An American in Lima » Earthquakes http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Laura Bush Does Peru: Toilets for the People! http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:44:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=961 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>
Mrs. Laura Bush looks on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, as Ms. Maria Salguero Trillo, Community Health Educator Volunteer at the San Clemente Health Center in San Clemente, Peru, demonstrates how families are trained to treat contaminated water for safe drinking. In the town of 25,000, nearly 89 percent of the homes were affected by the August 2007, 8.0-magnitude earthquake. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Laura Bush looks on as aid worker demonstrates how to decontaminate drinking water in earthquake zone (San Clemente, Peru, Nov. 21)

Of note:

(1) She didn't come with W. (He flew with Arroz.) Instead of arriving at Lima in Airforce One with her husband, Laura Bush flew from Panama to southern Peru. Some bloggers have read into the separate travel itineraries (strained marital relations), but I'm skipping those speculations because... (2) Laura Bush should be commended for visiting Pisco, one of the towns ravaged by the August 2007 earthquake. Her visit drew attention to an area that's faded from most people's memory. One and a half years later, Pisco and Ica and nearby towns still are in ruins, without many of the sanitary and social services that make life bearable. About 520 people were killed, 1,844 injured in the August 2007 earthquake in southern Peru. Nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed, according to INDECI records. An additional 50,000 were badly damaged. I give the outgoing First Lady a thumbs-up for ditching Lima on Friday, Nov. 21, in favor of this dusty disaster area. She visited a housing reconstruction project partially funded by USAID and gave a press conference in which she praised the "warmth" of the Peruvian people (see transcript below). She also mentioned that she was pleased to see that the new houses have bathrooms and toilets. That comment might sound strange to American ears, but it makes sense if you know Peru: many homes don't have toilets and sewage connections. Whoever briefed Laura on the USAID project had the intelligence to make a talking point out of the toilets; the comment gives the impression that the First Lady is in touch with the realities of life in southern Peru.  Yes, I know the information is fed to her, but consider this: How many U.S. citizens do you know who have even an inkling of what life is like for people in developing countries? (3) Laura and one of her daughters also tried ceviche in Peru -- not a surprise, but they did sample it at Pescados Capitales, one of my favorite restaurants. (See my post from last week on the restaurant's APEC menu.) Owner Nguyen Chavez tells me that Mrs. Bush and one of her daughters ate cebiche de lenguado, grilled octopus, salmón en salsa de alcaparras con risotto de legumbres (the dish known as "vanidad" on the menu) y grilled tuna with garbanzo bean salad ("impaciencia"). She also drank a pisco sour. Here's the official White House transcript of a Q&A section at the Adobe Housing Reconstruction Project, in Pisco, which Laura Bush visited last Friday. The project uses reinforced adobe, which is superior to pure-mud adobe but inferior to brick and mortar (which is expensive in Peru);
November 21, 2008 5:07 P.M. EST MRS. BUSH: I'm so happy to have had the chance to see this house that we just walked in with the new residents who are going to live here. The house is built so that it's earthquake-proof, earthquake-safe, and this is a wonderful model for houses that are being rebuilt all over this part of Peru that suffered devastation from the earthquake in 2007. This is a great example of a program that is funded in some part by USAID, in other parts by donations from other parts of the world, CARE -- the NGO, CARE, has been really in charge of this project -- and then of course by the government of Peru. And we're hoping that all of these groups coming together can rebuild faster than any one group could do by itself. And one of the things we want for these new nice houses is bathrooms, toilets, and fuel-efficient kitchens, and I got to see that in this house back in the back part of it. And that's part of the contribution from USAID. So now I want to wish the new residents the very best. It's really a thrill to get to see them walk into their beautiful new house. And I want to encourage everybody here to keep working, keep rebuilding, use this good earthquake-proof house as a model, as you continue to rebuild. So thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be here in Peru for the APEC meeting. Q (As translated) Are you only doing work related to rebuilding houses or is it also educational assistance for children -- the victims, the children victims of this earthquake? Will there be any other kind of social assistance? MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll have to ask the USAID person who's here with us about education. But when we were just at the health clinic, the center for health, some of those health workers were trained with funds from USAID. And I'm not really sure about the school help, the education help, but maybe you can answer that. AID PERSON*: (As translated) At USAID we have programs related to education, health, alternative development, and the programs in education focus mostly in the areas of San Martin and Ucayali, working with regional and local governments to improve learning systems for children. Q (As translated) What are your upcoming activities as far as APEC in Lima? MRS. BUSH: I will be with all of the spouses of the leaders who have come for APEC. We have a spouses program that will be hosted by your First Lady, Mrs. Garcia*, and we're going to tour and see some different things in Lima that I'm really looking forward to visiting -- an archaeological site and some other things. I think it'll really be a very interesting and fun conference. So I'm looking forward to it. Q (As translated) This is your last trip to our country as First Lady. What is the impression that you have of this country now that your husband is leaving office? MRS. BUSH: This is our last international trip, so Peru is the last country that we'll visit, George and me, as he's sitting President. And one of the things I'm struck with from all of my visits to Peru since George has been President is the warmth of the people of Peru. And I appreciate very much the way people welcomed me in the clinic, and on the streets, and waving to people. And I thank them very, very much for their very warm hospitality. Thank you all. Muchas gracias. God bless you all.
