Winter Emergencies in the Andes, Fire Tragedy, and Peruvian Soccer

6 August 2017

Winter continues here in Peru, and extreme cold temperatures in the Andes have caused deaths and pleas for help from various regional governments. Our hands have been busy this week responding to emergency projects in five regions supplying blankets, mattresses, and now, donations of warm clothing.

A shot I took on a recent flight over the Andes to get to Arequipa, one of the five regions (similar to states) most affected by the killer cold temperatures.

We spent time last week out searching for warm clothing and shoes to help one of the regions hardest hit by the cold.

For our donation of shoes, we ended up going to a shoe factory to negotiate prices and quality of goods. I use the term 'factory' loosely. In Peru, you can set up a factory in your house and have a team of people working around the clock (I don't think there are zoning restrictions, let alone labor restrictions). Here is a shot of the home factory we visited that cranks out shoes with 5 people working 12-hour days. For the 100 pair we are ordering, each pair will cost about $10 USD (not bad for hand-made shoes).

Home-based shoe factory in Lima. Five employees, 12-hour days. They said they could fill our order for 100 pairs of shoes in about a week (but we will go with something other than red, I'm sure).

Television Segment - Well Donation up North

The media covered our donation of the first five wells (out of the 18 total) in Monsefu. We ended up as part of the 4-minute news segment, including an interview, receiving the gift of the enormous hat, and the best gift of all - the live rooster.

The TV station that ran the news segment posted it on YouTube. Click this link to see the video.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHa0LQI_p2c&spfreload=5

.

TV news segment covering the donation of wells in Monsefu.

Fire Tragedy - Death in the Sweatshops

While out shopping for the clothing donation in the Andes, we went by the scene of a terrible tragedy.  A few weeks back, a fire burned a gigantic factory building downtown Lima. It was a sweatshop with hundreds of workers, many of whom were locked into their factory by owners who wanted to limit the number of breaks employees took and also wanted to reduce theft by workers from their factories.

The entire building burned, killing a handful of workers who were locked in and could not get out.

When the fire broke out, most of the workers were able to escape, but a handful that were locked in died. The saddest thing is that they were calling friends and relatives on their cell phones, pleading for help, when they died.

Notice the metal container factories on top of the building with bars on the windows where the workers died.

A similar fire tragedy hit a sweatshop in New York City in 1911, killing over 120 workers that died while locked into the building. That one event changed the face of labor abuse in the US. Most Peruvians hope this tragedy will bring about similar changes.

Soccer in Peru

Since coming, I have been intrigued by how crazy Peruvians are for soccer. The largest soccer stadium in Lima (the second largest in all of Peru) is about a mile from our house.  Whenever there is a soccer match, the neighborhood is put on lock down and gates in and out of our neighborhood are closed to traffic. People are also urged to stay indoors when these matches occur due to the danger of roving bands of crazed fans. Most matches are televised, and you can hear people shouting inside their homes every time there is a goal.

Monumental Stadium, a mile from our home, the largest soccer stadium in Lima.

There are five (yes, five) professional soccer teams in Lima. I had wanted to see a match here, just to say I had done it. But I didn't feel safe attempting it on my own. Last Saturday night, my chance came when a local Peruvian church leader, Bishop Mauricio Dipas, offered to take me to a game at the nearby stadium. (Sandy decided to stay home to wash her hair. Her resolve for adventure has taken a beating over the years).

At the soccer game with some Peruvian members of our church (to protect me?) I was the only white face in the crowd.

We bought tickets and paid $12 each to sit in the 'safe' section (meaning, the rowdy people sit in the $3 seats where the fights usually take place). The Lima 'Universitario' team played the team from Ayacucho, and we won 2-0.

Seats at the end zone of the stadium were filled with hundreds of men who stood up during the entire game, chanting and singing in unison. My friends told me that it was the most dangerous part of the stadium reserved for the 'choir'. If you know all the team songs and chants and are willing to stand up during the entire game, you can get into the games for free if you sing with the 'choir'. I could not believe the volume that came out of the 'choir'. After the game, people were selling CDs of the 'choir' songs and chants so you could learn the songs and come back to a future game as a choir member.

