Mi Primera Semana en Peru

My first week in Peru (trans. from title). Where to even begin. So much to take in. I spent the first 2-3 days in Lima. Lima in many ways is similar to many large Latin American cities. It is very crowded, lots of traffic and there don’t seem to be a lot of traffic laws so the buses and taxis just do their own thing. There is also a lot of pollution which made it hard to breathe easy and covered the sky in a thick white blanket. It’s a bit colder here than I was anticipating, and probably especially since I came from 100 degree weather in San Antonio. In Lima Jane and Julie, two of the IWM missionaries in Chimbote that I am living with showed us around the city. We met with some of the Incarnate Word sisters in Lima, went downtown and visited the Plaza de Armas, toured a church that had memorials for San Martin de Torres and Santa Rosa de Lima the two big saints of Peru. They had relics from both saints including their actual skulls on display. I found that a bit creepy, but could see a great pride and deep faith in the Peruvians who came and prayed to these patron saints and realize I have a lot to learn about the rituals and beliefs of the people in Peru. Feast days of saints are very important to Peruvians and I happened to come just before the feast day of Santa Rosa de Lima, so all weekend there were constant parties with loud music in all the neighborhoods of Chimbote, which I’ll mention again later.

In order to understand and see the disparity in standards of living, we went to Mira Flores which is probably the wealthiest part of Lima and has all of the U.S. essentials like giant shopping malls, Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc. This area had beautiful homes and parks that were well kept and clean. In many other parts of Lima, especially on the outskirts and the mountainsides there are make-shift houses stacked on top of make-shift houses. There is dirt and trash all around, and especially on the mountainsides there are no basic services like water and electricity.

On Friday we took a 7 hour bus ride from Lima to Chimbote. Looking out the window along the way was an interesting experience. The whole area is a coastal desert, which to me seems contradictory because if there is that much water close to land, the land should not be a desert. But it is. A very large, dry, dry, desert. Which means no green. Just dirt. There would be houses scattered every now and then along the road or maybe at the bottom of a mountain. And in parts there was no sky really, just this never-ending cloud of white. And all I could think of was what these people lives must be like, to be surrounded by desert under an endless white blanket. If they haven’t had a chance to travel much, what must their idea of God be like? because so much of who God is to me is beauty, and the beauty that is found in creation. During parts of the trip I could see the ocean and coast which was beautiful when the sun was shining, but still a desert.

On to Chimbote, my home for the next two years. Well, as everyone warned me it would, it does in fact smell like fish, but only in certain parts and I’m starting to get used to it. As I mentioned in the last post, there is a lot of dirt because it is a desert, so there is dirt/dust everywhere and the taxis and buses that drive by when you are walking down the street kick up more dirt in the air. The IWM house is pretty nice (relatively here in Chimbote) and basic. We have running water that comes from a pump which I think is filled every day. We have to boil all our water to drink it and pretty much all of our food as well we cook (no raw veggies) except fruit which we can eat fresh. Unfortunately we only have one temperature of water though and it is not warm, so that means cold showers for two years. Unless I do bucket showers with water heated from the stove which I will probably do for sure during the colder months. We have electricity but no tv (yeah!) and no internet. We do what we can for where we live to conserve all of our resources and recycle but there isn’t much of a recycling program here, mostly just plastic bottles. We are going to try and start a compost so if anyone has experience with this please let me know and offer your wisdom. There is also no heating or cooling, so the house is cold in the winter (just ending now) and hot in the summer. Marcelle and I (we are sharing a room) are probably going to go in on a fan for our room for the summer months.

I really haven't experienced a lot of culture shock yet, as many people have been asking about. I think all the time I have spent in Central America helps with the transition. I love the Spanish language and Latino culture, so while there is so much to learn I am really enjoying it and don't feel like anything is too strange or foreign yet. My Spanish skills, while still needing much improvement, are also very helpful because I understand most of what is going on and can communicate when I need to which makes it easier.

This post is pretty long so to break it up I’m going to start another one talking about all the events I’ve been to in the last few days and all the meetings coming up!

p.s. I'm posting at this late hour because I found a wireless network my computer picked up in the neighborhood! It's just like back home in Cedar Rapids :)