Sitting on Chicken Crates in Open Top Cargo Trucks

I've spent the last four days exploring the smaller communities high in the Andes.

Wednesday I me the spanish/quechua speaking nurse that works with Sacred Valley Health (the non-profit I'm partnering with here in Ollanta) named Leticia. We were supposed to go up to a village called Huilloc about 45 minutes up the mountain by car to talk with the president of the community and the two elected promotas to get an interview and ask about their take on the health status of their community. We tried to find a Combi - essentially a mini van converted into a little bus - but they usually leave around 7:30 am and we didn't get our butts in gear until 9:30.

 Because we had missed all the Combis, we decided to wait and see who was driving up the mountain that day. After about an hour, we were at the point of giving up and walked back down the road, but Leticia flagged down a big open back truck to ask where they were headed. Before I knew it I was climbing a ladder into the back of this HUGE cargo truck full of produce, crates, and people headed up the hill to sell what they had harvested that day.  After a few minutes I realized that the crate I had perched myself on was chirping and the one next to me was oinking. The folks in the back of the truck just kept smiling at the two Gringa's who'd just joined their party (me and Amy, another SVH volunteer)  and telling Amy - who has golden blond hair - that they wanted their son to marry her. Men were sitting on the top of the wooden walls keeping us all contained and had to duck occasionally for tree branches, and two babies just laid sprawled on the sacks of produce. We arrived at Huilloc only to find that the two promoters were working in the Chakra (fields), but were able to talk to the nurse at the seldom used Posta (government clinic), and we tracked down the community president. With no phones and only the radio to commentate, it's pretty difficult to connect with people. I think this is the community I'll be doing my project in so I'm excited to go back. Just hopefully with a real seat and a roof over my head...

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