Villa el Salvador started 37 years ago as a shantytown. Most shantytowns begin by land invasion. There is unused land and refugees are fleeing to the city. Shantytowns make up more of Lima than formal districts. Villa El Salvador is only on of these shantytowns that has since become its own district with 500,000 inhabitants.

On Thursday we put together "gift baskets" for families with whom small groups of students will be visiting in their home in Villa El Salvador.

Friday we left early for Pachacamac and Villa El Salvador. Pachacamac, the largest archeological site in Lima is right next to the dusty refugee settlements. From Pachacamac we could see the Valley of Lurin, known for its famous Peruvian Paso horses (a breed of horses known for their smooth ride) and lush fields of strawberrie, a green valley next to the sand dunes of Villa El Salvador. Villa Salvador stretches as far as the eye can see, small one story huts made of reed mats, corrugated tin, billboard scraps, whatever can be found and made into four walls and a roof. Quite a striking contrast.

Our guide at Pachacamac told us that originally when their was a surge of internal refugees fleeing from the conflict in the highlands you had to have a permit or a passport of sorts to enter the city of Lima in an effort to control who and how many people flee to the city.

We started exploring Villa El Salvador by visiting its commercial and industrial areas. Because of cheap skilled labor Villa Salvador is Lima's manufacturing center. Furniture, wheel barrows, clothing, shoes, handbags are all made in Villa El Salvador. Our guide Katy, shared her story of growing up under the reign of terror when hooded men would walk the streets at night after curfew, chanting and singing, practicing shots on the hills and lighting up the hammer and scythe as symbols of the Sendero Luminoso, a terrorist group that started in the highlands at a University.

Villa El Salvador started as a community of refugees, 37 years later they continue to work as a community offering lunch, the main meal here, to the whole community, with the help of government subsidies. We had the privilege of seeing community cooperation in action as we also ate our lunch at the soup kitchen.

From there we visited the grave of an activist woman that helped to start programs like soup kitchens providing social support for those fleeing. This Afro-Peruvian woman was strong and courageous in the face of the Sendero Luminoso factions she continued to work, despite their threats. Her last day of life was spent working at a fundraiser, selling roasted chicken meals when the Sendero Luminoso found her, tied her to a chair, wrapped her in bombs and exploded her body. We visited her grave, along our way we saw the community project of raising dairy cows to provide milk for the community kitchens. We passed through some new settlements, settlements that are beginning to invade even the cemetery. The community continues to grow daily.

From our tour of Villa El Salvador we ended at a church where the families were to meet us. Since we were early and the day was exhausting, students napped on the church benches. Soon enough families started arriving and and groups of three went to the small one story homes of families, some having lived there as long as 30 years. Some families have water, some don't. Some families buy their water from someone who has tanks that get filled by the weekly water tanks. They fill their buckets or bring the water-hose that string the two blocks or so, to their home and return the hose when they are done. Some of the families have electricity, some don't. Some of the families do sewing in their back patio for the factories that do the finishing. Much of what is made in Villa El Salvador is exported to countries like the U.S.

Students were able to peek into the lives of those that inhabit Villa El Salvador, now a recognized district of Lima.