Photography in Peru

One of the most pressing issues in communications at my NGO is how to take a good photo. This is a particular challenge here since 1) I don’t really know what I’m doing and 2) the light is crazy intense – I’m talking white, bright, blinding light - and then when it’s not intense it’s overcast and grey which means that you’re fighting what feels like a losing battle.

I've been soliciting help from my friendly neighbourhood photogs (including Heather Rushton, professional photographer and entrepreneur from Twin Bridges Photography in NS and Jay Aggarwal, amateur photographer and fellow CUSO-VSO volunteer in Ghana). They have really helped me address point number 1 (my general photographic incompetence) so I thought I would share these websites which helped me to understand basic composition and light.

Pro Photo Life: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pro+photo+life&aq=f
About.com http://photography.about.com/
Photo Composition Articles: http://photoinf.com/General/Peter_Ensenberger/Improving_Your_Photography_Lesson_Two_Composition.htm

The light issue is solvable but I’m going to need to experiment with my camera. Here's an example of what I’m talking about:

On the left her hand looks like she's been stuck inside for at least a year with no sunlight. On the right I've adjusted the white balance for more natural color.... Now I just have to figure out how to make the adjustments before taking the photo!


Keeping with the theme, here are some amateur photos from National Geographic Travel that manage to overcome the light in Perú. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/your-peru-photos/#/andes-salkantay-peru_30282_600x450.jpg

Please feel free to share any photography articles or tips and tricks you find helpful!

Social Media for NGO´s

Lately I’ve been doing some hard core research on social media and communications for NGO’s. For me it’s a fun and a great way to let my nerd flag fly in my new job. There’s so much out there to learn and so many different ways that people are approaching social media at NGO’s.

Our new website at CAPLAB is going to be in blog format to allow for us to announce events, share stories and present information like our reports, manuals for students and professors and other materials. I’m also looking at how to incorporate pages like facebook, twitter, youtube, picasa and my new obsession: Scribd. (Scribd is a document sharing system and it’s awesome because it has built in analytic features that allow you to see all sorts of information about the people who are reading your documents. For instance you can see how long an article was read, where in the world the hits are coming from and which websites are showing your document. http://www.scribd.com/caplab)

The real challenge is trying to understand the reality of both our audience and the staff. What are the technology limits for students and professors? How much time can staff devote to updating our blog? How can we consolidate these tools so that time online is maximized?

Any feedback out there from tech savvy communicators would be great!

Jin, Chin, Gene

A few nights ago I had dinner at a coffee shop called Gloria Jean’s. I went in there specifically because I was feeling a little homesick for coffee shops in Canada like Just Us in NS or Raw Sugar in Ottawa. You know the ones with the big windows that you can look out and idly observe the passers-by while getting lost in your own thoughts. I also wanted some comfort food.

Anyhoo after taking my order and my name I found it ironic that the barista at Gloria Jean’s couldn’t spell Jean. It was written on my receipt as Jin. I wonder if it was my fault because I didn’t do my regular routine of "Jean, you know like the pants". But it seems even when I give my Jean/pants performance people still can’t seem to spell my name.

It’s not just the Peruvians that have trouble understanding me. Last night a Canadian friend sent a text to "Gene". Then a Brazilian girl confessed that she thought my name was actually "Chin" until she read a note I’d left her with my name on it. Maybe I should change my name to Juana... let me know if you have any other suggestions!

Until next time,
Chin... er I mean Jean

Christmas traditions

(Christmas Dinner with Work Colleagues)

When my boss heard that I was going to be spending Christmas alone/on the internet talking on skype, she invited me to spend Christmas Eve with her family. Unlike in Canada, where Christmas centers around the 25th, in Peru the 24th is when all the magic happens. Family comes together for mass and then gathers at the family homestead to enjoy some longstanding traditions. So at 10:30 pm I made my way through the city and through the pop, pop, pop of fireworks to enjoy some family time.

At precisely midnight we popped the champagne and had a toast, wishing each other a Merry Christmas. We then went out to the park outside the house to light up our own fireworks and sparklers. I shared my families tradition of oohing and aahing over each individual firework and got my boss to write her name with the sparkler like my cousins and I used to do when we were kids.

After all that excitement we sat down to share a meal together. Here's where I found the little differences to be the most pronounced. When discussing Christmas traditions at work food came up all the time but we focused so much on the commonalities I thought that the only difference was going to be cranberry sauce vs. no cranberry sauce. Most Peruvians have turkey for their Christmas meal and my experience was no exception. However they paired it with slices of pineapple, rice, salad, candied yams and a spicy brown sauce. It was delicious!

