Prep Week

Okay, fun photo of the week is the sprinkler we saw on the way walking to the office this week. It is a great way to reuse a Sprite™ bottle rather than simply send it to the landfill, and you can customize your sprinkler's water distribution to cover exactly the area that needs the water.  Pretty slick!

Prep Week

Photos:  
*Part of a tool kit we've been assembling for the Wheelchair Repair Clinic. The kits will be given to the course participants and they will then have the tools they need to be able to repair wheelchairs. In addition to making it possible to extend the life of a wheelchair, the participants will increase their  skills and abilities to provide for their families.  
*Mary counting seeds to determine how many seeds per gram so we can know how many grams of seeds to purchase for the 120 families in one of the family food production projects.  
*Thanksgiving dinner with the other senior missionaries serving in Lima.  


We spent most of the week finalizing preparations for the visit of the wheelchair training team to our partners at the National Rehabilitation Institute. That is what will fill our week this week and we'll share more details next week after that course is complete.

We also worked hard to finalize our preparations and arrangements for an advance team from Salt Lake City that will visit three remote health posts in Peru and Ecuador where the Church has donated medical equipment. The purpose of the visit is to evaluate community needs for supplemental medical training and community education in places where the Church has donated medical equipment to be able to take maximum advantage of the capabilities of the donated equipment and to address community health concerns that are identified in collaboration with medical officials and providers in these areas. The advance team will then return to Salt Lake City and gather a team composed of medical specialists who can help address those needs. After which, we will make arrangements for those visits (after the rainy season).

One of the places we will return to will be Huacaybamba, where we visited earlier in November. It has been a little more complex logistically with making travel arrangements for six people, including ourselves and it will take more than a small pickup truck to get us all there and that will certainly be an another adventure. We've also worked coordinating visits with medical officials and providers in those locations. We hope to be able to also meet with some educational officials while we are there to identify other areas (both locations and aspects) where the assistance of LDS Charities can help to improve conditions for children in their efforts to receive an education.

The Area Presidency (ecclesiastical leadership) of our South America Northwest Area (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela) has asked that in our humanitarian efforts we focus on maternal and newborn health and in areas of children's education. Those are areas that can have a significant long-term return on the effort invested and have greatest impact with our limited resources. There is great need in this part of South America and that is where we focus.

We always partner with other local organizations with the objective of strengthening their capabilities and making them more self-reliant as well. Sometimes those are regional governments or government agencies such as education or health ministries. Other times our partners are NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) such as established charities or other religious organizations who work to ameliorate poverty and its effects.

We've also finally been able to purchase and ship the seeds, tools, soil amendments, plants and other items to permit the initiation of a food production and nutrition project in a remote community in the Amazon. This project will provide a start for families to raise the nutritional content and variety of the foods in their diet and improve their food security by giving them the materials they need to start their individual family gardens and provide for a local expert to give them training in the proper way to plant and care for their gardens. This is another aspect of the efforts of LDS Charities to improve the ability of individuals, families and communities to become more self-sufficient by increasing their capacity.

Speaking of food, we did celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday (Saturday) with the other senior missionary couples in Lima. There were 38 people there and we had turkey and lots of other good food. Our assignment was sweet potatoes and Mary made them with lots of butter, maple syrup (the maple syrup was found in the store this week) and fresh squeezed juice from an orange and those tasty "yams" disappeared quickly.

It was good to slow down and take a few moments to reflect upon all with which we have been blessed and for which we are thankful. We are thankful for family, friends, and freedom and the opportunity and privilege to be able to serve others. We are also thankful that UW beat WSU to win the Apple Cup and that BYU triumphed over Utah State to win the Wagon Wheel!

We spent lots of time in the office this week taking care of logistical details, but without someone to take care of the logistical details for these projects, few if any of these projects would happen. We feel truly blessed to be here and to have the opportunity to assist on these projects to help those who are in need. We are grateful for your love and prayers and support.