Water and Sanitation

I don't think I found many surprises when looking at the sanitation aspects of my stay. Everything is dirt. There are dirt roads, and dirt floors, though I don't  think this necessarily means everything is "dirty".
What I did love was the fact that everyone is very conscious of washing their hands before they eat. Its good I also got in the habit of that. Even the most run down place to eat will have a little sink on the side. And if its a house where they are serving the food, the clients are welcome to go into the house to wash their hands. It was very interesting having this opportunity to check out many little homes this way.

One of the major problems I found were the latrines. This was the most high quality facility I found in all of Chalate. At least there is paper! The problem with this is that bugs and such get into.. yeah, and spread any diseases that might be there...  covering it helps, but as you can see not everyone remembers to do so.

The other problem is the water and how it is way too public. For example one day I saw a child and a horse drinking from the same poso, or little water whole. I don't know but this didn't seem too safe for me. Animals and people shouldn't share it all..

This is where the people drink from. These faucet are commonly found around soccer fields, parks, or town plazas.

 Its is a good thing however to see that there is clean water available!

This water is very clean compared to the lake near by. One day I was complaining about the heat, to one of the town's people. He told me it was too bad that the lake was so dirty. I walked a little up town and saw what he was talking about... 

I don't know if the people have just developed super strong immune systems from all the exposure they get, but I was surprised to see how they stored water in one of the schools...

They are open containers, with dirt, animals, and leafs falling inside. This day the girl here (Jessica) was getting some water to cook. They were making dulce tipicos. The kids have dulceria-which is a class where they are taught how to make these candies. After they made the batch we ate it! Using leafs as our plates! It was very good, I took a picture of it too.

Super YUMMY! Even though it looks a bit suspicious haha.

 If you had just had a accident, or anything that needed immediate attention this is what would take you on the dumpy road, about 40 to 2 hours to the hospital in the biggest city of the departamento (state).

Okay, so some of my last concerns were for the emergency preparedness, awareness, and response. The problems are the lack of transportation, facilities, and equipment. The roads are very inaccessible, and the ambulances are falling apart. 

Most people have to depend of local medicine in their towns. There usually is a town "curandero" or "sobadero" who can take care of broken bones, or sprained ankles, etc. I don't know how to put videos on this thing, we took one of my friends to a sobadero to get his shoulder fixed. These people don't to study how to massage the muscles, or what herbs to take--they just pass on the knowledge to the next person. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good basic understanding of the plants around them and how these can be used as medicine.

I love the fact that 3 months were long enough time to get a look as many areas of public health. I had time to go to the schools and hospitals, and towns meetings about programs, etc. There are a lot more stories and observations to talk about and share. This was a good way to begin to introduce the many challenges these communities face on a daily base.