Everything went smoothly for our travels up to the north to Máncora. Our flight out of Cusco was delayed a couple hours but luckily they somehow knew that the day before so when we went to check in at the travel agent, she told us and we didn´t have to go to the airport and just wait. We did still manage to have a funny adventure at the airport. Here, if your money is ripped or torn at all, most places will not take it. Well, Keri had a ripped 20 sole note that she had someone tape for her and tell her to pawn it off on the airport tax cashiers. So luckily the woman did take the ripped note. Now, I knew that the woman would then just pawn it off to the next person who needed change and let Ben go ahead of me with this thought in mind. Sure enough, the woman tried to give Ben the ripped 20 and he just turned to Keri and said "Bastard!". So we all are laughing and the woman at the window understood and gave him a different one. But as we were still laughing and carrying on, we get stopped by this older security guy. He asks us to follow him upstairs to a private room. We all look at each other and joke that this is what people who are trafficking drugs must feel like.
So there is this body scanner up there like the ones we have in our airports. He said he just needed one of us girls and Ben to go through it. Of course, any of you who know Keri Baker can just imagine her excitement and enthusiasm at this request. She hops up on the scanner and these are different in that you stand and it electronically moves you down the scanner like on a treadmill. So when it is done, Keri jumps down and asks to see the x-ray. Unlike ours in the States, the picture is just right there with no privacy. First of all, the man says that Keri´s stomach is obviously not holding any smuggled drugs but in fact the white areas are just gas. We crack up at this part. Then we really crack up when we realize how large the x-ray makes Keri look. Keri is skinny and it made her look huge. I could only imaging what my thighs would look like if Keri is a size 8 and I am a size 12 and she looked so large and in charge. Because of Keri´s enthusiasm, the man decided that he did not need to scan Ben after all. So we were allowed to leave. I truly do not think that the security man gets so much happiness and thanks from most of the people he pulls aside. Keri just kept thanking him over and over for letting her be scanned!
Anyway, we made it to Lima and the Cruz del Sur bus station with plenty of time. Luckily, since our tickets are the expensive bus cama ones, we were able to hang out in the air-conditioned VIP lounge and use the internet and watch tv for free. Our bus was definitely the nicest we have ridden. You get pillows and blankets, we watched 2 movies and then played BINGO. How funny is that? The dinner was actually really good and then it was time to sleep. You just had to be careful when returning your seat to the upright position from the reclining position as it was extremely forceful and you felt like you were being ejected straight into the person in front of you! During the daylight hours though, I couldn´t get over the difference in terrain from Cusco/Ollanta area. From Lima up north, the only things to see are dirt, dirt and more dirt in the form of dirt hills. It is just a barren desert type terrain. Not pretty at all. I am so glad that I live in Ollanta.
I slept quite well until we were awakened at 7am to the Chipmunks movie starting at the highest volume imaginable. We arrived in Máncora at 8:30am, made it to the hostel and got settled. Yesterday was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. We laid on the beach, went swimming and then hung by the pool. I was careful to constanly reapply sunscreen as the sun is super strong here. We were having a bit of a lodging crisis as it is Semana Santa this week and the whole country is on vacation. Our hostel was booked for the weekend (we have a room until Friday) so we needed to start looking. Our friend Christina had told us that a beach farther north called Zorritos was beautiful and peaceful so we started looking into places there. It was just a pain to call all these places and not get a hold of anyone. Keri and Ben had walked down through half of Máncora looking for a decent place for the weekend and all but one place was booked solid and the only one that wasn´t would be $35 per night per person. Which doesn´t seem much to you but here it is a lot!
Michelle and I then went for a walk down the other side of the beach and found 2 rooms at the very far north end of the beach for $20 a night per person. We decided to stay there until Monday and then Michelle has to go meet her brother in Lima and Ben, Keri and I are going to head north to Ecuador!! Ben has been to the beaches in Ecuador and say they are much better than the ones here so off we are going. I think we will most likely just be beaching it there, but we shall see.
Anyway, we showered and went to this amazing Thai/Chinese restaurant, had a few drinks at a bar across the street and then went to one of the beach bars near our hotel. We had our own dance party for a couple hours there before going back to our hostel and joining in the going away party for the man who had been manager for the past 2 years. He was hysterical. He is this really tall and skinny British guy named Jake, who for some reason was wearing a girl´s dress. It barely covered his butt. He was up on the bar dancing and Keri and I were dancing right up there with him! We had a blast. Then Keri and I walked on the beach to try to sober up a bit before bed.
It was pouring down rain last night and all this morning so we had a lazy morning. We secured the rooms down at the end of the beach, went for a mid-afternoon swim and then decided to use the internet. There is a big bbq at the hostel tonight so that should be fun. It is really starting to get packed here for the holiday week. Both foreign tourists and Peruvian tourists.
The beach itself reminds me a lot of Thailand. It is pretty and the surf is okay. There is no wind so kite surfing/boarding is out of the question, but you are constantly bombarded on the beach by men and women trying to sell you stuff. We are looking forward to moving to a secluded area on the beach so we won´t be bothered. Today, there were two men not even trying to hide the fact that they were either taking photos or a video of us swimming and hanging out on the beach. It was pretty disgusting. I have visions of photos of us appearing on the internet.
But this is still just a developing beach town as it is dirty and some of the places look quite run down. However, we just enjoy our view of the beach and the ocean and try to ignore the trash and the building and things going on around us. The hostel we are in is really fun and so there is always something to do.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Heading to the beach! Vamos a la Playa!!!
Keri and I are running around crazy today trying to tie up loose ends and pack our stuff. I´m lucky knowing that I am coming back in 3 weeks but poor Keri also has to say all of her goodbyes. It is really sad. We have made some really amazing friends here.
So our plan is to go into Cusco tonight and spend the night and then catch an early flight to Lima on Monday morning. We have to be at the bus station at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon to catch our bus to Mancora. We will arrive in Mancora around 9am. We are psyched to take this 17 hour bus ride as it is a full cama bus -- your seat reclines all the way to a bed and you are tucked in by the steward. We are served dinner and breakfast on the bus too. So it is swanky! Ben and Keri and I will be meeting Michelle at the hostel in the morning.
We are just going to see how we like it there and have no other tickets bought so we may have 3 weeks at the beach or we may leave after a week and spend 2 weeks hiking in Huaraz. We shall see!! I´m just excited to lay out and relax and get all of my flea bites healed!
I´ll be posting blogs as I travel.
So our plan is to go into Cusco tonight and spend the night and then catch an early flight to Lima on Monday morning. We have to be at the bus station at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon to catch our bus to Mancora. We will arrive in Mancora around 9am. We are psyched to take this 17 hour bus ride as it is a full cama bus -- your seat reclines all the way to a bed and you are tucked in by the steward. We are served dinner and breakfast on the bus too. So it is swanky! Ben and Keri and I will be meeting Michelle at the hostel in the morning.
