Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Update on the Mosquito War

I recently have gotten some feedback from my readers regarding the mosquito wars.

I´m back on top again.

First of all I don´t want my readers to think that there are too many mosquitos and that visiting Piura would be an absolute nightmare. Believe me the hotels have air conditioning and sealed windows and you would be protected from the mosquitos.

To give a quick update- Mosquitoes are bad here, there is no Malaria here thank the Lord, but the mosquitos are mean, tactile, persistent, and extremely intelligent creatures.

In the beginning, I was losing the war, the mosquito nets didn´t work-The mosquitos found microscopic folds in the net and flew in full force- ¨Now the mosquitoes are trapped inside my safety shield.¨ That time was miserable.

Then I started using bug repellent sprays and plug in fumigators but I would wake up with coughs. Though spraying myself down with bug spray each night couldn´t be healty- It was fairly effective though. I quit using sprays and fumigators.

So now I have my industrial strength, 3- speed, shiny black and crome fan that allows me to get a good rest.

So how am I winning? If I put the fan on speed 3 (lowest) I lose the battle that night. They withstand the air current and can somehow fly through the eye of the hurricane, land on my hand or face and have a mid-night snack.

If I put it on speed 2, sometimes I win and most of the time they still win the battle. These guys are strong! Here is the funny part, I believe that while I´m sleeping, they actually fly around the air current and do tacticle covert operations. When they find a weak spot in the air current they attack.

The good thing is that my fan is powerful. If I use speed 1 (the strongest) is too strong for the mosquitos to penetrate the air current and find a safe place to land on my face, back or arms. The bad thing is that speed 1 is so strong that It is like having a jet engine blowing on your face. It is very powerful and loud. But worth it.

But beware! My fan is located on the side of my bed (due to the short cord), if I lie on my side, it creates a weak air current on the opposite side of the fan where the mosquitos love to attack. I would like to have another fan on the opposite of the side of the fan so I could lie on my side at times when I sleep.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Tropical Mountains of Northern Peru

These are photos of some mountain scenery a few hours from Piura in tropical mountains of Northern Peru. Northern Peru along the coast is mostly dessert but as you trek inland a few hours the terrain becomes a tropical mountain oasis. As I treked for hours through the mountains, we came across banana tree forests that were filled with thousands of butterflies, waterfalls where we could take a refreshing rinse off, ripe coffee bean fields, and many plants that I had never seen before.

The sad thing is that the forests will soon be gone forever due to the massive deforestation that is taking place. From the summit of one of the peaks we climbed, we could see the whole mountain valley. It is safe to say that over 80% of the original forest that once remained has turned into grazing pasteurs and corn fields.

It is a tough thing to see because someday these lush mountains will turn into an arid climate and life here will probably change for the worse. I imagine that this kind of problem is taking place all across the world in developing countries.

I wish the problem could have a simple answers. People here are forced to think about here and now, food right now, cooking wood right now, lets cut down this hectre and burn it so we can plant corn and have goats and cows to make fresh cheese.

It´s hard for the people to think about sustainability when the education is poor, the people live in extreme poverty, and the political infrastructure of these villages are almost designed to be corrupted.

On a positive note, I got to see this beautiful place before it has self-destructed. I wonder what the beautiful scenery looked like about 50 years ago?





Thursday, December 15, 2005

Homemade Bamboo Chair only sold at IKEA

I can´t take all the credit for making this beautiful bamboo chair but will take credit for making it comfortable and able to be sat in. Last weekend I went up in the mountains to see a friend. Where he lives chairs are a comodity. This chair has a long history which I will not get into. The basic idea was that after hours upon hours of quenching his boredom in his site, he couldn´t ever get his chair to work. In the beginning, the chair looked the same but instead of sitting on strings, my friend attached his fold out compartment of his suitcase (the part where you put your suits and such) to the chair which became the seat. Obviously this wasn´t effective. So when I came up to visit his site, I was itching to get my hands wet. I spent about 5 hours reconstructing his chair. It was the first time in months I made something with my own hands. Coming from a construction background, I found it to be a very therapeutic experience and a very comical one for the community.

