We spent the morning in the town of Tonchigue. This was a community with all the elements of breeding disease. We visited two homes in the community where we split up into groups to examine the living conditions and environmental health factors, inside and outside of the house.
In the first house there were seven children with one on the way.

This family of nine was living in a shack the size of an average family room. There was no electricity, no running water, no latrines, or waste disposal. Everyone in the family slept cramped and lying on top of one another, with no beds, just a hard floor made out of logs. They did have bed nets, but they were inadequate having holes the size of a fist in them. There were holes in the floor boards, and stagnant water running underneath the house. The stagnant water next to and underneath the house had mosquito larvae in it. The mother was pregnant and severely anemic, as many where in the community. They did not boil their water, and their only heat source for cooking was burning logs in their kitchen.
In the second house we visited, there were ten children with one on the way. The house was elevated above ground, and the floor was incredibly unsteady and had large holes in it. Most of the children slept on the floor but there were two “shelves” made of wood with no mattress that a couple children could cramp onto. This house did also have bed nets, but once again they were unsubstantial. The mother recently had malaria, and one of her children had recently had dengue. This house did have a gas stove but they also didn’t boil their water because it was too expensive. We left bags of food and clothing for the families, but it didn’t come close to really helping these people;. “It was like putting a band-aid on a cancer patient.”
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