Our Christmas Party

The company Christmas party is, of course, a staple of American work culture. This year at Peru Mission, we took our first shot at it, organizing a simple dinner in a local hotel restaurant, followed by the handing out of a Peruvian tradition: "Christmas baskets" containing such useful items as sugar, oil, hot chocolate and of course fruitcake or paneton.

Here are my co-workers, from missionaries to architects & engineers, with volunteers ranging from teachers at our English institute to staff of our medical clinic...

More Dances of Northern Peru

Below are some videos I took at Cananas, a touristy restaurant in Trujillo that features a late-night show of "criolla" singing & dancing. (Peruvian cuisine and music is referred to as "criolla" or creole because of its mixed Spanish, indigenous, African & Asian roots.)

The first video is "marinera", a romantic dance typical of Trujillo; the second and third are of "tondero", a similar dance native to Piura further north.













Incidentally, the true indigenous dancing of Peru (or at least the Andes) is called "huayno", and also features lots of stepping and using a handkerchief or scarf as a prop. And of course, salsa and other styles of Latin dancing are very popular at parties and social gatherings.

Most wedding receptions in Peru start with the Blue Danube as the first waltz of the bride and groom, followed by lots of Latin dancehall music, and wrap up at the end with a marinera followed by a huayno. It's an appropriate tribute to the many cultural traditions here in Peru.

The pleasure of traveling in bus...

Peru has almost no railways, and air travel is still not affordable for the vast majority of Peruvians. Trujillo, a city of 1 million, only has about three flights per day, and its airport looks more like a local train station than an airline terminal. The crowd getting off is mostly rich Peruvians or Western tourists and missionary groups.

Enter the bus companies. The roads in Peru are not great by US standards, but have progressed enough for most Peruvians to rave about a two-week journey from the jungle now being only 15 hours by bus! Buses have opened up an economical way for Peruvians, who especially in the cities are highly mobile and have friends and family throughout Peru, to travel affordably. For the middle and upper-middle classes there are also "VIP" or "Servicio Especial" classes that provide movies, meals, comfortable reclining seats and security measures that are nicer than anything I've seen on a Greyhound, but still a lot cheaper than air travel.

The bus companies I'm familiar with are Linea, Cruz del Sur, Ormeño, Dias, Ittsa, Emtrafesa, and I'm sure there are at least half a dozen others. Living in Trujillo, a straight shot up the coast from the capital city of Lima, there are dozens of buses leaving daily between the two hubs. (Think of the high-traffic routes between New York & Philly or DC, for example.) There are also a handful of departures to other smaller cities in the coast, mountains or jungle. Each company or "agencia" has its own terminal, fleet of buses, range of prices and reputation for safety or service. For example, Dias is the fastest bus to Cajamarca - careening up the winding mountain roads in a mere five hours - and they record all the passengers boarding the bus via camcorder. Linea, on the other hand, has a speed limit for its bus drivers for safety reasons (so it takes a full seven hours), and they not only film you but take your fingerprint as you get on board. I've also heard they bribe the cops to make sure they don't get hijacked.

Speaking of which, there are plenty of cheap and unsafe buses - we affectionately refer to them as "chicken buses" since you could literally find yourself sitting next to a crate of live chickens - and all sorts of bus-driving accidents and highway robberies which occur on a regular basis. (Note to my adventure-seeking friends - take the chicken bus at your own risk.) The fancier bus lines try to avoid this problem by having speed limits, good security at bus stations, and making no local stops where hijackers could try to get on.

I almost always take a bus company called Linea (you can book online), which is the top-of-the-line bus company to Lima. The cost of the 8-hr, usually overnight journey varies from 30 soles or $10 ("Economico") to 110 soles or $37 ("SuperVIP"). The journey is more tiring than the 1-hr plane ride, but the buses are more frequent, reliable and a lot cheaper, and the SuperVIP allows you to put your feet up and recline your seat all the way back. Not too shabby. Also, if you're flying to the US or to some other international destination, the surest way to make your flight out of Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport is actually to take a bus - those three flights out of Trujillo get rescheduled or grounded all the time.

Linea bus terminal, in Lima

Bus boarding area, Trujillo

On a "nicer" bus

Advertisement for "SuperVIP" service, with 180° reclining seats

Señor de los Milagros

And yet more sights & sounds of Peru... these pictures & video were taken on Halloween, as a procession was made for the Señor de los Milagros, a Peruvian Catholic icon.

More Music from Muyupampa...

Lenin, our mission's architect, is playing the pipes and flute in this clip. I'm going to start taking flute lessons this afternoon...

Gordito, Chinita & other names you can't get away with in the US

One thing I've come to love and appreciate about Peru is what does and does not offend people here. They will be offended if you don't greet them with a "Buenos Dias" and a kiss on the cheek, or if you don't want to hang out and spend time getting to know one another. (Isn't it great that that's considered the norm?) However they will NOT be offended by the un-PC labels which Latin Americans affectionately give one another, such as "gordito" (chubby), "flaquito" (skinny), "chato" (shorty), or in my case, "chino" or "chinita" (technically that means Chinese, but here it's used loosely as meaning any Asian, or Peruvian with Asiatic features, or for that matter anyone you feel like giving that nickname to. It's surprisingly common).

Now I realize that sounds offensive or insensitive, but think for a second about why you think that is. I too had the initial knee-jerk reaction of, "How mean! How racist! How inappropriate!" But the terminology above is not seen as derogatory or negative at all, and in fact a typical Peruvian would be surprised if any of it were taken as an insult.

I've come to believe that this is a good thing. People can call each other "gordita" here because it's not a bad thing to have some meat on your bones, it's just a distinguishing characteristic, like calling someone a brunette or an athlete. Without unrealistic standards of beauty being shoved in your face here to the same extent it is in the States, it's not such a big deal to be short or chubby or of a certain generalized racial category. In fact it's kind of cute. Hence the frequent use of the affectionate diminutive "-ito"; to call someone "gordo" (fat) might be a bit blunt, but a "gordito" (fatty or chubby) is more likely to be used teasingly with someone you love.

Bizarre? Maybe to most Americans, ingrained as we are to want to be tall and skinny and beautiful, but to this Korean-American chinita living in Peru, it's kind of refreshing...


