Day 3 Quillahuata:

Thursday August 27, 2009:

Up again with the roosters and donkeys. Why the donkey has to get involved, and very loudly at that, is a major issue with everyone.

Today we worked on the walls of the chicken coop, prepared the roofing materials (beams, strapping), dug the holes for the fence posts for the chicken run and helped to locate some plumbing so that a new line could be added to the new bathroom being built at the school by Peru´s Challenge.

Some of the kids went on a home visit with Peru´s Challenge and a social worker. What they saw was very eye-opening. The home they visited was a single room for a mother and six kids. There was only one bed, dirt floors and a cooking fire with very little ventilation. There was virtually no food in the house and the mother was quite ill with seizures likely caused by a fungal infection of the brain. Dr. Roy Purcell with our group met with her separately to look into her treatment.

We had another soccer game with the town today and lost quite badly. They seemed to bring in some ringers from another nearby town.

the weather in Quillahuata has been great. The mornings are sunny and warm. In the afternoons, the wind kicks up and some clouds have rolled in now and then. Evenings are down to about freezing. During the soccer game on the first day we had a short thunderstorm and rain that lasted about 20 minutes, but that is all the rain we have had on the trip.