Saturday: Gays, Catholics, and Sexist Miners

On Saturday, I woke up at an ungodly hour (9am) to attend a meeting of the Peruvian Masculinities Network. I met Jaikel and Jakelin at Inppares and we took a mini-bus to the Lima Homosexual Movement (MHOL) building near the Ministry of Health building. This is the MHOL building! Impressive for a Latin American country, am I right?

There, we sat around a table discussing what short film to show at the upcoming 10-5pm seminar on masculinity in Villa Salvador (an hour or two from Lima), which I will be attending. We also talked about the language of the message to send out for Fathers' Day and discussed participating in or organizing a Marcha de las Putas. More on that in Monday's post.

There were a lot of inspiring posters in MHOL. "We're Peruvians, we're diverse, and our vote is for equality."

First in an indigenous language, probably Quechua. :) Then in Spanish. "If you love me, don't hit me."

This sticker was on the door. It says, There are no human rights without women´s rights. Lesbians' rights are human rights too.

I picked up some fliers about local events, and discovered that we are in the middle of OutFest Peru, an international gay film festival that lasts two weeks. I decided to attend the free short films on Monday, and several others in the future if I liked them (I really did: see Monday´s post for more.)

I had planned to go to a pork festival at the La Molina University, but then I learned it was 90 minutes away. Loko and Miguel, the university students who were helping me find my way there, let me accompany them to the Catholic University (PUCP). They had been at the MHOL to interview someone for a communications project.

First, the boys and I went out to lunch. The appetizer I chose was yucca stuffed with ham and cheese. It was a lot like Japanese koroke and tasted like potato. Perfect with ketchup.

 I ordered a type of chicken breast with buttery potato pure and rice. The chicken was covered with a tasty sauce that looked spicy but was not. I had leftovers so I took them home and enjoyed them later. :D

It came with this dessert which had the most interesting texture and apple pieces inside. 

It was a very short walk from the restaurant to the university, but at the bus stop I saw this sign, which says, "Late Periods, 100% guaranteed". These are some of the back-alley abortions which terminate 35% of Peru's pregnancies. It is truly insane that abortion is illegal here, because desperate women are definitely going to find a way and their health should come first, not last as it currently does. 

PUCP was a huge university and I had to get snuck in because everyone has to show their student IDs. Miguel did a special handshake with the guard and I was ushered in, haha. The university has deer roaming all around their campus, which surprised me a lot given the complete urbanization of Lima. But PUCP is very big and has lots of vegetation. I fed some flowers to a cute deer just like this student is doing. 

There was a photo exhibit about a small village in Peru with family-owned farms. They were all really beautiful, but I was touched by this photo of an elderly couple on their farm holding hands. It says, "Mr. and Mrs. Higo, love persists".

Some pictures from the university: 

I wandered all around, encountering what I'm pretty sure is part of a huaca, or ancient ruins that have been left alone in the area. I guess this because I could see a huge huaca from the zoo nearby. 

I entered the academic building for mining and was distressed at what I saw. Then again, I have always been anti-mine... so take my bias into account. English bumper stickers. 

This poster about gold extraction made me never want shiny things again.

The weirdest thing was the bathrooms. There was one bathroom for professors, and it had a picture of a man on it. Another bathroom was labeled students, and it had a picture of a man on it. The third bathroom was for women and disabled people, AND it required a lock to use it. Cool, guys. I understand that most miners are dudes but way to institutionalize the "professors and students are male, women and disabled people are Other" mentality. And wtf about locking the girls out of their bathroom but leaving the others open. 

With the help of a security guard, I found my bus home. Renzo invited me to a party with his friends and even though I was tired, I wanted to go for a little while. Turns out they were really awesome and fun, although they all smoked cigarettes in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. I went on an adventure with three of them to get alcohol, although I was too tired to drink. We walked into the neighboring district because Jesus Maria doesn't permit alcohol sales after 11pm. A really old drunk guy cut in front of us in line for booze, and kept saying funny things that didn't make sense. We headed back in a taxi and listened to a lot of music. Once the alcohol kicked in for everyone except me, we all danced whenever a good song came on. Renzo switched between the Spanish dance channels and the English dance channel. I had a great time!