by Jane | Dec 10, 2013 | My travels, Peru |
The volunteer house which lies behind a wooden door set within a high wall is a crazy place. The building is a rabbit warren of rooms which scootle off in all directions and it is full of people and noise. A wooden staircase climbs up to the bedrooms on the first floor at the front of the building whilst a steep, stone, narrow spiral staircase twists up two floors at the back of the house with a final vertigo inducing flight to the large roof terrace.
After being dropped off by the taxi driver I was greeted at the gate by a couple of the volunteers and I was then immediately swallowed up in a whirlwind of activities with introductions and instructions all around. About twenty volunteers live and work from the house with others based in nearby apartments or home-stays. I had been placed in a home-stay for the interim as the volunteer house was bursting at the seams. I was taken there by one of the volunteer coordinators. I spent an hour or so catching my breath, wondered about the likelihood of frying to death in my shower and then went out for a wander in the immediate vicinity to get my bearings.
The Cathedral at Plaza de Armas, Trujillo
It turned out that my home was just a couple of blocks from the main central Plaza de Armas and a multitude of cafes and coffee shops. Later I made my way back to the big house and we all set off out for a party. I thought that it might be wise to keep away from the cocktails that first night but I managed to last out until three thirty am which was quite impressive considering the travelling that I had recently done and was up dancing for much of the night to the rather good live band
Reed boats drying on the beach at Huanchaco
The following day was a Sunday when all the volunteers have a day off and after a relaxing introduction to the nearby beach resort of Huanchaco the following afternoon, I reported back to the volunteer house on the Monday morning for my induction to teaching and the place where I would be spending the next three months.
The non-profit organisation helps economically-disadvantaged children in the north of Peru realise their right to an education. The group works to educate and empower parents to take control of their lives and to improve their own living circumstances. They are currently based in the impoverished districts that surround the city of Trujillo. I will go into a lot more detail about my work and what the group achieves in future blogs but for now, consider the following.
Trujillo is the second largest city in Peru. What we would probably term ‘shanty towns’ are popping up around its perimeter as people are attracted to the city to find work, as they are doing in cities all over the world. Trujillo is a bustling cosmopolitan city with colonial architecture, large shopping malls and manicured parks and gardens. There is the usual Plaza de Armas (main square), nice museums and sports facilities. In the districts of El Porvenir and Alto Trujillo where I will be working, the majority of streets simply consist of sand and most of the houses are very small, one storey square boxes, built of simple mud bricks. A large proportion of the homes lack roofs or solid doors. Luckily it rarely rains in the north of Peru but consider the security options – if nobody is home then a thief only need jump over the top! Volunteers are advised not to move around in the districts alone and should never carry any valuables, also many cab drivers refuse to drive up into the barrios.
El Porvenir – the facts
- Population in 2011: 164,931
- % of the population which has migrated from their birth place: 45%
- Population in extreme poverty: 8%
- Population in poverty: 33%
- Population with no running water: 14%
- No latrines or sewer drains: 8%
- No electricity: 18%
- Cooking on wood-burning fires: 20%
- Houses with earth floors: 58%
- No phone connection (or mobile): 41%
- Illiteracy rate in men: 2%
- Illiteracy rate in women: 9%
I was excited but a little bit apprehensive about what I might find when I went to work the following day. My role would be to initially deliver English teaching to the primary school children whose families have signed up to the project, deliver English lessons to the children in the outreach scheme in one of the public schools and to support the Economic Development project which works with some of the mums who make and sell products. After Christmas and the schools have broken up for their long summer break I would be involved with the holiday clubs for the children and ongoing English teaching.
