A Bird in a Gilded Cage



This is the front of our new home.

This is my first post from our new home in Arequipa, Peru. We left Arizona on May 14 and had a fairly uneventful trip here. The only hassle was that one of our suitcases didn't make it onto our flight from Houston to Lima, and we are still waiting for it to catch up with us, three days later. Hopefully it gets here soon because it has N's Lego and books in it and he is missing them.

Arriving in Peru to start our new life reminds me of when we moved to the USA from Australia. We had to figure out where the supermarket/school/hospital/bank were, how to get N enrolled in school, how to organize child care for him, and so on. We had to learn which familiar foods we could still find in our new home town, which ones we would have to substitute and which ones we would have to do without. This time there is the extra complication of having to do it all in a new language. I am trying to practice as much as I can so that I learn as quickly as possible. I know that I am going to make mistakes but so far people with whom I have spoken in Spanish have been very patient and understanding and seem to forgive my errors.




This is the view from our bedroom window: looking out over the city of Arequipa.

 

One of the interesting things about moving to a new country is finding out all the quirks. Here are a few things that I've learned about Peru so far:

• Houses here do not have central heating, (or reverse-cycle air conditioning) so we have to retain heat in the house by natural, eco-friendly means (eg. use thermal curtains and keep them closed to keep the heat in; put rugs and mats on the floor) or put on extra clothes. We do have a few space heaters in case it gets really cold.
• It's generally not safe to drink the tap water, so at home we drink bottled water or boil tap water to kill any bacteria. We also use bottled water when brushing our teeth.
• Sometimes the power goes out for a few days so the pump that feeds the house with water doesn't work. We have extra water on hand and wet wipes for keeping clean without showers. This hasn't happened to us yet but it's only a matter of time.
• Nothing happens in a hurry. It gets done when it gets done. Impatient people have to learn patience quickly.
• Supermarkets here have many of the same items that supermarkets in the US have (but they do not have Marmite or Vegemite, to their detriment), but American brands often cost much more than other locally-sourced brands.

Toilets in Peru warrant a special mention. In many places (including the airport and restaurants) there are signs in the restrooms asking patrons to please NOT place toilet paper in the toilet bowl. It is generally held that sewerage systems in Peru are not designed to accommodate toilet paper (which ironically is designed to be put into sewerage systems). So rather than placing the soiled paper in the toilet bowl, there is often a large garbage can inside the toilet cubicle, in which the toilet paper is to be placed. You can imagine that this doesn't smell too good. It is also a really good idea (especially if you are female) to carry tissues with you at all times because some restrooms do not provide toilet paper in the cubicles. Instead, there is a dispenser outside the cubicle area from which you are to get the amount of toilet paper that you think you might need before you go in to the cubicle to do your business. If you underestimate your requirements and end up short of paper, you are out of luck unless you remembered to bring tissues.

 

Driving in Peru is pretty amazing. In our particular situation we do not drive ourselves (our security agent drives us where we need to go) but we still get to witness the spectacle and sometimes contact sport that is driving in Arequipa (I assume that it's the same in other cities). Where there are two lanes for traffic but three cars will fit, that's how many cars will be competing for space. There are few traffic lights in Arequipa. It's funny that when the pedestrian crossing signal at the traffic lights turns green, the icon for the pedestrian is a person running (not the typical Walk symbol). At some intersections there are traffic police (usually female) who direct the traffic and with their whistles and hand signals almost look more like referees. Where there is a space to pull into another lane or make a turn or overtake another vehicle, the Peruvian driver will go for it. What amazes us is that there seem to be very few accidents. There seems to be an understood code of conduct between drivers but to us newcomers it looks like chaos.

Part of our front garden.



Our front garden. If you look carefully you can see the electric fence above the front gate.

I mentioned that we have a security agent. Unless we are at home or at work, the security agent has to be with us. They drive for us because it's safer and means that our employer doesn't have to keep fixing the cars that we would probably eventually damage (the agents are good drivers). At home the house has a tall wall around it, which is topped with four rows of electric wire (some houses have barbed wire, some have broken glass set in the top of the wall, ours has an electric fence). Outside the house there is a vigilante, an armed guard who watches the houses in our street. We can call them from a special phone in our kitchen if we need help or if we need the agent to come and take us somewhere. The vigilante calls us if we have a visitor or to let us know that the agent has arrived. When we go out (eg, if we go to a restaurant or to the supermarket) the agent drives us where we need to go, then follows us as we walk through the store (if we go to a restaurant they usually wait outside, but sometimes come in and sit at a different table so that they can eat too - they usually refuse our offers to eat with us). The agents keep as much distance from us as they can and try to respect our privacy. We were told that the distance between us and the agent is a good indicator of how safe the location is. If the agent is far behind, it is generally a safe area. If the agent is close by, or even walking right beside us, then the area is probably not too safe. Sometimes when we go out, the patrulla (security patrol) follow behind us in a second vehicle. It is a bit strange at first but in time we will probably get used to it. The security is probably not necessary but it does make me feel safer, and in many ways we'll probably be safer here than we were in the US - I don't know if I'll ever forget being just a few blocks away from the Safeway supermarket in Tucson when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in January 2011.

 

The house that we live in is beautiful. It is two-stories, has beautiful wood framework and tile floors. The kitchen is huge with much more storage than I've ever had in a kitchen before. The garden is huge and kept looking fabulous by the gardeners who come twice a week (part of being an ex-pat here is that there is an expectation that we will employ local people as home workers - eventually we will also hire a maid/nanny). Every bedroom has an ensuite bathroom and tons of storage. Our master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and a spa bath. This is not a typical house in Peru. There is an enormous gap between the rich and poor. The poor are still the vast majority but with mining expansion boosting the local economy, the gap is gradually closing. There are shopping malls in Arequipa now when just a few years ago there were none. The variety of foreign products available here is increasing. I talked about this in a previous post. The kind of house that you see in these photos is not the kind of house where the average Peruvian lives. Many people don't own a car, which explains why there are so many taxis on the roads. Some of the agents have to catch a couple of buses or ride a bicycle to get from their home to ours so that they can drive us around in our car. I'm hoping that while we are here, N will get an appreciation for how the majority of the world lives, and how different their lives are compared to the life of comfort and privilege that he has enjoyed. Our home is beautiful but we live in it behind a wall, an electric fence and an armed guard. When P arrived (he was here for a month before we moved here), friends of ours from Honduras would often come and take him out shopping or sightseeing. They would ask him, "Do you want to sit in your golden cage or do you want to come out?". Our new life has a lot of creature comforts but the price is somewhat restricted personal freedom and much less spontaneity.