Links: Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance July 2008 bulletin on Peru Governor Triveño: Reconstruction of Ica, Peru to take another 10 years (Living in Peru) Remembering the Peru Earthquake, One Year Later (An American in Lima) Help Peru's Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Lives (An American in Lima)]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/feed/ 0 Of Earthquakes and Philosophers http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:27:46 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=595 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt. EH leaped from the couch: "Earthquake!" The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped. El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was right behind him, wafting on the scent of sautéed garlic. "Yes," said his brother, stroking his beard. "This is October. The month of the earthquakes." He paused thoughtfully. "Also May." Now is a good time in this blog to introduce El Filósofo, EF's older brother and a lifetime Lima resident.
Plato and Aristotle by Rafael
El Filósofo lives two blocks away from us with his wife, La Organica, and two of their three grown children. EF's brother is many things – an artist, an artisanal baker, a former Waldorf School teacher – but his identity, or his aura, if you will, is larger than all that. He is the quintessential philosophic Limeño, with a stoic, wry attitude toward all events, good or bad. If the country's economy is posting record gains and the critics are cheering the robustness of Peru's democratic process, El Filósofo will remind you of the sudden military takeover of Peru in 1968. If the power in your neighborhood goes out due to an unexplained municipal snafu, El Filósofo will light some candles from the Barrio Chino and explain why humanity is really better off without electricity. If you are a frantic, overworked American mother (as I was in 2000) and you are in Lima with your two-year-old who drinks only soy milk and you have just discovered that boxed soy milk doesn't exist in Peru, El Filósofo will helpfully explain how to take soy beans and squeeze the milk out of them BY HAND. He will smile as he says this. As it turns out, El Filósofo isn't the only Limeño who likes to repeat the May/October earthquake adage. The morning after the Lima earthquake – which registered a modest 4.0 degrees on the Richter scale – I brought up the event during my neighborhood exercise class. The exercise teacher, a cheerful, disciplined woman with the body of an 18-year-old Olympian, put on that same patient face I had seen on El Filósofo. "Ah, si. Octubre. El mes de terremotos," she said, pressing her palms together in unconscious supplication. "Y mayo también." Then she perked up and yelled at us to do twenty more sit-ups. Comments like those of the exercise goddess and El Filósofo suggest how the human psyche adapts when faced with ongoing threats beyond one's control. Peru, like other Andean countries located along the South American and Nazca tectonic plates, will always be subject to earthquakes. Their exact timing can't be predicted. But to know or to believe that earthquakes tend to happen during certain months lends them a predictability -- and hence makes the fear more bearable. Living in a city prone to earthquakes, power outages and occasional military takeovers offers a person several coping options: become a nervous wreck, drink heavily or cultivate one's inner philosopher. Or, as I'll describe in my next post, become a devotee of El Señor de los Milagros.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/feed/ 0 Me and Lima: Improvising a Life http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 An American in Lima » Earthquakes http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Laura Bush Does Peru: Toilets for the People! http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:44:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=961 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>
Mrs. Laura Bush looks on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, as Ms. Maria Salguero Trillo, Community Health Educator Volunteer at the San Clemente Health Center in San Clemente, Peru, demonstrates how families are trained to treat contaminated water for safe drinking. In the town of 25,000, nearly 89 percent of the homes were affected by the August 2007, 8.0-magnitude earthquake. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Laura Bush looks on as aid worker demonstrates how to decontaminate drinking water in earthquake zone (San Clemente, Peru, Nov. 21)

Of note:

(1) She didn't come with W. (He flew with Arroz.) Instead of arriving at Lima in Airforce One with her husband, Laura Bush flew from Panama to southern Peru. Some bloggers have read into the separate travel itineraries (strained marital relations), but I'm skipping those speculations because... (2) Laura Bush should be commended for visiting Pisco, one of the towns ravaged by the August 2007 earthquake. Her visit drew attention to an area that's faded from most people's memory. One and a half years later, Pisco and Ica and nearby towns still are in ruins, without many of the sanitary and social services that make life bearable. About 520 people were killed, 1,844 injured in the August 2007 earthquake in southern Peru. Nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed, according to INDECI records. An additional 50,000 were badly damaged. I give the outgoing First Lady a thumbs-up for ditching Lima on Friday, Nov. 21, in favor of this dusty disaster area. She visited a housing reconstruction project partially funded by USAID and gave a press conference in which she praised the "warmth" of the Peruvian people (see transcript below). She also mentioned that she was pleased to see that the new houses have bathrooms and toilets. That comment might sound strange to American ears, but it makes sense if you know Peru: many homes don't have toilets and sewage connections. Whoever briefed Laura on the USAID project had the intelligence to make a talking point out of the toilets; the comment gives the impression that the First Lady is in touch with the realities of life in southern Peru.  