What am I doing in Peru? I am working with the Environmental Section of Peace Corps Peru. We work in three main areas: Reforestation (or forestation), Environmental Education, and Solid Waste.  But we can do other projects as needed for our communities because our most significant job is helping the communities we live in in whatever way we can.

I work in three communities. Two of these Cerro Alegre and San Isidro have sufficient resources to solve most of their problems on their own. The third, Cerro Candela, is a very poor community and the individuals do not seem to understand how to “get it together” enough to solve their problems.  They seem to be overwhelmed by their poverty rather than focused on the resources they do have, as many desperately poor people are.

The other problem these communities have is that the Mayor of the District of Imperial, the district in which these communities are, either pockets the money his district has, or is spending it on things various communities desperately need. Like electricity and potable water. But I am the only one who has suggested the latter possibility.

All of these communities have a problem with garbage. Although the garbage is picked up twice a week many people throw their garbage outside of their homes, on the streets but especially in the small river and the irrigation canals, which run inside and around the community. When I was doing the interviews with people in these communities someone said that people burn their trash because there is no water.  Although only one person said that I found it a really interesting comment. But most of the people thought that throwing their trash was a bad thing and on the other hand burning it was acceptable. In actuality burning it is far more dangerous to the health of the community than throwing it in piles. Both are bad for the environment.

In Cerro Alegre and San Isidro I hope to

1. Install baskets that can hold the garbage above the reach of the dogs that roam the streets.

2. Educate the people in these towns to use these baskets rather than throwing their garbage in inappropriate places.

In Peru people do not have garbage cans, they do not have space to put garbage cans in my town. Although mine are small towns the houses are right next to each other with no space between then. The people put their garbage in plastic bags within the house and then in a 5-gallon bucket or rice sack. The garbage men take the 5-gallon bucket or rice sack, dump it into the garbage truck and then throw it back on the ground for the people to retrieve.

In Cerro Candela I hope to:

1. Help them get electricity to their water pump. They need to be more organized for this bureaucratic process.

            2. Help them get money to install water pipes for the houses that are above the main area of town.  At this time they carry water up a 45 or more degree sloop to their houses.

There are other small projects I could do. One person I work with wants to put an area for the young people to play chess in her small park; maybe we could install an area for younger children to play also. In another town there is a playground that needs to be repaired.  In Cerro Candela the children have essentially nothing, so a library or a play area would be a great addition to their lives.

I have really just started here. Three months were spent in training and three months to get to know your community. Now I start the real work.