Egypt

Posted on January 28, 2011 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

Occasionally I get sidetracked into something totally unrelated to life in Peru, like the current news about violence and government crackdown in Egypt.

Here’s a bit of information from Congressional Research Service about US economic and military aid to Egypt:

Since 1979, Egypt has been the second largest recipient, after Israel, of U.S. foreign assistance. In FY2009, Egypt was the fifth largest aid recipient behind Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq respectively. In the last decade, overall U.S. assistance to Egypt has declined from $2.1 billion in FY1998 to $1.6 billion in FY2009 owing to a gradual reduction in economic aid. In July 2007, the Bush Administration signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel to increase U.S. military assistance from $2.4 billion in FY2008 to over $3 billion by 2018. Egypt received no corresponding increase in U.S. military aid; instead, the Bush Administration pledged to continue to provide Egypt with $1.3 billion in military aid annually, the same amount it has received annually since 1987.

And for illustration:

Your tax dollars at work... (c) AP

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Sort of strange how we found it necessary to bring democracy to places like Iraq and Afghanistan but you never hear many calls for democracy in places like Egypt, Kuwait, or Saudi Arabia.
All that military assistance ($1.3 billion in military aid annually) is reminiscent of the 1970s fiasco when we provided F-14s – then the biggest and baddest weapon around – to the flimsy regime of the Shah in Iran, only to later regret it. Lesson learned? Didn’t think so.

All this is very similar to the US involvement in Latin America during the so called Cold War. Regimes that were aligned with Washington received all sorts of military and economic assistance. Oppressive regimes just pulled the “communist” card whenever they encountered any sort of opposition, and in swooped Washington to fight for freedom and democracy. Or was it bananas we were fighting for?

Here’s a comment from Ambassador Bob White about US involvement in Central America during the so called Cold War:

In 1981, the Reagan administration erroneously attributed revolutions in Central America to the Soviet Union and Cuba; “What we are facing in Central America,” said then Secretary of State Alexander Haig, “is a straight case of external aggression, nothing more, nothing less.” This of course was utter nonsense. If there was one thing we were not facing in Central America, it was foreign aggression. The rebellions in the region were home-grown and authentic, popular uprisings against the heaped- up injustices of decades. There would have been uprisings in these countries whether the Soviet Union and Cuba existed or not.

We have a gazillion dollar “intelligence” budget. Your tax dollars go to reports on Alan Garcia’s emotional and physical health and people who check out your *ss every time you board an airplane, but at the end of the day the US intelligence community is clueless. They’re just a bunch of people stuck in the same old ideologies, they will always arrive at the expected conclusion. The US intelligence community didn’t foresee Egypt any more than they did the fall of the Shah in Iran.

Still believe you live in the “Land of the Free” up there?

Mean Fat Pituca

Posted on January 24, 2011 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

NOTE: here in Peru the word “pituco” or “pituca” is used to describe arrogant or snobbish people who flaunt their money or status.

Just this morning I was walking along Av. Aramburu in Lima, going to Av. Arequipa to catch my combi. Aramburu is the dividing line between the wealthy financial district of San Isidro and the less affluent district of Surquillo. At the busy intersection between Aramburu and the “Via Expressa”, you may find the occasional panhandlers or homeless people, as well as streetvendors selling anything from pirated movies to anticuchos.

As I was walking past the “Via Expressa” bridge, one homeless lady in the street was holding out her hand. Right in front of me a snobbish-looking middle-age fat woman reached into her pocket, pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper, and with an angry snarl she threw this piece of paper right at the poor woman’s face.

I wanted to yell at the fat pituca b*tch, but I didn’t. Maybe I didn’t feel like making a scene, maybe I didn’t want to be a hero, or maybe I was just in a hurry. I’m not sure why, but I just shook my head and kept walking.

I understand the wealthy and middle class in Lima may feel insecure or infringed on by the poor, I really do. There’s a lot of wealth in places like Miraflores and San Isidro, surrounded by a lot of poverty in places like Callao or San Juan de Miraflores. And it’s not just money, also the way of life, the history, the massive migrations to Lima, and of course crime, that have created some degree of tension and social discrimination.

I don’t know the answers, but there was just no reason for that.

Pisco in pictures

Posted on January 15, 2011 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

I had a chance to visit the town of Pisco a few times recently. Pisco is about a 4-5 hour busride south of Lima, and best known as the namesake of the famous Pisco Sour drink (more on that later).

