Momentum

What a difference a day makes! Today we met with the country director of the World Food Program, checked in with the US Embassy, got tshirts printed up, arranged a potential ride down to the area, and met with two friends with connections to local NGOs and the government, who are contacts of a HODR volunteer.

We're starting to get a better sense of what the situation is in the Ica region, where the earthquake caused the most damage. The government of Peru is heavily involved in the relief effort, almost (or some would argue already at) the point of micromanaging the coordination, and creating additional bottlenecks. In the OCHA SitReps themselves, there are obvious contradictions between the reports from the government and the UN's observations. That's why speaking with so many different people is valuable, we get the fullest sense of the situation as we can.

Dinner with Diego and Marco (the two friends) was the most fun and interesting part of the whole day. Both are native Limeños who went to school in the US; they're intelligent, socially aware, articulate, well-connected, and really generous with their time. We shared a long conversation about the current relief efforts, the Peruvian government, social perceptions of NGOs, cultural cues, and more. It's a dialogue we hope to continue in the next couple days; these little nuggets give us a cultural context for our entire experience. Dinner was also my first introduction to Peruvian food - it's really good. If we do end up having a volunteer project here, I am so excited about our food prospects.