We are just going to see how we like it there and have no other tickets bought so we may have 3 weeks at the beach or we may leave after a week and spend 2 weeks hiking in Huaraz. We shall see!! I´m just excited to lay out and relax and get all of my flea bites healed!
I´ll be posting blogs as I travel.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Imagine giving birth by candlelight! It happens here!
We had no power all day yesterday and the clinic does not have a generator so many of the rooms were very dark. At one point I walked into the Topico room and found one of the nursing students trying to clean a man´s foot and treat his wound with no light at all. However, the worst of it was that a woman was in labor and the birthing room has no natural light and the emergency lights on the wall died after about 15 minutes. So I ran home to get my mini maglite and Elena ran to get her head lamp. As I came back into the room (not even 15 minutes later) the baby had just been born and there is Keri holding Elena´s head lamp up for the obstetrics nurse. If we didn´t have our two lights, they would have been doing everything by the light of three candles.
So I held my flash light up so Charo could stitch the woman up and deal with the afterbirth. The most horrific part of all of this is just how different they treat the patients here. I guess while the woman was pushing, a nursing student was holding her hand, but as soon as the baby was born, no one really spoke the the poor woman. There was no "Congratulations!" or "Good Job" or even just a "You have a baby boy!". They do not use pain medication at all. When Charo was stitching her up, she gave one shot of anesthetic in the vaginal area and just set to work. The woman was in so much pain and no one even talked to her! And, she didn´t get to hold the baby afterwards at all. Then to top it all off, after they kind of cleaned her up and gave her a sanitary pad, they asked for her underwear. Well, her mother was nowhere to be found and the girl did not have a clean pair of underwear. Charo starts yelling at the top of her lungs, "Underwear!" "She needs Underwear" (en español of course) for all of the clinic to hear. So someone had to run to the market and buy her undies. The poor woman!
I learned a lot about the kind of midwife I want to be in the future just by watching the entire process. We all just kind of were watching in shock -- no lights, the yelling and screaming (on the part of the obstetrics nurse, not the patient), the joking of the other nurses, the lack of communication or caring toward the patient. All of it was a lot to take in! But, I am very excited to be here until July and participate in more births. This birth was complicated because the girl had syphillis and she was supposed to deliver in the hospital in Cusco but she went into labor a month early and could not make it to Cusco in time. So everyone was all suited up to prevent any blood contact. They also were really worried about the mother passing syphillis on to the baby. Very educational! This is why I am here!
Last night, a group of us ate dinner together and then we all headed over to our new volunteer house for a bonfire and drinks. I just sat around talking to my friends here and thought , "Wow, I am really happy here. I love my life right now!" I live in a beautiful town, I have amazing friends, and the people here are so great. Life is good!
Today was another successful breakfast at the clinic. Poor Keri got peed on by a baby and I was a weighing, measuring, taking blood pressure phenom today. Some of these babies are just so little! I had to weigh and measure a 5 day old and a 15 day old. So cute!
And our baby Fabricio is coming home today (he should already be home) so we get to hold and cuddle him for the rest of the weekend before we leave.
We are having a painting and pizza party at the new volunteer house tonight and then KB is having a roof top party at his hostel tomorrow night. Fun times in Ollanta!
So I held my flash light up so Charo could stitch the woman up and deal with the afterbirth. The most horrific part of all of this is just how different they treat the patients here. I guess while the woman was pushing, a nursing student was holding her hand, but as soon as the baby was born, no one really spoke the the poor woman. There was no "Congratulations!" or "Good Job" or even just a "You have a baby boy!". They do not use pain medication at all. When Charo was stitching her up, she gave one shot of anesthetic in the vaginal area and just set to work. The woman was in so much pain and no one even talked to her! And, she didn´t get to hold the baby afterwards at all. Then to top it all off, after they kind of cleaned her up and gave her a sanitary pad, they asked for her underwear. Well, her mother was nowhere to be found and the girl did not have a clean pair of underwear. Charo starts yelling at the top of her lungs, "Underwear!" "She needs Underwear" (en español of course) for all of the clinic to hear. So someone had to run to the market and buy her undies. The poor woman!
I learned a lot about the kind of midwife I want to be in the future just by watching the entire process. We all just kind of were watching in shock -- no lights, the yelling and screaming (on the part of the obstetrics nurse, not the patient), the joking of the other nurses, the lack of communication or caring toward the patient. All of it was a lot to take in! But, I am very excited to be here until July and participate in more births. This birth was complicated because the girl had syphillis and she was supposed to deliver in the hospital in Cusco but she went into labor a month early and could not make it to Cusco in time. So everyone was all suited up to prevent any blood contact. They also were really worried about the mother passing syphillis on to the baby. Very educational! This is why I am here!
Last night, a group of us ate dinner together and then we all headed over to our new volunteer house for a bonfire and drinks. I just sat around talking to my friends here and thought , "Wow, I am really happy here. I love my life right now!" I live in a beautiful town, I have amazing friends, and the people here are so great. Life is good!
Today was another successful breakfast at the clinic. Poor Keri got peed on by a baby and I was a weighing, measuring, taking blood pressure phenom today. Some of these babies are just so little! I had to weigh and measure a 5 day old and a 15 day old. So cute!
And our baby Fabricio is coming home today (he should already be home) so we get to hold and cuddle him for the rest of the weekend before we leave.
We are having a painting and pizza party at the new volunteer house tonight and then KB is having a roof top party at his hostel tomorrow night. Fun times in Ollanta!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
We have a new baby boy!!!
Ana went into labor yesterday afternoon, went to the hospital yesterday evening and at 8:50am this morning, we welcomed as yet unnamed baby boy into the world! They are going between the two names Fabricio Valentino and Jose Valentino. Shura, Keri and I all like Fabricio better than Jose but I guess Jose is the saint of the month of March. So we shall see. Valentino was Celestino´s father´s name. He is huge! He was 4 days overdue and it looks like he is already a week old. He weighed 3.5 kilos and was 52 centimeters long. I will let you convert that to pounds and inches! Both mama and baby are doing well. They will be coming home tomorrow. When we went to visit, he was all wrapped up in one of the blankets we gave as a present and he just looked adorable!!
I´ve been busy these last few days. I was sick all day on Monday with major stomach problems, but I feel much better by today. I am at least able to eat now so that is good. We went out to the Chillca clinic today to scope out there needs and how many volunteers they would like. It is a really nice clinic. It was built in 2005 and is staffed by 2 nurses and 2 techs. I was extremely impressed with their epidemiology data. They do surveillance, have a map of houses that have people infected with specific diseases and perform weekly tests on the mosquito population to make sure they are not infected with disease. Very impressive for such a small clinic.
