somewhere under the sky

a bit of peru

in an effort to catch up, i´m writing another entry. but this doesn´t mean you can skip the one below, although it´s an admittedly scattered entry.

we spent many hours on a bus to arrive in Lima, Peru. as a bit of practical advice, always cross the border into Peru on the Andean side, instead of the coastal side. it´s much less of a hassle.

in the north of Peru, near the coast, people live in a poverty i have never seen. shacks. real shacks. it´s like seeing something you´ve only seen in movies, except that in movies (Hollywood) all you see are riches. "houses" constructed of sticks and grass. maybe a roof.
my first thought was what do these people do all day? where do they go to the bathroom? where do they get water? how do they work? where do they get food? how do they live?
in complete contrast, on one of the buses they showed the movie "If Only." while shot in London, it was a typical hollywood movie with pretty people who have cool jobs and cool clothes and beautiful apartments. a life so far removed from the shacks in the desert in the north of Peru. i was confronted with two screens- the television and the window, one representing fantasy and the other so clearly, reality.
my friend in Lima explained that many of these poor are people who have invaded government property. from there they get help from social workers to get the land signed over to them and from there they begin to construct a life, better housing, etc. if the land they invaded is private, there is nothing they can do. Alan Garcia, the president, apparently has a plan to decrease poverty by something like 20%. the current rate is around 45-50%.

if you read this before, i´ve edited it. i didn´t like how i ended it and my thoughts weren´t organized. perhaps i will return to it at a different time.

posted by leah v @ 7:24 PM