A Comment on Honesty

While browsing some artisan shops in Trujillo this weekend I met a couple from Daytona Beach.  The woman is Peruvian and they were here visiting her mother in Trujillo.  After chatting about their visit and my work here in the Peace Corps, she reminding me to be very careful and watch my things.  This is a warning I get from most Peruvians everyday, but she then added the reason why.  "Honesty does not exist with my people," she said with a look of disappointment. I have already written a post on the absence of the virtue of honesty in Peru and how that results in a culture of mistrust. It was really interesting to get to speak to a Peruvian who now lives in America on the difference in honesty between the two cultures.