I left Huaraz. One day I would like to return and climb more of the peaks in the Cordillera Blanca. A fantastic place. I rolled out of town and soon was passing through Cañon del Pato. The canyon of ducks. I didn't see any ducks but there were several thousand tunnels, or so. The canyon is beautiful. At nightfall I ended up in a little town called Yuramarca. I stayed in a basic adobe hovel and had chicken and chips for dinner.
In the morning I continued downhill into a stiff headwind. Lunch and an asphalt road both arrived at Chuquicara and then the mountains receeded to be replaced by a wide flood plain. I met a pair of German motorbikers. I continued cycling into the darkness again and ended up in Santa. I found a resonably priced place with a TV and ensuite. The height of class. 3 quid a night. I had, you guessed it, chicken and chips for dinner and listened to a passable salsa band composed of school kids. Then I watched Beverly Hills Cop 2 in bed. In the morning I woke early enough to watch Germany give England a thrashing in the world cup. Then I headed off along the Panamericana. A pretty miserable ride into a headwind. I passed huge sand-dune mountains and a continuous stream of trucks passed me. Some traffic police stopped me to tell me to speed up as it was dangerous to enter Trujillo at night. I camped shortly after in what I think was a bamboo plantation.
Today was a short day to arrive in Trujillo and locate the "famous" (in the cycle-touring world at least) Casa de Ciclistas and meet the famous Lucho. Safely ensconced, I met the other cyclists staying there. A pair of dreadlocked Argentinians and a couple of older cyclists from Columbia in matching t-shirts. Cute. The Columbians had whipped up a bit of lunch. A spicy stew of rice, lentils, banana and avocado. Delicious and a nice welcome. Now I am off to have a look around the historic centre of the city.
I watched the bad weather roll out across Huaraz for 5 days. In the back of my mind I pictured the growing hostal bill. One good thing was that I got to meet some lovely people. I managed to convince two of them to come on a mountaineering trip.
Convincee 1: Ashley Atkins
Nationality: Confused American or wannabe Canadian.
Age: 20
Hair: Blonde.
Special Talents: Good looking, had used crampons before, takes up less space in the tent than a man, good at cooking, knows some card games, owns a large rucksack.
Weakness: Bit slow.
Convincee 2: Sam Stephens
Nationality: Cornish, English.
Age:24
Hair: Curly tangled mop.
Special Talents: Banter, homebrew knowledge, tent making knowledge, boundless enthuaism.
Weakness: Not aclimatized, might have eaten something dodgy.
Our target was Pisco. Not to be confussed with the drink or the coastal town, this 5760m peak is a Cordillera Blanca classic. It was to be a DIY trip. No guides, no donkey, no cook, no idea what we were letting ourselves in for.
First stop: rental shop. Ricardo sorted us out with a photocopied A4 map and a bunch of rental equipment. Ice axes, crampons, harnesses, rope, snow pants, etc.
Then, supermercado, bed, bus, another bus, walk, and bed again. Only this time it is in base camp. We wern't able to afford the plush refuggio with its delightful toilets with seats, soft beds and tasty nosh. Instead we used a squat toilet, squeezed 3 people into a 2-man tent, and ate pasta and sauce.
Let's rewind. Three people in a tent, at best, suited to half that number. It required either tetris like organisation or spooning.
Day two. Not a lot to do today except play cards. Ashley taught us a game called Egyptian Rat Screw. Like climbing it required quick reflexes, good judgement, and a keen eye. I lacked any of these skills and went out very fast each time we played. After lunch, which Sam couldn't face, we crossed a luna-landscape of glacial moraines. Not easy as the path is hard to make out. We set up the tent and squeezed in. Alarm set for 11:45pm.
