Dos and (Mostly) Donts in Villa El Salvador (you can thank me later)

---

Short entry today because Im pressed for time, but I just wanted to share some helpful insider tips Ive learned as Ive become more used to working in Villa:

DONT visit the ¨Hostels¨ in Villa El Salvador unless you are looking for a¨good time.¨ It seems like Villa has more hostels per capita than any other city Ive ever visited despite the fact that it isnt exactly a tourist destination. I found it hard to believe that there are that many tourists coming to stay in this part of the city, so I inquired about this to Sister Jackie. She informed me that ¨Hostel¨ was a euphemism for what we refer to in the States (and elsewhere?) as a one-hour motel. Good thing I was set straight on this one. Who knows what could have happened?

DONT think that your Spanish is regressing if you hear someone speak Quechua and dont understand it. This one took me a while (and a few freakouts) to figure out. Quechua is a Native American language of South America. Several of the abuelos who came from the Andes speak this language--it is a spoken language, not a written one. Therefore, if you know that someone speaks Quechua but not Spanish, you also know that they probably never learned to read or write. A couple of days ago one of the abuelas came up to me and started excitedly speaking to me in Quechua. Not understanding one word of what she was saying, I freaked out and decided that whereas most people start to get better at speaking a new language once emerged in the culture, I was defying all reason and getting worse--yet, in fact, this woman was speaking a different language altogether.

DONT underestimate the generosity of the people in Villa, even if they dont have much to give. Yesterday we visited one of the abuelas in her home. She was so excited to see us and rushed in the back of her house to put on a fancy broach so that she would be dressed up for us. Then, while we were talking to her grandson, she slipped out the back door. We ran down the street after her and discovered that she was on the way to market to buy us a Coca-Cola, even though I was told that she has barely any money to live off of. We convinced her to forget the Coke and come back and she was so disappointed so she made us take cough drops instead. Things like this happen everytime we visit someone. When I think about it, it makes me both sad and happy at the same time.

I had the afternoon off so I paid a little visit to the Parque de Amor (Park of Love) in Miraflores today and attached a photo of the Kissing Statue for your viewing pleasure. Apparently, Peruvians take this park very seriously--I literally have never seen so much PDA. Yowza! I think my face is still burning. More photos of the park and LarcoMar in Miraflores can be seen here.

---

Photos

Kissing Statue
Parque de Amor, Lima