Soon we will be exporting these fine chairs to IKEA


My life on Saturday

Every Saturday I work with children who spend the majority of their lives selling candy, cigarrettes, clay ceramics, or anything to make a few cents. Some of the kids have no families and have to sleep on the street. I have heard that some of the kids sleep in the pits of garages where mechanics change oil. Family or not, these kids live in extreme poverty and live lives that are often heartbreaking and very sad. Most haven´t even thought about their future because they have enough to worry about just to make it through the day or week.

For the past 10 years or so, the Peruvian National Police have a program called Colibri (hummingbird in Spanish) that works with these high risk children through workshops and recreative activities. Since September I have been assisting in this program every Saturday.

Each Saturday we have between 50-100 kids show up from around Piura. Most of the time I play sports with them, have a lesson of the day, and then we eat lunch together. It is very hard to work with kids who have nothing, no parenting, little discipline, and little support at the police station. I think once I arrived to help out, the police that were suppose to help out every Saturday saw it as an opportunity to abandon their responsibility with the kids, a job they are getting paid to do. I am basically in charge of 100 street kids each Saturday so I am constantly seeking assistence.

Though I am frustrated with the police, I have learned so much about myself and am constantly reminded why I am here when I see my little friends on the streets late at night. They always come up and give me hugs and say, ¨see you Saturday¨. I think Saturday is their most exciting day of the week.


Oscar (green vest) has become a very good football player. It is neat to see some of the kids learn football. Sometimes I have to bring out my football and play catch to boost my self-esteem when the little youngsters kick my butt in soccer. This pic is neat because for the first time one of my little kids is able to teach one of the older kids from my weekly youth groups how to hold the football. Most kids have never seen a football and have no clue what to do with such a wierd looking ball. Do we kick it like a soccer ball?


One problem I have is that I don´t have enough sports equipment for 100 kids. I always get asked, ¨loan me a ball¨. I always tell the kids to share, which is a concept hard for some kids to understand. Most of the boys always steal the volleyballs from the girls. I´m teaching the girls to stand up for themselves which I believe is important in a machismo society.


Oscar and Angel are two of my favorite kids in Colibri. They both show up early before the rest of the kids to have personal one on one attention. Oscar likes football (futbol americano) and Angel likes soccer (futbol).


I found my digital camera to be a huge asset for my youth groups. I found a cable in my camera bag that attatches the camera to the TV. The kids love getting their pictures taken and then instantly seeing themselves on TV. Sometimes I make short videos that introduce the lesson of the day. Instead of talking to the kids live, I just show my video. It is something different and more entertaining.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Suprise Birthday Party

I had an excellent suprise birthday this year in Peru. One of my youth groups snuck behind my back and planned a very cool party. When I walked into the room I have bombarded with rice. Then I had to waltz with each girl in the group and then everyone else joined in. I was blessed to have so many people make my birthday one of the best.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Trujillo Thanksgiving Vacation

This year I spent Thanksgiving with many of my volunteer friends from my training class. Trujillo was our destination, a beautiful coastal city north of Lima. Most of us stayed in a beach hostal in a small town outside of Trujillo. During the week, many of us surfed, visited ruins, shopped, and made fires on the beach at night. Of course on Thanksgiving we had the biggest Thanksgiving feast I have ever seen.

For most of the volunteers it was the first time in months since we had seen some of our close volunteer friends. Most people live more than 10 hours from the furthest volunteers. I had an awesome time spending weekend with such good friends when I couldn´t be home with family.

Ruins- Las Huacas del Sol y La Luna

Plaza de Armas Trujillo
Every town and city in Peru has a central plaza called plaza de armas which contains a church and a municipality office


Huanchacho Beach Town
(outside of Trujillo)

The boats ¨Caballitos de Totora¨ in the background are made of reeds and ride much like a kayak. This is ancient tradition is still practiced in Trujillo.


Surfing in Huanchaco
I tried out the surfing in Peru for the first time. I did well but was so out of shape that I could only go for an hour, plus the water was ice cold.


Cathedral in Trujillo

Trujillo is a clean, organized, and charming city on the coast of Peru.



Peruvian Hairless Dog

This breed of dog is indegineous to Peru and was once considered sacred by the Incan and pre Incan civilizations. I read somewhere that the Peruvian hairless dog has a higher body temperture and therefore was placed in the beds of sick people to aid in the healing process. I think it is probably one of the ugliest breed of dogs I have ever seen. Not in a million years could someone put one of those dogs in my bed.