*PS - My fellow Asians will probably also be shocked and offended that I constantly get asked if I'm related to Bruce Lee - but after all, they LOVE martial arts movies here, and he's the only Lee they've heard of, so it would be akin to telling someone your last name is DiCaprio and them thinking that's rare enough that you might be related to Leo.

I am also frequently asked what ethnicity I am, and when I say I'm Korean, they ask if I'm from the North or South, and if I've been there or speak the language, and extol the virtues of Korean cars and electronics... in other words they have more knowledge of it than the average American. This may be partly because there have been substantial Chinese and Japanese minorities here for generations, and many Peruvians are a mix of indigenous, European, African and Asian blood themselves...







My friend Lenin, far left, is frequently referred to as a "chino", and Jack, far right, as "chato"...

Another Report from the Earthquake Zone

See email copied below, with more candid observations from the earthquake zone, about 40 days after the earthquake hit. This is from Brad Ball, former missionary and recent MBA grad who is returning here very soon to start a carpentry & wood construction training facility.

By the way, if you donated to the Peru Mission Earthquake Relief fund, you can find the latest on our efforts here.

*****

----- Original Message -----

From: Brad Ball

Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 5:46 PM

Subject: Re: Viaje con Brad Ball

Thank you all for your patience. We had a very informative trip and learned a good bit about the situation in Pisco and Chincha. It is difficult to put solid numbers together but both Chincha and Pisco have well over 100,000 residents each. Of the two, it appeared that the damage in Pisco was more severe with much of it in the center of town. However, both towns were severely damaged. My guess is that over half of the buildings in both cities are either completely destroyed or damaged beyond repair and in need of demolition.

The entire region is an extremely dry and dusty desert. Add in all of the debris from the earthquake and you have dangerously polluted air. I can still feel the dust and dirt in my lungs and nasal passages. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Most of the local residents that we visited with were appreciative of the international help they have received in the form of tents and community soup kitchens. At the same time, they all complained of the Peruvian government's lack of attention, particularly in the area of clean-up. According to the police chief in Chincha, the federal government agency in charge of relief, INDESI, has financial resources to invest but the local and regional authorities are fighting over who will lead the efforts. We have no way to verify this but it does seem like very little has been done to remove the massive amounts of debris. Also, the news in Lima said that two INDESI officials had resigned. Sounds very similar to what happened in MS and New Orleans after Katrina.

We visited one of the many tent camps. The one we visited, Canchamaná, was not an official camp and consisted of about 50 displaced families that were squatting on private land. They had running water, porta-johns, and received food supplies from different charitable groups. The owner of the land has offered to sell them the land for something like $40,000. Again, this was impossible to confirm. Most of the men were very small time dairy farmers.

Just outside Chincha, we visited the coastal town of Tambo de Mora. This is a town of fishermen and is located right on the ocean. I am not sure of the population but I would guess it includes about 200 families. During the earthquake, water came up through the earth and forced its way through the foundations, sidewalks, and the town square. As a result, there are probably fewer than a dozen inhabitable houses. To make matters worse, the sewage and water lines were destroyed. In order to make this town inhabitable, basically the whole place must be removed down to the sand and reconstructed from zero. Currently, folks are living in tents in the dirt street in front of their houses, using portable toilets in the town square, and bathing at temporary public facilities. I asked a few of the men why they didn't just pack up and take their families elsewhere. They told me that they owned the land, made their living from fishing the coastline, and had no other place to live or source of income. If they move to a new place they would have to pay rent and would be without a job. Sounds crazy in the US but they are probably right. Lima surely doesn't need more unemployed homeless folks and would be a much more difficult place for these families to survive. Could they relocate to another coastal city south of Lima? I don't really know.

We met with the mayor of the town Sunampe located in Chincha. His office was overwhelmed with close to 100 people seeking assistance and it felt pretty strange to walk through the whole crowd and walk into the mayor's office. The mayor said that in his town, people had food, still needed tents, and needed help with clean-up. He also mentioned the possibility of donating city land to be used by Julio Rosas for some charitable purpose. The largest lot he mentioned was about 10,000 sq meters (about 30,000 sq feet). He agreed to help Julio confirm families that were in need of tents. Apparently, the city has a register of families whose homes were destroyed. On a table in front of the mayor's office, there were probably 200 signed forms waiting to be picked-up. These forms certified that the person listed lost his/her home and that the city had personally visited the site.

We also visited a small shop where a young man was making prefab houses from wood. The houses were designed to last a couple of years and made from 2x4's and a thin tongue and groove paneling. I can not find the price in my notes but I am pretty sure that the cost was about $2,000 dollars. This includes everything but the foundation.

In Lima, I met with Luis Haro from LP Peru and Alvaro Rojas from LP Chile. Both men were very professional and helpful. Alvaro is a technical director in Chile with a background in homebuilding. He was in Peru to oversee the building of a display house at an upcoming homebuilding fair in Lima. The display house is made from metal framing material made in Peru by another company and OSB and Smartside (OSB treated and primed) made by LP in Chile. Alvaro is working on a "house kit" using these products and estimates that it will be around $7,000 without foundation (he says it might be cheaper but he doesn't know yet). LP has distributorships established throughout Peru. They hope to promote their products through fairs, visiting with architects and engineers, and helping to train carpenters. They are interested in helping us (in some undefined way) and us helping to promote their products through using them in our training of carpenters. At the end of our meeting, Alvaro said "you have not yet told us how we can help you." My response was that we needed think through our approach and we would get back to them.

Concluding Thoughts

In looking at the current situation in Chincha and Pisco, I think it is impossible to design a complete solution. Julio spoke of the possibility of building an entirely new neighborhood/town from scratch. While this is theoretically possible, the financial and personnel commitment would be enormous. Also, I can not figure out how to do it without creating serious dependency. Would you sell the houses and finance them? If so, would you be willing to evict people that don't pay? Would you build a school, health clinic, sewage system, etc? All possible but incredibly difficult.

