simplification...

We have moved from Elizabeth’s house to Lydia’s tonight.  I loved Elizabeth’s house for a few reasons.  Elizabeth and her husband have four children, a boy who is 19 and a girl who is 21.  Both are fluent in English.  Elizabeth and her husband both work during the day.  Elizabeth works at a hospital close to her home.  We think that she wakes up around 5:00 everyday, cooks our lunch, goes running, goes to buy fresh bread, and leaves for work around 7:00.  When she returns from work, she either sets out leftovers, or bread and another simple food, or cooks dinner for us.  She still manages to clean and make time to talk to us. 

I think what I have learned about living here for a few days is how simple a typical Peruvian’s way of life really is.  Lydia and her family do live differently than us, but with almost 15 volunteers in their house all the time, their way of living seems much more westernized. 

They live so much more simply than we do at home and are just as well off.  If you open Elizabeth’s kitchen, you will find some fresh vegetables, some butter, a bag of milk, eggs, a bottle of yogurt, and a few other basics.  They have no processed foods or snacks, no pantry full of foods that contain unknown numbers of chemicals.  They buy their bread every day from the bakery down the street, which has freshly baked it.  Another store just a few houses down, sells fruits and vegetables.  They always have a few bananas and oranges sitting out on their counter. 

The typical Peruvian eats a small breakfast (we eat bread and fruit at Elizabeth’s), a larger lunch (she cooked pasta yesterday with a white potato sauce, and then used the leftover noodles today and made a red pork sauce with sweet potatoes on the side), and then a small late dinner (past volunteers have had leftover potatoes, a roll and avocado, rice, etc.).  I didn’t get to experience this aspect of Peruvian life last time, since Lydia has Soledad, her cook, cook two large starch laden meals a day.  Like I said, she tries to make things at her house much more westernized. The trash can in the kitchen is tiny.  Literally, the size of  a tissue bow.  They do not produce any trash in this house.  Thinking about it though, most of our trash comes from processed snack wrappers, pre mad dinners, and bottled/canned drinks. They don’t have any of this here.  

Elizabeth’s family does not have a washer like Lydia does, so all laundry is done by hand.  Like Lydia’s we wash the clothes out to dry.  There is also one bathroom for the four of them and the volunteers they have staying with them.  They do have hot water, but you must turn it on at least ten minutes before you want to shower so it can heat up the water.  Like Lydia’s they do not have air conditioning or heating.  In the winter they just wear a jacket around the house. 

Their house is one floor, probably about the size of the upstairs of my house minus the dining room and sunroom.  But, it’s enough room, we are together, see each other instead of all being home but being in different rooms.  They also do not have a car, but walk or take the bus anywhere they needs to go. 

I really love the simplicity of this family.  They were so welcoming, stopping to talk to us when they are home.  Elizabeth even is going to take us to the YMCA, and wants to keeps in touch if we ever come back to Peru. 

Enough for now…tomorrow we are taking the kids from San Milletos, the orphanage for children with special needs, to a play of some sort.  I’m sure I’ll get some great pictures!

The mural some of the volunteers painted, I got to help finish it and see it sung up.