The colloquium will take place on Thursday 20 March 2008, 16.00 o’clock. The location is the University Campus, Paviljoen TEMA R 0.16. Click for a map and directions.

The presentation will take approximately 25 minutes, after which the audience can ask questions. The audience will than leave the room, and the assessment committee (my supervisors) can comment on the work, where I will defend it. The committee will than agree on a final grade, which is than made public.

Of course, you are welcome to read my whole thesis or the summary.

Over the last weeks, we have moved from a crappy smelly house in Leyton to the cottage and villa-rich Upper Warlingham (Surrey) and just now to Streatham Hill. Having settled down in here is great; we live in a wonderful house and leafy neighborhood, the room has a walk-in closet, there’s a gym in the house and friendly people living here. Also, there are a cinema next-door, tennis courts, and a big park excellent for running and a Sunny-Summer-Picnic. And we’re only half an hour away from the City of London.

On a typical Sunday I would spend some time in a pub, with friends from South Africa that came here for a short holiday (instead of going to the 30^oC South African beaches where the surfing and snorkeling is great). In those pubs, the 2for1 lunches can be surprisingly good, and every pub offers one on Sunday. Later on maybe go for a stroll through one of London’s many parks, read a novel (currently Dark Star Safari), have a light dinner and enjoy a movie with Lesego. Ideally, I would spend the entire day away from a computer; that way I can hug it the rest of the week, editing and rewriting bits of my thesis and sending all of you emails.

As for a culture shock, that is limited to being amused and amazed. Amazement when an English friend puts bread in the fridge to prevent it from getting bad in two days, or when there are no trash bins to be found in the entire city to prevent bomb attacks. Amusement when I am considering the various options of what a particularly peculiar sentence means; the Polish and Indians speak much clearer and simpler English than the British. So when a girl behind the counter ask me “AnythinK else, Sir?” and than looks at me with big wide-open eyes, then I just give her a small smile and shake my head. So basically I am enjoying the vibe of the city, haven’t met a great many Londoners yet, but seem to like them. I’ll keep you more up-to-date from now on from here.

Enjoy the skating and have a Merry Christmas!

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06.45 - Cell phone alarm wakes me up. My alarm clock (0,75 eurocents) stops working every now and then in the middle of the night - made in China. Next, the cold shower really awakens me, annoying and reviving at the same time. Yet I´m doozing off again in front of the always-on-television whilst I wait till my breakfast is served by the hostess. BBCworld and the 97 other channels hardly show any news, lots of telenovelas and many shows with semi-naked women.

07.40 - Catching the bus to La Esperanza, one of the suburbs where I carry out my field research. The bus leaves 30 meters from my house, and takes about 20 minutes to get me there. Today I have to continue with another bus, along the Panamericana to El Milagro.

08.15 - El Milagro is merely a bunch of houses and farms in the middle of the desert. It´s in the shape of an oval centered around the Panamericana, and though almost no services are available here, quite a few thousand people have their house here. A 15 minute stroll takes me to the most recent invasion. Every day families are constructing their houses here, with reed, adobe and bricks. Water is delivered by tricycles with a barrel on it and by watertanks. Having selected some blocks for my interviews I just walk around and ask the women doing their laundry whether they are so kind to allow me to interview them. My questionnaire works well, takes about 30-50 minutes, depending on how much they have to tell me.

13.00 - Time for a ‘menu‘. For about half a euro I get my soup with pasta and chicken, followed by with meat, vegetables, rice and potatoes. I might not sound enthusiastic, but it really is decent food, and Peru has quite a deliscious cuisine.

13.45 - More interviews, in the afternoon they always go slower; there is more social talk as more members of the family get home.

16.40 - Time to head back. The bus which brings me straight in front of my house, and the university, where I have a quick fruit salad with yoghurt before I go back to my room, to shower, to redress and prepare to go to the movies, Spiderman. Dinner is often another menu, sometimes just a snack and almost never with vegetables. At night there´s always time to visit one of the great many internet places, to see whom of the people I miss here has written me a nice email.. thanks!

23.00 - Time to sleep. Even the neighbour´s barking dog cannot keep me from dreaming of rain, Lesego and surfing the waves of Huanchaco.

“So now that you have the information that is available you can go home?”
“There’s still a lot of work to do. I am busy with my questionnaires, visiting the different settlements where people lack water and sanitation services, and thus have to improvise. I won’t be home before summer is well on its way in the NL too.”

“And you didn’t find any time to write?”
“I wrote on my research. And I wrote some letters, on real paper.”

“OK, so when will I get mine?”
“Nah, I didn’t write that many. Plus, the Peruvian mail service doesn’t really seem to cooperate, with packages and postcards not arriving. So don’t count on it.”

“Sure it’s not the surfing, Peruvian girls, €1 bottles of wine and such that keep you from writing?”
“Didn’t I just say that I actually did write some pieces? Stop bugging me. I went surfing twice in the whole of March, and I miss it. During the Holy Week I will go north, where the water is warm, the beaches white and the seafood fresh. Though ceviche is great here too! And Wisin & Yandel will perform here in Trujillo tomorrow.”