The only thing I can recommend with certainty is the investment in clean-up efforts. Beyond that, I am unclear. My approach would be to locate a trusted and capable person to administer and a number of capable men to work as site supervisors. Each supervisor would hire a team of 10-12 people from the local area and would direct their efforts. The workers would receive daily wages and possibly breakfast/lunch at a central facility run by the project. In this way, local people would earn a wage for a period of time and the city would progress in the clean-up efforts.

Again, the situation is incredibly bleak. Consider our efforts in the areas devastated by Katrina. We are still cleaning up and we have an incredible amount of resources. I have no idea how long it will take to clean up and rebuild in the Chincha/Pisco areas nor do I know how people with little income and few stable jobs can rebuild their houses. All I know is that they need to get busy cleaning.

See attached photos.

Grace and Peace,

Brad

Standards of Living...

I recently moved from a very nice house (which I was house-sitting for a missionary family), to a very cute apartment right around the corner from our English language institute, where I work. (For you New Yorkers, this would be somewhat akin to moving from Westchester to the Village - less space & comfort, much more central location.)

The owner we're subletting from owns a restaurant and lived in Spain for 11 years. We're also neighbors with a dentist, and we have a security guard, so it's basically an upper-middle-class building. And our apt's pretty nice - 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen & laundry, probably about a 900 sq. ft in all. However it's also got no heating, so it's freezing at night; the pipes in my bathroom smell like raw sewage; and we rely on a small hot water tank for hot water, so we have to switch it on 30 min before a shower, jump in the shower for 5 min before it runs out, wait another 30 min for the second person to shower, etc. We also hang our laundry to dry on clotheslines - no dryers.

It is an interesting, and humbling, thing to meditate on the differences in living standards between a "moderately poor" country like Peru and the US. Here I am living in fairly pituco* surroundings, among the upper echelons of society (and indeed, to be a gringo or foreigner here is to be automatically regarded as a VIP... hmm disturbing), yet I can't get over my nagging cough and I'm freezing all the time. And no matter how much money you have, you can't escape from frequent outages of power and water.

I've had the chance to get to know people from a variety of social classes here. Some are university students who wear nice clothes and have some disposable income, but live at home, only get running water at certain hours of the day, and can't find a job. Many more are from poorer neighborhoods, living in ramshackle self-built adobe houses with tin roofs and gaps in the walls, and the humblest of accoutrements. And then there are the street boys I first met in 2004, who were from the poorest and most troubled of homes, and spent most of their time on the streets, dirty and hungry and high.

It is humbling to actually know some of the billions of people who live on a few dollars a day, living on rice and potatoes and a few vegetables (meat's a luxury too!), constantly vulnerable to being wiped out by the sudden cost of a hospital visit or a defaulted loan or a husband leaving them. However, short of these extremes, it is also oddly liberating to realize you CAN live on much less money, if you are willing to give up some creature comforts and "luxuries", and rely on your friends and neighbors a little more than we like to do in the States. Doesn't Shakespeare (and the Bible) say somewhere that both wealth and poverty are dangerous, and it's best to live somewhere in between?

All I know is, living with less comfort, less control, and less water pressure has made me realize how much I take for granted (and how much energy I consume) at home.

*see my post of Sept. 2





My new 'hood
















A typical neighborhood for much of Trujillo

Another Musical Interlude (with Dancing!)

While in Lima for a conference (which I will write about in a future post), I wandered into this National Marinera competition in the Parque de la Exposicion. These couples were doing the typical dance of Trujillo & the North, "marinera". I think this part of the competition was the adolescent division...

Getting Sick in Peru is a Bad Idea (but also, of course, much more likely to happen)

I've officially been sick for over a month. I don't think I've ever been sick this long before. But I started having a fever and congestion on July 31, the day I got back from Santiago. I went on blowing my nose non-stop for two weeks, and have been coughing for about three more. Even yesterday I had to cancel 3 engagements to stay in and sleep.

I know my mother is reading this, so just to clarify (and make her feel better), it was never very severe. In fact, I've been up and about for most of the past few weeks, it's just that I've needed more sleep, lots of medicine, and the people around me have had to put up with a lot of unpleasant nose-blowing and coughing. I've also spent what in Peruvian terms is a fortune on health care. More specifically:

s/130 - two trips to the Clinica Sanchez Ferrer
~s/180 - lots of antibiotics, decongestants & cough medicine
s/140 - chest & sinus x-rays

That is 450 Peruvian soles, or almost $150. In US terms that's not bad for 2 trips to the doctor, X-rays and a bunch of drugs, especially when you consider that I don't have health insurance. (All I have here is "travel health insurance", which costs about $60/mo and covers things like emergency surgery or evacuation of my remains to the US.) But given that a typical Peruvian office worker makes about 20 soles a day, it's kind of a fortune. Thankfully, I have learned many valuable things about health care in Peru for the next time I am sick:

1) Don't go to the pituco doctor

Pituco is my favorite Spanish slang word, because it sounds exactly like what it means: uppity, chi-chi, well-moneyed, generally of/ about/ for the upper echelons of society. Anyway, I decided to go to the Clinica Sanchez Ferrer, located in an upper-middle class neighborhood called California, which is the nicest clinic in town, thinking I would get the highest level of care. In other words, I went to the pituco doctor.

Well, I don't know if it's just because I'm an extranjera (foreigner) without local health insurance, but they took one look at me and decided to charge me an arm and a leg. The first time I went they prescribed me expensive penicillin shots and brand-name drugs; when I balked at the price and asked for generics they begrudgingly wrote me another prescription at a quarter of the cost. The second time they misdiagnosed me with a urinary infection and prescribed me a really expensive antibiotic with no generic substitute; only after I bought it (at $2 a pill) did my nurse-practitioner friend in New York tell me it was basically the same thing as the first antibiotic, so I actually should not take it anymore or risk developing an antibiotic resistance.

So much for quality care at a top clinic. I finally went to our mission's clinic in the pueblos jovenes*, and the doctor who volunteers there regularly chided me, "So you thought you'd go there just because it looked pretty?"

2) You don't need a prescription for anything.

