Monday, January 23, 2006
I have arrived.
Phase 2: Lima. I arrived yesterday after Aero Condor, the supposedly more legit Peruvian airline, who first delayed my flight 5 hours, then decided they were kidding and the delay would be a mere 4 hours (and when I returned to the airport, found the plane waiting for me...the sole passenger not yet on board), and then take an unscheduled stop in a small Andean village with an airport. Classic Peru. The good news is, both my luggage and I safely made it to Lima. I spent a few hours in the airport awaiting the arrival of another volunteer with a Peruvian driver from our organization, who I then spoke to for a lengthy amount of time...you guessed it...in Spanish. It was great, and I was proud of myself.
In the drive from the airport, I realized that we are really not in Ayacucho anymore. We have arrived in Lima, a big city...complete with lights, people in modern clothing, highways with lanes, and eating facilities like Chilis, Dominos, McDonalds (sorry...I cannot figure out how to use apostrophes on this keyboard), and you guessed it...the trademark of a big city...A VALET STARBUCKS in the center of the high class neighborhood of Lima (how badly does one really need coffee...valet?). Our house was not far and is located in something of a fancy neighborhood, which is much safer for us here, but feels a little strange. There are men in guard booths outside houses with gates and fences blocking front entries lining our street. And, our house is no exception. Once we got passed the guard, bell, and front gate, we entered.
The house, which is much less like the hostel style of my situation in Ayacucho and more like an actual house (shared bathrooms, big common area, beautiful garden, ect.), and I immediately claimed my bottom bunk (yeah right, top bunk for the next seven weeks...ummmm...no thanks). The volunteers who shared my start date, all 18 of them, were mostly around by this time, and I got the chance to meet a load of new people and hear everyone tell their informal story of why they are volunteering in Peru and what they hope to get out of it. So many interesting stories, life events, and to me, echos of characters.
We woke up early this morning, especially because my room is now located directly next to the kitchen...fabulous. After breakfast, the volunteers piled into our minivans and drove through Lima. We saw more of what has now become our stomping ground, and continued on to the section of Lima called Villa El Salvador, the area of the city housing all of our placements. As soon as we arrived, I noticed desert land, sand dunes, and for the first time in Lima, homes with messily placed bricks, visible wires or piping, and corregated tin or tarp acting as a roof. We entered into the front room of a small building and listened to a man named Tony give us the brief history of this community that we were coming to help.
I learned that Villa El Salvador is an absolutely amazing example of human passion, will, survival, and intelligence. In the 1960s and 1970s, loads of families from the highlands and jungle of Peru started to move to Lima for more opportunities. They moved to any vacant land they could find, and at the time, it was called things like...a human settlement. These squaters numbered about 200 by 1971, and they organized into a unit. By the time the Peruvian government came to evict them, they were ready to fight for the land they had claimed. They fought, and some died or were arrested, but an agreement occured. The people were given 25 km of land in Southern Lima. This was a challenge, because it meant that they needed to develop desert land with absolutely nothing (no water, no electrcitiy, nothing). But, they were happy to have a home.
It was at this point that they people started to organize, completely without violence. Together, an outline and plan came to fruition. They planned for blocks, holding 24 families in each block, 16 blocks, and a park in the middle, and then, the same structure, repeated. They said things like, Since we have nothing, we will make it all a new. They created their own organizations in each block, and appointed leadership for block, as if they were all seperate neighborhoods. Someone was the manager of the block, some was the secretary, someone else in charge of education, good hygiene, health issues, survaillence, youth, women, and human rights. And, there were elections every two years for these positions. Every single building, even as they stand today, was built by the hands of these early pioneers.
The government only recognized and decided to become accountable for these citizens and their structure in 1983. Since then, they have existed, day by day, empowering and helping themselves. Everything they have got, they have because of their own efforts. Today, there are 380,000 people living in Villa El Salvador.
Before leaving the neighborhood, we went to an elderly recreation and care facility to say hello, and were greeting by about a hundred smiling and waiving elderly. Tony, the man who lectured us, asked the elderly assembled to raise their hands if they were pioneers of the community, and nearly all of them did. I stood in the back of the group, and listened to the microphone echo Tonys voice throughout the room. Suddenly, I felt something on my back. I turned around to find a little women tapping me, asking for a hug and a kiss. And, when I kissed her, another stood up. And, another. And, another. It was as if this entire table had to warmly greet me. And, it was not easy for these women to get up and move around, believe me. It was then that I realized that this community is extremely interested in sharing their work and putting their energy toward improving their lives with us, and are grateful for any time we are willing to give.
