Day Five

Our location for day five changed at the last minute. I'm not sure where we were suppose to go, but it didn't matter. There is need everywhere. I can't overstate how poor the people are in this area. The location we went to today was similar to our first day. Up a steep hill. Although today's hill was so steep that we had to get out of the van about a half a mile from the top. The van couldn't make it.

We setup at a rec center that consisted of a large basketball court. It was better because it was all cement. Although today there was no power in the entire community. So I couldn't do any hearing tests once again. Very frustrating. Although I did keep busy helping Mike with the eyeglasses. We saw a lot of kids today. I was even able to help some of them with distance glasses.

I did my Donald Duck for the kids. What a mistake! All day it was Pato Donald Pato Donald. We had fun. It's better to view the environment through a child's eyes. They find joy and fun anywhere.

As I said before the hills are very steep. They cut terraces into the side of the hills for the houses. They pour cement stairs in different sections for people to get to their houses. The picture below doesn't really show how steep they are. It's amazing to see kids as young as three traverse these stairs.

Our lunch was provided by two nice ladies. They cooked us chicken, lima beans, potatoes and sweet potatoes. In the picture below you can see that they cooked the food in large pots on the side of the trail. It was delicious.

They recently had a presidential election here. There are very few political posters on buildings or billboards. What you see are painted walls. Like graffiti. Most homes, schools and apartment buildings are surrounded by high brick walls. It's these walls that the political ads are painted on.   They're everywhere. I have included one below.

Tomorrow four of us are going into Lima. It's about an hour and a half away. We are leaving at 5:30 am to make the Rotary Club of Lima Sunrise meeting at 7:30 am. We are hoping to partner with them on future missions. Afterward we are going to the Casa Hogar de San Martin de Porres. It is a senior center in Lima. This a regular clinic with a full staff. I'm hoping to test a lot of people and give them the aids I brought. Mike is coming with the glasses and low vision devices. We are spending the entire  day in Lima while the rest of the team visits another site.

til next time