Literally. You can go to a pharmacy and get any antibiotic, painkiller, brand name or generic, that you like. In fact most people don't go to the doctor for this reason: they can just go to the pharmacy, describe their symptoms, and get the drug right away. This may seem a little scary, but given that most doctors here would just prescribe you antibiotics anyway, there's not much difference. And most Peruvians can't afford to develop addictions to painkillers or meth, so fortunately regulating that is not an issue...

3) The possibilities are endless... so don't worry about it

What I mean by this is, there are so many exotic bacteria and unknown environmental factors here in Peru that people generally don't feel well pretty often. Couple this with the absence and/or exorbitant costs of more advanced medical equipment for tests and diagnoses, and you'll find that people generally don't bother to find out exactly what it is they have. Unless you really need hospitalization, you just go on getting rest or drinking tea or trying your guessed-at pharmaceuticals until you're well.

Anyway, I am still coughing some, but at this point I've consulted with several legit American & Peruvian doctors (all associated with the mission) and am assured it's nothing serious, just a virus or lingering cough. I can also empathize a little more with the billions of people, both in the US and abroad, for whom top-notch health care is out of reach, and who have to manage without it as best they can.

(*see definition in my previous post)

Earthquake Relief Trip

Amazingly, I was able to make that trip to the earthquake zone after all! As a result of our e-bulletin, we raised funds and were able to deliver some help to Chincha, one of the affected cities, this past Saturday. Jaime Avellaneda, a pastor and our mission's administrator (known around here as the man who can do anything) made all the arrangements, and I went along to take pictures and report back to our supporters who donated to the relief effort. Here's my take on the day's events.

*****

A brief report on the relief trip we took to Chincha this weekend, exactly ten days after the earthquake. The worst of the cleanup has already taken place, but I believe we were able to deliver help to some people in real need.

Jaime coordinated our relief effort together with the brothers at Los Olivos church in Lima, which has been collecting donations. He rented a bus and purchased about $1000 US worth of blankets, plastic sheets, diapers, food and water, and adding in the food and clothing donations collected at the church there was barely enough room for us to fit in.

We decided to go to Chincha because one of the brothers at Los Olivos had a sister there, and they were able to coordinate with a group of neighbors and families in need to gather at her house. We left Lima about 6:40 am and traveled down the coast, past lots of sand dunes and ocean views. A few sections of the road were damaged and we had to travel on a single lane, but the traffic was well regulated and we did not have any major delays. We began to see damaged highway rails, walls and rocks when we got closer to Chincha. Driving through the town itself, there were collapsed structures everywhere, and some tents outside where people had taken shelter.

We arrived around 10:30am at the sister's house, finding about 20-30 families (nearly all women and children) gathered outside. We carried pre-packed sacks of groceries and blankets into the house for later distribution. Jaime preached a short message to those gathered.

I asked the sister's husband whether other help had arrived, and he said the gov't had delivered some food and supplies. It appeared the people were getting some help, and access to water had been restored, but of course much more help would be needed to reconstruct people's homes. He told me that about a third of the homes in Chincha had collapsed. (Pisco, further south, suffered much more destruction, and currently is receiving most of the aid.)

Afterward, we decided to drive out to the "pueblos jovenes" (ie the informal shantytowns outside most cities in Latin America, where the poorest live), since aid was being distributed out of Chincha's central square and we did not want to duplicate efforts. We drove through several neighborhoods, first going from house to house, but quickly discovering that wherever we went people would gather and form a line, requiring us to distribute directly from the bus. For the most part the distribution was orderly; we tried to only give to women so that we would be more likely to reach families rather than individuals. Those who were elderly or carrying a baby were sure to receive a new blanket. Several of the people told us they had not received help out in the pueblos jovenes. Everyone was very excited about our gifts, and curious about who we were since we were traveling in a Lima city bus!

Finally around 2pm we had distributed everything we had. We had to turn away 5 people at the last distribution point, where the largest crowds had formed. However in the end I think we must have given something to at least 200 families, maybe more. The most popular items were the blankets, plastic sheets to reinforce shelters, and diapers! Food was also in high demand; clothing was not as needed.

At one point we crossed paths with a bus giving "Atencion Medica Gratuita" ("free medical care"), to whom we gave our donated medical supplies. They asked me where we had been, so as to know which areas were getting help and which still needed it. We also passed a few other gov't trucks distributing goods. What we saw confirmed the news reports we'd been hearing: that a lot of aid was arriving, enough to keep people from being destitute, but not enough to meet all of the need, and not in a very organized manner. Those who were lucky enough to have a bus pass by, and who ran to get a place in line, received aid; but it was difficult to know whether those who needed help the most were being reached.

All in all it was a good day, fortunately without any danger or disorder, and with the amount of goods we distributed we gave some help, whether it be a lot or a little. It was a twelve-hour day counting the four hour trip out, four hours of distribution, and four hour trip back. When we got back to Los Olivos, we had a short "debriefing" session, during which the brothers from Los Olivos expressed a desire to continue to go back and get to know the people a little better. We have received more funds dedicated to long-term construction, so we will definitely be looking for a trustworthy local connection to work through, most likely a church.

You can view my photos at this link. I took about 200 photos in all, but cut this album down to 125.

Grace & peace,
Clara Lee

Earthquake

Being in the northern part of Peru, where we barely felt Wednesday's earthquake, I can't report much beyond what the newspapers are saying. What I can say is that it appears very little damage occurred outside of the Ica - Pisco area -- but the damage there was considerable. The good thing about an earthquake hitting a more rural area is obviously that there are less casualties; the bad thing is that the rural parts of Peru are the poorest parts, and their houses and infrastructure are more likely to fall apart.

Our mission just sent out this e-bulletin. It is nice to be close enough to a third-world disaster for once to be able to help directly. I would like to go visit the area myself when it's a little safer (it's a 12 hour bus ride directly down the coast from Trujillo).

Also, a local Knoxville news channel did a story on the earthquake, interviewing two of our missionaries coming down to Peru in the next few months. Click here to view.

