Peru in the News (Paging The New York Times)

July 31, 2007 at 4:55 pm (Dateline: Lima)

The Associated Press recently reported that the popularity of the president of Peru, Alan Garcia, is slipping, and that “poor Peruvians are increasingly pessimistic that his free-market policies will improve their lives.”

The article noted that the peasant farmers, unionists and teachers who took to the streets during July — “in sometimes violent demonstrations, blocking roads, closing airports and making travel harrowing at the height of the tourist season” — did so with one primary objective: diverting some of the wealth now concentrated among the few, into the hands of the masses of people who scratch out a living amid poverty.

Garcia’s approval rating stood at 63 percent in August 2006; now, only a year later, only 32 percent of Peruvians support him, according to the Apoyo firm, Peru’s leading pollster.

Just as the workers who closed down the Cusco airport and blocked main arteries accuse the Peruvian national government of forgetting its people, news readers might accuse agenda setters in the U.S. press of neglecting Peru. The A.P. story on Garcia was picked up by The Washington Post, but there was no sign of the recent Peruvian turmoil in the pages of The New York Times, my usual first and best source for news.

Early in the month, The Times reported on a trade pact with Peru and other nations. It’s possible that news briefs on the violent demonstrations ran only in the print edition, but online there’s been nothing about Peru since that trade update on July 8. (We are fortunate to have the AP bureau chief for Peru lined up to speak to students early in September; it’ll be interesting to hear his thoughts on U.S. press coverage of Peru.)

With The Times largely absent here, I’ve sought out other sources for news, including the daily El Commercio, which is regarded as the heavyweight among Lima papers, with a reputation for detached and thorough reporting. In keeping with its elevation of important news, the lead story today was about the electoral defeat of Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s former authoritarian leader; he was seeking a legislative seat in Japan. The paper also plays up feature stories (like a readers’ poll on the “Seven Wonders of Lima and Callao,” inspired by the international quest for the “Seven Wonders of the World,” which celebrated Machu Picchu).

Readers pay a bit more for Commercio news (2 soles); most papers at the corner stand sell for 1 sol. (After only a couple of days of buying the paper, the man who watches over the newstand from a wheelchair started having a paper ready for me each morning, always slipped inside a plastic bag, as a customer service, no matter the weather. I’ll be sorry to tell him that we’re moving in a couple of days to the official Goshen College apartment).

Another good source for news, from an expatriate perspective, is Living in Peru.com. The site features morning news headlines (“Peru’s President Travels to Japan”), classified ads (“Beautiful 2 Bdr. House in San Isidro”), travel tips (“Our study of the Amazon pink dolphin”), forum for readers (sports, politics, funny stuff and more).

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Raise Your Horn, But Not Your Voice

July 27, 2007 at 1:00 am (Dateline: Lima)

At first blush, the city of Lima seems like an especially favorable setting for road rage. The streets are clogged with cars, buses, combis (minibuses or vans), motorcycles, bicycles and, at the bottom of the pecking order, pedestrians. Among the advantages that other drivers have over bicycles and walkers is the use of the horn.

On the main avenues, it’s loud from morning till night. Everyone is honking about something. You can honk when you want someone to let you change lanes. You can honk when you want to alert a pedestrian that you’re about to knock him senseless. You can honk when you want someone to know that your cab is empty.

What’s different about the drivers, here, though, compared with, say, drivers in New York City, is that despite all the honking, people don’t seem to get angry with one another. In our short time here, we’ve seen relatively little yelling or fist shaking. So amid all of the aggressive driving, one has a sense that all is well with the world.

Wanting us to be smart travelers, our Peruvian friends have given us a few rules to go by:

1. Always negotiate the cost of a taxi ride before getting in. This is true for Peruvians as well as for we newcomers. We’re not great bargainers but have occasionally talked our way to a slightly cheaper ride (say five soles instead of six — roughly $1.60 instead of $2). The cabs do not have meters.

2. In the States, we say, “Look both ways before crossing the street.” Here it’s best to look both ways, wait for a break in traffic and then run like the wind, still looking both ways. Alternatively, you can seek out a Peruvian who is about to cross the street and stay close.

Riding buses and combis can be a bargain. The standard fare is one sol, or roughly 30 cents, for several miles or more. So far we’ve been unable to secure a map that shows exact routes of buses and combis, but on the main avenues they seem to go predictably straight for long stretches.

To get from the apartment where we are temporarily living to the official Goshen College residence costs about five soles by cab, and two soles for combis going north and then west; it’s about a 20-minute walk (add extra time if you plan advance prayers for safekeeping).

