Rinconada Llicuar

I got my site today!!! It's in the Departamento of Piura (the red part on the map and in Peru the states are called Departamentos). Oddly, this is definitely not the site that my Program Director told me I would be in a couple of weeks ago, but it's very nearby. I will be working with the Ministry of Health near the Pan American Highway in a town called Rinconada Llicuar. I'm not sure if that's someone's name or what, but I'll keep you posted. It's 3500 people or about 850 families. I'll have electricity, water every other day from 8AM to 1PM, and a public phone in town. There is internet in the City Hall and in a nearby town. AND there is cell phone service so I think that I'll be getting a cell phone. I think that I will have a bathroom in my house which is really, really exciting. The highway near Rinconada is asphalt and it's only about 40 minutes from the capital of the Department, also called Piura. I can send an receive mail there so I'll have yet another address soon. I'll pass it along as soon as I have it.

According to the Peruvian census about 40% of the people have not completed primary school. Folks mostly cook on firewood, and only about 40% have a bathroom or a latrine. The other 60% just go to the bathroom in the fields. Average income is S/. 227 soles (Peruvian currency) or about $ 71 dollars (US) a month. So for a lot of folks it's a pretty tough life.

On Sunday I go up to Piura to visit my new site. I'm so nervous. In the packet with my assignment is a little schedule of what I'll be doing for the visit. They have a lot of stuff planned including a ceremony where they sing the Peruvian National Anthem and then the US National Anthem! There's a Traditional Foods event with the Comedor Popular, kind of like a soup kitchen, but people pay a very small amount for their meal and almost all of even the very smallest towns have them.

Wish me luck!!