The mayor and a glacier

Well well where did I leave off last?? Thursday: The end of my week at the hospital ended well. I went back into the pediatric unit and was able to assist the main nurse in giving breathing treatments to many children. Like i have said before many of these kids are admitted for respiratory problems or infections. This same day I listened in on rounds with the doctors and I was able to see something interesting I had never seen before. This child had a paralytic ileus. This pretty much means that they child had a bowel that was non functioning. On an x ray you could see that large amounts of air that had been collecting in the abdomen. That was quite the site to see. This same night all of the volunteers were invited over to Eli and Netos house for pisco sours and karaoke. Eli put on a show and taught all of us how to make pisco sours which is the national drink of Peru. Pisco is a type of liquor that is made of grapes... I think. It tastes pretty similar to tequila. Anyway a pisco sour is made up of water, lime juice, sugar, egg whites and of course pisco. Pretty simple if you ask me. I will have to try to bring it back into the states. People were jamming out to karaoke that Eli and Neto set up for us. All of the girls had a pretty great jam session to some Justin Bieber songs and of course I had to end the night with my go to karaoke song.... Sweet Caroline. Neto taught us how to play his very own drinking game at his kitchen table that I had heard a lot about. It consists of rolling a dice and based on which number you roll you either have to drink yourself or the person to the right or left have to drink or you can order someone to drink. If you have to drink twice in a row then you get to make up a rule. It was a blast!! This evening was also a send off party for one of our coordinators Tyler. We have a running joke that Tyler was "dad" and that Michael is "mom". Now that Tyler is gone we say that dad has left on a business trip and we are stuck at home with mom. Hah only love Michael. Tyler was a great coordinator and we miss him mucho. ohh I forgot one crucial part of the evening. Michael was challenged to eat 100 mini picarones which are those delish donuts. This had to be done before Tyler left. It was quite the event. All 15 or so of us headed over to a near by cafe and ordered up 100 picarones. It was quite the challenge... He ended up eating only 50 which was still very impressive.
Friday: After a roudy night we slept in and two of my other friends and i decided to hike torre torre again, which is the hike that the group did when we first arrived in Huancayo. It is a beautiful hike that is not too difficult but gets you out and active. When we came back home we were informed that we would be having dinner with the mayor of Huancayo. Whoa what an honor. We all got in our fanciest outfits that we could put together aka jeans and cardigans and we were off. We ended up in what we think was the mayors office and they served us an intersting meal consisting of potatoes (duh), dried and salted corn, onion salad, and a very tough meat. It was funny to try and keep out composure as we were trying to saw away at this meat that was impossible to eat. Needless to say after the meal we were still hungry. The mayor showed up after we had all eaten. He was dressed very casually and had a hat on that looked like the traditional Peruvian woman's hat. He was very nice and very grateful for all of our work in his town. He recognized all of us individually and gave us gourd like keychains that said sustainable Junin on them. Junin is the state that huancayo is located in. After the dinner we headed over to eli and Netos for banana crepes. Yummy if one dessert wasn't enough we headed to
Archie's for some more postres (pastries) and sent Tyler off to lima. We all packed up our backpacks and went to bed early because the next day we were hiking a glacier!!
Saturday: whew! We were all up early and got on the bus for the hour and a half ride to the glacier. This is one of the most difficult hikes I have ever been on. It wasn't that it was a physically tiring hike but it was extremely hard to breathe. At the end we were almost at 17,000 feet!!!! When we were getting closer to the actual glacier I would hike about 50 feet and have to stop and take a break just to breathe. How do the people hiking mount Everest do it? We were very lucky because we were blessed with a clear and beautiful day. There was not a cloud or any fog in sight. Being on the glacier is now in the top 5 most beautiful places I have ever been. It was pretty amazing. Pictures to come. Once we were on the glacier we attempted to use an icepick to get up some snow covered hills which ended up being very difficult. So we just decided to open up all of our snacks and have a picnic on the glacier as some of the others explored. Then we grabbed our windbreakers and sledded to the bottom of the glacier. After an easier hike back to the bottom of the mountain we enjoyed a well deserved lunch. Some had lamb soup and others such as me had trout. Yum! It really hit the spot. We were all tired and cold and this point. During our meal these young peruvian woman came up to us and asked to take pictures with us. This happens quite often when you are the only white people in town. It was flattering at first but they started going crazy and asking to take individual pictures with some of the guys. We eventually had to politely tell them to leave. It just so happens that the bus of these crazed peruvians happened to leave at the same time as our bus. The entire way back to huancayo they were driving up next to us and still trying to take more pictures and waving at us. One girl even had her head out the window and was screaming. All of us in the bus were very confused. What was all they hype about? We aren't that cool. Haha that night we tried out a new bar (can't remember the name) they had a traditional Peruvian band there that was really fun to listen and dance to.
Sunday: (dooms day) our goal for the day was to get ground beef for the evening because we had big plans to make an authentic Mexican dinner at Eli and Netos house. Around noon we ventured out to get some lunch (chicken, papas fritas, and inca cola =perfection). Then we started walking through the markets headed to the famous meat market. On the way there we stopped at the flower market and as steph and I were admiring the roses a kind woman gave us each a rose. We got to the meat market which I didn't last long in. There were dead animal parts everywhere and even live animals in cages. It was quite the site to see. I didn't like it. They ended up getting the ground beef in the market. We started to head home and in order to do that we need to walk through the market some more. Heather and I decided to stop at a cart for cookies. While I was deciding which one I wanted some crazy man came up to us and started talking nonsense. We ignored him. As I was about to pay my wallet was suddenly swiped out of my hands. I screamed and turned around. There were hundreds of pieces of paper everywhere and I could not tell which direction This robber had gone. I was scared out of my mind... Someone had just stolen my wallet that had everything in it. My Spanish speaking lifesaver and friend michelle found a police officer and the cop tried to help us out was it wasn't of much use. As we started waking home someone threw my wallet at heather. It had everything left in it except for the 40 soles worth of cash that I had in there. Which is about 18 American dollars. I am so so so lucky that some nice person out there decided to throw my wallet back at us. Lesson learned. Don't carry around a lot of cash and be very cautious in the market. After being a bit shaken up for the rest of the afternoon we cooked our Mexican feast. And a feast it was indeed. We all helped out to chop up veggies and prepare the meal. It was so good. We were all so so so happy by the end. Eli and Neto tried our tacos and loved it too. It was their first time eating mexican food.
Monday: today I ventured back to the Huancan clinic with my friends to show them the ropes before I will go to a new clinic tomorrow. The main highlight of my day was that there was a school that came to the clinic so that the children could be weighted and measured to evaluate their nutrition. A lot of the children were with their parents and needed vaccinations. That means us volunteers were able to give shots today. Woo. Some of these kids were crazy like kicking screaming and crying. It took about four of us to hold down some of these kids. I was lucky enough to be able to give five shots to some of these crazy kids. It was a really col experience to be able to vaccinate children today. It was a great day today filled with a lot of learning experiences. Now off to eat some dinner and pick up my laundry at the lavanderia (favorite Spanish word to say)
xoxo

