Day No. 3: Traversing Puddle-Wonderful San Juan!

Que tal, amigos?

We hope you all enjoyed a fireworks-and-food-filled Fourth of July yesterday! The four of us made sure to celebrate "American style" here in Iquitos, dining at a Texas-style BBQ restaurant near the Plaza de Armas and sporting red, white and blue attire throughout the evening. (Sadly, no fireworks, sparklers, bottle rockets, explosives, etc. were involved in our festivities.)

Today, July 5, marked our third full day in the field. With the help of our trusted guide, Wilfredo, our team traveled to remote areas of the San Juan Bautista municipality -- traversing muddy roads and forging gigantic puddles -- to continue conducting our surveys pertaining to water treatment and storage in the home.

Wilfredo's guidance keeps us right on track.

Puddle-filled road in San Juan, following a recent rainstorm.

Despite some minor time setbacks due to swampy terrain (Iquitos is currently in the midst of its rainy winter season!), we had a largely successful day, surveying 20 households and increasing our total number to 50 homes surveyed up to this point.

At this point in our water study, we have surveyed 50 homes within the San Juan municipality.

In addition to improving our Spanish-speaking abilities, we are truly beginning to piece together the story of water in San Juan. Many of the houses here lack a reliable source of home-delivered water and therefore have come to rely on other sources for their water. Some households, for instance, utilize deep wells ("pozos profundos") in their own backyards while others travel to water-pumping stations set up on the fringes of their neighborhoods, in order to collect a daily supply of water. Prior to consuming water from either of the aforementioned sources, many families opt to boil it and/or add chlorine tablets. Because coliform bacteria and waterborne parasites are so prevalent in this region, families here seem to agree: Take all precautions necessary, all of the time.

Water-pumping station in San Juan, owned and operated by the local government.

This pumping station in San Juan is currently locked up and doesn't function.

And so, tomorrow we'll continue our surveys -- full speed ahead! -- and will keep you posted on all new developments and revelations. As always, we appreciate your support and encouragement.

Hasta luego!

-Derek

First day in the field!

Hola amigos,

We have exciting news! We just completed our first day in the field yesterday. We had a very productive and exciting day after a busy week of preliminary meetings. It began with a 5:30 am wake-up call so that we could get to the futbol stadium for a quick workout before the jungle heat and humidity set in. We picked up a quick breakfast para llevar (to go) at the Central Market which consisted of a classic local jungle food called juanes. Juanes are rice balls filled with chicken, spices, eggs, olives, and more rice. Delicioso! We arrived at the San Juan Centro de Salud (health center/department of health) at 8 via mototaxi where we met our local assistant. Wilfredo works with the Department of Health on their Dengue Campaign by canvassing local neighborhoods for education and prevention purposes. The area we began surveying has little street or address organization, so we were incredibly lucky to have his help. Without him we would have literally been very lost! The day was incredibly successful as a whole. Families were extremely receptive to welcoming us into their homes to talk openly about the access and quality of water they have. People were very friendly, helpful, and patient with us. We learned some indispensable information about the local "potable" water and how some people do or do not treat their water. We definitely saw some evidence of waterborne illness as parents described several times having to use anti-parasitics for their children. Kim and I also met a very interesting elderly man during our traversings of the San Juan neighborhoods. He approached us at a street corner to inquire about our work. In conversation, he began to explain to us the conflict in Peru between conventional and traditional medicine. He learned medicine in the traditional way, understanding the many uses that each local plant has for each variety of ailments. He pointed out a nearby tree with a white trunk, explaining how in Peru it is typically used for heart and pancreas problems. Others help with high cholesterol, diseases of the prostate, and even fertility. He also lamented that modern day medical students are not taught traditonal medicine anymore, but only conventional. His concerns over this transition seemed to echo the struggle between allopathic and complementary medicine in the US. It was fascinating to hear that Peru is struggling with a similar problem within their medical system as we are. Overall we far surpassed our initial goal for the number of surveys we hoped to complete each day. This was great news at the end of the day despite not being able to find some houses, not finding a few families at home, and being caught in a torrential afternoon rainstorm. We sure felt like we were in the jungle then! Overall the day bode very well for the next couple weeks of data collection. We finished in time to avoid the afternoon heat and additional storms, arriving home exhausted, hot, dirty, and famished after a long day of work. We caught a quick lunch at what is quickly becoming one of our favorite local spots because of it's delicious and cheap eats, Huasai. After a nice siesta, we grabbed a light dinner of chaufa (Peruvian version of fried rice) then embarked on our first night of dancing with Kim's local friends. Que divertido! Tomorrow is another holiday, Dia de Los Amigos, and then we will resume surveying on Monday!

