A Week of Firsts

Photos:
*The Plaza (town square) in Chosica
*Interview with Maria Luisa, a recipient of an Latter-day Saints Charities wheelchair. She lives high up on the hill on rough terrain
*Watering truck
*Our garden patio (2 photos)
*A park we walk through on our way to the office each day
*Rob really liked the little vegetable garden at this school that we walked past in Chosica.

It was another week of "firsts" here for us. First follow-up interviews of wheelchair recipients, first time in Chosica, first time riding a city bus, first time a taxi driver suggested we buckle our seatbelt, first time cutting the grass in our courtyard, and probably other "firsts" that we've forgotten already because much of what was novel is now part of our routine.

We were taken by cab to Chosica which is in the mountains east of Lima where we planned to conduct interviews of wheelchair recipients. As with the rest of what we have seen of coastal Peru in this area the mountains are devoid of vegetation from lack of rain. It is dry--very dry--dry enough that Nevada between St. George and Las Vegas (or Highway 28 between Wenatchee and Quincy) now looks to be pretty lush with natural vegetation by comparison.  We have never seen an area so incredibly dry. Mary posed for a photo at the town square of Chosica where we went to do follow-up interviews.  Notice in the background that the mountains have zero vegetation.  It never rains so nothing grows that isn't irrigated.

When the rains do fall (sometimes once every 10 years) there is nothing to hold the water so the gravel, rocks, boulders, and resulting mud come down the mountainside with devastating effects. Usually this fills the riverbeds and the water has no place to go but into homes alongside the riverbed. Seeing this geography firsthand helps us understand how mudslides are a significant danger for much of this area of Peru.

As part of our humanitarian assignment we not only work to develop and train partners who assess and fit people for wheelchairs (according to W.H.O. guidelines) donated by the church, we also perform follow-up interviews of recipients to make sure that partners are complying with what they have contractually agreed (assess & fit appropriately, don't charge for wheelchair, etc.) and also the condition of the chairs (determine if manufacturer is complying with contract) and to make sure recipients have been given the right chair, with appropriate instructions to them and their caregivers. Rob interviewed a lady named Maria Luisa about her experiences with her donated wheelchair.

You may notice that for this trip we were not dressed in traditional missionary attire (suit and tie, dress). Our fellow interviewer had an experience last week where the person thought the "dressed up nice" people were coming to take away the wheelchair she'd been given because she didn't belong to their church. That misunderstanding has occurred more than once, so we were directed to dress a little more casually to hopefully help the recipients be less intimidated by us as we perform follow-up interviews.

Thanks to well laid out plans by a person here who scheduled the interviews and on the ground help with locals in the city, we were able to conduct follow-up interviews with five wheelchair recipients. Our technical specialist had told us to expect to conduct 2-3 interviews in a day due to difficulty finding where people live, so we were happy to have accomplished five. For some of the interviews we took a cab to the general area and then asked to try to find the house/people. Other times we took the bus to get again to the general area. For two of the interviews we (Rob, Mary, Juana, local man, local coordinator + police driver) crowded into the cab of a police pickup truck and he took us to the areas since he knew where they were. Our final interview had us in a neighborhood high on the hillside above the town and since there were no cabs in that location, it was a long walk back out to the highway. Thank goodness it was all downhill!

The recipients are so grateful for the mobility the donated wheelchairs have given them. Our role is primarily to help strengthen our local partners here and increase their capacity to appropriately deliver wheelchairs in order to make them more self-sufficient so they can continue the work without assistance other than the donations of wheelchairs from the Church.

Since it never rains, trees and plants along highways and roads are watered by trucks as we saw in Chosica. If you look at the photo of the blue water truck, you will see that the trees and plants on the hill in the background have water that has seeped from the irrigation canal that is marked by the upper limit of the plant growth seen there.

Even though where we have traveled to date has been desert, in the river valleys where they irrigate there are beautiful farms and orchards. Rob has found his new "happy place" in the courtyard of our apartment which is a small private green space to call our own and care for. Rob has fertilized, pruned, weeded, and enjoyed! Things are looking even better than when we arrived thanks to a little WSU Master Gardener knowledge application.

We are enjoying the walk to and from the office each day where we are based. It is just over 3km each way (1.87 miles for you non-metric system friends) and takes us about 35 minutes. As we walk, we take a different route almost every day and have discovered several new parks along our way.  We enjoy exploring a new route almost every day! Mary's FitBit™ sounds off (vibrates) that she's completed her 10,000 steps for the day somewhere on the way home almost every day. Mary is also continuing to work on her Spanish.

We are blessed to work most directly with three wonderful Peruvians, (Moroni, Alex and Oscar) who help guide the work we do to support them in their efforts to help meet the many needs of our brothers and sisters here in Peru. 

Much of our time at the office this week was spent in follow-up of prior projects to assure that they have had the desired impact in improving lives. We also were working this week in acquiring medical equipment and school furniture and furnishings for remote health clinics and schools. The primary areas of focus for the South America Northwest Area where we are assigned are schools, maternal and newborn health, and clean water infrastructure.

We have also been busy with logistical arrangements for our upcoming Neonatal training in October. We are making travel, hotel, training location, meal & snack arrangements for all those involved and will be with them in the two Amazon provinces where these training meetings will occur. Rob sure does miss the meeting planning team he worked with at PCSO----He just gave them a general idea and they did the rest. He didn't fully realize how involved all the details were to plan and organize a training meeting and he really appreciates them now!