Lima – First Impressions
After three days in the city I may not be fully qualified to judge and evaluate the place but I will anyway. We’re staying in one of the many suburbs of Lima, just off the map in my Lonely Planet book. I haven’t been in the city yet but I’m in no mad rush to venture in. It’s supposed to be a pretty posh place (the Miraflores area anyway) and I’m happy here near Huandoy (pronounced Wandoy). The streets around here are like something from a western movie. It absolutely never rains here. The streets are a mix of sand and dust. A water pipe burst yesterday and we saw that the road is in fact black but it’s normally a brown colour. When we look around brown is the predominant colour. To get to where we’re staying we have to drive off the road and over what looks like a football pitch without grass. It’s just brown earth with loads of potholes. Lima is often called a big building site. This is a very appropriate name from what I’ve seen of it. Almost every building is under-construction. The family live on the gound floor while the top floor doesn’t have a roof and it full of buildings materials.
I live in a three story (fully built) house that is always packed with people. On the bottom floor the social worker lives with her family. The first floor has 7 children and their nurse. And Michael and I occupy the top floor. I suppose I should introduce the 7 children. First up is Elvira, she’s 14 and loves the tennis/volleyball type game we play in the living room. Next up is her sister Maria who comes in at just over 13 year of age. She’s the most reserved of the lot, the cool dude if you will. Then there’s Jackeline, possibly the most hyper of the lot, she’s 11. Michael is 8 and is fast becoming Irish Michael’s shadow. Cielo is Michael’s younger sister. Her name means ‘Heaven’ and I must say she is quite peaceful. Liselith is another cool dude. She’s 7 and likes to veg on the couch and listen to 80’s music on my ipod (well she did that once but she seemed to enjoy it). The baby of the gang is Anelle. She’s turning 5 next week and her main hobby is strutting around being cute.
In the unlikely event that anyone in the house feels lonely and needs a companion we also have the odd pet. At the moment we have a hamster, 20 rabbits, 6 guinea pigs, 7 hens, a rooster (who I may some morning murder), a turkey, a peacock, a pregnant sheep and 3 parrots. We also have two creatures that look like llamas but they call them something like alcoptos. Either way they are supermodel version of a sheep. White and fluffy but with long legs and lean bodies. These all live in the garden by the way, not in our nice clean house!
Casa Del Ninos is barely a 5 minute walk away from our casa. Saturday was our first proper day there. In a cruel twist of fate, the only English speaker in the place is deaf and (trying to think of the politically correct term here) vocally impaired i.e. he can’t talk. He’s the arts and crafts teacher. I ventured in (because I thought it was the woodwork class) and helped the little ones make Fathers’ Day cards. Fathers’ Day is a really big deal here. They got yellow paper, painted it pink, cut tie-shaped bits from a leather jacket and put them on the front of the card. They even made a shirt for the tie using paper and buttons. I saw the teacher writing me a note and was dreading having to explain that I don’t understand it. Almost fell off the cushion when I read ‘We’re making Father’s Day cards’. Blind, deaf whatever that guy is going to be a friend of mine.
While the cards were drying, I wandered upstairs to the roof. The roof itself has a roof so it’s not entirely a roof but it only has a shed type roof and wire around the sides so it’s windy enough to be a roof. Up there, they have a table tennis table, two table soccer tables, and two pool tables. I was the only female up there and wasn’t quite sure how I’d fit in with the ten year old lads. I’d only just made it up the final step when a kid ushered me over to his table tennis game. I was estatic to be allowed into their gang so soon. I stopped when I got to the table but he said ‘No, no’ and directed me to a line about 4 feet behind the table and he stood in front of me holding the bat, facing the table. I was a ballgirl! Just as I giving up hope he hit an awful shot, turned to me and said something in Spanish. When I looked blankly he handed me the bat and led me to the table (where I also played terribly). I figured out it was the way they played. Sort of like a tag team. When you lose a point you let your partner play. That’s where the rules start and end though. When you’re actually playing there’s no sense to the game and the rules seem to change every five minutes. I tried to get my tennis partner’s name. It’s something along the lines of Eggsore (I sincerely doubt that is how it’s actually spelt).
I played some relaxing boardgames with Michael Jr while Michael Sr had a much more active afternoon. In a place with countless things to do, it’s unfortunate for him that the only thing Licelith and Cielo want to play with is him. He lifted them up after they joined us on the ‘roof’ and ran with them both. He put them down, a little out of breath thinking that was the end of that. A good hour or so later, he was still running around with them (and I mean running). He arrived at our boardgame huffing and puffing. Let’s hope they don’t relise I too could run with them, I’m stronger than I look, y’know!
On the way home I had my first proper Spanish conversation! No more nodding and smiling from me (until we move on from topics such as family that is). I was walking home from the Casa Del (I’ve decided to shorten the name) with Maria and Elvira. I think from the way I was talking they realised I know the words for easy and difficult. So they whole way they asked me my opinion on various things; ‘facile o dificile?? I also explained that I have 2 brothers and 2 parents. I bounced in the door ready to take on more of those common irregular past participles I’ve been spending so much time with.
In the evening we watched a Barbie movie, in Spanish of course. If anyone would like a copy of this film, let me know before I leave, it’s not as bad as you would think. Well no, it is. They randomly broke into ballet dancing in the middle of a wood. The ‘half-hedgehog half-boy’ thing was particularly light on his feet. As usual the dark people were the baddies and the blonde people were the goodies. A great lesson for our Peruvian children I thought.
We only had energy for a small Spanish lesson that evening, we crashed early so we’d be alert for our first taste of a South American church service early the next morning.
Tags: 2 - Peru
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