Yes, I know the information is fed to her, but consider this: How many U.S. citizens do you know who have even an inkling of what life is like for people in developing countries? (3) Laura and one of her daughters also tried ceviche in Peru -- not a surprise, but they did sample it at Pescados Capitales, one of my favorite restaurants. (See my post from last week on the restaurant's APEC menu.) Owner Nguyen Chavez tells me that Mrs. Bush and one of her daughters ate cebiche de lenguado, grilled octopus, salmón en salsa de alcaparras con risotto de legumbres (the dish known as "vanidad" on the menu) y grilled tuna with garbanzo bean salad ("impaciencia"). She also drank a pisco sour. Here's the official White House transcript of a Q&A section at the Adobe Housing Reconstruction Project, in Pisco, which Laura Bush visited last Friday. The project uses reinforced adobe, which is superior to pure-mud adobe but inferior to brick and mortar (which is expensive in Peru);
November 21, 2008 5:07 P.M. EST MRS. BUSH: I'm so happy to have had the chance to see this house that we just walked in with the new residents who are going to live here. The house is built so that it's earthquake-proof, earthquake-safe, and this is a wonderful model for houses that are being rebuilt all over this part of Peru that suffered devastation from the earthquake in 2007. This is a great example of a program that is funded in some part by USAID, in other parts by donations from other parts of the world, CARE -- the NGO, CARE, has been really in charge of this project -- and then of course by the government of Peru. And we're hoping that all of these groups coming together can rebuild faster than any one group could do by itself. And one of the things we want for these new nice houses is bathrooms, toilets, and fuel-efficient kitchens, and I got to see that in this house back in the back part of it. And that's part of the contribution from USAID. So now I want to wish the new residents the very best. It's really a thrill to get to see them walk into their beautiful new house. And I want to encourage everybody here to keep working, keep rebuilding, use this good earthquake-proof house as a model, as you continue to rebuild. So thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be here in Peru for the APEC meeting. Q (As translated) Are you only doing work related to rebuilding houses or is it also educational assistance for children -- the victims, the children victims of this earthquake? Will there be any other kind of social assistance? MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll have to ask the USAID person who's here with us about education. But when we were just at the health clinic, the center for health, some of those health workers were trained with funds from USAID. And I'm not really sure about the school help, the education help, but maybe you can answer that. AID PERSON*: (As translated) At USAID we have programs related to education, health, alternative development, and the programs in education focus mostly in the areas of San Martin and Ucayali, working with regional and local governments to improve learning systems for children. Q (As translated) What are your upcoming activities as far as APEC in Lima? MRS. BUSH: I will be with all of the spouses of the leaders who have come for APEC. We have a spouses program that will be hosted by your First Lady, Mrs. Garcia*, and we're going to tour and see some different things in Lima that I'm really looking forward to visiting -- an archaeological site and some other things. I think it'll really be a very interesting and fun conference. So I'm looking forward to it. Q (As translated) This is your last trip to our country as First Lady. What is the impression that you have of this country now that your husband is leaving office? MRS. BUSH: This is our last international trip, so Peru is the last country that we'll visit, George and me, as he's sitting President. And one of the things I'm struck with from all of my visits to Peru since George has been President is the warmth of the people of Peru. And I appreciate very much the way people welcomed me in the clinic, and on the streets, and waving to people. And I thank them very, very much for their very warm hospitality. Thank you all. Muchas gracias. God bless you all.
Links: Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance July 2008 bulletin on Peru Governor Triveño: Reconstruction of Ica, Peru to take another 10 years (Living in Peru) Remembering the Peru Earthquake, One Year Later (An American in Lima) Help Peru's Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Lives (An American in Lima)]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/feed/ 0 Of Earthquakes and Philosophers http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:27:46 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=595 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt. EH leaped from the couch: "Earthquake!" The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped. El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was right behind him, wafting on the scent of sautéed garlic. "Yes," said his brother, stroking his beard. "This is October. The month of the earthquakes." He paused thoughtfully. "Also May." Now is a good time in this blog to introduce El Filósofo, EF's older brother and a lifetime Lima resident.
