The Peru Chronicles - Living in Interesting Times

For the last day and a half I've been bedridden with some kind of intestinal bacterial infection. I'm just glad that the problem is isolted to the intestings - often these things are accompanied by violent volmiting spells. Even people who have lived here all their lies occasionally get sick from the water or from foods that are either not well prepared, or are prepared using bad ingredients. For example, before we left Lima, there was a story on the news about a truck that the police intercepted in Huancayo. The truck had around 10,000 butchered chickens inside - in various states of decay. The truck, with its spoiled cargo, was destined for local Huancayo markets and restaraunts. Who knows how many people would have gotten sick if the truck had fulfilled its mission.

I finally got enough strength today to spend sometime out of bed. I was talking with Mama Maria about Christmas. She told me that yesterday she was convinced that it was Christmas Eve, and she felt so bad because she hadn't taken her baby Jesus figurine to the Mass of the Rooster. Mama Maria is surprisingly lucid for a lady of 89 years old.

Christmas in Peru is a big deal in the majority of families. Every house I've been to has its nativity scene, and many have lights. After talking with Mama Maria for a while, Mama Eddy joined in. She expressed her displeasure with Christmas and the hypocricy surounding it. She said, 'everyone puts up their nativity scenes and goes to mass, and when they go home you see how they really are.' Here, they leave the Christmas Tree up until January 6th, the Descent of the Wise Men.

Dominga came to wash clothes today. I didn't realize it because I was in bed. Last time she washed clothes I gave her an extra five soles for her work, only to learn a few days later that it was counterfeit. Since everyone was running around today, nobody prepared any kind of lunch for her an her son, so they are going to stay a while and have lunch with the family.

While Dominga was washing clothes a gardener came with his son. Before they began cutting the grass, they chewed some coca. It took them about forty minutes to cut the grass using hedge shears, and bag up the cuttings. Mama Eddy was irritated with them because the tracked grass clippings through the house. They charged twelve soles for their work. As they left I couldn't help but wonder if they can earn twelve soles in less than an hour, how much more would they earn if they had a simple machine? Furthermore, Dominga charged thirteen soles to wash the clothes today, yet she and her son worked for several hours together. Apparently, cutting the grass has more value to the consumer than does clean clothes. Yet how many people would choose to spend their money on cutting the grass if they had to go without clean clothes in order to do so?

Earlier I heard dogs barking. Although Huancayo is a very noisey place, these dogs didn't sound normal. I drug myself out to the door to see a group of four little kids being menaced by three dogs. I gather the kids up and brought them inside. Two little girls and two little boys, the oldest of them no older an nine years old. Eventually the owner came out and gather his mutts. If I had been a little more alert I would have told him off.

It's 900 PM and I´m in a foul mood. The idiots in the city have cut off the water. Apparently they don't cut it off all over the city - for some reason here in El Tambo they do. Even on Christmas Eve, when they know that people will be busy in their kitchens the fools don't leave the water on even until 1000 PM. They probably shut it off early so they can leave and get drunk before things close for the night.

// posted by Jason y Paty @ 2:59 PM