Serendipity, or How I Learned to Just Give Up: Jan 30, 2010

The last year of trying to get work started has felt like trying to find unicorns in Antarctica.  Who will listen to me?  Who will support my projects?  Who will take my ideas and run with them?  I’m not forming a hunting party in search of a magical beast, I just want your permission to throw trash in a hole.  After three months of getting the classic run-around as to who is responsible for constructing a trash hole, I discovered there was an existing hole on the school grounds.  How the school director failed to mention there already was a hole, after 16 visits from me, and posters describing the hole-digging process, is a mystery to me.  I came across it one afternoon when I took my Eco-Club outside to take pictures by the tree on the school grounds.  Look! A hole!  At that point, I was in too much shock at how much energy I wasted talking to the director, that I didn’t realize how close this existing hole brought me to the goal.  With the school year winding down, I couldn’t subject myself to one more false promise.  Even though I needed to obtain permission to use a classroom for summer school, I decided to deal with it after the holiday.  But who was I kidding?  I knew no one would be there upon my return from vacation in the states, and the realization of summer school was a long shot.  How would I ever find the director during summer vacation?  So I gave up.

     Traveling back to site requires several buses, combis, mototaxis, and colectivo taxis.  The last leg of the trip, the colectivo, can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours while waiting for the car to fill up with passengers.  When I arrived at the colectivo, there was only one person inside: the school director.  The chances of this occurring are small, and I smiled to myself as the mountain provided yet another serendipitous encounter.  (More on that next.)  After an hour of conversation, he told me to come by the next day to pick up the key for a classroom.  The next day, not only was I given the key, but I was allowed to pick a classroom with the best wall to paint a world map.  I was also given free reign of the school grounds, to plant trees and…drum roll please…throw trash in the hole!!  I would have never expected being so elated over garbage, but the amount of time and energy just getting to this point was hard-earned.  And ridiculous.

     Now I will return to the subject of serendipity.  I cannot count the number of times I have searched for someone for days on end, only to bump into them the moment after I stop looking for them.  When the president of the tourist association was impeached, I had no idea who would be the new one, or when the voting would take place.  Most of my work is with the tourist association, and not knowing who to talk to about projects put a real halt on my progress.  For two months, I asked the vice president, the board of directors, and association members about any information they knew.  Some names were thrown out, along with when there would be a new president and board of directors, but the answers were always different (which is not uncommon and I have come to accept it as how things are.)  So what did I do?  I gave up.  After living here for a year, I was slowly starting to understand that everything happens in its due time.  No matter how adamantly I want something to happen, I have to be patient and wait for the community to be ready.  Going to Lima for mid-service medical exams, I hailed a colectivo from my house and settled in for the ride down the mountain.  We picked up passengers along the way and they all chatted away in quechua.  I recognized one man as being in the tourist association, but I didn’t feel inclined to talk.  Remember, I had given up.  Of course he starts talking to me, since I’m pretty well-known and have been the only woman amongst 112 men at their meetings; I’m hard to miss.  I act cordially but don’t offer up any of my project ideas.  I’ve told them to so many people for the past year, with no takers, that I frankly don’t see a point as I’m heading to Lima.  After several minutes of inane conversation, he starts pressing me on how I can support them to improve their organization.  I take a deep breath and give him my schpiel.  I tell him about constructing a tree nursery of native species.  Using the results of the tourist survey I handed out over the tourist season, 95% said they would buy a tree to plant inside the national park.  The director of the park has already offered to donate a parcel of land to plant the trees.  I go on and on, waiting for his eyes to glaze over.  This time however, instead of getting lackluster nods, he seems authentically interested and wants to know more.  He tells me that as soon as I return to Cashapampa, find him in his house.  He gives me his name and tells me he is the new president.  Of course.

     A week later, I have just stepped out of the colectivo when a member of the tourist association walks down the street towards me to tell me there is a meeting tomorrow morning at 6am.  Well that’s great, except that I haven’t gone to the new Prez’s house to formally discuss the ideas I have.  The next morning, I sit up front in the only remaining seat.  It is 6:05am, and I’ve forgotten that these men are one of two entities in the entire country that are punctual.  The other being buses.

     I didn’t even recognize the new Prez, whom I was sitting next to, until an hour into the meeting when he stands up and asks me to present my tree nursery idea to the 112 members.  I can’t believe he remembered.  I talk briefly and sit down, then have my socks blown off as he says they are writing it into the Master Plan.  Once again, the workings of the mountain have surprised me and exceeded my expectations.  If I hadn’t taken that colectivo, that morning…if I hadn’t arrived at that moment to receive the message about the meeting…if I had arrived a day later and missed the meeting altogether…my idea would never have made it into the Master Plan.  The statistical probability of everything coming together is astounding, and all I can do now is sit back and wait for serendipity to happen again.  I must remember that I can’t force anything to happen up here on this mountain, but just give up and wait for it to happen in its due time.  I think I saw a unicorn winking at me from behind that bush over there.