Gringo In Peru

Parts of Lima are at a stand-still today because of a city-wide bus strike.

Ok, there’s still a lot of crazy drivers breaking every imaginable road rule, but it is a lot quieter today.

My sister-in-law came home from school early today because many of the students and teachers couldn’t get to class because of the one day strike.

The buses should be up and running by tomorrow, just in time for me to go back to work. The strike though acts as a good spring board on taking the bus in Peru. It’s nothing like bus service in the U.S.

First off, all the buses are owned by private companies. This means all buses are not created equal. Some are dirtier than others, some have a few more seats and they don’t run on a regular schedule.

For example, there are four companies that stop at the bus stop near our house which can take me to work. All the companies run slightly different routes, but go my way. With so many buses on the road I never have to wait long. I’d be willing to bet I’ve never waited longer than 5 minutes for a bus. If one bus looks to crowded, no problem just wait for another bus to come along. During busy times its not uncommon to see four buses  all heading the same direction back-to-back-to-back in traffic. Two of the buses may be packed to the gills and the others could be near empty.

If you get on the buses that are empty its a total good news/bad news situation. The good news is you have a seat, the bad news is since the bus is empty it stops a lot trying to drum up business. I’ve been on buses that sat at bus stop lights for three to four cycles picking up riders.

You can also flag down a bus from just about anywhere. All you have to do is stick out your hand. While there are bus stops, the bus will stop on every corner if it needs to. It’s not uncommon for people one block apart to flag down the same bus to stop where they are, instead of walking a block and getting on together. I also see people get on the bus and ride for 2-3 blocks because they don’t want to walk.

Getting on the bus is a lot different too. They don’t have the automated fare boxes like you find on most city buses in the U.S. Instead a man or woman “works” the door. When the bus stops he or she “calls” people to the bus by listing the destinations where it stops. Once your on the bus the “charger” collects your fare, makes change and gives you a ticket.

Stopping is also a trip. You don’t pull a cord or press a button, instead you yell for the bus to stop. This is sometimes harder than it sounds. The buses are old and noisy. If they are full, you have to fight through the crowd to get off. Once you’ve told the “charger” your plans, he or she flings open the door and you step off. Before your feet are on firm ground the bus takes off.

I could go on.. but those are the highlights.

Right now I’m waiting for my July schedule to come out. It’s about 1:30 and the webpage is blank. I wonder if the administrators were kept away from work because of the bus strike?

In one of my classes students learn superlative and comparative adjectives. The book uses food to help get this point across like “popcorn is saltier than potato chips” and “civiche is the spiciest Peruvian food”.

The book uses oily to describe foods I would call greasy, using hamburgers and fried chicken for examples. They also learn healthy and unhealthy as adjectives to describe foods.

While introducing the subject the subject of fast food comes up. Here all the American favorites (Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut) are well represented. There is a home grown Peruvian fast food restaurant called Bembo’s, that offers burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads and other fast food fare cooked to order.

Of course the students talk about things like McDonald’s is oilier than Burger King. KFC is the oiliest of them all.

Then one student had an epiphany exclaiming “Teacher, all American food is junk food”.

I thought about it a while and he is right. At least what he’s exposed to is crap. All they know about American food is fast food, which is engineered to be tasty, easy to chew and cheap.

That being said, in the same class they have to write about their favorite restaurant and usually about 25% of the class writes about how much they “love” KFC. They tell me in their semi-broken English how they know KFC (or as they like to call it Kentucky) is unhealthy but its the best.

Fast food and pop culture, America’s two greatest exports.

Peru isn’t immune from homegrown junk food. This country produces plenty of cookies, candies, chips and sodas.

It’s also easier to eat well here then the United States. Peru also grows a lot of fruits and vegetables in country making them cheap and easily available.

Still, the fast food restaurants are always busy.

I just realized it’s been exactaly 20 days since my last blog post. Honestly, nothing is really new. I’ve been slaving away at the English factory. All my classes this month were new so I spent a lot of time preparing them.

There is no new maid drama to report here. Maria and Selina continue to cook and clean.

However, I did come across this story in the New York Times. It’s about a remote town in Peru polluted by its main employer. A copper smelting plant has been emitting high-level lead emissions for years.

CNN actually did a story on this about a six months ago for its “Planet in Peril” series. I tried to find the video of Dr. Sanjay Gupta filed for the special, no luck. The only mention of it I found was this blog post by a producer calling the story “one of the most complex” he’s ever worked on. It’s strange because cnn.com features many clips from the special, but no mention of the lead levels in Peru.

There were some you tube videos on it though. What’s interesting is the same company runs a similar plant near St. Louis, Missouri and it does not pump out nearly the toxic gunk the Peruvian plant does. Of course, there is the EPA and other government agencies watching over these businesses in the United States. In Peru, this village is just happy to have some sort of employment.

Now, according to the article, the plant is closed leaving its 3,000 workers without jobs. The plant says falling metal prices around the world has forced the shutdown. One has to wonder if months of public pressure caused the company to cave in. It’s sad nobody will take the time to clean up this town, but there was no second thought about the health risks when the economy was better and there were profits to be made.

Below is a two year old AlJazeera English story on the subject:

Here’s a two year old BBC story about La Oroya explaining the social and economic background:

Sorry for not updating the blog much this week. Honestly, not much is new these days in Peru.

Everybody in my house has a cold. I had the worst of it last week, now its running through the rest of the family. V is sick with it but refuses to take a day off work. She claims the school has nobody to substitute for her. Since school here isn’t like public school in the states, schools don’t have a long list of substitute candidates ready to fill in at a moments notice.

This month all my classes at work are new. This means I’ve been doing a lot more planning than usual which isn’t a bad thing. Keeps me busy.

