Hiccup in First Week

My work station is up and running

The bed is small and simple - 3" foam mattress

A hanging closet

This metal panel reflects the WiFi signal for computer

File this last week under “interesting”. It started out well, settling in on Monday and doing some final form, grading and concrete work on the biodigestor at the beach on Tuesday. It’s nice using the eco-toilet on site after doing repairs on it a few weeks ago. In fact, that’s something I’ve always enjoyed about maintenance/repair work – I get a little victory dance when the job is done and again (and again) every time I pass by a repair. It looks like an outhouse, but there is no funky/pissy odor, just the faint fragrance of kerosene.

Wednesday, I went in to Lima for a dental appointment, which took all of 15 minutes, but when I got back to the bus terminal, I discovered that all service south had been suspended, being as the Pan American had been blocked by protestors. So, I returned to Peace Corps offices to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Finally Security said to stay in Lima for the night. So, I enjoyed a night of hot water in the very nice area of Lima called Monterico. This area is a little like the other area where the rich folk live in Miraflores, except it is more like suburbia, with a car or two in every garage – lots of SUV’s, BMWs, Mercedes and Volvos. I also visited the huge shopping mall called Jockey Plaza. The place was like a time/space warp back to the states, with Ace hardware, Izod, Gucci, etc well represented, along with Subway, Pizza Hut, Longhorn steakhouse and (gasp) TGIFriday.

I spent the next day back at the Center, enjoying HIV presentations (it was World AIDS Day) and watching the Peru 16 Environmental crew present on their accomplishments over the last year. I was also able to pick up my new Official PC vest, water test kit and some mail. The 16ers led me to a sweet “menu” spot for lunch and I had a wonderful afternoon chat with Kathleen Hickey, our training leader and one of the kindest, caring and thoughtful ladies on this planet. She grew up in Peru, so her insights are precious.

But the strike “wore on”, as Elwood Dowd would say. In fact, it got worse. The protestors had originally just blocked the road with big rocks and old cars. But at some point, they started throwing rocks at the parked busses and the police, which neither appreciated. One man was wounded, which only escalated the violence. Many were clubbed and pepper-sprayed. Tires on some of parked cars were set on fire, which in turned caused gas tanks to explode, creating a scene of considerable chaos.

The next day , I visited the Callao area of Lima, near the port. Always a high for me to smell salt air and see boats. I toured the Naval Museum and walked through a WWII style diesel submarine. Unlike the nuclear ships, which can remain submerged virtually indefinitely, these subs basically were surface ships, which could submerge for only a few hours. While I was having such a pleasant afternoon, two protestors were killed by the police and a power transformer was destroyed, which left most of San Luis in the dark. Just as well I wasn’t there.

The main point of the protest was to stop the construction of a new prison in the Canete area. The folks around here are simply not interested in the construction and guard jobs it would create, nor in housing or feeding the prison visitors. They do not want “outsiders” coming in and want to keep their little town just the way it is. Secondarily, they wanted the national government to end a boundary dispute with the adjacent district of Chincha. Over 250 years ago, Chincha ceded a strip of land to Canete, on which now sits a new natural gas depot/plant. Chincha wants the land – or more accurately the taxes on the plant – back. Lastly, the good folk of Canete wanted the provincial capital moved from some smaller town at the north end of the province to the larger Canete.

They called the action a “strike”, but it was not really a work stoppage, but a traffic stoppage. This seems to be the preferred form of protest here. It is most always done on the Pan American, which is the ONLY north-south route along the coast. When the Pan Am was blocked in Canete, ALL transportation to the ENTIRE south half of Peru, Chile and Bolivia was halted, inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of folks and hurting the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. It seems an illogical form of protest to me, but it works for Peruvians. In fact, on Saturday, the government cancelled the prison project and said it would “investigate” the boundary issue. This satisfied the protestors (many of whom were said to be outside agitators) and everyone went home and the policia and highway authorities cleaned up the mess. There was a mountain of backlogged freight packages and boxes to clear, not to mentioned the crowd of waiting passengers, so I came home Sunday AM, in total tranquility.