Day Three.We woke. I unzipped the flap and pulled in some oats, powdered milk and granola. We mixed it up with some icey water in a pan and ate. Sam had one spoonfull before unzipping his side of the tent and spraying vommit on my flysheet. We got out and got dressed for the occasion. Then, roped up, we got on the glacier. The first 20m were a steepish climb if you've never used an ice axe in anger before and Ashley slipped. Fortunately I had her on a body belay and I was brased in a bucket seat I had kicked into the snow. The going got easier.
Sam's condition was not good. We were taking very frequent rests. He hadn't eaten properly for 3 meals now. He tried some biscuits which he managed to keep down. At least for about 10 minutes when he threw up again. We continued. We got slower and slower. Sam was in a bad way leaving a trail of little orange sick stains in the snow behind us. Eventually he stopped, lay down on the snow. I asked him if he was ok and he said he was exhausted and had no energy. It was inevitable we had to turn back.
Down happened a bit quicker with the only real problem being the steep section. Here Sam managed to negociate the hard part, with a progressively dimming head-torch, only to bag himself in the eye with his ice-axe. Poor guy. Ashley and Sam scampered off back to bed. I turned around and, in the breaking dawn, headed up to the top alone.
After passing our turn-around point I headed up several snowy slopes, all walking but with progressively more dangerous outcomes if you slipped. Fantastic snow formations, crevases and icicles.
Further up the snow became more powdery and the trail more blown out. It was very windy. I climbed a seemingly never-ending slope right beside a 3000m drop. Then the slope eased and I just plodded upwards. Very little air up there and I had to breathe hard and walk slow. Eventually I reached another steep section and the summit. My third mountain above 5000m and in the most adventurous style yet.
Dorothee is one of a number of RTW cyclists I have met. We bumped into each other briefly in La Serena and then again in La Paz. She's nearing the end of her trip after over two years on the road.
You have nearly cycled all the way around the world. Which countries have been the best for you? Which countries that you have missed this time would you like to visit?
There are around 200 countries on this Earth, so far I covered only a fifth. Even if there are some countries I don't want to cycle in, there are still a lot missing. But first of all all the "-stan" Countries and Iran, and all the African countries (I cycled only in Madagascar). Hopefully I still can cycle when I am 90 years ald to cover all of them.
Can you recommend a book? What is it about?
No, not really. There are so many good books. Perhaps I can recommend you a very good book, after I have written mine :-), it will be about my trip around the world of course, about all the fantastic people I met.
It is a shame I missed making a recording of your flute playing but can you tell me which is your favourite piece to play and if you have a favourite piece to listen to on the road...
If I have a good piano player: Franz Schubert: Die Schoene Muellerin Variations, Cesar Franck Sonate, When I am alone, JSB Bach Solo Suites, and Philip Emanuel Bach Solo Sonata.
On the road on my bike, I don't listen to music, I prefer to listen to the birds, the water in the rivers, the leaves in the wind. What I don't like are barking dogs and whistling men.
What is the best thing for you about travelling by bike?
Everything! You should know about it, I could write a whole book about it, perhaps I will.
When and where will be your next cycle tour be?
At first I have to finish this one, but I think after two years it's time to take off again for a longer time. Hopefully I can visit then the "-stan" countries and Iran.
If you could make an international law to make the world a better place what would it be?
Actually the world is a very nice place, if there wouldn't be just a few people who are destroying it. There are a lot of laws already which are ignored.
But if I could introduce something, which makes it easier to see the world, I would introduce a World Wide Visa for cyclists.
What is the best bit of equipment you carry?
Lucky me I have some good bits of equipments, of course my solid bike, my tent which keeps me dry, my stove for my essential coffee in the morning... I hope they hold out the last months
best of luck with the rest of your trip...
Thanks same to you
Donkey Daydreaming
Sometimes I wonder what donkeys are thinking. It's hard to tell. I was sitting by the side of the track on the Cordillera Huayhuash trek with Dave. We had just eaten our sandwiches and were sat enjoying the view. Towering peaks with elegant flutings of snow that, seemingly defying physics, cling to the near vertical slopes.
