Ua Vida Differente

This computer sucks, but I want to quickly tell about my day. I awoke early and left the house with the other two volunteers with whom I´m living, and we went to meet Eddie to ride up to a rural village above Calca. Eddie is in charge of Desea, a project to bring water filters to each family in the rural areas around the Sacred Valley. Today, we went up to help rebuild a roof. Ameila (clinic volunteer from New Zealand) and I skipped out on the clinic to help out, and Ben joined us (Desea volunteer from Boston). We were late, but Eddie was excited. We arrived in this village after a 1/2 hour taxi ride, met the mayor, Gregorio, who led us as we hiked above the village to the house. The process of rebuilding the roof involved separating the straw, essentially to cross-hatch it, then regathering it into bunches, and hauling it onto the roof where another person tied it down. With 6+ people, it still took all day. Eddie invited us into the house to see what it was like to live in a rural Peruvian village. The house was about 10x20 feet, with an area for a fire, two beds, and a table. There were about 10 cuy (guinea pigs) in one corner, which are "raised" to eat (muy rico!). On the other end of the room were two beds, that probably slept 6 people. It was rustic by our standards, to say the least (I will definitely post pics soon to help the descriptive process).

Meanwhile, the women of the family prepared us lunch. We walked down to another house of equal size, sat around on the bed, some stools, and the floor, while the women handed us gringos plates of food. There are over 2000 types of papas (potatoes) in Perú, some of which are muy rico, while others are like eating cardboard. On the plates were cardboard-flavored dried papas, a relatively normally-cooked papa, and two truchas (trout) from the local fishery. Whole truchas: head, fins, tail, everything but the innards. I feel very cliché, being a gringo invited to enjoy a traditional meal that is way off the radar for Americans. It was muy rico (except the cardboard papas), and I ate most of it. Afterwards, we thanked the Mamita for lunch, and returned to finish our work.

For Ameila and I, who will be working in the clinic treating patients from rural villages like this, it was a great way to see how these people live, what they go through everyday, what conditions they experience that lead to their health problems. I refrain from judging that, because they´re poor, because they live in dirt-floor houses with straw roofs, because they provide for themselves, somehow they are less happy or satisified with life than others with money who can afford "things". However, despite what many think, happiness is not defined by money or things. These people seem relatively happy. I´m here to be concerned with their health, which does face threats in the water, food supply, and environment. Health problems can limit happiness, productivity, lives. And they are treatable.


Check the photos HERE.
Check out the clinic: Kausay Wasi