"Picking Flowers" in the back 40

We had one of those ‘charming’ breakfast discussions the other day … topics that seemingly pop out of mid-air.  Oftentimes they are non-consequential … but sometimes they strike a chord in my heart.

This was one of the latter.  And of all the things to talk about at breakfast: latrines! 

This conversation started because when we were shopping for cement fence posts, Cecilia had asked the cost of the piece of molded cement that serves as the base/floor of a latrine as well as the cement structure that serves as the stool.  Apparently they were pretty inexpensive!   People would also need 2 sheets of metal lamina sheeting to serve as a roof.  The families themselves would construct posts and hang towels or sheets or use heavy plastic sheeting to serve as walls.  The families would also be responsible for digging the hole for their latrine.

 

This is the base and stool made out of cement.  This is a NICE latrine!  Lamina walls!

Many just have heavy plastic or boards, or sheets or towels which serve as walls

 

The Pastoral Teams sees a latrine project as something quite necessary in the communities.  I thought there was an NGO currently working on a latrine project because I’ve seen some really nice latrines as we have driven through the cantons.

I asked Blanca about that and her answer was – yes.  ProVida and FISDL had latrine projects.  ProVida and FISDL worked in 3 of our cantons.  But not all the families in those 3 cantons received a latrine.  They didn’t provide them to an entire community.  For example: they might have had a latrine project in Loma Alta … but possibly only 24 of the 70+ families received them. 

I’ve been to MANY of the villages.  And I have walked door to door in many of the villages.  I have seen – and used some of the available facilities in the cantons.  When lucky enough to encounter a ‘real’ latrine – it’s humbling enough.  But when one is in need and encounters a ‘home-made’ structure – or worse … none at all – well.  For those of us accustomed to some of the ‘finer’ things in life – it isn’t a pleasant situation to be in.

There apparently are still many families who literally have to go out to the ‘back 40’ to go to the bathroom. 

So I asked the Pastoral Team to write up a budget for me and here is the synopsis:

$32  total cost for the cement base and stool (this cost includes the transportation to make the purchase)

$16  total for the two sheets of metal lamina sheeting
$2    per toilet for transportation to the communities from the Pastoral House.

So for a grand total of $50 – a family can have a clean and hygienic place to go potty.

$500 would take care of 10 families …

$1000 would take care of 20 families (the whole community of La Llanes for example!!)

So I’m writing this blog to see if anyone wants to ‘adopt a toilet’

Or even on a church-wide level – would a church that has been looking for a manner in which to support the Our Sister Parish mission like to support a few hygienic toilets?

Can’t you just see your next Christmastime efforts?  We at Heartland Presbyterian used to have an “Ángel Tree” for the children of people in prison … and we had a “Mitten Tree.”  This could be the year of the “Toilet Tree”

Hmm.   Maybe not.   There is probably a better way to raise funds for this sort of project.  Someone could bring a (clean) porcelain toilet to church, set it in the foyer and make a sign to put on the raised lid:  “place your $50 donation to provide a toilet to a family who has pee in the back yard

I daresay you might have a more eloquent way in which to create your signage!

I sometimes approach these things a bit tongue in cheek – but – this is a serious question that is coming next:

Anyone (or many ones) or any churches want to take this on?   

This sure makes a statement! (Thank you water.org)

 

 

 

The not so cool stuff in the country ...

I recently wrote about some of the cool and beautiful things in the cantons and posted lots of photos in an album on Facebook.  Today I was reminded of some of the uglier and not so cool things. 

You have to remember that I am here in the middle of a poverty ridden country.  And the people we serve live ‘en los campos’ – in the country.  And it is POOR out there. 

Most of you who read this blog have either been here or have heard a lot about the poverty and what we are trying to do here as a mission. 

