Peruvian Dinner Theater

Last night we went to the Peruvian Dinner Theater. These are a few photos from the tradional dances of Peru. The one with the large head is like the lucky Buddha of Peru. The show had dances from many of the areas and cultures of Peru - Lima, Cusco (Inca), Puno, Ica and other coastal regions. The costumes were very colorful. My favorite dance was the scissors dance. These two men dance with the two components of a pair of scissors in their hands keeping a constant rhythm while they tumble and dance around. They were pretty amazing. I will post a video so that you can hear the music and write about the dances a bit later.

Social Worker Visit in Peru

Today our program director Edith took us with the social worker and a child from PPA (Juan) to look for his home for a surprise visit it was an unbelievable day. To get there we took a taxi from the children's home. The air quality in Lima is very bad. They do not have emissions control. They dump there trash all over the place in the shanty towns that surround the city. We drove around for about an hour or longer. On the way to Juan's house we saw a dead dog in heap of trash on the side of the road. Then as we walked over the hill we saw a woman dragging a dying dog to the middle of median - there really isn't a road, it is all dirt. We drove all over the place in Villa El Salvador - the shanty town - trying to find this place. Juan, who is six was trying to guide us through the maze of shanty houses to find his. We stopped for directions many times. When we finally go to this spot we found that we had to walk over the back of this huge sand dune and down the back side which is pretty much like a cliff. His house is basically hanging on the edge of a cliff. Very dangerous for a small child. His father abandoned his mother. There are 3 children. 2 at PPA and a 15 year old who lives at home with the mother. He had some sort of accident and can't walk so he sits in bed all day. I am not sure how he gets to the bathroom. It not really a bathroom per se. The dig a hole in the sand and bury their waste inside the home. There is a lot of cholera, dissentary and tuberculosis in the shantytowns. They have power which they have spliced from someone else. It is strung to the house with multiple extension cords. The shack does look out at the ocean so the air quality is better there than most of the rest of the ride. Peru is in the earthquake zone. If there is another bad earthquake many of the people in Villa El Salvador will be buried in the rubble of their homes. There is no building code enforcement. There is so much exhaust in the air everywhere it is just nasty. I have a hard time imagining that they live with this terrible air quality every day. It is so dangerous. But the environment is not something they think about when they have so many more pressing priorities with so many people living in abject poverty.

After we made our way back up the sand dune we drove around the area looking around. There are make shift houses and markets all over the place and stray dogs that look like they are staving wandering around or languishing on the side of the road. We went to an area where they sell furniture that is made in the area. They are famous for furniture in Villa El Salvador.

Then we made our way back to PPA and had lunch.

American small business will feel the Bailout Blues

Our lawmakers have failed us again. They are incapable of separating their self interests in being re-elected from taking the bad medicine that is necessary to help free up the liquidity crisis. I am not for corporate welfare which to some degree is what this bill represents. However, without a bipartisan solution to free up the markets the Wall Street Big Guns suffering will be minor compared to that of the American people as a whole. The Great Depression was the result of a protracted lack of credit availability. Without credit businesses don't grow, especially small businesses. Working capital loans won't be made by the bank which results in small businesses having trouble making payroll especially if they aren't getting paid for their receivables. This will impact every 401K plan and pretty much everyone in America. Few business survive today on a strictly cash basis. Lines of credit are critical to the continued flow of capital and day to day business. Our president, our congressmen and women and our regulators are failing miserably to educate the public on how the market works and how closely Main Street is tied to Wall Street. Nobody is going to be happy about a $700 Billion bill - but it should not end up costing this much. In the end, the Government should make its money back from the assets purchased from the financial institutions. Its not like the assets are worth NOTHING, they do have value and their are buyers with capital awaiting the opportunity to buy. We need this liquidity injected in to the market. This needs to get done. Nancy Pelosi needs to talk more like a stateswoman than a partisan hack and Republicans need to swallow their distaste for corporate welfare and get this bill passed. Perhaps we should throw the lot of them out in November. I hate to think we'll still be waiting for a solution on November 4th. People are going to start putting their cash under the mattress. That's really frightening.

Remembering Yesterday, silence and valuing the differences

Yesterday was September 11. For the first time it didn't seem like there was much made about the day. It has been seven years. To me it seems like it was last year or at least no more than a couple of years. That day stands out in my mind as one of the most memorable in my lifetime. And the days following when three of us, my boss and another friend/employee, tried to make our way back to Colorado from Washington, DC/Richmond. It was an adventure - planes, almost trains, cabs, and automobiles. We traveled in silence in our mini-van much of the time, turning off the radio. We missed most of the early TV coverage. We had a mission to get home to our loved one's. We drove all night. Stopping on the roadside in the mountains of Virginia at midnight when the massive accident shut down the highway. We walked along the side of the road in silence just to pass the time.

After making it home, I was struck by the silence there too. No planes in the sky, no shouting on TV, everyone looking out for one another. Peaceful in the face of horrible devastation.

Now, this year's anniversary is in the middle of an election. People barely stopped the bickering, shouting and mud slinging to honor the dead. Can't we be civil to each other and value and respect our differences. That's what has made our country so great. We are so diverse and that's what creates so much opportunity - differences create new ideas, our differences help us solve problems. Why can't we see these differences as good and return to a world in which we respect ourselves and each other.

I think we need a movement to re-institute civility in our civil society.