Renting a room

Although I'm very happy with the hostel where I'm staying now, I wouldn't mind moving in into a house or an apartment shared with other people. Knowing that you'll be staying in such a place for a few months makes it easier to make the place your own. So I was very happy when a friend of a friend told me that she was moving in into a house that her parents had just bought and that she was looking for housemates.

"It's a bit out of the centre, but easily reachable by bus, so don't worry", she told me. Off we went, by bus, and half an hour later we reached a very nice house, it had a garden and all. Very spacious, nice wooden floors - I was sold (or so I thought)! Her parents happened to be in town as well, so I said to my friend that I wouldn't mind coming over to her place and have a chat with them, to reassure them that I'm not a "descuartizador" - someone who slices people and throws the pieces away in different places [those who had the pleasure of listen to my story about 'belgian' fries, the New Orleans pre-1900 mob slang verb 'to french' should come spontaneously to your mind.. ;-)].

There I was, sitting on the couch and waiting for her mum - the big chief - to arrive. "So, what brings you to Peru?", she asked. We chit-chatted for a while about who we were, what I was doing here, about my friend's family, very Sunday afternoon-like. And then, out of the blue: "So, you're interested in a room, right? Well, the room goes at 400 S/. per month, and of course you'll have to pay the gas/elec-bills on top of that." Sure thing, that's what we had agreed on before. "Oh, and do you smoke? 'coz I don't stand people who smoke." Lucky me I do not... "Good, good, otherwise I wouldn't have rented you the room."

Fieuw, we could continue our Sunday afternoon conversation - what have I done so far here, what places are nice to visit etc. Half an hour later, again, completely out of the blue: "By the way, you'll gonna have to pay two months' rent as a deposit and I'd like one month's rent in advance." Sounds fair to me, no objections there. "Oh, and are you religious, do you believe in God?" Renting a room is always an interesting experience...

Barranco beach with a view on Miraflores (c) Tom Van den Steen

You're free to pass

welcome to La Oroya (c) Tom Van den Steen

Last week I went with a few people from the Peruvian ngo CooperAcción and a group of Swedes from the christian-based organisation Diakonia to La Oroya (3750m). Now, the name may not ring a bell, but the city is the metallurgic capital of Latin America. Exciting, one might say, daydreaming about the sheer amount of economic activity and prosperity this company generates.

Alas, the reality is quite different. For over a century of mining and metallurgic industrial activities leave their mark on a community and its environment. Surprisingly, only 13 years ago did the first scientific research take place in the city, following an initiative of CooperAcción, to examine the people's state of health. The results were stunning: : over 90% of the children have an amount of lead in their blood that exceeds up to four times the maxima set by the government and the World Health Organisation. And this is just the top of the iceberg...

I'll be dropping more facts about that region later on. For now I'll leave you with the following picture:

'right-to-passage' boundary (c) Tom Van den Steen

On the winding road from Lima to La Oroya, passing 4818m, we encountered various signs saying '(este es el) limite del derecho de via'. I have no clue what the correct legal term is in English, but it should be something like 'the right to passage'. As almost 19% of the country is in the hands of mining companies that have been granted concessions to explore and exploit the natural resources in the area of their concession. Apparently, this also means that the national roads have become private, and therefore mining companies are granting you 'the right to passage'...

The last Inca...

... lives in my hostel! Unfortunately not for long anymore. We did spend a jolly few weeks together, I must say. He's been my 'Peruvian' master - showing me around and teaching me the basics of how to become a Peruvian instead of showing off my gringo-ness. Actually, señor Lupo, a retired veterinarian, has been living in the US for the past 50 years. But he's stayed Peruvian in his heart, and as a sun from the Andes highlands he prides himself of his Inca-roots.

The first weekend we went all around Miraflores, one of Lima's fanciest and safest districts, tasting food and drinks at gastronomic festivals, indulging our stomachs with tropical fruit, chirimoya (s.Lupo: "oh, this fruit is one of the best there is; it's like sex - once you've tasted it, you only want to have more of it!"), cebiche, tamales, anticuchos (s. Lupo: "oh, this dish, it's like sex - once you've tasted it, you only want to have more of it!"), picarones and many more Peruvian delicacies. Truth be said - I want more of it!

Life in Peru can be quite hard, you know. Here's what we had to endure on a Sunday afternoon, sitting on a terrace with a cold Cusqueña - the best Peruvian beer there is according to s.Lupo:

view from the miradora in Barranco, (c) Tom Van den Steen

Saludos calorosos de Lima

¡Hola amig@s! Here I go, with a second attempt at keeping you posted of my actions somewhere on this lovely planet called earth. My very good intentions for this time are to keep you posted with shorter pieces, which are faster to write and quicker to post. Let's see how this works out...