Plato and Aristotle by Rafael
El Filósofo lives two blocks away from us with his wife, La Organica, and two of their three grown children. EF's brother is many things – an artist, an artisanal baker, a former Waldorf School teacher – but his identity, or his aura, if you will, is larger than all that. He is the quintessential philosophic Limeño, with a stoic, wry attitude toward all events, good or bad. If the country's economy is posting record gains and the critics are cheering the robustness of Peru's democratic process, El Filósofo will remind you of the sudden military takeover of Peru in 1968. If the power in your neighborhood goes out due to an unexplained municipal snafu, El Filósofo will light some candles from the Barrio Chino and explain why humanity is really better off without electricity. If you are a frantic, overworked American mother (as I was in 2000) and you are in Lima with your two-year-old who drinks only soy milk and you have just discovered that boxed soy milk doesn't exist in Peru, El Filósofo will helpfully explain how to take soy beans and squeeze the milk out of them BY HAND. He will smile as he says this. As it turns out, El Filósofo isn't the only Limeño who likes to repeat the May/October earthquake adage. The morning after the Lima earthquake – which registered a modest 4.0 degrees on the Richter scale – I brought up the event during my neighborhood exercise class. The exercise teacher, a cheerful, disciplined woman with the body of an 18-year-old Olympian, put on that same patient face I had seen on El Filósofo. "Ah, si. Octubre. El mes de terremotos," she said, pressing her palms together in unconscious supplication. "Y mayo también." Then she perked up and yelled at us to do twenty more sit-ups. Comments like those of the exercise goddess and El Filósofo suggest how the human psyche adapts when faced with ongoing threats beyond one's control. Peru, like other Andean countries located along the South American and Nazca tectonic plates, will always be subject to earthquakes. Their exact timing can't be predicted. But to know or to believe that earthquakes tend to happen during certain months lends them a predictability -- and hence makes the fear more bearable. Living in a city prone to earthquakes, power outages and occasional military takeovers offers a person several coping options: become a nervous wreck, drink heavily or cultivate one's inner philosopher. Or, as I'll describe in my next post, become a devotee of El Señor de los Milagros.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/feed/ 0 Me and Lima: Improvising a Life http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:44:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=961 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>
Mrs. Laura Bush looks on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, as Ms. Maria Salguero Trillo, Community Health Educator Volunteer at the San Clemente Health Center in San Clemente, Peru, demonstrates how families are trained to treat contaminated water for safe drinking. In the town of 25,000, nearly 89 percent of the homes were affected by the August 2007, 8.0-magnitude earthquake. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Laura Bush looks on as aid worker demonstrates how to decontaminate drinking water in earthquake zone (San Clemente, Peru, Nov. 21)

Of note:

(1) She didn't come with W. (He flew with Arroz.) Instead of arriving at Lima in Airforce One with her husband, Laura Bush flew from Panama to southern Peru. Some bloggers have read into the separate travel itineraries (strained marital relations), but I'm skipping those speculations because... (2) Laura Bush should be commended for visiting Pisco, one of the towns ravaged by the August 2007 earthquake. Her visit drew attention to an area that's faded from most people's memory. One and a half years later, Pisco and Ica and nearby towns still are in ruins, without many of the sanitary and social services that make life bearable. About 520 people were killed, 1,844 injured in the August 2007 earthquake in southern Peru. Nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed, according to INDECI records. An additional 50,000 were badly damaged. I give the outgoing First Lady a thumbs-up for ditching Lima on Friday, Nov. 21, in favor of this dusty disaster area. She visited a housing reconstruction project partially funded by USAID and gave a press conference in which she praised the "warmth" of the Peruvian people (see transcript below). She also mentioned that she was pleased to see that the new houses have bathrooms and toilets. That comment might sound strange to American ears, but it makes sense if you know Peru: many homes don't have toilets and sewage connections. Whoever briefed Laura on the USAID project had the intelligence to make a talking point out of the toilets; the comment gives the impression that the First Lady is in touch with the realities of life in southern Peru.  Yes, I know the information is fed to her, but consider this: How many U.S. citizens do you know who have even an inkling of what life is like for people in developing countries? (3) Laura and one of her daughters also tried ceviche in Peru -- not a surprise, but they did sample it at Pescados Capitales, one of my favorite restaurants. (See my post from last week on the restaurant's APEC menu.) Owner Nguyen Chavez tells me that Mrs. Bush and one of her daughters ate cebiche de lenguado, grilled octopus, salmón en salsa de alcaparras con risotto de legumbres (the dish known as "vanidad" on the menu) y grilled tuna with garbanzo bean salad ("impaciencia"). She also drank a pisco sour. Here's the official White House transcript of a Q&A section at the Adobe Housing Reconstruction Project, in Pisco, which Laura Bush visited last Friday. The project uses reinforced adobe, which is superior to pure-mud adobe but inferior to brick and mortar (which is expensive in Peru);
November 21, 2008 5:07 P.M. EST MRS. BUSH: I'm so happy to have had the chance to see this house that we just walked in with the new residents who are going to live here. The house is built so that it's earthquake-proof, earthquake-safe, and this is a wonderful model for houses that are being rebuilt all over this part of Peru that suffered devastation from the earthquake in 2007. This is a great example of a program that is funded in some part by USAID, in other parts by donations from other parts of the world, CARE -- the NGO, CARE, has been really in charge of this project -- and then of course by the government of Peru. And we're hoping that all of these groups coming together can rebuild faster than any one group could do by itself. And one of the things we want for these new nice houses is bathrooms, toilets, and fuel-efficient kitchens, and I got to see that in this house back in the back part of it. And that's part of the contribution from USAID. So now I want to wish the new residents the very best. It's really a thrill to get to see them walk into their beautiful new house. And I want to encourage everybody here to keep working, keep rebuilding, use this good earthquake-proof house as a model, as you continue to rebuild. So thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be here in Peru for the APEC meeting. Q (As translated) Are you only doing work related to rebuilding houses or is it also educational assistance for children -- the victims, the children victims of this earthquake? Will there be any other kind of social assistance? MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll have to ask the USAID person who's here with us about education. But when we were just at the health clinic, the center for health, some of those health workers were trained with funds from USAID. And I'm not really sure about the school help, the education help, but maybe you can answer that. AID PERSON*: (As translated) At USAID we have programs related to education, health, alternative development, and the programs in education focus mostly in the areas of San Martin and Ucayali, working with regional and local governments to improve learning systems for children. Q (As translated) What are your upcoming activities as far as APEC in Lima? MRS. BUSH: I will be with all of the spouses of the leaders who have come for APEC. We have a spouses program that will be hosted by your First Lady, Mrs. Garcia*, and we're going to tour and see some different things in Lima that I'm really looking forward to visiting -- an archaeological site and some other things. I think it'll really be a very interesting and fun conference. So I'm looking forward to it. Q (As translated) This is your last trip to our country as First Lady. What is the impression that you have of this country now that your husband is leaving office? MRS. BUSH: This is our last international trip, so Peru is the last country that we'll visit, George and me, as he's sitting President. And one of the things I'm struck with from all of my visits to Peru since George has been President is the warmth of the people of Peru. And I appreciate very much the way people welcomed me in the clinic, and on the streets, and waving to people. And I thank them very, very much for their very warm hospitality. Thank you all. Muchas gracias. God bless you all.
