Meet Willi!

Yes, the rumors are true. Rosalia and I have parted ways. It was just too difficult getting to the more remote areas I needed to get to. She was more of a city bike. We were never meant to go as far as we did........so I decided to upgrade to a Honda XR 125L!

It just looks athletic in its stance. Muddy, rocky roads have become an anticipated adventure instead of a near death experience. I just have so much more command of the terrain and it just a more comfortable ride. Granted, I already blew out the front tire....too eager, maybe? Anyways, I'm officially addicted to motorcycles now and it will only get bigger and better! Watch out! Still working out names for this one....Reginald....Malik....any suggestions?

I have spent this whole week slowly, methodically, monotonously inputting census data into an excel spreadsheet. It is slowly, methodically and monotonously crushing my life force. I am still coming down from this massive volunteer high from the past 3 weeks. We hope to be able to take all the data after its SM&M inputted and create a report that interprets the numbers and helps identify the biggest health issues in the area. Exciting stuff.

In other news, I am putting the finishing touches on our Club Superman initiative. It is a club that focuses on instilling positive values in the young boys that run around the streets and campos. To provide them with some guidance on making healthy life choices and an after school alternative. To learn how to become Supermen! More than anything else, its about having fun. Look forward to more on that soon.

Today, we went and saw Willi again. Unfortunately, he has not improved at all even after taking vitamin supplements. He looks weaker than the last time we saw him. Picking him up feels like picking up a small skeleton. He has a big ol' extended belly, but his arms and legs are skinny little twigs. Tailoring his diet is difficult as he can only swallow, so we gave him a months supply of concentrated protein supplement to be mixed with powdered milk that we provided. We will evaluate him in 30 days and see if there has been any change. Ojala que si.

Poor little dude has to battle Autism and malnutrition. Not a fun combo in the developed world, much less a remote village in the 3rd world. He is 4 years old and weighs 18 pounds. He is kind of my little hero.

We also responded (makes us sound so official) to a situation where a group of Haitians have been living next to a section of river that directly feeds the entire municipalities' water source. The problem is their bathroom looks like this.

32 people share this bad boy. It IS an improvement over just an open pit if you want to look at the bright side, but the other problem is its right next to the river, so even if they do use this....which i doubt they actually do.....it is contaminating a major water source for thousands of people. Also, they mentioned that it was almost full.....which means the poop is about to hit the ceiling :) We are including this area in our latrine project, which was just picked up by Notre Dame University! They agreed to sponsor our initial latrine project, yay!

Working in these environments can sometimes by daunting or depressing but i try to remind myself to......

.....SMILE! Cuz this kid could not be happier, and his two front teeth were punched out by a goat.....kidding :) Keep this kid in mind next time you have a poopy day (pun intended).