El Corazon

This past week, Steven (a fellow summer intern), Adeline (a working visitor here for a year from Northern Ireland), Bruce (one of the people who heads up Community Development/Water Projects), and I joined a veterinarian team in the town of El Corazon. Adeline was in charge of meals for our group, so the days before we left were full of shopping and chopping. It's amazing how long it takes to prepare, serve, and clean up after a meal for 30! My hands smelled like onions for days but Adeline did a great job feeding us all! While in El Corazon, the only engineering work we did was water testing. But we were definitly kept busy in other ways! The veterinarian students doctored several peoples' cows, pigs, and dogs. We often went with them. Coming from Warren County, I thought I knew my fair share about animals....but I sure have a lot more to learn. It was interesting to see them at work in the community and I learned a lot about how to care for animals in a very rural setting. In the afternoons, we led a vacation Bible school for the kids. That was the highlight of the trip! These kids are adorable. And even though I had difficulty communicating - please pray that my ability to understand and speak Spanish will improve - we had a lot of fun. At the beginning of the afternoon we played soccer, jumped rope, and simply ran around with the kids. After that their was a Bible lesson and usually a lesson in hygiene - hand washing and tooth brushing for example. We finished with a craft. It was always hard to let the kids go home, but by that time, most of the group was pretty worn out.

In El Corazon I learned about life in a different culture. Many of the cows that the vets saw were not reaching their potential milk production. One of the huge limiting factors in this is lack of water. The people in El Corazon have water near their homes to drink, but it is not enough to supply their animals with as much water as they need. Because the area is mountianous and it is a terribly long trek to bring the animals to water, they only get watered once a day. In El Corazon, cows were producing on average 3-5 liters of milk a day. At this altitude good production is between 20-30 liters! Also, in Ecuador, everyone is required to vote. However, many people are illiterate or ill-informed about their choices in the election. Candidates will drive through towns like El Corazon promoting themselves. Without exposure to information about the other candidates and their platforms, these people are easily taken advantage of. Related to water projects, the government will not help a community of less that 200 families (I think it's families, but it might be people) design and build a water system. I think this is because with so few people able to vote, they don't deem it an area worth helping. Thankfully this is where HCJB often steps in. Not only does HCJB help the community build a water system, but they often have the opportunity to share the Good News of Christ....which the government surely wouldn't do!