Huanchaco beach
The organisation offers holistic support to families and works in partnership with them. The aim is to empower them to be able to make positive decisions in their lives, in order to improve their current situation and to provide the best possible opportunities for their children. Unlike other NGO’s which I had researched before choosing this one, the whole family has to commit to the project and must support the children who attend additional lessons after their normal schooling. Children here usually attend public school either in the morning or the afternoon and those children who belong to the group attend two sessions (half days) per week in their spare time. Support and a a space for them to complete their public school homework is available, there is a library, additional English and Maths classes are delivered and they also play sports. They have the chance to let off steam in the playground and generally run around and be children in a safe environment. Psychological support is also an important side of the facilities offered as many of the children have emotional and behavioral problems.
Workshops are offered to the mums and these provide a safe space where the ladies can gather and chat together and share ideas. There are three types of workshops where mums can make jewellery, bags and purses from cloth or knit and crochet. Help is offered with materials and sales outlets are provided. There is also a small micro-finance scheme available to the families to enable them to get small businesses off the ground.
The weather here is warming up every day and people are getting excited about the sun coming out. The temperatures are due to rocket any day now and the foggy cloud is lifting for longer each day already. Come Christmas and the temperatures will apparently be in the thirties and stay there for a couple of months. After Christmas the children will attend holiday clubs at the centre and will go on various outings and trips.
After my induction morning I went along with some of the other volunteers for ‘menu’. I have come across this in Spain in the past. It is a lunchtime menu offered by most restaurants and cafes at a very reasonable price and consists of two courses plus a drink. There are usually a couple of starters and about five main courses to choose from. A group of us walked a few blocks away to a small basic cafe where I had soup and a dish of chicken and rice. Wine would have been the usual tipple in Spain but here in Peru the drinks are fruit squashes. The whole lot amounted to the grand sum of S/.7 – seven soles which equates to approximately £1.75. Portion sizes as I was soon to find out are on the large size and doggy bags are willingly given out.
After lunch I was to go up to El Porvenir and see for myself what I had let myself in for
by Jane | Dec 6, 2013 | My travels, Peru |
I set off to meet Kimi the lady who I had met on the cliffs earlier that day. With all the scare stories crowding into my mind about accepting invitations from strangers, I nervously waited for her, but I needn’t have worried about going into her house as she turned out to be the loveliest lady and ever so interesting. Her family are Japanese and despite being born and brought up in Peru she now lives in Japan although she is currently back in Peru for a long visit. We chatted about a wide variety of things, compared cultures and we ate together but a little later in the evening we walked to the supermarket where Kimi gave me a lesson about the different fruits and vegetables and foods which were on offer. I thought that I was quite knowledgeable about the fruit and veg in the world, but goodness; despite being quite widely travelled, South America has a lot of weird and wonderful stuff which I have never encountered before.
Kimi was incredibly generous and treated me to some fantastic ice creams so that I could sample the flavours. I would be unable to describe the taste to you, but both delicious. Sitting in the restaurant inside the supermarket which was incongruously named Wong’s we snaffled down our ice cream and chatted away nineteen to the dozen, before parting and I returned to my dorm in the hostel.
getting my specs mended
the dancing fountain
the water tunnel
the highest jet of water
the calm before the carnage
The following morning I managed to break the arm off my glasses but some wild sign language to a lady sat at a stall in the street worked and resulted in her pulling out a little stool and mending them for me in the gutter – all for the astronomical cost of fifty pence before treating myself to an hour’s open-top bus tour around the Miraflores district. That was slightly bizarre as the majority of the commentary was about the various parks and the shopping centre but it was quite nice to see the wider area. I think that the travelling finally caught up with me so for the rest of the day I lazed around on the hostel roof terrace, until that evening when I joined in with a trip to the Water Fountain Park in Lima. A convoy of taxis took us to a large park which contained half a dozen fountains. But these were not ordinary fountains. They danced! Music played and coloured lights and lasers flashed around the jets of water which spurted in different directions and shot up at different heights. Pictures were projected onto what is the widest fountain in South America as if on a cinema screen whilst the highest fountain in South America was floodlit and had a backdrop of Roman walkways and had hoards of people strolling around its perimeter. The water feature which began the hysterical laughter of the evening consisted of hundreds of arching jets which formed a tunnel through which people could run or walk. Some of the lads from the hostel soon discovered that by touching the jets they could divert the water and drench us as we ran through the middle. Then all hell broke loose at the next water feature. This was a large area with jets shooting up in the air from the floor in formation. People were hopping around between the jets and working their way to the centre behind the walls of water which shot up around them. And then the boys got in. They quickly got to the centre and stood there laughing when the jets suddenly changed direction and fired at forty five degree angles blasting them. One of them tripped over, landing in what he thought was a safe space when he got blasted from underneath and then there was carnage as they all pushed and pulled each other into the jets. I hadn’t laughed so much since setting out on my adventure but it wasn’t so funny when four of us had to squoosh soggily together in the back of the taxi.