I’m not a great photographer, but here are some random pictures of my visit to Pisco (click on the pictures to enlarge):

A street leading to the main square in Pisco, Peru

Plaza de Armas, or main square, in Pisco, Peru

The church on the main square in the town of Pisco, Peru

You can see some construction going on next to the church. The town of Pisco was hit by a serious earthquake in 2007. It was hard for me to tell exactly what’s ongoing reconstruction from the earthquake versus some of the typical half-finished buildings you see in Peru, but there is still obvious earthquake damage in the area.

I think most of the economy in Pisco consists of growing grapes for the “Pisco” drink and fishing. Pisco also has a shared civilian/military airport, a relatively large seaport and some oil and gas installations. You can see the oceangoing ships in the background.

Small fishing boats in San Andres

I stayed in the small village of San Andres, on the Pacific coast about 5 minutes from Pisco. San Andres is a very quiet seaside town, but a few tourists do come through there to get to the Pisco airport for scenic flights over the famous Nazca lines.

The seaside village of San Andres, near Pisco, Peru

Birds on the beach in San Andres

The beach in San Andres, near Pisco, Peru

Near Pisco you also find the Paracas National Reserve and the Ballestas islands, where I was told you can find really beautiful beaches and a resort-style hotel, but I didn’t have time to go there.

In San Andres I stayed at the hostal “La Jalapa”, which is a very quiet and pretty hostal just at the edge of the town. It has nicely kept green areas, a pool and restaurant. I paid the silly rate of S/.30 per night and was very happy.

Hostal La Jalapa in San Andres, Peru

Peru’s desert coast

Posted on January 6, 2011 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

The Peruvian coast is known for great surf, Ceviche and beautiful seaside resorts such as Mancora and Huanchaco. However, less well known is that most of the Peruvian coastal area is actually a desert.

If you visit Peru and stay with the popular tourist destinations such as Lima, Miraflores, Cusco and Machu Picchu, you might never notice there’s a desert around here somewhere, but take a ride along the “Panamericana” (the main coastal highway) and the scenery looks like this:

Peru's desert coast

Desert scenery along the Panamericana Sur

I got a chance to do a little bit of flying near Pisco the other day, and this is what the Pacific coast near Paracas looks like from the air (click the image to enlarge):

Flying over Peru's desert coast

The temperatures in the Peruvian coastal areas are not the kind of extreme heat that come to mind when we think of a desert climate, in fact in the South the temperatures are rather mild or cool outside the summer months and in the North the climate is year-round vacation weather. It’s not sweltering heat that makes Peru’s coastal areas a desert, just the lack of rain.

Where will you be in 2020?

Posted on December 30, 2010 by wwelvaert under History and culture, Life in Peru

Instead of doing some silly year-in-review post, the coming of the new decade has me pondering on how unpredictable the past 10 years have been for me, and wondering what the next 10 years have in store for us, God willing.

In the year 2000 I wasn’t thinking much about the future in 10 years, I was more preoccupied with the future 1 month at a time, but if you had told me in 2000 that by 2010 I would be:

Married to a beautiful Peruvian girl
Trying madly to keep up with a 18 month old baby
Living in Cusco, and,
Blogging about life in Peru

I would have probably replied something like:

Huh?
What??
Where is Cusco?
What’s a blog???

In hindsight there’s no doubt I could have done many things better, but at the same time I don’t have any regrets. I lived, loved and did the best I could at the time.

Happy New Year to all!!! If you’re ready to celebrate in the Peruvian tradition, put your yellow (good luck) or red (love) underwear on, eat 12 grapes at midnight and get out the fireworks and champagne.

Happy New Year!

Watch this space for 2011 pictures coming up soon!

Merry Christmas – part 2

Posted on December 24, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

So many great Christmas songs… One of my favorites is this one from Freddie Mercury and Queen. If you think of the great front-men of rock, people tend to name names like Robert Plant or Steven Tyler or Mick Jagger, but when you look at Freddie Mercury’s live performances – whether you like his style or not – he’s just an incredible performer with few if any equals. R.I.P. Farrokh Bulsara.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2010 by wwelvaert under History and culture, Life in Peru

Merry Christmas to all!

We have our Paneton and hot cocoa ready, and surprisingly our Christmas tree has actually managed to stay upright until now… with our wild little baby goose I had given it about 60/40 odds of being knocked over before today, but I’m glad to be wrong on that prediction.

We will spend Christmas Eve together with family in the Peruvian tradition. We’ll stay up through the night, exchange gifts and eat dinner at midnight.

We decided to skip the nativity scene in our home this year, because said little baby goose doesn’t yet know the difference between toys and nativity scene, so it would just end up strewn all over the floor with the rest of our worldly belongings 😦

I’ll leave you with a picture of the typical Andean Baby Jesus figure, which shows the strong influence of the native Quechua culture on the Christian religion. Just beautiful.

Typical Andean baby Jesus figure

Merry Christmas!