Yesterday, I started my Quechua lessons. I can now say all the salutations in Quechua that I could ever imagine. It is a very pretty language actually. I have class tomorrow night and Friday night and then will have to just study while I travel for 3 weeks before returning to resume my studies.
We really need to buckle down and get some work done these next few days as once Keri and I leave on Sunday, that will be the last time Keri, Ben and I are all together to plan the Awamaki Health stuff. Ben is almost done with the website.
Okay, I´ve got to go to dinner now. I´m hanging out with some locals this evening. I wish this place had a movie theatre or bowling alley. I have no idea what we will do other than walk around the plaza and maybe get a drink somewhere. Who knows!
Tapananchiskama!!! (Quecha for until our next meeting!)
I´ve been busy these last few days. I was sick all day on Monday with major stomach problems, but I feel much better by today. I am at least able to eat now so that is good. We went out to the Chillca clinic today to scope out there needs and how many volunteers they would like. It is a really nice clinic. It was built in 2005 and is staffed by 2 nurses and 2 techs. I was extremely impressed with their epidemiology data. They do surveillance, have a map of houses that have people infected with specific diseases and perform weekly tests on the mosquito population to make sure they are not infected with disease. Very impressive for such a small clinic.
Yesterday, I started my Quechua lessons. I can now say all the salutations in Quechua that I could ever imagine. It is a very pretty language actually. I have class tomorrow night and Friday night and then will have to just study while I travel for 3 weeks before returning to resume my studies.
We really need to buckle down and get some work done these next few days as once Keri and I leave on Sunday, that will be the last time Keri, Ben and I are all together to plan the Awamaki Health stuff. Ben is almost done with the website.
Okay, I´ve got to go to dinner now. I´m hanging out with some locals this evening. I wish this place had a movie theatre or bowling alley. I have no idea what we will do other than walk around the plaza and maybe get a drink somewhere. Who knows!
Tapananchiskama!!! (Quecha for until our next meeting!)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Check out the new photos on the slideshow!
Just wanted you all to see that I uploaded new photos. They are out of order, but enjoy!
Good Times in Cusco
Friday and Saturday were eventful days. We always feel like we get so much done on Fridays since we are up so early to prepare the breakfast at the clinic. We normally get to the clinic around 7am and start cooking the oatmeal. This week was similar to the first Friday we worked in that there were quite a lot of patients. If you could just see the scene in the clinic on Fridays, people are everywhere, the smell is a bit overwhelming -- it is a mix of wood smoke, body odor and just plain dirtyness (don´t think that is a word but oh, well). There are children rolling all around on the muddy, dirty floor with dirty feet and hands and green snot coming out of their noses. Yet, for it all, they are really sweet, cute kids. We really just need some more providers. We can get the people through admission/triage quite quickly and then they have to wait for upwards of 3 hours to see the providers. That is partially why we serve them breakfast. Most families have left their homes by 5am to get to the clinic around 8. They wait all day and then head home without eating much.
So after the clinic, Keri, Michelle, Hallie and I went to Michelle´s host family´s house for her going-away lunch. It was really good. Oven baked chicken, beet salad, choklo (large kernal corn), rice and potatoes (of course). Then they start bringing out the beers. It is a custom here to drink your beer with Coke. So you put about half and half, coke and beer. It actually isn´t that bad, it is just really carbonated. The cokes and soft drinks here are extremely bubbly b/c of our altitude. So all together, there were probably about 9 of us (Michelle´s host mother, sister, aunts and cousin) just laughed and talked and drank. We then went home to freshen up and met back out for some sangria before heading to the Awamaki pizza party. After pizza, the whole group (which we are now up to like 22 volunteers) went to Porfi´s bar to have another salsa lesson with Michelle´s host sister, Valentina. We learned some new moves and then just continued dancing to regular hip hop and other music. Keri and I went home early because we had to be up early to work at the Yanahuara clinic.
At the Yanahuara clinic, I worked in admissions and triage while Keri assited the nurse with the insurance papers. I had to learn the filing system there and they could definitely benefit from the color coding system we want to implement in Ollanta. Unfortunately, the stomach virus that has been circulating amongst the volunteers hit me on Saturday morning. I made it through the morning at the clinic with only a couple emergency trips to the bathroom but by the time we got on the bus to Cusco, I was starting to feel bad all over. When Keri and I caught the bus to Cusco, we thought, WOW! this is one nice mini-bus. Especially when we heard it was only 3 soles per person. However, after the first hour and a half (when we normally would be in the center of Cusco if we had taken a taxi), we realized why it was so cheap. We stopped all the time to pick up and drop people off or to let vendors on to sell choklo and popsicles. Just after 2 hours of traveling, we made it to Cusco.
We had some errands to run before meeting up with people around 4pm. So we bought our plane tickets to Lima for next week, we bought latex gloves for the clinic, we bought a new top to wear out dancing, and we had some lunch. We met up with Michelle and Hallie and headed to the hotel. After resting for a few hours (Hallie went to pick up Wanda at 7pm) and showering, I was feeling a bit better but still wavering on whether I should go out dancing. I had been drinking water and gatorade, ate some crackers and decided, just go and if you feel bad, you can leave.
I´m really glad I went because I ended up feeling fine and danced the night away. We ended up having a group of 12 people -- 5 of us girls, Porfi, Raul and Rider from Ollanta, Dr. Arnaldo, Elio, and two nursing students from the Clinic. We went to a number of clubs and just had a great time. I only drank water but still had a great time dancing. After a late night stop at McDonalds, we crashed at the hotel. We ate our nice breakfast buffet and then headed to the combi stop to go home. We didn´t have much luck with this combi either. It was packed, someone had horrible body odor (intermixed with nasty gas) and then this poor little girl behind us got car sick. We were glad to be home.
Unfortunately, after eating lunch today, my stomach has revolted again. I am skipping dinner. Ana still has not had the baby. He is now three days late. I really hope she has him soon. Keri and I leave on Sunday to start our 3 weeks of traveling. Luckily I get to return and hang out with the family, but I know that Keri really wants the baby to arrive before we leave.
So that is it. I just hope this stomach thing is a virus and not parasites. I´m going to give it a couple more days. Luckily, working in the clinic, they will just write me a prescription.
I´ve downloaded some new photos. These are from the Lares hike, some of the Ollanta clinic and the Patacancha clinic, our tour of the huge ruins in Ollantaytambo, our trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, and Keri and I´s experience in the tattoo parlor in Cusco. Flick -- sorry we didn´t wait but see if you like the design so you can get it too!