This past couple of weeks we have been strumbuntzing in the cantons.  We’ve been doing a final verification of the slow sand water filters that people received a couple of years ago.  Making sure those who are using them are using them properly … if any need repair (lots have needed this and those filters have been repaired!).  We have found lots of rusted out diffusors and lids and really gross PVC tubes (the exit point of the purified water) so we have been replacing those.  We’ve been giving cantaros (water jugs) to the families actually using their filters (information obtained from a prior visit by Ismael).  We’ve been re-educating people about using the filter daily and other basic hygiene issues.  It’s been quite a bit of work, but worth the effort when people say that their health has improved … they have less diarrhea, fewer stomach issues … and something rather cool: in two different communities, 3 different families individually said they talked to their doctor about the filtered water … asking them if it was worth it?  Or if the carbon based filter they received from another project (another NGO working with water tanks) was better.  Dr. Vladimir, the director of our Berlín health clinic, said the slow sand water filter was the best!  He highly recommended the people continue to use them!  Hooray!

Entonces … este trabajo vale la pena!  So this work is worth the effort!  But man is it hot work.  We drive out to the communities but often times a home with a filter is well off the beaten path and we cannot get the pick-up anywhere near it.  Such was a case this morning.  Well, actually, 3 homes were well off the beaten path!  We were in Tablón Centro.  There are only 15 families actually using their filters in this community.  We didn’t think it would take us too long to deliver the cantaros.  We were wrong.

This is ok.  I really don’t mind the walking.  It’s good for us!  But Pastor (that is the man’s first name… not his title) lives WAY WAY WAY WAY (and I repeat: WAY) off the road.  First we took a turn off the main road and went down the smaller road in the pick-up to their soccer field.  That is where the truck had to stay.  Knowing how far we had to go, we took all the materials with us.  Normally we scope out the filter in each home to verify its use - then go back to the truck for the goods. 

We had 3 houses on this ‘road’ we had to walk – so we took three sets of material with us: 6 cantaros, 3 lids, 3 diffusors, and 3 exit tubes.  And we walked.  It wasn’t too far UP to the first house - only about a half kilometer.  And the next house was just a couple hundred yards from that.  Then we started the climb to Pastor’s house.  Good Lord.  Blanca, Cecilia, Ismael and I hiked.  And sweat.  And hiked some more.  And it was all UP hill, walking on a rutted and often slippery, muddy, poo-riddled ‘road.’    We finally got there and thankfully someone was home.  And also thankfully, they were indeed using their filter properly!  So we chatted for a few moments, sat in the shade of the house for a spell, gave the new parts to them and started the hike down. 

Photos do NOT do this hike justice

Pastor's home ... the pitted water jug is why we were motivated to give cantaros to our filter families

Now I’ve said before that it is absolutely beautiful in the country.  You’ve seen some photos.  You’ve seen some cool individual things … the countryside … the newly planted corn … the hills … the volcano in the distance … the myriad of flowers … the children … (go see my Facebook album for cool photos).

Well.  The mud is not so nice.  The rutted roads are not so nice as well.  The dirty faces of the children and their filthy bare flat feet with broken toe nails, fungus, cuts and callouses break your heart.  God bless them.  But to me, the children are still beautiful. 

Smells aren’t always very nice – but one ‘overlooks’ that and makes NO mention as to not offend anyone.  There is usually no realistic way to avoid the smells. 

The smells today were horrible.  There were lots of pigs where we were hiking.  Pigs have a peculiar and distinct odor.  There are no huge factory farms here, but even one or two piggies create an ‘interesting’ smell.  Of course you have their excrement mixed in the mud around people’s homes and the walking paths and roads.  And the excrement of the cattle, dogs, chickens, ducks, and whatever else is roaming the same paths people take.  Then you have the mangos and other fruits which have fallen and are rotting on the ground where you walk.  All this brings the flies. 

Piggies do roam freely all around (and often inside) homes

Rain water tank ... used for everything ... washing, cooking and yes... drinking.  But when it is filtered ... it is ok!  Even I can drink it then.  But lots of people chose not to filter.

