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Published: August 19th 2005
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Women of Paraccay
Me with some of the women from the village of Paraccay. Wow today was a great day! I am feeling much better today. I took yesterday, Thursday the 18th, off from my work sight and slept in. Today we went to several villages up in the Andean Highlands that are part of the CARE Corps.
The first town we went to was named Paraccay. CARE help to outline a plan for the town. The plan included health care, income generation, building of latrines (out-houses) and implemented a sense of community belonging. This town has 35 families that live with in it. On the average a family is 3 to 5 people. The Health care coordinator for the town teaches them the importants of hygiene, birth control, proper nutrition and many other aspects. The town has been very successful in combating malnutrition with the children. All the children are considered well feed.
This town has a very hard obstacle to over come, they have very little water. So they really have to work hard for their crops, especially this time of year because it is now entering the dry season. They raise guinea pigs for income generation and personal consumption. Yes that is right, they eat guinea pigs down here. It
Girl of Paraccay
This is the health cordinators daughter. is considered a delicacy. This weekend I am going on a lama trek and they will be serving it to us, and YES I am going to try it! The women of this village were very nice. This one old lady threw flowers on our head for good luck. The entire town was very excited to see us and thanked us over and over for the good work that CARE does for them. They truly appreciate our/there work.
We then climbed back into the vans and found a great place to have lunch. Took a little hike around and got some great photos of some cactus. Our next stop was the town of San Exaltacion De La Colpa. The first thing we did in this village was to help transport the cut and dried barley to the new barn yard. This was fun. My first few loads I just grabbed the bundles in my arms, then I decided it was better to do it Peruvian style. They tie several bundles up and carry them on their back with a blanket between, much better that way. After the field work we went to a beautiful waterfall that we hiked into.
I’m going to guess that we were somewhere near 12,000 ft in elevation. The water was really cold. Several of us soaked our feet and it was really cold. A bunch of us walked back towards the main building of town.
For income generation this town has built a wonderful swimming pool and they use the water from the falls. The sun warms it and it has a continuous turn over of fresh water. It cost one sol to swim…… I paid two. It was great. I didn’t however have a swim suit but thank goodness Victoria’s Secret looks just like a swim suit and I was good to go! After the swim the town President invited us to lunch of chicken soup. It was really good and then he gave a talk about how CARE has impacted their town. This village is much better off then the other village. The Children of Colpa sang us two songs and I captured it on a vide clip on my camera. The last thing that we did in this village was to go back to the barn yard and watch them run the ponies over the barley to separate it from
Cactus
After lunch I found thease great cactus. the stalks. Very ingenious! Of course Dave and I jumped in to help and managed to get into a barley fight in the mean time. Running after the ponies is very exhausting at 12,000 ft. I could make a few laps before I had to stop to catch my breath. They use the barley for food and the stalk is mixed with mud to make bricks.
Well we climbed back into the van for a very dusty and long drive back to Ayacucho. A quick snack and hot show was on my literary. To night a few of us girls are planning on getting a beer and packing for our Lama Trek that starts tomorrow. The Lama trek will take us high into the Andes and to 15,000 ft. Yes that will be a new personal high. Higher then Mount Rainer, which I still want to get to the summit of! Well this is a long post and I hope that I have not carried on to much. Thanks for reading!
Ciao, Machelle
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Gariann
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Honies!
Hey Mach- What an adventure! Wish that we were with you. Climbed Fuji yesterday and to put it mildly, she was a %$#@*. We climbed by the full moon with the help of headlamps and the thousands of other people on the trail. You were with us in spirit, but I'm glad you didn't have to wait for me to make it up the mountain. Very jealous that you weren't affected by the heights in Peru. Can't say the same for myself as the dizzies and headaches and lack of breathe made Fuji so special!!!! tee hee! When I saw the photos of the "honies" in the grain fields, I wasn't surprised that you were in it full tilt! Also surprised that you weren't neked under that waterfall! Miss you and love ya and will be thinking of you next weekend when Julie and Hilary hit Sasebo. Which by the way we'll be home to tonight! Love you long time, Gar