Up the track behind us came a line of donkeys and a Peruvian on a horse. The donkeys are used to carry all the equipment for the many tour groups that are continuously hiking around this trail. They didn't seem to have much enthusiam as they walked past. Thier backs were loaded up with tents, rucksacks, gas canisters, wooden crates, guitars, fold up seats and mountains of food. The tour group, some way behind, are left with nice light packs. The big donkey eyes gave away nothing on their expressionless faces.
The trek, which takes between eight to fourteen days, was recently voted the second most-beautiful trek in the world by National Geographic. It is located South of the Cordillera Blanca. Huaraz, the Peruvian equivalent of Chamonix, is a good place to base your stay in the region.
In some ways Dave and I had at least some idea how the donkeys felt. We didn't have the nice light packs and we didn't arrive in the camps with our food prepared and our tents errected. Instead we lugged ten days of food up each pass in heavy packs. We had an affinity to our four-legged friends. We had cleared the supermarket in Huaraz out of spaggheti and, on alternate nights, we looked forward to adding a tin of tuna.
Getting a good square meal...
One afternoon we arrived in the little village called Huayhuash. Well, village is a grand word for two adobe shacks and a dozen tents. We took off our rucksacks and rested against some rocks. The donkeys were being unloaded and, as far as we could tell, seemed to be enjoying it. Some of them ran about but most just munched grass.
'It would be very convinient if humans could eat grass wouldn't it?'
'I expect it would get boring after a while,' replied Dave, humouring me.
'Yes. Like pasta.'
We decided to try asking at one of the houses if we could buy dinner. Not only was the pasta diet getting tedious but we had quite limited amounts of both food and fuel. Happily, the farmer, in a rustic wide-brimmed hat, agreed and told us to come back at seven that night. When we arrived, the single room of the house was filled with smoke. It poured out of an adobe built wood stove which was being stoked with dried grass. We took our places on a bench with a sheepskin. The nicely laid table was lit with a candle in an old tin can. As the smoke cleared, we saw that a few women in tradditional dress were sat in the corner beside a wall. Alfondo, the farmer, brought us big bowls of soup. Big chunks of potato floated in the broth. Dave explained in basic spanish that his father was a potato farmer in Northern Ireland and he loves potatoes. Alfondo brought us another plate full. After making short work of the main course, rice and chicken, we wished the family good night. On our way out we were invited for breakfast the next morning.
Alfondo's mother was full of life in the morning and dancing to Quechua music playing from a small radio that hung off a rusty nail. She served us fresh homemade cheese with crusty bread which was washed down with warm milk. All from the cattle that grazed just outside in the massive valley. Once we had eaten our fill, Alfondo showed us the cheese-making equipment. Very basic stuff.
'This could be Ireland a hunded years ago,' said Dave.
Touching the Saftey Pins
Most of the campsites along the route have a squat toilet. These vary in design and quality but smell equallly revolting. Some are made with a few bits of timber and turf. Others have a solid block of concrete with a hole in the middle. Some are nicely built little things, others just a bit of tin with no door or roof. In one toilet the hole in the concrete was rather small and, in full squat, I had to do a little crab-shuffle to drop the bombs on target. They drop into an enormous void.
Joe Simpson, the acident-prone mountaineer and writer, was probably thinking of a different kind of void when he named his famous book Touching the Void. The mountain where he and his rope-cutting partner, Simon Yates, got into so much mischiff can be seen from Paso San Antonio.
We stayed an hour on the top of the pass admiring the view. SulÃa Grande, the cravase strewn glacier, the lake at the bottom. I went through the story from the book in my head trying to spot where the events occured.
The track down the other side of the pass was steep scree. Dave set off at a Kamakazee pace and I did my best to keep up. Then, perhaps inspired by Mr Simpson, Dave lost his footing and fell onto a rock with a yell of pain. He's broken a leg, I thought, and started to think how I would pull off an epic rescue. I felt in my pocket to check I had my penknife.