Links: Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance July 2008 bulletin on Peru Governor Triveño: Reconstruction of Ica, Peru to take another 10 years (Living in Peru) Remembering the Peru Earthquake, One Year Later (An American in Lima) Help Peru's Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Lives (An American in Lima)]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/feed/ 0 An American in Lima » Earthquakes http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Laura Bush Does Peru: Toilets for the People! http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:44:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=961 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>
Mrs. Laura Bush looks on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, as Ms. Maria Salguero Trillo, Community Health Educator Volunteer at the San Clemente Health Center in San Clemente, Peru, demonstrates how families are trained to treat contaminated water for safe drinking. In the town of 25,000, nearly 89 percent of the homes were affected by the August 2007, 8.0-magnitude earthquake. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Laura Bush looks on as aid worker demonstrates how to decontaminate drinking water in earthquake zone (San Clemente, Peru, Nov. 21)

Of note:

(1) She didn't come with W. (He flew with Arroz.) Instead of arriving at Lima in Airforce One with her husband, Laura Bush flew from Panama to southern Peru. Some bloggers have read into the separate travel itineraries (strained marital relations), but I'm skipping those speculations because... (2) Laura Bush should be commended for visiting Pisco, one of the towns ravaged by the August 2007 earthquake. Her visit drew attention to an area that's faded from most people's memory. One and a half years later, Pisco and Ica and nearby towns still are in ruins, without many of the sanitary and social services that make life bearable. About 520 people were killed, 1,844 injured in the August 2007 earthquake in southern Peru. Nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed, according to INDECI records. An additional 50,000 were badly damaged. I give the outgoing First Lady a thumbs-up for ditching Lima on Friday, Nov. 21, in favor of this dusty disaster area. She visited a housing reconstruction project partially funded by USAID and gave a press conference in which she praised the "warmth" of the Peruvian people (see transcript below). She also mentioned that she was pleased to see that the new houses have bathrooms and toilets. That comment might sound strange to American ears, but it makes sense if you know Peru: many homes don't have toilets and sewage connections. Whoever briefed Laura on the USAID project had the intelligence to make a talking point out of the toilets; the comment gives the impression that the First Lady is in touch with the realities of life in southern Peru.  Yes, I know the information is fed to her, but consider this: How many U.S. citizens do you know who have even an inkling of what life is like for people in developing countries? (3) Laura and one of her daughters also tried ceviche in Peru -- not a surprise, but they did sample it at Pescados Capitales, one of my favorite restaurants. (See my post from last week on the restaurant's APEC menu.) Owner Nguyen Chavez tells me that Mrs. Bush and one of her daughters ate cebiche de lenguado, grilled octopus, salmón en salsa de alcaparras con risotto de legumbres (the dish known as "vanidad" on the menu) y grilled tuna with garbanzo bean salad ("impaciencia"). She also drank a pisco sour. Here's the official White House transcript of a Q&A section at the Adobe Housing Reconstruction Project, in Pisco, which Laura Bush visited last Friday. The project uses reinforced adobe, which is superior to pure-mud adobe but inferior to brick and mortar (which is expensive in Peru);
November 21, 2008 5:07 P.M. EST MRS. BUSH: I'm so happy to have had the chance to see this house that we just walked in with the new residents who are going to live here. The house is built so that it's earthquake-proof, earthquake-safe, and this is a wonderful model for houses that are being rebuilt all over this part of Peru that suffered devastation from the earthquake in 2007. This is a great example of a program that is funded in some part by USAID, in other parts by donations from other parts of the world, CARE -- the NGO, CARE, has been really in charge of this project -- and then of course by the government of Peru. And we're hoping that all of these groups coming together can rebuild faster than any one group could do by itself. And one of the things we want for these new nice houses is bathrooms, toilets, and fuel-efficient kitchens, and I got to see that in this house back in the back part of it. And that's part of the contribution from USAID. So now I want to wish the new residents the very best. It's really a thrill to get to see them walk into their beautiful new house. And I want to encourage everybody here to keep working, keep rebuilding, use this good earthquake-proof house as a model, as you continue to rebuild. So thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be here in Peru for the APEC meeting. Q (As translated) Are you only doing work related to rebuilding houses or is it also educational assistance for children -- the victims, the children victims of this earthquake? Will there be any other kind of social assistance? MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll have to ask the USAID person who's here with us about education. But when we were just at the health clinic, the center for health, some of those health workers were trained with funds from USAID. And I'm not really sure about the school help, the education help, but maybe you can answer that. AID PERSON*: (As translated) At USAID we have programs related to education, health, alternative development, and the programs in education focus mostly in the areas of San Martin and Ucayali, working with regional and local governments to improve learning systems for children. Q (As translated) What are your upcoming activities as far as APEC in Lima? MRS. BUSH: I will be with all of the spouses of the leaders who have come for APEC. We have a spouses program that will be hosted by your First Lady, Mrs. Garcia*, and we're going to tour and see some different things in Lima that I'm really looking forward to visiting -- an archaeological site and some other things. I think it'll really be a very interesting and fun conference. So I'm looking forward to it. Q (As translated) This is your last trip to our country as First Lady. What is the impression that you have of this country now that your husband is leaving office? MRS. BUSH: This is our last international trip, so Peru is the last country that we'll visit, George and me, as he's sitting President. And one of the things I'm struck with from all of my visits to Peru since George has been President is the warmth of the people of Peru. And I appreciate very much the way people welcomed me in the clinic, and on the streets, and waving to people. And I thank them very, very much for their very warm hospitality. Thank you all. Muchas gracias. God bless you all.
