A Trip to Huayabito

Still dark, leaving Poroto

Huayabito

Poroto, with its 1200 citizens, is the main town of the district of Poroto. In the outlying areas there are 8 caserios, or small pueblos that belong to the same municipality. Generally the caserios have fewer resources, higher poverty rates, and are more isolated. Several of the caserios have their own primaria school, but limited other infrastructure. Today I had the opportunity to visit the furthest caserio from Poroto, Huayabito. Román, the orthodontist from the health post, as well as two women from a Peruvian NGO, Gladis and Kris, invited me to hike to Huayabito to accompany them on their monthly trip to monitor the progress of their health work. Huayabito is located slightly higher in the mountains outside of Poroto and there is no public transportation available. We left Poroto at 5:30am before the sun rose to begin our gradual ascent to Huayabito. The hike should take between 2 ½ and 3 hours, depending on how much you’re carrying and how quickly you walk. As we left Poroto the fog rested heavily on the surrounding mountains and the air was thick with the humidity of early morning. We were armed with water and snacks as well as backpacks filled with health materials. We began through the pineapple fields, singing songs in Spanish to get ourselves motivated.

Roman, armed with a bag filled with stool sample bottles

The two women from the Peruvian NGO. I always forget how tall I am.

We followed a narrow dirt road that winds through the surrounding fields and steep rock cliffs, and through the entire three hour hike we only passed two houses. I think my legs are about double the length of the Peruvians I was with, so I could scamper up the steep inclines without too much trouble. I really enjoyed the hike and the opportunity to hear more about the experiences and work that Gladis and Kris are doing in the region. Although some say Peruvians don’t have a developed sense of volunteerism, there are definitely those who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their community. For example, Gladis spent a year after finishing nursing school to work in a tiny village in the mountains of Peru completely isolated from the outside world. She worked as one of only three staff in the health post there, working 12 hour days and using mules as her main mode of transportation to travel to even smaller villages that were as far as 8 hours away. She now works in a variety of small caserios in the districts of Simbal and Poroto to help monitor health and sanitation practices on an extremely personal level. The hike passed quickly, and after more than 2 ½ hours of walking we could finally see the small caserios nestled between the fields and mountains in the distance.

House Visits

We arrived in Huayabito in just under 3 hours, greeted by the students at the primaria school as well as a myriad of farm animals. Huayabito is composed of about 80-100 citizens and only around 20 homes. The school was recently reconstructed, and it’s beautiful yellow paint and shiny floors are a definite point of pride for the community. There is no communication available in Huayabito and no public transportation, so it is definitely an isolated community. There is one teacher for the school who travels from Trujillo to Poroto each day and then uses a motorcycle to travel to Huayabito. Additionally, there is only a primaria school for children ages 5-13, so students living in Huaybito generally abandon their studies to work after completing their primaria level education.

One of the friendly animals of Huayabito

We began our day by weighing each student at the school to track their basic health statistics. We then continued our hike to visit the homes of each of the 19 families with whom Gladis is working. Most of the homes were separated from each other by small rivers, fields, and hills, so trekking around to each of the houses was pretty exhausting. However, it was a really neat experience to meet each of the families and see their living conditions. Goats, chickens, turkeys, kittens, dogs, donkeys, cows, guinea pigs, and pigs were running around unrestrained in every yard, and women were hard at work around the home with babies slung around their back while little children played at their feet. Gladis was checking the progress of latrine construction with each family as well as instructing mothers how to collect stool samples from their children to bring to the meeting later that afternoon to test for intestinal diseases. Clean water can be difficult to access in Huayabito, and families are not accustomed to many sanitary habits, so many children have parasites and diarrhea, which is a leading cause of illness and even death in those under 5. We hiked through cornfields, across rivers, up cliffs, and through fields to arrive at each of the homes in the community. After several more hours of hiking and home visits we headed back to the center of the town to enjoy a lunch with one of the local senoras. We were all starving, so we thoroughly enjoyed the rice, beans, yucca, and dried deer meat.

Precious children

After lunch we attended a meeting with the families and then began our journey home. The hike home was much faster because it was a continual decline, but we kept tripping down the slippery rock short-cuts. Roman was extremely concerned I was going to fall and anytime he heard my feet slip he screamed ¨CUIDADO, KELSI! ¨ He also drilled me about my first aid knowledge and what I would do if he fell and cracked his head open, etc. Roman is hilarious, and his stories could entertain me for hours on end, so before I knew it we were back in Poroto. We arrived after 6pm and literally were walking for at least 8 hours combined, but it was by far one of my favorite days here so far.

Heading back after a long, awesome day