The graze ran the length of his shin interspersed with dull blue bruising but otherwise he was fine. His trousers were ripped at the knee. Savlon and saftey pins from Dave's first-aid kit sorted him out. Although, he did look like he had stolen his trousers from a seventies punk rocker.
We lost the track a little and followed directly down the valley which became a gorge. We teetered down loose black sand, and hopped between boulders. I saw Dave standing at the top of an overhanging waterfall. There was no way past. Fortunately we had no rope, so there would be no need for the penknife. Dave found a slippery grass ledge and cautiously made his way down past the waterfall. He said it was ok. Oh great. Now I have to do it too.
In the valley, we were able to hide our rucksacks behind some boulders. Then, unladen, we headed up to the lake for a superb view of the glacier and SulÃa Grande.
A Donkey's Dream
At the end of our trek we followed a narrow path into Llamac to wait for a bus back to Huaraz. We stood off the path to let some pack-donkeys past. I wondered if they had the same sense of satisfaction getting to the end of the walk. Did they have the same memories of indescribable beauty in their heads, somewhere inbetween those oversized ears. Probably not. They were probably going to be glad to have more grass to eat and less stuff on their backs. So, when I think about it, I am glad I am not a donkey.
I met mike just outside of a town called Ayaviri as I was heading from Lago Titicaca towards Cusco. We cycled together up to Cusco and for a jaunt around the sacred valley. He started his trip 4 months before in Puerto Montt and he flew home from Cusco this time. Check out his blog and his photography site.
1. Can you quickly describe your cycle tours, your bike and your philosophy. Don't go on and on!!! ha ha
Oh heck, philosophy is something I don't think about... just like riding and experiencing the 'places & people in between' that you don't get to see any other way. There needs to be mountains though... "as for describe my tours without going on and on".. ya ok, short and concise then I've bike toured in India, Ladakh, Kashmir, Pakistan, China, Morocco, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Croatia, Bosnia, Spain, France... raced in a bunch of countries and travelled a whole bunch of other countries too. short enough?I like journeys that represent something of a challenge...
Oops, forgot my bike,... for wild and woolly stuff I have a Mk1 Thorn Nomad now in it's 7th year and showing a nice patina of wear :-) for lighter road tours I have a Salsa Casseroll built up with some classic components... The Nomad appeared on my blog in 2007 here (minus marathon tyres) and my Casseroll is here.
2. Can you recommend a good kayak trip in Cornwall, please.
The whole of cornwall is good, if looking for a good day out though then launch at Sennen, paddle around Lands End to Porthgwarra or Porthcurno, and return - perhaps with a detour out to the Longships reef is good.. lots of caves and rock arches to explore if not too rough, tidal races to play in, seals, dolphins and in summer enormous (8m) basking sharks to see
3. What is the your favourite phrase in Spanish?
Es la lucha... it's the fight.. used in same way as english folk use c'est la vie/that's life
4. Do you have a cycle touring tip?
no... wait, yes actually I do... stick a rolled up copy of your passport inside your handlebars, that way if bike is nicked and recovered it's easy to prove ownership. Inside your bars is also a handy place to keep spare spokes.
5. Can you recommend a book? What is it about?
hey what is this.. Radio 4? but seeing as you asked yes I think I can....it's called The Art of Looking Sideways, it's like a posh scrapbook about turning ideas upside down, looking at the world differently... something I like doing :-) It's not a book to read all at once, heck it's 4 inches thick, but rather one to pick up and open at a random page when you need some inspiration or have an idle moment.