Links: Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance July 2008 bulletin on Peru Governor Triveño: Reconstruction of Ica, Peru to take another 10 years (Living in Peru) Remembering the Peru Earthquake, One Year Later (An American in Lima) Help Peru's Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Lives (An American in Lima)]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/feed/ 0 Of Earthquakes and Philosophers http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:27:46 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=595 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt. EH leaped from the couch: "Earthquake!" The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped. El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was right behind him, wafting on the scent of sautéed garlic. "Yes," said his brother, stroking his beard. "This is October. The month of the earthquakes." He paused thoughtfully. "Also May." Now is a good time in this blog to introduce El Filósofo, EF's older brother and a lifetime Lima resident.
Plato and Aristotle by Rafael
El Filósofo lives two blocks away from us with his wife, La Organica, and two of their three grown children. EF's brother is many things – an artist, an artisanal baker, a former Waldorf School teacher – but his identity, or his aura, if you will, is larger than all that. He is the quintessential philosophic Limeño, with a stoic, wry attitude toward all events, good or bad. If the country's economy is posting record gains and the critics are cheering the robustness of Peru's democratic process, El Filósofo will remind you of the sudden military takeover of Peru in 1968. If the power in your neighborhood goes out due to an unexplained municipal snafu, El Filósofo will light some candles from the Barrio Chino and explain why humanity is really better off without electricity. If you are a frantic, overworked American mother (as I was in 2000) and you are in Lima with your two-year-old who drinks only soy milk and you have just discovered that boxed soy milk doesn't exist in Peru, El Filósofo will helpfully explain how to take soy beans and squeeze the milk out of them BY HAND. He will smile as he says this. As it turns out, El Filósofo isn't the only Limeño who likes to repeat the May/October earthquake adage. The morning after the Lima earthquake – which registered a modest 4.0 degrees on the Richter scale – I brought up the event during my neighborhood exercise class. The exercise teacher, a cheerful, disciplined woman with the body of an 18-year-old Olympian, put on that same patient face I had seen on El Filósofo. "Ah, si. Octubre. El mes de terremotos," she said, pressing her palms together in unconscious supplication. "Y mayo también." Then she perked up and yelled at us to do twenty more sit-ups. Comments like those of the exercise goddess and El Filósofo suggest how the human psyche adapts when faced with ongoing threats beyond one's control. Peru, like other Andean countries located along the South American and Nazca tectonic plates, will always be subject to earthquakes. Their exact timing can't be predicted. But to know or to believe that earthquakes tend to happen during certain months lends them a predictability -- and hence makes the fear more bearable. Living in a city prone to earthquakes, power outages and occasional military takeovers offers a person several coping options: become a nervous wreck, drink heavily or cultivate one's inner philosopher. Or, as I'll describe in my next post, become a devotee of El Señor de los Milagros.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/feed/ 0 Me and Lima: Improvising a Life http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:27:46 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=595 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt. EH leaped from the couch: "Earthquake!" The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped. El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was right behind him, wafting on the scent of sautéed garlic. "Yes," said his brother, stroking his beard. "This is October. The month of the earthquakes." He paused thoughtfully. "Also May." Now is a good time in this blog to introduce El Filósofo, EF's older brother and a lifetime Lima resident.
