Love at First Site: Candaleria

Before I left Colorado, I had grown a little disillusioned with the idea of community organizing and its effectiveness. I suppose a small case of burn out- it’s a good thing I left when I did. Last Sunday, I experienced love at first site/sight. My host family, with the help of my host mom’s cousin (who has a car) took me on a tour of Mariategui, which is a zone in Villa Maria del Triunfo. Jhonny, my host mom’s cousin, owns a house in a community called Candaleria, which is located way up in the hills of Mariategui. To get there, you have to go up this very bumpy road (for those of you that might know Lima Sur, its about ten times more bumpy than La Pista Nueva), and only certain cars can go up there or you have to walk up the dirt road, up the hill. It’s a community of about 500 people that moved up there ten year ago. I immediately fell in love with the community. They have been organizing for ten years and how have electricity, a school, and are about to get water. They are organized so that every 30 houses has two directors that represent those houses and collects dues. The directors or organizers meet weekly to make decisions. They have required each house to plant a tree, have a bag of sand for fires, and an electric meter to measure the electricity they use. The most amazing part of this bottom up, organic organization is that no outside institutions were involved- not an NGO nor the government. Jhonny introduced me to two women- Betty and Dora. They are both single moms living on a few hundred soles per month, working, and directors for their “manzanas.” They immediately treated me as a friend and invited me to the meeting/training they were having. I watched a water representative from SEDAPAL be two hours late for the meeting- while everyone patiently waited, and the training only lasted for about 20 minutes. That disappointment was quickly remedied by a game of volleyball in the street with some neighbors. We lost the game, but I felt like I had won some new friends.