YA LEUM.71 — My love story with Ayacucho
After spending an incredible week in Amazonia, Mathieu and I decided to follow distinct routes since he wanted to hike in the CotaHuasi gorge, in the region of Arequipa and I wanted to find out about a social organization called Winay Maki in Ayacucho.
On this trip, I tried to learn about the reality and challenges of local organizations. I had decided to visit at least one social organization per country.
Ayacucho is in the central-south area of Peru, in one of the valleys of the Andes mountains. In 1980, this city became quite known due to the appearance of a terrorist political group, the Sendeiro Luminoso, which spread violence and terror among the people who were against the communist ideology.
I took a bus that traveled during the night. These long trips through the mountains made me feel nervous because we frequently heard the news about accidents on the road involving buses. Although the initial concern, the trip was in fact very good. I slept all night, comfortably and warm.
I arrived at Ayacucho right in the morning and took a tuk-tuk to the main city to have breakfast.
The center of the city has a colonial and friendly look, it is small and located in the middle of the mountains.
Later, I took another tuk-tuk to the northern part of the city to get to the meeting point — the church of Santa Ana, a few meters away from the house of the family that was going to host me.
I met with Victória, a thin, friendly, and active woman who took me at her place through an unpaved road, always going up, with semi-completed houses everywhere and some dogs following us all the way up to the top of the hill.
I immediately met Ciriaco, her husband, and her two children, Danny and Jimmy. Her house was divided between her atelier and a small study center for children from low-income families.
Ciriaco was born in an native community in Milpu, a region of Ayacucho. When he was 9, he moved to Ayacucho to study. When he turned 13, he started selling at the market and, at the same time, started to learn weaving and knitting. Since then, he had never stopped working with handicrafts. Later, he moved to Ayacucho where he met Victória, who would become his wife. In 2000, they started their own small business so they could help other women and men who lived in the mountains and the city and for whom it was difficult to find a job. With any spare money they had, they started investing in an education project for the poor children of Ayacucho.
Victória was born in Ayacucho. She learned how to do embroidery work from a young age, thanks to her brother. Victória frequently knitted bags and cases for the children of the school. When she met Ciriaco, they joined their skills and dreams to build the Winay Maki project.
Nowadays, she does all the embroidery work of Winay Maki. Victória also takes care of the children and elderly who lived in Ayacucho, organizes all the work with the women of the region, and is also the director of the Farmers Association of Santa Ana.
I wanted to learn about the projects, difficulties, dreams, and mainly about those two human beings who welcomed me in their home with open arms and hearts.
They did not only welcome me. In fact, they were already used to welcome people from several parts of the world, people who wanted to learn about the project and support with whatever people liked to do. They did not ask for any kind of contribution and offered everything they had.
When I asked them about such generosity, they answered:
“We love to welcome people, talk with people who are different from us and learn about what happens in other parts of the world. We want to share our art, Andean traditions, and our project”
“And why do you not ask for some help with the expenses? People would not mind collaborating” — I asked.
Victória answered:
“When we welcome people in our home, they must live like us. We do not have much but we share everything we have with love. We do not need much to be happy, if we have more, we give more. We will continue to do it for as long as we can”.
And with these answers, I did not need to ask any more questions…
In the first days, they tried to teach me how to do embroidery work and how to use the loom. However, no matter how much I wanted to help, everything I did needed some improvements. I was new to manual work, to say the truth… In fact, I failed arts and crafts subjects more than once.
Yet, I performed other tasks: I cooked with Victória, prepared activities for the children, helped with taking care of the house, and spent many hours talking to Ciríaco to learn more about the project and understand how I could contribute.
It would not be by doing embroidery work for pillows, that was for sure… However, the more we spoke, the more ideas we had for potential collaborations.
That was when he threw me a bold question:
“Would you like to be our exportation hub of pillows in Europe?”
Me? Starting a importation/exportation business, in the lifestyle sector, and becoming potentially an online store?
“No way! I know nothing about it” — I said, with a huge smile on my face.
Yet, the idea started to grow inside of me for a few days… but I always returned to the initial fear point.
“What do I know about the importation business?”
“Is this a too big detour from my initial purpose?
“How do you even start it?”
A few days later, I was able to hold my fears temporarily aside and thought:
“If I really want to make something for this place, then I have to do what they need and not what I already know how to do… Besides, almost everything can be learned!”.
When I shared the news about my decision with this wonderful couple, their faces glowed of so much happiness.
I asked for one thing only:
“I will help by selling handicrafts in Europe and together, we will build your social project.”
They answered: “That is exactly what we want!”
May 2018,
Patricia Assis
