Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By
Larry J. Pitman

When I came to Peru, almost five years ago, I established several goals for myself. These were related to what I hoped would be a successful long term experience of living in Peru.

In fact, I considered them necessary if I were to be successful.

One goal was to learn Spanish as well as I could.  My idea was that the better I spoke Spanish, the more I would enjoy living in Peru. This has turned out to be true. My experience here has proven my point. I can now communicate sufficiently well enough so that I can have satisfying interchanges with most anyone I encounter.

I also understand most of what is going on, even in complex situations. Thus, I feel secure in my ability to communicate and to understand what is being said to me.

However, I also now recognize that learning Spanish needs to be a continuing goal, one that I will keep the rest of my life.

Nevertheless, this article is not about that goal, but about another. The other goal was to learn as much as I possibly could about Peru, through personal experience, but also through reading. What I have observed in my life is that the things that you know the best are also those that you most appreciate.  A simple rule comes to play here: the more you know, the more you enjoy.

This is also a continuing goal.

By way of example, the expatriates I know who are happiest here and have lived the longest in Peru are those who are by nature curious and have maintained a desire to keep learning about this fascinating country. They know a lot, and they want to know more.

Of course, being able to read well in Spanish is a great advantage in this pursuit of knowledge.  For various reasons, including the lack of ability to read complex material in Spanish, some expatriates may not have the opportunity to read very widely about
Peru.

In this regard, for those who would like read more on Peru, I can recommend a great resource in English on Peru that I have just discovered. It is the Peru Reader, published by Duke University in the United States. It is available through Amazon.com for about US$15.
 
To give you a flavor of this wonderful book, I would like to quote from the blurb on the back page:

“As often as not, Peru has been portrayed in broad extremes: as the land of the richest treasures, the bloodiest conquest, the most poignant ballads and the most violent revolutionaries. The Peru Reader offers a deeper understanding of this complex country that lies behind these claims. The volume offers Peru’s history from its extraordinary pre-Columbian civilizations to its citizens’ twenty-first century struggles to achieve dignity and justice in a multicultural nation where Andean, African, Amazonian, Asian and European traditions meet.

“Presenting a vast array of essays, folklore, historical documents, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts and photographs, this collection provides the traveler and the specialist alike with a thorough introduction to the country’s astonishing past and challenging present.”

The Editor also makes the point that most of the material in the book is written by Peruvians and is available for the first time in English.

For those who want to know more, this is a great resource. Learn and enjoy Peru.

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