GRANT APPROVED!!!

This is one of the groups of mothers in the workshop, we have to do two groups since the project is large.

This mother walks and 2 hours or more to come to the workshops she lives very far away.

So the best peace corp news I have ever received other than  getting accepted and knowing I was going to be sent to Peru came in the form of my grant getting approved this past Friday!  Which means 65 latrines for families with children under the age of 3 in Chipillico.

I have been so stressed about this, because other then me and a few of my promoters, no one really understands what I have been doing to get the money.  Most people believe the project has been underway, not surprisingly because we have completed 4 of our 8 workshops on how to have a healthier home.  

The mother's had to determine which animal could cause health problems in the home and match it to a sentence.

So now, it's official, my grant was approved from an outside organization, and they are funding the full amount I requested, near $4,500, and I couldn't be more thrilled!

The past few weeks have been somewhat difficult.  We began our house visits.  Which means we visit the homes to see if they are in compliance with the themes they are learning in the workshops.  Mostly, I want to see that they are living in a healthy home for the children's sake.  For example, I make sure there aren't any animals in the home, and with even more luck the families have the animals in corrals.  Then, we check the kitchen, are dishes, pots and pans cleaned, put away and covered.  As well as food is covered and put away.  I also check to see that the families have a supply of clean drinking water (boiled) stored for the children to have access to all day.  Also that the families have a place to wash their hands where there is soap and a towel.  With some luck I find many of the kitchens in order, and only a few houses had animals in the homes, most of which were chickens or guinea pigs.  The biggest problem I am finding is that the families do not have places to wash their hands or access to soap.  As expected most families have no form of formal bathroom.  Also there are bonus questions, if I find families that have proper disposal of trash that is a good thing, because the majority of families dump their trash in the creek or burn it.  Also, if they have a place to brush teeth is also another good thing.  Some families were in such great compliance I was thrilled.  Others were not at all which was frustrating.  I wasn't going into these homes to see if they were swept or had toys or clothes on the floor, just to check simple things to see if they were keeping a safe home for small children. 

A great point my nurse discovered was that most of the homes were very closed off, no windows, which meant very little light, but also no where for dust to escape.  A huge problem in Chipillico is also in the form of respiratory illnesses mainly due to the dust.   So these very tightly closed homes with dirt floors can be dangerous.

The house visits have been sort of fun.  I have 6 health promoters (women from the community who dedicate their time to helping with health related themes) and a nurse and technician from the health post who are helping with the visits.  We originally divided into 3 teams, each with a professional, me the nurse of the technician and we visited the homes.  Little by little the health promoters have had to venture out on their own.  This is the basis behind developing a sustainable community.  In the case of this project, more or less I am the facilitator, but the promoters are the ones who are going to be there when I am gone and should be running things.

The last workshop I was beyond proud when I prepared a powerpoint and a game and the promoters took charge and ran the entire thing in the sessions, I just stood back and lent my ideas or comments when necessary, but to seem them take charge made me so happy!  

However, I found myself in rare form in the last workshop.  I had mother's who were not respecting the rules, not coming to workshops and wondering why they were not longer incorporated in the project and getting angry with me.  The rules were very clear from the beginning and I have had mother's visiting my house questioning the same thing.  Sometimes it's hard to be strict, but there are many mother's coming to everything and it's not fair that some can skip when they feel like it.  Also, I had people questioning why i wasn't building latrines of brick with tanks apart from the latrines and why i haven't asked the mayor for money.  This infuriated me, because it was obvious that had no respect for the work I have done and were underestimating everything.  I yelled when some of these things were said.  Sometimes I understand it's cultural, other times I fall back into my American shoes and take offense to comments like this.  It's like your giving something to somebody ungrateful and it doesn't feel good.  And to hear the mud bricks being criticized and them wanting bricks was unbelievable to me since EVER SINGLE ONE of their homes is made of mud bricks.   More I was angry people that are defecating and creeks and in their yards that have no form of latrine at all would complain about the model I was making.   I explained why we aren't doing a separate tank due to the fact we have no running water.  I was so upset that they even questioned any of it because the type of latrines was so clearly explained at the beginning of the project.  I left extremely upset and tired this day.  I apologized to specific mother's I took my anger out on, especially some that showed up over an hour late and were upset they would be considered absent. 

