Poured concrete today for a family's new bathroom.  We mixed it by hand, carried it in a wheelbarrow, and took turns shoveling the aggregate with Vladamir and Delia, the homeowners.  They were given permission to leave their jobs for the day to help out - Vladamir commented that his body wasn't used to the hard work because he works in a fish factory.  He worked his tail off, and so did his Mrs.

Tony spent the day building beds and doors.  I helped him out this morning with the beds (work is easy when you're sleeping with your boss) but left after lunch. At the risk of being too look-at-us-helping-poor-people-in-South-America, I'll tell you that we're buying one particular family new mattresses.  Currently all five of them share one dirty, floppy single mattress, and the least we can do is spend a few bucks on mattresses. They're cheap by our standards.  It was Tony's idea, and he's been planning it since the first week we got here.  He seems quite comfortable combining his carpentry skills with helping people.

The community development project I'm working on is shining light on the level of poverty that exists in South America.  I'm not new to the world of "have nots," though the lack of access to resources here in this town - and can I presume many other towns? - is such that the only food supplement program I've been able to find offers just two glasses of milk per month to kids who have a birth certificate.  Two glasses of milk a month.  You might burn more calories walking to get your glass of milk than you'll gain from drinking it.  This milk program is part of their equivalent to "social services" who's office does not have a phone, which highlights again the lack of access to resources.  If you're hungry here, unless I'm wrong, you're gonna be hungry for a while.

Moving on to the next subject: Domestic violence.  There is no shelter for victims of domestic violence in the entire province of Pisco.  There used to be one, but it was wrecked in the earthquake, and funds to build a new one have not come around since then.  At the moment, there's a great organization called Centro Emergencia Mujer which is a 9 to 5 operation that helps women who are being abused by their partners (why do I only mention the women, you ask? Because the men are just about always doing the beatings.  That's why).  If a situation is bad enough, the social worker at this Centro will bring the women to Lima to a shelter, but they need one here.  I'm meeting with the folks who run the Centro next Tuesday to see what they need for their center, who would run it, and how it was run before, because PSF could build that shelter.

Next topic: Lack of education.  School in Pisco is free, so long as you can afford supplies and uniforms, which are expensive relative to this local economy.  Social services helps with uniforms, so I asked them how to get one.  The family comes in to the office, fills out some paperwork, brings it to the mayors office, mayor's office verifies that they need help buying a uniform, they bring the form back to the office, maybe they get a uniform.  The workers here couldn't tell me how many uniforms they give out in one month, one week, or one year, because it's so few.  It's too complicated, they said, knowing that the run around was ridiculous.  And it's not their fault that they have limited resources to offer their community, they're just working with what they've been given.

So if you can afford to attend school, you'll generally finish around age 16.  At that point you can go to college, but most people can't afford it.  The idea of loans for college doesn't exist here.  To get a three year degree in nursing it costs about 400 US dollars, start to finish, including the certificate at the end.  400!  That's it!  That's what we spend in two months of dining out!  One month, sometimes.  But this is so much money to these people.  One family I met with only eats lunch because they can't afford anything else...they'll nearly never jump out of poverty if all they can ever afford is one meal per day.  Learning a skill or trade through education is so important, but if you can't access it then what to you do? The idea of paying for an education is impossible for them.

The problem isn't laziness.  Some people might be lazy, but poverty is so much more complex than simple laziness.  What I think would be fantastic to offer these people is some sort of scholarship program so they could learn a trade and earn an income.  I'm doing some research on how to run it, met with a few schools here, ask the families what they'd like to do.  Blah blah blah.  The cool thing about PSF is that they're interested in poverty relief as a compliment to disaster relief.  It's quite refreshing to offer professional skills in an environment where your ideas aren't hushed and quieted for lack of authority, but rather you're encouraged to make it happen.  There's hope, people.  Hope!