El primera dia

Today is my first day in Lima. I left Honolulu on Saturday night, lost a day but no luggage, spent two hours in the airport with my driver who only speaks Spanish, rode a roller coster called the "CCS van" 45 min to my new home, and woke up this morning in another life.

After getting up at 6:30, a found a bathroom, one of 7 in the house and washed up. Breakfast was served at 7am and then we were shuttled back into the "van". We got to see one of the other places that volunteers in the house are working: Martincitos. It´s a community center for senior citizens. The seniors were so stoked to see us! They gave us kisses and hugs and even a special hello dance. The positive energy poured over the sparce but clean concrete yard. It was like swimming in sunshine. Then myself and two others rode to INABIF where I will be working for the next month. INABIF (like Martincitos) is in Villa El Salvadore, a large, sprawling, extremely poor suburb of Lima built in the desertous (dry but not hot... it´s actually quite cool and crisp) hills to the Southeast. The city seems like it has been bombed over and over. Brick buildings stand story on story ending in rebar supports pointing skyward rather than a roof. Ignorant as I am it looks like the roofs have been tore off, but I actually think that the bars point toward roofs to come, a sign that the people are building as they can. When you get a vantage point above a valley in the city you look down into a pile of brick colored dominoes, if dominoes had window shaped square dots, stacked tight against one another into an approximated honeycomb.

INABIF is a school for kids who´s family is below the poverty line - many of which are considered the extreme poor (poverty = income < $2 US per day per 4 people. Extreme poverty = <$1 US per day per four people). I can´t even understand what that means in terms of daily lifestyle. I spend $1 per day per just me on cable TV! What about $0.25 per day, I probably lose that much each day just because I misplaced it! Uf! I can´t understand, but I am humbled. Recession: not so scared anymore. After a brief tour, I was put into a classroom of 3-4 year old kids. They speak no english, niether does their teacher. I just kinda jumped in. They were learning colors. Verde y amarillo. We colored "pinta" circles by that "sigue la secuencion". Verde, amarillo, verde, amarillo, verde, amarillo etc. Then we watched Baby Einstien "animals" in English. The kids are so much more interactive than western students. Each time a new animal came on, they all repeatedly tried out thier vocab: el tigre! ¡el mono! ¡totuga, tortuga en el mar! ¡mira! ¡mira! un loro, las pezes, pajaros y pajaritos... the excitement was infectious, I found myself chanting right along with them... two little girls cuddled in my lap. I am addicted. I love them already... even the one who spit on me an accident.

The school is understaffed and underfunded. They have few supplies and one television that all the classrooms pass around to watch DVD´s. I am humbled and amazed at the positivity and productivity considering. And the kids are shockingly hearty. They fall and whack each other all the time and rarely cry. They aren´t shy. They work hard. They help each other and share. I wonder how these people with reletively nothing create such capable, loving kids.

Surco, where I live in Lima, is like souped-up, run down Chinatown minus the China. It´s full and busy and gray with colors slashed everywhere. Looking at the city looks like looking into a rubbish can after you throw out the junk mail. I have an odd attraction to it, as ugly as it is. I miss the ocean, the clean air, the sunshine, but in it´s differentness is a new type of beauty. I feel like I am in an underground version of the world as we know it. Something that I´ve been missing out on. Floating around above ground ignorant of all that this other world suffers and enjoys.

Best of the day: schoolings in positivity.
Worst of the day: embarrasingly inadequate ability to communicate.

As always, if you read this, your heart is here with mine in Lima. Thank you for your support.

¡Hasta luego!
margs