Friday Night in Cusco

Last night Elena and I went out in search of Fernando. We visited a few places where street kids hang out or are given a bed for the night. We took some missing posters with pictures of Fernando and stuck them up wherever was appropriate. It sure is a different way to see other aspects of Cusco that would not normally be seen by visitors and Elena is such a good guide.

The first place we went to was a house for children to sleep and no questions asked, and police. The guy there was very helpful but had not seen Fernando. He now has a poster and will ask the other kids to keep an eye out for him. He seemed hopwful of a good outcome.

The second place we visited is very hard to describe, and was an extremely harrowing experience. The place is for people from the countryside (el campo) who are lost in Cusco with nowhere to stay. Mostly older men. They are charged only a few centimos but get a bed for the night. When we arrived there was a political rally taking place in the courtyard. According to Elena it was a left wing rally but I'm not sure which party, could have been trying to organise a new party. Would have liked to know more but not possible in the circumstances. The speaker got loud cheers when he finished anyway.

We were then able to speak to the guy in charge who told us there was a foung boy asleep upstairs but he did not know who he was. He told us to go ahead and see for ourselves. The room upstairs was a large room with lots of bunk beds and guys occupying most of them. It was a bit scary. We could not see any boys until we were about to leave I saw movement under a mattress. It was obviously a small person. I went over and lifted up the mattress and found a foung boy maybe 10 years old staring out at me. He was absolutely terrified. He had the look of a trapped animal. I doubt I will ever forget his face. It kept me awake last night thinking about him. God knows how he came to be there but he certainly should not have been there. I was in tears leaving that boy behind. He would have been better in the PF despite what I've said about that place in the past. We spoke the the guy running the place and he promised to look out for him, but i suspect he was off to bed. He offerred us a bed for the night, as he was about to lock us in. We declined his offer.

That made me more depressed about the whole business of Fernando being lost.

We spoke to lots of other street kids, at least Elena did, and they all promised to look out for F. I will need to tell you more about Elena some time as she has quite a story about her work with street kids.

A piece of good news. We met other friends of Elena's on the street. One of these has a brother who works for Pan Americana TV news as a journalist. This is a main news channel in Peru. They have taken all F's details and will put it on national Peru news this weekend. They have his photos; ones from my blog, and also have Elena's and my name and phone numbers. So I might appear on TV news, or at least my name, though not in any circumstances I would have wanted.

Must go now. Post later all being well.