Author Archives: wwelvaert

Happy 4th of July!!!

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Since we’re in Peru, we’ll miss the fireworks and cookouts this year. Have one for us though! Last year I was in SC with friends on the 4th.

Busy month for national holidays in our wildly multi-national family:

  • July 4th. The US citizens in our family – Roxi and Manchita – will get an extra hot dog today 🙂
  • Belgian National Holiday on July 21, time to hit up Google for a good Belgian Waffle recipe.
  • Peru’s National Holiday on July 28, which also happens to be Mama Vicky’s birthday.
Roxi and Manchita

Roxi and Manchita

BTW – if you’re enjoying your freedom, take a look at the Honduras resistencia blog to support the people in Honduras who aren’t quite as lucky as us. Last time I was in Honduras was 15 years ago or so, but the poor people there deserve better than a return to the Cold War.

Quechua girl names

Posted on by under Life in Peru

The most popular post on this blog remains “Looking for names of Inca princesses”, which I wrote when we first found out our baby was going to be a girl. We had already picked Brianna for the first name, but I wanted a native or Quechua name as well.

Since then I’ve learned a lot about Quechua girl names. My students made me a list of Quechua names:

  • Urpi (Dove)
  • Illary (Rainbow)
  • Tica (Flower)
  • Saywa
  • Illa
  • Killa
  • K’antu (the national flower of Peru)
  • Kusi
  • Mayu

Probably the most common Quechua girl name I’ve heard here in Cusco is Chaska. If you like names of famous people, you can choose Q’orianka, after Peruvian-American actress Q’orianka Kilcher. Site friend Amazilia posted this link to Quechua names in the comments of my “Looking for names of Inca princesses” post.

Patricia wanted to pick a unique name though, and found Nayaraq on this list of Quechua names. So we settled on “Brianna Nayaraq”.

Brianna Nayaraq

Brianna Nayaraq

Nayaraq means “who has many desires”. I hope she will grow up with the desire to make Peru an even better place.

I’m very happy we picked a name that will remind our daughter of her heritage as well as the great history and culture of Peru. Of course we also like the way it sounds, plus we can use “Naya” or “Yara” for a nickname 🙂

Baby pictures

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Here’s a few more pictures of our baby Brianna. Some were taken at the Clinica Paredes where she was born, and a few more here at our apartment in Cusco:

She’s already a week old, and both mommy and baby are doing well.

I think all babies are cute, but it’s funny how many people here were hoping the baby would look like a gringa… “ojalá que salga con las ojos de su padre” … while all of my gringo friends were saying “let’s hope she looks like her mommy.” 😉

Contract pilot blog

Posted on by under Trabajo - Work - Werk

Here in Peru I don’t get a chance to do much aviation work. When I first came to Peru I was supposed to work for SEMAN, part of the Peruvian Air Force, but Alan Garcia decided to reassign some high ranking Air Force officers and my contract fell through.

However, when I’m in the US I always try to catch up on my flying – flying was after all my first career. So I started a new contract pilot blog where I can tell some of my tall (aren’t they all) flying stories 🙂

Honestly, like everything I do, I fly because it’s my passion. I like doing ferry flights, flight training, aircraft deliveries and repossessions.

Landing at LHZ, Louisburg NC

Landing at LHZ, Louisburg NC

This picture was taken when I was teaching a collegue at GE to fly. The picture may look as if we were flying sideways, but we weren’t. If you look at the top of the dashboard, it’s level with the runway. The picture was just taken at an angle, by a passenger in the backseat of the airplane 🙂

Baby arrives!!!

Posted on by under Life in Peru

We are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl!!!

Mom and baby

Mom and baby

Brianna Nayaraq

Brianna Nayaraq

At almost 3.9kg (~8lbs 10 oz) she’s a big baby girl! Born on June 20, the shortest day of the Southern hemisphere. Mom and baby are both doing well!!!

La Oroya – DRP environmental report update

Posted on by under Business & Economy, Life in Peru

As a Fullbright scholar, Corey LaPlante studied the environmental impact of the La Oroya – Doe Run Peru (DRP) smelter over the past year or so. He published some summaries of his findings on his blog, including:

  • Research that shows contamination in La Oroya may actually have increased since Doe Run arrived in 1997.
  • Some regulatory background about Peru’s environmental management plan or PAMA. Excellent questions whether PAMA is really sufficient and whether Doe Run Peru has complied with its obligations.
  • Research on children’s blood-lead levels near La Oroya. Interesting finding how the improvements advocated by Doe Run correspond with testing further and further away from the smelter.

