Water Project in Mariscal Gamarra (not mine)!

The whole valley of Mariscal Gamarra (more than 20 villages) is receiving a government water & sanitation project.  This is great news!

Each householder gets an outhouse with running water for a shower, a flushing toilet, and a washbasin, with drainage and a septic tank. 

Landowners only get to participate in the project if they're living on the land.  So some have built shelters and are living in them in order to get their water supply.

Villagers are invited to work on the project - they get paid £12 a day for digging the trenches, unloading materials, and making concrete blocks.  At least this is the theory.  They have to complete a certain quota each day, and the government representative who assesses the work hasn't made his report yet, so 2 months into the project no-one's been paid yet.

It's also giving more work to Mateo, one of the first people I met here, who runs the forge and does vehicle repairs.

It's also harvest time, which is a busy season anyway.  With most of the men working full-time, the women are working in the fields but in the evenings and at the weekends the whole family goes up the mountain to harvest potatoes, or over to the other side of the valley to their cornfields.

I learned how to harvest dry corn (and was sent home with a sackful)

This all means there's not much time or inclination to go to meetings!  So while I want to complement the government's project with training, I need to be patient.  I've managed to give some training in the churches, and one pastor's family has bought a water filter.

Parasites attacking a person - with 2 "barriers" - teaching about MULTIPLE prevention methods

How the filter works

 The pastor's family in Cafiamarca - learning how to use their filter, and a checkup 2 weeks later.

 

How many uses are there for a sarong?

I'm collecting a rather long list, and keep adding new ideas.

So far I have used my sarong as:

• a scarf
• a skirt
• a towel
• a toilet door
• a basic water filter (demo only)
• a blanket
• a sun shield
• a bag for carrying corn
• an oven glove
• a lap tray to prevent hot plates burning my knees

Hopefully it will never be needed as a sling/bandage.

Other suggestions?

Training for the local government

I've been trying for a while to get more involved with the local government and pass on some of my training materials to them.
So I went for a meeting last week on Thursday to explain a bit of what I do a show some of my resources.  "Great" they said.  "Can you rewrite your lesson plans into our format, and in 2 new topics, train our staff on Monday and then help us to train 80 district water people on Tuesday?"
<Mild panic because I was due to be away all Friday and Saturday>
But very excited at this opportunity, I said yes.

After some scrambled work on Monday morning, the staff training was great, and the director really approved of my interactive methods.

Here's how Tuesday went.

The hall was pretty full

We separated into 6 groups, 4 of which were receiving my training.

The water cycle, and catchment management

Disease transmission routes

Handwashing

Safe storage of water

Then each group fed back to the whole room - this was a great way to get the local water reps to practise giving the training themselves!

The highlight was seeing the local water rep explaining the water cycle in Quechua, using a story from a book I had as a child, and finishing with "and God made all our natural resources!"  It was a wonderful moment.

Daddy's visit!

About 3 weeks before Christmas, I invited Daddy to come out to Peru... amazingly at such short notice, he did - and we had a wonderful time!

Showing him round Abancay.

We walked down to the colonial bridge at Pachachaca and had a picnic further down the gorge

Again we walked... this time up the hill to the viewpoint where there are also condors and alpacas

I introduced Daddy to perhaps the most famous food in Peru - guinea pig!  His response "well I probably won't have that again".

We also visited AIDIA where Daddy enjoyed playing swingball with the director - they were fairly evenly matched!

 Christmas Eve - hot chocolate and paneton at church

 ... and traditional dancing in the main square.

We had Christmas dinner together with the other missionaries

And on Boxing Day, we drove with 3 others to Pampallacta, to give out hot chocolate and paneton and Christmas presents - it was such a lovely visit, Dina and I have really missed our trips here over the past couple of years.  The children were particularly intrigued by Daddy's penknife and its usefulness in opening tins!

Visiting Inca ruins on the way to Cusco

And climbing a hill to look down the vast Apurímac gorge - deeper than the Grand Canyon!

The loooong bus journey to Arequipa (12 hours)

Daddy managed to scrape together enough Spanish to buy fried cheese at one of the bus stops.

 And in Arequipa, just before he caught the plane home, we went rafting

It was so lovely to have a family visit.  And his most memorable remark - "it's very different from the photos".  Sorry, there's not much I can do about that!