This made me look forward to my first day of work tomorrow.
In the drive from the airport, I realized that we are really not in Ayacucho anymore. We have arrived in Lima, a big city...complete with lights, people in modern clothing, highways with lanes, and eating facilities like Chilis, Dominos, McDonalds (sorry...I cannot figure out how to use apostrophes on this keyboard), and you guessed it...the trademark of a big city...A VALET STARBUCKS in the center of the high class neighborhood of Lima (how badly does one really need coffee...valet?). Our house was not far and is located in something of a fancy neighborhood, which is much safer for us here, but feels a little strange. There are men in guard booths outside houses with gates and fences blocking front entries lining our street. And, our house is no exception. Once we got passed the guard, bell, and front gate, we entered.
The house, which is much less like the hostel style of my situation in Ayacucho and more like an actual house (shared bathrooms, big common area, beautiful garden, ect.), and I immediately claimed my bottom bunk (yeah right, top bunk for the next seven weeks...ummmm...no thanks). The volunteers who shared my start date, all 18 of them, were mostly around by this time, and I got the chance to meet a load of new people and hear everyone tell their informal story of why they are volunteering in Peru and what they hope to get out of it. So many interesting stories, life events, and to me, echos of characters.
We woke up early this morning, especially because my room is now located directly next to the kitchen...fabulous. After breakfast, the volunteers piled into our minivans and drove through Lima. We saw more of what has now become our stomping ground, and continued on to the section of Lima called Villa El Salvador, the area of the city housing all of our placements. As soon as we arrived, I noticed desert land, sand dunes, and for the first time in Lima, homes with messily placed bricks, visible wires or piping, and corregated tin or tarp acting as a roof. We entered into the front room of a small building and listened to a man named Tony give us the brief history of this community that we were coming to help.
I learned that Villa El Salvador is an absolutely amazing example of human passion, will, survival, and intelligence. In the 1960s and 1970s, loads of families from the highlands and jungle of Peru started to move to Lima for more opportunities. They moved to any vacant land they could find, and at the time, it was called things like...a human settlement. These squaters numbered about 200 by 1971, and they organized into a unit. By the time the Peruvian government came to evict them, they were ready to fight for the land they had claimed. They fought, and some died or were arrested, but an agreement occured. The people were given 25 km of land in Southern Lima. This was a challenge, because it meant that they needed to develop desert land with absolutely nothing (no water, no electrcitiy, nothing). But, they were happy to have a home.
It was at this point that they people started to organize, completely without violence. Together, an outline and plan came to fruition. They planned for blocks, holding 24 families in each block, 16 blocks, and a park in the middle, and then, the same structure, repeated. They said things like, Since we have nothing, we will make it all a new. They created their own organizations in each block, and appointed leadership for block, as if they were all seperate neighborhoods. Someone was the manager of the block, some was the secretary, someone else in charge of education, good hygiene, health issues, survaillence, youth, women, and human rights. And, there were elections every two years for these positions. Every single building, even as they stand today, was built by the hands of these early pioneers.
The government only recognized and decided to become accountable for these citizens and their structure in 1983. Since then, they have existed, day by day, empowering and helping themselves. Everything they have got, they have because of their own efforts. Today, there are 380,000 people living in Villa El Salvador.
Before leaving the neighborhood, we went to an elderly recreation and care facility to say hello, and were greeting by about a hundred smiling and waiving elderly. Tony, the man who lectured us, asked the elderly assembled to raise their hands if they were pioneers of the community, and nearly all of them did. I stood in the back of the group, and listened to the microphone echo Tonys voice throughout the room. Suddenly, I felt something on my back. I turned around to find a little women tapping me, asking for a hug and a kiss. And, when I kissed her, another stood up. And, another. And, another. It was as if this entire table had to warmly greet me. And, it was not easy for these women to get up and move around, believe me. It was then that I realized that this community is extremely interested in sharing their work and putting their energy toward improving their lives with us, and are grateful for any time we are willing to give.
This made me look forward to my first day of work tomorrow.
# posted by Marci Soifer @ 5:31 PM 
