HE'S GONE
So the crazy mean uncle is gone! He left this morning. Of course not without keeping me awake from 2am - 5am when they finally left. But I made sure not to leave my room because I didn't want to say goodbye. Which was bitter sweet, because I still would have liked to have said goodbye to the grandmother who was nothing but sweet to me, and to his HOT son who just showed up the other day. I have enjoyed his presence the past few days! But I really just didn't want to get out of my bed. Unfortunately, this has left me host Mom really sad. Her brother left to spend the last days, weeks, months of his life in their hometown in the jungle, and I know it's going to be torturous for her to think of it. I am hoping she may consider taking a trip there soon.
This has been an intersting week. I took a trip into Piura this week to be support to a friend who was trying to accomplish a few things. However, when I got there, turns out I had what we like to call "exploding persons disease", I don't think anymore explanation is needed. Well, there was evidence that led me to believe I had a parasite. All of this may sound really foreign and gross to you, but for us it's just another hang up to being a peace corps volunteer. So to handle this, we have our own set of doctors, and I called up the peace corps doctors and they sent me over to the clinic they are partners with to be tested. It's funny, when you approach the counter and say "Cuerpo de Paz", there is no hesitation, they are familar with our organization and they know just what to do next. In the end, it turned out not to be a parasite, but I was given antibotics to clear everything up. It was just a hassle because I had to spend an extra day there to try and figure it all out.
I have been working on my "encuestas", which are my surveys that are aid to my community diagnostic. I have not had a huge amount of support from my health promoters who usually would be helping me with these, so I have been doing them on my own. So I go door to door and ask mothers a series of questions. Unfortunately I am finding out the obvious. The nutrition here is very very poor. Most of the households do not have hygenic bathrooms. Which here, is simply a latrine ( an inclosed space with a toliet that leads to a hole away from the house). Most of the bathrooms, are literally dirt holes in the ground surrounded by a poorly made plastic fort. And many mother's are cooking over fire, which is causing respiratory problems in the homes due to the smoke. Also, the majority of households I have surveyed, one or many times both of the parents didn't complete elementary school. It's also very sad as to how many women are 17-20 with children. Just the other day I was sitting with my two host sisters and my host Mom talking about ages. One of the sisters is a year older then me, and the other is a year younger. So the older one was telling me how she is my older sister and then I started to tell the other one how I am her older sister. But she told me "Not really, because I have a husband and 2 children which makes me older then you." And sadly, I thought to myself, how at 25 she has a 5 year old and a 1 year old, she and her husband run a failing store, and they have no money at all. But if in those ways she believes she is "older" then me, I'll let her have it.
One thing about my surveys that I have been pleasantly surprised with, was how open and willing the women were to participating. Yesterday, when I was going door to door, the mothers just started waving me down and wanting me in their house next. Mostly because I am in the white girl living in town, and nosiness and curiousity gets the best of them and they want to invite me into their homes. They also know that I may be able to give them something, so they want to see what I have to offer. But for me, someone who has been nervous about doing them, due to the intimacy of the questions, and because I am always so worried that my language skills will get in the way, it's going great!!!
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