.  As you are aware, the mission is geographically big, and travel is a bit complicated.  Like Mickey is a bit Mouse.
This present trip began a week ago, with three days to go.  We visited the very northern city today, in Tingo María, a city of 55,000, and the drive takes two and a half to three hours.

There are four Elders in town, and the congregation is one of the strongest in the Mission.
OK, "we visited" sounds so pleasant, almost casual.  Hah!  Until 1936, Tingo was considered unreachable, until some brave engineers built "La Carretera Montaña," or "the mountain road."

To me, it is now officially the most challenging route in the Mission, others having been tamed since we arrived.  It is narrow, with tight curves and heavy trucks.  At the very top of the climb up the mountains is a skinny tunnel.  On one side is the arid landscape of the Huánuco region, and on the other side are the steep jungles leading to Tingo.  

The views are nothing short of spectacular, or so they tell me, as my eyes are glued to the road and my hands grip the wheel.  The mountainside from which the road is carved is almost vertical, and gravity being what it is, the road is often blocked by landslides, such as this,

or this,

or this,

or even this.

We minimize the travel between Huánuco and Tingo, and prohibit travel at night or in bad weather, as sometime the road just kind of disappears.

The missionaries love working in Tingo María, and frequently suggest in their weekly letters that I should transfer them there.  For the rest of their mission.  And that's how long they could be there considering "La Carretera Montaña."

We hope that the roads between your cities are more boring.

Dave & Paula

The flowers of Grace appear...or at least those of her daughter

There is a song in the LDS Hymns book, called "There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today." The third verse goes:
     There is springtime in my soul today,
     For when the Lord is near,
     The dove of peace sings in my heart,
     The flow'rs of grace appear.
It turns out that Paula's mother's name was Grace, and she loved flowers, and whenever we sing that hymn, Paula thinks of her mom. 
Grace's daughter has carried on the tradition.  In her spare time, Paula has beautified her little garden spaces with lovely flowers.

I think Grace would smile.

We hope your flowers are also doing well - with apologies to those of you in the cold Northern Hemisphere.

Dave & Paula

Helping out the neighborhood

Every year, a bit before Christmas, the condominium complex where we live sponsors a fun night for the residents.  The kids dress up in their pretty dresses,

and a clown is hired.  (The clown is on the left.)

This year, as it does in the rainy season, it rained.  Hard.  We had just arrived back from Huánuco, a seven-hour drive, after participating in the Christmas Zone Conference there, when a knock came on the front door.  It was the president of the condo association, asking if they could use our driveway/parking places for the clown show, as we have a covered area there.

We had planned to turn off the lights and hide out and go to bed early, but we said, "Sure, bring it on."  And bring it on they did, including the small shelter they had set up, and a bunch of chairs.

The kids had a great time with the two clowns and their helper.  They had fun for about an hour,

then everyone had 'panettone' and hot chocolate and chatted.

Panettone is a kind of fruitcake popular here for the holidays.  Consistent with Peruvians' distaste for really sweet things, it is not.  Also, they go kind of light on the fruit.  The stacks of boxes and bags of panettone go up in the stores long before Christmas.

All the neighbors clapped when they were asked to show their appreciation for our allowing them to use the venue.  We thought we could finally crawl in bed.  Not so fast, gringos!  We were appointed the judges of the annual competition for decorating the houses.  They go nuts down here with the lights and other stuff, and the winning entry was complete with a live manger scene with their kids (getting wet), and enough lights that I'm sure they were using about 10% of the city's electricity.

When all was said and done, we were glad that we had answered the knock on the front door, and could help out the neighbors.
We hope that you aren't called upon to judge your neighbors, and that you have a Merry Christmas!
Dave & Paula

Reason #172-G why things sometimes don't work well here.

In the entire district of Huancayo, only 40% of everyone ever receives a water bill, and of those, only 60% ever pay a centavo.  The water supply is failing, and the estimate to fix it is roughly 500 million soles, or about $150 million US.

 

That sum was requested of the Ministry of Housing Construction and Sanitation, and Huancayo received $385,000.  Oooh, nice start.

Sixty percent of the buildings in Huancayo, the capital of the Junín Region, are "informal," meaning that they have been built without any permit, registration with the city or professional advice.  They just find the local water, sewer and electrical feeds and tap in to them, then call the neighbors and put up a house.  Yipee!  Certainly a lot easier than messing with all those silly forms.

The Huancayo newspaper reports that one of the four large areas of our fair city only collects taxes from about 20% of its 100,000 citizens.

When the citizens were surveyed as to why they don't pay their taxes, their answer was, "Because the city hardly provides any services."

The municipal leaders were asked why services aren't better, and they of course answered, "Because hardly anyone pays their taxes.  Duh."

This certainly begs the question of who is going to do so something first.  Meanwhile, visions of arguments going around in circles is giving me a headache.

We hope that things are going more smoothly in your neck of the woods.  And that you pay your taxes.  And the water bill.  And tell someone that you built a house.  And that your head stays put.

Dave & Paula