For the past few weeks, I have been spending the majority of my time in a day care ´cuña´, where the majority of the kids live there for some amount of time over the week while their parents work on the street. The differences between the teaching methods and the behavioral responses here are so vast from those which I remember (not that I remember much from this period of my life) but worth commenting upon.
I´ve been working in two separate classrooms, both of five year olds who would love nothing more than to climb all over me all day, and scream ¨altame¨ until I obediently lift them up as high as I can. Working in Chimbote with kids ages 6 to 15, I swore that there could not be another age more difficult to control, but clearly, I was wrong. Sure, these kids spend most of their times looking cute and to the casual glance, they appear to be low matinance, however, they are anything but that. When complaining about their irreverent behavior to a fellow volunteer, I remarked how I was sure that I couldnt remember being so annoying in my life, and she replied ¨I bet your pre-school teacher could¨.
On a separate and unrelated note, an offshoot of the Shining Path has been agitating in the southern rainforest area, though their numbers are less and their objective seems to have changed. The New York Times reports that ¨the Shining Path, taking a page from Colombia’s rebels, has reinvented itself as an illicit drug enterprise, rebuilding on the profits of Peru’s thriving cocaine trade¨ (Cocaine Trade Helps Rebels Reignite War In Peru, Simon Romero, NY Times). The original Shining Path Movement was a Maoist offshoot of the Peruvian Communist Party, and is responsible for around 70,000 deaths from their beginning in 1980 to their supposed downfall in 1994, when their leader, Abimael Guzmán, was captured by the government in Lima. Today, the group that remains is reportedly smaller (350 millitants and 500 cocaine-producing workers) and better trained. Luckily, the pitched battles are being fought in the southeast Andean and rainforest regions of Peru, where coca farming is most proliferant, and I have thus felt no backlash.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Trujillo
Sorry for the space between these entries to all of my faithful readers. This past weekend I arrived in Trujillo, separated from Chimbote by two hours in bus, but worlds apart in appearance. Where in Chimbote, the more expensive houses are two stories and the center is a few blocks of markets and fish restaurants, Trujillo sports colonial architecture in its center, and apartment buildings tower the skyline up to nine stories high.
At the same time, Trujillo has its benefits. Gone are the days (at least for now) where hot water did not exist, where the water would occasionally shut off and a shower would be a bucket of water. Gone are the stifling hot nights without AC.
The only question remains, is this a good thing? The streets of Chimbote were filled with friendly, cerveza swilling people, willing to make fun of gringos passing in the street and whistle at pretty girls. Here in Trujillo, it hardly seems that anyone has any time to do anything other than get from point A to point B, talking on their mobile phones the whole time. Up until this point, I had found the socioeconomic difference large between cities here and in the states, but not uncomfortable. On the contrary, Trujillo, with its clean streets and busy people, which could be any city in the states, seems unwelcoming.
A short fifteen minutes from the city, however, is the beach pueblo Huanchaco, where western values have yet to penetrate. What used to be a beach has slowly grown into a sleepy little town, where all the people know each other and are willing to talk to you about pretty much anything. It also sports some sizeable swells, as well as some of the best surfers in Peru. Last Thursday, I went to my first surf championship, where the sixteen best surfers in Peru competed for the big air title of Peru. Eight of the surfers were from Huanchaco, and although none of them won, several placed highly and the event was quite interesting overall.
At the same time, Trujillo has its benefits. Gone are the days (at least for now) where hot water did not exist, where the water would occasionally shut off and a shower would be a bucket of water. Gone are the stifling hot nights without AC.
The only question remains, is this a good thing? The streets of Chimbote were filled with friendly, cerveza swilling people, willing to make fun of gringos passing in the street and whistle at pretty girls. Here in Trujillo, it hardly seems that anyone has any time to do anything other than get from point A to point B, talking on their mobile phones the whole time. Up until this point, I had found the socioeconomic difference large between cities here and in the states, but not uncomfortable. On the contrary, Trujillo, with its clean streets and busy people, which could be any city in the states, seems unwelcoming.
A short fifteen minutes from the city, however, is the beach pueblo Huanchaco, where western values have yet to penetrate. What used to be a beach has slowly grown into a sleepy little town, where all the people know each other and are willing to talk to you about pretty much anything. It also sports some sizeable swells, as well as some of the best surfers in Peru. Last Thursday, I went to my first surf championship, where the sixteen best surfers in Peru competed for the big air title of Peru. Eight of the surfers were from Huanchaco, and although none of them won, several placed highly and the event was quite interesting overall.
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