Somehow the rainy season makes the smells more pungent.  And you always have to watch where you walk.  One house in particular was really bad.  I’m not an overly sensitive person – I can usually ‘weather’ whatever smell comes my way without showing ‘distaste’ – but walking by this one house today reminded me of the ugliness of poverty.

My friend Bob always said – you don’t just see poverty.  It invades your senses: you hear, smell and taste it. 

Walking by this house today really brought that concept home.   

Poverty stinks.  Figuratively and literally.

Who owns the land?

I had a lengthy conversation yesterday afternoon with Blanca and Idalia.  I had been called down to share an early supper of pupusas.  We talked about a lot of different things – trivial and then some not so trivial. 

I’m not sure how the conversation started but we managed to segue into a hot topic.    Idalia mentioned that people from La Geo (the Geo Thermal plant here in Berlín) (and their heavily armed security guards) were measuring and staking out the land around their home.  I asked … isn’t that your family land?  Well, yes it is.  It’s been in the family for a very long time (Blanca’s family and Idalia’s family live next to each other – coffee trees and many types of fruit trees in a well-kept bit of land between and around their respective humble dirt floor homes. 

I didn’t think they were planning to sell – they have lived there all their lives and continually work to maintain their homes nicely. 

La Geo owns LOTS of land: in Alegría and Berlín.  They own a lot of the land in Montañita, a lot of the land in El Recreo.  They own a lot of the land in Los Cañales.  They own land in San Francisco … in Alejandria … Hacienda Nueva …

They keep buying up land and on much of it they dig more wells and run their gigantic tubing between the wells and the main parts of the plant.    Ugly eye-sores but that is the least of the problems they create.

 So I asked … why are they measuring if you don’t want to sell?

Here is the frustrating response:

‘If they want it – they will have it.’

La Geo comes in and offers a nice sum of money for your land.  Lots of people accept it – it is a great temptation to have that kind of money in your hand … unfortunately, when that money is gone – the people  are left with nothing.  Most people don’t think to the future here.  (So says Blanca). 

If you don’t want to sell – they can potentially take your land.  They have the cooperation of the government and an individual has (realistically) no recourse for protest.  They say the top several feet of the land belongs to the individual land owner - but beneath that layer, the land belongs to the government. 

So if La Geo wants your land.  One way or another, it is likely to become theirs. 

And they are sneaky … they buy the land that has a section of road on it.  Therefore the use of the road is determined by La Geo.  Roads are not ‘public’ property.  People may or may not be allowed access to said road - even if it is the only way to get 'from here to there' in your canton.

And there seems to be a land feeding-frenzy lately.  There are at least two new wells that are still in the process of being built in the last few months – these we can see from the main road between Berlín and Mercedes Umaña.  They are huge.  Lots of land is cleared around them.  They are noisy and smell horrible at times.  They construct walls around them and they are heavily guarded.  Lately, there are LOTS of people in the La Geo uniform in Berlín.   They are not from here.  They are imported labor from neighboring countries, but also from Spain and Italy. 

There are minimal (no?) restrictions or consequences for the pollutants they expel in the air, the water or the land.  We drive through a large area between Mercedes Umaña and Berlín, and between Berlín and Alegría where we have to hold our breath.  I couldn’t imagine living within that stench.  Below the plant, children come out of their ‘bath’ with what look like burns or extreme rashes because their bathing water has been contaminated. (These have been officially documented).  Fruit trees stop producing.  Animals are sickly and dying off.   The cancer rate is quite high as well as kidney disease (can we blame La Geo for that?  I honestly don’t know but it would be a logical assumption).

The plant itself and many of the wells and perforations are in the municipality of Alegría … so even any tax revenue generated (if any) does not come to Berlín. Berlín also does not receive the electricity from La Geo - as was one of the original promises when they proposed coming here.

Blanca, Idalia and Cecilia have friends who work at La Geo who know things.  They can’t/won’t say anything … they need their jobs.  And ‘accidents’ happen. 

I wonder how those in control (the owners, executives, big stockholders, etc.) can sleep at night. How can they not know of the negative consequences of their companies?  Honestly. 

