Lima's Shanty Towns

A little boy picking out his candy.

A shy little girl and the motor taxi.

I can rock out to music, be a diva, and paint at the same time!

(Picture credit to Kelly)

Our group at the end of the day

(Picture credit to motor taxi driver)

Today was a magnificent day spent giving back to the local Peruvian society! Often times when students go abroad they really enjoy learning about the culture of their host country through experiencing the food, social atmosphere, school, visiting museums, and a variety of other things, but today our group from ISA Lima, Peru 2012 got to go into one of the many shanty towns (pueblos jóvenes) in Lima and help fix up a school for young (jóvenes) children (niños). While at the school we were able to help paint the outer walls of the facility along with prepare food for the children and locals that live in the area of the school.

To give a little more perspective on about what the life in a shanty town look like take a look at this video. From my understanding Lima has been continuing to grow as Peru's largest city in numbers that far outweigh the available infrustructure which has caused people to build their homes on the outskirts of Lima out of whatever materials they could afford to use. For many families their homes are made of bricks and still others have mud homes with metal roofs to hold off the heat of the sun and the occasional rains. Overall the economic status of the families living in these towns is very low so in the area we were in the school had women working there who would come during the day and cook meals for upwards of 100 people and sell the food at 1.50 soles per meal (the equivalence of about 60 cents or so US per person). The ladies (mujeres) that work in these kitchens switch off from day to day and from what I gathered they cooked the food in order to get free meals for their families as well.

Despite the hard times financially for the people living in these areas it was very comforting to see the comrodery that was present amongst the people. As we were working we were able to ride motor taxis which were motorcycles turned into small taxis for the purpose of getting around the town. After giving all of our group a ride one of the drivers went and got a paint roller from his house and helped us to reach higher areas on the walls. Also another driver pulled up and pumped some music so that we could all sing and dance as we worked! This voluntary involvement by members of the community reminded me a lot of the kids at the Hanbury Home for Kids in Jamaica, where I traveled last March on a missions trip.

All in all it was very humbling to see how these children and families were living in an impoverished area, but they were still more than willing to give of their time and efforts to help support the young people in the community through improving their educational facilities. During the day we were also able to give out candy to the kids and it was thrilling to see their faces light up as we told them to come get some free candy (gratis dulces).

As the day comes to a close I am editing my photos from the day and then headed off to the beach (playa) with my host family for the weekend! I hope that all of you take a moment today to think of something or someone you are thankful for and let that individual know. William Arthur Ward once said, “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you?”

Please do add a comment below and say something that you are thankful for today!