Sitting in… Starbucks?

I’m all for boosting the local economy but as long as Starbucks is all for free wireless, well, I’m in.

So, yes that’s right, I’m in Peru and yet in one of the great American wonders, complete with coffee of the day and cream-cheese brownie. My Peace Corps experience is definitely varied from other volunteers I know.

Lima is one of the anomalies of this country, a New York like city of 8 million (almost a third of Peru’s entire population of 27 million) in a country with the second largest city populated by a mere 850,000 so, although Lima has a plethora of sophisticated options for well, life, much of the population continues to live in levels of poverty or extreme poverty. (The World Bank defines moderate poverty as living on less than US$2 per day and extreme poverty as living on less than US$1 per day.) Extreme poverty is also defined as the most severe state of poverty, where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care. Anyway, Peru has a unique situation.

I’m leaving for Huaraz tonight at 10:40pm and apparently have to buy the tickets by 4pm. This is an inconvenience of Peru, especially in Lima. It will cost approximately 20 soles (probably more) to go over to the bus station (p.s. in a shady part of town) buy a ticket, and then go back. I think this is silly and I’m currently working on a plan to get around it. Right now I’m going with calling them about 3:30pm and feigning a missed bus to say that I will be in Lima and at their station at 8pm. Hopefully this is OK.

In the middle of all this, my computer is acting like an idiot which is not fun.

Just another day in the Peace Corps…



October 23, 2007

In the Atlanta airport…

Well, I’m in the EEUU. I’m still not excited. I think something is wrong with me. Well, I get excited over unexpected little things, like standing in line for a cinnamon latte and a scone, and taking out some dollars that I had stashed in my med kit for the past year and I got to use it. And then I got change back in dollars too. Yeah, I was way too excited about the whole thing. I was also excited that I knew how to get where I needed to go in the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which is not hard but for the first time in a long time I knew where I was going and no one assumed that I didn’t. Those two do NOT happen for me in Peru.
When I first arrived to my site, almost a year ago, I was surprised at how in the face of a completely new environment, new language, new job responsibilities, new culture, new location, that I was the same person. I reacted to situations in the same manner, had the same faults, the same strengths. This is obvious as I write it out, but I feel like we all hope for a fresh start when so much around us changes. It was interesting to note how much I remained the same.
Now, a year later, coming back to the familiar, with rules of society that I understand, a language I can speak, understand, and even insinuate in, I can feel that I’ve changed. Maybe it hasn’t hit me still because, well, I’m by myself still and hence have no one to talk to, but I feel more reserved here. It’s probably a result of all the constant unwanted attention. I also expect an unspoken comradary with other Americans, which, quite frankly, is definitely not a given when you are in the country.
Let’s see what other changes I encounter. By the way, in the airport you can have wireless, but it is going to cost you $8.00! That’s 25 soles! No way….