The 'choir' at the soccer game - a dangerous place to sit given the rowdy nature of those crazed fans.

The crowd was well behaved, and we left after the game without incident. However, a number of Peruvians we work with have crazy tales about fights and robberies after the games, so I was glad all ended safely.

Getting Around Lima

They don't let any of us missionaries drive in Peru because of how crazy the traffic is, so we get around in other ways. Taxis in Lima are cheap, and they are everywhere. Anyone can put a 'taxi' sign on the roof of their car or a decal in the window and offer taxi service. There are no meters - you simply agree on the price before you get into the cab. A 2-mile taxi ride usually costs about $2 USD. An hour-long ride across town costs $8 to $10 USD.

Typical Lima taxi (although many are more beat up than this). Anyone can turn their car into a taxi in Peru.

Buses are other options, even cheaper than taxis, but often crammed full of people. We are now brave enough to take any of these buses across town. There is no schedule. You just stand on the curb and wait for something to come along that looks like it might be heading your direction. This bus shown here is going to 'La Punta' about 15 miles away in the district of Callao. Just climb on board for an adventure.

A host of city buses and private buses compete against each other. This is a nice one - most are beat up. Cost to ride these buses is about $0.50 USD.

The craziest of the buses are called 'Combis' and they come in all sizes. Usually, they have a hawker that hangs on the side of the bus screaming out where they are going and urging people to get on quickly.

There is no limit to how many people they can get onto these buses. I have twice been on minibus Combis (called Micros or MEE-krose in Spanish) with more than 30 people inside. Riding on these can be like the old college competitions to see how many people you could cram into a phone booth. If you look at these buses as a fun, entertaining way to get around, you will have a good laugh at the end of the ride and have an adventure most tourists never get!

Typical of the Micro Combis found throughout Peru. The hawker hangs on, screaming out the destination and urging people to get on quickly. I have twice been in Micros holding more than 30 people. These buses dart in and out of traffic like motorcycles and can get you across town faster than any other mode of transportation.

You see some pretty bizarre vehicles that carry a host of cargo, similar to trucks, but are actually converted motorcycles.

Home-made delivery truck for shuttling junk around town.

Mattress delivery truck - on a 3-wheel motorcycle.

If nothing else, watching the many crazy vehicles on the roads in Lima provides entertainment available in no other way. And, as crazy as traffic is here, we have only seen two accidents in the past 6 months.

Everyone honks their horn in Lima. It is the way you let other drivers know where you are - kind of like a proximity warning device. But the noise can be disturbing. Here is a sign in Miraflores urging drivers to lay off their horns - I don't think the sign deters anyone!

"Saca la mano del Claxon" (Take your hand off the horn) - street sign in the suburb of Miraflores.

Peruvian Artfest

Finally, on Saturday (our day off), we went to the "Ruraq Maki" show at the Ministry of Culture. Artisans from throughout Peru, wearing their traditional regional costumes, brought in their best work to show off (and sell) the many crafts found in this country.

Hand-woven tapestries and embroidery from high in the Andes Mountains

Ceramics from the Ayacucho region in southern Peru

The Last Supper - Peruvian Style!

Traditional fabric weaver from Puno (at 12,000 feet elevation). These cotton items are not dyed - natural cotton in Peru comes in many shades of brown.

Carved gourd (not painted). Gourd carving is an ancient tradition in Peru. This piece (a little smaller than a pumpkin) took over a month to complete. The carved images each tell a story, birth through death, of village life in Peru.

Small carved gourds with metal rims. I bought one in Arequipa and one in Miraflores. They hold tea that you drink through a sipper straw.  These are immensely popular in Argentina, more rare in Peru. I filled the one on the left with a jungle herb called 'Mate" (MAW-tay), which I have enjoyed for many years.  

And so our weekend comes to an end and we return to our humanitarian labors tomorrow. Every day is an adventure here in Peru as we go about this important work that touches many lives.