La Cucaracha!

I have had my first in-room encounter with a cockroach. I tried killing it the first time and was unsuccessful and I hoped that he crawled out and went elsewhere, but I saw him again today. I made a Vegas Roach Trap so hopefully it works.

So what to say about my last week in Lima? Well, it has been pretty amazing. Last week I went to Lima Centro again for the Anniversary of Lima festivities (they weren't too exciting though) and later that night found myself in Miraflores at a nice little lounge/pub where they played some good guitar (I don't want to make an arse of myself by giving it a name like Flamenco or Spanish because I don't know the regional differences in guitar in Latin America).

From Lima

Click to see the video!

Afterwards, we went to a nice little outdoor restaurant that served typical Peruvian food (or at least it said it did) and I had Sopa de Ciallo (spelling?) - Peruvian Beef Soup (sorry Kevin). AAH sorry, break - I just tried to kill the cockroach as I saw it on the wall. And the thing flew AT me, I didn't even know they flew!! Dios mio my heart is beating at 500 bpm right now! Anyway....let's calm myself and try to finish this blog...and then try to sleep tonight with that thing in my room!

Beer in Lima appears to be really cheap...about 7 sols at the place that I went to with the guitar. But I had wine anyway so it doesn't matter. Miraflores is much more enjoyable at night than during the day...as corny as it sounds, it comes alive at night. I imagine that Barranco is something similar.

From Lima

To give some perspective, Miraflores and Barranco are quite affluent and touristy districts. There are a lot of bars, clubs and nice hotels in these districts...much different than La Victoria, where I work, and Rimac, where the other group homes with CEDRO are located.

Last week I practiced taking the bus to La Victoria and i also visited Rimac. It was an interesting experience. I have been told that La Victoria is a rough district and that there is a lot of crime there. Myself, I didn't really see it. There are people all over the streets, street-fronting shops and vendors. But, this is also on a main road in La Victoria and where I work is also next to the police station, which would obviously have an effect on the safety of the area. Rimac was a very different and almost surreal experience for me. I visited Rimac right after seeing La Victoria. Where La Victoria has public spaces (such as Manco Capo square), Rimac lacks in this and where there are people on the streets in La Victoria, there are hardly any in Rimac. It used to be an area of the Spanish Viceroyalty, but it has since become dilapidated; the buildings are crumbling and entire parts of the sidewalk are missing. It is interesting for me to see poverty in a completely different light, poverty as most of the world lives it, and not the poverty that we find in developed countries.

Today was my first day of my volunteer practice at La Casa Hogares - Los Delfines; the group home for boys in La Victoria. It was interesting to say the least. I am acutely aware of my awful Spanish, and it was made more obvious by the laughter of the boys. Though in my opinion, it was not malicious laughter but more just the laugher of boys. I don't know much about their backgrounds, I do know that many of them come from broken homes where drugs played a large role, and some where addicted to drugs themselves. I don't expect to see the personalities of their past come out anytime soon, if ever. Considering that I am not a psychology major, I might not even recognize it if and when it does, and because I am a stranger who does not speak the language that well, and who is new, they probably will not open up to me quickly.

All day, the boys were asking me questions like where I come from, where my parents are from...but most of all, how to say things in Cantonese. Of course I got the ubiquitous "what is my name in Chinese" question that is asked of me by so many people in general. For lunch, we went to the soup kitchen in La Victoria to pick up food in giant tubs to bring back to the house. It was interesting to see the center and Steffen, the other volunteer, was telling me that last week he saw a fight occur over people trying to be first in line. The food was rice, with mashed potato (I think it was mashed potato?) and a hamburger patty. To me, it was not very appetizing in the manner that it was served, and just the food itself. But that is exactly the case in point. I wonder if all soup kitchen food is similar in quality to this and I wonder, why is it that because a population is impoverished that they deserve less than what we, the privileged population would settle for? While I understand that soup kitchens make food on a large scale basis I do believe that more efforts could be made to make better quality food. The adage of 'beggars can't be choosers' is not something that I can say I agree with.

Anyway...I am getting quite sleepy. Need to work tomorrow and it is quite late, and I'm sure I'll have a non-restful sleep knowing that there is a cockroach in my room scheming and probably also breeding.

Just a few quick notes on Lima (many from the planner's perspective, I apologize)

The City Beautiful movement finds its expression very well in this city

Not many people bike, it is not a very bike friendly city. However those roads that do have bike lanes have them in the center and separated by vegetated and raised buffers

In Lima Centro they had an exhibition of redevelopment areas in Lima. I was surprised to see that the models were not of top quality considering that the city put up this exhibition. I noticed a lot of displacement in these redevelopment plans. It appears that redevelopment-->displacement is a widespread phenomenon.

On the road, lines for lanes are really more of a suggestion than anything else

It is difficult to sound tough or be taken seriously on the road when you have that ubiquitous silly horn that sounds like a clown horn

Anyway...I can barely keep my eyes open. So it is time for me to go!!

Nos vemos,
Renee