Kidney Failure

Over the last few years I've heard of so many deaths due to kidney failure.  It seemed so common and I often wondered why it was such a deadly phenomenon here.  I ran across an article recently and wanted to share it here.  The credits go to:

Associated Press writer Filadelfo Aleman reported this story in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, and Michael Weissenstein reported from Mexico City. AP writers Marcos Aleman in Bajo Lempa, El Salvador, and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena in Guatemala City contributed to this report.

The article (in part) is here below:

A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama.

Last year it reached the point where El Salvador's health minister, Dr. Maria Isabel Rodriguez, appealed for international help, saying the epidemic was undermining health systems. "This is a disease that comes with no warning, and when they find it, it's too late,"

Many of the victims were manual laborers or worked in sugar cane fields that cover much of the coastal lowlands. Patients, local doctors and activists say they believe the culprit lurks among the agricultural chemicals workers have used for years with virtually none of the protections required in more developed countries. But a growing body of evidence supports a more complicated and counterintuitive hypothesis.

The roots of the epidemic, scientists say, appear to lie in the grueling nature of the work performed by its victims, including construction workers, miners and others who labor hour after hour without enough water in blazing temperatures, pushing their bodies through repeated bouts of extreme dehydration and heat stress for years on end. Many start as young as 10. The punishing routine appears to be a key part of some previously unknown trigger of chronic kidney disease, which is normally caused by diabetes and high-blood pressure, maladies absent in most of the patients in Central America.

In Nicaragua, the number of annual deaths from chronic kidney disease more than doubled in a decade, from 466 in 2000 to 1,047 in 2010, according to the Pan American Health Organization, a regional arm of the World Health Organization.

In El Salvador, the agency reported a similar jump, from 1,282 in 2000 to 2,181 in 2010.

Despite the growing consensus among international experts, Elsy Brizuela, a doctor who works with an El Salvadoran project to treat workers and research the epidemic, discounts the dehydration theory and insists "the common factor is exposure to herbicides and poisons."

End of article.

So here we have a major killer.  And from previous posts you have heard a little about the health care resources here - access to and limitations of.  I don't know what the solution is.  It would take the cooperation of many: big business, little business, governmental regulations in place and enforced for safety and accountability, the health care system, individual as well as company owned farming practices...

I just can't imagine changes happening any time soon.  And in the meantime, thousands are suffering and dying a painful death.

Can I have prayers for the people please?

Words

I had to laugh this morning.  I went down to get a cup of coffee and Idalia and Blanca were at the pila washing clothes.  Idalia said something that I didn’t quite catch … there are still (and always will be I suspect) many words I don’t know.  So when she said what she said and I didn’t understand I asked her what that one word was.  She repeated it for me.  Rather loudly she said: ‘doliente’   

I laughed out loud – not at her or the word – but it is so common, when someone doesn’t understand a language, when we talk to foreigners to try to help them understand what we are saying, we speak LOUDLY.  Not more slowly with more simple language.  But LOUDLY. 

So I joked with Idalia and thanked her for yelling the word to me so I would understand it better.  We both laughed then and continued the conversation about this word … exaggerating our loudness and having a lovely bit of camaraderie. 

She explained what it meant and why she was feeling that way.  Poor thing. 

“Doliente” basically means ‘sore’.

She was gathering firewood (for cooking) like most people in the cantons have to do.  This is one of her tasks for her family – probably because she is very STRONG. 

She apparently had an extra heavy load yesterday and she strained herself when she loaded them on her head and then again when she dumped them to the ground at her home.  Her side hurts her badly she said.

Así es la vida … la gente siempre doliente por su trabajo diario …

Such is life … people are always sore because of their daily work …

Hippocratic Oath?

I wish I had the words to describe the health care conditions here.  And I don’t know the half of it I’m sure.  I hear things from people we know and from the Pastoral Team themselves.  And I’ve had a couple of first hand experiences.  I want to tell you about one.

