A Difficult Day

Today we went with the PPA social worker to visit one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Peru. Most of the children at the PPA come from neighborhoods like these. There are over 1 million Peruvians living in extreme poverty in areas just outside the main city.
The conditions are horrible and most people have no running water, plumbing, or electricity.


Our group was able to go with the social worker to do some home visits. A 11 year old boy named Alex (the boy on the right) also went with us because he needed to show the social worker where he lived, as there are no addresses in these areas. Alex was a very nice, polite boy and he sat next to me in the van. He has a brother who continues to live with his grandmother at home. This is typical because in most cases all children from a family cannot go to the PPA to live. There simply isn´t room. Sometimes the parents must chose which child goes to the PPA to have a better life. Kind of like "Sophie's Choice."

I cannot accurately explain how many of these homes there were in the hills. Literally thousands.


What struck me most about visiting the neighborhood was how gracious and happy the people were to have us in their homes. They are very kind to the social worker because they are thankful that their children can go live at the PPA and have better conditions in which to live. It felt very strange to be going around taking pictures of these homes, but the social worker explained that us taking pictures made the people feel honored.


Alex´s grandmother was very kind and was happy when I offered to take her picture. She showed us Alex´s home, which is basically a shack on a hill. This is a picture of the social worker viewing the home (the blue building). The social worker explained that she will then write this information in her report to justify why Alex is at the PPA.

We went to 2 different homes and walked around the neighborhood. It was difficult for me to understand how the social worker decides who goes to the PPA and who doesn´t, because there are thousands and thousands of shacks and hovels where people live and children who need help.
It was so upsetting to see the extreme poverty and these many neighborhoods are why Peru is still considered a third world country.

We visited the equivalent of a "soup kitchen" where volunteers from the neighborhood serve 70 meals a day. The volunteers also have very little money, but want to help. The meals are not free and cost 1 sole (about 30 cents I think) per person, which is a lot for these people. The meal is basically a soup and each family must bring their own container or it is put in a plastic bag for them to take home. It was definitely one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life. A group of us gave the volunteer 100 soles, which is not a lot but will feed 100 families. They were very grateful for the donation.

In the afternoon we went back to the PPA and I again worked with the 3 year olds. My favorite part of the day was when a little boy asked me to push him on the swings "a la luna" which means "to the moon."