October 6, 2007
From SATA-Peru-2007
At first I wasn't sure anything extraordinary happened today and that this journal entry would be something like, "today we ate friend cheese." But after reflecting a bit more on some of the things I saw this afternoon, I realized that even a seemingly ordinary day here is very different from what I would be doing or seeing in Connecticut. Although I have seen homeless people in many U.S. cities like Boston or New York, for example, I've never seen it like this. This afternoon I saw a woman that didn’t look to be more than a few years older than me, if not the same age. She was breastfeeding her baby on the sidewalk in filthy clothes and selling some small bags of toasted corn. No matter how many times I see people like her, I don’t think it is something I can ever become desensitized to. It’s especially difficult comparing my own situation with whatever she goes through on a daily basis. It has definitely changed my perception of what it means to be having a bad day. Besides the difficulties of living in poverty, these same people often deal with vicious discrimination. Even knowing the Quechuan language is enough to be looked down upon by others. More prejudiced Peruvians consider campesinos to be dirty and ignorant people. On Friday night there was a party for Javier, one of the heads of CBC, who is ending his time here and returning to France. In his speech, he mentioned his memory of childhood and playing with other children of different ethnicities and/or social classes. He explained how it never occurred to him that anyone was different at all. They were simply his playmates. Somehow things change when people get older. At least there are places like the CBC seeking to address the issues. For dinner we did have fried pastry filled with cheese served with guacamole. In Peru they’re called tequeños.
