Hey everyone,

I hope things are well in the states. I am still onsite, and am still becoming accustomed to Ica. As I wrote before, my family has 5 puppies. Well, one died about half a week ago. My family says she died because she was eating dirt. But really, she died of starvation, since she was eating dirt because there is not enough food for them to eat. That was pretty hard to watch. But then, a few days ago, we noticed that none of the puppies were eating. They must have stomich worms or something. They all had this sad, pathetic look in their eyes. I could bearly stand to look at them, they were so sad and in so much pain. They Thew up all day, and wouldnt drink any water. My mom decided that she was going to give them anti-bacterial shots (which are for humans, so its not going to work) and force feed them water with rehydrating salts. One of them just threw up all of the water, and refused to eat or do anything. That night she died. Its was so terrible because she was bleeding out of her mouth and bottom, so obviously had internal bleeding. It was horrible, seeing that she was in pain and unable to do anything about it. Because I didnt know what was wrong with her! (sounds alot like the reason why I am here trying to help people. So they will know why people get sick, and they can prevent it.) So now we are down to 3 puppies. One of them, today, seems much better. He actually barked! Which means that he is feeling way better. One of them still is in bad shape, and might die. I just hope they can make it through this.

Besides my dogs dying, things are going well! My family loves peanut butter, and I buy peanuts in the city every week to make it. Its a third of the price to buy the peanuts and make it than it is to just buy the peanutbutter. We eat every meal later than people eat in the states. We eat breakfast at 9, lunch at 2 or 3, and dinner at 10!! I cant eat dinner that late anymore though, so I am going to find a polite way to not eat dinner. For breakfast, my mom boils quaker oatmeal with lots of water, sifts it, and we drink it like coffee, with milk sometimes. We eat one egg everyday with pancitos (little breads) and maybe one pancito with peanutbutter. For lunch, we usually buy it from a store for 3 to 5 soles. It always has rice and chicken, then for dinner, usually some combination of rice, beef, and chicken. Since being in La Venta, I haven't had any coffee. I was trying to see if I could survive without it. Its been two and a half weeks, and I dont know if I can to it! I just feel so much more alert with coffee, and my brain works so much better! I think I'll wait until the one month mark, and if I dont see an improvement, I am going back to drinking coffee.

For drinks, my family LOVES soda. I am not much of a fan, because it dehydrate you, rots your teeth, and decays your bones. But here, I drink so much of it! They also have this grinded up wheat which they put in boiled water like tea. We drink this every night with dinner. At first I thought it was tea! If only I had a smoothy!!

Enjoy your pizza and starbucks jerks!
Happy travels,
Teigan