209 Families

Wed. Feb.13, 2008

For the last little while Sandy and I have been working at creating a map and census of Los Algodonas.

We have poked our noses into every corner and met almost every family.  Day by day we have stumbled around in  broken Spanish and Creole.  Me with a pencil and paper drawing and Sandy with a pen and book prying.  We have created a detailed map with every household numbered and placed in its location.  The reason for this project has been the desire to facilitate a full food distribution system within the town.  One of the most persistent, obvious and fundamental problems facing the people of L.A. is a chronic shortage of proper food.  Many of the health problems could so easily be alleviated by suitable and sufficient nutrition.

Extreme poverty is a desperate condition within the village.  On the surface you might not notice it, there are several small shops, smiling children and pudgy babies.    On our way up the road in the mornings we pass men walking down to work  and in the evening we pass them walking back home.  The reason that the workers choose to walk up the hill after a full day of work is that it costs roughly 20 pesos extra to get a moto-concho ride up the hill to the village (they charge extra because of the rough conditions of the road).  All the men choose to walk.  (20 pesos is about 60 cents Canadian)  That's a lot of money if you make 10 dollars a day and many don't make that because they don't have the papers to work legally.  

Sandy and I have been most fortunate to be able to sit in with Dr. Bob when he does his consults.  He patiently explains the health problems to us, their treatment and causes.  Most are a result of living conditions.  Health problems that would be a minor inconvenience to us can be life threatening here.  A cold, a minor cut, an infection, lack of vitamins ... something as simple as an aspirin can make a great deal of difference here.

(Sandy began giving one of the older men 1 coated aspirin a day to help with his arthritis and now he's running around like a teenager.)  We travel around with a first aid kit in a large tool box.  We carry basic medicines for diarrhea, scabies, fungal infections, antibiotic creams and bandages.  (Very needed in the village).  We do have a need for large gauze & adhesive for bandages.  Dr. Bob swears that "St John's Wort"  for depression and "butchers broom" for circulation deficiencies of the skin, (available in health food stores at home) are a great help.  Also something called hesperin or hesprigin, and-- of all things, orange juice. (Imagine!)

Today is Saturday morning 7:25 am.  

Journey 2008

Thanks to the generosity and support of a group of Rotary Club and A&W employees, plus a few others from the Cambridge area (Journey 2008) organized by Julie & Dave Kinder, Larry & Anita Olney and a great group of other whose nametags we haven't read yet, today we see if our system for food delivery works.  The group has purchased and will deliver food packages to every home in Los Algodonas today.  Yesterday two of the group (Anita and Karen) walked with us through the entire village and painted numbers wherever they were needed, it took the entire day.  The group spent much of the week working on the building of the new medical centre in L.A. (our future home).  I don't know of all the gifts and assistances that they did in other villages and for other individuals while they were here, but they were a great blessing to many and a wonderful encouragement to us.  We thank God for them.

Please continue to keep us and the villagers of Los Algodonas in your prayers.  We still need permission to build homes and the conditions people are living in now are desperate.

Thank you and God Bless you all.

Sandy and Dave Chapman