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Arepas
I wandered around Lima, Peru when I came upon two ladies selling arepas on the street.
I had always wanted to try an arepa (it’s like a Venezuelan version of a dumpling, maybe).
I went to their cart and bought one.
The two ladies smiled wide.
Millions of people stand by their food carts every day on the streets to sell to customers for hours.
I don’t know how those two ladies could still somehow be happy in their impoverished situation (it’s obvious that anyone better off wouldn’t choose to sell food on the street. Those two ladies looked to be a mother-daughter pair sitting on rather unstable plastic stools and their clothes weren’t that clean).
There was a Venezuelan flag at their food cart.
I recall that many millions of Venezuelans have fled to Colombia and a sizable population was in Peru also.
I was touched when I saw how happy they were to see me.
They let me sit on a stool and gave me condiments.
Their smiles were non-stop.
With so little, how were they so happy?
One of their arepas was only 2 Peruvian soles. I couldn’t imagine that they sold very many a day.
