Families in Peru
Mariana Gledhill from Wellington, N.Z spent 7 months, in 2005, in Peru doing voluntary work. She shares her experiences.
Hola Everyone
I am on the computer in my house in Chincha. I have this sneaky plan that will allow me to type an email to you all without going fully insane because of keyboards without letters and with opaque screens. This involves typing a letter on my computer here, putting it on disk, which I then take to the net café and put on my email. Clever hey?
Well, nothing much has changed. I am still in Chincha and I am still desperately trying to learn Spanish. I am getting there. Some of the people I talk with think I am fully insane when I express a desire to learn more Spanish because I sometimes have conversations where I do not make mistakes and where I understand everything! Other times, it is way more difficult. My dictionary comes with me everywhere and I am always ready to draw lots of pictures.
The Hogar is more or less the same. I am getting much closer to some of the kids than I was previously. They used to pretty much ignore me, yet now they cuddle me. I have gained a lot of new names like Señorita cante Titanic, Señorita leche, (milk, due to the colour of my skin) Señorita Marianita, Señorita Ania, and Señorita Rose (which is connected to the first one…).
I am helping out with Social Sciences, which is really fun, although challenging, as there are Quechua words as well as Spanish ones in this neck of the woods, especially since the topic is the Incas. It is sometimes hard to get the message across but I always know what I am talking about. In addition, I help the young kids with their tareas, which tries my patience heaps, however I am always asked to do it because I am patient, apparently. But believe me, that is the last thing I feel after walking the kids through their work.
Some of the kids tell me their stories, and I am always honoured to hear them. The majority are from poor families and their parents don’t have money. That is the only reason they are there. As Leydi puts it ´I have everything here but the most important thing for me, my family. ´
Here, family is the unit of society. People stay at home until marriage and when I tell people that many of my age in New Zealand don’t live at home, I am always asked why. Some people ask how the men handle cooking!
When parents don’t have jobs in New Zealand, they are given some money by the government, probably not enough but still, they are given something. Here, where the family is the unit of society and parents can’t find jobs, kids go and live with other kids in a hogar. It’s a bit of a paradox. I am not saying New Zealand should resort to putting kids in hogar like institutions- Please God, NO. I am saying that Hogars are really out of place here for that purpose, because the family is just so important.
In New Zealand, people just don’t realize how lucky they are. I know that’s a cliché, but it is so true. We frequently have no water here and sometimes the electricity cuts out. I prefer no electricity to no water because not being able to wash is really a pain. Chincha is dusty, practically desert. Walking on the street in jandles is guaranteed to make your feet dirty. When I tell my family that the government get blamed for threats of power cuts and water cuts, they burst into laughter and ask if New Zealanders think that their government is God.
Well, I have written far too much but I hope you are all well. Thanks for the emails that you have sent me. I have loved receiving them. If I have not replied, sorry.
Have a great day
Love Mariana