On my final day in Lima I met up with Kimi and we got the bus into Lima city centre. I had expected that we would visit the usual tourist haunts but thanks to Kimi I had a far more adventurous time. She took me to China Town and showed me the streets which had been her playground, her old school and apartment and the area where her family restaurant had been. Together we explored the markets and back streets and ate in a little backstreet Chinese cafe. Returning early to the hostel I unpacked and repacked my entire backpack in the hostel lobby ready for my onward coach journey. I ate a dish called El aji de gallina – shredded chicken in a spicy pepper sauce and at nine thirty I took a cab to the Cruz del Sur coach station.
I had paid over the odds for the best bus – again I took heed of the horror stories about bandits and breakdowns on the night buses, but it was an extra eight pounds well spent. It was a double-decker bus with comfortable leather seats which reclined almost horizontal, we had a snack delivered similar to an airplane, TVs set into the seatbacks in front and a hostess service (a young lad who didn’t speak a word of English but kept the rest of the passengers amused when he attempted to explain things to me). The journey was long and we bounced along but it wasn’t too bad at all and at least we had no stops and the luggage was secure.
Arriving nearly two hours late into Trujillo which is ten hours north of Lima on the coach I located my luggage, ran the gauntlet of taxi drivers, choosing one who didn’t look too much like a rogue and set off to find what would be my home for the next three months
by Jane | Dec 3, 2013 | My travels, Peru |
The plane landed in the fog that is so peculiar to Lima.
Carmen who was sat next to me on the plane explained that for up to nine months of the year Lima huddles under this grey blanket which is know as the garua fog.
Forming over the region it swirls around casting a surprisingly white glare over everything, cooling things down, but strangely, it is not damp. Lima is the second driest capital city after Cairo. I suppose a more accurate description would be to compare it to a thin veil of VERY low white cloud, without the grey damp water vapour that we would usually associate with fog.
Parque Kennedy
By lunchtime, the fog had lifted, the sun had come out and the Peruvians swarmed into the parks and open spaces, sitting out until long after dark. The following morning, there was no fog and as the dawn broke on my second day in Lima with rays of golden sunshine streaming in around my curtains I decided to hit the beach.
tennis club spills down the hill
I had had a very good night’s sleep, considering that I had been sleeping in a mixed dorm in the hostel and after a lazy breakfast I walked through Kennedy Park and down to the cliffs. The parks with their flowers and trees are immaculately manicured and the tennis club spills down the cliff walk. Whilst I was admiring the view a lady asked whether I would take her photograph which of course I did. Striking up a conversation she invited me to call on her for supper whilst in Lima. Later on, whilst trying to find my way down the cliffs to the beach I chanced upon her again and she repeated her earlier invitation, inviting me to dine with her that evening. I continued my walk and sat on the pebbly beach for a while, with its backdrop of surf shacks and camper vans, pinching myself and grinning as I finally realised that I was in Latin America. After nearly two years of planning, I had finally made it.
sunset over the Pacific
I went down to the cliffs to watch the sunset that evening and was totally overwhelmed by it all. Not only was I in Latin America I was south of the equator and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean
sunset over Miraflores