Plato and Aristotle by Rafael
El Filósofo lives two blocks away from us with his wife, La Organica, and two of their three grown children. EF's brother is many things – an artist, an artisanal baker, a former Waldorf School teacher – but his identity, or his aura, if you will, is larger than all that. He is the quintessential philosophic Limeño, with a stoic, wry attitude toward all events, good or bad. If the country's economy is posting record gains and the critics are cheering the robustness of Peru's democratic process, El Filósofo will remind you of the sudden military takeover of Peru in 1968. If the power in your neighborhood goes out due to an unexplained municipal snafu, El Filósofo will light some candles from the Barrio Chino and explain why humanity is really better off without electricity. If you are a frantic, overworked American mother (as I was in 2000) and you are in Lima with your two-year-old who drinks only soy milk and you have just discovered that boxed soy milk doesn't exist in Peru, El Filósofo will helpfully explain how to take soy beans and squeeze the milk out of them BY HAND. He will smile as he says this. As it turns out, El Filósofo isn't the only Limeño who likes to repeat the May/October earthquake adage. The morning after the Lima earthquake – which registered a modest 4.0 degrees on the Richter scale – I brought up the event during my neighborhood exercise class. The exercise teacher, a cheerful, disciplined woman with the body of an 18-year-old Olympian, put on that same patient face I had seen on El Filósofo. "Ah, si. Octubre. El mes de terremotos," she said, pressing her palms together in unconscious supplication. "Y mayo también." Then she perked up and yelled at us to do twenty more sit-ups. Comments like those of the exercise goddess and El Filósofo suggest how the human psyche adapts when faced with ongoing threats beyond one's control. Peru, like other Andean countries located along the South American and Nazca tectonic plates, will always be subject to earthquakes. Their exact timing can't be predicted. But to know or to believe that earthquakes tend to happen during certain months lends them a predictability -- and hence makes the fear more bearable. Living in a city prone to earthquakes, power outages and occasional military takeovers offers a person several coping options: become a nervous wreck, drink heavily or cultivate one's inner philosopher. Or, as I'll describe in my next post, become a devotee of El Señor de los Milagros.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/feed/ 0 An American in Lima » Earthquakes http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Laura Bush Does Peru: Toilets for the People! http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:44:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=961 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>
Mrs. Laura Bush looks on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, as Ms. Maria Salguero Trillo, Community Health Educator Volunteer at the San Clemente Health Center in San Clemente, Peru, demonstrates how families are trained to treat contaminated water for safe drinking. In the town of 25,000, nearly 89 percent of the homes were affected by the August 2007, 8.0-magnitude earthquake. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
Laura Bush looks on as aid worker demonstrates how to decontaminate drinking water in earthquake zone (San Clemente, Peru, Nov. 21)

Of note:

(1) She didn't come with W. (He flew with Arroz.) Instead of arriving at Lima in Airforce One with her husband, Laura Bush flew from Panama to southern Peru. Some bloggers have read into the separate travel itineraries (strained marital relations), but I'm skipping those speculations because... (2) Laura Bush should be commended for visiting Pisco, one of the towns ravaged by the August 2007 earthquake. Her visit drew attention to an area that's faded from most people's memory. One and a half years later, Pisco and Ica and nearby towns still are in ruins, without many of the sanitary and social services that make life bearable. About 520 people were killed, 1,844 injured in the August 2007 earthquake in southern Peru. Nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed, according to INDECI records. An additional 50,000 were badly damaged. I give the outgoing First Lady a thumbs-up for ditching Lima on Friday, Nov. 21, in favor of this dusty disaster area. She visited a housing reconstruction project partially funded by USAID and gave a press conference in which she praised the "warmth" of the Peruvian people (see transcript below). She also mentioned that she was pleased to see that the new houses have bathrooms and toilets. That comment might sound strange to American ears, but it makes sense if you know Peru: many homes don't have toilets and sewage connections. Whoever briefed Laura on the USAID project had the intelligence to make a talking point out of the toilets; the comment gives the impression that the First Lady is in touch with the realities of life in southern Peru.  Yes, I know the information is fed to her, but consider this: How many U.S. citizens do you know who have even an inkling of what life is like for people in developing countries? (3) Laura and one of her daughters also tried ceviche in Peru -- not a surprise, but they did sample it at Pescados Capitales, one of my favorite restaurants. (See my post from last week on the restaurant's APEC menu.) Owner Nguyen Chavez tells me that Mrs. Bush and one of her daughters ate cebiche de lenguado, grilled octopus, salmón en salsa de alcaparras con risotto de legumbres (the dish known as "vanidad" on the menu) y grilled tuna with garbanzo bean salad ("impaciencia"). She also drank a pisco sour. Here's the official White House transcript of a Q&A section at the Adobe Housing Reconstruction Project, in Pisco, which Laura Bush visited last Friday. The project uses reinforced adobe, which is superior to pure-mud adobe but inferior to brick and mortar (which is expensive in Peru);
November 21, 2008 5:07 P.M. EST MRS. BUSH: I'm so happy to have had the chance to see this house that we just walked in with the new residents who are going to live here. The house is built so that it's earthquake-proof, earthquake-safe, and this is a wonderful model for houses that are being rebuilt all over this part of Peru that suffered devastation from the earthquake in 2007. This is a great example of a program that is funded in some part by USAID, in other parts by donations from other parts of the world, CARE -- the NGO, CARE, has been really in charge of this project -- and then of course by the government of Peru. And we're hoping that all of these groups coming together can rebuild faster than any one group could do by itself. And one of the things we want for these new nice houses is bathrooms, toilets, and fuel-efficient kitchens, and I got to see that in this house back in the back part of it. And that's part of the contribution from USAID. So now I want to wish the new residents the very best. It's really a thrill to get to see them walk into their beautiful new house. And I want to encourage everybody here to keep working, keep rebuilding, use this good earthquake-proof house as a model, as you continue to rebuild. So thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be here in Peru for the APEC meeting. Q (As translated) Are you only doing work related to rebuilding houses or is it also educational assistance for children -- the victims, the children victims of this earthquake? Will there be any other kind of social assistance? MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll have to ask the USAID person who's here with us about education. But when we were just at the health clinic, the center for health, some of those health workers were trained with funds from USAID. And I'm not really sure about the school help, the education help, but maybe you can answer that. AID PERSON*: (As translated) At USAID we have programs related to education, health, alternative development, and the programs in education focus mostly in the areas of San Martin and Ucayali, working with regional and local governments to improve learning systems for children. Q (As translated) What are your upcoming activities as far as APEC in Lima? MRS. BUSH: I will be with all of the spouses of the leaders who have come for APEC. We have a spouses program that will be hosted by your First Lady, Mrs. Garcia*, and we're going to tour and see some different things in Lima that I'm really looking forward to visiting -- an archaeological site and some other things. I think it'll really be a very interesting and fun conference. So I'm looking forward to it. Q (As translated) This is your last trip to our country as First Lady. What is the impression that you have of this country now that your husband is leaving office? MRS. BUSH: This is our last international trip, so Peru is the last country that we'll visit, George and me, as he's sitting President. And one of the things I'm struck with from all of my visits to Peru since George has been President is the warmth of the people of Peru. And I appreciate very much the way people welcomed me in the clinic, and on the streets, and waving to people. And I thank them very, very much for their very warm hospitality. Thank you all. Muchas gracias. God bless you all.
