Traveller Not Tourist: Jay's Journey pt.5

Jay’s Journey by

Jay Chavez

Part 5: How Dreams Become Reality

Arequipa, in the south of Peru, is also known as “The White City”, which makes it sound like something out of a fairytale. The old centre certainly is beautiful - many of the buildings are made out of huge blocks of a volcanic stone called “sillar”. The Cathedral in the “Plaza de Armas” (the central square from which the rest of the city radiates) is particularly impressive and there are some stunningly beautiful carvings which adorn the doors and walls of other buildings around the plaza. If you know the UK, it is an effect similar to that found in Bath, but whiter. Of course, it gets progressively less clean looking and well-kept as you travel further from the centre but thinking about it - the place I met my husband - still makes me feel like Cinderella. I’m trying not to sound too soft and girly here but sometimes you just have to say it like it is.

I won’t bore you with the details of our love affair, suffice to say that Luis and I had met in September, when I passed though Arequipa on my way to Bolivia, when we had had a very long and interesting conversation and exchanged email addresses. We then met up when I arrived back in Arequipa and, through a string of unlikely coincidences and completely out of character reactions, we ended up living together a week after we first kissed.

Now, I would just like to stress at this point that this is not a course of action I would recommend to anyone else. It has turned out wonderfully for me and I do know a couple of other couples for whom it has worked but I have also heard countless stories of broken hearts and empty wallets. There is a whole sub-culture in Peru of young men and women called “Bricheros” who make a living out of affairs with foreigners. I am not going to judge how people conduct their love lives - as long as all parties understand the reality of the situation, I say go for it. This is not, however, always the case.

And I think it is important to point out that this can work both ways, many’s the innocent Peruvian who thought that he or she was about to be whisked off to a better life by a foreigner who they truly cared for, only to be sent an email explaining that the object of their affections had now realised, upon returning home, that he/she had just got a bit carried away and they wouldn’t be starting work on that visa after all.

Just like any other facet of travelling, it is important to be aware of the effect you can have, whilst also keeping your wits about you to ensure that you don’t get taken for a ride (no pun intended!)

Luckily for Luis and I, neither of us did any heartbreaking and so we began the journey through the thick and decidedly gloopy quagmire that is cultural differences. I am sure you have all heard the fact about it being a terrible insult to (even unwittingly) show the sole of your foot to another person in some foreign country (the name of which escapes my sieve-like mind), well that is nothing compared to the damage you can do to someone you love (and who loves you) when you come from different cultures. Of course, there are many little things you will learn about a country if you spend enough time there. One Peruvian custom which is good to know from the off is that, if you invite someone out, perhaps to dinner or a movie, they will assume that you are offering to pay for them. Could be very embarrassing if you don’t know that, especially if you are taking a local to an expensive (to them) travellers bar or restaurant!

During these early days of our relationship, I was volunteering at a school called “Elohim” on the very outskirts of the city. I was introduced to it by a hostel I was staying at, which, despite being run by a fellow foreigner, totally ripped me off on the taxi ride up there! It was probably the equivalent of a quid or so though so I won’t get too bitter.

Elohim is run by a woman named Rosa who was very into God. If you want to volunteer abroad you will probably find that a lot of volunteer opportunities involve God to a greater or lesser degree. As far as I am concerned, this is fine as long as people are doing good things, but it may be something you want to consider when choosing a volunteer project to work with, especially if your lifestyle in some way does not fit in with the religious requirements. Peru is very Catholic so this can sometimes cause problems. Of course, you may be specifically looking to volunteer with people who share your beliefs, in which case, you are probably spoiled for choice.

Elohim school not only provides a free education for the local children, but also a healthy snack and 2 course lunch. Although attending a school is free in Peru, parents still have to pay for school uniform and text books, add this to the fact that a child in school could be out earning money instead and you can see how some parents opt for having enough money to feed and house their children over giving them an education. Providing food along with a completely free scholastic experience tips the odds in the other direction enough that over 70 children regularly attended classes at Elohim. Some of them worked in the streets at night, selling sweets, and I heard that at least one of them, a sweet little girl called “Angelica”, was taken to festivals and sent off by her mother to pick pockets on the crowd. Alcoholism is a big problem in Peru, and along with it, domestic violence. But despite all the hardship, the children of Elohim were always full of life (except when the street children fell asleep in class sometimes) and happy. I basically acted as a classroom assistant for one or other of the (seriously) underpaid and overworked teachers. Sometimes I would teach a bit of English - very useful in a city that runs on international tourism, even if you are just selling sweets in the street.

Luis had worked with children before and he would come up to the school to help out too. After a while we started to bring others with us, just people we met in bars or worked with. Most people would, on our recommendation, bring some food to donate. Sometimes we bought classroom supplies or games. It was great to see your donation having a direct effect and it was always very clear how much they needed the things we gave.

I have heard it said that your soul mate is not someone who is just like you – your soul mate is someone who compliments you (not by saying your hair is nice but by having skills and traits you don’t) and challenges you. If this is true, Luis is definitely my soul mate. Being a typical Virgoan I am a compulsive planner – my trip to South America was 3 years in the making and involved a ridiculous amount of reading and talking to people and a minutely detailed itinerary which bore no resemblance at all to my trip after about a week into it. Luis on the other hand is very much a “doer”, he gets an idea in his head and just goes for it. Sometimes this is not such a good thing but when he decided we should start a volunteer organisation to help Elohim, he was definitely on the right track!

I guess if I am honest, I had never really dreamed of starting a volunteer organisation, but only because I thought that would be a dream so far out of my reach as to be pointless (and depressing) but if I had dared to dream it, I would have dreamed of having an organisation just like the one we have today.

But of course, even dreams sometimes require hard work and at the point we are at in my story, the hard work had only just begun!