Babies!

This week I have been spending my volunteer rotation at the local hospital aka Hospital de Carmen. We don't have very much direction at the hospital so we kind of just linger around different units looking for things that we can do to help and watch. The first day I was there we spent most of the time in the maternity unit. There is no such thing as individual rooms here. All of the women that are in labor or that have just given birth are in the same room. The women that are in labor stay in the same room right up until they are about to give birth. Then the women either walk over or are wheeled over to the delivery room right next door. I was amazed when I saw a women that was fully dilated get up and walk over to the delivery room... no pain medications at all keep in mind. The first birth that we witnessed was pretty traumatic. I will spare the gory details but this woman was pushing for about a good half an hour and the baby was not coming out. They even had doctors pushing on the woman's stomach to try and help. It literally looked like they were doing CPR on this woman. Things started to get kind of scary when multiple doctors started coming into the room and trying to help. Eventually they moved the patient to surgery so that she could have an emergency cesarean. We heard later on that the mother and baby boy were doing ok, they baby was on oxygen but they think he would turn out to be alright. Shortly after that we saw two births. There were two woman laying right next to each other in the delivery room and one baby came right after the other... two more beautiful baby boys. I immediately went over to the baby nurse and asked if there was any way that I could help. She let me change that baby and put him into his first outfit. I must say he was looking quite dapper in that yellow knitted outfit. I have learned that in order to get a good experience you have to ask what you can do to help and really put your self out there. The next day at the hospital (Tuesday) we ventured into the pediatrics unit. Here the nurses were very nice and they gave us a stethoscope to go around and listen to the heart and lung sounds of the patients. I have the most clinical and hands on experience in the group because I am in nursing school so I was able to help out the other volunteers. This unit is also like the maternity unit.... all of the patients are in the same room. This is kind of scary because some of the patients have contagious infections that could easily be spread from patient to patient. I had my eyes on this baby in the corner that had no mother with her. Her name was Cielo, she is 4 months old and has down syndrome. I have a very special place in my heart for special needs children. I asked the nurse if I could hold the baby and she agreed. It was difficult to hold Cielo because she was very squirmy and flaccid. After holding her for a while I was able to feed her. This was a difficult task that another nurse assisted me in doing. I was given a 10ml syringe and I had to slowly push the milk into her mouth. It took a while but after three syringes of milk she was happy and fell asleep. The doctors in the unit let us listen in on their rounds of all the patients in the unit. Most of the patients are hospitalized for special needs or respiratory infections such as pneumonia or bronchitis. It is kind of difficult to understand what the doctors are saying to us because it is all in spanish but we can make it out for the most part. That night we decided to go to an indoor market that we had yet to explore. My friend/roommate/soulmate Heather and I said earlier in the week how awesome it would be to get hair wraps while in Peru. When we went to this new market that is just what we did. They look so amazing and are unlike any hair wrap i have even seen. Such a cool design and pretty colors. Needless to say we were very happy. This night we had two dinners... first at home with out home stay family (noodles) then we saved some room for these s/3 cheeseburgers that we have been eyeing. Three soles for a cheeseburger and fries, that is about $1.25 in the US. They were delicious. I had been craving some good american food. This morning we went to the hospital and half of us went into the maternity ward again. We were able to see another live birth,  this time a GIRL. She was beautiful and the mother did so well. We cut the day short and went to hang out at the market and at home before our long awaited pachamanca lunch. Pachamanca is a peruvian tradition where they cook the meat and veggies underground with stones. The meat that I decided to have is called cuy and it is very popular in Peru... it is Guinea Pig. I had to try it right? It ended up being pretty dang good. There wasnt much meat to it but the flavoring was yummy. Some of the other people that got the cuy still had the organs and head on it. Thankfully mine didnt! whew. The meal came with potatoes (of course), these large green beans that looked like edamame, and tamales that tasted like a very sweet corn bread. I may have eaten about three of tamales and brought extra home. And of course we washed it all down with INCA COLA. We had a 3L bottle which was the biggest one i have yet to see... it was beautiful. Out good friend Suvan is leaving early tomorrow, so tonight we are going to have a little going away party filled with desserts from our favorite local bakery called Archies and maybe some cervesas on the roof. xoxo

