Day 5

June 18
Didn't sleep well last night. Up once or twice an hour. No electricity most of the night, lots of tiny bugs found a way through my net because they are smaller than the mosquito holes. Ugh.

Up at 4:30am to head to land to fill in the large hole. Stopped at Marassa Market, to land before 7am. Dr B was already there, yelling at the people. Misunderstanding.

Worked with the people by using shovels to fill in this gigantic hole. Told Kendra this was insane as they have barely eaten in days. We brought them food, but this is our problem, not there's and the doctor wants to hold them responsible.

Brainstormed ideas to get it done otherwise. Kendra took Carter down to Mike's old compound while Johnbern and I worked with the people. I didn't stop digging until Kendra came back to prove a point to the people. The President came and wanted to take over and a girl walked me to the shade. It was cute and I appreciated the gesture.

When Kendra and Carter came back it was only 9:45am-ish and we had made minimal progress on the hole. They brought good news as Mike's old compound (now Dr Willie Severe's) has a bulldozer we can use. The people in the group are Seven Day Adventists though, so we can't use their equipment until tomorrow as Saturday is their holy day.

Took a water break for the four of us (Kendra, Carter, Johnbern and I) to debrief what we had seen and heard. Reorganized the white house and all our donated items.

We brought the people rice, beans, chicken, spices, maggi, oil, and lemons and sugar to make lemonade. They made a big meal. I think it was the first time some of them ate in even a day or so. These people are more malnourished than we realized.  We all ate some too and it was very delicious!

We passed out Teddy Bears to all the children today.  Children from a church made these bears for each child in the village.  They even prayed for the bears and for the children who would be receiving them before they were sent.  The kids got very excited.  We also passed out candy canes - the kids didn't realize you had to take off the plastic.

Dr. Suarez stopped by and saw a few of the people.  He agreed to come back Sunday to have a free clinic for all the villagers.  What a blessing!

Afterwards, we headed into town with Dr B to visit Viva Rio, a Brazilian organization that does a lot with biodigesters.  It is a very interesting concept.  They gave us a tour, we saw their way of using the Sawyer filters and then we were able to visit an after school program where students participate in a karate/dance type activity.

Top of biodigester.

Sawyer filters for a larger water filtration system.

Viva Rio performance.