****

Earthquake in Ica, Peru Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As many of you know, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Peru Wednesday evening at 6:40pm, killing hundreds in the southern cities of Pisco and Ica. One church in Pisco collapsed during a memorial service, which alone has left an estimated 200 dead. The quake thankfully did little damage in the capital city of Lima 90 miles away, a city of nearly 10 million where many more might have perished. The mission's own RUF pastor John Ferguson, with his wife Heather and their children Colton, Jason, Justin, Kevin and Miranda, and our SALI director Caleb Sutton, all happened to be in Lima at the time and experienced some of the panic that occurred there. In northern Peru where our mission works, we felt the tremor, but did not suffer any damage. The people of Peru are responding to the disaster and sending aid to the affected regions. As a mission, we will also be sending aid through the local church and/or the National Evangelical Council of Peru, which has already taken steps to collect needed items. If you would like to give to our brothers and sisters in need, you may send your contributions to the following address: Christian Missionary Society Re: Earthquake Relief Fund PO Box 53363 Knoxville, TN 37950-3363 We will pledge to use 100% of any contributions received by Thursday, August 23 toward buying emergency supplies for those left without water, electricity or shelter, and 100% of any contributions received afterward toward ongoing care of the victims of this natural disaster. Thank you again for your prayers. In His Grace, the Peru Mission team

Musical Interlude

Now that I've figured out how to upload videos to YouTube, here are some samplings of the kind of music I've heard in Trujillo.

First video: from left, this is our mission engineer and architect, and a couple guys from our local church. Gives an idea of traditional Peruvian folk music.




Second video: This is a concert that took place outside of Plaza Vea this Saturday morning, performed by a US Navy band. They were from the HSHS Comfort, a hospital ship docked in nearby Salaverry to do some charity work. The video is a bit grainy since it was taken on a cell phone by Ludwig Celiz - who coincidentally is the far left musician in the video above! You can hear me asking him to take pictures at the very end. This was such a New York moment, going grocery shopping and randomly stumbling into a brass band concert, which is why I have such a big smile on my face.

Note the sign and slogan for Plaza Vea: "Toda Cuesta Menos"!




And finally, this is a video I took a few months ago at our intern farewell party in May. The guitarrist is a local musician I don't know, but he was a whiz on the guitar.

Shopping in Trujillo

While in Santiago, I was reminded that one of the great pleasures/distractions of life in the developed world is shopping. There was so much eye candy everywhere: big shiny department stores, cute cafes, cozy bookstores, Dunkin' Donuts AND Starbucks... I'm ashamed to admit how much I miss these places to idly spend money on useless items, now that I'm back in Trujillo.

So what is shopping like in a less-developed, mid-sized city in Peru? Well, everyday shopping is more of a chore than a pleasure. Peru has the curse of great natural resources, which in the developing world often correlates with the encroachment of predatory multinational companies, who quickly take control of all the moneymaking industries. (Or so I've heard.) So first of all, despite being a producer of first-class products, all of Peru's best coffee, poultry, vegetables, factory-made clothing etc. get exported to richer markets, leaving the the poorer local population to consume mediocre products sold to them by foreign companies. It is a bit tragic when you live in South America, but can't get a decent cup of coffee because all the local market can bear is cheap instant coffee by Nestle, a Swiss company!

Second, in much of the developing world, nobody can afford $15 for a CD or DVD, so literally the entire market for these products is bootleg. As in, go to the local shopping center and you'll get the same $1 pirated copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that you'd get on the street. (This leads to the odd phenomenon of people in the slums and shantytowns sometimes owning DVD players - as in the States, it's just cheaper than going to the theater!) I feel bad buying bootleg - I know the money's probably going to a mafia of some sort - but there's no other choice!

Finally, venues for shopping are limited, and very frustrating. Most are chaotic "shopping centers" consisting of a maze-like row of small vendors, or informal bodegas and storefronts with very limited selection, low quality (as mentioned above), and no ability to order something they don't happen to have in stock. Customer service is pretty abysmal here - if you need a refund, or help with something, you're often greeted with cold stares and lots of "no's".

However, the breaking news here is the opening of a brand new, enormous, Walmart/Target-style "hipermercado" called Plaza Vea. With better groceries. Its slogan is "Toda Cuesta Menos" - "everything costs less" - and it's true! Economies of scale, moderately good customer service, and even real official DVD's have arrived in Trujillo! This threatens to revolutionize the shopping experience in Trujillo - although appropriately it's still sitting in the middle of a dirt road and corn fields.

Granted, this is a harbinger of Western-style instant-gratification consumerism in the city. Pretty soon they'll be idly spending money on useless things just like in Chile or the States, and maybe money they don't have to spend. And of course, the smaller bodegas and grocery stores with bad service will probably be suffering for some time to come. But most people agree that Plaza Vea will pay taxes, employ many locals, raise the bar for commerce and ultimately amount to progress. And as a consumer, for the first time I can find a good selection at a good price and get my shopping done in an hour -- and I can buy seafood and know it won't kill me.

This was such a symbolic step for the city and the region that Peru's President Alan Garcia showed up for the inauguration. He was quoted as saying, "This commercial center will raise the level of urbanism (?) and consumption, the quality of life of the population, will have 80,000 square meters of land, and will be a powerful impulse for the modernity of this beloved city." Another huge shopping center is already being constructed on the other side of town. Pretty soon it'll be just like home.

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A typical Peruvian convenience store










Peru has the creepiest mannequins - and the clothing is pretty low-quality










One of the more upscale shopping centers in Lima. If you look at the bottom left you'll see stacks of bootleg DVD's - not one of them is real




And finally, video of opening day at Plaza Vea in Trujillo...

Santiago

Just got back from a few days in nearby Chile. I have to leave the country every 90 days to renew my tourist visa, and two of the other interns here were planning a trip to Santiago, so I decided to join in.

Chile is the richest country in Latin America, and Santiago did not disappoint. Everything was clean, organized, even hip. A couple of the most visible differences from Peru:

• Santiago was much colder, and the vegetation less exotic or floral
  
• Lots of European influence in the architecture and culture.
  
• Every American business or name-brand you can think of.
  
• Did I mention the city and the people all looked pretty well-off?

Returning to Peru afterward, my home of nearly 3 months, felt like a "homecoming" of sorts, but odd too. It was like after getting used to living in the less-developed world, a sudden reminder of what I am "missing out" on. I am a bit more homesick now. Hopefully I will get re-accustomed to dusty, half-built Trujillo again pretty quickly.







