La Chancheria (The Hog Farm)

La Chancheria. Who could forget the deafening squeals of plump yet starving swine at feeding time mixed with upbeat rithyms of salsa and cumbia blaring from a radio, sour smells of ripe maure wafting in the summer breeze, the dilapidated, picket fence haphazardly surrounding and the unkempt garden and cement sheds in dire need of a face lift, and the two Ciudad boys that worked there, Charles and Mario?  These memories will be etched in my mind for quite some time. 

Fortunately, I did not have much to do with the day to day care for the hogs in the chancheria, but I spent plenty of time there.  I was put in charge of painting the three sheds, color scheme:  white and light blue to cover the burnt red and biege that was chipping away from the brick walls.  I usually had three or four of the San Felix boys working with me, Jhonatan, Cristian, and Miguel. 

Paint in Peru, or just in La Ciudad de Los Ninos, became a source of frustration for me.  The paint that was commonly used in La Ciudad was water based, which they then thinned down even more to the point that it seemed that I was painting a brick wall with a Crayola water paints set (you can imagine the frustration!).  

Overseeing this project became a great way for me and the boys of the chancheria to build friendships.   Charles and Mario usually finished early with their afternoon chores and were immediately assigned to assist me and the others with painting.  The conversations that we had were varied and interesting, common themes usually being relationships with girls in their class, their plan and anxieties about life after La Ciudad, curiousity about the United States or my life (which many of them refused to believe that I was in the seminary).

While scraping and sanding off all the old paint, I was able to learn so much about the boys, their personalities, or their familial situations. I learned that both Jhonatan and Cristian are hard workers, especially Jhonatan (who also found the quality of the paint frustrating and always supervised me when I was preparing it so as  ensure that I would not add too much water).  Cristian, who is also the jardinero (gardener),with his playfully deceptive smile would always affecionately call me Senor Mike. I would ask him " Senor Cristian, what are you doing?" or "Chrisian, where are you going?" and he would simply reply "why?" with an innocent look that could deceive the least credulous person, but the interested stares of the other boys working with us belied Cristian's intentions.  He was of course trying to malinger his way out of painting.  Then there Jose Zapata, who was sent to help me one day.  He was the most entertaining person to work with.   I would ask a simple question, like what were his plans for the summer vacation, and he would reply with an elaborate far-fetched story.  For example, as punishment for making him work (which I reminded him, it was Hermano Sergio, not me, who made him work) he told me that he would set his gang of inarcotic dealers on me. He was, according to this story, the "big shot" of this internation cartel.  Knowing that gangs and narcotics is still a problem in Peru, I should not have laughed, but he was just so funny in telling this far-fetched story about a reality which may or may not be a problem that Zapata or any of the San Felix boys have to deal with on a personal level.