Links: Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance July 2008 bulletin on Peru Governor Triveño: Reconstruction of Ica, Peru to take another 10 years (Living in Peru) Remembering the Peru Earthquake, One Year Later (An American in Lima) Help Peru's Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Lives (An American in Lima)]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/11/28/laura-bush-does-peru-toilets-for-the-people/feed/ 0 Of Earthquakes and Philosophers http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:27:46 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=595 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt. EH leaped from the couch: "Earthquake!" The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped. El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was right behind him, wafting on the scent of sautéed garlic. "Yes," said his brother, stroking his beard. "This is October. The month of the earthquakes." He paused thoughtfully. "Also May." Now is a good time in this blog to introduce El Filósofo, EF's older brother and a lifetime Lima resident.
Plato and Aristotle by Rafael
El Filósofo lives two blocks away from us with his wife, La Organica, and two of their three grown children. EF's brother is many things – an artist, an artisanal baker, a former Waldorf School teacher – but his identity, or his aura, if you will, is larger than all that. He is the quintessential philosophic Limeño, with a stoic, wry attitude toward all events, good or bad. If the country's economy is posting record gains and the critics are cheering the robustness of Peru's democratic process, El Filósofo will remind you of the sudden military takeover of Peru in 1968. If the power in your neighborhood goes out due to an unexplained municipal snafu, El Filósofo will light some candles from the Barrio Chino and explain why humanity is really better off without electricity. If you are a frantic, overworked American mother (as I was in 2000) and you are in Lima with your two-year-old who drinks only soy milk and you have just discovered that boxed soy milk doesn't exist in Peru, El Filósofo will helpfully explain how to take soy beans and squeeze the milk out of them BY HAND. He will smile as he says this. As it turns out, El Filósofo isn't the only Limeño who likes to repeat the May/October earthquake adage. The morning after the Lima earthquake – which registered a modest 4.0 degrees on the Richter scale – I brought up the event during my neighborhood exercise class. The exercise teacher, a cheerful, disciplined woman with the body of an 18-year-old Olympian, put on that same patient face I had seen on El Filósofo. "Ah, si. Octubre. El mes de terremotos," she said, pressing her palms together in unconscious supplication. "Y mayo también." Then she perked up and yelled at us to do twenty more sit-ups. Comments like those of the exercise goddess and El Filósofo suggest how the human psyche adapts when faced with ongoing threats beyond one's control. Peru, like other Andean countries located along the South American and Nazca tectonic plates, will always be subject to earthquakes. Their exact timing can't be predicted. But to know or to believe that earthquakes tend to happen during certain months lends them a predictability -- and hence makes the fear more bearable. Living in a city prone to earthquakes, power outages and occasional military takeovers offers a person several coping options: become a nervous wreck, drink heavily or cultivate one's inner philosopher. Or, as I'll describe in my next post, become a devotee of El Señor de los Milagros.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/10/09/of-earthquakes-and-philosophers/feed/ 0 Me and Lima: Improvising a Life http://americaninlima.com/2008/03/08/me-and-lima-improvising-a-life/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/03/08/me-and-lima-improvising-a-life/#comments Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:03:35 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=3 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The Golden Coach (Le Carosse D'Or), a troupe of Italian actors arrives in 18th-century colonial Lima, expecting to perform in a luxurious palace. Instead, they find themselves in a frontier town. "What do you think of the New World?" they are asked. "It will be better when it is finished."  Arriving in Peru's dusty, disorganized capital in July 2007, I had a similar reaction.  Today's Lima may be more than 450 years old, but it still feels like it's being improvised. On good days, I love the city's eclectic, irrational spirit. On bad days, I feel like I'm living in a loonybin (or a dustbin -- take your pick). As an American writer in Lima, I experience both extremes, but mainly I'm glad to be here.  Even if that includes enduring an 8.0-scale earthquake while dodging traffic in my bare feet.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/03/08/me-and-lima-improvising-a-life/feed/ 4