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| Los Quatro Mosqueteros, with our dear language trainer, Yessica in Lima |
Well, it’s been another busy week in Buenos Aires de Santa Eulalia, Peru, my new home town. I must be having a good time because time is flying by. Spanish is improving quickly, though the grammar sessions are exhausting. Since most of my Spanish was learned “on the street” and not in a classroom, my conversation of full of grammatical errors, but my enthusiasm and Gringo charm overcame any objections. Here, however, I’m being held to a higher level of accountability. After four straight hours, my brain feels the overload. Yesterday, our class went into the “big” city of Chosica, which was both a treat and linguistic challenge as they speak MUCH faster than here in the burbs.
We’ve been working on our Spanish interview skills, which we’ll to assess needs in our permanent sites. Here are some things I learned in my Community Survey, after interviewing about 20 folks on the street and in town offices:
Typical households include a nuclear family. Extended families often live in close proximity. This provides a social network. It also offers an economic safety net and helps with tasks like child rearing, shopping and meals. Many men and women work outside the community given a lack of local jobs. Extended absences of immediate family members in the home makes the extended family network even more important.
Buenos Aires is unusual in Peru, which is overall 95+% Catholic. A local Evangelical movement has begun and has converted about 25% of the Catholics to various Evangelical sects. The only faith with a church in Buenos Aires is the Catholic Church. A lot of Catholics are nominal Catholics; the Evangelicals, not so much. They attend nearby services four hours on Sundays and two hours on Wednesday. The church is very apolitical and does not appear to play a huge role outside the spiritual realm of Buenos Aires.
There are both primary and secondary schools in this town. The largest is a three-story building originally built in the late 1970’s. There is very little education on water and sanitation. Information on things such as water and sanitation travels through the family. It’s not necessarily institutional.
Buenos Aires is a “bedroom community” so, most people travel to Lima or Chosica for work. Some people own shops or drive taxis. About 300 people work for the local hydroelectric power plant.Another 400 work for the Municipal Government. A typical income is $200 to $300, per month. A large percentage of the household income goes to birthdays, internet and household expenses. Some expenses are:
Buenos Aires Expenses:
S./4 per month for water*
S./90 for lights (200 for a store)
S./70 for Internet
S./100, a one-time fee for a connection to the water system
* People have a sense of entitlement on water and resent any payment for it.
Some typical incomes (in US$): Mayor - $1,600 / month; attorney - $700; professor - $600; teacher-$400; Police/fireman-$340; street cleaner-$150. People here live simply, but well. They spend a huge percentage of income on birthday parties and internet. One of my classmates is perplexed by the fact that his house has WiFi, but no hot water.
The local government (free) health center is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. A lot of people go there with problems from drinking the water. They do provide some information on water purification.
Episodes of waterborne illnesses are less frequent in the winter when drinks are served hot, but spike when drinks are cold in the hotter summer months. There is a 24-hour clinic in Chosica.
Most homes have electricity, fairly constant water supply, refrigerators and microwaves. Some also have phone, internet and cable TV. Even though the water supply is “treated”, no one trusts it to be pure enough to drink. Everyone purifies drinking water with chlorine or, most commonly, by boiling. A few purchase bottled water. Many of the septic lines run on the exterior of the buildings. This is a problem, since the plastic pipes degrade in the sun and become brittle. The usual “fix” is to cover any leak with cement, but eventually, replacement will be needed.
There are lots of community organizations :
- Vaso de Leche
- A municipal program to feed children ages 0 to 12
- Comedores
- A state program to help feed low income families
- Club de Madres
- Social and knitting group
- Football and Volleyball groups
- Integral to social fabric
- Club de Danzas Tipicas
- Dancing group
- Child-rearing groups
- PIETBAF, 0 to 3
- PRONOI, 2 to 4
The town is managed by a Junta de Directiva (steering committee). The municipality manages the water.
Citizens trust the government to manage the water. They fear a private takeover. Two major political parties existed, according to the mayor, and both split support between the major landowners.
The regional government has some programs like Vaso de Leche, which have been plagued in the past by corruption. Money and food have been given to friends and supporters of the elected mayor, rather than to the needy. However, everyone seems to feel that the new mayor is more honest and that those in need are now being served. He has also cleaned up the street by adding street cleaners and is building a new town plaza, which is nearby and nearly complete. Water is a major part of politics. Usage meters and enforcing payment of water fees is ALWAYS rejected by politicians. END OF REPORT.
Today, the Alcalde (mayor) was in Buenos Aires with a new program to introduce more fish into the local diet. They were offering fish (which looked like sea bass) for about US$0.30/lb, plus a free kilo, if you bought 5 kilos. My family bought 12 kilos for about US$4 – a spectacular value. Deri promises ceviche on Sunday.
