week in Mollendo

Well, within one week in Peru both my laptop AND my camera are long gone. The camera theft happened last Thursday night while I was sleeping on an overnight bus.. they snatched it right from underneath my feet... I am sooo bummed, now all my pictures from Colombia are gone- so you guys will just have to trust me that it is a gorgeous country, full of huge lush mountains rising out next to the emerald sea. It sucks to have to be ´´thankfull´´ that ONLY the camera and laptop are gone, but such is life here, I guess. I had been super cautious all the past 5 months and had good luck, then I let my guard down and they got me. But it could have been worse, of course. The camera has been replaced, but the pictures are gone forever.
After Thursday night, I seriously never wanted to be on a bus ever again here, but Friday night I found myself on another bus heading to the border with Chile to where they sell all the cheap electronics. The director of the Mollendo office (where I am working this week) invited me to sleep at her parent´s house when we arrived in Tacna at 3am. When I woke up, I felt so refreshed and rejuvinated after sleeping on such uncomfortable beds the past week in Puno. I thought that I would creep downstairs and see if her parents wouldn´t mind calling a cab for me to go to the market. Nonsense. They sat me down to breakfast as we watched the world cup´s game that day. Then they insisted that they would accompany me to the market to protect me and make sure I wasn´t getting the ´gringo especial´. Spending the day with them, I felt like I was with my own grandparents in Mexico. They had similar mannerisms, there were similar smells coming from the kitchen, and they treated me just like family. Even their cars had the same smell. I had planned to leave right after buying the camera, but they drew me in with their kindness and I could think of nothing better than just hanging out at their house. When Sonia was done with her meetings that day, we went out to a bar in Tacna, which is apparently full of Chileans crossing over the border to the much cheaper prices and casinos in Tacna.
Sunday we had lunch, then took the bus back to Mollendo (of course, the bus was scheduled to leave at 1pm, and by 3pm we were probably about 10km from the bus terminal..grrr)

So, this week I have been in Mollendo, a city on the ocean. Since it is winter the skies are grey and the town is pretty quiet. I don´t even know how to describe the impact that meeting all these women has had on me, but here I will share two of the stories-
´´Victoria goes where the crowds are to sell her home made sweets, to soccer games, bus stops, parties, the beach. The work is hard, and is made even harder because she is a widow. She begins to cry as she tells me about her son, the youngest of 7 who at 19 years of age is struggling to find a way to go to the university. This youngest son would be the only one of the family to be able to go to the University, but she cannot afford the 100$ per month living expenses. She worries about how she can find a way to send him to school, and the strain of being a single mother weighs heavily on her. She grabs my arm and begs me to help them, to help her son go to school, and I am at a loss for words. It is so easy as an American to say ´look for a scholarship or a student loan´, but i´m not sure if those resources are available in Peru. The issue is not so much the tuition, it is the cost of living outside of the home, and the closest University is 2 hours away´´ This lady really affected me, seeing her break down into tears, telling me about her abusive husband, her worries about her son, begging me to help her.. and she was just so tiny and petite, working countless hours a day just to earn a few dollars, taking out a 100$ loan that will take her 6 months to pay back.. I found on google a new micro finance organization that specifically helps students by loaning them money for college http://vittana.org/ which is a great idea.
´´Natalia lives alone on a sparsely populated dusty hill in a 3-walled shack, and the walls are just woven mats so the cold wind passes through. She does everything on her own because her six children are all grown and gone. It´s hard to imagine this petite, old woman raising bulls, but that just goes to show that she is a fighter. This is Natalia´s first loan, and she decided to join Pro Mujer because she saw the success her daughters had with Pro Mujer. Natalia buys bulls when they are young and then raises them to sell them when they´re grown. With the bulls, a few sheep, and by growing a small amount of corn, Natalia manages to have enough money to eat. She is from Puno, 8 hours inland, but says that a lifetime of bad luck has left her here, alone. Here she lives alone, surrounded by dust, flies, and her only companion, her dog, has contracted a sickness and is slowly wasting away. But still, Natalia manages to smile.´´ Visiting this woman´s home today was also just... sad. It is hard to see hope in this situation, but the credit promoter who took me to her house said something like ´´Yes, but these people are used to sleeping in the cold. They´ve probably been this way for their whole lives, possibly even in worse conditions. At least now she has a way to make some money´´.. The woman was just so sweet and cute, and all alone, it just killed me.

Then, during lunch I go to my hotel and flip through the channels. The ´reality´ shows today are disturbing to watch after spending a day out with these women. . the juxtaposition of these two completely different realities- a housewife in LA vs a farmer in Peru, is the perfect demonstration of the vast disparities and the division of wealth that exists in the world... 16 year olds getting million dollar birthday parties versus people working 14 hours to make one dollar...
And the dreamy look that people here get in their eyes when I tell them i´m from the US ´´wow... the united states...what´s it like? it must be wonderful there, huh? take me with you...´´