Life as a missionary volunteer at U.Pe.U (Universidad Peruano Union)

Life at U.Pe.U is very different than it is in the States.     On one hand there is immense beauty in there rich variety of flowers and the people, and on the other hand there are dry barren desert hills filled with landmines.   This is Peru, a country of contrasts, always interesting and enlightening.

        Little Peruvian girl picking flowers.                                                            Sign above UPeU on one of the electrical                                                                                                                         towers.   It reads "Danger don't pass, mine field"

The flowers proliferate the campus, as do the mined towers above.    One Sabbath afternoon we took a hike into the hills above the campus.    We found a bombed electrical transmission tower left over from the days of terrorism in Peru.   The terrorism is mostly gone now, but the mines remain to tell the tale.   Also in the hills above the school are old pre-Incan ruins.    It is very easy to find pottery from these civilizations in the ruins above the river.   Since the Lima area is a desert area, anything that is not watered is dust.    In the summer, sweeping my 10X12 room would yield a cup or two of dust.   It is very hard to keep things clean.

          Staff and friends of the Language Institute.  

Transportation.    Transportation in a word is: different.    To go somewhere, one must use many forms of transportation including:walking, riding a mototaxi, riding a bus, and taking a taxi.  All of the above are very fun, and create the opportunity to use Spanish and hone your bartering skills.     Furthermore, the prices change depending on what time of day it is, what day it is, what you are wearing, and who you are with.     This combined with the Peruvian way of driving (hell-bent!!!) makes for very interesting excursions.

           Holly, Kerri, and Shelly on a bus in Lima.

    Jere taking his first mototaxi ride.

This page was last updated on 02/08/99.

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Appreciation and disapreciation of the Peruvian Culture

OR

Culture Shock in Peru

While in Peru I experienced culture shock, as many said that I would.    Culture shock came to me in many different forms listed below in order of worst to least:

Time management

Truthfulness (or lack of!)

Rigidity in custom

Lack of self determination

Disrespect for the environment

Now that I have listed what I didn't like about the Peruvian culture I want to list some qualities that I admired.

Carinoso or Affection

Unrigid lifestyle

Friendliness (although this could be two faced lying)

Patience

***The people of Peru

Learning Spanish (or Castiallano) in Peru

The campus here is an oasis in the middle of dusty, dry, barren hills.   U.Pe.U. lies on the edge of the once pristine Rimac River.   In Quechua, (the native language here) Rimac means "talker".   I often go to sleep with the sound of the river talking in the distance. 

The men's dorm (or Hogar de Varones as it is called here) is old, but it has  a roof and walls, and I am thankful for it everytime that I step out side of the gate.   Even though you see a picture of a barred ceiling, it really isn't a prison.    This is the skylight right out side of my door.   This just goes to show you how little rain they get here.   It was kind of annoying when El Nino was around, because we did get a little rain and it would puddle outside of my door.    This is my home though, and when I went to the hospital, I found out exactly how much I missed it! 

This is a picture of the dorm.   My room is the one on the corner, on the second floor.  If you enlarge the picture, my room is right behind the light pole.  

This is where I do all of my laundry by hand.   I used to feel sorry for myself that I had to do all of my laundry here on the roof of the men's dorm.    But one day I looked over my shoulder....

....and this is what I saw.   I saw people doing laundry in the dirtiest river in Peru.  After they get through washing their clothes in this river, they dry them on the muddy rocks.   After I saw this, I was thankful that I had clean running water and a nice sink to wash my clothes in.   It doesn't get any better than this, right?   I was happy when I had clean machine washed clothes in Chile.   There is nothing like the smell and feel of machine washed and dried clothes!   Ah the little things in life.

No the dorm really isn't a prison, but it sure looks like one sometimes.    This is the skylight outside of my door.   It is open to the sky, like a true sky light should be.   This is a testament to exactly how little it rains here.   It did however rain quite a bit when El Nino was here earlier this summer.   It was nice to open my door and find a little puddle out in the hall.

The cafeteria feeds us.    They serve clean, safe meals(don't eat the cheese or the milk unless you really like the bathroom a lot), and you can always tell what you are going to have, rice.   Peruvians eat a lot of rice, by choice and by necessity.  Every time I go out to eat with a Peruvian, they order rice.  I did not take to this very well.   When I first came, I started carrying my own condiments in the fine tradition of my grandfather.   At first, people where making fun of me, and then they anxiously waited my arrival with "the condiment bag".   We now carry a fine list of condiments to help us get our rice down.   We have salt, soy sauce, sweet and sour souce, pepper and garlic and butter.   We are considering adding peanut butter and jelly too.      We have a nice  bakery here that makes really good bread.   Here is a picture of the cafe from the roof of the guys dorm.

This is a picture of Holly, Shelly and Kerri eating.

This is a picture of the finished product looks like.

And this is me getting ready to chow down.