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North of Lima, Where the Sun Shines

July 22, 2007 at 3:23 am (Peru)

In this country of contrasts, I saw sunshine for the first time in a week, but only after having left the capital, Lima, and traveled by bus about seven hours north along the coast, to Chimbote.

This time of year the capital is in the grip of a stubborn coastal mist, known as garua, which means waking up to cloudy skies that always promise rain but almost never deliver it. We did experience light spray one evening, and everyone said it was raining, but that gave the clouds too much credit. (How can a meteorologist make an honest living in Lima?)

Chimbote, in the north, sees more sun. This is a gift not to be taken lightly, as so much else in that city points to darkness. Decades ago the city apparently was something of a maritime engine. As a result of overfishing, unplanned growth, an earthquake in 1970 and no doubt many other factors, the city languishes, without jobs to offer its people.

Three Goshen College students are doing their service work there, the reason for our visit. Two of the three are volunteers at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, teaching English to children, among other things; the third student is working in a hospital, providing care for orphans and others. On the day we visited she was responsible for two preemies, one two months old and the other six months old; both had been abandoned and given over to the hospital, fighting for life.

In a courtyard at the parish, on the way to a breakfast of coffee and fruit and bread, one finds two plaques, in English and Spanish:

I slept and I dreamt that life was joy; I awoke and saw that life was service; I served and saw that service was joy. (R. Tagore)

Dormia y sonaba que la vida era alegria; me desperte y vi que la vida era servicio; servi y vi que el servicio era alegria.

Here the door is open for the poor and castout, as well as volunteers from the States. Volunteers at the church are welcome for however long they wish to stay, and for whatever role they wish to play, and the list of parish programs is impressive: soup kitchen, daycare, choirs, sewing class, AA, Casa de Refuge for battered women, medical clinic. We hope to place Goshen students there again in the fall semester.

Before we went to Chimbote we wondered whether the trip would go smoothly. Elsewhere in the country, especially in the south, strikes and demonstrations have blocked roadways and made travel difficult in recent weeks. Teachers and other workers rose up to protest low wages and the national government in general, whether its reform efforts or inattention. During our night in Chimbote, we read that protesters had set fires and shut down the airport in Cuzco (the jumping off point for tourists headed to Machu Picchu). But we had no trouble taking a bus north and since our return to Lima the labor tensions seem to have cooled, with teacher negotiations under way.

Even without protesters, though, our bus ride was an adventure. Since the main road north is only two lanes, one in each direction, we passed all the slower vehicles — which was just about every one going our way. On the way to Chimbote, our driver was fearless, even in the dark. He tried passing a gasoline truck as we were approaching the crest of a hill, only to have to swerve back when the lights of another vehicle bore down on us. Ouch. Next time I may watch the movies (four of them, with subtitles, impressively squeezed into our seven-hour ride).

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Packing for Delta and Peru

July 7, 2007 at 9:35 pm (Dateline: Goshen)

How do you pack when going to Peru for a whole year? How many long-sleeved shirts? How many short-sleeved shirts? Will one pair of nice jeans serve well enough? A week’s supply of socks? Two week’s supply?

Fortunately, I guess, Delta Air Lines makes it easy for the indecisive by imposing strict limits from on high: you can check two bags, each weighing up to 50 pounds (and not exceeding 62 inches when you total length and width and height). If you try to push your luck, penalties may kick in. If a bag weighs 51 to 70 pounds, the fee is $25; 71 to 100 pounds, $100. A bag that is oversized immediately gets hit with a $100 fee.

Along with two suitcases, Delta lets you take a carry-on bag weighing up to 40 pounds (and easily fitting into their “SizeWise” unit, which measures 22 inches by 14 inches by 9 inches). And, finally, you’re allowed one personal item like a purse, a computer or a camera case.

I got out a tape measure and measured my largest bag, a Samsonite borrowed from a friend, at least three times. It passes my home test, though barely, measuring 61-62 inches without a bulge. Fully loaded, the bag weighed about 45 pounds (using a bathroom scale, I measured myself, and then I measured myself while holding the bag. It’s not the most sophisticated method, but reasonably reliable I hope).

Goshen College issues a suggested packing list for students (who are staying for three months). The list for men includes: three or four long-sleeved shirts, one or two pair of nice jeans and a week’s supply of socks.

The college helpfully ventures into fashion advice as well: “You are always safe with darker clothes — browns, tans, blacks.” Knowing that more than one student at Goshen College has been known to attend classes barefooted, there’s a call to formality: “Street dress tends to be ‘dressy’ much more so than in the U.S. (and way more dressy than on campus!).”

P.S. This is the last Goshen dateline. Our flight leaves South Bend at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, with a long layover in Atlanta, and arrival in Lima scheduled for 10:57 p.m.

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