Horses and Trout and Alpaca... Oh my!!

Today was a great day! I am currently fed up with my current crocheting project that I have stated so I will blog a bit. Yesterday I explored the market with heather and I bought some yarn and a crochet hook off the street. The yarn didn't come in a ball which is making like very complicated because I have to roll it myself while tying to untangle this huge mess. I have spent way too much time trying to start this project. Anyway... Today the group went into another town to go horse back riding. Before we mounted our cabellos we went on a small hike where we saw some Incan ruins. There were these stone structures that the incans used to use for sacrifices. It was a quick hike then we were off to the horses. I ended up with the horse that was not so nice. His name was Martin (it sounds a lot cooler if you way it in a Spanish accent). He was trying to bite the other horses and always trying to get in the lead. After about a 40 minute ride. We dismounted and went on another hike. This was unlike any hike I had ever been on. We had to crawl through thick shrubbery, climb up and down the walls of these mud walls and literally scale the mountain holding onto plants to keep us from sliding down. Let's just say we were all a little muddy by the end. It was totally worth it though because we ended up in this beautiful meadow with flowers and plants everywhere. We all sat down to rest and come to find out we were all sitting in these prickly thorns. That was fun. They were in our shoes and I even had some poking my behind. Thank you Kayla for removing them for me hahah some beautiful pictures were taken and the hike was over. For lunch (at two pm... All starving by then) we went to a really amazing outdoor restaurant called El Encantado. I am not really sure about the history behind this place but they are right next to a trout hachery so needless to say we ate trout for lunch. Accompanied by potatoes, rice, and inca cola.. Duh! There was this huge tree house there that had a bridge and even a wooden slide. We decided it would be a great idea to go down the wooden slide. No harm in that right? Well this was a very slick and steep slide. I went down it so fast that i couldn't land on my feet and ended up biffing it on my hands and knees. I have a nice little scrape on my knee now. Yes I am so graceful. After this we visited some local artisans. We saw a woman who makes her own sliver jewelry. The pieces she makes were all really beautiful and I picked out a piece or two. Coming from a family of jewelers I appreciate their hard work. Lastly we went to a local market where they showed us how they spin alpaca and wool and how they use a loom to create all of their blankets. Then it was time for shopping at this market. I bought goodies for friends and family. My favorite purchase was this blanket that I have been eyeing every since i have arrived in Huancayo. These blankets are used for women to carry their babies around on their backs. They are so brightly colored and I know whenever I will use this blanket in the future it will remind me of all the women in Peru. It is still a mystery to me how they can tie their children to their backs with just a simple blanket and they dont fall out. Hmmm The day ended perfectly with all 11 of us volunteers in a van singing to the best of the Beatles album in unison. That was definitely a moment I will never forget.

