Arequipa!

This day has been an extraordinary day. I arrived to Arequipa on Sunday evening after having had an exciting journey on the bus from Cusco. We left Cusco around 7 o’clock in the morning and were supposed to be in Arequipa around 1600 in the afternoon but we never came here to Arequipa until 1930.

The farmers had blocked the roads in several small villages by putting big trees and stones from the hills. We had to negotiate with the farmers on several occasions to get the green light in order to clear up the roads and continue our travel. The farmers are showing their frustration and rage against the privatisation of water by the government which has not reacted to their protests in any positive manner. The farmers will be affected negatively as their access to the water will diminish and thereby their livelihood.

It was an interesting experience for me. I watched part of the movie “Malcolm X” on my laptop in one of the roadblocks where we had to stand still for more than an hour. I have seen this movie several times before and still think that it is one of the best movies that I ever seen. Give my respect to Denzel Washington and the MAN himself: - the honourable El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz ,alias,Mr.X!

When I eventually was in Arequipa, I just took a taxi to my host family where I was welcomed at the gate by a Dutch girl who has lived with this family for a while and left to Chile today. I like Arequipa so far. It is a beautiful city and is not crowded with tourists as Cusco is. It is clean, seems to be well-organised and much better-off than Cusco in many ways. Everyone is telling me though to watch out for the bad guys. I shall keep my vigilant eyes on duty as I usually do when I am in any big city. Only Lima is bigger than Arequipa.

I am gonna work as a voluntary “freelance journalist” in here for the coming four weeks. I was originally supposed to be working for the weekly newspaper “El Buho” but that plan has been changed as that paper has not got the need for my expertise as it is not running short of writers whose native is Spanish. They have not got that much interesting subjects that might be of interest for me either.

I might end up with the student TV which is sent through out this region on a daily basis. I was a guest at their studio tonight and was interviewed about my origin, journalism in Africa in general and in Eritrea in particular. The reasons for me being in here and many other questions. The radio did the same thing unexpectedly at around midday today when I was there just to check out things. My Spanish is not good enough as yet and had to have an English speaking translator with me. I was also interviewed by several English language university students in downtown about tourism and other staffs this morning.

What a day! Manic Monday!! It is amazing how fast things go sometimes!!!