“Enough about Reggaeton, coz Trujillo is the city where many beauty queens come from, isn’t it?”
“Yes, they delivered Miss World 2004, Miss Hawaii 2007 and many others. So far I haven’t seen any beauty contests, but there are many. Seems to perfectly suit the macho culture here where many women accept receiveing body language instead of being listened to. Also, a great many women that want other things besides taking care of their kids, the cleaning of the house and cooking are giving up on Peruvian men.”

“So what about Lesego?”
“What about her? She just gave a great speech at the University of Perugia , where her appearance impressed ministers and the like. I miss her a lot, and really hope we can live together soon. Luckily, telecoms have developed, with an internet place with headsets at every corner for € 0.25 an hour. Wisin & Yandel have a highly popular song called ‘Amor por Telefono’, which comes close to …”

“Yayaya, so you miss her and you like Latin music. What else?”
“Nothing. Besides, you’re the one asking the questions, so if this is all, that’s all.”

Walking is generally safe in most part of Trujillo during the day (except for the zones where I carry out my research … semi-kidding). Lately however, people are somewhat more cautious, closing the windows of busses and looking up anxiously when they see a wet spot on the street. All of this just because of some water. Because that is what generally happens here, guys throws balloons filled with water from the rooftops at girls who pass by, whom in turn scream and pretend to be annoyed, followed by either sincere disappointment when he turns out to be just average or a very sensual smile when he is handsome. With this in mind I went to celebrate carnival in Cajamarca, the place where Pizarro captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa. Nowadays, it’s a typical Andes town at 2750 m altitude, where the booming gold mining industry causes an influx of migrants. People complain that the city is becoming more violent, so when we (me, two girls and a mom) arrived at 4 a.m. I wasn’t at all surprised to see a drunken guy without shoes and shirt, lying on the floor like a foetus crying that it was cold. What else than tell him to go home can you do… Yet thinking of this it feels weird to see how easy it is (for me, having been in several developing countries) to get accustomed to this reality.

Anyway, throwing water at people passing by is BIG FUN, especially when you do it with a group and use baskets instead of those balloons only. For a couple of days, gangs of teenagers pass through the city, singing, drumming and painting merely everyone who’s on the street with the exception of old ladies and babies, truly neat habit. After having done so all day, everyone gathers at the Plaza de Armas (central square which every self-respecting village has) to drink, dance, and drink some more. Cheap ass wine (half a euro the bottle), Pisco (awful), beer (non-cooled) and calentita (hot sweet strong), of which the latter turned out to be the best option, made us dance ‘carnaval’ till late.

As all of you must be getting by now — I seem to forget it every now and then – you should not rely overly on Peruvian Promises. So the promised hot shower turned out to be ice cold, much worse than the familiar cold one in Trujillo. Luckily, the Inca’s had found some hot well, which is still used to fill baths, twice the size of a Jacuzzi. This healing and oh-so relaxing tub just made my day, forgetting about my hangover, and just enjoying the parade passing by as water bombs were thrown at me once more.

Living in a different country always involves changes in you daily pattern. Obviously, there is nothing you can do against the sudden tiredness in the afternoon, apart from taking a short nap. So between 2 an 4pm, not much is happening. People go out for their lunches (for many their first meal of the day) and just rest a bit at home, in a parc, or merely anywhere. After this break, they just work some more, and have dinner only after 9. This means that people merely come and go whenever they prefer, some take a long break but work late at night, whilst other just plan or pretend to work late. Just the same applies for the days; the weekend consists of Sunday only, but it is completely normal to take a day off during the week. Or some days. Quite different from the Netherlands, where even students have the habit to work efficiently during the day, and stop before 6pm. Or 3pm on Fridays.

As a result of these continuous semi-work hours, contacting people is just a matter of mere luck. Someone might be there, and if not, then he will be there some time later some day. I stopped trusting more specific information, people just don’t take the exactness of say 15.20 o’clock so strict. Like, the person I wanted to meet left at 15.00, assuming I wouldn’t come any more. As for being late, that is what happens most of the times, because people are busy (working hard, networking, talking to friends, watching and parading for the other sex, or just anything, all mixed and combined). So nothing too special for those of you who have been to any developing country (including Italy), but there’s more to the Latin Spirit than just this. For example, there is always (!) the ‘just-one-minute’ option. If you want someone to do wait for some undefined time, you just tell that you will arrive in less than a minute, or that whatever is required will only take seconds. And when someone tells me to wait ‘un ratito’ I now tell them that I’ll come back in ‘un ratito’.

This whole different way of dealing with time means that whenever you get to meet someone who is willing to help, they always have time for you. For example, at the statistical office here in Trujillo, about five people were simultaneously helping me collecting data and books, chatting about Farfán (Eindóben) and telling me about the various NGO’s that might come in handy. Or at the university, where people are always willing to listen to my ideas and elaborately talk about their ideas, up to an hour. So just knowing what you want from whom, and than making sure that this person likes you, seems to be the best strategy. I will meet some more people this week, and thus have ample time to practice my spanish on them.

All the best, for those of you who are in Europe: enjoy the snow. Next week some more inspiring post on Peruvian carnaval.

PS Photos are slowly being added, I´ll mention it when some interesting ones are posted.