Colca and the Farm Town's of Peru's Coast

We finished up our 48th and last focus group discussion this week in an area called Colca known for having one of the deepest canyons in the world (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). We spent most of the week in the tiny town of Chivay at 12,500 ft. and it was freezing at night! Every night I put my thick black tights on and climbed inside my sleeping bag with four thick blankets on top of me. The problem here is it is just as cold inside as outside because the buildings are literally just blocks of cement without any insulation. So my guess is that it was in the 30s at night outside (and inside). All the focus group discussions went well this week. The women in Colca wear some of the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen.

Last week we were in the tiny little farm towns around Cocachacra, which are very close to the ocean 2 ½ hours west of Arequipa. The towns remind me a lot of the sleepy little farm towns of Paraguay where I spent most of my time as a missionary. Everything revolves around agriculture there. But it is completely different than the last towns in Puno because the people had tractors and seemed much better off and of course it was much warmer. It’s amazing to see the huge disparities in food security and health as we travel all around Peru. By far, the people who live high in the Andes are the poorest and least food secure. They don’t even have any tools to plant and harvest crops- “just their hands,” as they said. And basically all they live off of is the potato. Many live so far away from a health clinic that they merely just use herbal remedies to heal their families, even with infections as serious as pneumonia. At least the people around Cocachacra had a little more variety with the rice, potato, artichoke, garlic, and onion that they grow. Since everyone works in the farm fields from very early in the morning to around 5pm we only worked at night. I was sick most of the week with stomach and chivivi problems and was completely wiped out after holding our focus group discussions at night. I’m regretting not buying that box of Pepto at Cosco before I left!

This is a girl I met while working on my MPH report in a tiny restaurant that let me plug in my computer for the afternoon in Huambo (pop. of a couple hundred). She was so fascinated with my computer that I had to take a picture of her with Photo Booth. She loved the other feature that made her face stretch all crazy.

Lake Titicaca and Snow in Juliaca

Well I had never seen snow in South America until last Tuesday morning when I went for my run in a snow blizzard. Crazy! It has been really cold here this week as we’ve worked in the town of Juliaca, about 45 minutes north of Puno and Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. We are evaluating the surrounding areas to see if there is a need for a financial program that gives credit with education to the poorest of the poor. We have held focus group discussions with 5-10 women in the some very rural areas asking them about their financial resources, how they make/spend money, and what times of the year are the hardest financially. The people here live off their crops and their livestock- that’s it. One of the most interesting things I learned this week was those who work in the fields are not paid with money but rather with the very crops that they harvest. So they literally work for the food that feeds their families. In addition, everyone here has no concept of saving money. When they need to make a purchase, they go and sell a cow, sheep, llama, or pig in town. So all their savings is pretty much in the livestock they raise. They live day to day so there’s never any extra money to put away for savings.


Another interesting finding is how people here have connected the prevalence of disease caused by lack of food. At the end of our focus group discussions I usually ask, “What diseases are prevalent in this region?” Pneumonia is very prevalent, especially in the colder months of the year, as well as diarrhea (which happen to be the two biggest killers world wide with children under 5). I follow up by asking, “What causes these diseases?” Usually the first answer that comes is, “The cold weather.” But as I have probed more, I have often heard, “Lack of food.” As this financial program is implemented and the people here are able to take out a little bit of money for capital to assure they have enough to eat, infectious diseases will diminish. The research here is rewarding because I feel like we are treating root of the problem here instead of just the disease. Many of these people would love to have a little but more money to plant more seeds, buy more livestock, or sell the clothes they make. But there is never extra money. They are trapped in their poverty without a way out. As a result they don’t have enough food to eat, which ultimately leads to suffering and disease. I feel we are teaching, in our own way, the people here how to fish so they can be more self-sufficient with the food security of their families.

Chanchamayo

We’ve had a good week and got all the surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions that we needed. The drama for me this week was meeting a woman who lives out in the farm fields so far away. After driving for 1 ½ hours, we had to park the car and walk a couple of miles into her place because the road was so torn up. When we finally got there she told me that her husband was murdered a month ago. He was the sole provider for the family, so now she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. She works in her fields and sells the fruit in town; but it sells for basically nothing. Tears were streaming down her face as she told me all this. I felt so helpless and wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be ok. But I just sat there not knowing what to say cause everything is not ok. Her life sucks and it has eaten at me all day. Yeah I can send in my survey with her responses but she needs help right now. I just feel helpless thinking about her. Below is a photo of her and her son.

Research in Huancayo, Peru

We’ve had a good week and got all the surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions that we needed. The drama for me this week was meeting a woman who lives out in the farm fields so far away. After driving for 1 1⁄2 hours, we had to park the car and walk a couple of miles into her place because the road was so torn up. When we finally got there she told me that her husband was murdered a month ago. He was the sole provider for the family, so now she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. She works in her fields and sells the fruit in town; but it sells for basically nothing. Tears were streaming down her face as she told me all this. I felt so helpless and wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be ok. But I just sat there not knowing what to say cause everything is not ok. Her life sucks and it has eaten at me all day. Yeah I can send in my survey with her responses but she needs help right now. I just feel helpless thinking about her. The second photo below is her and her son.



Last night as we were leaving the little store where we held the focus group discussion, one of the ladies, Berta, brought out a beautifully knit wool sweater that she had made and gave it to me. I was so touched! She is very poor and gave me something that I’m sure would have taken her weeks or months to make. It’s a gorgeous, thick, white sweater made of sheep wool with very intricate patterns. And it is so warm! I’m so taken back at how generous the people are here. I thanked her again and again for the sweater. But for her it was like it wasn’t a big deal- like she gave things away like that all the time. All the other ladies in the group started chanting, “¡Póntela, Póntela!” So I put it on, and it fit great. I wore the sweater to church this morning and two or three members came up to me and said, “¡Que linda chompa que tienes!” (What a beautiful sweater you have!) The people here are amazingly generous.





Friday night we went to Murahuay where we organized a focus group discussion with 6 women. The focus group discussion’s purpose is to get the women to discuss in what months there is the greatest lack of food, sickness, migration, and income. We use five beans on a grid to indicate the greatest lack of food or sickness during that month and one bean indicating the least amount of sickness, etc. in that month. After all the beans are laid out, we analyze the relationships between the different categories. There are obvious correlations like the direct relationship between lack of food and income. But there have been other interesting correlations, for example between sickness and lack of food.





We did another focus group discussion last night in which we discussed who are the different groups in the community here in Tarma. We used beans as well to divide up the community. After all the beans were divided up, the groups ranged from extrema pobreza (extreme poverty) to los ricos (the wealthy). We talked about each group and what defined them with regards to health, social status, income, work, spirituality, and education. The most interesting part of the discussion for me was where the group of women saw their own status. They did not see themselves as extremely impoverished but rather just poor. I love being in charge of the focus groups because they are so much more interactive than just giving surveys one on one. And the women think that I’m funny for some reason (probably just funny looking with blue eyes and white skin).