A New Perspective

As a member of the technical team, before coming to Peru I was really excited about the engineering aspects of our planned projects. This is the first time that I would be designing something real. Something that would actually be realized and affect people’s lives. And in fact, studying ORFE (la ingeniería de dinero as Michelle has so kindly described it to Peruvians), I realized that working with EWB might be one of the few times I could work on engineering design projects. Meanwhile, though I definitely did also recognize the developmental and social aspects of our trip, without seeing the community and the lives of people here, the difficulties of an impoverished life weren’t yet tangible coming from the sheltered and privileged life I have always comfortably led.

Interestingly, though, I have seen people living in severe poverty before. Having lived in India and having visited there many times, I have seen that the experiences depicted in Slumdog Millionaire, though sensationalized by Hollywood, are very real in their most basic sense. However, my personal visits to India have been vacations, and in fact, I have often cherished more luxuries there than in America, including chauffeurs and chefs at my family homes. Moreover, I have never been to India with the intent of helping others and, thus, the lives of those less privileged have unfortunately been out of sight and out of mind with each night’s cozy sleep.

As soon as I stepped into Samne, I saw many things the people here could use help with. Their houses are made of mud bricks and steel roofs. Sewage gets dumped out at the bottom of town, and there is a hillside longer than a football field covered in their piles of trash. There isn’t a paved road in town and pipes are often sticking out in the streets where the thin PVC has been repaired. For a while, I couldn’t bring myself to understand how people could live like this. Still, those on the team who had previous experience with international development kept repeating their surprise about how nice the facilities and buildings in Samne are.

This differences between our perceptions continued to astound me until the reality of poverty hit me full force during our trip to the Pitajaya caserío of Samne. Going there we walked a thin path through the mountainside that was hand carved by the townspeople. After our climb there, the community’s lieutenant general greeted us—his hand calloused and hardened by years of hard labor. As we walked through the town, we passed a little boy, about five years old, whose clothes and skin were patched with dirt and whose toes were sticking out of the ripped front flap of his shoe.

When we got to the community’s water source, however, it immediately became apparent why this is the main source of disease and concern. The water is stored in open concrete chambers with whatever else falls in. Furthermore, it comes directly from the Rio Moche—a river contaminated with mining waste and with no signs of life within. In the meeting that followed shortly thereafter, townspeople mentioned that while they try to boil it and add chlorine, tired workers and children often drink water crude from the source. Unfortunately, with no system of flowing water in houses or filtration, such problems are almost inevitable.

As the meeting passed, the difficulties of life in Pitajaya became further apparent. Parents constantly fear for the wellbeing of their children who are most susceptible to waterborne disease and electricity is something the community will have to wait for because of the impediments of bureaucracy. The one moment I can never forget, though, came around the end of the meeting. An older man repeatedly thanked us for just considering helping them and said multiple times, “Dios nos escucha.” God listens to us. This gratitude was for the basic necessity of potable water. Something that we take so easily for granted, but something for which people all over the world can only hope. This man’s words truly and honestly sent a shiver down my spine and made me realize that the people in this town who work so hard to carve their roads by hand and to bring everything from food and furniture to their homes by foot only barely get by every day.

Nonetheless, meeting with them also made me realize one other thing. It showed me how much hope they had. Despite having hardships in life, everyone in Picajaya seemed content. Though they still do not have electricity or clean water after years of asking the government for it, our presence still made them optimistic for improvement. The trip to Picajaya has helped me realize that people, no matter in what situation, make a fulfilling life for themselves.