Amazones

Ok, so the jungle trip was completely different than anything I have ever done before. The jungle was like Texas in August, unforgivably hot, with an intense sun. We did have one day that was cloudy with a breeze, and that was a blessing. It was the day we did the parasite study, and I was very grateful for the wind. On the trip were Alex Griffin, an engineer who heads up the water projects in this area, and Tannia Lascano, who teaches health care and hygiene in villages here as well as in the mountains. Here is a picture of Tannia teaching the school children.


The children brought their samples the second day we were there and we got started on processing them. The children went back to school and later came back for Tannia's teaching and then they got a chance to look in the microscope at some of the parasites I had found. The microscope was a new tool for them, but many got the hang of it quickly. Several of the girls actually stood and watched Tannia prepare the samples and me looking into the microscope for hours. Fortunately (I guess) I found lots of interesting parasites to show them. In total, we found that about 68% of the children had parasites, which I am told is not a bad percentage for jungle villages. Most of the parasites we found had nothing to do with clean water, but hygiene. Our last morning there, before we gave out the parasite medicines, Tannia got a chance to teach one last time the importance of using the latrines and washing hands. You can never underestimate the power of a little soap and water!
Below is a picture of Rebecca, the health promoter for Amazona. Most villages have a health promoter which is a volunteer from the community that takes classes given by missionaries on basic health care. Rebecca was exceptional and made sure that each child actually swallowed the medicine we were giving them!

Here are some pictures of the crowd we acquired while there. I tried to be discreet about shooting photos, but once they saw the camera, I had lots of willing subjects.