DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

Peruvians seem to be confused that Asian people can be American as well.  While I understand it´s because of the fact that Peru has a large indigenous population, I still find it odd that even though all 12 of us are in the same group of people (the American gringos), Peruvians (not just in Ciudad de Dios) hink that e´re not part of the group.  They keep asking where we´re from and kind of surprised when they hear Los Estados Unidos.  It makes me wonder about the kind of image that America portrays...how is it that America is considered the land of immigrants, but also the land of white gringos?

Another thing that surprised me - I brought my sunglasses to Ciudad because I thought they would be useful when the sun shone.  I waspretty careful about only bringing things that I might need and nothing flashy.  I totally did not expect, however, that my sunglases would be the object of so many children´s facination to the point that they fought over them and even asked me to gift it to them.  I think that even kids in the US would play with and fight over glasses, so the thing that surprised me the most was that Thalia kept asking me to gift them to her.  It made me think about how these kids view us - do they think that we´re just the bringers of fascinating things?

Our first Sunday in Ciudad de Dios was spent in a community meeting that we organized to fill the town in on the water project.  There was another water project proposed to the community by the local government, and we wanted the town to make an informed decision about which project they wanted to pursue.  Dr. Billman had been speaking to the community and they were all getting excited about our project.  After Dr. Billman, it was time for me and Carrie Gantt, a fellow DukeEngager, to speak.  The fact that we were addressing the community was, in itself, abnormal, as we were young, blond, and women.  However, we spoke about the technical details of the proposed system, as well as the pride that the community could share in having a water system of their very own.  After we finished with our speaking points, Joan, our site coordinator, spoke to get the community united behind the project.  We continued to stand up front, and while we were standing front and center, Marleni, the wife of the mayor in town, whispered to me from the corner.  She made a hand motion that, to me, looked like the way you'd flick your hand to tell someone to get down or squat.  I didn't understand, so I did nothing.  Again, she called my name and repeated the motion.  This time, I felt more sure that she wanted me to squat because I was blocking something.  As Joan was speaking, I slowly squatted down and made Carrie do the same.  Once we were on the ground, Carrie explained to me that Marleni was motioning for me to come over to her, not to squat.  Thoroughly embarrassed from squatting in front of the entire community that I had just addressed, I stood up slowly and hurried over to Marleni's corner, where she instructed me on what things we should address before wrapping up the meeting.

The meeting was a success and the community has rallied behind our project, but I will forever be humbled by this, my reminder that hand signals are not as universal as we think.