Last night after REAP training, since Amanda was out and about, I decided to head on down to the Ovalo to see some friends and practice a little Spanish.
I saw Maria, a lady of about 40 with two mute sons who sales pirated DVD’s. She was crying because she had gotten “busted” earlier that day and all her money from the weekend’s sales was confiscated.
Piracy is absolutely everywhere in Peru: Books, CD’s, Software, DVD’s. It’s big business. You can buy the exact same DVD (artwork is copied) for 8 Soles that will cost you 50 or 60 Soles in a store. Also, you can get most movies on the street before they even hit the theatres. The latest Star Wars movie for example was being sold in the street corners before the theatre debut.
Anyway, this is how Maria feeds her kids. I have talked to Maria lots of times before. She’s a believer, she goes to Agua Viva, a pretty good church from what I hear. So, I decided to help her out a bit. Amanda had bought a couple E Wong (kind of like Wal Mart) gift cards for this very purpose, so I gave her one. She had no idea what it was. She went and asked a worker in E Wong because I wasn’t doing a very good job explaining. Then a police officer was standing in front of us. This was not a nice police officer. Maria told me later that he was the one who called the people to come and get her in trouble. He was laughing sarcastically at us and acted like he was taking the card. Thankfully, he wandered off without the card. I was a bit nervous for un minuto!! Maria got it figured out and I got out of there. I walked back to the apartment.
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