Hello everyone! It’s been a great first week here in Piura!
Spanish is still hard but I feel pretty comfortable getting around the city and
out to projects. Our projects are just getting started so as the weeks go on we
will be able to do more and more. I am so excited to see the progression of our
work and our impact on the communities here.
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| Ejidos |
This week we went to a medical post in a rural area called
Ejidos. Ejidos is a collection of small communities in the sandy desert outside
of the city. There’s no running water so people get water from the well and
carry it back to their tiny homes on burros.
I’ll see if I can snap a picture of the well and all the burros next week. Most of the communities have medical posts but
there is only 1 doctor for all of them, so she drives to different places every
day in order to see everyone. This doctor is one of the coolest people I’ve
ever met. My fellow volunteer Brie and I were able to go with her to the
different posts in Ejidos and observe some of the baby checkups and
vaccinations as well as the intervention strategies with the families.
We have
been working with some medical students to try to create interventions and will
be doing a health fair in Ejidos in the next few weeks. We will have different
workshops for the mothers of children, focusing on nutrition, vaccinations,
handwashing, etc.
This past weekend we went to a city called Chiclayo, 3 hours
to the south of Piura. On Friday we will be doing a project in a town just
outside of Chiclayo, so it was a good chance to get to know the city before we
have to travel there again. The project is in a small town called Monsefu. A
well was just built in Monsefu so this is the first time that people will have access
to water in their town. We’re going down to give workshops on how to use the
water correctly and hygienically. We’re teaching about brushing teeth, boiling
water, washing fruits and vegetable, and washing hands. We have been preparing
lessons and skits for the workshops and this week we will be making posters and
practicing teaching in Spanish (scary!). I’m going to need a lot of practice.
Wish me luck everyone!
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| A woman weaving in Monsefu |
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| We're in the paper! |
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| 4 people in a mototaxi is always a party |
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