Huancayo--answers to questions

A bit of advice: this is really, really long, so don’t feel like you have to read it all!

Huancayo
Liza asked about Huancayo, so here it is: Huancayo is a city in the central sierra. It is a 6-7 hours’ drive east from Lima. Apparently it has grown quite a bit since the 80s and the terrorist activity of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerilla organization. Huancayo is in the Mantaro Valley, so there are hills/mountains on at least two sides. The hills and mountains are beautiful. The city is not so beautiful—what cities are? There is a lot of traffic—lots and lots of honking. Most of the traffic is combis and taxis, with some trucks and private cars thrown in for good measure.

Combi Travel
I travel by combis most of the time. These are generally large vans or small buses, and they are usually in dreadful shape. It seems as if many are privately owned but affiliated with a company, but I’m not sure. Sometimes, I don’t think the vehicle is going to make it to wherever I am going, but it always does. It is an incredibly cheap way to travel, but the state of the vehicles really gives one pause. One rattled so badly, I was sure it was about to fall completely apart on the spot. Of course, the taxis are usually just as dilapidated. Within the city, it costs 70 centimos to ride (no transfers!). That is about 20 cents! I take one combi to work in the morning, and two back home, so I’m out about 60 cents a day for transportation.

Early Morning
Kim asked about my typical day, which I thought was also a great question. I get up around 5:45 (my alarm is set for 5:40, but anyone who knows me knows I need at least a few minutes to argue myself out of bed). Most mornings, Katya, the 15-year old in my host family, and I head out for a run at 6:00. We walk the few blocks to the malecon and down the stairs, admiring along the way the view of the mountains in the early morning cloud, sun, or mist. After a half hour or so of dodging combis, dogs, and the things dogs leave behind, we either take a detour so Katya can have a short swing, or we head directly home.

Living Arrangements
After showering, it’s time to prepare for my day’s work, and eat breakfast. By the way, I live with my family in Pio Pata, a barrio in El Tambo, which is connected to Huancayo, but not in Huancayo proper. Like most of the city outside of el centro, El Tambo has about a 50-50 mix of paved and unpaved streets. There are dogs everywhere. In the richest areas, houses have some sort of public front, but, for the most part, they are not made for looks. My family’s house, like many of the buildings in the area, is a work in progress. Now, it is one story, with the concrete stairs for a second story leading to what is now the roof. This is where Cheboly, the family dog, lives. My room is actually in a separate building from the house, with a dirt-floor, open-air space between my room and the house. This area is where we wash and then hang our clothes, where the staircase is, and where Chewaly marks her territory. My room has a tile floor and painted walls. The house has a kitchen, combined dining and living area, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The floors are unfinished concrete. A week ago, Marci (the father of the family), with the help of a carpenter and Jose (the son of the family), put up doors on the various rooms of the house. Until then, cloth curtains separated the rooms.

Water and Other Plumbing Issues
There is no heat, but we have electricity all the time, and water from about 6 a.m. until about 9 or 9:30 p.m. That means there is no flushing or washing for a good chunk of time every day. I don’t want to be rude to my family, or at all ungrateful, because they are absolutely fabulous, and treat me like the Abu they have named me, but I can tell you the bathroom presents my biggest challenges. I won’t go into detail here.

Breakfast and Departure
A little after 8, after a breakfast of tea and pan (bread), and usually some other small dish, it is time to head out for work. I walk about 8 blocks to Huancavelica Street, where I wait for a combi to Palian, the area where I work. The wait can be anywhere from a couple of minutes to about 20 minutes, with many, many combis going by, but eventually a combi to Palian comes by. I am really lucky if there is an available seat, but usually I have to find a place in the aisle to stand and hang on.

The Ride to Work
The combi winds its way to and through el centro, which includes a slow passage through the congested market district near the Avenida Ferrocarril. There are tiendas/stands for everything—bicycles, coffins, plastic items, fish, bread, shirts, toilet paper, socks, eggs, meat of all sorts, chickens (every morning I see hundreds and hundreds of plucked whole chickens, each hanging by a leg from a string or rope in the open air). Somehow, in the U.S., we can forget that the animals we eat actually ever had heads, but here that kind of forgetfulness is just not possible.

