I apologize for not posting in an absurdly long amount of time. My time in Huancayo has just flown by. The group and I are headed to Lima tonight and we are catching a plane to Cusco tomorrow afternoon. Machu picchu here we come :) there is a group of six if us that will embark on a four day trek on the inca trail startling on Friday. I have been looking forward to this part of my trip for so long and I cannot believe it is almost here. Since it has been so long since my last post I will try and give a nice and quick synopsis.
The past two weeks I have spend all of my time volunteering at the clinics. I have been in Huancan and Chupaca. I really love Huancan because it was the first clinic I had gone to in Peru but at chupaca I have had many more hands on opportunities. One day I had to show the other volunteers around at the Huancan clinic and we were able to go to a local school to put fluoride on the children's teeth. It was quite the experience. The nurses would call all of the children to the front of the room individually and examine their teeth for cavities and teeth that needed to be pulled. Then heather and I put gloves on and would put a glob of fluoride on our fingers and proceed to rub it on the children's teeth. Keep in mind we kept on the same gloves as we continued to go from child to child. The lack of gloves here is a very prevalent problem. Today I witnessed many doctors and nurses trying to put in an IV into a small baby girl that had fallen out of a two story building. Yes terrible I know. I think she will be alright though. Anyway all of these doctors were working with this baby and none of them had gloves on. They also tried to reuse a needle to insert the IV. I almost had a heart attack. I will be so grateful for the abundance of gloves and medical supplies once I return to the states. Another day I was at chupaca and this really kind doctor let three of us listen in on his patient consultations. The interesting cases that we saw were an old woman with tuberculosis and a little girl that had hepatitis A. She was very jaundice and the sclera of her eyes were yellow. Also the doctor let us palpate her liver to feel how enlarged it was. This was interesting for the doctor because not many people come in for hep a because it is not curable. That weekend we took Friday off of work to head out to the jungle aka la selva. There was a huge group of us that went together. There was a bunch of people from the university of Illinois and the new medical students that had just joined us that week from new York medical college. The med student are all really great and added a new change of pace to our group. The night before we went out to chicharones which is a meal consisting of small pieces of fried pork. It is Netos favorite meal and he took us all to experience it. Wow it was so yummy but I felt the repercussions after I ate it. The whole weekend in the jungle I was very sick. Unlike any stomach flu I had ever had. Ugh it was not fun. I tried my best to enjoy the jungle but it was difficult when I felt terrible most of the time. The first day that we arrived in la selva we went on a hike through waterfalls. Man I wish I had a waterproof camera so I could have shown you what some of these waterfalls looked like that we literally scaled up with a rope. We had some great tour guides that always made sure that we were safe. There was one waterfall that we all ascended then we put on a helmet and slid down it. Watching others go down the slide made it looked very painful but it was actually really fun! All 23 of us hiked the entire day and encouraged each other as some of us concurred our fears. No fears for me though. I waned to hike and climb it all. The day ended up going for so long that we were hiking home in the dark. That night we chilled at our hostel which was more like a hotel. We were living in luxury. We had a bonfire with marshmallows, chocolate and cervesas. The next day we went to a small native village where they dressed us all up in tribal dresses, told us stories and taught us how to dance. It was really fun. Then we went to a coffee factory were people bought a lot of coffee and different kinds of marmalade. I still was not feeling well so I laid low for these activities. The rest of the afternoon we hung out playing volleyball in the pool and some of the others played soccer on the lawn. Everyone except for sick me went out to a really nice discoteka that has been anticipated for a while. From the stories that I heard it sounded like they all had a blast. Boo I was really sad I missed out on it. The last day in the jungle we headed to this really beautiful waterfall. It was not much of a
hike and we were all able to explore and swim in the waterfall. it was a great ending to the trip and that evening we headed back to huancayo. One of the med students introduced the group to a fun game called mafia. We played it on the bus and it took up a big chunk of the four hour ride. The point of the game is that that there is a secret mafia who will kill people off secretly. And the point is for the townspeople to figure out who the mafia members are. It was a funny coincidence that I ended up being the nurse three times that we played. It was a great time. The next
Monday morning I was feeling so sick that I was ready to go see a doctor. I came to Elli and Netos to have someone take me and the med students were all having lunch. They started asking me a million questions and decided to give me an antibiotic that they came prepared with. I popped those pills and I started feeling better almost right away. Thank goodness. That week (last week) I spend the entire week at the chupaca clinic. I was working with Michelle and some of the other med students. We went to schools and gave immunization to the schools kids. At the beginning I was still not a pro at giving shots intra muscularly. But by the end of my first day I had immunized about 40 kids and I was feeling like a champion. We mostly gave tetanus and HPV vaccinations. Some of these poor kids had to get them in both of their arms. They didn't like us very much. When we would walk by a classroom the kids would yell "vaccunas" and run away. One classroom was so cute and they sang us a song before we left. One evening that week it was shona's birthday so we celebrated in style. David and some other volunteers made a very fancy Mac and cheese and mike made guacamole. It was a feast and was so good. Then we had cake and sang Feliz cumpleanos to shona. We went and got calientitos which are a warm peruvian drink at a bar with live music it was lots of fun. For the rest of the
