Arequipa Vision Project and around Lima - Gamara and Pachacamac

11 June 2017

Our daily task of managing a host of humanitarian projects continues. We are currently managing about 25 projects located throughout the country.

Vision Project in Arequipa - Final Wrap Up

The vision project in Arequipa was started last year by our predecessors, Rob and Mary Merrill, and is approaching completion. It was a success and helped improve the vision of thousands of disadvantaged in Arequipa. Most of the work was completed last year, but it has taken until now to wrap things up and get the final bills paid so the project can move to closure.

A major part of this project (besides the donation of medical equipment and training local doctors) included a donation of 2,200 eye glasses to disadvantaged children and teens in Arequipa.  A doctor in Arequipa helping with this part of the project just sent a report to us on the donation, including the following photos.

The donation included prescriptions from eye doctors who came to the schools to measure the students

Children were given a variety of frames from which to choose. From past vision projects, we learned that if the kids pick their own frames, they are more likely to wear their glasses.

Notice all the girls in this school choose pink frames while the boys went with blue.

Parents of families living with scarce means seldom have money to pay for "luxuries" such as eye glasses, so children often go without. Without the ability to see the chalkboard, children with poor vision fall behind in school, leading to an increase in dropouts.

Some of the 2,200 recipients of the eyeglass donation.

The children (along with their parents) were given special training in how to handle their glasses so they would last. Notice this group all excitedly holding up their lens cases.

The schools were put in charge of maintaining records of the children and doing follow ups to ensure the vision program continues to provide good vision to these children.

Children who received the lens donations with thank you signs that translate as follows: "Thank you for caring for our little eyes" and  "Thank you for our little glasses".

The final report from Arequipa was a sweet conclusion to the project.

And now, we are moving forward on another similar vision project to help the disadvantaged up north in Tarapoto. We just put in the order for the medical equipment we will be donating as part of that project.

Where are our projects located?

Our area welfare specialist, Alex Principe, works with the Area Welfare Committee for the Northwest Area of South America to propose and approve projects.  Right now we have about 25 active projects scattered around Peru.

In deciding where to provide humanitarian aid, Alex and others often consult this 'poverty map' that hangs prominently in our office.

Poverty map of Peru.

The poverty map shows that the poorest regions of Peru are typically high mountain regions in the Andes (similar to some areas in Appalachia in the USA). Poverty levels can often approach 50% of the population in these regions.

Poverty here means something different than in the USA. Poverty here means a family of four may be living on something like $70 per month in a homemade shack with no running water.

While we are not here to solve poverty by giving handouts, we try help improve life by encouraging others to be more self-reliant. We make donations of items the people would never be able to get on their own (glasses for children, surgeries, wheelchairs, etc.). However, all of our projects have, at their core, the goal of developing skills in recipients and helping them move along the path of being able to care for themselves into the future.

Journey to Ruins at Pachacamac

Shaun Belliston, a law student intern from BYU who is here for a month, is leaving this coming week. Before he left, we decided to make a trip on our day off to a massive ruin called Pachacamac in a suburb south of Lima. (Sandy decided this was her Saturday to stay home for a change and get things done, so she missed the adventure). We had visited Pachacamac previously during the summer when it was really hot, and we decided to come again when things cooled off to spend more time.

Shaun and I made the 1-1/2 hour journey using city bus, metro train, and two separate combi busses that cost us only $1.60 to get there. The combi busses are private bus lines, usually mini-vans, that are crammed with more than 20 people (which only adds to the sense of adventure and 3rd-world charm).

Pachacamac was a major worship center for almost 1,500 years for a variety of civilizations (Lima, Wari, Ischmay, and Inca). This is a massive site encompassing 17 temples.

Stone stairs leading into Pachacamac. The mountain in the back is the Temple of the Sun, built by the Inca. Most of the temple is still buried under sand.

The site is massive and is on a tentative list to become a UNESCO World Heritage site (similar to Machu Picchu).

Temple of the Sun which overlooks the ocean. Excavation is still ongoing.

The Temple of the Moon, built by the Incas, housed a group called the 'chosen woman' who spun tapestries and were often sacrificed.

The city of Pachacamac (a suburb of Lima) grew right up to the border of the archaeological ruins. 

A museum located on site includes a host of artifacts recovered over the past 100 years. Many of the artifacts have been recovered from the estimated 80,000 graves on site. The dead were bundled up in sacks along with valuables and were buried vertically.

Ceremonial drinking cup recovered from one of the many burials on site.

Ceremonial pitcher recovered from a grave. Thousands of artifacts have been recovered from this site.

Miniature golden burial offering complete with tiny clothing and carrying case. Gold that was buried with the dead was not stolen by the Spaniards conquistadors - they didn't have the patience to dig.

We enjoyed the few hours we spent on site during our day off. There are so many archaeological sites here in Peru, we will never run out of things to see.

Around Lima - Gamara

Also on Saturday (our day off), Shaun (the BYU law student intern) and I made a journey to Gamara, a massive shopping area in Lima.

The trip to Gamara felt just like being in overwhelming and crowded sites we have visited in India or China.

Gamara - Super-crowded (and a little overwhelming)

Wall-to-wall people filled the streets, and music blared from most of the shops. This was really a case of sensory overload.

Gamara is beyond where we normally travel in Lima, based on safety concerns and the shear press of humanity in this crowded place. While not the safest of neighborhoods, I was glad Shaun was with me (rather than Sandy) for this adventure on our free day.

We found a group of street musicians playing cajons while people danced. The cajon (caw-HONE) is the favorite percussion instrument in Peru. It consists of a wooden box you sit on while you beat on the front of the box. The cajon can be super loud and usually requires no amplification. We have seen cajons like these being played in almost every city we have been to.

Street musicians in Gamara playing the cajons and bongos.

Of the thousands of people crammed into Gamara, we were the only non-Peruvians that we saw during the entire trip - not your typical tourist hangout!

Into Gamara. Shaun, the BYU intern, is the white American on the right.

Note how almost everyone is wearing a coat. We are in the late fall here in Peru and temperatures are in the 60s. However, this is considered really cold weather by the locals who are accustomed to really hot and muggy weather. Cooler temperatures, which feel comfortable to us, are painful to the locals.

I may come back to Gamara in the future to see a really strange place that others call 'Voodoo Alley' where local shamans sell things like llama and alpaca heads on stakes that you can put in your yard to ward of evil spirits. Sounds bizarre!

And so, with our weekend over, we return to the office to coordinate a host of projects. The days are long, but this humanitarian work is good. Serving here is a joy.