Finally the gifts were opened and we all headed to our homes to fall happily into bed.

The next day I had a non-traditional feast of pizza and pisco sours with a friend from Argentina. The sun was shining and I may have gotten a bit of a sun-burnt. Definitely not like any other Christmas I've experienced!

Happy Holidays to all!

One-Monthaversary

Yesterday marked my one month mark here in Lima, Peru! I can hardly believe it! I've barely settled in and in just 11 months I'll be back in Canada... well I guess I shouldn't count on that if things go well there is always the opportunity to stay on in Peru or to move to another Latin American Country where CUSO-VSO works... Honduras or Jamaica sound nice!

Since it's my one-monthaversary I thought it's about time I get around to giving my first impressions of the city.

First it's massive. I have never lived in a city larger than 1-1.5 million people and Lima has 8 million. I am having the hardest time understanding how that works. I live and work in Miraflores and it is the most western section of Lima with big shopping malls, nice restaurants and North American housing prices. Miraflores is like a little city in itself. That much I understand... but then Miraflores is surrounded by other little cities that each have their own shopping centres, restaurants and economies. What I don't understand is how everything can be so separate yet so interconnected. I also have this sneaking suspicion that there must be some secret for finding the best spot for everything.

Second living in Miraflores you don't really get the sense of what Peru is all about. I don't mean that to sound dismissive because sometimes when travelling people do dismiss this place or that place as being "too western" or "too touristy" but those places are as much a part of the place as the so-called authentic places. What I mean is that Miraflores is only a small part of a much more diverse country. Peru has one of the most diverse collections of flora and fauna in the world with the Amazon, the Andes and the Pacific Coast. Each region has developed their individual cultures around the environment thus there is a great diversity of cultures as well. So what I have seen so far is only the tip of the iceburg. Good news is there may be some visits to CAPLAB's local offices in my future!

Finally, the people here have been warm, welcoming and very willing to help me with my problems. For example, yesterday I had to find Adobe Photoshop in order to view some files. My colleagues were more than willing to drop what they were doing to point me in the "right" direction or to offer possible solutions to my problem. Finally after a few hours of checking on various computers and consulting with people I was able to view it a the local internet cafe. Apparently there is one computer that has Photoshop here but it is nowhere to be found! ... well now there's two since I got it installed yesterday afternoon.

Today is our Christmas party at work! So more pictures will be coming soon!

Christmas Time!

I wanted to share with you the awesome mountain of gifts that my office has put together to send to a children´s organsation for Christmas. I added a few gifts to pile! Today is my birthday so I was pretty happy to spend some time thinking about how excited the kids will be seeing the presents after opening my own birthday presents! It´s nice to share the love this time of year.

UPDATE JAN 6TH: CAPLAB received a wonderful thank you letter from the sisters at Misericordia de la T.O.R. de San Francisco saying how much the children enjoyed the presents!

Pachacamac

Last week I went with CUSO-VSO Peru on their annual retreat. All of the volunteers from Cuzco were flown in to participate with the rest of us from Lima. It was a great opportunity for me - right off the bat - to meet, to learn from and to get to know the other volunteers here in Peru.

We stayed in this beautiful retreat in the area of Pachacamac called Attinchik. They specialize in corporate retreats so everything was set up nicely. The food was amazing and so pretty that I took pictures. They also had this huge garden set up all around us and all the plants were labelled with their Latin names. I woke up early on the first morning, took a stroll around the gardens and relaxed in one of the hammocks. While I was there this squirrel came up to me to check me out. I´m not going to lie - I felt a little like Snow White.

I took a walk through the mountains to the town with two of the other participants. They were real mountaineers and just charged right through while I struggled with vertigo. In Bolivia, I went on a hike with some friends and had to turn around I was so scared of spontaneously falling off the mountain. So it was a real accomplishment to make it to the peak! When we got to the town it was exactly what I expected Peru to be like (so nothing like Lima). It had this big beautiful town square with fantastic gardens. There were tiny corner shops and narrow, dusty streets with three-wheeled moto-taxis zipping all over the place.

We ended the day at the retreat with a grand fiesta - Pisco sours, guitars and dancing! So much fun! I wish I could have stayed there!

http://www.atinchik.com/casa_atinchik.htm