Alcohol in Cusco

Posted on December 23, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

I saw a funny drunk the other day. I don’t know what it is about Cusco, or the highlands of Peru in general, but it seems like heavy drinking is more common here than in the coastal parts of Peru or elsewhere. That’s just casual observation, no proven statistics or anything of that nature.

I don’t know what the reason might be, it could be because life here in the high Andes really is tough due to the climate, geography and high elevation, I really don’t know.

Like most people we enjoy drinking socially at times, but unfortunately we also know a few people who are habitual drunks and have let their alcoholism really affect their lives in a bad way. I’m hoping most of the time when I see someone stumbling around drunk out of their mind that it’s not a habitual thing.

At any rate, back to my funny story. Now this is one of these stories that really can’t be told…

You had to be there:

The other day I was getting my hair cut at a local barber. My “casero” (ie. regular or regular customer) works out of his house on Av. Cultura, a busy main street in residential Cusco, not the tourist areas downtown. While I’m waiting to get my hair cut, many people walk in and out of his shop, schoolkids come in to buy candy, etc. Some friends or family walk into his shop, say hello and then go to the back of the house.

Just as it was my turn to get my hair cut, a guy drunk out of his mind came stumbling into the barber shop and mumbled something to my “casero”. My “casero” replied something I couldn’t understand, I think they were speaking Quechua, but it was obvious my barber knew this person. The drunk was a guy maybe in his fifties, well dressed in a suit and shirt but with a scraggly unkept beard.

The drunk disappeared in the back of the house for a few minutes and then returned. He sat down next to a couple of other customers who were waiting in line. A minute or two later, the drunk got up and started talking to the other customers. He was speaking Spanish at that time, but I couldn’t understand a word he said because his speech was so slurred. I think he was pointing out something in the tabloids that are laying around the shop for waiting customers.

Next thing you know, for no obvious reason, this drunk guy puts his hands on the couch (where customers were waiting), feet on the floor and starts doing push-ups. Not just one or two, but maybe 10 or 15. A 50-some year old guy in a suit, drunk as a sailor, doing push-ups in the middle of a barber shop, you just had to be there.

My “casero” and everyone else in the shop just sort of chuckled, and after a little while the drunk said something else to each of the people in the shop, I didn’t understand anything except that he said “50 cents” several times. Then he walked out into the street and disappeared, as quickly as he had shown up he was gone again.

* * *

This crazy scene reminded me of another event, different but similar in its stupidity.

A while back when I was teaching an early class at ICPNA I would get up at 6:00 and walk the dogs before heading into work. These 2 mutts:

Roxi and Manchita, with our baby Brianna

Our dog Manchita

One morning just after 6:00 I was walking the dogs in the park by our house, and another stumbling drunk shows up. He’s holding a plastic cup in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. He’s happy as can be and when he sees us, he decides to walk towards us and starts offering me and the dogs some of his “cerveza”.

“Hey, let’s have a drink, let’s all be friends.” – Seriously.

Now it must be said that our dogs are really quite protective. I don’t let anyone other than myself walk both of them at the same time. They’re not aggressive or bad dogs, but they are protective and don’t like being approached by strangers, especially men. I don’t know what it is because we found both as strays, perhaps they were abused or something, but both dogs do not like men they don’t know. The Jack Russell looking one is the oldest and most dominant, and the fat pitbull-looking one has never had an original thought in her life, she just barks and growls when her “big sister” barks and growls.

So this happy drunk came stumbling towards us offering the dogs a drink of cheap beer (I think it was Brahma or something) and the dogs start going nuts, barking and pulling on their leashes. I’m pulling the dogs out of the way as quickly as I can, but this drunk keeps coming at us:

“Hey, let’s all be friends.”

I’m not making this up. By now the pitbull is raising her hair and pulling her lips and the idiot drunk still wants to make friends. I luckily was able to pull the dogs away and make my way out of the park quicker than the drunk could follow us. I don’t think the guy remembers any of this, he was so happy drunk out of his mind, but he’s very lucky he didn’t try the same thing with some 7-year old kid walking his dogs.

Peruvian beers

Enjoy the holidays! Drink responsibly 😉

People are People

Posted on December 22, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

One thing I’ve learned over the years from traveling and living in different cultures, is that there’s an undeniable and strong effect of our culture on how we live our lives, but at the end of the day people are still people and as individuals there are certain things that hold true no matter the culture. For example, we all worry about our kids doing good in school, our parents growing old healthy, etc.

Here’s another perfect example….

This morning I woke up early, around 6:00. I got up to use the bathroom but then decided I’d go back to sleep for a little while. Around 7:00 Patricia woke up as she normally does at that time. I stayed in bed a few more minutes.

