Taquile Island and Local Collaboration

Welcome to Taquile Island....a 3 hour boat ride from Puno. Our friend, Dra. Paula, is a young dentist who goes to the island once a month as a volunteer to give dental care at their Puesto de Salud. Her friend, Hugo, is the local physician there. It is the first dental care they have received, so you can imagine how busy she is. Our dental team in March will be spending two days here to help.

It is an island that reminds us of Greece and the Middle East. There are no cars, no dogs, no electricity (except solar panels), no running water. There is an abundance of sheep, gardens, preserved local Quechua culture, and friendly smiles.

On Taquile the women all spin yarn and the men knit. The men use 4-5 very small needles to create the finely knit gorgeous hats they all wear. The hats that are all red signify they are married, if they are both red and white, they are single and available!

We came with a group of young professional women with whom we are collaborating.

Wilma is a dynamo presenter; here on nutritional needs of infants and toddlers.

We are so pleased to have met these young women who are also collaborating with our Methodist healthcare educational training.

They are so bright, fun, and well-received by both the men and women on Taquile.

Wilma's audience....mothers who have walked from various parts of the island. Although initially very shy, they gradually opened up. Very conservative traditions persist on Taquile. Women generally walk behind husbands, sit at the feet of their husbands at public gatherings, and do not have much of a voice. Things are gradually changing.

Although tourists come here daily from Puno, very few stay the night. The dental team of John Kriz and Jill/Dave Wagers will have the opportunity to stay overnight with us in March and work with Dra. Paula and Dr. Hugo. Here is where we will stay....definitely not a 3-star, but an opportunity to experience their life here.

As we passed these three children laden with the greens they were taking to their sheep, a little voice said in clear English..."Welcome to Taquile." The oldest girl on the right was learning English in school and was eager to practice.

We appreciate having the time to meet so many people. We are learning so much from them...little pearls of wisdom dropped in our path.

Under yet another arch before our departure back to Puno. Paola, the dentist, is in the white jacket; Velma, the biologist, is in the white hat; Wilma, the nutritionist, is in the green sweater, and Lucy, coordinator of "Junto" collaborative women's training program is in the blue jacket. Those of you joining us on teams from Boise FUMC will probably meet some of these well-trained, kind-hearted, and dedicated women.

They are a blessing!

Yes, we too have been having a lot of rain....thankfully without the flooding that is in Cusco.

The kids did not seem to mind a bit!

Successful visit to the Frontera

We have just returned from three days visiting communities and Methodist Churches on the far northeastern side of Lake Titicaca, literally a stone's throw from Bolivia. Gorgeous part of the lake! Not easily accessible, and we were some of the first Gringo visitors they had ever received.

It was a five hour drive through challenging terrain on even more challenging roads. Much like the back roads of the Owyhees outside of Boise. Unfortunately (or fortunately) you can not see that off to the left the swift little river we forded becomes a little waterfall!

Thank heavens we have a 4 x 4! Scott did a great job at getting us all there and back safely. As always, we ended up with a car full of lively passengers, including Venancio and Yessica's happy little baby, Christian.

Yes, Peru is having unusually heavy rains right now, and cold temperatures. The road went on and on and on to reach the communities we visited. We were miles from nowhere, but in some gorgeous wild country. We weren't too sure how deep some of the many ponds and washouts were going to be until we plowed through. A few merited scouting.

Local mode of communication!

Florentino and Venancio raising the flag so that all of the villagers living in the valley could see we had arrived and it was time to gather at the church. Other communities used a huge megaphone or sound sysltem to broadcast the news we had arrived.

Pastor Florentino has energized his church and gotten them very enthused about the healthcare project. They were full of great questions.

Here he proudly displays the Spanish Healthwise Handbook- La salud en casa: Guia Practica de Healthwise we are using for the base of our training of the Promotores de Salud, community healthcare workers. Our thanks to our friends, Jim, Marty and Steve for making its use possible! When appropriate we are also using parts of Where There is No Doctor.

