Peru Adventures

Day 1 of Placement: 5/7/12

Los Martincitos-Villa El Savador

The senior citizens are so welcoming and full of hugs and kisses!  Judy from Canada and I chopped veggies in the kitchen with Elena, Alberto, and Jessica.  Noella is from Holland and she met her boyfriend on line.  She moved to Peru, 5 wks ago and is renting a room from a family in Villa El Savador.  Her boyfriend is an artist.

When we arrived at senior center first person I spotted was Antonio, who Re’Nita from Indy mentioned from volunteering here last year.  Catherine, Judy, Jim, Jamie and I are there.  We also chopped carrots, radishes, celery, squash, parsley, leeks and another root to put in the chicken soup.  The knives are the best they have….but dull for chopping.  Also Judy and I peeled potatoes with make do peelers.  In addition , for lunch was hominy, with a sweet potato slice on top.  The seniors are very happy to have any attention. 

Jim and Jamie led a coin toss-type game which would be similar to corn-hole in America.  After the game, they turned up the Latin music and we started dancing.  Some of the ladies are good dancers and are limber.  All but 1 of the men would point to their knee or hip and shake their head No, can’t dance when I pointed to them…Story of my life.

Serg, the volunteer who lives in Florida, but has been coming to Lima for the last 6 years during hurricane season, saw Judy and I dancing.  He volunteered us to lead the dance and exercise activity on Wed.  They want us to lead the hokie pokie, and maybe the macharina dance.  I would like to use some of my easy zumba moves I have learned, but may be too much.

Day 2 of Placement:  5/8/12

Today the 5 of us did home visits.  Only 5 of the places we went were home.  Juan Manuel from CCS drove us, along with Tony the Los Martincitos director, and Serg.  Tony actually selects seniors to visit that have not been seen at the program in awhile (months) to check on them.  We didn’t take any food or medicines like I thought we might.  We listened as Tony asked their overall health, food, living condition/situation, etc.  Two of the seniors plan to see the nurse or social worker very soon at Los Martincitos.  One of the men, showed us his X-ray, which clearly showed a hip fracture.  One doctor said he should have surgery, and the other one said he wasn’t a candidate due to his age. 

The houses are made with brick/mortar, block or cement.  They have a tin or steel roof, which keeps their homes cooler.  Many do not have electricity or running wáter.  Many cannot afford a refrig.  The gov has agua portable tanks on the backs of trucks that go into the poorer areas 2-3x/week…..but you still have to pay to receive the wáter.  The same is true for propane gas tanks.  Some will send a kid or teen to climb the utility lines to connect to the electricity to use it for free, until someone comes and removes.

This afternoon we had Spanish lessons.  I was in the beginner group with 4 others….b/c I have forgotten what I learned in the past.  Will see how much we can remember when we get back to our placement on Wed. 

The food has been really good at the house.  Breakfast is typcially boiled eggs, rolls, cheese and fruit.  The fresh fruit is amazing:  mango, oranges, pears, apples, bananas.  Coffee and fresh papaya juice are available.  Lunch is the main meal of the day.  Some of the favs are cucumber, avocado salad with oil.  Also the beef/squash/potatoes served over White rice.  Today we had a really good pasta with red sauce and meatballs.  I do not think I will be losing any weight while here, because the menú consists of potatoes, hominy, rice and breads ( often at least 3 starches) at the same meal.  Aunt Della would not approve.

Day 3: Guinea Pig is a national popular dish in Peru:

It has been discussed 3+ times since in Peru that the guinea pig is the national animal in Peru and popular at many nice restaurants, and our of the staff pointed out that it has No Cholesterol! LOL.

I led the Hokie Pokie for exercise class this morning, which was a hoot.  After they had breakfast, we walked the seniors in a line today, holding hands, and arms, approx ½ mile to the Municipal building.  What troopers they are…..walking  across 2 streets, with motor taxis honking for us to move, and down a sandy, rocky road.  So much for respect for the elderly…. They are pushed by the Martincitos staff for physical and emotional needs.  At the municipal building, they watched a 1 hr movie on the history of Villa El Salvador and the controversary that was going on in the 80’s-90’s.  The problem was it was narrated in Spanish of course, so it was hard to understand. 

We had a really good lesson on Villa El Salvador from Tony, the director at Los Martincitos after lunch. Its interesting how their development began.  THen we went to the National Museum, which was interesting to see the pottery, gold and silver ítems from Inca and Nasca lines.  The 6th floor is dedicated for all the happenings in Peru from 1982-2000. Many humbling and troubling pictures and narratives are displayed…due to all the trajedies that were on going with the Shining PAth and the Republic Army.  It was almost hard to decipher who where the bad guys being as so many shootings/killings were on-going.  I could have spent another hour reading all the captions.

We are all enjoying emersing in not only the Peruvian cultura, but in learning the many talents of our Lilly colleagues and the other volunteers that are here.

Day 4:  Finally A connection to the Internet!

Hola, several of us walked to Starbucks to connect to the internet.  Connectivity has been very spotty or non-existent at the team house the last few days. 

Its been awesome to read the postings of my peers!  Even though we are in the same house, we learn more of other’s experiences by reading their blogs.

Our team assisted in unpacking donated toiletries, clothes, shoes, etc at Los Martincitos today.  The staff particularly appreciated the strength and height of Jamie and Jim to organize the labeled boxes that we re-packaged on the top shelves in the storage room.  Catherine and Serg assisted with the Spanish translation of ítems, which was a great way to expand our Spanish words.  I’m one of the weaker Spanish speaking folks on our team…..but my peers, the staff and our Spanish lessons are helping to improve!

Buenos Dias. Have been trying to post for 3 days but unable due to connectivity issues. I'm journaling and will post When obtain Internet. We are very blessed to be here. Any act of kindness, smiles or hugs is appreciated. We have 10 from our Lilly group plus 9 others from various places volunteering. One young lady is a senior at UNC majoring in Spanish and here for 4 weeks teaching English to 4-5 yr olds! If only I would have learned Spanish at 5 yrs old, I might could speak it now. Have a blessed day and know that we are safe, eating well, sleeping and emmersing in the Peruvian culture. FYI, one of the gals from France cooked a homemade pear torte last night. Catherine rolled out the pastry for 7 tortes! It was delicious, even though she wasn't pleased because she had to use margarine and she uses butter at home. Love you bunches! Thanks for your support and prayers!