Since I’m still working that means I must be on the payroll, but I haven’t been officially told. Gotta love the crazy Peruvian bureaucracy. It’s nothing like the U.S. Once, I had a news director tell me to sign my contract or I wouldn’t get paid. Here I still get paid, even though my contract is offered to me two days before the end of the month. It makes me wonder how serious this contract is.

I digress. Sorry this post isn’t more exciting. Nothing really newsy is happening. All the maids are here and life continues as normal.

Now its my turn for a day off.

Our cycle is over and today is the “extra” day off before the next round begins tomorrow. It’s nice to have the time off since I’ve been battling a cold since Thursday. The worst was Thursday, I likely passed my virus to all my students via their grade cards.

Today I’ll sporadically check the institutes’s website to see what my schedule looks like. Since I’m no long on the absolute bottom of the seniority list most of my classes will form. In fact I got to pull rank last month. I was assigned a class with only two students (there has to be at least 10 for the class to continue), before I even got to class I was pulled to a class that was full.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Another day another maid.

Yesterday Juli slept in, then told us she was leaving. Apparently she also demanded a full month’s pay (after working about two weeks).

The world of work doesn’t stop, so like that Lucho the maid broker found us a new maid.

Her name is Maria.

Contrary to popular belief maids come and go in most houses. There is a market, so many pick up and leave if they need a change.

What I’m told is it’s a Peruvian cultural and generational thing. 20 years ago when the economy and government of Peru was unstable people tended to stay at their jobs forever. If workers in general left their jobs (any job) it was considered almost suicidal. That has changed with this younger generation who (like younger Americans) see no company loyality.

The maid thing also brings about the social scientist in me.

With what we’ll call the maid class you have a an economically depressed majority who can make more money as maids than the other alternatives. There are always busses full of people coming in from the countryside with no education and no other option. The supply of maids is potentially endless and the homes that need them continue to grow along with Peru’s middle class. If these people were given better access to education who knows if they would continue to settle for domestic housework opportunities.

Then again, I’m looking at this from an American perspective where nobody would work full-time for $200 a month, even in this economy.

Ok, that’s enough thinking for today. Just enjoy the mindless maid drama.

We’ll see how long the new help lasts.

Today begins test week at the English factory. Yesterday I had a student fall asleep in class. I don’t think it was because of me, it happens.

I’ve dubbed this class my babysitting hour. Every student is 14-16 years old and see English class as a good chance to screw around with their friends.

I’ve had to break up a few kids getting a little slap happy during class. The boys in this class like to hit each other. These aren’t knock out blows, but one guy did hit one kid hard enough to knock off his glasses. To them its funny. I’m going to sound like a grouchy old teacher here, but its only funny until someone gets hurt.

We’ll see how this particular class does on its test. Then again, the grading system is weighted in such a way that even if they blow the written test, they have a chance of passing. Of course many will still fail, if they do I’ll get the classic line “But teacher my dad or mom is going to kill me.” That’s when I tell them that’s not my problem.

Teachers can be so heartless.

Honestly, most students can figure out their grades for themselves and know where they stand.

In other school news… students at V’s school won’t be in class until next week, but she still has to work. Since the students will end up missing almost three weeks of class the teachers are at school posting homework assignments to the web.

So far no other cases of H1N1 (formally known as swine flu) have been reported.

After two days of near empty classrooms my wife has been granted the last two days off. Students will not return to class until further notice. However, teachers have to go back to work for a few hours Monday.

As of today the student with the swine flu has not physically been in the school building for two weeks. Still, parents freaked out so class is canceled.

Since the teachers can’t work V and her friends have been going to movies, having coffee and otherwise just hanging out.

I’ve been working at the English factory. Next week is the last week of the cycle so the students are begging for better grades. Some have nothing to worry about, others will have their destinies revealed after the written test Tuesday.

The media hype is gone, but the threat remains.

The swine flu (or AH1N1) has arrived in Peru and it hit a little too close to home.

Last week, Vanessa’s school (and many others) were on semester break. A group of students in what we would call 11th grade took advantage of the holiday and went to the Dominican Republic. Turns out one of the 28 students on the trip caught the pig flu.

This girl did not go to school and all the people who went on the trip have been quarantined. The Peruvian health ministry says the girl is recovering.

Yesterday when news broke, V had just four students in class, today she has six. She says the parents are going crazy even though the trip left the Thursday before break and the student in question hasn’t stepped foot in the school since contracting the virus.

(I should take this time to mention schools here usually run pre-K thru High School. Usually the “upper grades” and “lower grades” are housed in different buildings on the same campus, with the pre-K and kinder separated from the school aged children.)

Honestly, I’m not freaked out and V seems pretty mellow about the whole thing. Although the WHO says the swine flu is creeping close to the 10,000 mark worldwide.

Last week my lovely wife was nice enough to pick me up from work since she had the week off.

On our way home one night we were stopped at the gate leading up to our house. (Many neighborhoods here have gates and security guards, its part of the non-trusting Peruvian culture.) There was a police escort and about six SUV’s with tinted windows that rolled by us.

Vanessa joked to the security guard “What is (Peruvian president) Alan Garcia here?”

Without blinking the watchman replied “Si.”

We found out from Lucho (who else, the maid trafficker and neighborhood gossip) that indeed Peruvian president Garcia was in our ‘hood. Turns out the President/General Manager of ATV (a Peruvian TV network) lives in our neighborhood. The president was visiting him. Crazy stuff.

Speaking of Lucho, we found out he has quite the side business as a maid “agent” for lack of a better work. If he places a maid in our neighborhood, he gets 20% of her first check.

It pays to profit off the eternally lazy.