Doing a community assessment outside of Talile- We are so excited to have things moving forward. We have 7 Promotores de Salud confirmed to begin training in early March, with more expected to enroll in the next few weeks. After our initial training, they will continue their training and work with local doctors and nurses at their regional medical outposts. The response from the local doctors and nurses has been very positive, and we are very pleased with the collaborative network that is growing.

Bev doing an example of the healthcare education sessions that the Promotores de Salud will soon be doing. Subject of the day.....handwashing and germs. There is no word for "bacteria" in Aymara since they can not see it, so she had to do a lot of vivid and convincing presentations.

Unfortunately many of the people are too used to only getting free handouts of medicines by groups that come periodically. They are having to learn that we are doing things differently.

"Es mejor ensenar pescar que dar un pescado.....it is better to teach to fish than to give a fish." Some of them are starting to get it.

Happy New Year 2010!.

The first two weeks of 2010 have had a few memorable moments. First, was watching Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl long distance with my brother and sister-in-law, Doug and Mary Ann. Doug put his laptop in front of his TV, turned up the volume, and we Skyped for three hours and shared the evening with them. Technology!

With our Peruvian carne de extranjeria (long-term visa) we are able to leave Peru. We were able to go to Bolivia last week and meet with church leaders and begin our preparations for the Bolivian side of this Peru/Bolivia Lake Titicaca Border Mission. We especially enjoyed spending time with the Funk family....John and Suzanne (and their two sons) have been Methodist missionaries in southeast Bolivia for 3 years. They are currently in La Paz for 6 months serving as Methodist National Volunteer Coordinators. We learned more about Skype from their son Jeffrey....he was playing Chinese Checkers long distance with his grandpa when we arrived at their house for dinner!

This car is being blessed in front of the large cathedral in Copacabana, Bolivia. It is a riot to watch....the grand finale is to pour wine or beer over them! Our car had been so excited about the same, but yet another hurdle confronted us at the border....they refused to let our car leave Peru, so we had to find someone to park it with for a few days at the little town nearby. Sadly, our car will probably never be blessed in Copacabana....they require a permit AND a sizeable deposit to take our Peruvian car out of Peru. Total cost each time would be $250 PLUS a sizeable deposit. It is going to make it much harder to get people out to some of the more of remote villages of Bolivia, but we're working on that.

I must share that this mission is turning more international than we had dreamed possible. We met with a group of Cuban ophthalmologists who have been working in Copacabana for 3 years. The office management was pretty unsure of us at first; but when we met with two doctors, one of them turned out to be Methodist! He is a general practitioner and is very interested in working with us.

This is a possible Rotary project site outside of Puno in the beautiful little valley of Jayllihuaya (good luck with pronunciation!). It has a perfect climate for growing flowers and vegetables. It is a proposed literacy/economic development project which has a lot of potential but needs some more work to get it all organized. We met with leaders and members of the community (and a few dogs) to get their input.












An agronomist has experimented with this ornamental flower greenhouse and has developed a successful business and model for them. They were gorgeous and of couse Bev came home with some!

I leave you with good news....three Methodist representatives from General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) from New York were in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. One of them, Clint Rabb, is a friend who trained us as Individual Volunteers in Mission. We are currently awaiting more details, but know that they were in a hotel that was destroyed, and the last we heard two were able to get out and were working at rescuing the third. All are thankfully alive.

More good news....Cammeo Medici, a delightful young 23 year-old from Iowa, arrived yesterday. She will be living and working with us here for 6 months. Her energy is very welcomed!

P.S. I must edit to add some very sad news for us ....two of the three Methodist leaders from General Board of Global Minisitries (GBGM) have died as a result of the Haiti earthquake. One of them was Clint, the other Sam Dixon, the Executive of United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), ironically the mission branch which responds to emergencies like this. They had been trapped for over 50 hours, and although they were able to evacuate Clint to Florida, he did not survive. Please keep their families and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

More information is available on the GBGM website. We have appreciated that GBGM has done well at keeping all of us volunteering around the globe for the Methodist Church up to date with the news they received. It leaves you feeling very vulnerable, so far away and without your normal infrastructure of medical and emergency support we take for granted in the U.S.