On Sunday, I went with the Rotaract club of Pueblo Libre to Ventanilla, Callao, about an hour bus ride north of Lima. It's an extremely poor community situated on the beach and I'll write more later, to give you an idea of what life is like there. We began clearing stones from an unused lot so that we can put in a park for the families in the area. We didn't have many tools with us, but we used shovels, picks and rakes to clear the first half of large stones and worked side by side with members from the community.
Afterward, we made a short trip to the beach, but I didn't swim because I was warned by the community director that the water in the area is very dirty. An ongoing problem between Callao and Lima is the sewage that spills into their waters from Lima.
We didn't return until 6:30 that evening, and we were starving because we hadn't eaten the entire day! We went to a restaurant near my house and I tried Pollo a la Brasa, a popular dish that you can find in any of the fast food chicken restaurants that seem to be on every corner. The chicken is roasted in the oven, but the secret to it's great flavor is that it's soaked in beer several hours before....It's delicious!
With the Rotaract club, I've had the chance to visit different communities, try new foods, and explore more of Lima. On Monday, I went to visit two museums with friends from Rotaract, and we were given an informal tour of the 2nd oldest Fire House in Lima. The firefighter on duty noticed I was interested in seeing the antique vehicles, and gave us the tour. We found out that he too was a member of Rotaract years ago! He now dedicates his free time serving as a firefighter. In Peru, the firefighters are all volunteers.
For lunch, I tried the very popular and likewise ubiquitous, but uniquely Peruvian, Chinese food (known as Chifa). Peru has a large Chinese population, and its very own version of China town in Lima. The menu is definitely different from the chinese food you would find in P.F. Chang's. It's a cuisine all its own, blending Chinese and Peruvian dishes and benefitting from the variety of foods that grow here.
I just wanted to pass a long a quick update! I hope you've enjoyed reading my experiences! I've just realized that I've been lacking in sharing the funny, odd and crazy stories of living in a different culture! I'll have to save those for later, right now I have to get some sleep...I have a busy weekend ahead of me.
Lots of love to my family and friends, especially to my new niece Ava Lynn Fay, born April 2nd!
Katie
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Hey, how is your trip going so far? Penny ran into Jen on campus doing HR paperwork, and said Ava was very cute and very tiny. Jen called later in the afternoon and regaled us with some hilarious labor / delivery stories. Can't wait to see the baby!
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