100 soles

100 soles. Let’s see, this is about 30 dollars. This is not a lot of money. And so we begin…

The date: February 14th.
I enter the municipality and talk to the mayor. I tell him about our camp ALMA and tell him that we are asking for funds from municipalities and NGOs in Ancash and would like a donation of 300 soles. He says this will not be a problem. 100 district and 200 provincial. I’m not sure what this means but he assures me 300 soles the first week of April. I leave very grateful and just a little bit proud of myself.

The date: April 4th.
I enter the municipality to ask for a quick 300 soles. There is a new gerente. I find out while talking to the secretary of the gerente or manager of the municipality that provincial means that I have to go ask the mayor of the province for 200 soles. This man is in Huari, about two hours away and seeing as we are getting down to the wire, I’m not sure this is feasible. Well, shoot, ok, one hundred soles. Where are the 100 soles? Well, first we have to find the papers that I submitted to them. (about twenty minutes pass…) Oh, they’re in the archives. The old gerente submitted them to the archives. I don’t know what this means but when the secretary looks at me and says, “Well, that was mean…” I decide that malicious intent might have been involved.

Ok, it is taken out of archives and submitted to the secretary of the mayor to be included in the regional director’s meeting because they need to approve it to give me money. These take place on the 15th of every month. They tell me to please come back after the 15th.

The date: April 18th.
I’m about to get on a bus to go to Huaraz. It leaves at noon. At eleven I walk into the municipality to pick up my 100 soles. I talk to the secretary of the gerente and she says to go talk to the secretary for the mayor. She tells me to look in the gerencia. This is where I just came from. This is not good. Twenty minutes later we find my letter under a pile of papers on the secretary’s desk. It did not go to the meeting of the regional directors. Much talking goes on because as my little luck would have it, I do have one friend or at least ally in the municipality who is the secretary of the gerente. She explains the situation and I explain that ALMA is the beginning of May so I need the money before the next meeting. They send me to talk to the mayor. It’s 11:40a.m.

I wait ten minutes and talk to the mayor, telling him the situation and how I need the money that he said he would give me. At 11:55am I have talked to the secretary of the gerente and she has told me that I can go downstairs on Monday and pick up my money by just asking for the funds for the Peace Corps. I thank her and run across the plaza to catch my bus.

The date: April 23rd.
I enter the treasury and ask for the funds for the Peace Corps. She looks at me like I’m a loon. I try to explain and finally she starts looking through folders. On folder 4 out of 5 she finally finds my form. It does not have a specific form stapled to it though. This is troubling. I don’t know why it was troubling for her but it was troubling for me because it appeared I was not getting my one hundred soles. She wants a receipt. I try to ask for what and tell her I have not purchased anything yet, but would love to give her a receipt shortly after she gives me the money. She wants a sello (a rubber stamp that has my name and organization on it). I have a sello at my house so I tell them I will go get it. I return a half an hour later. The treasury is closed.

The date: April 24-25th.
Holiday. Municipality closed.

The date: April 26th.
I enter the treasury office. Sello in hand. They stamp a post-it note and write my name down. They say the problem is that I don’t have this form, which they show me. I look at them and say, “OK, what can I do to make you get that form?”
They chuckle.
“Oh no, we have to fill out that form.”
“Ok, could you fill out the form then?”
“Yes, come back on Monday.”

Are you kidding me?