Correction

With regards to what I ate on Wednesday afternoon, the chanfanita dish is actually made with the lungs of the cow, not the stomach as I previously stated. There is another dish here called Cau Cau, which I ate last week, that is made with the cow´s stomach (and the dish really is pronounced cow cow). Of course at the time I was unaware of what I was eating and I did enjoy the cau cau (I don´t know if I will still like it if we eat it again though). So that´s it for the corrections with the Peruvian cuisine. For the most part, the food here is really good. There are a variety of different fruits and vegetables that I have never before seen or tasted and so it is a lot of fun getting to know some new flavors.

Yesterday Nelson and I left the office around 3:30 to go to Lomas. Two hours later we arrived and it was still light out. That was the first time I have seen Lomas during the day and as poor as it seemed on the first night I was there, yesterday I was able to see with more clarity the extreme poverty that exists there. We began by going to on of the schools that several of the Jesheni kids attend. There are two schools in Lomas and our objective yesterday was to speak with the teachers of one of these schools (I assume that we´ll probably do the same at the other school too). Our discussion was supposed to be about how we could support the teachers by talking with the Jesheni kids about what they learn, and the importance of being good students etc. Some of the kids in the group are a little rebellious which is affecting their ability to graduate on time and succeed in their studies (but there is a lot of hope for these kids because even though some are rebellious, they are the kind of youth that have an interest in getting better). Anyway, once we were inside the school grounds I was basically useless to our discussions. I stuck out a lot there and so a number of kids rushed over to me to start practicing the English that they are learning. I imagine that seeing a gringo is pretty rare and I was happy to be there so that they could practice. As far as the discussions with the professors went, I didn´t get the impression that there was a lot of success. They looked pretty busy with the students and everything was kind of chaotic anyway. We left the school and walked through the neighborhood which is sort of built along the side of a hill/mountain. Nelson told me that about eight years ago a group from Germany came to Lomas with a project to provide the town with running water. We climbed to the top of a hill where there was a great water tank and Nelson described to me that the Europeans had installed this tank as well as a system of pipes throughout the town. I noticed that each dwelling had a green cement structure outside with a little spiget on it (I am going to take pictures of all of this tomorrow morning when we return and then I will post them for you to see). Most of these spigets, and some of the cement structures, were broken. The idea was that the people of the town could tap this supply of running water whenever they wanted and only pay for whatever amount they used. I´m not sure how the tank would be replenished (it almost never rains here) but I assumed that the Europeans would refill the tank using the funds that people paid to have the water. Well that was eight years ago and now the project has been abandoned. There are broken PVC pipes laying on the ground (in some places you can see where the water lines ran). Next we visited the park where we will be planting trees and cleaning up the trash littered throughout the area. Nelson told me that six months ago the Jesheni kids had cleaned up this park and planted several trees and small plants. Several of these trees had died and there were some others that are on their way. These trees and plants are of course native to the area and require little water but still they are dying because they have no water at all (no one is watering them, even slightly). Others decide to uproot the plants just for the sake of destroying something. These were frustrating things to see because they demonstrated the failures of community projects. Oh and now the community receives water from a truck that drives around delivering it to big plastic barrels that sit outside of each home. I received one final descouraging sight. As Nelson and I climbed higher into the neighborhood, we came along the edge of a small rock valley that sloped the other way down away from the village. Piles and piles of trash littered the area below as well as some loosely held together wooden pigpens. The pigs were being fed this toxic garbage and there were kids down in the trash heaps working to sort through plastics, metals, cardboard, etc. Nelson told me that they work from eight in the morning until as late as ten at night only to make 4 soles. The garbage is sifted through and separated by the kids who often suffer from asthma and other respiratory illness due to the toxic chemicals and plastics. The people also eat the pork from the contaminated pigs living down there which adds to their maladies. After seeing all of this we returned to the small room where Jesheni meets to have a charla (discussion). We talked about current events (there was a strike, I think, of doctors or medical professionals) and at around 9 in the evening we left Lomas and returned home at about 10:30. Today I am resting. It´s my host dad´s birthday.