6. You are a bit of a nifty photographer...Can you give me advice on taking a good shot on tour...What was the best photo of your trip this time
Ah thank you very much :-) advice, oh that's difficult, I tend to shoot on instinct but perhaps one good piece of advice is always to pay attention to the edges of your viewfinder.. so many photos get trashed by random 'things' appearing at the edges that distract from the point of the picture itself. Don't listen to all the bollocks people say about a photo telling a story, it doesn't have to... a picture can be completely abstract with no subject or point at all beyond colour or pattern. It helps as well before you pick up your camera to think about what you were about to photograph... look with your eyes before picking up the camera... I'm not articulating very well but that's best I can explain, you have to be receptive to seeing a picture before the camera gets in the way... and don't be a slave to the camera, you don't have to take a picture of everything :-)
Very difficult to pick a best photo from this trip, one of my favourites tho is this one... it's in Cafayate and I like it because it's just perfect (for me) instinctive street photography.. it's simple, graphic, captures a moment in time and manages to give a feel for the places well. I'm a 'lazy' photographer in that I don't pre-plan or premeditate or anything. I just go for a walk with my camera and see what catches my eye or what situations I react to.
If I have a favourite photo of all time I think it's this one... tribesmen on the Pakistan/Afghan border in 2000.
7. What is the best thing for you about travelling by bike?
Oh that's easy... absolute, unbounded freedom (and extreme coolness... haha)
8. you could make an international law to make the world a better place what would it be?
Yep, that would be to make greed and selfishness a criminal offence punishable by community service... or something. Shit, I sound like Miss World...
9. What is the best bit of equipment you carry?
My Rab sleeping bag... oh, and a big knife :-)
I've not posted much about my ride over the mountains from Cusco to Lima. It was terrific and took in some superb scenery and some lovely remote villages and several great campspots in the hills and beside rivers in picturesque valleys. I was just too busy enjoying it. Sorry.
Now, I make no appologies that this will be an unusually long post for me. And possibly rather serious at times. If that's not your bag...shame on you!!
In Lima, I've been lucky enough to meet up with Judith Godfrey who is the wife of Bishop H. William Godfrey, or "Bishop Bill". I got in touch with her through the Mother's Union to visit some of the outreach projects in Lima.
So, we hopped in Judith's 4x4 and set off through the crazy Lima traffic. It is especially bad at the moment because of road works associated with a new train line being built on concrete stilts. I have discovered on my bike that the traffic was pretty bad to start with. Traffic lights make it worse and traffic policemen just cause gridlock.
We made our way out through the poorer areas of town skirting a hill. Judith pointed out the yellow concrete staircases built between the houses. These are the brainchild of Luis Lossio, the Mayor of Lima. Judith had good words to say about this politician who seems to have a very practical approach. The staircases replace treacherous dirt roads. Other projects by the Mayor include using old cargo containers as makeshift hospitals in the shanty towns.
We turned off onto a dirt road and into a steep valley. Here the houses are all shacks. As the shanty town has been pushed further back it has crept higher and higher up the slope. Shacks are perched at incredible angles. We parked beside a huge ramshackle graveyard. Not a solemn attractive municipal cemetry but a area of brown sandy ground where people go to bury their dead. In their hundreds.
Here, Lima is expanding. People arrive and claim a plot of land and put up a shack. This often happens at night and with quite a few people from the same area. Sometimes these people have come from other areas in Peru but sometimes from overcrowded areas of Lima. Almost immediately they have to defend, perhaps with violence, their claim from other people who claim to own it. The Police and even the Army might get involved. If they get to stay they are perched in a shack on a mountainside. To begin with they have no services. No road, water, sewerage, electricity or fuel. The first service to arrive is electricity. This is because they steal it. They set up a cable on some bamboo poles and some lucky chap shinnies up an electricity pole and connects it. For water a truck from the water company comes by and fills up blue water barrels. These then have to be transported up slippery muddy tracks to the hillside shacks. Sewerage is a hole dug in the ground.
Imagine living in such conditions.
Now imagine bringing up children there.
Now imagine that one of your children has a disability. Whilst travelling through Bolivia and Peru I have seen disabled or mentaly ill people being treated in a way that to me seemed apalling. It is considered a stigma. Judith told me about a family who locked a man away on a roof terrace and he had no contact with anyone other than someone bringing him food each day. Out of sight out of mind.