A real public bus! No combis or colectivos here...
















The Santiago Metro was probably the cleanest, newest, best-value subway I've seen yet

Confessions of a Lima Taxi Cab Driver

I've kept in touch with some of the "street boys" I met in Lima from my first trip to Peru in 2004. One of them is now a cab driver (or taxista in Spanish) and gave me the lowdown on the job. Apparently a typical Peruvian office worker, like a receptionist or customer service rep, makes about 20 soles a day ($7 US). However a taxista in Lima can take in 120 soles (close to $40), of which about 50 is spent on gas (hugely expensive here, and very low diesel quality), leaving 70 soles take-home pay ($22).

Now cabs, as I've mentioned, are a sketchy business. Many of them are practically falling apart. Both taxistas and cab riders risk being robbed or assaulted if they get in a car with the wrong person. My friend called it an "ugly" job, and dangerous. But certainly practical, even smart, if you can afford the car and want to save up some money.

Emigration is an even more lucrative option. A housekeeper told me her friends in Chile make 500-1000 soles a month (about $160-$320 US) cleaning houses or taking care of children -- I imagine in the US it would be much more than that.

Of course most people would prefer having an office job to driving cabs or cleaning bathrooms, but the economic motives are all slanted toward the latter. Yet another reason the cycle of poverty here continues. Would some of you social entrepreneurs out there please think of a way to make it more economically lucrative for a Peruvian to become a scientist or entrepreneur than a cab driver?

Trujillo vs. New York?

One of the most interesting things about living in Trujillo has been realizing how similar it is to New York City. Sure it's only got about 1/8 the population, and the cost of living is far lower than that in the financial capital of the world. But both are globalized 21st century cities with similar "types" of people - migrants from the hinterlands, inner cities with urban decay, upwardly mobile students and young professionals, and a few wealthy /social /cultural elite.

Both cities are strongly liberal (for many of the reasons listed above), but also places where everybody is chasing money and social advancement. Here, as in New York, upper-middle class kids wear Che T-shirts, listen to punk rock, and talk about Communism while enjoying their new cellphones. Meanwhile in the poorer "outer boroughs", foreign and domestic do-gooders start microfinance programs or tutoring centers to try to even out the enormous economic disparity.

In much of Peru, people still live a traditional lifestyle of subsistence farming or trade, much like they have lived for centuries; however the people who come to Lima or Trujillo are the modern ones, the Peruvians who want digital cameras and degrees in computer engineering. They are just as excited about networking sites like Facebook (the big one here is Hi5), and as worried about China and India, as Americans. They are not so different from the young people streaming into New York City from all over the country to have some excitement and job opportunity. Meanwhile, the native-born New Yorkers/Trujillanos watch in amazement (and pride) as their cities grow and transform at breakneck speed with the influx of newcomers, commerce and technology.

Of course Peru is a lot less developed than the States, and unfortunately a lot fewer people are actually finding jobs and opportunities for advancement. But the pace of change is just as fast, if not faster. It's been cool working with both the marginalized ghetto-type areas and the center-city students / young professionals. As a New Yorker, I feel surprisingly at home. If I were in the countryside on the other hand, I would probably be completely out of my element.







rural "campesinos" - not like New York














my sister with street kids in Lima - not so different from the Lower East Side













university students/young professionals in Trujillo - not so different from the NYU/Columbia demographic, or yuppies in Manhattan...

Peru Mission Slideshow

Now available on YouTube...

Thoughts on Development

I've been in Peru nearly two months now and am learning a lot. Among other things, I am now convinced that what the developing world needs most is not money, aid or preferential treatment, but effective leaders. To quote a recent email I received from a friend at a faith-based nonprofit, "Without sustained, capable leadership, organizations (and countries) suffer ineffectiveness. And then everyone suffers."

There are tons of smart capable Peruvians here, who given the opportunity would transform their country. There are also quite a few idealistic Americans or Europeans like me who are here working with aid or volunteer programs, which is all great, but we have to distinguish between whether we're just alleviating the effects of the problem, or getting at the root of it - especially since we're only staying a few weeks to a few years. I'm getting more and more interested in the wider impact stuff - it's too frustrating to work on the smaller impact stuff otherwise.

A friend sent me this article and it's so intriguing I have to share it:
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/july-0707/africans-to-bono-
for-gods-sake-please-stop (if the link doesn't work, copy and paste the entire URL into a browser). Have I mentioned I'm a fan of William Easterly?

I think all of us at the mission agree that we'd like to "work ourselves out of a job" and start something that is very sustainable. Of course this is easier said than done. But after being here two months I have high hopes. My favorite part of my "job" so far is working with and befriending people like our Peruvian administrator, architect, clinic director & university ministry leaders - these are the people who will change Peru, and our job is to help them get off the ground.

As for any of you who are thinking about going abroad, I think the first step is being committed to learning the language and culture, and viewing yourself as a guest in a host country. If you're ready to do that, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities to get your feet wet. Once you know more of the language and culture you can start forming relationships and working with people and organizations long-term: visiting them, giving to them, financially or otherwise supporting them. And if you feel "called" to go abroad yourself, especially if you have some experience and some new ideas and skills to contribute toward bettering institutions long-term - then it may just be time to quit your corporate job!

Cajamarca

I recently took my first trip here in Peru, a 6.5 hr bus ride to Cajamarca, where Peru Mission's founder Alonzo Ramirez lives. It is a very interesting town - half city, half country. You'll see campesinos or subsistence farmers sitting on the side of the road selling melons, wearing traditional clothing; meanwhile shiny new cars and American-style shopping centers cater to the wealthy foreign miners of the nearby Yanacocha gold mine.

I won't go into the mine, which is a pretty controversial topic, but one reason cajamarquinos might be sensitive on the subject of gold is that this is the city where conquistador Francisco Pizarro betrayed the Inca ruler Atahualpa for a roomful of gold. The story is that after storming the city and taking Atahualpa by surprise, Pizarro held him ransom for as much gold and silver as could fill his prison cell (see picture below). However after delivering on his promise, Atahualpa was executed anyway.

