Terremoto (Earthquake)

F¡rst thing´s first, we are fine. Second thing´s second, we felt what was registered as a 7.5 earthquake off the coast of central peru. I don´t know how far the epicenter was from us in Arequipa, but I know it was much closer to lima which is about 600 miles away from us. Nonetheless, as we sat around making "wash mits" for Deedra´s patients, we felt a distinct shaking of our house. The indoor plants swayed to and fro, and we sat there for what seemed like 20 - 30 seconds discussing that this must be a pretty large earthquake. It is too early to tell what the damage may be, if any, but our house stood the shaking just fine. I don´t want to take any credit for the quake, but this now makes my pariticipation in above 7.0 earthquakes climb to grand total of 3. I am somewhat of an earthquake magnet it seems. We´ll keep you posted on further details.

Regarding our work here, I had an opportunity to do a question and answer session the other day with about 30 women workers who had pediatric questions. I thought it went well, and it was very eye-opening, as it directed our attention at what the true concerns of the local folks are. Deedra has come up with new ideas for the clinic, which seem like they would be fairly easy to implement, and are making the staff excited. We took a shopping trip the other day to find materials so we could make the above mentioned wash mits for her patients. These are washcloths sewn together (yes, I was helping to sew), with velcro straps at the bottom. They are used for those who have little control of their hands for when they are bathing, as the mits are much more easy to manipulate than the patient´s own fingers and hands. We both give presentations to about 150 families tomorrow night. I will be talking about nutrition and obesity (surprise) and Deedra will be discussing how to prevent work-related injuries.

That´s all for now, thanks again for all of your replies, we check our blog daily (sometimes more).

Hope this finds everyone well,
Love,
Beau & Deedra