Our visit to Lima has left me with many questions. These last days, the group has helped a group of mothers paint the daycare Caritas Felices in the San Juan de Miraflores district in Lima. I spoke with Estel, a mother at the daycare, while I brushed and she held the paint. Her family is from Cusco, which she describes as where the Incans lived. She says the Incans are there, but they are not there. They are there in their descendants. People are a mixture, una mezcla. In Cusco, many speak Quechua, so she was teaching me some words for our trip there next week. I asked her if the kids at the daycare were learning it. She said no, because it is not necessary. What does it mean when a parent does not teach their child their parent's language?  What separates us more:  ethnicity, class, or language?

Jahnet's family is from the Amazon. She is the only one in her family in Lima now. It is very important for her to learn English she tells me. This is one reason she is trying to visit the United States for 6 months. From what I can tell, I do not believe there are a great many people from the Amazon in Lima, at least not those that have lived in the jungle. She tells me she met a man who was very excited to meet her because he had never met a lady from the Amazon. Jeanette enjoys Lima, but she tells me living under a roof is sometimes like a prison, un carcel, for her after living in the jungle, sleeping under the stars, and riding horses. Why are Jahnet and Estel in Lima, far from their families? One reason is for a job. Estel works at the daycare while Jahnet studies tourism and works somewhere where she must respond to emails in English.   Another reason might be because they were displaced due to governmental forces or otherwise. Why don't they move back? That is difficult question, and I believe in general, people don't want to. Perhaps they have come to enjoy and revere their new modern life. Maybe having a TV and plumbing is seen as progress, even if you are living on a soft cliff where there are earthquakes.  Also, sometimes "where you came from" is poorly defined. Maybe my grandmother was born in the Andes, but I have always lived in the city. Maybe my  grandmother lived in Cusco, and my grandfather's parents were from China and the Andes. These are Limans.

Lima is a mixture of cultures. This makes me think of a conversation with two very talkative girls we met in Ate, Maria and Nikola, 8 and 9 years old. We dusted off a ledge of a boulder and sat looking at the stars, pretending we were queens. Nikola said she was queen of Peru, and Maria is the princess. They asked each other what I should be queen of. They knew I was from the USA, but Maria asked me if I was from Argentina and Nikola asked if I had Chinese in me as they pulled at their eyes and inspected mine. This may seem like an insensitive question, but from this conversation, it can be seen that the kids question where we are from and understand that the answer can be more complex than where you live.