Living in Oasis

Oasis. Really doesn't inspire the right kind of image of the area we work in when you hear its name, although maybe it was an act of optimism calling it that! We go everyday for school and then leave, so it was an unusual turn when two volunteers showed up wanting to live in the barrio - no other volunteers have done it before. Oscar (the director) told them he thought it would be safe (they are a couple, I don't think it would be recommended for girls on their own) so they went about finding a house.

The entrance to Barrio Oasis

There are a few really good points about them staying there. Obviously, they save A LOT of money by living there. They get a slice of 'real life' of the people we are working to help, and learn a lot. Of course, there are a lot of bad points too...


Last night they both invited a few of the teachers round after school to come see their house and hang out a bit. So off we went, walking along the dirt road like some kind of pied pipers - we had kids following us the whole way! We were warned of the rules before going into the house: No kids inside. When we got there we saw how this rule came into being. The house has a porch, and a front gate. Hanging over the gate, sitting on the porch, peeking through the windows: children. Naughty, loud, cheeky kids looking for attention! This couple wake up each morning with a child peeking through their bedroom windows giggling, they cook each night to the sound of the kids fighting to get closest and everything else in between is accompanied by a stream of questions "Profe, senor..."


The house is nice by the standards of some in the barrio, luxury compared to what I was used to in Peru, and horrible compared to anywhere I have lived, or seen people living in at home. As I said there is a porch, a 'sitting room' (comprises of two plastic chairs and a plastic table), a bedroom (concrete floor with a matress)  and a kitchen (has one tap and one hob to cook one - pretty fancy!) The 'bathroom' is an outdoor shack with one compartment to shower - this involves taking water from the local well and chucking it over yourself - and another compartment with the bathroom. It was pretty basic. All in all though it was a lot nicer than I was expecting. Some of the kids in the school have eight or more brothers and sisters, and they all live with their parents in one room shacks, so this is definitely the higher end of living in Oasis. Interior design comprised of a shiny plastic poster hanging up high, of what can only be described as a pretty English cottage. Very strange. This was artistically hung exactly beside a painting of a waterfall, causing a weird clash of images and a bit of an eyesore.


To shut the doors meant the heat became stifling, but to leave them open meant there was always an audience standing on the threshold peeking in... 


The bad points of living up there must surely be the dirt. There is rubbish everywhere, and the smell of it burning is toxic. It is so hot and dusty, and the dirt just sticks to you while you are working - everyday I come home feeling disgusting. To feel that constantly must be tiring. The dirt is also filled with tiny bugs who nip at your feet all day long, I am covered in bites! Inside the house geckos crawl the walls and cockroaches scuttle in the corners. The worst though are scorpions. I haven't seen one (thank goodness) but one of the volunteers has been bitten, and Gabby (one half of the American couple) found one sitting comfortably on her shorts the other day!


In the school we have a problem with how violent the kids can be with one another, and a big part of this is throwing rocks at each other. They pick up the biggest stones from the road that they can find / lift and lob them at the unlucky victims head... Women sit outside their houses and watch the kids do this, and never decide to step in or say no. This is because, as we found out through our 'inside couple' many of the adults have the exact same attitude to arguments. Last Sunday at 9am, Wren and Gabby were woken up by the sound of yells and screams down the road. A crowd had gathered to watch as a woman pelted rocks at the house of her ex-husband; the venom was directed at his new wife. Everyone stood by, doing nothing, as massive rocks smashed into the house, nobody was concerned that somebody may get hurt. 


With these tiny examples that we uncover each day, it becomes clearer to see what we are up against. It is about more than just teaching the kids to read, it is also about offering them an alternative outlook on life, and showing them they can aim to do something different. The question is though, how do you get that across!

    Kids playing on the railway tracks that border Oasis. Their kites are plastic bags tied with string.