We also practiced water testing techniques and made “Tippy-Taps”, an ingenious invention of the Peru 14 WATSAN volunteers made from used 3 litre soda bottles. It serves as a simple water tap for hand washing or shower in areas where water is only available from tanks or drums. I’m pleased to announce that our creative group added two minor improvements to the technique. We held Steering Committee elections and I was elected Treasurer of my group. As with every Peruvian organization, a watchdog position called “Fiscal” is elected to watch the Treasurer. Mostly, our Committee will simply produce a Peru 18 tee shirt and arrange a party for our host families when we leave Santa Eulalia in November, which will also coincide with our Thanksgiving celebration. There are some pet pheasants at the Center which are starting to look very tasty.
Yesterday, all of Peru 18 went to Lima. We went to the Plaza de Armas and saw some of the usual tourist sites : Presidential Palace, the Cathedral of Lima, Miraflores (the luxurious part of town) and most importantly for me – the beach. I saw the President arrive at the Palace, with the usual motorcade – led by two motorcycles and followed by a security car. They were also making grand preparations for the Festival of el Senor de Milagros, which celebrates the big earthquake in 1950. After the quake, there was a wall left standing by itself, which looked like the face of Jesus, which was taken for a miracle. It seems a bit odd to me, but I’m not Catholic. Time was limited, so I missed the catacombs of the Convent of San Fransisco, Cerro de San Cristobal (a huge cross high up on a hill) and the US Embassy, all of which I hope to see on a later visit.
The police were everywhere around the Plaza, which is one of hundreds in the city. The people of Lima clearly love their parks, all of which are filled with flowers and perfectly maintained. The Palace Guard were elegantly dressed and carried only ceremonial arms, but the Army outside had complete battle gear with vintage automatic weapons. I happened to get an interview with the Chief of Exterior Palace Security, a charming man, who attended Boston University and spoke perfect English. I was somewhat intimidated, however, when his bodyguards all seemed to turn their weapons in my direction during the conversation. Later, my small language group (the Band of Brothers, led by our intrepid teacher, Yessica) snacked on delicious empanadillas for a meager US$0.35 each.
Since the streets around the Plaza were all blocked for the Festival, we had to walk quite a distance, through crowds offering everything from maps to shoe shines to pirate CD’s, toys, cell phones, candy and snacks. There were also many folks looking for a handout; some carrying signs announcing their specific malady. Taxis were scarce, but after about 15 minutes, we negotiated a fair price to Miraflores. To my delight, most of the taxis play non-stop American Oldies and I entertained my younger companions with lyrics to songs that were sung well before they were born. Speaking of songs, I’ve learned my first song in Spanish (unless you count La Bamba). It is the nursery round, Frere Jacques, but in Spanish. The lyrics are:
Campanero, Campanero, (bell-ringer)
Donde esta ? Donde esta ? (where are you?)
Toque tu campana, toque tu campana (ring your bell ¡!)
Ding, dang dong – ding dang dong.
But, I digress. The taxi ride took us to Kennedy Park in Miraflores, where we were cut loose from our lovely teacher / guardian, Yessica and left to our own devices. (I’m still not sure why such a prominent park is named for a US President, but I was always fond of JFK) We immediately headed for the nearby Pacific Ocean, where the sea breeze and views were spectacular. The “beach” is not sand, but small, black, round pebbles and there were dozens of surfers in wetsuits in the waves. We met others from our group there and returned to “restaurant row” for seafood dinners. The competition for a group of Gingos was fierce. Every restaurant had a representative in the street, extolling the virtues of their particular eatery. We were offered a free drink at one, but were sold by the offer of two each. The food was excellent and in huge portions, as seems to be the case all over Peru. I enjoyed a seafood platter of shrimp, scallops, octopus, squid, langostino and oyster with fried rice (with two free Cristal beers) for about US$6. An annoying feature of many restaurants here is the constant big screen TV, playing either soccer or scantily clad ladies in music videos. We finished the day in Lima with a stroll up the beautiful and wide main avenue and a visit to the ice cream shop. The ice cream was home-made and the vanilla was outstanding.
My good friend Brian and I returned earlier than the younger crowd. We took a “combi” (mini-van with MANY stops) back to the Plaza de Exposition and from there found a “collectivo” (ride-share) to Chosica and another from Chosica to Buenos Aires. The collectivo is a car (mostly Honda sedans) which goes from fixed point to fixed point. They form on the side streets and wait until the car is full before leaving. This is not only energy efficient, but in our case, provided excellent company for the trip home. We sat with a professor of philosophy from Lima University, who provided historical and scenic commentary, as well as good conversation. I arrived home sun-burned and tired, but very happy. There is no place like home.
It’s Sunday and my plans for the day include, but are not limited to : doing a load of laundry by hand, getting a US$1.25 haircut, helping my friend Brian repair his families’ very loose chairs with my battery drill and internet time to post this and do some research for my class presentations (I’ve been asked to do two per-to-peer talks on septic tanks and public speaking) and completing my other homework. Maybe, I’ll smell some roses along the way…..
And that’s the news from Buenos Aires de Santa Eulalia, Peru, my home town – where all the men drink beer, the women work hard, and all the children want to live in Lima.
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