So what does this grant approval mean?  It means that after I send back a few more documents with signatures from the committee that is helping me do this project in Chipillico I will receive the money.  In May we will start going and buying the materials and bringing them back to Chipillico, and as long as the rain holds off the end of May is the projected start of the construction of the latrines!  I have never been more excited! 

Rainy Season

If I wrote anything about the rainy season last year....it was all lies!  I did not know what a rainy season REALLY was until about a month ago. Last year we may have had a few weeks of rain, but it was absolutely nothing in comparrison to this year. 


Let me tell you what rainy season really is, it means that we only have a few hours of sun each day.  Usually the rain starts around 4-5 in the evening and goes until the morning, and around 10 or 11 in the morning it all burns off. So yeah this all might not sound like a big deal to you all living in the United States, but for someone living in a dirt home with dirt floors, it's a huge deal!


When rainy season starts the first problem we have is that we are suddenly able to identify where the holes are in our roof!  Sometimes if it's a strong rain this becomes apparent very easily.  My family will put pots, pans, washing basins all over the house to keep the water from doing too much damage.  They cover the TV and move furniture. Our roof is made of a very thin tin, so with time, and sun damage, it rusts and falls apart and that's when the holes show up.


The problem is just the other week, my host Dad's system of gutters that he has running through the house to catch the rain became a problem.  Basically he used large sheets of rolled tin to create this system to catch large amounts of water that may roll of the roof and direct it outside.  He has two of these gutters in the house, and they are rigged up using thin wire attached to bamboo that holds the roof together.  However the thin wire a lot of times has been used a million times over in other household projects and is very rusted and worn. 


So this particular night a huge storm came through the valley, there was thunder and lightening and a lot of rain.  My family was running through the house putting all of their pots and pans in place to catch the rain, but this time was bad, because the wind was really bad and water was coming in windows and the doors.  Even my room where I usually don't have any problems had holes that the wind helped find and water got in.   Then the roof in the back of the house came crashing in because my host Dad's gutter system got to heavy and water got into the house in waves.  The entire last room the dirt floor in front of our bedrooms was flooded.  O wait...i didn't tell you the more suspensful parts, we had no electricity, and with heavy heavy rain on a tin roof we could barely hear eachother talking.  So there was lots of screaming.  I saw my host Dad climb on a chair and the water was just pounding down on him as he was trying to repair the gutter.  My host sisters were taking buckets to try and get rid of the water before it got into our bedrooms.  My host mom was trying to recuperate as much as she could out of the bedroom that was getting destroyed.  It was a nightmare.  Unfortunately one of my sister's husbands had taken a trip out of town that day, and at the time the storm rolled in he should have been on his way back and everyone was really nervous and she was running back and forth to her house in search of him and to save what she had in her home.


I was standing there with Dayana who had a death grip on my hand crying because although the rainy season isn't anything new, this storm was scary and watching everyone scream and rush around her was scary.  So that night once everything got pieced back together the best it could and the storm continued she slept in my room and cried her self to sleep she was so scared.


The next day was a mess, the house was filled with mud and water and outside was only worse.  The only way to get around is barefoot or in boots, but even then the mud cakes to the bottoms of your feet.  I watched family after family walk in front of my house after having gone to buy more sheets of tin for their roofs.  My family had asked to borrow money to help repair part of their roof as well.  


It was a mess, but it's not like rainy season gets any better.  Maybe we don't have stroms every night but we do have heavy rains and it just feels like there isn't anything you can do to get out of the mud.  I may be able to go outside to take my shower, but the walk back in just means I have feet caked with mud.  And because of this it took a week or more for the house to get dried out and not have any mud in there.


We have been lucky in this rainy season because for the most part our house has stayed together.  Other people have lost their entire adobe houses due to them melting away in the rain. Small bridges have been destroyed that help you get around town, and the water has taken pathes through peoples fields and destroyed crops!  The other day a body washed up in the lake, someone how appeared to be bathing and the water came and may have swept him away.  


I have been watching the news and reading the newspapers and there are parts of Peru where entire towns have been washed away, and in the mountains above us more houses and families are being washed away and killed because of the rains. 


Last year we had a drought and everyone really felt that for the loss of their crops, this year there is rain in excess and people are feeling the damage to their homes.  And it's not over, everyone says March is the worst month!