Colorful history aside, Cajamarca is a pretty town, surrounded by trees and mountains. The Ramirezes hosted me, and probably my favorite memory is going to the Baños del Inca with Alonzo's wife and daughter. These "baños" are natural hot springs, first used by the Incas, which they have now channeled toward modern private bathing rooms where you can enjoy a soak after a long dusty day. Given the rarity of hot showers in Peru, this is even more of a luxury.






Atahualpa's prison cell. The floor was destroyed some centuries ago because of later prospectors looking for gold underneath the floor.


















Some sketchy looking mineral compounds at the Baños del Inca.

"Recycling"

Recently I asked a Peruvian if there was any recycling in Peru. She gave me a weird look and said some people went to the garbage dumps to pick up pieces of glass or metal to "recycle". I remember one of the street kids I met in Lima a few years ago had spent much of his childhood doing this.

Saw this article in a recent edition of El Comercio, Peru's leading newspaper. I've translated it, not very well; you can find the original article at this link. Be warned, the content is disturbing.

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With the future on your back

NO To Child Labor. It is thought that all the children who work do it because they have no other choice or because they are forced to. Unfortunately, there are cases in which the child is employed because he thinks it will benefit him. It is difficult to convince them otherwise.

by Ricardo León

Franz. The dilemma is enormous and the dirt comes up to his ankles: he opens his hand and ponders for a second whether this string can serve to hold his sack and allow him to take it to his house without scattering everything inside. However it can also be cut in two equal parts and used as fasteners, and so avoid the risk of falling down with the sack and everything in it because of walking with too-loose shoes. The little boy evades the question and decides to keep the string in his pocket - later he’ll see what to do with it - because he spots a piece of cardboard approximately two or three meters away. From talking so much with Erick and Óscar, he almost did not realize there was a box hidden between a rug, a sandal and a little dirt. He jumps suddenly, grabs the box and announces his find. A find that subjectively smells like victory, and objectively like accumulated garbage. Asking an 8-year-old child like Franz about the time he’s spent recycling garbage is nonsense; he’s so small that he doesn’t know if he began a few months ago or more than a year ago. He evades the question and again takes a tangent explaining whom, instead of when: "My mom taught me. She was recycling before and took me along and I learned." And how much, instead of how: "Of the 3 soles ($1) that I get I give 2.50 to my mom so that she cooks." And what for, instead of why: "With my 50 centimos (15 cents) I bought noodles and potato at school." In the end, he gives the string to Erick and the matter is settled.

Erick. The 50 kilo sack leaves him feeling small. He’s already pushed, dragged, and pressed it with his feet. Nothing. One more push, just in case; with that he’s able to tie it and carry it. How strange, it seemed like it would be a bad day. In this area, in the Hills of Carabayllo, there are always garbage dumps in view (or in smell). Today’s smell seemed to promise a mediocre task, but it was only a question of removing the dirt. An optimist would say than behind every pile you could find your lunch money. Erick is 11 years old, so he is not guided by optimism but by instinct. The same instinct that he says to him (loudly) that he should use gloves to protect his hands while searching in the garbage: "Yes, I already know, but gloves are costly." Instinct that he says to him (softly) that at his age he should not be working: "Yes, I already know, but it’s to be able to eat." The same instinct makes him take care not to gather, for example, needles or glass. And perhaps the same instinct leads him to take this work as an entertainment. One waits to hear a complaint of his, but there are no complaints. One waits for a lamentation and there are no laments. One imagines a discomfort and there is no discomfort. One would never imagine even a remote happiness, but today Erick is satisfied. That hurts more. The string that belonged to Franz and later Erick is now Óscar’s. His sack is the heaviest.

Óscar. He can’t carry it, it slips between his hands. He’s obstinate: he loads it again and it slips again. Guffaws. The most probable thing is that he'll have to hide the sack and go no further, running to his house and asking someone to help carry it and return rapidly before someone steals it. Once again: he picks it up and it falls down. Guffaws, again. I hope later he will remember to wash his hands because a few days ago he cut his little finger with a tin can and the wound must be absolutely infected: "When I did it I washed myself with water and alcohol." And I hope he will remember to return more or less wrapped up because he has a wet nose and must have a cold. His dad taught him the trade of recycling from the most basic: this is glass, this is paper, this one is plastic, those over there are iron, there is copper. The routine of gathering the materials and taking them to his house and squashing them with a hammer until they’re flat and tying them, hoping that his father will sell them and that he'll get one sol (30 cents) and give half to his mother, ending after a few hours in a fully deserved bag of Cheetohs. Who would mind working several hours each weekend in a hill of garbage if as an award there’s a bag of Cheetohs? That's why Óscar finds laughter contagious and makes fun of his own vain efforts to load an enormous bag of recyclable garbage. From afar one sees three children in a situation of dramatic suffering for having to put themselves in piles of garbage and gather a few materials that can be recycled like a needle in a haystack. From close up, however, one sees three children playing and almost amusing themselves with what they find. The strangest part of this story is that the three children feel good about what they are doing. Because they feel that they are helping their families, or because they are attracted by the idea of finding curious objects. Or because they don't know any better. Because of the wound on his little finger Óscar has problems tying the sack with the string. Franz helps.

Franz, Erick and Óscar. If these three children kept on working every day, as they were till not long ago, they might have suffered from dermatitis, damage to the bronchial tubes, infections of all kinds and sizes, problems in the spine. And they would have neglected going to school. Now at least they go to school from Monday through Friday and only work the weekends. Soon, who knows, they could dedicate their weekends to playing and their life will return to normal. Erick, for example, was for a while waking up at 4 a.m., taking a lantern and going to look for recyclables in the garbage. He returned to his house at 6 a.m., washed himself and walked to school; left school, ate something and returned to the garbage dump to continue looking. It even seems that he was feeling proud of himself because he cried bitterly when he left school and saw that his mom was not there to sign the authorization so that they could interview and photograph him (later she signed it); in the end, with eyes red, he showed us how he works, he smiled for some photos, and answered some questions. And Óscar could not believe that his sack had so much garbage inside; at least two bags of Cheetohs this week. And Franz had the luck to find, in the middle of the garbage dump, a book with the complete multiplication tables. He only knew up to the nines. He also found a string that was passed from hand in hand, the whole afternoon.

