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.