Aldea Rosario
After inching our way through the streets of the markets, we work our way toward Palian. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get off at the Aldea Rosario, a large (public?) orphanage for girls and boys from about 4 years old to 18, or so. It’s actually a farming compound, where they grow corn and artichokes and raise guinea pigs. There are multiple, one-story buildings, including administrative buildings and places where the children sleep. They have a concrete play area, where the children play futbol (soccer) and volleyball. I do crafts/manual arts there, and kids come and participate if they choose. Sometimes, there are just a few, and other times many. I have heard that there are about 70 children there altogether, but I’ve never seen even half that many. The kids are usually sweet, but pretty rough—on each other, and on whatever materials I bring with me. Although I have had a few good days there, I’ve had some really frustrating ones, too. I haven’t figured out my “mission” there, yet, but I’m trying.

I Left my Heart in Aldea Francisco Mayer
Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, I ride the combi a little farther, a get off at the Parque Palian. From there, I have about a 10 or 15-minute walk (depending on the amount of recent rain, and therefore depth of mud) to the Aldea Francisco Mayer. One morning this past week, I was stopped at the Parque by a very drunken man who insisted on playing “El Condor Pasa” (badly) for me on his guitar. When he was finished, he asked for a “propina”—I don’t think so.

Francisco Mayer is in the middle of farmland. My understanding is that this orphanage was started by Swiss (?) Methodists. Twenty-one girls from 10 to 18 live here. There are two women (called “tias” or aunts) who look after the girls. There is a director, but he’s not there all the time. And there are two older men who operate a wood-working shop on the premises. I love going to Francisco Mayer.

Morning Activities
The girls there are incredibly loving, to each other and to the volunteers. Now I am working there with only one other volunteer, an occupational therapist from Canada, Erin, who is volunteering with Tinkuy Peru (I wrote a bit about them in an earlier post). Working there is really satisfying, because the girls are so great. Friday morning we made scrunchies (thanks, Ann, Bill and Chris, for your financial support of scrunchy-making materials), and then Erin led a couple of games that had the girls laughing hysterically. Wednesday, we made “clocks” for practicing time in English, and then, instead of our usual English class, I was called upon to cut a few more girls’ hair.

Jessica
One of the girls, Jessica, had to have her hair cut because of the infestation. Her father brought her to the Aldea only recently (since I’ve been here), because her stepmother beats her. She was really resistant to having her hair cut, at first, but after seeing a couple of the other girls have their hair cut, she agreed. She sat there perfectly still while I cut her hair from long to short. The good news is that it turned out really nice, and she liked it a lot. The bad news is that, a little while after I had finished, when I lifted my hand to touch her hair in admiration, she flinched automatically from having been hit so much. Then she smiled and kissed me.

Our English classes are going well, but we’ve run out of time the last two days. We’re going to get back on track Monday, though. The girls who are participating (there are more and more each day) are working really hard and learning a lot.

Lunch
When I finish up around noon or 12:30, I catch a combi back toward el centro, where I often do a quick bit of shopping for the next day’s supplies and then catch another combi home for lunch. Lunch is always a big meal, usually with soup and then a plate of something, almost always including rice, boiled potato and some kind of meat. I think my favorite dish is “papas huanicainas,” which gisela (the 23 year old in the family) calls “Huancayo potato salad.” It is boiled potatoes with a delicious light green sauce and lettuce. Twice this week, I had lunch at Tinkuy Peru, another local volunteer organization (where Erin, Alison and Terry work, among others).

Teaching English
From 3 to 4, I now teach English to a class of 8 7-to-9 year olds at Tino’s school (Tinkuy). Thursday went well, but Friday I had trouble believing that I’ve ever been a teacher! I’ve got to think this through a little better, and figure out what’s needed. What was a bit ironic is that Friday at lunch we had a teaching discussion that I “facilitated” for the Tinkuy volunteers. The “seminar” went really well, but, then I guess that could be expected, since I’ve done a whole lot more of teaching teachers in the past few years than I have teaching children! I’m grateful for the opportunity to teach the children, but it is going to take some careful planning.

Wow! I didn’t intend for this to be so long, but time flies when you’re having fun. More later. Thanks for reading.