Ciao ciao,
Katie and the Iquitos gang

Below:
Trekking through the neighborhoods of San Juan and waiting out a torrential downpour.

One Day at a Time

Hola!

This morning we had a meeting with the Ministry of Health of the Loreto Region. The meeting went very well and we were directed to the Centers of Health for all the individual municipalities. We then went to the San Juan Center of Health as San Juan will be the first municipality we will try to tackle. We met with the local guide who will be taking us around San Juan starting tomorrow.

We are all extremely excited to be finally going into the field after all these countless meetings! We understand we have to make sure everything is set up before we can go into the field, but the day is finally here, can't wait to start tomorrow. In the mean time, maybe a siesta or some cerviche? Will keep everyone posted on the progress.

Besos.

PS - speaking of meetings, here's a photo of the whole gang in front of PAHO after our meeting in Lima!

Estamos en IQUITOS

Hola todos!!

It feels great to be back!

We arrived in Iquitos Monday night and have been running around the city doing errands and preparing for the project at hand. Yesterday, we met with Dr. Rodriguez of PAHO who will be our contact person here in Iquitos. He and his entire team were very nice and welcoming, telling us that if we need anything at all we can call him 24/7! Derek practiced his interviewing skills by going through the survey with Karin of Dr. Rodriguez's team and then Dr. Rodriguez arranged a meeting for tomorrow with the Ministry of Health. We are supposed to present our project and survey to the board, so that they can help us contact health officials in each barrio.

Today was a holiday (Dia de San Pedro), so we had some free time to do errands and meet up with old friends. We met up with Jesi, from my project last year, and then went to Sory's to meet her 1 month old baby! She was adorable! We hung out with them for most of the afternoon, talking and drinking Inca Colas.

Then, on the way to meet another friend, we stopped and enjoyed freshly made churros with manjar (Peruvian version of caramel). They were delicious and it was quite difficult to walk away after just one...

After the churros, we met up with my friend Ursula, and hung out and chatted for the afternoon. We ran into a Angel and his daughter, Luna, so we spent the afternoon just catching up.

Now we are back at the apartment working on our survey in preparation for our meeting tomorrow!

Besos y abrazos!
Kim

Here We Go!

Today begins the journey for Katie and Chloe, who will be leaving Hershey for DC en route to Peru! Derek will soon follow and everyone will rendezvous with Kim in Lima.

We are all so excited and can't wait to share with everyone when we are there. In the mean time, thank you to EVERYONE who has contributed to our cause. We are extremely grateful for your generosity, you made this a reality. Current standing: $3,160.

Thank you to our latest donors -

Natasha Moonka

Kyle Kirsch

Anthony Cirigliano

Dana Suskind

Besos!

3/4 of the way there!

Hey all,

With the generous donations from these latest contributors, we passed our 75% mark today! Current standing is $3,025. Thank you all very much for your continued support!!

Keith Graham

Myles Perkins

Henry Kirsch

Jessica Rettig

Monica Hale

Monica Matta

Leaving for Peru in T-3 weeks!

Progress Report

Hello All!

Sorry for the delay in updates, we have been bogged down with studying and trying to figure out last minute pre-Peru plans, etc. One more week as MSIs and we're done!

Some exciting news to share - Kim, Chloe, and Katie have each booked their international flights to Peru! This could not have happened without YOUR generosity! Our latest standing is $2,590. That's almost 65% of our goal! So, THANK YOU!

Here's a shout-out to our latest contributors -

Amy Blass

E LaCicero-Nichol

Laura Gustafson

Fang Zhang

Nancy Stewart

Ye Yang

Michelle Onufrak

Briana Currier

Katelyn O'Connor

Jem Heinzel-Nelson

Sharon Simonian