So after the clinic, Keri, Michelle, Hallie and I went to Michelle´s host family´s house for her going-away lunch. It was really good. Oven baked chicken, beet salad, choklo (large kernal corn), rice and potatoes (of course). Then they start bringing out the beers. It is a custom here to drink your beer with Coke. So you put about half and half, coke and beer. It actually isn´t that bad, it is just really carbonated. The cokes and soft drinks here are extremely bubbly b/c of our altitude. So all together, there were probably about 9 of us (Michelle´s host mother, sister, aunts and cousin) just laughed and talked and drank. We then went home to freshen up and met back out for some sangria before heading to the Awamaki pizza party. After pizza, the whole group (which we are now up to like 22 volunteers) went to Porfi´s bar to have another salsa lesson with Michelle´s host sister, Valentina. We learned some new moves and then just continued dancing to regular hip hop and other music. Keri and I went home early because we had to be up early to work at the Yanahuara clinic.
At the Yanahuara clinic, I worked in admissions and triage while Keri assited the nurse with the insurance papers. I had to learn the filing system there and they could definitely benefit from the color coding system we want to implement in Ollanta. Unfortunately, the stomach virus that has been circulating amongst the volunteers hit me on Saturday morning. I made it through the morning at the clinic with only a couple emergency trips to the bathroom but by the time we got on the bus to Cusco, I was starting to feel bad all over. When Keri and I caught the bus to Cusco, we thought, WOW! this is one nice mini-bus. Especially when we heard it was only 3 soles per person. However, after the first hour and a half (when we normally would be in the center of Cusco if we had taken a taxi), we realized why it was so cheap. We stopped all the time to pick up and drop people off or to let vendors on to sell choklo and popsicles. Just after 2 hours of traveling, we made it to Cusco.
We had some errands to run before meeting up with people around 4pm. So we bought our plane tickets to Lima for next week, we bought latex gloves for the clinic, we bought a new top to wear out dancing, and we had some lunch. We met up with Michelle and Hallie and headed to the hotel. After resting for a few hours (Hallie went to pick up Wanda at 7pm) and showering, I was feeling a bit better but still wavering on whether I should go out dancing. I had been drinking water and gatorade, ate some crackers and decided, just go and if you feel bad, you can leave.
I´m really glad I went because I ended up feeling fine and danced the night away. We ended up having a group of 12 people -- 5 of us girls, Porfi, Raul and Rider from Ollanta, Dr. Arnaldo, Elio, and two nursing students from the Clinic. We went to a number of clubs and just had a great time. I only drank water but still had a great time dancing. After a late night stop at McDonalds, we crashed at the hotel. We ate our nice breakfast buffet and then headed to the combi stop to go home. We didn´t have much luck with this combi either. It was packed, someone had horrible body odor (intermixed with nasty gas) and then this poor little girl behind us got car sick. We were glad to be home.
Unfortunately, after eating lunch today, my stomach has revolted again. I am skipping dinner. Ana still has not had the baby. He is now three days late. I really hope she has him soon. Keri and I leave on Sunday to start our 3 weeks of traveling. Luckily I get to return and hang out with the family, but I know that Keri really wants the baby to arrive before we leave.
So that is it. I just hope this stomach thing is a virus and not parasites. I´m going to give it a couple more days. Luckily, working in the clinic, they will just write me a prescription.
I´ve downloaded some new photos. These are from the Lares hike, some of the Ollanta clinic and the Patacancha clinic, our tour of the huge ruins in Ollantaytambo, our trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, and Keri and I´s experience in the tattoo parlor in Cusco. Flick -- sorry we didn´t wait but see if you like the design so you can get it too!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
St. Paddy´s Day!!
So although I wish I could have enjoyed all day off to celebrate Paddy´s Day but I worked in the clinic in the morning. It was a decent day. I ran the admissions area and helped in triage. I went home to finish my public health stuff, eat lunch and then go meet up with Margot and Eric (the visiting doctor and acupuncturist). We all went to the Telecentro to teach the class. This week was nutrition. Keri and I had drawn a huge Food Pyramid poster so we talked about the importance of a balanced diet and then we played "Food Bingo". The kids loved it. We also know that what we are teaching each week seems to stick b/c we do a review when we first arrive and the kids are still singing the hand washing song and telling us why they need to exercise. We gave them bananas when they got a Bingo.
Now I need to figure out what I am going to teach next week. We had a meeting with Kennedy, Hayden (a new health volunteer), and Ben. We discussed the short term and long term needs of the lab in the clinic. Hayden is working in the lab. We also continued with our future plans and needs concerning our website and the health volunteer coordinator that we want to hire.
We had dinner and played with our 4 year old "host nephew" before going over to the pub to start the Paddy´s Day celebrations. Porfi had been able to get Irish cider and a few other English beers flown in from Lima to Cusco! Crazy! The cider was great. We had a good group out celebrating. At some point the dancing started and we didn´t end up leaving until 2:30 in the morning. I was dancing salsa with Porfi. It isn´t too hard when you have someone good at leading who knows what they are doing. I am looking forward to Saturday night in Cusco because Porfi is coming too so that means more salsa for me!!! The owner of the best restaurant in town was out with us and he is hysterical. His name is Alejandro and he is Chilean. He is probably in his late 50s and has this big bushy mustache that he curls as he talks. His dancing was just cracking us up!
So needless to say, I´m a bit tired today. I´m currently researching some more public health curriculum for the other volunteers to continue with the kids while I am off traveling for 3 weeks. We were able to buy our bus tickets to the beach in Cusco on Monday so we just have to buy our flights from Cusco to Lima. The bus is 17 hours long, but we got the full cama so your seat reclines to a bed, you get both dinner and breakfast and there is a steward on board to serve you food and drinks. Pretty swanky!
Hope you all had fun on Paddy´s day. We´ve got the breakfast to serve at the clinic tomorrow morning, some volunteer festivities tomorrow night, I´ll be working the Yanahuara clinic Saturday morning before heading out to Cusco to go dancing with the staff at the Ollanta clinic and some friends on Saturday night! What fun! I am going to come home as a pro salsa dancer!
Next week, I start my Quechua lessons. I had a woman talking to me at the clinic yesterday all in Quechua. If I want to work in the this community long-term, I need to learn Quechua. So wish me luck!
Now I need to figure out what I am going to teach next week. We had a meeting with Kennedy, Hayden (a new health volunteer), and Ben. We discussed the short term and long term needs of the lab in the clinic. Hayden is working in the lab. We also continued with our future plans and needs concerning our website and the health volunteer coordinator that we want to hire.
