A WORM!!!…just a worm...

Tonight I was about to go to sleep and I put on my ‘pyjama’ (lämpöaluskerrasto), that I’ve been wearing for the last two weeks. Few minutes later I feel like a needle on my belly and I turn over my shirt and there it a tiny little worm or whatever, happily crawling on my warm and cozy shirt until it got next to my smelly skin, so fair enough that it bit me. Of course I freak out, actually just a little bit, enough to pull off my shirt and have a look if there was more than just one and immediately I started to feel itchy everywhere. Is there something on my hair, what about my pants and my shirt was on my bed??? Where did it come from??? After checking the clothes I was wearing, it was time to check my bed, then a sleeping. No, nothing there! I mean even if it’s a tiny little animal (insect or something) I don’t want to sleep with it! Maybe, it is time for me to change my pyjama and do my laundry? In the end I remembered that yesterday I came from the shop and put all my shopping’s including a fruit bag on my bed, so most probably (HOPEFULLY) it was just a onetime thing and I don’t find more of them. Hope I can still sleep tonight after the adrenalin rush (means I've been way too long away from the places where you have all kinds of animals crawling everywhere all the time).

Sweet dreams! 

Happy Birthday La casa de Panchita!!!

La casa de Panchita is a house where I mainly work. Actual house was opened in 2001 and since

then it has been visited regularly by a number of people, mainly women and children. They help

domestic workers and it is part of NGO (non-governmental organization) Asociación Grupo de Trabajo Redes (AGTR), which turns 24 years next week. Their main focus is to spread and defend the rights of the excluded people, mainly domestic workers.(See La casa de Panchita ) 

House is open 7 days a week and most activities are free of charge. They offer tutoring in schoolwork, access to library, English classes, employment and placement in domestic services, legal advise in labor problems and in formalities to obtain personal documents, consultation in sexual and reproductive health, guidance in emotional problems, workshops (self-esteem, duties and rights, dance, dynamic theatres, manual work, cooking and etc).

Sunday cooking class and French lesson

They have several projects going on outside the house as well. For example a Biblioteka (in less wealthy area of Lima) where children can come after school and get help with their homework. They can bring their siblings that they most often need to look after. At the moment I go there twice a week. 

A local volunteer at Biblioteka

Boys waiting for doors to open at Biblioteka

 

Sunday is the busiest day, because that is the day off for domestic workers and then there are several workshops going on in the house, art, cooking, English, drama etc. and some special programs for children, who are brought here by bus from the area where they live. Day passed by very fast and its fun too see many people around. Last two Sundays I've been working with children <3 

Making their own superheroes

Superhero exhibition!!! Looking at all the amazing pieces of art
(using recycling materials)

These superheroes have special powers and now each child has her/his own superhero at home.

After discussing about superheroes it's time to eat. There are people working for whole day at the house to provide food for these children and volunteers. Food is for free.

Then it's time to study about their rights and responsibilities, before going out to play to get some fresh air.








There are parks near by. Just less than 5 minutes walk from the house and you have plenty of space to play what ever you feel like. 

The longest skipping rope I've ever seen, but seems to work.

 

Some prefer to play football or "volleyball"

Who cares as long as you have a ball!

After the park it's time for a short evaluation and feedback about their day. Then it's time for a bus to take them home!

Besides all that I´m taking part of the capacity building workshops in the house, I´m getting to know the law and the situation of domestics workers in Peru. I was aware of the bad situation of domestic workers in Peru before coming here, but the reality hit me after meeting some domestic workers and even more when reading about the law.  Pamphlet does not just present the law but the violation that domestic workers are faced with in their work. Examples are real stories from child domestic workers. 

Some of you may wonder what is a domestic workers and what does she do, because it is not common to have one in Finland for example. Domestic labor is huge in Peru. The Ministry of Labor estimates that there are about 700 thousand household workers in Peru, although there are no official statistics. Of the 700 thousand it is estimated that about 120 thousand are children and adolescents that perform this work. The fact is that domestic child labor is one of the most worrying forms of child labor. It seems to be an “invisible” activity in  Peru. Basically domestic workers can do everything at home, clean, cook, laundry, look after children, go shopping etc. list can be very long sometimes. (Domestic workers in Peru)

How many of you could imagine your children at the age of twelve working 12 hours a day 7 days a week and get paid 20 e per month. In between or in the evening they would go to school and try to find time or energy to do their homework some time of their busy day usually before bedtime. They might be given just a mattress to sleep on the floor and a cold water to wash, even if there is a warm water in the house. How would you feel if your child was working on that kind of conditions. Here and in many others countries it is everyday reality for millions of children.