We visited the Shalom centre. This is a small school and theraphy centre for disabled children. The building it is housed in at the moment is rented. There is a small physiotherapy room, a room for language therapy and a room for ocupational therapy. The mothers sit in on the therapies. It is important to teach them that it is nothing to be ashamed of to have a disabled child. They are given encouragement that they will be able to cope. Pat, who runs the centre, has found a new building that she has bought and hopes to move to. We took a look. It is much bigger but has no proper roof yet. Also, as it turns out, the foundations are not too good. So there is no room to expand with an extra floor as had been planned. But, when it is finished, it will certainly be an improvement. As we walked in there was a woman Judith knew sitting on the floor sewing. She had about six factory made children's jumpers. They needed finishing off by hand. For each one she will earn about half a sol. So, she might earn about 75p.
Sewing, knitting, shoe-making and needlecraft are taught in a group in the back room of the Santa Maria church. These are skills that can be used to make things to sell. I wondered how these skills have not been passed on mother-to-daughter. Judith explained that life in the shanty towns has disturbed the way these skills would normally have been taught. I won't pretend that I have much interest in knitting groups in general...but the importance of these projects can't be understated.
The Arpilleras project is interesting. Arpilleras are not easily described (but I will try!). They are a form of three dimensional mixture of tapestry and collage. Basically, little pieces of material are sown into little people, trees, animals etc. and they are then all sown onto a background to make a scene. Often these are biblical scenes such as The Good Shepard or Noah's Ark. Each arpillera is made individualy without a pattern. There are no two alike. The technique is used to make decorative pannels, bags, glasses cases, purses and that kind of thing. They are works of art.
The Association of Anglican Women (AMA), which is Peru's version of the MU, supports this project. In an upstairs room of a small church, called "Jesus of Nazareth", a group of women meet up to sew the arpilleras. An AMA member who previously worked on a similar scheme in Africa has helped by introducing a level of quality control. The meeting means the women can share ideas. The project has an interesting financial model. Many of the arpilleras are sold in the USA, yet the women are paid for their work at a good Peruvian rate. In the States they are sold at double. The difference in put in a fund. The women who make the arpilleras can use the money in the fund for operations, education, house extensions, or similar life-altering reasons.
In more advanced areas of shanty town proper roads are built. The roads are built by the local people and will often resemble the roads from the areas they come from. For example if they are from the mountains they bring their horrid cobbles. In one of the more established areas the water company has built a water tank. This means a better quality of water at a better price. Eventually, all these areas will improve but I wonder how long the city can keep expanding in this crazy way.
AMA works alongside the Anglican Church's NGO in Peru. The Anglican Church has little political clout in Peru but its social projects are noticably valuable. They have their work cut out. Children projects attract money quite well. As do "novelties" such as a project to teach the rearing of ducks for food or sale. Ducks are more disease resistant than hens and some breeds require very little water. Other projects, the bread and butter, are less glamorous. There is no end in sight for the work that can be done. That needs to be done. Just a shortage of money to acheive it.
I could not possibly visit all the projects. There are projects to teach bakery, jewellery making, gardening (to cultivate small plots for food), work in prisons, health centres, children's homes and there are plenty of areas beside Lima that could use this kind of help.
In 2007 there was an earthquake on the central coast of Peru. Emergency projects established in towns south of Lima have remained their ever since. There are many other places where the same could happen.
Another day I visited a school called San Mateo with a volunteer from Manchester called Mike. Lima has a state school system but the standard is very low. There are also private schools, to a good standard, but they are very expensive. Anglican schools such as San Mateo offer affordable education at a good standard. In particular they place importance in dance, music, art and sport which are neglected in the state schools. San Mateo is in NE Lima is quite a marginalised area.
