Machu Picchu!

Well,
These last weeks have been nothing short of amazing.  I´m in the city of Cusco right now, and when the sun hits these hills just right, they sing.  The mountains around Machu Picchu are so steep.  Its incredible that they have a bus that goes up there.  And the sights were beyond description.  Everything looked like it was out of a dream.  The only thing that I was bummed about was that I didn´t see any chinchillas, even though I looked all day. (I did see a black bear though so that was cool.  And bunches of Llamas, Alpacas, and Vicuñas which are like extra soft mini llamas with less hair).
The hostels here have been so nice.  And dirt cheap.  I got to practice my french with some girls from Quebec.  Im pretty happy that I remembered more than I thought I would.  Cusco is

super international.  It feels like a European town, maybe a mix between switzerland and spain.  I think that this would be a great place to have a summer home.  Or winter home.  Or a normal home.
Piura has been going well.  We are still just trying to get a supplement to use for the kids.  It looks like we will try to use one called Chispitas and a soy powder type thing.  Hopefully they will work well. I´m excited about the stake project because I met with Fanny, a lady from the government health office, and she offered to help us with the education component of the nutrition project.  They have a curriculum and materials, but they just lack personnel to teach the moms.  I told them that we have people to help, and it looks like we will work together on this one.
The university project also went through.  I don´t know too much about what that will entail because after it went through I left to Lima, then to Cusco.
Before I left for Lima I went to Chiclayo to meet with the coordinator there.  She know´s so much more than me about what I´m doing.  She is a nurse and is working on a research project about breastfeeding.  After a year of doing that, needless to say, she knows about 10 times more than me about helping malnourished children.  It was nice meeting with her.  We went out to dinner with the guy who always gives me rides when I´m in Chiclayo because I wanted to thank them for all of there help.  The coordinators do so much and without them I would have given up by now and would be either somewhere in Colombia or in the Rainforests of Brasil living the vagabond lifestyle.  For now I´m glad to be stationed in one place and working with them.  It has been a good experience and Piura feels more like home.
Well, There is more stuff to write, but I´m sure not everyone will read it so I will stop here.  I need to put the pictures up still.  They will be the most interesting part.  Hopefully asap I will get those up so you can see the rad stuff that I saw and was able to do.
Cool,
well peace,
Sean
P.
S.  Here are some pictures from the last week or two.  One is a video of a dance they had in Cusco.  I was there for their big festival of the year called Inti Raymi.  Then there is a picture of Machu Picchu.  After that I took an artsy shot of the sun off the coast in Lima. Then a cool view from on top of some ruins, and a Llama.  Also, I think I'm putting in a panoramic shot from the place we went rock climbing at.  It was cool because we had to walk through all these pastures and stuff to get to the cliff, but people lived right next to it.  They don't have any roads to where they live, so they just walk.  Different life style right?

3 Little girls in Cusco.  The two smaller ones are participating in the Program.  The little one is 2 years

Chancho

Well, my Mom was skeptical and thought that I wouldn't write another blog post thingy, and I almost proved her right.  I have a lot of good stuff to write about though, and picture as well, and a few things that I probably won't write :).  This last week or so we have finished entering the weights and heights into the online growth chart program thing, and we have identified the kids that will start to receive supplements.  There are seventy or so just here in Piura, probably around 25 % of the kids that were measured.  And I know there are a lot more malnourished children, especially in the newer areas of Piura, and in the outskirts and surrounding towns.  Wow, I'm sure starting this blog off on a happy note.  Maybe I'll throw in some pictures of Cura Mori to lighten the mood even more.  Its an area that the University of Piura wants to work in for their malnutrition project.  I went with a nurse out there to see where we will be working.  They are 95% farmers out there, and most of what they farm is rice.  That creates obvious problems because the Piura region is a desert, and rice needs lots of water.  Why they chose rice I don't know.  But all the water that is used for the rice makes a nice breeding ground for mosquitos with Dengue and Malaria.  I'm going to attach a picture of me with the nurses, and two girls that are standing up.  One of them is 18 months old, the other is 3 years old.  You guys need to guess which is which.  I couldn't believe the lady when she told me that in her day care she had up to three year olds.  They all looked so small.  That is one of the problems of malnutrition, it stunts growth.

Ok, now for the real lighter note.  

I went to Tumbes over the weekend, and Machala Ecuador with volunteers from Help International! In tumbes we went to an animal reserve and saw more birds and crocodiles than I have ever seen.  They had pits for the crocodiles, and in each pit there were at least 20 to 30 crocodiles.  The pits had different ages, and there were probably 10 different pits.  Our "Guide" kept jumping into the pits and throwing rocks into the water, to try to get them to eat it.  He loved to pelt them with rocks too.  He was kind of a weird guy.  When he got into the pit with the crocodiles that were 3 to 4 years old, a girl in our group asked if we could touch them.  He said, "Come on down, but just touch their tails." So I did.  It was still pretty big, maybe 4 ft. long, but I made sure just to touch his tail.  That would never happen in the USA. 

In Ecuador we got dropped off at the border and had to walk across.  It was a spur of the moment thing, and I found out that they only gave me 40 days in Peru, so we went there to get our passports stamped again.  After we walked across we found a bus that took us to Machala and spent the night there.  It was a really nice city, hopefully we will do some work there later. The bread there is good.  Good panaderias.  We went to a market early Sunday morning, which was right next to our hotel.  I separated from the group to look at fruit for a minute.  After a couple of minutes I heard a bunch of people yelling "Chancho" which means pig.  I looked over and they all were pointing at me, and kept yelling Chancho.  Then I saw the group from Help Int. pointing at me too, and I realized that they were trying to get my attention to go to a different part of the market.  They had started yelling my name and the locals tried to help, but Sean changed to chancho and thats what everyone yelled.   

The bus ride back from Machala was long though.  I had to be back for a video call at 8, so I thought I would have plenty of time if we left at 12.  I just barely made it.  It was fun though. I met a girl from Israel who speaks spanish better than me.  She learned from watching Argentine soap operas.  I guess tv is good for something.  She also spoke English fluently, as well as French, and I'm pretty sure some other languages.  

I've had some other pretty good experiences too.  Almost too many to count.  And a few South American experiences that I could do without repeating.  I'm still not used to water being cut off at random times, but maybe soon I will be.  

Last week after working on the program for a while with some of the volunteers I got an impromptu salsa class.  La hermana Gisella, the coordinator for this area, was trying to teach me the steps.  After a good half hour I think I got them down.  Then 12 year old daughter put on american music (I got the moves like jagger) for me to show her how americans dance.  I tried my best but everyone knows I don't dance well.  After I was done I told her that I'm not a good dancer, so not to judge from what she just saw, then the Hermana Gisella said, "No, you dance much better to american music than you do salsa!" I laughed and realized what that said about my salsa dancing. 

I've eaten a lot of good seafood, and other food too.  When Alberto Puertas was here, a board member of the Liahona Children's Foundation, we went out to eat at a fish place, and a Uruguayan restaurant.  I just tagged along really.  I have never eaten so much fresh seafood in my life.  

Thats about all I have to share for now.  This next week I will be trying to find a supplement for the kids, and starting them on it ASAP. 

Listo,

(they always say listo before they say bye)

Bye

Sean.