Im taking a brief departure from my location posts to talk about culture and our time in South America and Africa.
We made several stops in Peru and noted a phenomenon that is hard to explain, although government support could be a factor as one fellow tourist noted. We kept seeing people, particularly women, engaged in the act of selling on street corners. And not just handmade goods but more often heavy bags full of warm drinks. They would line the sides of the highway and main fairways just waiting for someone to stop and buy a water from them, or mainly a coolaid looking substance and sometimes offered in bags not bottles. They were everywhere. The sun was hot. They were covered in layers of clothes and hats and would just stand there, baking, hoping for a single sale along the dusty roads littered with TukTuks, buses and cars.
When we got to our hotel in Puno, Peru it was a bit further down the road from the main area. You could walk it, but it was a few miles. The main/only restaurant for breakfast and dinner was downstairs from our room. Given our short stay and the distance from town we ended up having two dinners and two breakfasts here. This was over a few week days and the hotel was not crowded. All four times when we went down the stairs, and again when we went back up, regardless of the hour, a man was sitting under the stairwell selling his wares. He had a full compliment of local treasures from stuffed llamas to ponchos, sombrero bands to knit hats, reed straw boat replicas and blankets. His demeanor was always cheerful. We saw him from 6am until 9pm. Once, we saw a woman come by with a container of food. She may have been his daughter and potentially a nurse, wearing white scrubs. He was bundled up tight with a heavy coat and wide brim hat, and with fancy, well shined shoes. We marveled at his commitment to his post, and couldn't imagine his sales amounting to enough to justify his time there.
We did purchase a small llama from him on our third pass. He asked for 20 Solas (equivalent to $4). The little llama was surely worth less (or worthless as K would say lol), but I didn't blink. I might have been the only sale of the day. I felt badly we didn't need anything else he had. The challenge with souvenirs on such a long trip with a carry on is that there is just no room, and shipping costs are ridiculous. We do find a DHL every 3-4 weeks, ideally tied to a Scarlett Chase mailing as Im getting samples in strange places that then need to be shipped back. But the shipping costs literally doubles if not triples the price of the item, so its a real trade off.
This man’s smile which showed years of life and a kind heart, content to sit patiently under the stairs in this hotel occupied by a few random strangers was a testament to his work ethic.
In Zimbabwe, and pardon me if I commented on this previously and for jumping continents, I had a long chat with the hotel manager. He wore proudly a large scar on his cheek from a case of Malaria that left him delirious and unconscious on the bathroom floor, having hit his face on the corner of the tub on the way down (glad we took those Malaria pills). Anyhow, our conversation reminded me of the things we don't even think of in places of affluence. He commented on the ice bucket challenge that has permeated social media, shedding light on ALS. This is a good thing. The less good thing is the water waste. He noted the rants on social media from people living where access to water is a daily chore. He discussed local women walking 12 miles round trip to get containers of fresh water for their families. I hadn't even thought of this when seeing the challenge play out in honor of a great cause.
And then I saw it first hand. From this very hotel, we decided to walk to Victoria Falls the next morning. A half good idea (the half good part is that we made it safely. Zimbabwe is not an overly safe place and Victoria Falls is the only place recommended for tourists, but still not without caution). As we walked, hot and baking in the sun, across a mighty long bridge, we saw women walking with large containers on their heads. They were on the return trip. Imagine one of the polar springs extended water containers you can put in your fridge with the built in spicket. Now make it twice as wide. Now put it on your head and start walking on a hot summer day.
Humans acclimate to their surroundings, find community and ‘home’ in lots of different places, and only know what they know. This is true for all of us. If we grew up thinking pigeon hearts (served to us in Copenhagen) were a delicacy we’d eat them! But what has changed is what we all know about the world due to social media and access to technology. Universally, everywhere we’ve been, and everywhere we will go, no matter how remote, we see cell phones. Its amazing really. People will be barefoot and clearly impoverished but they’ve got their phone! The streets are rubble, the women are carryIng tanks of water on their heads, the farmers are herding their donkeys and llamas, sheeps and cows in the mid day sun, the man is sitting under the stairs for days on end selling trinkets, and in their other hand is a cell phone.
On our last trip up the stairs I noticed this old man scrolling through a social media site with a grin ear to ear.
The tour guides speak of how the generations are changing. How young people want certain things and wont do others. While this sounds familiar to kids everywhere, it has far reaching implications in places like Peru where history and tradition, handcrafts and farming are ways of life. In Puno, where the tourist attraction is the floating islands on which families live just minutes from the coast in Lake Titicaca which also abutts Bolivia, these floating islands look back onto a city that boasts a 35,000 student university and two stadiums. Their beginning to get solar panels and as a result light bulbs and tv. Only black and white because the color in tv apparently takes too much power. Keep in mind they are on man made islands which are really barges made of dirt and reeds pulled from the water and weaved together, resurfacing the reeds every 15 days to avoid sinking. And of course, they have their cell phones.
Comments