When I think of rural poverty, I imagine lush, mountainous countrysides with windy dirt roads. And that’s pretty much what things looked like along the coast of Peru. Except there was nothing lush, and the mountains were made sand instead of rock.
Laguna Grande is a small fisherman’s town 2.5 hours drive from Pisco, its nearest city. Its population varies according to the fishing season, but around 500 people are permanent residents. The directions to get out there are as follows: stay as close to the ocean as you can, past the rock that looks like a turtle (Land Before Time, anyone?),try to find sticks jutting out of the sand. Sometimes we had to stop completely to just spot the next marker in the desert. Twice we had to back track because we had gotten lost. It was a pretty hard place to navigate, but we finally made it.
Fishing town, Laguna Grande
The purpose of our visit was to visit the government health post in Laguna Grande. We greeted the nurse–one of only two that worked there. We chatted for a while about how things were going. Most of her patients are seasonal migrants, only living in Laguna Grande for part of the year. They hadn’t seen a TB patient in ten years. But they can’t really do tests for TB because they don’t have a fridge. They also have no way to do tests for HIV, but she said she has seen symptoms of the disease in some of here patients. They also have to import all of their water from Pisco. A 2.5 hour journey, just for water. The government gives the health post a monthly ration of water, but it is hardly sufficient.
Laguna Grande's Health Post
Laguna Grande is a geographically isolated community. Many questions come to mind in this situation. How can a health care facility not have enough water? And no fridge? Well, part of our goal in the next coming months will be to work with the government to see that a fridge arrives, sufficient water is supplied, and HIV tests become available. Our commitment is to providing the community with sustainable sustainable structural development. We will work with the fishermen, with the nurses, and with–not around–the government.