Two nights ago, two women came to the door needing help.  This is not an unusual thing.  Folks know that if they need help, we will do our best to do so and if we can’t help, we try to steer them in the direction of someone who can …

So these two women did not want help for themselves.  Instead, they told us the story of their neighbor: an old man who is quite sick. He has cirrhosis of the liver.  His niece – his only family from the sounds of it – does not want anything to do with him.  She lives right next to the man but apparently does not look after him.  So the neighbor ladies have been feeding him breakfast and supper and checking in on him on a regular basis. 

These women had become very concerned about his condition they so had taken him to a local doctor for a checkup.  This local doctor looked him over and she gave him a referral to be admitted to the hospital in Santiago de Maria.  The doctor said that at the hospital, they could ‘drain’ the fluid buildup in his stomach and potentially save his life.   By the time they were done taking him to the doctor and then back home so they could look for transportation, it was late. They couldn’t find anyone to take him to the hospital and since they knew about us and knew we had a vehicle, they came here and asked if we would take him.  

Cecilia and I talked and we decided we needed to do this for them.  So we all piled into the truck and headed down to where he lives just below the cemetery which is not too far away.  It took about 15 minutes for them to convince him to go – he didn’t want to – but eventually they all came out – several people supporting the man as they made their way down the roughly 50 yards of the uneven path leading from his home to the truck.  It took a couple of men to help him into the front seat of the truck.  He was obviously bloated and in pain.  His left hand and fingers were inflated like a balloon.  His stomach was obviously bloated as well and his calves were like rocks.  He could barely move.

And I’m not saying this to be rude, but he smelled horrible.  Now mind you – I dearly love the people I work with who live in the country.  Many of whom often do not smell very good – but we hug them and take no notice because of our love for them.  But this man smelled sick.  It was not a lack of personal hygiene care – although I’m sure that is minimal (and I say that feeling badly for him, not as a criticism) – but he smelled very ill.  I don’t have words to describe it. 

Unfortunately, it started to rain shortly after we took off so we had to close the windows.  Thankfully within about 15 minutes the rain stopped on the other side of the mountain.

So we got to the Santiago de Maria hospital about 6:30 p.m. and I could at least drive in to the parking lot so he could be closer to the entrance.  The women were able to get a wheelchair for him and as they were struggling to get the man out of the truck, a young man came out to help.  Turns out he was the relative of another patient waiting to be seen.  So they took him in and Cecilia and I drove out to park in the street and wait.  Only ‘family’ are allowed in - and at that, only one or two of them.  The women were not family, but they had his personal information so could be with him as his guardians. 

Cecilia and I waited outside for about an hour and a half.  Cecilia talked to the guards to convince them to let her in to get an update – to see how close he was to being admitted.  She found out that there was only one family left ahead of him.  So she came back out and we waited a bit more.  About a half hour later, all three of them came out: the two women holding up the sick man.  The doctor on duty would NOT admit him!  In spite of the referral and the obvious bloating – they would not admit him.  As one of the women muttered under her breath “it’s better to just die at home.”

What an incredibly sad thing to say.  But she got no argument from her friend or Cecilia. 

My question of disbelief: what kind of doctor would not admit such a sick man?  He even had a doctor’s referral!

As Cecilia said: “Such is health care in our country”

And the next day when Blanca was here and after telling her what happened the night before.  She literally said the same exact thing. 

This is such a different world than from where I come from.  And unfortunately – throughout the entire world there are LOTS of other countries who experience the same lack of care or worse.  

What a travesty.

More on Benigno

We were all sitting around the breakfast table this morning.  Most of us tired – not of us not sleeping well because we are worried about Benigno’s family (see previous blog).

 We were talking about this this morning – and how could it be that he could have been so sick and no one knew.  Because I did find out that no one knew!

 Apparently he felt a great pain in his abdomen (solar plexus area) early evening on Wednesday the 20^th.  His house is way down the road from the ‘center’ of town.  (We’re talking 20 families in this community).  He made his way up to his sister’s house and couldn’t go any further.  They called a friend and waited for transportation to get him to the hospital in Santiago de Maria and that come quite late.  He was given something for the pain, but they only did simple exams. 