I think Corey did a great job studying the environmental impact as well as the social and economic drivers that keep enabling the situation at La Oroya. He kept his research free of inflammatory rhetoric or ideological influences which all too often skew the environmental debate.

Again, check out his findings here.

Yippie, lukewarm shower

Posted on by under Life in Peru

The Incas were great architects, but that was a long time ago. Building standards in Peru nowadays are pretty sad.

One of the more annoying characteristics of homes here in Cusco is that most of them lack hot water heaters and only use a little point-of-use heater at the shower head. I just installed this heater this morning, after the previous one blew up yesterday:

Point of use water heater

Point of use water heater

Yeap, those are 220V live electrical wires you’re looking at in the shower. In our buildings there is no ground wire, so you ground the thing to a nearby wall. I found out long ago that you don’t touch these heaters or metal window frames while you’re in the shower…

The heater itself cost me S/.37 (~$12) and is a certifiable piece of junk. It’s life expectancy is about 6 months, and the water is only lukewarm. When this one self-destructs in a few months I think I’ll look for a bigger and better one 🙂

Peru: good news update

Posted on by under Life in Peru

After the violence in Bagua on June 5 it is good to read a few promising Peru news items:

This does not mean all is well in the world of politics in Peru, it’s only words at this point. But it’s hope for a beginning to the end of Alan Garcia’s sell-out-Peru, money-at-all-cost policies.

Alan Garcia must go!

Posted on by under Life in Peru

If you’ve been reading this blog for some time you know I love Peru. However, the government of Alan Garcia and its implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA/TLC) between Peru and the US has put Peru on the brink of becoming a Police State:

All this because of years of neglect (NY Times) of the indigenous people in Peru combined with Free Trade policies that have zoned 72% of the Peruvian Amazon for development and exploration (Duke University).

Alan Garcia cartoon, protest in Cusco

Alan Garcia cartoon, protest in Cusco

At the Corpus Christi celebrations in Cusco this week we saw this poster as one of many expressions of solidarity with the people of the Amazon. Unfortunately US and European media and governments have been largely quiet on the troubling developments in Peru. I’m convinced if the same kind of things took place in Ecuador, Venezuela or Bolivia – countries with left wing governments – there would be widespread media coverage and political condemnation.

People with different points of view may blame political opposition or foreign influence, but even if only 10% of the independent and eyewitness reports are true, the events at Bagua are still enough to demand Alan Garcia’s resignation.

It’s time to put ideologies aside and demand that Alan Garcia and his entire government resign!

Belgium requests inquiry into Bagua violence

Posted on by under Life in Peru

I’m rather proud to see how the Belgian government has requested an investigation into the bloodbath at Bagua last week.

“Vice-Premier en Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Karel De Gucht betreurt het recente bloedige treffen in Peru tussen de Nationale Politie en een groep inheemse betogers. De nog voorlopige zware balans maakt gewag van meer dan 30 doden en 150 gewonden.

Minister De Gucht veroordeelt elk buitensporig gewelddadig optreden en verzoekt de Peruaanse autoriteiten de dialoog met de inheemse bevolking te hervatten.

Minister De Gucht roept de Peruaanse autoriteiten tevens op om een grondig en onafhankelijk onderzoek uit te voeren naar de feiten in kwestie. “

Loosely translated: “Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht regrets the recent violence between indigenous people and the Peruvian National Police. The Belgian government condemns unnecessary violence and requests that the Peruvian government opens a dialogue with the indigenous people. Minister De Gucht requests that the Peruvian authorities conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the events at Bagua.”

The racist pricks at Correo are denouncing this as foreign efforts to destabilize the country.

“…Estrategia. Según el ex canciller y parlamentario Luis Gonzales Posada, estas ONG responderían a una “estrategia internacional” para desestabilizar al país, por lo que pidió a la ministra de Justicia, Rosario Fernández, que instruya a los procuradores para denunciarlas. Demandó, además, la inmediata intervención de la APCI. …”

Belgium is trying to destabilize Peru… That is beyond laughable, so I borrowed this from Otto. To the delusional facists at Correo:

STFU