week we continued to go out into the community to vaccinate more children. One classroom even asked us all for our autographs and wanted to take pictures with us. We felt like celebrities by the end of the day. It was surprising they still liked us after we had to literally hold down some children to vaccinate them. One of the medical students name is Matt and all of the little kids absolutely loved him. He is really tall and they were all amazed by his height. The final day of that work week we walked around the town of chupaca and went to peoples doors to vaccinate their children. At one point we were literally in farmlands. There were all sorts of animals along the sides of the road. We saw kittens, bulls, chickens, baby chicks and even a heard of sheep. We were not very successful because many people were not home. We found one of the mothers and her baby in the market at the end of the day. This baby girl was due for many of her vaccines. I was able to give her one of the shots right in her upper thigh. I was literally standing in a very small corridor surrounded by plants giving a baby a shot while she laid in her stroller. It was pretty bizarre. While walking around the town that day Michelle and i scouted out a restutant that had s/5 pollo a la brasa. My favorite Peruvian meal. It is pretty much rotisserie chicken with a huge plate of papas fritas. Yummy. That price was unbeatable also. Almost $2 American dollars. How could you beat it? So we stayed in chupaca after work and ate pollo. While we were devouring our meal an alpaca walked right in front of the restaurant. Michelle and I looked at each other both thinking the same thing... Peru is awesome!! That night we had a send off for Michael because he was leaving us soon. Que triste. :( So of course all of us girl and Michael hit up our favorite club, hecke. It was crazy busy because the next day was a holiday in Peru, popes day. We ended the night at a chifa restutant. Chifa is peru's version of Chinese food. It isn't too far off normal Chinese food either. It is tasty and cheap. Now for the weekend: Friday was a holiday so no one went to work and we ventured to out new favorite town, chupaca, to go to a festival. We were not really sure what to expect because two volunteers had been invited to the festival from mother if a patient in the emergency room. On the way there we had to take a 40 minute cambi ride so we entertained ourselves and the rest of the cambi riders by singing some American classic songs! We arrived and had an absolute BLAST!!! We found the woman who invited us, her name is mari and she was all dressed in a traditional Peruvian outfit. We took part in traditional peruvian dancing and drinking. There were cases of Peruvian beer everywhere you looked. The tradition is that you stand in a circle with a bottle of beer and a plastic cup. You are supposed to pour yourself a small amount of beer into the plastic cup pass the bottle to the person to the right of you, salud the person with the bottle, drink the small amount, shake the cup out of any extras and pass the cup. This could get dangerous because the bottles keep going round and round the circle. Everyone was so incredibly welcoming and we made many new friends. We were the only gringos there so naturally everyone wanted to talk and dance with us... Which was perfectly fine. We of course ended the night with some of the same pollo a la brasa that Michelle and I had the day before. Mari invited all of us to her house the next day to try on some of her traditional peruvian outfits that she has. Again we were not sure what to expect out of this situation. Yet it turned out amazing. She brought us into her very nice home... For Peruvians mari and her family live a pretty well off lifestyle. The family's cook made us soup with cheese and potatoes on the side. Of course it was so good. We all sat around the table for a while talking about the differences between our countries and then the real fun began. All of us girls were able to try on these outfits. They are the most beautiful and and intricate pieces of clothing I have ever worn. The skirts are so beautiful with hand embroidered flowers at the bottom. These skirts go for about $400. We all felt so welcomed into this family's home and the were so excited to have us. We all exchanged advice to each other and they want us to come back and visit as soon as possible. So sweet. That evening we sent Michael off and went out with the med student to taj mahal, another favorite discoteca. Michelle and I decided to be ridiculous and wear our colorful Peruivan pants that we bought at the market to the club. Why not right? What a fun night. And of course we ended up eating chifa and the end of the evening. Sunday was nice and relaxing. We went to a semi fancy restaurant called detras la cathedral and watched the euro cup. We had great seats right in front of the tv. Score! Then for the rest of the day we explored the markets and bought last minute gifts. I fell asleep on the couch watching Bridesmaids. For the last two days in huancayo I have been returning to the chupaca clinic, of course it's my favorite. I joined two other volunteers in the emergency room/ topico. I was able to give an injection in the bottom to a little girl. It was interesting and the poor girl was hurting a lot after. Also an intoxicated man came in with his parents and his face was all bloody. Not really sure what happened to him. The doctor cleaned up his face and said that I could assist him with the stitches. Crazy!!! The stitches went behind the mans ear so that was tricky but over all it went well and I gave him a total of four stitches. So awesome. Today was my last day of work and it was a crazy one at that. It started off so well with a jamming cambi ride. They were playing a mix of American and Spanish music at a loud volume. So naturally heather, Madeline, and I sat in the back seat and rocked out for the entire 40 minute ride. We were convinced after that ride we were going to have the best day at work. Whew we were wrong. Within the first 20 minutes of being there a family came into the ER hysterically crying and holding an old man in a blanket. The man was dead upon arrival. The nurse attempted to do CPR but he had no pulse and was not breathing. I think this was the first dead patient I have seen before. It was pretty devastating. What made it even more difficult was that we don't speak the language. So we weren't sure exactly what happened and I was not able to comfort the family like I would have liked do. After the body was taken away many patients came in to receive injections, unfortunately this nurse didn't trust us and wouldn't let us give any injections. Then the baby came in that I had mentioned before. I don't know much except that she had somehow fallen out of a second story window. The mother and father were an absolute wreck. It was really hard to watch. The team tried for so long to get an IV in and on the third attempt were successful. Whew it was quite the day. Now my bags are packed and we leave on an overnight bus for Lima. My experience in huancayo has been so amazing and i am so grateful for the things and people i have encountered along the way. I want to really thank my parents, family, and friend for supporting me along the way. I am so so blessed. I will most likely be out of touch for the next week. Machu piccu here i come!!
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