How do people live in this much dust?

Life in Alto Cayma is about controlling the dust. People live in homes with dirt floors, in the dust and sand of the high desert. They are forever "battling" the dust. Yet, in spite of the dust, dirt and blowing winds - they mange to keep white shirts white and clean clothes clean. It is not a miracle - but a lot of work.

One afternoon as our team was transitioning from a morning activity, a volunteer on the Team Peru trip turned and asked me, "how do people live in this much dust?"

My answer to him was a long winded response. Long winded because I don't think you can directly answer such a question without first recognizing the reasons that people are forced to move to the "dust" in the first place. Many of the people who make their way to the large peri-urban slums like Alto Cayma come from communities high in the mountains. Areas with little to no resources - i.e. schools, healthcare, jobs. They come seeking a better life.

Often times, not always mind you, they do not find the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow. Rather, they often find that their lives are much more complicated as they struggle to culturally adjust to life in a big city. Their lives in the mountains are very centered around raising their alpaca and llama herds. They have small crops of potatoes or other arid agriculture and they will get their basic needs met through battering.

When they arrive in the city they are thrust into a whole new economy and struggle to develop the skills to create an economic lever for themselves and their families. They live in the dust because they are continually hopeful that a better life is "just around the corner." They live in the dust because they want so much more for their children. They life in the dust because they have no where else to go.

For many of the people living in the Pueblos Jovenes (peri-urban slums) around Arequipa, life is about a hope that one day things will be better. A hope that they will not always live in the dust.