The day I visited the school with Mike there was certainly a good deal of dancing as the children practised for a big celebration dance the next day. One of the dances, from the jungle I was told, included the boys pretending to be tigers and then doing something rather suggestive with swords whilst girating thier hips...All the dance practise happened in the small patio area which was also used for sport and for lunch. The school has the normal classrooms as well as a small computer room with a jumble of different makes and ages, a library with too many books in English (mostly too advanced for the kids) from well meaning donations, and a nursery with tiny children sleeping and one, the entire day I was there, crying for his mummy.
Seeing a school for a day really only gave me the briefest look. Although small and basic the children seem to be getting a good normal schooling. Mike is certainly a helpful chap and no doubt his time at the school will be of great value to the pupils.
Websites
Anglican Church in Peru
San Mateo School
AMA blog
I'm in Huaraz just now for a bit of trekking in the mountains...I will fill you in soon.
Please consider supporting people, like my Mum, who give up their time to help others by donating to the Mother's Union.
Now, I make no appologies that this will be an unusually long post for me. And possibly rather serious at times. If that's not your bag...shame on you!!
In Lima, I've been lucky enough to meet up with Judith Godfrey who is the wife of Bishop H. William Godfrey, or "Bishop Bill". I got in touch with her through the Mother's Union to visit some of the outreach projects in Lima.
So, we hopped in Judith's 4x4 and set off through the crazy Lima traffic. It is especially bad at the moment because of road works associated with a new train line being built on concrete stilts. I have discovered on my bike that the traffic was pretty bad to start with. Traffic lights make it worse and traffic policemen just cause gridlock.
We made our way out through the poorer areas of town skirting a hill. Judith pointed out the yellow concrete staircases built between the houses. These are the brainchild of Luis Lossio, the Mayor of Lima. Judith had good words to say about this politician who seems to have a very practical approach. The staircases replace treacherous dirt roads. Other projects by the Mayor include using old cargo containers as makeshift hospitals in the shanty towns.
We turned off onto a dirt road and into a steep valley. Here the houses are all shacks. As the shanty town has been pushed further back it has crept higher and higher up the slope. Shacks are perched at incredible angles. We parked beside a huge ramshackle graveyard. Not a solemn attractive municipal cemetry but a area of brown sandy ground where people go to bury their dead. In their hundreds.
Here, Lima is expanding. People arrive and claim a plot of land and put up a shack. This often happens at night and with quite a few people from the same area. Sometimes these people have come from other areas in Peru but sometimes from overcrowded areas of Lima. Almost immediately they have to defend, perhaps with violence, their claim from other people who claim to own it. The Police and even the Army might get involved. If they get to stay they are perched in a shack on a mountainside. To begin with they have no services. No road, water, sewerage, electricity or fuel. The first service to arrive is electricity. This is because they steal it. They set up a cable on some bamboo poles and some lucky chap shinnies up an electricity pole and connects it. For water a truck from the water company comes by and fills up blue water barrels. These then have to be transported up slippery muddy tracks to the hillside shacks. Sewerage is a hole dug in the ground.
Imagine living in such conditions.
Now imagine bringing up children there.
Now imagine that one of your children has a disability. Whilst travelling through Bolivia and Peru I have seen disabled or mentaly ill people being treated in a way that to me seemed apalling. It is considered a stigma. Judith told me about a family who locked a man away on a roof terrace and he had no contact with anyone other than someone bringing him food each day. Out of sight out of mind.
We visited the Shalom centre. This is a small school and theraphy centre for disabled children. The building it is housed in at the moment is rented. There is a small physiotherapy room, a room for language therapy and a room for ocupational therapy. The mothers sit in on the therapies. It is important to teach them that it is nothing to be ashamed of to have a disabled child. They are given encouragement that they will be able to cope. Pat, who runs the centre, has found a new building that she has bought and hopes to move to. We took a look. It is much bigger but has no proper roof yet. Also, as it turns out, the foundations are not too good. So there is no room to expand with an extra floor as had been planned. But, when it is finished, it will certainly be an improvement. As we walked in there was a woman Judith knew sitting on the floor sewing. She had about six factory made children's jumpers. They needed finishing off by hand. For each one she will earn about half a sol. So, she might earn about 75p.
