September 1st crept up on me; I had no idea the month had changed until I walked out of my room and was greeted by Mary and Sean saying, “Happy September!” I will miss our group enthusiasm when I head off to Huanuco alone. For our second day of orientation in Peru we gathered at la Red. We started our day by singing a few songs and then had a discussion in which everyone talked about their faith journey. It was so interesting to hear about how each of us got to this year; our paths were all so different, yet we are all so similar. Then, Jed a facilitator a la Red gave us an overview of what la Red does. It was very interesting to learn about the main concerns in Peru and what la Red does to help. Also la Red is where Kaley is going to be working, so we got to better understand what she will be doing for the next year!
I’ll give you a brief overview of what we learned because I found it to be incredibly interesting and insightful. Jed first explained that there are 12 organizations that work together in order to help confront problems in Peru, such as poverty and the water crisis. La Red connects and works with all of those organizations. The basic idea behind la Red is the “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” But la Red also asks many additional questions because they recognize that the people of Peru have lived for thousands of years on their own, basically, they know how to fish, but their resources for fishing have been taken away. So la Red looks into why their resources have been taken away, and how they can help the people to either regain their resources or find a new trade. The three main campaigns that la Red has been working with are:
a) Agua, or the water crisis that is occurring in Peru. Basically Peru has 70% of the water in all of South America and the rate at which it is being used is causing the water to disappear too quickly. Jed explained that scientists and professionals have agreed that if the rate of water loss is not changed, the water will all by gone by 2030. So la Red is looking into the reasons that water is being used too quickly, including their asparagus crops which require about twice as much water as other vegetables, and trying to educate as many people as possible about the water crisis. That way people begin thinking of ways to conserve water or find alternative ways of maintaining water in the mountains. One idea that I found very interesting is that if they can stop as many trees from being cut down, the roots will help keep some of the water in ground. But in order to do this, the people who use wood on a regular basis need to find alternative methods or resources, or simply not use as much.
b) Fair Trade: La Red works with local Artisans to not only find ways to sell fair trade items but also to teach the artisans how to run their own fair trade business independently. This includes teaching them to set their own prices and manage bank accounts. The problem that they run into with fair trade is that competing prices are always lower, so they struggle to find new products that are unique so they don’t have as much competition.
c) La Oroya: Apparently, the Andes have almost any mineral you could think of and La Oroya has a refinery for the metals. The problem with this is that the contamination is so horrible that it is killing the people who live in the area. Sean was explaining that the women tend to miscarry and just spending a day their can cause your mucous to turn black for a few days. This is just incredibly sad for the people of Peru, especially because the owner has no intention of stopping the mining because he enjoys a comfortable life in the United States. And you wonder why people in other countries don’t necessarily always enjoy people from the United States…
So after our wonderful discussion with Jed, Debbie took us to a restaurant around the corner which has a menú, which is a restaurant where you can choose from two appetizers and three main courses and it also comes with a drink, all for 7 soles (around 2 dollars)! For those curious about Peruvian food some of the options were minestrone soup, alfredo pasta with corn and ham, chicken with rice and potatoes (the most common combination), lamb with fried bananas or beef with vegetables. All of it looked delicious, but those that know me know that I will eat anything!
After lunch, Debbie took us to a school nearby where Rosa, a Spanish teacher and friend of Debbie’s gave us and introduction to Peruvian culture and the mythology of the Inca’s. Everything was incredibly interesting (of what I understood of course) and I was especially interested in the mythology because it seems to be based around the fact that the earth is split into three sections: the earth above with the stars, sun, clouds, the earth here with the people, animals, plants, and the earth below with the insects, roots, and dirt. These three units are separate and different, yet they are all connected and depend on each other. Therefore, the people are not more important than the mountains, nor the sun more important than the moon. Each part has a reason for existing and must be respected because it is all a creacion de Dios (a creation of God).
This pictures is us arriving in Lima with all of our luggage and completely exhausted! Starting on the left there is Sean from Ohio, me, Shane Webb from Texas, Kaley from Mississippi, Mary from Pennsylvania, and Sarah Webb also from Texas. What an incredible bunch!
I apologize for the long blog, it was just such an interesting day and I had to share. I hope everyone is doing well, much love!
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