We had dinner and played with our 4 year old "host nephew" before going over to the pub to start the Paddy´s Day celebrations. Porfi had been able to get Irish cider and a few other English beers flown in from Lima to Cusco! Crazy! The cider was great. We had a good group out celebrating. At some point the dancing started and we didn´t end up leaving until 2:30 in the morning. I was dancing salsa with Porfi. It isn´t too hard when you have someone good at leading who knows what they are doing. I am looking forward to Saturday night in Cusco because Porfi is coming too so that means more salsa for me!!! The owner of the best restaurant in town was out with us and he is hysterical. His name is Alejandro and he is Chilean. He is probably in his late 50s and has this big bushy mustache that he curls as he talks. His dancing was just cracking us up!
So needless to say, I´m a bit tired today. I´m currently researching some more public health curriculum for the other volunteers to continue with the kids while I am off traveling for 3 weeks. We were able to buy our bus tickets to the beach in Cusco on Monday so we just have to buy our flights from Cusco to Lima. The bus is 17 hours long, but we got the full cama so your seat reclines to a bed, you get both dinner and breakfast and there is a steward on board to serve you food and drinks. Pretty swanky!
Hope you all had fun on Paddy´s day. We´ve got the breakfast to serve at the clinic tomorrow morning, some volunteer festivities tomorrow night, I´ll be working the Yanahuara clinic Saturday morning before heading out to Cusco to go dancing with the staff at the Ollanta clinic and some friends on Saturday night! What fun! I am going to come home as a pro salsa dancer!
Next week, I start my Quechua lessons. I had a woman talking to me at the clinic yesterday all in Quechua. If I want to work in the this community long-term, I need to learn Quechua. So wish me luck!
Beautiful Weekend on Lake Titicaca
Sorry I have been delinquent in writing lately. We were out of town until Tuesday morning and things have been busy since we got back. So we left on Friday evening after having a very successful "chocolatada" in the morning at the clinic. Will and Jessica were not feeling well so poor Ben got stuck with the four of us ladies. So our group was me, Keri, Hallie, Michelle and Ben. Michelle had gone to Cusco earlier in the day to buy our bus tickets and we met up with her around 6:30 for dinner at an Australian owned restaurant called Jack´s. It was amazing. I think we all agree that any meal without rice and potatoes is amazing! After Jack´s we killed time with a beer at this fun Irish pub on the Plaza de Armas called Paddy´s (very original name, huh?). They were advertising for an English speaking bartender and I was very tempted to enquire about the job. I think you could make good money there.
Anyway, we made it to the bus station and changed into comfy clothes for the overnight bus ride. We left at 10pm and arrived in Puno at 5am. The bus was a semi-cama which means the seats do not go down to a full bed (cama) but nearly all the way down so it actually is pretty comfortable. The only problem was that it was freezing for most of the night so Keri and I cuddled together as bed we could under our jackets and stuff. When we arrived in Puno, we were beseiged by tour operators for Lake Titicaca. It is a little much to deal with at 5am. We would ask for 5 minutes to talk things over and the operators would be like, okay, and then literally just stand right next to you until it looked like you were ready to be beseiged again!
We decided to do a two day, one night tour of the floating islands, Isla Amananti, and Isla Tequile. It cost about $20 and included food and accomodation with a family on Isla Amananti. However, since we all live with families in Ollanta, we opted to pay extra and stay in the only hotel/lodge on the island so we could have running water in the bathrooms and such other comforts. We went down to the port and got on our little boat. I think there were probably 20 people on this tour. The first stop was Uros, the floating islands. The islands themselves are really cool in that they are man-made with reeds and dirt. When you are walking on them, it is like walking on a water bed. The bad thing about these islands is that they are way too touristy. You are greeted by a group of women who all shout "good morning, welcome and how are you?" in the native language and then they sit you down for a short presentation and then you have free time to basically walk around the little island and look at the crafts and weavings of the people as they beg you to buy something. You can take a ride in a reed boat for 10 soles. We did not do that!
After the floating islands, we got on the boat for the 3 hour journey across the Lake to Isla Amananti. The journey is 3 hours because the boat goes EXTREMELY slow. However, we did not mind because the weather was absolutely gorgeous -- sunny and warm. We all sat up on the top of the boat and read, listened to music and enjoyed the view. Lake Titicaca is beautiful and huge. It is the highest navigable lake in the world. The elevation is somewhere around 14,000 feet. As we were driving to the island, you can look to your right and see Bolivia in the distance. That is the closest I will come on this trip as I don´t want to fork over the $130 visa fee.
We got to the island and walked over to the lodge. It was really cute with beautiful lake views. The lake is so big that it seems like an ocean. After lunch, we met up with the group and walked around the plaza and learned about the island. Then we broke off from the group, hijacked an American traveling alone named Josh, bought some bottles of wine and sat down on the pier to talk and watch the sunset. It was beautiful. There was a huge rainstorm way in the distance but it really just looked so cool.
We went back for dinner and then (in my opinion this is strictly so that the locals can laugh at the tourists) we got dressed up in local clothes and went to a "fiesta" to dance. I think we lasted about 20 minutes. The women´s clothes are tied so tight around your middle that they are like a corset. Trying to walk up the mountain-side in that altitude with a corset on makes you feel like you are going to pass out. We did some star gazing and then went to bed.
In the morning, we got on the boat for an hour ride to Isla Tequile. This island was just as beautiful. We had free time to wander around and then we ate lunch and walked down 585 steps to the port. I got some really great pictures. Again, the day was sunny and warm. We all camped out on the top of the boat again for the ride back to Puno. I think my favorite part about being on the Lake was sitting up on top of the boat in the sunshine just gazing out at the beautiful islands and the blue-green color of the lake. I don´t know what I would have thought about this trip if the weather hadn´t been so beautiful.
We killed time in Puno until our bus left at 9:30pm. Puno itself is an ugly town. The main street that leads to the Plaza de Armas is nice as is the Plaza, but everything else is dirty and run down. We did hang out in the cathedral for awhile and I do admit that the cathedral was one of the prettiest I have been in here in Peru.
The bus home was bumpy but we arrived safely in Cusco at 5am on Monday morning. Unfortunately nothing is open in Cusco until 7-7:30am. We killed an hour watching high school boys and girls practice a dance for some festival and then at 6, we walked over to the huge market to get some fresh juice from one of the juice ladies. You get two huge glasses of fresh squeezed juice for $1.25. I got orange/pineapple. I love it. By then we walked to a breakfast place but it wasn´t open so we headed to the nice hotel we like and luckily they allowed us to check in early. We all crashed for a few hours, showered and rallied to go out to lunch. We really just hung out most of the day. Keri and I traipsed around to all the airline offices and some travel agencies pricing flights and bus tickets. We also ended up getting our tattoos so we are psyched about that. They look great (although they are in the scabbing phase right now). I will post photos when I remember to bring my camera to the internet place. We ate dinner and then happily went back to the room to watch some English television. It is amazing how deprived you feel sometimes. It is the little things that make you happy!
