villa el salvador

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today was an ok day

i figured out what my cultural paper is going to be on. we visited a town called villa el salvador. it is a young town that was founded in 1971. it was founded by indegenious people ( about 150 families) that wanted a better place to live with more opportunities. they migrated to lima with material to build there homes. they had 4 sugarcane leaf walls and tarp to build their settlement. they were almost forced out of their area but they rioted against the police and the police ran away. today their are 70,000 in habititants with 40 schools and a town that 75% of jobs are from furniture making that is absoultely gorgeous. they sell their beautiful furniture to department stores and they put their label on it and up the price 200%. if i could bring furniture back i would. anyways...the city is not that nice, but it is just amazing to know that this town went from nothing to something. their is not grass and most of their streets are made of dirt. they fought to get water and electricity and after years of petitioning, they were granted their wish.

in this shanty town, not one person begged for money, not one person looked angry or sad because they were all so thankful for what they have. they say that the u.s. works to live and that they work to survive..and they are totally fine with that...i think that makes there community so much stronger because they arent competing on who has what and they arent wishing they had this or wishing they had that. today was truely an eye opener for me and i wish that everyone that i know could walk through the town and see what i saw and truely experienced what i experienced today...

ciao
kelly
xoxox

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Comments

[Mommy]

good lesson!
Kelly, I am glad you got to experience this and I hope you will realize every time you complain about what you don't have and want, there are people who have so much less than you, but want for nothing! Love, Mommy