Yesterday I spent the day in bed because a travel bug caught up with me. A few other members of my team have also gotten sick. We have to be very careful about what we eat or drink while on the trip. All vegetables and fruit need to be soaked in bleach water for at least a half an hour before we eat them. We can’t use tap water to brush our teeth and we should not allow water into our mouths while we shower. If tap water is used for cooking our food or for drinking it should boil for at least 15 minutes. We have been pretty careful in taking all of these precautions but, we are often fed by people in the community or by the women of the church. Often they don’t know that we need to be so careful or they don’t realize how important these precautions are to our health. As a result sometimes our stomachs suffer the consequences.
The food in Peru has been very good so far. Typically we have a huge bundt-cake shaped scoop of rice, some form of potatoes (French fries, sweet potatoes, or boiled potatoes), and some meat (tuna patties, chicken patties, roasted chicken, or shredded chicken). For dessert we have had pineapple pie and the slimy pie-filling like pudding. I better stop writing about food now, because I am starting to feel nauseous.
Meanwhile up in Loma de Corbina the church construction has stopped. Apparently the city officials were not too excited about the government funded stairs being sledge-hammered out. The officials are meeting about the construction and hopefully we will be able to resume after they meet. In the mean time we will be visiting houses trying to build relationships with the people of Lomo.
A woman in traditional dress walking the stairs of Lomo:
