Aid to the Hungry, Improving Maternal - Newborn Health, and trip to Voodoo Alley

13 August 2017

Help for the Hungry of Arequipa

Many people in Peru are so poor they only get one meal a day. For the desperately poor, that once-a-day meal may be at a soup kitchen where you can get fed for 1.5 Peruvian Soles (equivalent to $0.50 USD). If that one meal a day is not good, you may end up malnourished.

The government of the region of Arequipa asked us for help in improving the quality of meals served at hundreds of soup kitchens (called Comedores Populares). Our part of  this humanitarian project involved donating equipment to 225 of these soup kitchens, a project we have been working on for a few months.

This week we made the final delivery and held the delivery ceremony in Arequipa.

Donation to the Arequipa Soup Kitchens project: 225 blenders, 450 10-gallon pots, 450 5-gallon pots, 200 dozen plates, 200 dozen soup bowls, and 200 dozen sets of utensils.

Arequipa - high in the Andes, closer to Chile than Lima, the site of our delivery to help improve nutrition for the poor. 

Government and church officials, plus the presidents of each of the soup kitchen associations showed up for the delivery and celebration. I went to the ceremony in Arequipa primarily to record the event; Sandy stayed back in Lima to work on the innumerable other projects we currently have in process.

Crowds in Arequipa, mainly leaders of hundreds of soup kitchens, awaiting the ceremony and delivery.

Woman from Arequipa dressed in traditional outfits for the delivery event

Hundreds of pots, blenders, plates, and utensils awaiting delivery.

Church and government leaders on the stand, including the Governor of Arequipa (addressing the crowds) and Elder Enrique Falabella of the LDS Church Quorum of the Seventy. (I was roaming around during the ceremony taking photos, relieved that I wasn't having to give a speech again).

The soup kitchens are located all over the region of Arequipa. This donation we made was part of a region-wide campaign to improve nutrition levels at all of these government-subsidized kitchens that feed poor families for as little as $0.50/meal. The banner behind the stage expressed the point of this project "Strengthening the Soup Kitchens of the Arequipa Region". The desperately poor are kept from starving based on this help.

Part of the delivery after the ceremony to leaders of the 225 soup kitchens. (Back row L to R, Moroni Torres, LDS Area Welfare Manager; Elder & Sister Johnson, LDS mission presidents of Arequipa mission; Regional Governor of Arequipa Yamila Osorio Delgado (waving); and Elder Enrique Falabella of the LDS Area Presidency.

At the event, Olger Gomez (left, Arequipa regional government) and I lined up with leaders of some of the soup kitchens. I felt like a giant around these little hard-working women. Their service in these soup kitchens helps to feed the desperately poor and keep them from starving. Our donation will aid their work.

In all, it was a happy time to see successful delivery for this project that has been months in the works for us.

Medical Equipment to Improve Maternal & Newborn Health

Later after the delivery ceremony in Arequipa, we had another delivery in the neighboring town of Cayma. This project involved donating medical equipment to health centers. The project was started after the death of an expectant mother who died due to the lack of medical equipment in the health centers in Cayma. She left behind a husband and three young children.

Our donation included two ultrasound devices, blood analyzers, and other critical lab equipment designed to improve maternal and newborn health in this poor sector in Cayma north of Arequipa.

The mayor of Cayma, along with church leaders, at the ceremony behind the medical equipment we donated.

We have been working on this project since March, planning with the doctors what equipment to obtain, coordinating the purchases, and shipping everything to the medical center and city of Cayma. This delivery represents the culmination of untold hours of planning and coordination.

I lined up with the medical staff from two health centers in Cayma behind the table of new equipment we donated. This was a celebration of our efforts over many months to provide help for poor mothers who come to the health centers.

Residents of Cayma at the donation ceremony of the medical equipment. Although the equipment was designated to help poor expectant mothers, everyone in the community will benefit from the increased capability of these health centers.

Residents in Cayma now have medical equipment that will help provide better care and hopefully avoid a repeat of the death that occurred earlier, leaving a family without a mother.

Eating in Peru

Food in Peru is incredibly tasty and inexpensive. Eating out is a delight with all the wonderful cuisine in this country (as evidenced by the 5 pounds I have gained since coming here). It is about as inexpensive to eat out as it is to eat at home.

Restaurante Don d'Emilio: dinner for two (pork plus side of 'carapulcra' potatoes, peanuts, peppers, and spices, plus mint tea and the tip). Total cost for two = $9.20 USD

Dinner at Plaza Josfel: Cebiche (on the left, raw fish in spicy lime juice) and fried fish with rice. Total cost for one plate: $3.00 USD

The food is delicious and inexpensive - Peru is a great place to live when it comes to food.

Custom Suits in Gamarra

Our day off on Saturday gave us the chance to travel into the Gamarra district of Lima to seek out a new custom-made suit. Prices in Gamarra are extremely low for hand-made suits (if you are willing to battle the intense crowds and sometimes scary conditions).

Getting a custom-made suit can be a real bargain - if you are brave enough to go into the Gamarra district. We and a few of our church friends were the only white faces on Saturday in this cram-packed and sometimes scary district.

After taking measurements from a suit shop recommended by American friends from church, I went to another shop and picked out a nice wool-blend fabric for the suit. All said, I will get a custom-made suit for about $120. Not bad!

Voodoo Alley

After the suit-fitting, our friends took us to a very bizarre area of Gamarra they call 'Voodoo Alley'. The place is filled with the most bizarre collection of shops selling charms, potions, magical equipment, and other supplies used by practitioners of the 'dark arts' and other superstitions.

One-stop shop for good-luck objects and protection from 'evil spirits'. Magnets and magic seeds, steel swords to ward off evil, horse shoes, and an ocelot head. The owner told me everything in the store would promote good luck. I told him the ocelot head wasn't good luck for the ocelot. He agreed.

Sandy in front of shops at 'Voodoo Alley'. Visiting this place in the Gamarra district was like a trip to a real-life Harry Potter Diagon Alley.

Snake skins and animal parts figured as important parts of the items offered. Most bizarre was one shop selling llama fetuses. The shop owner told me people take these fetuses and bury them in front of their houses to protect them from evil spirits.

Llama fetuses - very bizarre good-luck protection for your home.

Snake skins, charms, medallions - anything required for the local witch doctor!

Weird Medical Treatments and Weird Health Foods

On the edge of Voodoo Alley are shops providing some of the strangest of health foods and medical treatments we have ever seen. 

One shop blends up live frogs into a frothy drink filled with 'vital life energy'. That is one energy drink I don't think I will try.

Bucket full of live frogs on ice - key ingredient in frog drink.

Frothy live frog drink - blend up a few frogs, quail eggs, and protein powder for a new kind of high energy drink. (The owner told me 'No photos', so I had to go across the street and take this with the telephoto lens.)

Snakes and turtles play a prominent role in this strange kind of alternative medicine. Sandy pointed out this street-side shop selling fresh snake parts, along with an assortment of snake (culebra), turtle (tortuga), and boa oils and fats, reputed to cure any disease known to man.

Snake heads and organs, lizard tails, snake oil (aceite de culebra) and grease (grasa), reputed to cure any ailment known to man.

In all, a very bizarre way to treat what ails you!

And so we finish our weekend, ready to return to the humanitarian work that brought us to Peru. Our prayer is that we can improve the lives of those most in need - just as Jesus would do if he were here.