Pampallacta again.. and again...

I've been really excited by the opportunities to return to Pampallacta.

The church from nearby Tintay visits every week and AIDIA often accompanies them - between them they visit people, encourage the small group of believers, teach literacy, do a kids club and a short church service. 

Literacy classes...

... and church!

I take my guitar, which the kids really seem to enjoy - both listening to and playing. It also means I'm learning some songs in Quechua.

I've been meeting with different people associated with the district.
The health worker tells me that it's a newly created village - the government moved people from unstable land further down the hill for their safety.  This means there's not much community feeling or cohesion established yet, and little motivation to develop the village.  It's also an area where alcoholism and domestic violence are a big problem.
The government water representative for the district seems very keen to have any help I can offer with training or maintenance / improvement.  He also said that he's seen the same church working in other similar communities, where as a result there's been an amazing improvement in the alcohol and violence problems.  He said nothing about any personal belief he might have in God, but it was wonderful to hear that he has seen the power of God transforming communities - and asked us to carry on.
I´ve been back 3 times since the dental visit and am starting to feel I know people a little.  

In November AIDIA received a shipment of about 2000 emergency food boxes (which we spent several hours unloading - it hurt even to lift a glass of water the following day).  These are gradually being distributed via the local churches to needy people in their communities - i.e. widows, the very old or injured - those who don't have their own land or are unable to cultivate it for food.  We took a few to Pampallacta.

We returned just before Christmas for an afternoon of activities, culminating in giving out presents (donated by a visiting church from Lima), panetone and hot chocolate - traditional Peruvian Christmas foods.  I wasn't going to be able to go, but my Diploma graduation ceremony was postponed at the last minute, so it was good to be able to be another familiar face amongst all the Lima visitors.

Stories and games about water:

 

Chaos: queueing up for Christmas presents

 

The following morning - more hot chocolate, playing bowling games with the empty milk tins, and sitting in the only shade available to watch a drama (by the truck we travel in)

 

Oh and here's a little video of the journey there:

Dental visit to Pampallacta (and back for a wedding)

I'm always keen to visit new places, and Pampallacta is new both for me and for AIDIA. 

A nearby (well, 2 hours away) church decided they wanted to start work in this area where people have previously never heard the good news, and have been visiting for just a few months.  There's a mixed response, with some people believing and very keen for us to keep visiting, others who are in favour of our visits but can take or leave the message we bring, and others who resent us and blame us for the lack of rain (there is a complicated - or so it seems to me - set of nature and spirit gods who of course would be upset by a change in allegiance on the part of the village).

This was the second dental visit for the team, but my first time here.

Yes, sheep in the surgery is entirely normal... they even put one in the dentists' chair last time!

Puppet shows are very effective for parents and children alike - this one about cleaning your teeth

In the "waiting room"

There were lots of visiting helpers so I wasn't very involved in the dental work today, but instead chatted to lots of people about their water supply, and helped to make the lunch (we weren't eating the guinea pigs, they were just helping clear up the potato peelings).

There weren't many patients in the afternoon, so we packed up and I was back in Abancay in time for a quick transformation, and then went to my friend's wedding.  Fortunately it started about 2 hours late which gave me a chance to find it (in a different location to what was said 3 days ago!)

Water improvements in Taccacca

Last week on my diploma course, my friend Yesela was talking about how much she had to do over the next week - so I offered to help.  I didn't really know whether she accepted out of politeness or whether she really wanted my help, but I went.

It was my first solo-travelling trip (you'd think I ought to be able to manage now after a year) so I found the little bus station that goes to the Circa area and bought my ticket, shared the seat with a couple of chatty old ladies and bounced along the track to Taccacca, where I had never been before.
Taccacca has been targeted by a new government programme as it's in the lowest percentile for extreme poverty.  So they are receiving a project to repair and replace elements of their water system.  Yesela's job is to deliver the community teaching programme that goes along with the project.

 

Here's the washing and bathroom facilities where we were staying, to give you an idea. 

We had a meeting with the village leaders (the community president, the water committee, the health workers and teachers) to agree the programme for the different teaching sessions.  First we worked out the rough plan in our room / office.  Sessions include writing an annual plan for water system maintenance and purchase of chlorine, to determine how much each family should pay, then a session on health and hygiene, another on basic plumbing... and much more.

Then we agreed the plan with the leaders - it's hard to fit everything in because people spend basically all the daylight hours working on their farmland - and planting season is coming up so it's only going to get busier.  We can have evenings and occasional weekend days, but we also need to give people a chance to rest!

The next day we walked up to the reservoir with the health worker and 2 men from the water committee, to disinfect the reservoir.  This is meant to be done at least every 6 months.

First you empty it (this involve me looking at the different pipes and valves and working out which was which - I've drawn them a diagram now showing what's what, and which ones should be open/closed, so they'll know for the future) then you clean it with water and scrubbing brushes, and rinse it out. 

Then it's time to fill it up, give it a heavy dose of chlorine, and leave it to soak.  While it filled up I measured the water level over time - a good way to figure out how much water is arriving. 

The Taccacca reservoir has the equipment to chlorinate the water consistently - which is Peru's big push at the moment to improve water quality. So after we'd rinsed the tank out again we got the dosing system working.  One problem is that the reservoir is always full to overflowing, which is a waste of lots of the chlorine (and an unnecessary expense).  So I'll be talking to them about different ways they can solve this issue. 

 

Mixing chlorine solution which drips steadily from the plastic tank into the reservoir

Along with Yesela's teaching programme, the village will have some work done on their existing water system.  This won't be anything new though, it'll just be getting old and broken parts working again.  So if they want to make improvements they'll need to come up with the money themselves, or have someone (!) write a proposal for funding.

 

We were training the water committee to measure the residual chlorine levels at various points in the system.  Today it looked good!

And some nice views on the way back down to the village:

We managed to finish everything needed for Yesela's deadline next week, so it was great to have been useful.  We talked a lot about her plans for the health and hygiene teaching as well, and I passed on lots of ideas and materials from my work in Ecuador that she is looking forward to using.

I'll be going back!