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.