When I taught English in Peru in 2004, the village Will and I stayed in, called Pacaran, seemed a million miles away from Pilling, the village in Lancashire where I had lived for my entire life. Geographically they were completely different...Pilling is a wet (perhaps too wet!), flat, fertile place, famous for its potatoes. Pacaran, by contrast, was a dry, rugged village set in the Canete valley, two hours south of Lima, in the foothills of the Andes. The villages dotted along the valley hug the Canete river, where the nearby land is fertile enough for mangoes, papayas, avocados and other mysterious fruits we deem exotic to grow.
But after spending three months in Pacaran I did notice similarities between the two places. The church and the bars were both the focal points of village life, with the vicars and landlords being well known and well liked. Pacaran was essentially a village that I imagine Pilling would have been like a century ago. The roads were unpaved, and the rumble of a car passing through was an event. Everyone knew everyone else, news spread so fast that Twitter and Facebook would be envious, and there were feuds and friendships that resonated through the entire community.
Many of the villagers spent one day a week in the coastal town of Canete, but few ventured the 200 kilometres or so to Lima more than once a year. This reminded me of a story my Grandma told me about an old neighbour she had called Abe Jenkinson. When she and my Grandad bought their plot of land in Pilling in the 1970s, they asked Abe what he thought of Lancaster, the nearest town, about 10 miles away. "Been there once," he replied in his almost indecipherable broad Lancashire accent, "Didn't think much of it." People like Abe don't exist in this country anymore, in the age of cheap flights and long commutes. But in Pacaran, the valley and, for a few, the capital, represented the geographical experience of practically everyone. Flor, our host, was the only villager who had ever been abroad.
So, it was with a sense of guilt that I would talk to Juan, Flor's son-in-law, about all the places Will and I would go to on our weekends off. Juan was a combi driver, and spent his days ferrying people up and down the valley. Often he would drive us to Canete, where we would hop on one of the huge buses that cruise down the Panamerican highway. Juan had never been on one of those buses. He was unable to be a traveller in his own country. Wealth shrinks distances that seem colossal to the villagers.
I hope this does not come across as patronising...my intentions are solely observational. The chasm between the developed (horrible term - as though we in the West have somehow reached some state of perfection) and developing worlds is startling to see first-hand. But, I was somewhat envious of the social cohesion that wee sacrificed in Britain for bigger houses, faster cars, and the impulse to fly the nest and settle elsewhere, in the mad dash for property and money. It is interesting to see what we threw away, and whether what we have got in return means we lead more fulfilled, happier lives. In Pacaran the community was, although poor, far more intact than it was in Pilling. There would be a party involving literally everyone every weekend, for no reason other than to have a good time. In Pilling we had a Coffee Feast once a year. Once a year to bring a village together is not enough, and it had nothing to do with coffee, or feasting!
It is a Gap year cliché to say that people in developing countries are "happier" than those in the developed world, and it can sound like spurious hippie nonsense as happiness is an unquantifiable state of mind, but the people of Pacaran were more relaxed, at ease with their lot in life and more amicable with those they lived around than their counterparts in Pilling. I believe that goes a long way to becoming truly fulfilled and happy, and it is a shame we are losing that cohesiveness in British communities. It has not gone - it would be alarmist and false to claim there is no community in Britain - but we are sacrificing it slowly for selfishness and greed. I guess sacrifice is the wrong word...and Pilling is no better or worse than Pacaran...it is just a difference.
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