Lima, Peru. It's a beautiful city, really, with it's brilliant mix of native Quechua and colonial European. Sprinkled everywhere are pieces of history, with the symbolic Peruvian colors and the finely-detailed Catholic cathedrals. And perhaps that's the tragedy, that after so much bloodshed, everything could be so fantastical.
The colors of the rainbow are very symbolic to the Ketawa people.
At one point we got to go beneath one of the cathedrals to see the catacombs. It was extremely eerie, being the tomb of several thousand from the past five centuries. Not only that, but the skeletons were taken apart and categorized by bone type in huge pits. With chills racing up my spine, I wondered how many unseen eyes were peering at me through the musty dark.
We stayed with my dad's friend Brent and his daughter Eliza. It was a blast to hang out with them, especially cause Eliza is so smart and sweet. As it turns out, she enjoys writing as well!
One night at Wongs we didn't feel like waiting for the dads to check out, so we decided to walk back to the house. As we were chatting, a man suddenly whooshed his car over and shouted with a thick accent, "Hey babes!" motioning for us to step closer. It took only a quick glance between us before we bolted forward. Shifting his car into gear, he accelerated. Eliza swore. Desperately we turned around and raced towards the nearest house, running up a random driveway. This time he did not follow, but knowing he might have been waiting to catch us by surprise, we stood silently panting for hopefully enough time before racing towards our house and locking all the doors tight.
This is where we stayed. It's Brent's office as well as a home.
Peruvians really know how to make their food, and Brent really knows how to buy it, so I went to some of
the best restaurants I've ever been to. Almost every meal I had included lots of rice and oil, regardless of whether the main dish included veggies or fish or alpaca. It's also rather funny how "Italian" or "Chinese" food can taste so different country to country.
When we weren't up to spending a ton, we really liked the store Wong's. It had such good empanadas and ice cream, I'm surprised I didn't get fat.
We then went to the Love Park.
"Love is like light."
La Rosa Nautica was there even when Dad went on his mission.
The Lima Temple. How good it feels to know that, even on a different continent, we can emerge ourselves in our religion.
I will definitely admit that Lima's malls and movie theaters are way cooler than any of the ones in the U.S. But when we traveled to the outskirts, we found that life can be much, much different. And immediately I knew my heart would never be the same.
8500 children depend on the breakfasts given out by the
Johannes Gutenberg Project every single morning. Their families are so destitute, they own nothing but a few square feet of dirt on a hill with a hut that can hardly be called a home. It was devastating to see. Yet these beautiful children smiled, and their eyes sparkled when we handed out the donations. My heart melted when a little girl with Down's Syndrome pointed different toys and asked, "
¿Que es? ¿Que es? What's that? What's that?"
I have never seen a girl hug her teddy bear so tight as Eliza
gave the little toy to her. This poor family has experienced the
hardest of trials through separation and complete tragedy. The canvas
only covers part of the tiny hut.
Later we got to visit the school built by the
Johannes Gutenberg Project.
Basically the program is funded by people in Switzerland and Germany,
and I was amazed at how much of an impact those people's charity has.
The school was extremely nice considering the circumstances of the lives
of those who go there. There are classes for children ages four to
fourteen {after that is another school} and along with having computers
and different classes, there is a dentist, a nurse, a playground, and a
provided lunch. The whole goal is to teach them that the world has much
to offer as long as you work, so they don't even let more than one
child for a family go at a time, since they know that that child will
want to teach the others. It has definitely influenced many lives for
the better. One of the people in charge was telling it that the kids
love it so much, they have to shoo them away once the school hours are
over.
While we were visiting the school, there happened to be an
annual farmers festival. All the students and there parents had
gathered for varieties of songs, dances, and food. We were completely
charmed by the fun everyone was having, with the colorful costumes and
intricate hairstyles. And then all of a sudden we hear over the
microphone {in Spanish}, "We are honored to have with us to today John
Lundgreen of the United States!" The crowd went wild as they made my
dad go up and give a speech to everyone. When he said that Eliza was
from California, they were enchanted. And by the time he came off the
stage, all the boys were toppling over each other to try and shake the
gringo
or white man's hand. But they weren't done with us quite yet. Some
girls performed a dance, and then they rushed off staged and pulled me,
Rachel, and Eliza up to dance with them. Of course I had no idea what
to do, and not being able to speak in Spanish, all I could do was try to
awkwardly copy their movements. Yet we might as well have been royals!
Wow was it eye opening. I've literally done nothing to deserve
anything more than these humble people, yet just because I happen to be
born white and just because I happened to be born into a middle-class
home in the U.S., I get to complain about a school, about the occasional insomnia in my full-sized bed, about feeling sick from over-eating. I get treated like a celebrity. For the first time in my life, I truly realized what it meant to live in an unfair world.
Lima was amazing. Even if people don't know when to
not use their horns, it was so cool to see the treasures of a different culture.