The quandary of a cultural problem

One of the initiatives that leads the fierce struggle against child labor is Pro Niño, a program of the Telefonica Foundation in coordination with the Faith and Happiness Association and the Center of Social Studies and Publications (Cesip). There are 330 beneficiary children like Franz, Erick and Óscar at the same school (Manuel Scorza, in Hills of Carabayllo). Working with them includes constant conversations with the teachers and parents so that the working child gradually leaves behind the activities he’s been doing. Often times, in these cases, the work of the children is a cultural problem: the parents think that the child will become more responsible if he works from a young age, and the child thinks that he will be a successful adult for working so early. Neither one thinks that what the child must do, in any case, is go to school first.

Despedidas (Farewells)

New Yorkers are well acquainted with goodbyes. We have to say goodbye to half our friends every few years, as they move to the suburbs or to other cities or back to wherever they're from. I never liked the feeling that my community was breaking up, that there was no stable group of friends whom I could rely on to be there indefinitely.

However, I think there comes a time when you realize you've grown, you've changed, and it's unhealthy not to move on. As one of the Peruvian pastors here said recently, most of us are paralyzed on some level, and it takes a great impetus to find and take the next step instead of letting inertia take over.

During my last few weeks before leaving New York, I had at least a dozen farewell dinners. Whether it was just with one or two of my girlfriends from NYU, or with my entire department at work, I found myself giving speeches and saying goodbyes to nearly ten years worth of relationships! It was pretty draining, but also good to say goodbye properly, and get some closure, before closing the book on such a major chapter of my life.

Interestingly enough, I've arrived in Peru in time for another wave of goodbyes. Many of the interns who had just arrived when I visited last August/September are now leaving Peru, and another wave of summer interns is coming in. A lot of the August-May interns were just out of college, so they're going back to the States now to start over yet again at grad school or a new job.

Despite only overlapping with them a few weeks last summer and a few weeks this spring**, I'm really going to miss those that I got to know well. The community here is pretty tight, and I've had more contact with them than I've had with some of my New York friends in years. I just hope they keep changing the world, and don't get stuck in a hamster wheel somewhere in corporate America.


**I'm still thinking in Northern Hemisphere seasons, despite the fact that it's freezing right now. Weather.com says Trujillo is in the 60's F, but given that all the buildings here are made of concrete and tile and have no insulation whatsoever, it feels more like 50 - and like most gringos I packed a bunch of T-shirts!

Transporte Publico en el Peru

As promised, more on the colorful options we have here for getting around town:

1) Taxi


I live in a neighborhood with no regular bus routes, and it's too far from the town center to walk, so I take cabs literally every day. They're yellow cabs just like New York, but there are a few subtle differences.

For example, averaging $1 per ride, Trujillo cab fares are about half the price of a New York City subway fare. (In Lima they're more expensive.) Taxi fares are all pre-bargained, not metered. There's no metal grate or medallion or driver's ID on display; instead, you trust your instincts on which cab drivers to take, and you just accept that a certain % of the time you will end up getting lost, or hit on, or swindled into a higher fare. If you're really unlucky you will end up witnessing an accident or the bribing of a cop.

Fortunately taxi crime is not frequent here, so the worst an average resident experiences are broken car doors and lumpy or unclean seats. And the rule that governs all transportation here, "there's always room for one more," can lead to some cramped but extraordinarily cheap shared cab rides.

2) Combis and Colectivos

As my fellow intern Joshua put it, a colectivo is a bus, only it's really a car; and a combi is a bus, only it's really a van. Either one (car or van) is assigned a route, and then proceeds to drive up and down that route picking up passengers at s/1 or 80 centimos (about 25 cents) a pop. You can get on and off at any point. The route and the fact that it's a legitimate public transport service are identified by the letters on the windshield, for example "A" or "BE". I have no idea how one becomes a combi or colectivo driver, or who pays for the car, but it is definitely the de-facto public transport for most Peruvian cities. I remember Kenya's "matatu" system was very similar, so I suspect this is a common third-world solution to public transport without the gov't having to finance an expensive fleet of buses or trains. It really is quite functional.

Since the poor live on the outskirts of the city, many of them in barrios lining the Pan-American Highway on the road to Trujillo, a colectivo route traveling up and down the highway is the best way to get to one of the poorer communities we work in. They're quite safe during the daytime, the only drawback being that they try to squeeze as many passengers in as possible, so you will probably be wedged into tight quarters with strangers, listening to an interesting selection of very loud 80's music and local cumbia or caribeno.

3) Micros


"Micro" is short for microbus. They are the closest thing to regular buses here, with the cheapest fares, and their general routes or destinations are painted on the sides. Some slight differences include the colorful designs on them, often featuring Catholic slogans and imagery ("Virgen de la Puerta" is a common one), and the guy hanging out the door calling out destinations and soliciting passengers. They're fun to ride but I don't take them much because I'm not acquainted with the routes - for example they may simply name large neighborhoods like "La Esperanza" or "Salaverry" on the side, but I don't know the street names - and because with the larger number of people there is a greater chance of pickpocketing.

*Side note: like any good New Yorker I initially tried to track down the local version of the MTA Bus and Subway map. My search took me to the local tourist office, which referred me to the office of Public Transport (which had an atlas-size book of all the routes), which referred me to the Office of the Development Plan for the city of Trujillo (which had a technical surveyor's map of the city's neighborhoods and routes, unlabeled of course). Apparently a free foldout color map does not exist.

4) Mototaxis

Mototaxis are probably my favorite form of transportation, despite the fact that they are probably the least comfortable. They are basically motorcycles with a seat and a tent-like enclosure built onto a set of added wheels. Depending on how badly they've been constructed, you may find yourself being violently rattled with bad diesel fumes filling your tent. They are more common in rural areas, where they are sometimes the only transport option available, and are slightly cheaper than taxis.


So that's about it. For inter-city travel, there are limited flights available, and most people take the bus. I believe I'll be visiting Cajamarca soon, so more on the bus-cama, cama-cama, and other exciting transport options in a future blog...