Dirty Work

Well the big news down here is that I finally moved. It has been something I had been looking forward to for a while. Having a room with a door, bathing in an enclosed place, having a light designated to my room all seem a bit trivial but it is a nice change of privacy and independence. It was a hard decision to move, though, for various reasons. I had originally wanted to live with the only other open room in my aldea, but they tore their house down when I first arrived and are still working on it. Before and after the decision, I wondered if I were a cheater of some sort. Was I supposed to live under the conditions that I was living? Is that the Peace Corps experience? Well, I don’t know…there is no typical experience. I did know, however, that living in my aldea had served its purpose of getting to know the people and their way of life and building their confidence. I knew I could continue working as much or probably more and my living conditions in my new place would be much more conducive to staying healthy. As the first rains came and began to enter in my room through the walls and roof, I finally made the decision. As more than luck would have it, the Spanish doctors were here in Alzatate and offered me their spare time to move my stuff in their vehicle. To me that was quite the generous act. I mean, who wants to move someone during his free time when he could rest or see new sites in the different country he is in let alone do it under normal circumstances back at home. Having done the move, I can not imagine how I would have done it with out their help.

Overall I really enjoyed the doctor’s company. We cooked each other meals, shared different stories and card games, and worked together even though what I did was very limited and meager. It was certainly a nice “up” after leaving home.

Through the doctor’s work, I was able to meet a family in my aldea with whom I had not met, a family whose conditions are probably some of the worst in the aldea. The mom came with some of her children to have one child examined for her niguas she had. Niguas are parasites that burrow into ones extremities like toes and then continue to eat away more flesh all while laying thousands of eggs. The tiny child’s feet were horrible; they were blackened, hot, swollen, and full of those niguas and their eggs. I’ve had one nigua and know what if feels like – I cannot imagine what the tiny little girl was feeling.
After examining the little girl and seeing that her big sisters had the same thing, it was arranged to bring the girls to get them treated. After first agreeing, the next day when we went to pick up the kids the dad had changed his mind and did not let the children go. He conveniently was not there, though, to try to convince again. The mother wanted them to go, but had not way to do so since she told us her husband would and has beat her for not obeying. So along with the beating, we found more serious problems relating with the dad. He was a drunk who spent the family’s money on keeping up his vice. He didn’t like working in the fields, so he didn’t or did very little of it. Thus his family was forced to buy their food but that is hard to do when they is little money to begin with. When I visited with the family I saw the kids looked hungry and gave them my bananas. I asked if they grew any bananas, which grow as easily as a weed, or other fruits – they didn’t. Some of the few fruit trees around the house that the wife had planted, the husband had cut down while drunk. The story seemed almost unreal and really put me in sorrowful mood just seeing the conditions of these innocent kids. It seemed to me this dad was not only not doing good for his wife and kids that were still living (3 kids had already died most likely due to malnutrition), but that he was putting effort into making their lives worse.
With an intervention from the priest, the dad let 2 of his daughters go to the children’s hospital. While this is only a temporary fix, it was certainly needed. A permanent fix will hopefully be on the way. The neighbors will continue to help the mom and the kids and I will do what I can. I’ll stop by to see if any of the conditions improve to let local authorities know and try to get permission from the dad for the mom to grow some things for her kids.

So yes, there are hard moments and days, times to reflect and think how fortunate my childhood was and how those of countless other children in the US are fortunate. Overall, though, work has been good, and there is plenty to keep the days flying. The rains came real late this year, beginning when Tropical Storm Alma passed through at the very end of May. I was certainly looking forward to the rain not only to green the countryside but to move into sowing seeds and planting plants. It makes me feel like when I was a child growing up at home doing work in the garden or in other parts outside dirtying up every piece of clothing. I feel like there won’t be much of my aldea left after I get done with my service since I take so much of it (the dirt) with me when I go back to my house. Still, a large part of my duties, though, is visiting houses and the land they own, which means hiking up and down mountains through forests and planted plots and over creeks. This too reminds me of my time back home spent in the backyard. So while it can be hard, I am having fun while still making an effort to do some good.