A bit over two weeks ago, I landed in Lima, Peru. So here I am, in the 'western hemisphere' (oh yes, how eurocentric are we), after a bumpy flight and a hell of a taxi ride to a hostel that was booked but didn't have a spare room. No, I didn't sleep on the street, a hostel nearby helped me out for the first nights - and those first nights ended up being two weeks (and counting). I just decided to stay in Pensión Yolanda, as I felt very welcomed by my host who's always been up front and helpful with me (oh, and let's not forget the occasional pisco sour he's offered).

view from the Miraflores cliffs right in front of my office

(c) Tom Van den Steen

I'll be staying here for quite a while, so do pop over if you feel like visiting Peru. For now, I'll leave you with the wonderful vista I have every time I leave my office here!

midnight blues

Dear friends,

I guess I am honouring my blog by making you hungry for news, six weeks after my first entry... But then again, those who know me, will know that I try to get most out of everything I am passionate about - that's what I've been doing! 

Probably a short chronological overview of the past few weeks won't harm.. The first big event after my last entry was COIMUN XIV - the fourteenth edition of the Cambridge University International Model United Nations. I thought it would be fun, having done the Model ASEM, to try a Model UN. There is this Model UN Society at Warwick, so I joined them and at my first session there were still seats available for the Cambridge MUN - and off I went! 

To be honest, it wasn't much of a blast, but I'm partly to blame. The

re are a lot of rules involved in this MUN, and as I didn't have much time to prepare the topics of the DISEC Committee (disarmament and international security, one of the six subcommittees of the UN General Assembly) I was on, I preferred to pick an 'easy' country which wouldn't involve too much work - Yemen it was! 

We tried to make some resolutions on piracy (on the high seas, not on the internet) and reform of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which we managed to do, but only with modest help of the delegate from Yemen. I mean, as such the whole event was interesting to watch, but you really need to prepare yourself, and be in the position to talk (like the Germany, the UK, China, ...) in order to enjoy this UN simulation to the fullest. I did contribute preventing, for example, that nuclear weapons countries would spread nuclear technology even to states not party to the NPT - as that was a slip of the pen of the resolution writers...

Anyhow, it was nice to have been again in Cambridge, lovely city to wa

lk around in and have some drinks!

Next stop: Brussels! Yes, you read that correctly. Brussels, as in the capital of Belgium and the heart of Europe. There were two conferences going on there, one on EU-Japan relations, and the other on EU-East Asia politics. The main reason for me to go there was to network with the special UN Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea - as I plan to write my dissertation on human rights in North Korea, I'd thought he might be an interesting chap to talk to! Predictably he cancelled the day before the conference, but I networked with some other nice people - such as a very sympathetic man from the European Council of Ministers, who was very charmed by the presence of some 'fresh minds' and said - joking unfortunately -  he would employ me right away. 

On the whole, it was just nice to have been home for some days, back in (snowy - I couldn't believe my eyes!) Belgium and relax a bit from all the stress of reading and catching up with all the work waiting for me.

Spoken of which - I was supposed to meet my programme director on leave the Monday after I returned from Belgium, the day before she would leave for Washington, DC, not to come back again to Warwick Uni. There were several issues I wanted to talk about h

er, there have been some problems with the programme, etc., and Monday morning we receive an e-mail saying she is ill and will not make it today to the uni! That was quite a surprise, but anyway, I guess that's just life. Now I am meeting her tomorrow, hopefully we'll get through everything I want to talk to her about...

Some rather unpleasant news as well - one of my classmates from the School of Law had died suddenly three weeks ago. It was obviously devastating news which got onto our minds for some time. Fortunately the class really sticked together, we gathered every day to be together, talk a bit about whatever we wanted to, just we were there for each other. 

Especially for the parents it must have been a terrible week to have to come from India to the UK for your daughter's death... just awful... They were really kind though towards us, they invited us for the cremation, and the uni had chartered a bus to get us there. And the day after we had our own commemoration ceremony, with her friends telling their remembrance about her. At first it was unsure whether the parents would want to attend it or not, but in the end they did. I think they very much appreciated us telling the many nice stories and memories we had about her. In the new year we will be planting a tree in her memory, as a positive way to remember her...

The first term has come to a close two weeks ago already - time just flies incredibly fast, it is unbelievable! But it also means that a lot of people are returning home for Christmas, so we had some nice goodbye dinner-parties over the past two weeks! First of all the

re was the 'official' Christmas dinner offered by our department - but it wasn't that much of a deal, as we only got some rice with curry or stew, and we had to pay for our drinks ourselves... It was nice, though, to see everyone again all together, and meeting new people - remember, I am the only one in my programme?! 

Then we had a very nice English dinner, prepared by Saki, one of my Japanese class mates from politics! It was delicious - two big roasted chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes, Christmas crackers, ... mmmm! There was a lot of atmosphere, among other thanks to some distilled inspiration... :-)

Last weekend we had some more international dinners.. The first one was at Serena's place, we made our own pizza's! Mamma mia, very nice!! It was a lot of fun, but hard work as well, making the dough and having it pizza-ready... It was worth it, and we all ate at least half a pizza too much!!

The other one was with my law friends - Ipshita made us an Indian dinner. We had been two weeks earlier for her birthday to an Indian restaurant, but this was muuuch better!! Don't ask me what we all ate, but it was delicious!

This Friday I'll be heading back home myself for a short Christmas break - one week Poland with the family... Hopefully it will be a nice holiday, relaxing a bit and getting much energy for the next year!

I wish you all a very nice Christmas, hope you can spend some nice moments with the ones you care most about! 

Merry Christmas and write you in the New Year!!