Regular Routine

So, we haven´t even been here for 2 weeks yet and life has already fallen into quite a regular routine. Keri gets up at 7am every morning to go running (one of these days I will be motivated to join her!). I sleep about 20 more minutes then get up for a shower. She showers upon her return and we head down to greet the family and have breakfast. It is custom here to say hello and kiss the person on the cheek whenever you first see them and whenever you leave. So we generally are kissing our family about 6 or so times a day!

Our breakfast consists of some kind of hot beverage -- either a milky oatmeal, a dark oatmeal or hot chocolate -- and a piece of bread. But the bread is more like a circular roll about the size of a slice of bologna. It is really good. Then we head out to the clinic.

We sit in the clinic with either the Doctor, the Intern or one of two nurses and observe and assist when possible. Unfortunately, it is more observing than assisting. We did get to assist the Intern on Monday with some stitches in a little boy´s leg. The poor little guy was about 12 years old and he came to the clinic all by himself. His dad was working and his mom was in the house with the other kids. So he cut his shin pretty bad and needed stitches. We really like the Intern, Helio, but he is quite slow so this poor kid definitely suffered a little longer than necessary.

Keri and I were just amazed at how different they do things here. We took the boy into the room where wounds are cleaned and stuff. There was a man laying on the only bed so Helio sat the boy down on a stool. He then had the nurse help clean the wound. Not one person was wearing gloves! He dropped the tweezers on the floor and just asked the nurse to rinse them with water (mind you the water here is not clean for drinking). So then he just squats down and administers the anesthetic. The poor kid was in so much pain. Keri held his hand and I rubbed his arm. Then Helio started stitching him up. It was just such a mess. The three of us are squatting down on the ground throughout the whole procedure. I was able to cut the stitches though! Once the stitches were in, Helio just swiped some iodine on the wound and put gauze over it. Right then and there, Keri and I agreed that if anything happens to us, we will be going to the hospital in Cusco! So then he just sends the kid home. Didn´t give him any antibiotic ointment or more gauze. I just couldn´t imagine someone in the States sending their young son to the hospital by themselves to get stitches! I told my mom this and she asked, "Did he even have a Mom?". One of the doctors did an internal ultra sound on a woman the other day and there were no gloves to be seen. It just goes against all Keri and I know about hygiene!

So we have been feeling a little useless at the clinic right now. They have plenty of staff and they have the one Intern and 2 nursing students just started a 4 month clinical period. So we feel bad trying to do things that these people need to do for their studies. We had our weekly volunteer meeting on Tuesday night at Awamaki and talked to Kennedy, the director. She is going to get in touch with people she knows at the rural clinics so that we can go out to those and get some more experience. We will be going to Patacancha for a week. That is the most rural clinic is which the people speak Quechua, not Spanish. Then we will go to the Chilca clinic a couple days a week. That is not too far from Ollanta.

A group of volunteers is going to Cusco this weekend for Saturday and Sunday. While there, Keri and I are going to buy poster boards, markers, paint and soap because when school starts, we are going to do some hygiene and nutrition classes with the grade school kids. That will be fun.

As far as social activities, our team won the weekly Volunteer Pub Quiz last night so we were psyched about that. We are all looking forward to roaming around Cusco this weekend. There is a professional soccer (futbol) game on Sunday and tickets are 2 for 1 so we are going to try to do that. We have a huge hike planned for Thursday and Friday. I am a little nervous but I think I will talk to the doctor about what altitude sickness pills are the best and see if that helps. This hike goes up to 14000 feet as well. I am going to talk to some people to really see if I think I can do it or not.

Keri and I have been continuing our afternoon hikes and power walks. I don´t think I´ve gained any weight so that is a good thing. We just got the trail guide that was created by two previous volunteers so we are looking to do some more hikes around the area by ourselves.

I think that is it. We are still enjoying ourselves and just basking in the beauty of the Sacred Valley. Every day it seems like there are more tourists walking around, but the town is still pretty dead. They don´t even know if the railway to Machu Piccu will even be reconstructed. That will negatively impact Ollanta in a huge way. Selfishly, I like it that there aren´t tons of tourists around, but I understand that this town needs the income that they bring. Everyone lives off of tourism. It is really sad to see how badly people are suffering.