Pretending to be Health Volunteers

by Alisha & Micah

Peace Corps Peru has 5 programs currently operating throughout the country. They include Youth Development, Small Business Development, Rural Community Health, Water and Sanitation, and Environmental Awareness. As youth development volunteers, Micah and I work in many of these areas; however, this week we visited the sites of two health volunteers near us to help them out with some projects in their communities.The Health Post in San Juan de Lacamaca

The first stop was San Juan de Lacamaca, located about 2 hours from us where we spent the day helping with a cocinca mejorada (healthy kitchen project) that will burn wood more efficiently and channel smoke away from the cooking area. Our regional coordinator then showed us how to build a seed bed for starting plants like onions, lettuce, and tomatoes. We finished up the day (which happened to be World Water Day) with a short talk on water purification methods.

The nearly complete Cocina Mejorada

Getting ready to plant some seeds

Yesterday, we spent the morning in Lajas, where another health volunteers lives, about 30 minutes from Chota. Along with some other volunteers in the area and some youth from Lajas we put on a play about trash management for the two elementary schools. The goal of the play was to get the students and teachers thinking about recycling, composting, and creating micro landfills where trash is buried (instead of burned). The health volunteer in Lajas intends to start a recycling program in the schools in the coming months.

Waiting for the play to start

Trash in the river is a common problem

The actors honing their craft

Micah with the frightening Trash Monster

Working with volunteers from a different sector turned out to be a nice change of pace. We were able to see ways in which their communities are both similar to and different from ours, which is always an interesting experience.