I started this blog with the idea that I could share some fun experiences with family and friends, and the hopes that some of the information here contained could be of use to other aspiring volunteers. With this spirit in mind I will make an effort to cover some of the most interesting details over the past two months, as I have neglected this page for some time (sorry).
To be fare, it is rather difficult to make entries being as I live roughly an hour bus ride from internet and electricity. When I do make the trip and inevitably find myself in front of the computer screen updating myself with e-mails, international news and facebook, its difficult summoning the motivation to spend some time with blog entries. What’s more, I didn’t stray far from my site for the first month and was for all intensive purposes out of touch with the world.
Cell phone service in site is patchy and causes dropped or missed calls if I am not at the signal “hotspots.” Buses only pass twice early in the morning on there way down the mountain toward town and twice in mid-afternoon, which involves a 40 minute hike to get to. This tends to create hassles when traveling great distances; one could spend a good portion of their day waiting for or riding in buses, pick-ups and trucks. Days with a ride from friends or hitch-hiking, although difficult and rather unsuccessful, can easily cut travel time in half.
My community is quaintly situated in a shallow valley, teaming with pine forests and tributaries, or cebradas, which drain to a single main river that effectively splits the caseria in half. After completing a health and population census, I can tell you that we are numbered 170 inhabitants and 29 houses, for an average 7.8 persons per home. These houses, mind you, are no larger than 500 ft2. The community has three roughly equal parts, which I like to call northern river left, right and southern river. River right and south have 8 houses each, while river left accounts for the remaining 13 houses and for all intensive purposes is the town center.
The health and sanitary status, though not extreme, is left lacking in many areas, particularly in personal hygiene, fecal waste disposal and consolidation, and air quality.
Dental health is dismal. The main form of treatment is a single examination and cleaning once a year, [the term ”cleaning” used loosely here as it means a lightly soaked cotton swab with a fluoride gel]. More common, however is for tooth’s to be pulled out all together. [This will be a lengthy digression I realize, but I feel I must. I have become so infuriated with the state of dental health and cultural norms concerning it. Children don’t brush there teeth regularly, if at all through combination of laziness and lack of proper utensils. Parents further this by claiming they don’t have the money to pay for a tooth brush (25¢), tooth paste ($1.25-2.00) or simply reinforce this behavior by marching into dental offices or brigades and saying “my child’s tooth hurts, will you pull it out.” Notice no question mark, because though formatted as a question, it is a demand. Fortunately this seems true only for molars and perhaps premolars, while the canines and incisors are saved from outright execution by way of aesthetic reasoning… you only see the front teeth]. Hand washing is fair, though lacking; showering is made difficult by weather, particularly during the rainy season; clean mouths and noses can sometimes be neglected; nose picking is somewhat common and covering mouths when coughing is a foreign idea.
Until the last five years, the community was without any form of waste disposal until local government finally stepped in, providing funds for the construction of pit latrines. Great right? Well, not exactly. In favor of pit latrines for simplicity of construction and lower cost, officials lacked foresight in considering possible problems. Hence, we now have more than 50% of houses using pit latrines inundated with water from high water tables during the rainy season. This, in turn, contaminates the water supply for those in the southern river section which is still without potable water lines and draws its water supply from springs, as well as all other communities downstream and its effects with environmental degradation.
All homes use highly inefficient wood burning stoves which are indoors, all but one without chimneys. The smoke produced is considerable while cooking and poses a number of health hazards. Among common ailments in the community are sinus and lung infection which could be dramatically reduced with the implementation of clean burning fuels or at the very least, more efficient stoves with proper ventilation hardware.
The challenges are many, unfortunately, but that’s what we’re here for! Projects I’m currently involved with are as follows: 1. formation of women’s committee 2. leadership and organization training for ADESCO, (local legislative board) 3. stove improvement 4. medical brigades 5. world map mural for local school 6. home gardening. Also planned for the future are potable water lines to those homes still without sanitary h20 and composting latrines. I’ll be sure to give more updates as these and future projects progress.
3 comments:
Wow: So glad to hear from you; so much to respond to! In no particular order:
a) What? You've got problems? Why, the White Sox are losing! (Just kidding, just kidding! I know our lives are a bowl of cherries compared to what goes on in most of the world and where you are.)
b) With regard to the hygiene problems (cultural and practical) do you have a microscope? I remember as the germ of theory took hold in the western medicine the major fight was getting people to believe that it mattered because you just can't see germs! (Please excuse my naiveté if this is already clear to people there.)
c) Thanks for detailing what it's like to make these posts. It makes me more sympathetic to their infrequency. (I'd still like to hear more...!)
d) I know this instinct is likely wrong but: would it be helpful to mail you a set of toothbrushes? Toothpaste is more difficult as that's an ongoing consumable.
e) Is the economics of your community primarily subsistence farming? Cottage manufacturing? Other stuff?
f) Following along b above, would it help/have you all looked at the history of the development of hygiene in the West? Can the arguments and cultural changes we went through in the 1900s be of use currently where you are? As example, I remember seeing some historical documentary talking about how people (who bothered) to do dental hygiene hundreds of years ago used small (clean!) twigs that they had chewed to soften and fray as a Tooth brush.
That's all I can think of for now. Keep up the good works. Keep posting (even knowing about the bus rides)!
Jimmy, thanks for the blog. Your mom gave me the address~I will share with the family.
Please know you are in our daily prayers for safety, success, and sanity! Thank God for people like you to help others ao much in need.
God Bless!
Katie Kahler
To bad we can't contact you more easily: Maggie will represent San Salvador in the Model UN at the U of C for HS. She'd love to be able to talk to you!
I hope all goes well-er....
Post a Comment