 The sad reality here is if you have no financial resource, that’s all you get: a basic exam. For example: an older woman came out of her exam with one of the doctors of the Newton Medical Delegation last March and was quite emotional.  She said that this was the first time she was ever actually touched by a doctor.  In all her years – her exams have been words only:  “How are you?  You have a pain where?  Ah … take this prescription to the pharmacy and buy …” 

Ok.  That is over-simplifying the exam I’m sure.  I hope.  And I have hopes that not all public servant doctors are like this, but I have heard it over and over from several people: that without financial resources, that is pretty much all you get.  Period.

So there are many people who don’t bother to go to the doctor for every little ache or pain.  They ride it out.  They ignore it.  They live with it.  Because in reality, what could you do about it?  If you have cancer, or lung disease, or kidney disease or whatever – you can’t afford the medicines.  You can’t afford the operation.  So why bother to know. 

After the internment yesterday we were talking to some of the family and we were told that they were told that ex-rays showed his lungs were basically ‘dead’ and non-functioning.  He ended up in a larger hospital in San Miguel and died there.  The family might never know what was wrong with him.  But it is possible he was riddled with cancer and never knew it. 

Salary Injustice

I know I’ve written about things like this before generically, but this is more specific. The other day we were talking about a young high school student who was working in the afternoons next door at the hardware store.  She is working to help support her needs at school because it is a struggle for her family. This young lady is earning $1 a day working from noon till about 7 p.m.

Sigh. We had some choice words for the owner!!!

Then the following day – coincidentally - the newspaper had an article about the salaries of some popular soccer players. One was receiving 23 million Euros. Not sure how that translates to dollars but I know one Euro used to be equal to 1.5 dollars. So we read on and another player is receiving 35 million dollars. I can relate to that figure better … Sort of. We just looked at each other Cecilia and I.

Good Lord. What can one do with that kind of money we wondered? So I started playing with the calculator … 35 million is a little more than $2,910,000 per month. It is about $727,500 per week. That translates to about $95,890 per DAY. Dang. Someone check my math!! Maybe I mixed up how many zeros are in a million.

Ok … the poor guy has to pay boo-coo taxes.

But he is playing soccer for goodness sake.

I can remember in the 80’s and 90’s having conversations about baseball player salaries. But at least we had jobs that kept us sheltered and fed. And our children were attending school and we knew we would somehow be able to get them to college someday.
But here – with what I know now – with what I see on a daily basis these facts and figures are so much more difficult to comprehend.  Here and in many parts of the world, SO many people struggle just to survive. I see the reality of how many children can’t go to school because they cannot afford the $4 worth of notebooks they need at the beginning of the year … or the 25 cents a day for a little food to get through the school day … Or they have to walk to (and then from) school for an hour and a half because they cannot afford the one way 75 cent bus/pick up truck ride.

And the constant ill health because immune systems are so weakened by lack of decent nutrition and health care.

What a contrast.

So sports people, actors, big business people, etc are not the norm. I know that.

But even contrasting the ‘norm’ – let’s look at an average family’s income in the states. I’m not sure what that would be in reality. But let’s pull a figure out of the hat … $40,000. That is a relatively moderate figure for an average family from what I understand. It seems high to me though.

Granted things are more expensive in the States … but – if we were frugal and only bought what we really needed (like a modest home … a modest car … cooking rather than eating out … two weeks worth of clothing in our closets rather than a month’s worth (half of which probably never gets worn) … well. We wouldn’t even need $40k a year. This I can speak to because I used to have a really NICE house. Way too big for what we really needed. And I had a closet full of things I never wore. But I still bought more. And things. Good grief. A house full of things for what?? And even after selling the house and giving away most of the clothes and things … so many things… I still have too much. And my small (by U.S. standards) salary is still way more than everyone I work for.

So where is the justice in even that??