Iniciacion

Monday 11 April 2005

Flight from Boston to Miami, then on to Lima, Peru. Flight was uneventful for the most part. I was seated next to a lovely Peruvian woman on the second leg of my journey, Doris. We struck up a long conversation and in the end were swapping contact information. She very kindly offered to show me around Lima or to assist me in any way.

Upon arrival to Peru, I was hustled through customs and was very fortunate not to get the "red light" at the random bag search area as I did previously in Central America, saving me repacking my bags.

I came out to the main terminal to what seemed to be hundreds of Peruvians shouting incomprehensible comments and waving around signs. Did I mention that I stand out like a sore thumb around here? Must find a way to blend in a bit better, perhaps negro hair rather than the rubio?
"Senora, Senora, Senora", "Cambio Senora?", "Taxi Senora?" Among a slew of other things I couldn´t understand.

While scanning the crowd in search of a sign with the words "Project Peru" on it, I heard my name called "Rebecca", I couldn´t for the life of me determine where it was being called from, "Rebecca", "Rebecca". I finally started calling back to this unknown voice..."yes...yes" until I spotted the beautiful Ursula, Secretary to Padre Hilario Huanca.

She motioned and tried to explain to me in Spanish to go outside and walk around the gates to meet her. Did I mention that it was 10pm? I was immediately surrounded with Peruvian men trying to get me a taxi or exchange money - dozens and dozens of them that just don´t take "no" for an answer and in fact follow you if you make eye contact or speak to them. Best to just walk on by.

I was thankful that I understood Ursula enough to meet her once outside of the airport. She was lovely and immediately took my small day pack as she discouraged all of the taxi drivers, etc. saying they were "muy caro, demasiado caro".

I believe she made reference to my backpack looking expensive and hustled me quickly through the dark streets on foot. When we got to a main road we waited for a local bus, a combi the urbanito bus, they were all very full and though Ursula didn´t mention it, I think she was a bit nervous about waiting there in the dark so after a half dozen attempts to get a decent price we finally climbed into a tiny taxi which dropped us off a couple of kilometres down the road at Ursula´s family home which she shares with her mother, father and two sisters. At this point, I am beginning to realize just how beautiful the Peruvian people are, Ursula´s family was stunning!

in just a matter of a couple of hours I can see my Spanish skills coming back to me and rapidly improving though communication still involves much pointing and charades!

After introductions to her family and a brief tour of their home, Ursula, an avid photographer, and I sat down to a two hour viewing of photographs of her family and friends.

Ursula´s family is very religious and have a home filled with religious art, photos, crucifix's, nativity scenes, etc. They also have seven, no eight ( they forgot one in the counting!), dogs that share their space! The family rescues them from the streets.

There is only an hour time difference between Massachusetts and Lima, Massachusetts being one hour later than Lima, and at 12:30pm local time, I quickly fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow...

12 April 2005

I woke this morning to a tremendous dog fight which started about half a block up the street and ran down the street until the barks and howls faded away. Makes me glad I have my rabies series in me making me radio active!

In a new place, I woke at 5:30am and listened to whether or not the house was awake. I listened as Ursula´s father prepared to leave for work in the textile factory, listened to a cart rolling up and down the dirt street with a man yelling "papaya, papaya" into a tinny microphone. I tried to fall asleep again until 6:00am, then got up to shower and get dressed which seemed to prematurely rouse the rest of the family. They kept saying, very politely, that I woke very early...

The family was so kind to me, I am under the impression that Ursula gave up her room to me. Last night I was asked what I would like for breakfast and I had to break the news that "Soy vegetariana, sin carne, sin leche, sin huevos, sin queso". And I probably said it just like that too, still working on the Spanish skills!

They just laughed at me, shook their heads and said "Americana" to each other...I felt like an idiot...I have found that the next question asked is "what do you eat?" at which point I feebly list off things like arroz, frijoles, verduras, frutas, papas, etc. Then I get the head shake again. I feel a bit of guilt with all of this as I fear that they may look at my diet as such a luxury and I don´t want to be insulting to my hosts....

But this morning Ursula´s mother prepared me a beautiful papaya and banana fruit smoothie along with whole wheat rolls, which appeared to be a semi-normal desayuno for the family.

After breakfast, Ursula´s mother left for a few moments to flag down a "safe" taxi and after goodbyes, offers to come stay with them again and many attempts at proper thank yous from me, Ursula and I rode from Callao to Lima Central so I could stay with Padre Hilario at Parraquia la Recoleta for the next couple of days until I am collected by another volunteer from Project Peru.

Padre Hilario is a native Quecha and has made me feel quite comfortable here at the church. He gave me a tour of Lima this morning before a 2pm lunch and during the tour we pointed to everything around us, him saying its name in Spanish, me saying it in English, at which point we would reverse the language for the rest of the walk. He is full of smiles and kindness. Everyone I meet greets me with kisses to my cheeks.

Padre Hilario brought me to Plaza Francia (very near to my current home), Plaza San Martin, Plaza de Armas and to Estacion Desamparados which has a current exhibition of female diosas of Peru and Mexico. It was fascinating and brought back many memories of my travels through Mexico.

About halfway through our explorations of Estacion Desamparados a young museum curator approached us to help translate what we were seeing to English. It was very kind but even I couldn´t help but get a bit blushy when he began to describe the fertility scenes in detail. I´m not very shy but I was walking around discussing oral and anal sex next to a complete stranger and the Padre!

We walked through a lovely new park still under construction, the Parque Morales - it was absolutely beautiful - a melding of modern design and ancient architecture.

Padre Hilario walked around the local souvenir shops with me until he found a lovely hand painted box that when its two hinged doors were opened, it revealed a ceramic nativity scene within. He said it was my welcome gift "Bienvenido regalo" - I think he picked this out because he saw me admiring the larger versions in the Biblioteca Nacional.

Upon our return we say down to a huge lunch with three other Padres. There was chicken, fish tamales, plates of lettuce and tomatoes, steamed vegetables, bowls of steamed white rice, a plate of green split peas in front of me with a concerned mention of protein, a pot of vegetable soup, boiled potatoes and a lovely sweet lemon drink. Though cautious of water consumption, I have still been drinking it when offered along with this lemon drink. So far...no problema...

I still haven´t had the opportunity to exchange any U.S. dollars though the Padre showed me where I could do it safely today. I am a bit nervous about doing it by myself as there is an overwhelming "sense" of crime. Even the Padre seemed hesitant about entering one so I said that I could do it later.

Dinner is served at 9pm at which point I could barely keep my eyes open, but I struggled to have bits of conversation with the Padres. They are very patient with me.

I am finding this language barrier exhausting but notice that my vocabulary is absolutely leaping forward out of pure necessity. I spent much of the afternoon and evening studying Spanish and helping Ursula to copy all of my Spanish - English lessons, it is so much fun to try to communicate with these people but I was absolutely exhausted from the effort and all I have been absorbing I was in bed my 10:30pm.