Xs on the Map

¨Don´t go there,¨ said our friendly host at the guest house in Lima. He had a map of downtown Lima on the table in front of us, and big sections were marked with black Xs.

I know why he was saying it - danger, right? South America, two wealthy looking gringos with a guide book and a camera... bad things can come of this in the wrong neighborhood. I appreciated his telling us this. At the same time though, I couldn´t help but wonder what those Xs really stood for. I mean, they obviously meant ¨dangerous neighborhood¨. But did they mean that all poor people are violent thieves? What if we wanted to go to those neighborhoods? If we did, how big a risk would we be running of being those naive tourists who think they can do anything because ¨hey, we´re on vacation! Everything is so ethnic and quaint here!¨

This is my first time since China traveling in a non European/caucasian North American place. I´d forgotten what it felt like to be the wealthy tourist. People come up to you constantly and ask you to buy this, buy that. Some ask for money. What do I do with the guilt that comes along with these things? Buy every alpaca doll that comes my way? Stuff myself with Peruvian breads and sweets? This trip so far, aside from being exciting and beautiful beyond belief, is a stark reminder that much of the world does not live the way I do. What am I going to do about that, ignore it?

A couple months before we left for our trip, Oliver and I went to go see a documentary called Oblivion. It was about the poor and desperately poor of Lima. One of the people featured was an older gentleman who ran a leather repair shop. He had lost everything in the hard times of the ´90s, and he actually broke down and cried when he talked about how he and his wife had been forced to rely on their children for support. Would you believe it, Oliver and I walked right past his shop in Lima! What are the odds? I had to go in and talk to him in my pitiful Spanish. An English translation for you (r amusement) : ´¨I´m sorry... I´m crazy. You... movie?¨When he smiled and said yes, I started beaming like an idiot. ¨I... New York. You... very good! I saw... in New York!¨I wish I could have appropriately conveyed to him how much I respected him, how it was his strength and not the hardship that showed so clearly on the screen.

I hope at least he was able to go home that night with a good story to tell his wife. ¨These two New Yorkers came into the shop today... I´m famous!¨


(Editor´s note... no pictures now - too difficult to upload here. I might come back and add them once I come home. I´ll let you know when I do, because I think the pictures will really add to the stories!)