Sewing, knitting, shoe-making and needlecraft are taught in a group in the back room of the Santa Maria church. These are skills that can be used to make things to sell. I wondered how these skills have not been passed on mother-to-daughter. Judith explained that life in the shanty towns has disturbed the way these skills would normally have been taught. I won't pretend that I have much interest in knitting groups in general...but the importance of these projects can't be understated.
The Arpilleras project is interesting. Arpilleras are not easily described (but I will try!). They are a form of three dimensional mixture of tapestry and collage. Basically, little pieces of material are sown into little people, trees, animals etc. and they are then all sown onto a background to make a scene. Often these are biblical scenes such as The Good Shepard or Noah's Ark. Each arpillera is made individualy without a pattern. There are no two alike. The technique is used to make decorative pannels, bags, glasses cases, purses and that kind of thing. They are works of art.
The Association of Anglican Women (AMA), which is Peru's version of the MU, supports this project. In an upstairs room of a small church, called "Jesus of Nazareth", a group of women meet up to sew the arpilleras. An AMA member who previously worked on a similar scheme in Africa has helped by introducing a level of quality control. The meeting means the women can share ideas. The project has an interesting financial model. Many of the arpilleras are sold in the USA, yet the women are paid for their work at a good Peruvian rate. In the States they are sold at double. The difference in put in a fund. The women who make the arpilleras can use the money in the fund for operations, education, house extensions, or similar life-altering reasons.
In more advanced areas of shanty town proper roads are built. The roads are built by the local people and will often resemble the roads from the areas they come from. For example if they are from the mountains they bring their horrid cobbles. In one of the more established areas the water company has built a water tank. This means a better quality of water at a better price. Eventually, all these areas will improve but I wonder how long the city can keep expanding in this crazy way.
AMA works alongside the Anglican Church's NGO in Peru. The Anglican Church has little political clout in Peru but its social projects are noticably valuable. They have their work cut out. Children projects attract money quite well. As do "novelties" such as a project to teach the rearing of ducks for food or sale. Ducks are more disease resistant than hens and some breeds require very little water. Other projects, the bread and butter, are less glamorous. There is no end in sight for the work that can be done. That needs to be done. Just a shortage of money to acheive it.
I could not possibly visit all the projects. There are projects to teach bakery, jewellery making, gardening (to cultivate small plots for food), work in prisons, health centres, children's homes and there are plenty of areas beside Lima that could use this kind of help.
In 2007 there was an earthquake on the central coast of Peru. Emergency projects established in towns south of Lima have remained their ever since. There are many other places where the same could happen.
Another day I visited a school called San Mateo with a volunteer from Manchester called Mike. Lima has a state school system but the standard is very low. There are also private schools, to a good standard, but they are very expensive. Anglican schools such as San Mateo offer affordable education at a good standard. In particular they place importance in dance, music, art and sport which are neglected in the state schools. San Mateo is in NE Lima is quite a marginalised area.
The day I visited the school with Mike there was certainly a good deal of dancing as the children practised for a big celebration dance the next day. One of the dances, from the jungle I was told, included the boys pretending to be tigers and then doing something rather suggestive with swords whilst girating thier hips...All the dance practise happened in the small patio area which was also used for sport and for lunch. The school has the normal classrooms as well as a small computer room with a jumble of different makes and ages, a library with too many books in English (mostly too advanced for the kids) from well meaning donations, and a nursery with tiny children sleeping and one, the entire day I was there, crying for his mummy.
Seeing a school for a day really only gave me the briefest look. Although small and basic the children seem to be getting a good normal schooling. Mike is certainly a helpful chap and no doubt his time at the school will be of great value to the pupils.
Websites
Anglican Church in Peru
San Mateo School
AMA blog
I'm in Huaraz just now for a bit of trekking in the mountains...I will fill you in soon.
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