Today in my language class we watched the movie “Paloma de Papel” which illustrated some of the terror that took place because of the Sendero Luminoso, a terrorist group prevalent in the 1980s in Peru. This terrorist group, which was inspired by a fusion of “Marxist-Lenist-Maoist” ideologies, committed mass acts of terrorism within the small mountain villages of Peru. The legacy of this terrorism continues to haunt the people of Peru, especially the “campesinos” who live in the isolated Andes.

The terrorism of the 1980s and early 1990s subsided significantly under the Fujimori presidency, but his violation of human rights led to his incarceration. He remains in jail, but his daughter is now controversially involved in the Peruvian political world. There seems to be whispers of terrorism increasing within Peru, especially among the “narcotraficantes” (drug traffickers) in the selva (jungle) areas of Peru. Many terrorists from the 1980s are currently being released from jail; in fact, one of the leaders of the MRTA (another powerful terrorist group) is now supposedly living in our community.

After our morning movie and discussion, we began our information gathering for our practice community diagnostic. We spoke with locals about family and religious dynamics, economic trends, the educational system, healthcare, political influences etc. to determine some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within each of the small communities in which we are living. Conversing with members of each community provided interesting insight into the details of their lives and some of their personal perceptions of their neighborhoods. We’ll be conducting an extremely detailed diagnostic when we arrive at our sites, but this was a good introductory exercise and indicated the importance of not relying on our own observations when seeking to understand a new community.

After training a bunch of hung around for Peruvian Dancing lessons with Pablo, one of the language facilitators for the Peace Corps. It was such an entertaining experience; we learned dances from the three regions of Peru: la costa, la selva, and la sierra. We were all terribly uncoordinated, but absolutely loved it.