House Tour pics

Monday and Tuesday afternoon I went on home visits. I wrote about it in another blog post, but again, these were homes that past short term volunteer groups built. These visits were kind of follow ups to see how things were going with the families. I was pretty uncomfortable taking any pictures inside these peoples homes, which is why there is only 1 picture, but here are some of the outside and the neighborhoods we were in. Definitely the poorest parts of Chimbote.

 One thing that is hard to look past is all the garbage everywhere. Last weekend there was a dedication ceremony for a statue at church and they passed out hard candies during it. 95% of the people, young and old, just tossed the trash onto the ground. I think part of the reason for all the garbage, too, is that people will go through others trash to see if there is anything they could use.

 The neighborhoods we visited

 Children playing out in the field. It is pretty impressive despite the poor nutrition, that most of the kids around here that Ive seen are developmentally on track gross motor-wise. I think a lot of it has to do with not having things like swings, walkers, or even car seats to put their babies in. The parents or care givers are forced to hold them or put them on the floor to play, promoting better strength, coordination, and movement development. And then the older children don't usually have a tv or video games to sit in front of, so they play outside and are a lot more active. I tell ya...the kids here are tough, too! I have seen some pretty nasty falls where the child just hops back up and keeps going!

 The only picture I took of the inside of a house. You can see the dirt floor and the estera walls. Sheets are used to make doors.

 More kids playing.

 Each neighborhood gets their water from a spigot like this. It is turned on from 5 to 7 in the morning. People stand in line with their buckets to get their water for the day. Most of the homes have electricity. I am not sure if that is turned on all the time. I kinda doubt it.

 As we were walking back the parish we passed by this house. Often times, when one is doing well financially they will add a second level to their home, which is what these people are doing. They have come up with a pulley system to bring the cement blocks up. You can see next to them what it eventually will turn out to be.