Nourish and the Health and Sanitation Campaign

Have you ever seen a guinea pig killed, skinned and gutted mere moments before it was placed before you as lunch? Today I did.

But before I talk about that, I should backtrack and explain how we got there. As part of our group tackles health assessments, the rest of us are getting our hands dirty, designing and constructing pilot latrines. Many of the families in Ciudad de Dios and the surrounding area don’t have any kind of infrastructure set up to use as a bathroom and those who do generally only have a hole in their backyard.  Without getting too explicit, any permeable structure threatens the health of residents in the village, as bacteria can seep into the ground water and even into the water pipes.

We’ve decided to build four latrines and thus far, we have chosen two beneficiary families. The first is a single mother with two young children. They don’t have any bathroom structure, so the erection of this latrine will hopefully mark a significant improvement in their lives. Her two brothers were kind enough to help by digging a hole of 2.5 squared meters in the compact Peruvian soil for three hours.

Although we were impressed, we thought our group of six could complete a similar sized hole in, perhaps, twice the time—until today.

Today, we visited Senora Maria, head of the second family for whom we decided to build a latrine. Senora Maria is a small, spunky 70-year-old woman living in absolute poverty who, despite missing a few teeth, looks at least 20 years younger. She spent the vast majority of her life without electricity, which she acquired only a few months ago, and running water, which she was able to access after last years MOCHE-Nourish International service group’s installation of a clean water system. Unfortunately, the backyard of her house is ridden with trees, rocks, and animals, and we soon realized the difficultly of finding a viable location. Luckily, her daughter lives less than a minute away with her children, and we decided that her daughter’s spacious and cleared backyard would be a safer spot for construction.

Two young neighbors of Senora Maria watch as we dig.

So we dug. And dug. And dug some more. Three hours later, we were about 1/3 of the way through and utterly exhausted. Needless to say, when Senora Maria offered us a hot lunch, we happily accepted.

Covered in dirt, we trekked up the rocky trail leading to the house and salivated with thoughts of steaming rice and spicy soup. As I made my way through the brush, I had expected to see Senora Maria leaning over a pot, stirring our lunches on a stove. Instead, I found her fragile little arms whacking dead guinea pigs with a polished knife. She smiled at our initial horror (which may or may not have been well hid) and informed us that she was cooking all of her adult cuys, or guinea pigs, for us as a token of her gratitude. To be the recipient of such amazing kindness was a real honor.

And truth be told, guinea pigs don’t taste all that bad.