PCV Bob arrives in Lima in August 1965

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Peru: Message Center for Peru RPCVs: Lima RPCVs: Were you posted to Lima or ever work around that area while you were in the Peace Corps in Peru? : PCV Bob arrives in Lima in August 1965

By Bobs friend (ca-arcdca-cuda1-c1b-231.arcdca.adelphia.net - 24.54.193.231) on Thursday, October 20, 2005 - 3:25 pm: Edit Post

My friend, Bob, suddenly arrived in Lima in mid-August, 1965. It seems that his old girlfriend from the states (who had previously said that she didn't want to see him again) phoned and said that she was coming to Peru.

Bob went out to the Lima Airport near Callao to pick her up. On the way back, he was feeling kind of sick, so he stopped at the Peace Corps office to pick up a few pills. Dr. Ed Berg took one look at him and hospitalized him. Apparently he was suffering from an ear infection, inflamed throat, fever, and two kinds of amoebas.

At this point, I had to take over and show the girl friend around Lima for two days while Bob recovered in the Peace Corps infirmary. Finally, on Friday night at 6:00 pm, Dr. Berg said that he could leave the infirmary. Bob immediately started running around saying that he didn't want to waste any more vacation days. I was thinking that he should take the girl to Ancon, a beautiful seaside resort north of Lima.

But no, he hurried down to the bus station and bought two tickets for Chimbote to leave at 11:00 pm that same night. The idea was to take the girl to Jimbe, a small village where he had spent his first few months of service. I was really worried about the poor girl going to a place like that.

Bob later told us that the whirlwind trip was a total fiasco. His friend was not prepared for the total lack of civilizaton or modern conveniences. Chimbote itself is a bad place to visit. It has an over-powering smell from all the fish meal processing plants. And Jimbe was even more isolated and much worse. Most of the "vacation" was spent running around to grubby stores in small Andean villages looking for basic feminine needs.


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