Never Take Radar for Granted

A few weeks ago when I first arrived in Peru, I was struck by how many big shiny shopping centers I saw in Lima, and the country's new cautious sense of optimism about the fast-growing economy and recently elected president Alan Garcia. I started to think I wasn't "roughing it" after all, that Peru was modernizing fast.

Then my flight from Lima to Trujillo was delayed twice. Well, delayed doesn't quite do it justice. The truth is, we took off from Lima an hour late with warnings that the weather in Trujillo was bad; we circled Trujillo, began our descent and then sharply pulled up with no explanation, and continued on to the next stop (Chiclayo). At Chiclayo we were offered the option of a 3-hr bus ride to Trujillo, or staying on the plane and trying to land on the flight back to Lima. About 15 out of 80 Trujillo-bound passengers stayed on board, based on predictions that the weather in Trujillo was clearing up.

Well, the exact same thing happened on the way back to Lima. Gradual descent, sharp pull up, and before you know it we were back in Lima. We all claimed our baggage, got booked on the next flight (that night), made our phone calls, and got ready to kill seven hours in the airport. Finally we got on the night flight... and the exact same thing happened. Only this time there was no stopover in Chiclayo before flying back to Lima.

In speaking with another frustrated passenger, a native trujillano, I discovered this problem happens from time to time, but only with Trujillo's airport because they don't use radar or other instruments, and pilots have to land by sight. In other words, a few too many clouds means no landing.

All I know is, when in Peru, be flexible.






The food court at Lima Airport's "Peru Plaza", where I spent most of Friday, May 11













layover in Chiclayo












Finally arrived in Trujillo Saturday evening!

The Nuts and Bolts of Life in Trujillo

So by now it's been a few weeks, and I'm starting to feel "at home". The first few days were about readjusting to the sights, smells and infrastructure of Peru: remembering to put your toilet paper in the little trash can and not in the toilet (most countries' sewage system can't handle it); bargaining with your taxista for the price before getting in; holding your breath while on the road because the exhaust here is terrible, yet most Peruvian drivers like to keep their windows rolled all the way down. (Well, sometimes this serves a practical purpose; several times I've taken cabs whose inner door latch was broken, so you had to reach outside the window to open your door from the outside. More on Peru's exciting transportation options in a future blog.)

Other subtle differences: the dimmer light bulbs (which dim further when you turn on any electric appliance); the ambient noise (the trashman's bell, the high-pitched taxi horns, and in the poorer neighborhoods, roosters crowing and stray dogs barking); and the dust that is everywhere in Trujillo.

However, this is my fourth time in Peru and my tenth time in a developing country, so it hasn't been hard to adjust to these differences. The fact is, if you're willing to accept a little more grit and less access to consumer goods in your daily life, then living in a place like Trujillo, Peru is very functional. It's a mid-sized city of about 1 million, with a small Spanish colonial center surrounded by middle-class neighborhoods, which are in turn ringed by very large dusty squattervilles. It's got poverty, and a few street kids, but not what I would describe as slums or extreme poverty. It's really not a bad place to live.

The mission does not use any cars, but one has many affordable options for getting around town. The markets offer a decent selection of groceries; I've even found sesame oil. And by now I've located the town's post office (a bit bureaucratic and confusing), movie theater (variable picture and sound quality, but they show Pirates 3 in both dubbed Spanish AND English with subtitles!), department store, appliance store, local video store and takeout options. All I have left to do is figure out where to work out and get my hair cut.

My monthly stipend or "salary", and living costs, are both about 20-25% of what they were in New York. Peru's currency, the Nuevo Sol (s/) is about 3.12 to a $, but the purchasing power of a sol is about the same as a $ in the US.* So for example a coffee is about s/1.5, a movie is s/7, a soda about s/2, a prescription of antibiotic about s/15. It's like being in the US, except you're only spending 30 cents on the $. It feels really good to be spending so little, and therefore needing so little.

*Note: it is not politically correct in Latin America to refer to the United States as "America". Technically all of North and South America is America. So we use "los Estados Unidos" or EE.UU to refer to the US, and the even-harder-to-say "estadounidense" to refer to someone from the US.







The Plaza de Armas in old Trujillo















Typical street corner, with construction, street vendors and political graffiti (this picture was taken last year just before Alan Garcia was elected president)













The Pan American Highway, which runs through Trujillo, with a good representation of local transport vehicles

First Week Thoughts

So I have now been in Peru for 10 days, and in Trujillo for exactly a week, and I have so much to write about that I don't know where to begin! Let me start with a few thoughts on how I want to approach the next six months.

First of all, I know from studying abroad in college (in Florence, Italy) that many Americans can spend significant time abroad and learn almost no language, make no local friends and absorb almost no culture. It's not so easy to fit in as a foreigner, especially if you have an American community to "fall back" on, as I have here (4 families and 12 interns, all of them really great smart idealistic people by the way).

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a pastor in Berkeley, CA who said one should always live as if one is going to spend the rest of their life in a place, even if it's only for a few months. Then you will take the time to invest in relationships, learn as much as you can about it, and basically spend your time in a meaningful way. So one of my goals is basically to approach my time abroad as if I were an immigrant to Peru. Less like an aid worker and more like a citizen - someone who has chosen to live here because I enjoy and care about the country and its people (fortunately not hard to do, once you get past the outward problems and inconveniences of living here. Yes the traffic, pollution, microbes and other dangers take quite a bit of getting used to, but the landscapes are gorgeous, the food is great, the people incredibly warm. And this being my fourth trip here, I should be used to some of those inconveniences by now!)

Which leads me to another related piece of advice, which I got this Friday from Burt Elliot (best known as the brother of Jim Elliot of "End of the Spear" fame) and his wife, who have been missionaries in Peru for nearly 60 years. (Note: they are not part of the mission I am with, but I got to meet them at a lunch I was invited to. An inspiring way to start my time in Peru!) ie, Do not constantly compare your new country with your old. Accept it as is, learn from and adapt to it instead of finding fault with everything. Aside from getting rid of superiority, it makes for a much happier stay abroad.

Another important piece of advice, from many sources including the recent book "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good" (by former World Bank-er and NYU professor William Easterly) is, do not go abroad with a Grand Plan of how you will Save The World. Instead, do your homework - find out what the real problems are, what people think about them, what works and doesn't work. Then, be entrepreneurial in finding solutions to problems. I think I basically aspire to be a social entrepreneur. :-)

And finally, at the very least I hope to follow the timeless advice, "First do no harm." Of course, everyone is ethnocentric and a jerk on some level, so I will probably fail at all of the above at some point during the next six months. Good thing our faith requires that we give each other grace.


Pictures from my first week:







colonial style balconies in Lima

















chicharron de mariscos - fried seafood














The Elliots (center), a teacher at a school they founded (left), and me (right).