My aunt Kim asked me to put up another blog post.  I have just been putting it off.  A few minutes ago I was sitting in my room, not in the best mood, and just kind of frustrated of being stuck in the city for a little bit.  I miss the mountains.  After whining a bit, I just felt like I should go up on the roof, and maybe that would help.  When I got up there I walked over to the edge where I was met with the strong odor coming from the sewage plant in front of my house.  I just laughed at the irony of being sick of the city, and my one escape is now contaminated with the smell of the sewage plant.  Oh well, at least it gave me something to laugh about.
Things are moving along here.  Today I am meeting with someone to talk about prices to buy a soy powder that the kids mom's can make into a milk.  Soy is supposed to be good because it is high in fat and nutrients, and will help the kids have the nutrients they need.  If I can get the soy for cheap enough then I can buy another supplement called Chispitas, which has the micronutrients that the kids need.  So I'm hoping that things work out with that.
One other option that we have is having a factory here in Piura produce what we need.  It was cool how I found out about the factory.  The lady I live with has a niece that studied food engineering, and used to monitor a lot of the factories in Piura.  We became friends and she invited me to visit the factory because she knew that they had produced supplements in the past for malnourished kids.  We visited them and talked with the head engineer and he was more than willing to produce something for us.  They are looking to create a product to sell to the public, instead of just working off of government contracts.  So if the soy and chispitas doesn't work out, hopefully we can get them to make us something.
I had a good 4th of July down here.  I went with the kids in help international and they had a big BBQ with american food and everything.  They even got some fireworks from the market!  One lady made a cake with the american flag on it.  We all sang the national anthem and one kid held the cake in the front as we took a picture.  After it was done, as is tradition in Peru, someone smashed his face in the cake.  It turned out perfectly, he got a corner of the blue, and the rest was striped.  It was the american flag upside down on his face.
I also went to Canchaque a bit over a week ago. I cant remember if I wrote this in the other blog post or not..  Well, Canchaque is cool, its in the mountains where the people I live with have their land.  I went and helped pick fruit and coffee.  I ended up staining all of my clothes from carrying bananas.  The lady I live with told me to be careful, and not to carry all of them at a time.  But me being the big man that I am, didn't listen, and I stained all my clothes.
I'm working on the whole, "listening to other people" thing,  but its been kinda hard because I definitely like to do things my own way.  I also have a hard time when people tell me to put my coat on because it drops to 70 degrees.  I usually just haven't paid them any attention, but now I just put it on so they will stop bugging me about it.  It isn't really that cold, I'm just trying to just do what they say so they will be happy.
I went to a birthday party for the lady I live with, with her work.  A mariachi band showed up and the table and played for like a half hour, trumpets blazing.  They brought out what I thought was chicha morada, which is a really good drink made from purple corn and pineapple.  I was going to get some but then they said it was sangria.  I guess sangria is some type of alcohol.  Well, they sure like their sangria.  About halfway through the dinner they brought another pitcher and told me it was chicha morada.  So I was going to drink it.   Then they told me they were just kidding and they got a kick out of that.  I was sad because I just wanted some chicha morada.
Well, This next weekend I'm heading up to Ecuador to do some screenings there.  Tomorrow we are doing a meeting for all of the volunteers that are going to help out here, so it should be up and running. Hopefully we can get the supplements bought tomorrow.
I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.  I'm excited to get up in the mountains of Ecuador, I have been missing nature.
Adios,
Sean