One of the basic human right is of course right to have a decent rest. Here it means that domestic workers have one day off in week, however employers don´t respect that right neither their working hours. Therefore especially under aged children end up working for 7 days a week without having almost any time off, except the ones, who go to school (which is not really a time off but at least they don´t do any physical work while being at school).

Personally for me was difficult to understand that in Peru people who defend and fight rights for women are not willing to defend the right of the domestic workers WHO ARE WOMEN TOO, because it’s in a conflict with their own interest (they want to be served on Sundays because it is their day off) not thinking that their workers have been working the whole week as well! Worst for me is the fact that how badly children are treated and abused often by their own family members or godparents, not to mention their employers.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

More, in my opinion this shows that domestic workers are not treated equally as human beings. Many people here think that these people don´t deserve any rights, because many of them come from the rural areas. But what difference does it make where you come from or what is your background? Does it give a right to treat people differently, simply because they look different, speak differently or come from somewhere else?

Why so many human beings have a tendency to put oneself above other person just because they have money and they are educated?

To me we are all the same, despite of the color, sex, social class, etc. we should treat and be treated equally and we should have the same rights. I prefer people who are honest, sincere and have a good heart, nothing else matters. Therefore I can only admire and respect the work that these people do here at the La casa de Panchita and many of them are volunteers.

Happy Birthday and Thank you La casa de Panchita, amazing 24 years of helping people!!!


Keep up the good work!!! 

I wish your dreams may come true!!!

A video about La casa de Panchita. English subtitles.
I WORK THERE AND WITH THESE PEOPLE.

More videos about the topic:
Domestic workers in Peru
Domestic workers
Child labour

Thoughtful sick

Hmmm...less than a week in here and I'm sick!?!? I think it is the change of the climate. First two days it was COLD (means around +15 during the day) and since there is no heating inside the house you can imagine it's cold. Then there was two sunny days and fairly warm and now it's been getting colder everyday. Since Monday I had pain in my throat but yesterday it got really bad. I had my second day at work at the office. Whole day workshops for adult domestic workers. Morning was ok. I could follow it, even if I couldn't really join the conversation. But afternoon was like a nightmare. I was feeling really bad, to sit on a hard chair and in the cold 2,5 hours. When I came home, I dived in my sleeping bag and slept on and off until the morning. This morning I felt like I was hit by truck, so I figured it was best to stay at home and rest.

It's funny how fast you get used to things that you don't necessarily like but you simply have to. I hate sleeping with my clothes on and in a sleeping bag, now I sleep inside the sleeping bag with my clothes on (and top of that sheet and a blanket). I take a shower only when I really need to (once in 2 to 3 days), because even if I have a warm water, but the cold after that and the wet hair the whole day. So shower in the evening is out of the question! Also, I'll be wearing clothes as many times as possible because laundry won't dry in here or it will after several days and will be smelling like a wet dog, like my towel (already had to buy a new one) because of the humidity. Luckily I have at least 15 pairs of underwear so I figured I need to do laundry only once in two weeks :D or when the sun appears!

Another things is cleanness, cooking with pots that are far from looking like pots that should be used in cooking. When you just boil the water you can taste the metal in your mouth. So have a tea or coffee or what ever, but not just hot water. Maybe I should invest at least a small pot for heating the water. Next year when I got to the airport security check, it'll just make noise all the time ;) because all the metal inside me. I have tried to eat healthy, avoid this and that and then I come here and it's like throwing everything out of the window, how ironic!

Today I learned that in Peru many cars have two tanks, one with petrol and other with gas. It is a natural gas. You can use either one. Gas is more expensive but takes you twice the distance than petrol would (according to Antonio) and also it's more environment friendly if you go a long distance, I assume.