However, for some reason Patricia decided to start folding clothes and putting clothes away in our room, which she normally does not do so early. Next thing you know, the baby woke up and started to fuss. I got up and the day began.

Since the baby normally sleeps until around 8:00, she was really fussy for having woke up an hour early. So I asked Patricia: “Why did you start putting clothes away while the baby was still sleeping and woke her up so early?” In my mind the baby clearly woke up because Patricia was doing stuff in our room.

Answer: “The baby woke up because you got up early.”

Errrrrrrgh, say again? The baby got up at 7:00 because I went to the bathroom at 6:00?

We went over the same conversation again about 3 times and the logic never did make sense to me.

The baby woke up early at 7:00 because I went to the bathroom at 6:00, but the fact that mamacita was folding clothes and putting clothes away in our room right at the very moment the baby woke up, had nothing to do with it.

And then it hit me, it was my fault that the baby woke up early, because:

IT’S ALWAYS MY FAULT, BECAUSE MARRIED GUYS ARE ALWAYS AT FAULT. EVEN IF IT’S NOT MY FAULT, IT’S STILL MY FAULT.

That’s just one of these truths of life, no matter where you are, married guys are always at fault. And that’s okay, just like worrying about your kids doing well or your parents staying healthy, some things in life should never change 😉

Boleteros and little lies

Posted on December 5, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

I guess everyone tells a little white lie sometimes.

The 4 year old who asks how you liked his singing or drawing:

Answer: “I loved it sweetheart”

Someone special cooked or prepared something that maybe wasn’t your favorite:

Answer: “I loved it sweetheart”

All pretty commonplace and harmless. But I think little lies are more common in Peru than in the US, just casual observation.

When I was teaching ESL the students would constantly tell me little lies about their absences, even when it was blatantly obvious. One day there was a big Cienciano soccer game. This was a few years ago when Cienciano, the local Cusco soccer team, was pretty good in Peru. The game was at 9:00 pm. One girl came to me at the beginning of my evening class and asked for permission to leave early, around 8:45. When I asked her why, she said “eerrgh, I have to attend a meeting at 9:00”, without even making an effort to sound sincere.

I grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her towards the class…

“Hey class…
Andrea wants to leave early, around 8:45
You can all see she’s wearing a red shirt …
a red hat …
and red shoes”

Everyone laughing, red being the colors of Cienciano.

“And she said she’s going to a meeting at 9:00…”

I’m sure she hated me 🙂

Even the staff at our institute was a bit like that. For example, we had various weekend meetings and events that I often couldn’t make, because it was just a part-time, evening fun-job for me. Every time some of the other teachers suggested if I couldn’t make a meeting that I’d tell the academic director something like “I have to travel this weekend” or “The baby is sick” etc.

In my professional experience back in the US, that would be a big no-no. At GE you didn’t make up excuses, if you couldn’t be somewhere for personal reasons, you just say it’s a personal reason.

Anyway, back to the boleteros. If you’re not familiar with public transportation (buses/combis) in Lima, most buses have both a driver and a “boletero” who takes the passengers fares and yells out the bus route at each stop. For my IO-30 combi from Miraflores to Breña, it goes something like this:

“Larco, Ovalo todo Arequipa. Arequipa Arequipa todo Arequipaaaaaa”

And when the bus gets a bit further down Av. Arequipa, the boletero yells at each stop:

“Todo Arequipa. Arica Arica Duenas. Arica Arica Duenaaaas”

Keep in mind that the boletero’s job is to try and get as many people in the combi as possible. More passengers means more money. The busses get full pretty quick in many stretches, so when there are empty seats the boleteros often yell “Hay asiento” (there are seats) and when the car is practically empty, they sometimes say “Carro vacio”, meaning, empty car.

Now twice in the past week the following happened to me:

I was in a combi which was full of people leaving Miraflores, and I’m standing in the aisle. Not real comfortable for someone 6’3″, but no big deal either. As we got further down Av. Arequipa, some people jumped out at their work or school, and I found a seat. Moments later at the next stop the boletero jumps out…

“Arequipa todo Arequipa… hay asientos”

Fair enough. Another stop later:

“Arequipa todo Arequipa… hay asientos. Carro vacio, Carro vacio”

I just couldn’t help but look around and count the empty seats. There were 2, no mas. 2 out of about 20 seats are available – no exaggeration – and the guy jumps out in a street full of people and yells “empty car”, “empty car”.

This happened twice on different cars. No big deal, it just sort of reminded me that little lies are often a bit comical and seem more prevalent here in Peru than back in the US or Europe.

I was expecting boletero to offer hot meals and on-demand movies next 😉