Rich and poor

This past week we got to see the immense contrast that exists in Peru, as in the US, between the very rich and the very poor. The part of Lima we live in, Las Delicias de Villa, is definitely a poor, third-world area. Not all the streets are paved and there is dirt and dust everywhere; some of the houses look finished but others are literally shacks made out of some brick and some random pieces of siding material. You wouldn't think anyone lived there except for the laundry strung up inside. Many houses don't have running water, electricity, or both, so there are always wet patches on the streets where people toss their water out the front door, which sometimes get unattractive if people drop fruit peels or other things that can attract flies. There are knee- or waist-high piles of dirt everywhere, which I can only explain by guessing that the people were moving it out of the way to build their houses and had literally nowhere to put it. Rich people can take dirt "away," but where does it go? A question I had never asked myself.

Chaclacayo, in contrast, has pretty houses with gardens, a library, a nice central park/square with coffee shops and laundromats and a bar or two. No piles of dirt. And there really are some very rich people here, because last week Dr. Tony and all the kids were invited to the home of some friends from church for lunch. They live in a gated community right at the foot of the mountains. They have a lovely house with lots of windows and glass doors, a pool, a patio, a lush green lawn which has to be irrigated to be that way, a trampoline, two new-looking cars, and four or five domestic servants, plus a full-time nanny for their little granddaughter who was visiting. The couple seemed like very nice, unassuming people; you would never guess that they were rich until you saw their house. Dr. Tony told us that they invite the kids over twice a year and send their servants' children to school. The kids loved the trampoline and pool. What an amazing contrast to see.