El Orden vs. El Desorden

So the last few days have been quite the adventure. Sunday, I first bid goodbye to the awesome limeños from K'Usillu's Hostel (basically only 2 of them staff the entire 24/7 work schedule). Jaime originally tried to help me find a place to live, despite warning me it would be expensive in Miraflores, that it would likely cost at least 900 soles/month, which is the same amount he makes for rotating day/night shifts (he had been working for 24 hours when I left...) for 84 hrs/week.

He is from Chorrillos, and to describe it, he imitates holding a gun, laughs, and makes a joke about life in the ghetto, because he knows I can't really relate at all. Ironically enough, though, my major work with the UN will be regarding small arms proliferation throughout Latin America, particularly the illicit firearms trade and the resulting ease of access in urban areas. I'll definitely take him up on his parting word of "visítanos!" as he helped me load the taxi.

Anyway, he tried making calls but he could not use his local edge to undercut the Miraflores prices. Fortunately I got a spot in this house which is shared with enough people to bring the price a good bit down. And I even have my own bathroom to take the lukewarm drip-drip showers in, and I promise there will be no more complaining about that.
Mi dirección:

Calle Chacaltana 114
Miraflores Lima-18

PERU

I have the room on the second floor behind the tree there.

The street noises are pretty loud, but hopefully I´ll get used to it. The streets are absolutely crazy in Lima. I don´t think US cities could compare at all. In fact, I learned recently it´s one of the only countries where the pedestrian does not ever have the right away, and this shows in the statistics on pedestrian deaths here. 30 km limit also means 90, and pare (stop) means honk your horn and go as low as 40. The most common method of transportation for the average citizen is their bus system called the combis. These privately run, second-hand passenger vans and buses race to each paradero to load as many passengers as they can. As it pulls up, the fee collector yells out the route (there is no official route map for the city I don´t think), and the bus is racing again before he and the last passenger have gained their footing on the bus.

Anyway, at least I live away from one of the major 24/7 noisy combi arteries of Avenida Arequipa, where my hostel was. I can get to work by a slightly more pleasant street, and so I decided a bike would maybe be safe. I went to an interesting part of Lima near the city center called La Victoria because I was told there were used bike vendors there. Tourists go to central Lima, but most stay in the in the major historical attraction areas. Picture something like some of the scenes in the classic film The Bicycle Thief (which I highly recommend). I was certainly safe in broad daylight and with all the people out parading and dancing on Sunday, but I elicited a lot of funny looks being the only gringo venturing into a zona no tan segura. Anyway, people saw me looking lost, and were anxious to help me find my way, yelling across the street Qué buscas? Well, I should have just settled for the cheapest bike on display for S/140. Instead, I decided that since I had made such a venture into Lima, I would bargain, so I tried, but it only got him to run off and find a bike that they probably just could not sell to anyone else. I followed him back deeper into La Victoria and watched them tightening the connections on the bike I got for $40/ S/120. which may not last me more than a few weeks. As a child watched me like I was an alien standing waiting for them to tighten the loose parts of this bike reassembled from junkyard parts, a sense of fear being such an outsider overtook me, and I just stuck with the bad deal and got a taxi to avoid getting lost as the sun would set soon.

When I tell limeños I am staying here for 4 months, it really brings a smile, or occasionally a look of surprise, to their face. I mean every time. Wouldn't it be nice if they could get the same response in my country, jaja...I believe they see that most people only drop through to fly to Macchu Picchu or the jungle to experience that wonderful Incan culture, which to them was lost on the day the Spaniards set foot. The Incans were "una gente muy bien ordenada: no seas ladrón, no seas mentiroso, no seas perezoso (don't be a thief, a liar, or lazy was a main foundation of Incan moral code)," and this was replaced by the disorderly mess that is Lima, this taxista told me. I think it is this ancient culture of cooperation that provokes such good treatment of someone like me, but I do know there are limits as la delincuencia, as the taxista called it, has become so widespread.

Anyway, I´ll leave it there for now and save my first few days of work for another post, but here´s a picture of UN-LiREC´s awesome facility.

Peace