We enjoyed the delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel and then trudged through the rain to the combi/taxi area for Ollanta and we were off home. Keri and I had to rush to meet some others to go check out another health clinic in a town called Yanahuara. It is only about 15 minutes from Ollanta on the way to Urubamba. Again, this clinic, like Patacancha, was so much better organized and so clean. It is staffed by one nurse, an obstetrics nurse and a med tech. The nurse, Marleni, was so nice and accommodating. We are going out to help her on Saturday morning because the children from two surrounding mountain communities are coming down for their check-ups and vaccines and such. I worked on my public health class posters in the afternoon and then headed to a meeting with a visiting doctor and acupunturist. We ate at the best restaurant in town which only just reopened. It was divine! I think the guacamole there was better than most places I eat in the States. We had our pub quiz (which unfortunately after three straight wins, I am now on a losing streak). We talked with Porfi, the bar owner about getting some Irish beers or cider for St. Patrick´s Day. He is going to do what he can. Then it was home to bed!
So that brings me to Wednesday. I will start a new post as I am sure you all are tired of reading this novel!
Anyway, we made it to the bus station and changed into comfy clothes for the overnight bus ride. We left at 10pm and arrived in Puno at 5am. The bus was a semi-cama which means the seats do not go down to a full bed (cama) but nearly all the way down so it actually is pretty comfortable. The only problem was that it was freezing for most of the night so Keri and I cuddled together as bed we could under our jackets and stuff. When we arrived in Puno, we were beseiged by tour operators for Lake Titicaca. It is a little much to deal with at 5am. We would ask for 5 minutes to talk things over and the operators would be like, okay, and then literally just stand right next to you until it looked like you were ready to be beseiged again!
We decided to do a two day, one night tour of the floating islands, Isla Amananti, and Isla Tequile. It cost about $20 and included food and accomodation with a family on Isla Amananti. However, since we all live with families in Ollanta, we opted to pay extra and stay in the only hotel/lodge on the island so we could have running water in the bathrooms and such other comforts. We went down to the port and got on our little boat. I think there were probably 20 people on this tour. The first stop was Uros, the floating islands. The islands themselves are really cool in that they are man-made with reeds and dirt. When you are walking on them, it is like walking on a water bed. The bad thing about these islands is that they are way too touristy. You are greeted by a group of women who all shout "good morning, welcome and how are you?" in the native language and then they sit you down for a short presentation and then you have free time to basically walk around the little island and look at the crafts and weavings of the people as they beg you to buy something. You can take a ride in a reed boat for 10 soles. We did not do that!
After the floating islands, we got on the boat for the 3 hour journey across the Lake to Isla Amananti. The journey is 3 hours because the boat goes EXTREMELY slow. However, we did not mind because the weather was absolutely gorgeous -- sunny and warm. We all sat up on the top of the boat and read, listened to music and enjoyed the view. Lake Titicaca is beautiful and huge. It is the highest navigable lake in the world. The elevation is somewhere around 14,000 feet. As we were driving to the island, you can look to your right and see Bolivia in the distance. That is the closest I will come on this trip as I don´t want to fork over the $130 visa fee.
We got to the island and walked over to the lodge. It was really cute with beautiful lake views. The lake is so big that it seems like an ocean. After lunch, we met up with the group and walked around the plaza and learned about the island. Then we broke off from the group, hijacked an American traveling alone named Josh, bought some bottles of wine and sat down on the pier to talk and watch the sunset. It was beautiful. There was a huge rainstorm way in the distance but it really just looked so cool.
We went back for dinner and then (in my opinion this is strictly so that the locals can laugh at the tourists) we got dressed up in local clothes and went to a "fiesta" to dance. I think we lasted about 20 minutes. The women´s clothes are tied so tight around your middle that they are like a corset. Trying to walk up the mountain-side in that altitude with a corset on makes you feel like you are going to pass out. We did some star gazing and then went to bed.
In the morning, we got on the boat for an hour ride to Isla Tequile. This island was just as beautiful. We had free time to wander around and then we ate lunch and walked down 585 steps to the port. I got some really great pictures. Again, the day was sunny and warm. We all camped out on the top of the boat again for the ride back to Puno. I think my favorite part about being on the Lake was sitting up on top of the boat in the sunshine just gazing out at the beautiful islands and the blue-green color of the lake. I don´t know what I would have thought about this trip if the weather hadn´t been so beautiful.
We killed time in Puno until our bus left at 9:30pm. Puno itself is an ugly town. The main street that leads to the Plaza de Armas is nice as is the Plaza, but everything else is dirty and run down. We did hang out in the cathedral for awhile and I do admit that the cathedral was one of the prettiest I have been in here in Peru.
The bus home was bumpy but we arrived safely in Cusco at 5am on Monday morning. Unfortunately nothing is open in Cusco until 7-7:30am. We killed an hour watching high school boys and girls practice a dance for some festival and then at 6, we walked over to the huge market to get some fresh juice from one of the juice ladies. You get two huge glasses of fresh squeezed juice for $1.25. I got orange/pineapple. I love it. By then we walked to a breakfast place but it wasn´t open so we headed to the nice hotel we like and luckily they allowed us to check in early. We all crashed for a few hours, showered and rallied to go out to lunch. We really just hung out most of the day. Keri and I traipsed around to all the airline offices and some travel agencies pricing flights and bus tickets. We also ended up getting our tattoos so we are psyched about that. They look great (although they are in the scabbing phase right now). I will post photos when I remember to bring my camera to the internet place. We ate dinner and then happily went back to the room to watch some English television. It is amazing how deprived you feel sometimes. It is the little things that make you happy!
We enjoyed the delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel and then trudged through the rain to the combi/taxi area for Ollanta and we were off home. Keri and I had to rush to meet some others to go check out another health clinic in a town called Yanahuara. It is only about 15 minutes from Ollanta on the way to Urubamba. Again, this clinic, like Patacancha, was so much better organized and so clean. It is staffed by one nurse, an obstetrics nurse and a med tech. The nurse, Marleni, was so nice and accommodating. We are going out to help her on Saturday morning because the children from two surrounding mountain communities are coming down for their check-ups and vaccines and such. I worked on my public health class posters in the afternoon and then headed to a meeting with a visiting doctor and acupunturist. We ate at the best restaurant in town which only just reopened. It was divine! I think the guacamole there was better than most places I eat in the States. We had our pub quiz (which unfortunately after three straight wins, I am now on a losing streak). We talked with Porfi, the bar owner about getting some Irish beers or cider for St. Patrick´s Day. He is going to do what he can. Then it was home to bed!
