The families of Tastayoc had walked down the valley to where we could drive the pickup. They are a very and most people wore their traditional ponchos and hats.
Like last week, Im at a loss as to what exactly I am counting down to. With case numbers surging around the world and a vaccine still a distant dream, whats the point of counting down? Should I be counting up?
Once quarantine is over, Im going to have to switch to counting up from the day that the first case of was officially diagnosed in Cusco. That was Friday, March 13th. I hadnt actually realized that it was Friday the 13th until I wrote that just now. Cusqueians are superstitious about a lot of things, but Friday the 13th isnt one of them, which is probably why I didnt even notice at the time.
That was a great day, as Fridays go. Back when I worked in an office with real people face to face, I had a Friday Happy Hour tradition. Drinking in the office is technically against the rules but the boss tolerated me educating my coworkers on the American cultural practice of having a beer at 5pm every Friday. Obviously, not all Americans drink, and not all have a beer
at 5pm on Friday, but I like to mark the end of the work week. It was very artificial, since we worked till 7pm on week days and every Saturday morning. Still, it was the principal of the thing.
That Friday, since it had been announced in the morning that had officially arrived in Cusco, I switched my usual beer from Cusquea Dorada to Corona. I made little labels for each bottle that said Vaccine/Vacuna right below the Corona label. So, I gave each of my coworkers a bottle that said: Corona Extra Vaccine. It was funny at the time.
It has been 102 days since that Friday. My Day 99 count is from the declaration of quarantine for all of Peru that followed the Monday after Cusco had its first case of Covid.
So much has changed. So much here in Cusco, in Peru and in the whole world. I had no idea, when this began, how bad it would get, how long it would drag on and how the consequences would be.
The news is full of the negative consequences, although I try to focus on the positive environmental impacts and the
These families live so high in the mountains that there are no cases of Covid anywhere in the area. Alfredo, from the Ollantaytambo Town Hall, brought masks since most people didnt have them.
ingenuity that has been required from all of us. Weve had to get creative to cope, to survive even. Ive certainly been creating something that never would have existed, if not for the need forced on us by the pandemic. The name alone makes it obvious that if we had a normal 2020, the Covid Relief Project would not exist.
Back home, close to Seattle, the town of Tenino has drawn on a lot of local ingenuity to create a way to support local businesses. Following their own tradition of printing wooden money in the Great Depression, they are using the same printing press they used in 1931 to print wooden money again. Community members who can show that they are experiencing economic hardship caused by the pandemic, can receive up to $300 in wooden money per month. The money is only good locally, but local businesses who accept it can trade the wooden money in for regular cash at City Hall.
I think this is a brilliant idea! Local people who need help get up to $300 per month and local businesses who need help can take these wooden dollars to be exchanged for regular money. Its also cool in the historic sense, since theyre using the same 1890s newspaper press that they
Red embroidered ponchos are traditional for both men and women, but womens hats are normally red and
Think global, act local, right? How could this idea of wooden money help Cusco? Is there anything I could do to get an idea like this going to help local businesses? Does it work so well in Tenino precisely because its a town of about 2,000 people? Could it work in a city of 430,000?
I wonder what the population of Cusco is now anyway.
