Curitas=Baindaids

Today we built a roof. I learned how to do a lot of things I didn’t know how to do before.

This roof was built for a family of 5 that lives in Monte de Castillo, a pueblo in Piura.

 There is a mom, dad, a boy, and two girls. The mom is a home-maker and the dad works odd jobs around town. The oldest is a 20 year-old girl who stopped going to school in 5^th grade because she has epilepsy and has no way of anticipating/treating her seizures. The son is 17 and helps his dad. The youngest, a 10 year-old girl, LOVES school. She has big plans to go to the national university. 

She also asks questions about absolutely everything (What is your favorite color? Why do you have 5 earrings in one ear? Why does your name have two l’s and not one?).

This family had no roof over their kitchen. Their “padrinos” in the U.S. paid for the parish to build them a roof. So we went to build it.

I have some skills. Building things, lifting things, cutting things- none of these are skills I have. I learned a lot though! I learned that cutting bamboo is no joke. And that sharp saws are pretty important when cutting bamboo.  And that one should wear long sleeves when lifting aluminum onto a roof.

Unfortunately I was not wearing long sleeves, as it was 85 degrees, and when the aluminum fell, it cut my arm real good. We had no first aid kit but we were working with two other girls staying at the parish who are nursing students from Marquette so they cleaned it and put on a Band-Aid to hold it until we got back to the parish.

We came back to the parish and found parish nurse (works at health clinic inside parish) name Veronica. She had just started eating lunch when we found her, but insisted on getting up and fixing my arm. What a nice lady. 

In this way, I got to visit the parish clinic. They cleaned everything (took the tiny pieces of aluminum out of my arm-glad she found them) and put on some skinny Band-Aids that are supposed to work like stitches. Then we walked to a pharmacy to buy a tetanus shot. I didn’t even know you could buy tetanus shots but you can! And it was only 17 soles  ($6 ish) And we got some antibiotics. Today I learned never to wear short sleeves when roofing. And I learned two new words: aluminum is “aluminio” and “curitas” are Band-Aids.