So that brings me to Wednesday. I will start a new post as I am sure you all are tired of reading this novel!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Overnight in Patacancha
On Tuesday, Annie, Keri and I headed up to Patacancha to spend the night and hang out with the nurse in the clinic up there. Patacancha is about 13 miles from Ollanta and takes about an hour and a half to get to by car. The altitude is about the same as Cusco so 12,500 feet (meaning, it gets darn cold there overnight!). We made it in the taxi to this town called Huilloc. At Huilloc, the entire town and more was working on installing a pipeline so there was just this huge line of workers with pick axes and shovels digging a huge trench. The car could not pass as they were digging up the middle of the road. We had to get out and walk the rest of the way to Patacancha. It took about an hour to walk uphill to the town. I wasn´t prepared to walk uphill for an hour and I had gotten some horrible blisters from my hike last weekend that opened up again on my heels during the walk to town.
We were meant to arrive at 10ish and meet the family we were going to be staying with. However, due to the walking, we didn´t get to town until 11:15 and had no idea how to find the family. We just knew we were staying with Asunta and her family. Luckily, the town is so small that you can go around asking "Do you know Asunta? Do you know where she lives?" to pretty much anyone (even a 7 year old girl) and they will point you in the right direction. So after about 10 minutes of wandering around, we found who we were looking for. Her husband took us down to the clinic when we had organized our beds and such.
The clinic in Patacancha is actually a heck of a lot nicer than any of us had thought it would be. It is staffed by one nurse, but she does pretty much the same thing that any of the nurses and doctors do in the clinic in Ollanta. She delivers babies, she treats wounds and infections. She obviously takes a lot of pride in her work and workspace because her clinic was very clean and organized. Much better than the clinic in Ollanta. The nurse, Marisol, was so nice and so great with the patients. She spoke Quechua with all of the patients but then would talk to us in Spanish to explain what the problem was. We were able to help her with insurance forms and triage. We also talked to her quite extensively about what she needed for the clinic.
They are actually building a much larger clinic right next to the existing one. We were asking if they were going to be staffing this clinic with at least 2 nurses, but she did not know. The old clinic will be turned into a dormitory for women and students who come from long distances for services and school. There is quite a nice high school in Patacancha.
The houses in Patacancha have electricity and running water, but many share a communal bathroom that is really just a toilet. So, the amenities are not great but I would feel comfortable going to Marisol if I was sick. It is the same up in Patacancha as down in Ollanta, though, they really only have a handful of antibiotics to choose from. We worry about the antibiotic resistance these people must be forming. If you give the same antibiotic for every ailment (even just a cold) you are only setting these people up for a serious problem in the future. No wonder everyone keeps getting the same intestinal infections and respiratory infections. Parasites are a big problem in the mountain communities so they take a pill every 6 months to keep the parasites out of their system.
We really enjoyed hanging out with Marisol. I plan on spending a week up in Patacancha with her in May. I can stay at the clinic as there are 3 extra beds in the maternity room. We had our dinner at our homestay and then sat mesmerized by the stars for a good while. It was freezing up there but the stars were the best I have ever seen. Our room was 50 degrees (thanks to the thermometer in my travel alarm clock). You may think 50 degrees is not that cold, well, I am here to tell you differently. We slept with all of our clothes on, ie. 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt, fleece vest, gloves and hat. I was still cold even under 3 alpaca blankets. Once you get cold, it is just so hard to warm up.
In the morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, thanked our homestay family (who if I do come back in May, she owes me a weaving lesson!) and then began our hike down to Ollanta. It isn´t a difficult hike down b/c you are following a dirt road, but it takes a good 3 and a half hours. When you add in the blisters on my heels, I was ready to be in flip flops by the time we made it into Ollanta. It was a beautiful day though, so at least we were walking in the sun and not the rain. We had to pass over a couple areas of landslides but it wasn´t bad.
One funny thing did happen. When you need to use the restroom, you just find a somewhat hidden place and do your business. Well, we had rounded a bend and thought we were hidden from view so Keri and I both dropped our pants and started peeing. I guess we weren´t too hidden from two little girls who were herding their cows. The littlest one, probably about 6, came running down the hill towards us, giggling and laughing. By this point, we had finished and were walking on down the road but she stopped and looked at Keri´s pee like it was something extraordinary. Like she wanted to see if white people peed like she did. It was hysterical.
We made it back to town, had a shower, ate lunch and then went off to teach our weekly public health lesson to the after school program. Yesterday was the importance of exercise. The kids still remembered our hand washing song from last week so we sang that again before talking about exercise. They loved the posters we drew (Keri and I are tapping into our artisitic sides each week). We then set up a circuit training with push-ups, sit ups, mountain climber, jumping jacks and running in place. They loved it. Of course we had brought water for afterwards. Next week is nutrition!
So that brings us to today. I worked in the clinic this morning just doing triage and pulling charts. I don´t think anyone had swept the floors since we cleaned on Sunday so I spent an hour doing that. There were hardly any people in today. Tomorrow will be a big day.
We are serving breakfast again at the clinic. I expect we will have a lot of people since the weather has been good this week and the roads are passable. Then at 4:30pm, we are heading to Cusco to catch a night bus to Puno. From Puno we will head to an island in Lake Titicaca for the weekend. We will return on Monday. There are at least 6 and maybe 7 of us going. It should be a lot of fun.
So I will write again when we get back. I have more photos to download so I will do that after the weekend as well.
Hope all is well with everyone!
We were meant to arrive at 10ish and meet the family we were going to be staying with. However, due to the walking, we didn´t get to town until 11:15 and had no idea how to find the family. We just knew we were staying with Asunta and her family. Luckily, the town is so small that you can go around asking "Do you know Asunta? Do you know where she lives?" to pretty much anyone (even a 7 year old girl) and they will point you in the right direction. So after about 10 minutes of wandering around, we found who we were looking for. Her husband took us down to the clinic when we had organized our beds and such.
The clinic in Patacancha is actually a heck of a lot nicer than any of us had thought it would be. It is staffed by one nurse, but she does pretty much the same thing that any of the nurses and doctors do in the clinic in Ollanta. She delivers babies, she treats wounds and infections. She obviously takes a lot of pride in her work and workspace because her clinic was very clean and organized. Much better than the clinic in Ollanta. The nurse, Marisol, was so nice and so great with the patients. She spoke Quechua with all of the patients but then would talk to us in Spanish to explain what the problem was. We were able to help her with insurance forms and triage. We also talked to her quite extensively about what she needed for the clinic.