Me gusta Inca Kola

Please forgive me for being the worst blogger ever! I have been so busy exploring this new beautiful town of Huancayo I haven't really stopped to sit down and blog. I will try and be better about it this week. This morning our group went to a local church and played outdoor games with little kids. They were absolutely adorable. No matter the language barrier we still had a great time. We played soccer and taught them how to play duck duck goose. They really got a kick out of it... it only seemed to last for a few minutes. you know how it is with short attention spans.
Here is a quick synopsis of my week:
I was in a clinic in a nearby town called Huancan. Every morning two other volunteers and I took a Cambi (a bus/taxi) to the clinic. Everyone there is so kind and welcoming. It was great to have my friend sabrina there with me because she is a fluent spanish speaker.
When I was in the clinic the things that I was able to see and do were: breathing treatments, injections, making cotton balls, sitting in on appointments with pregnant women, physical assessments of children, home visits for pregnant women, walking around the town offering vaccinations to children who are not up to date (many parents hide their children when they see us coming because they dont want to vaccinate their kids, they think it will make them sick), organizing medical records, and a home visit to a 22 year old male who had Tuberculosis ( we went to give him his weekly medications, his family dosent think this treatment is working and are searching for other options although he has made significant improvement. It was pretty crazy to see this patient and his family. None of them are well educated on how contagious TB is. We gave them masks to protect themselves.

Things I learned this week:
-Inca Kola is amazing: It is this soda that is yellow and tastes like bubble gum! YUM!!
-Piccarones are a kind of donuts they have here, they are light and served in some kind of molases sause. We went last night to get them for a late night treat. Milo con leche or leche con milo is the perfect beverage to pair with this dessert.
-Try new things: I have had a bite of cow heart and I try what ever is put in front of me. The typical meal consists of rice, potatoes, and some kind of meat. Our home stay is great and they feed us really amazing meals. I havent been disappointed once yet. If i see something on that street that looks good i buy it and eat it. haha There is this candy bar called Sublime that is just delicious.
-My homestay family is great: We live in this huge house and are taken care of by an older couple. Their names are Amel and Idla. They are just like grandparents. We call Amel "abuelo". They force feed us our meals and always want to make sure that we are happy. They dont let us clean our plates and they always make sure we are warm during the night.
- I am taking spanish lessons from a man named Neto at one of the other home stays. I am in the beginners class but i feel like I am able to hold my own. It is a two hour lesson and I enjoy every minute of it. Neto is absolutely hysterical. He tells us the funniest stories during our lessons and he has the best laugh. He told us yesterday that if he could have any other occupation he would want to be a veterinarian. He names all of his dogs that he has owned after alcohol. He used to have a German Shepard named Crystal.
- I am grateful for my life in America. It is really an eye opening experience to see the change in healthcare and the amount of poverty that exists in this country. I am glad i have been given this experience to help and educate the people in Peru.

Today is a rainy day so I think we might hit up the local mall for some American food oops... and a movie. Tomorrow we are supposed to go horse back riding through the valley and check out a local artisan market ( all depending on the weather). The group is planning a trip  to the jungle next weekend ( yay for warmth) and out Macchu Piccu for the end of the trip. I am pretty sure we are going to do a 4 day trek along the inca trail COOL!!!!

The Family is Complete

This post is coming from the couch in on of our home stay families homes. I am getting to know volunteers from my own imaginations group as well as other volunteers that are joining us from various parts of the united states. It is a little bit chilly at night here in Huancayo so I have a hot cup of coca leaf tea in hand. It is so delish :) Since my last post I have moved into my home in Huancayo. It is a lot different here than Lima. Today we went on a three hour hike into the mountains behind our home. It was really neat because on the way up the mountain we trekked up into some parts of the town. There were dogs, cats, cows, and pigs roaming the streets like it was no big deal. We would pass small stores and homes and people would whistle and whisper "ah gringas" to each other. I almost got attacked by some very cute pack of dogs... It was very deceiving and I am never making eye contact with another street dog again. Any way the hike was really amazing and we were able to get an amazing view of the city. Although we were unsure about some directions we explored a bit, slid down some rocks and made it home safely. Guilty confession: after the hike we were all so tired we went to the local mall and has some American food from the food court. Pizza hut yum!! We have been eating peruvian food like crazy so it was time for a little break. With every meal here you get potatoes and some kind of meat. It is all really delicious but I think it might get old pretty quickly. After our escape to American food court land we wondered around the market. It is especially busy on Sundays and there were many sights to see. There are carts on every street corner with fresh fruit. So another volunteer and I decided to start a fruit of the day. Yesterday was pineapple and today we decided to go a bit more exotic. We had two fruits named tuna and chirimoya. They were both so good. Ok time for a meeting because we are starting our work tomorrow. Wish me luck I am really excited.