Yesterday Jenni posted about earthquake in Uganda and today Antonio told me that in here there hasn't been a big one in many years so they are expecting to have one soon and maybe even a tsunami. Hmmm, is he joking I was thinking at first, nope, yep I saw a warning sign on the beach about tsunami, ok so it might happen in here too. Things that I have KNOWN, but totally ignored the reality. I guess if I would think about those things, I would start to feel uncomfortable and might stay home, but you can die at home too. So I was told to get out off the house if I feel shaking or something. Hopefully, while I'm here I don't have to experience earthquake nor tsunami, por favor NO!!!

While waiting for another sunny day in here and to get healthy some pictures from last Sunday when I went to the beach. When it gets warmer I'll try surfing as well.

1st day at work

I want bike or rollerblades...I sat almost an hour in the minibus on the way to work, 5km...I walked home within the same time!!!

Morning I spend reading the materials in Spanish at La casa de Panchita. I can understand the content but in order to learn new word, I was being specific and you can just imagine how many pages I read within 3,5 hours...not much at all. At 1.30pm I took another bus back to same direction and even further and spend a bit more than hour in the bus again. Again I manage to arrive just on time to the University to meet Anali. Well I waited another half hour wondering if there was a misunderstanding and  just when I was about to call she arrived. Again we took a minibuss and another even smaller minibus (where tall people like me have problems to get in) and went up the hill. In front of the building kids were already waiting. This is the kind of library for kids to come and get help with their home work, have a place to stay and play. Language was not a problem, because many of them had their math homework. So I learned numbers today and how to calculate in Spanish; mas +, menos -, por x. I loved it, how nice it is not to be responsible but just be present!
But I tell you what these kids study in Math at the age of 7 is what we study on 3rd grade. And amount of homework, TOOOOO MUCH, even the little ones couple of pages.

It was a very good afternoon! Again 1 hour in the miniminibus and minibus back to home. Food from yesterday (luckily I cooked) beer, chatting, "football" and now time to go to sleep!

¿Qué???? Yo vivo en Lima

Week ago I left Finland, now I live and work in Lima! For some reason it seems unreal, but on the other hand I have settled down in here and this feels real thanks to my fantastic housemates Antonio and Felipo. Today we also got a new housemate Mel, another woman in the house :) she is a mate of Antonio. Means we have a full house. While writing this we all sit in the livingroom and wacth football, a (well I'm not really wacthing, but I'm present at least ;)

I feel like I've been here longer than 5 days. Propably because so many things happened and new things all the time.
Yesterday I had my first meeting with Johana (my coordinator) at the La casa de Pancita. To get there I had to take minibus for the first time and of course I got LOST, even if it's just one way up Av Areguipa, but the bus took me too far because I didn't know where to get off. Nevertheless it seem there was a reason getting lost because I asked help from a man, who knew Sofia from La casa de Pancita. He directed me to the right way and I gave his greetings to Sofia, who was happy to hear about her friend after many years. And I got there on time, before Johana :) minutes here and there, who cares ;)
Meeting was good and intensive. Seems I will have fairly busy July. I'll be participating most of the programs during this month and after that I can decide what I want to concentrate on and what I like doing most. There will be a big event coming 21st of July, 24th Anniversary of La casa De Panchita, which will be un grande Fiesta!

My Spanish is terrible, I understand when I can just listen but when someone talks to me I'm like WHAT???? Also talking in English at home is not helping although it makes life a bit easier because otherwise I would be fairly silent most of the time :D and you all know how much I talk. Yet, I have managed by so far with my terrible Spanish and I'm sure after this month I will be much better. For some reason all other languages, French, German, Swedish comes to my head but where are the Spanish WORDS? On the way, I assume...

Yesterday when I was walking home from La casa de Panchita in the middle of the chaotic traffic I had to pinch myself...Yes, this is real, I'm in South America, I live in LIMA, I'm so LUCKY (despite of the pollution around me) and I simply smiled the whole way home and shut out the noise of the traffic with my mp3 listening music on shuffle and this was the first song...

 Sunshine

Now it seems there is no traffic :)  but you can walk/cycle/roller blade in the middle and no worries about the traffic!!!This is close to my home. But I live in a smaller street, luckily!