1 week down!

This last week has been great. We are starting to realize what a large project this is that we are embarking on. The difficult part is that we have so much we COULD do, but we can only do SOME things. And we can do SOMETHING.
We may have expected to have a little more direction from supervisors. That´s not the case. What we do is up to us. Here are some of the concerns Yantalo has with public health (from the perspective of the Doctor Luz and the professors in the school).
1 Everyone needs to have insurance (this gives them access to vacunizations, nutrition programs and other government helps)
2 Parasites (a regular parasite cleansing process. Two pills every 3 months)
3 Nutrition (too much rice, potatoes and meat-not enough vegetables or fruits. Even though the jungle is a good place to grow fruits, the people normal grow cash crops like rice, coffee and other starchy foods)
4 Healing
5 Mouth Care
6 Sexual Health (the doctor estimates that at least 90% of the public has an STD. Many of the public, typically men, show no symptoms.)

We are working with the school nurse to teach at least some of these topics in the school each day during the children´s study hall hour. We are also beginning regular english classes every weekday afternoon for students and at night for adults.

Work in the hospital is a little slow sometimes. Jenny and I have helped admit a lot of the patients this week. She does the paperwork and I take vital signs. We will be going out to the smaller villages on Wednesdays and Thursdays to help the people who can´t come all the way to the hospital. Tonight we are in Moyobamba (the bigger town that is 15 km away from Yantalo) and we will be observing in the emergency room for the evening.

In other news: I am playing the guitar like a madman! When there is nothing better to do at night besides watch bugs (which isn´t all that bad!) I pull out old trusty (or young trusty, we´ve only been together for a month)and I like to practice. I love it!
ALSO- We had another friend join our team this week! Her name is Aisan (HAY-sun) and she is a medical student at U of Illinois. She´s way cool! She is really nice to the kids and loves being here. She will only be here for a week, so we want to make this an awesome experience for her.
Last night we got some coconuts from the tree in the backyard and made a coconut fruit salad. Ingredients: Coconut, passionfruit, mandarin oranges. Mmmm. (See photo)
Well homies, I´m out. I still gotta check facebook and look for some info for the classes I´m teaching this week.
Remember that you have a great circle of influence! There is so much that you can do to help the people around you if you just look up! I´m not the best at it, but I´m really learning a lot about service down here.
Peace and blessings!
·scratch the photo thing, I can´t get it to work. Photos coming soon!

Yantalo!

I was supposed to bring sheets with me.
As I was leaving my house I looked in the closet and found something that looked like a sheet.
I pulled it out of my bag last night and found out it was only half a sheet.
So last night I slept with a piece of sheet. :)

Yesterday was our first full day in Yantalo. We found out this morning what we will actually be doing, working at the hospital admitting patients, teaching english and physiology in the school. I´m stoked. I feel so glad that we´re going to be doing something useful and that we´ll get to work with a lot of kids.

I gotta split. Peace homies! Hasta luego!

Huanchaco!

Hola Homies,
I'm here in good ol' Peru once again! This time, I'm doing some work with a nonprofit group out in the jungle in the Amazon. The place is called yantaló, which is about 15-20 min from any major city and has no phone or internet. I'm going to be working with a doctor at the local clinic and doing some research and public education with a few universities that are coming down. I'm stoked on it!
So far, I've made some good friends. Jenny and Starla are my buddies from the Y that I'm traveling with and I met some young filmmakers from Denmark while I was in the airport. A guy named Dr. Luis Vasquez runs the organization and he introduced us to some young medical students who will be joining us in the journey later on after they get done with finals and whatnot. I have also been praying to have missionary opportunities and have already been able to answer many questions about the church and give away a Book of Mormon! Hooray!
As I type I am sitting in our hotel on the beach in a place called Huanchaco. We are still a 13 hour bus ride from our final destination, so we'll head out in time to be there in the morning on Mother's day.
So far the goal is to take at least 1 photo a day and update this thing about once a week. If you have any questions or want me to post something up here, let me know. we're in for an awesome journey!
I'd like to close with a quote from Robert Chambers' book, Whose Reality Counts:
"Power deceives and exceptional power deceives exceptionally"
Our reality is defined by those in power. Here in Peru, reality for the lower class is defined by the upper classes. The upper class determines the standard of living, what is acceptable, what is "cool" and too many other things. This happens everywhere. It reminds me a lot of D&C 121, and we need to be careful, especially as Americans, that we don't abuse the power that we have.
In addition to D&C 121, I like to think of Moroni 7. Because after everything else passes away, when we, the wealthy, have no more material possessions, Charity never faileth.
So that's one of my goals this trip. To make it less about things and more about people; loving, helping and serving them.

Here's some surfer dudes with me and Starla at the beach in Miraflores (Lima).