RECRUITING ALL LOUSE REMOVERS

So, I just noticed that my blog is making me crazy! I KNOW that I blogged on tuesday night but it says it was Monday, I thought that maybe I missed a day! Hopefully it is fixed this time! So, I left you after we removed lice on Tuesday...well on Wednesday we did the same thing all over again. Javier, our ¨main man¨, said that he believes that lice is an epidemic here in Peru! Funny, but he is probably right. Wednesday morning we went back to the orphanage/daycare and removed more lice from kids in the community. We spent all day there, there were so many kids...so many dirty kids. It was a long long long day with some kids that had obviously had lice for a very long time. Some of the bugs were bigger than ants! We came back to the convent and had some lunch and then headed to central lima! First we visited the Church of San Francisco and the main plaza then we went to the Parque de los Aguas (Park of the Waters). This place is full of water fountains with lights and music and all! Its beautiful! Eventually we will post some pictures. Thursday, we thought was going to be a new day, new things other than lice, but little did we know that we would be acting like monos (monkeys) all over again! Luckily this time we gave the mothers information about what they needed to do to get rid of them and we didnt have to actually ¨pïck¨each and every bug and egg out! The kids that attend the kindergarten have a little bit of money and most of them have running water, so they were pretty clean and free of lice. Just when we thought that we were done (that we had seen all the kids for the day) another 10 showed up at the door...and these kids had lice. boo! Luckily we gave the moms the information and let them take care of it themselves. We had a great late lunch made by the lady who owns the school (who is also one of our contacts who sets us up with alot of our work) and then called it a day. We came back to the convent, showered and then met my friend Diego in Miraflores. Diego, I met when I was here two years ago (he is actually from Hungary) and we have kept in touch ever since. Waking up Friday we were dreading what was ahead of us, seeing old people in San Genero Dos. This ¨community¨ is super poor, they do not have running water, bathrooms, or any type of modern commodity. They must wait for the water truck to bring them water, and their homes are made of what you or I may call trash. The roads are all made of dirt, there is sewage running down those streets, the smell is of urine, the sun is burning all exposed skin. This is a place where the poorest of the poor of Lima live. Though these people are at the bottom of the chain they are the nicest, so giving and loving. We took blood pressures and talked about their medical issues, treated a few people for infections. One lady in particular that I will not forget came up to us, she looked very sick. She complained of fever, difficulty breathing, weakness for a few days..her eyes were glazed. First, and foremost we made her take off the 14 layers of clothes that she was wearing. I was sweating wearing scrub pants and a tank top, I cannot imagine wearing the amount of clothes that she was wearing even without a fever! Her lungs sounded like crap so we treated her with antibiotics and motrin, we will follow up with her this week at her house. Today was a day of rest, the beach seemed inviting but once we arrived (after walking quite a distance down-the convent is on the edge of a cliff) there were so many people bothering us we joked about putting a sign on our umbrella saying ¨do not disturb¨. There are thousands of umbrellas and chairs and people selling things and and and. Definitely not relaxing, but I did steal a few minutes of sleep and have a churro! Dinner with the nuns...and off to bed at an early hour! On our way to the beach today, we thought that we would drop our laundry...the nuns told us that it was close to here. Thinking that it was close we put all of our clothes in one big black trashbag and started down the street...little did we know that we had to cross 10 streets and go through a main square. While we are standing on an island (between a few major roads) suddenly we get squirted! Luckily it was just water...but picture two white girls struggling to carry one large black trash bag full across a busy street and suddenly they are soaked by a squirt gun! Tomorrow is still to be determined, we have to make some teaching handouts and we will probably do some reading. or Spanish studying!