They are actually building a much larger clinic right next to the existing one. We were asking if they were going to be staffing this clinic with at least 2 nurses, but she did not know. The old clinic will be turned into a dormitory for women and students who come from long distances for services and school. There is quite a nice high school in Patacancha.
The houses in Patacancha have electricity and running water, but many share a communal bathroom that is really just a toilet. So, the amenities are not great but I would feel comfortable going to Marisol if I was sick. It is the same up in Patacancha as down in Ollanta, though, they really only have a handful of antibiotics to choose from. We worry about the antibiotic resistance these people must be forming. If you give the same antibiotic for every ailment (even just a cold) you are only setting these people up for a serious problem in the future. No wonder everyone keeps getting the same intestinal infections and respiratory infections. Parasites are a big problem in the mountain communities so they take a pill every 6 months to keep the parasites out of their system.
We really enjoyed hanging out with Marisol. I plan on spending a week up in Patacancha with her in May. I can stay at the clinic as there are 3 extra beds in the maternity room. We had our dinner at our homestay and then sat mesmerized by the stars for a good while. It was freezing up there but the stars were the best I have ever seen. Our room was 50 degrees (thanks to the thermometer in my travel alarm clock). You may think 50 degrees is not that cold, well, I am here to tell you differently. We slept with all of our clothes on, ie. 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt, fleece vest, gloves and hat. I was still cold even under 3 alpaca blankets. Once you get cold, it is just so hard to warm up.
In the morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, thanked our homestay family (who if I do come back in May, she owes me a weaving lesson!) and then began our hike down to Ollanta. It isn´t a difficult hike down b/c you are following a dirt road, but it takes a good 3 and a half hours. When you add in the blisters on my heels, I was ready to be in flip flops by the time we made it into Ollanta. It was a beautiful day though, so at least we were walking in the sun and not the rain. We had to pass over a couple areas of landslides but it wasn´t bad.
One funny thing did happen. When you need to use the restroom, you just find a somewhat hidden place and do your business. Well, we had rounded a bend and thought we were hidden from view so Keri and I both dropped our pants and started peeing. I guess we weren´t too hidden from two little girls who were herding their cows. The littlest one, probably about 6, came running down the hill towards us, giggling and laughing. By this point, we had finished and were walking on down the road but she stopped and looked at Keri´s pee like it was something extraordinary. Like she wanted to see if white people peed like she did. It was hysterical.
We made it back to town, had a shower, ate lunch and then went off to teach our weekly public health lesson to the after school program. Yesterday was the importance of exercise. The kids still remembered our hand washing song from last week so we sang that again before talking about exercise. They loved the posters we drew (Keri and I are tapping into our artisitic sides each week). We then set up a circuit training with push-ups, sit ups, mountain climber, jumping jacks and running in place. They loved it. Of course we had brought water for afterwards. Next week is nutrition!
So that brings us to today. I worked in the clinic this morning just doing triage and pulling charts. I don´t think anyone had swept the floors since we cleaned on Sunday so I spent an hour doing that. There were hardly any people in today. Tomorrow will be a big day.
We are serving breakfast again at the clinic. I expect we will have a lot of people since the weather has been good this week and the roads are passable. Then at 4:30pm, we are heading to Cusco to catch a night bus to Puno. From Puno we will head to an island in Lake Titicaca for the weekend. We will return on Monday. There are at least 6 and maybe 7 of us going. It should be a lot of fun.
So I will write again when we get back. I have more photos to download so I will do that after the weekend as well.
Hope all is well with everyone!
Monday, March 8, 2010
It´s Official -- No Machu Picchu for us! :(
So I just got the email from Peru Treks saying that our trek has been cancelled. I am a little peeved b/c they say the trail will not open until April 1st and we were supposed to leave on March 31st so if it really does open on the 1st, we will have missed it by one day!
They are offering a 4 day alternative trek to Lares but we´ve already done part of that trek and would rather just get whatever amount of our deposit back that we can and cut our losses. The only good thing is that we will be back next year and will try again (in dryer months!).
The disappointment hasn´t really set in yet. I know that it will, though. I mean, Machu Picchu is at my back door here and I don´t get to do the Inca Trail. I could still go to Machu Picchu by train later in the year, but I want my first views of it to be at sunrise after I have just hiked 4 days to get there.
Keri and I will still enjoy our travels but this does put a damper on things. Mother Nature is just not happy about something. Or as they say here, Pachamama is not happy!
They are offering a 4 day alternative trek to Lares but we´ve already done part of that trek and would rather just get whatever amount of our deposit back that we can and cut our losses. The only good thing is that we will be back next year and will try again (in dryer months!).
The disappointment hasn´t really set in yet. I know that it will, though. I mean, Machu Picchu is at my back door here and I don´t get to do the Inca Trail. I could still go to Machu Picchu by train later in the year, but I want my first views of it to be at sunrise after I have just hiked 4 days to get there.
Keri and I will still enjoy our travels but this does put a damper on things. Mother Nature is just not happy about something. Or as they say here, Pachamama is not happy!
Que Asco! (How Disgusting!)
So we attempted to clean the clinic yesterday, and while we made great progress, there is still so much to do! We were able to hit the main rooms that needed a thorough cleaning -- the treatment room, gyno room, triage room, 2 doctor's offices, the small kitchen and three of the bathrooms. If you could have seen the grime, dried blood, and dirt that came off of the equipment, you would have been revolted. I won't get into details but I think all of us were taken aback at really how bad it was. Who knows the last time someone just wiped down the bed used in the gyno room. We also did a quick clean of the bed that is used during labors. You could see dried fluids on it! So, we still need to scrub down more walls and rooms, but after working hard for about 6 hours yesterday (there were 10 of us), we just had to take a break.
It is one of those things that although we repeatedly changed out dirty water for clean, you probably would not even see the difference. the dirt had been caked on for so long. We still also need to move unused and broken equipment out of the clinic into a storage area. All of my former co-workers at the VA will appreciate the 5 S-ing that I am going to be implementing in their chart room as well as equipment and supply rooms. Thanks Heather!
So, we got some good photos and Ben is working hard on getting the Awamaki Health website up and running. You'll have to have a look when I send the link out.
Yesterday was actually a really fun day, even if it was long and tiring. We met the group at 8am to go walk around the huge Inca ruins in town. The ruins are called the Sun Temple and they became an Incan military post. We learned some really interesting facts and were just blown away by the intelligence and power of the Inca people. You should see these rocks that they cut so perfectly and carried hours down the mountains from las Canteras (quarries). They also created underground water canals to channel their water. Amazing!
Anyway, after the morning ruins tour, we headed to the clinic to begin cleaning. We were there until about 2:30 before breaking for lunch. Keri and I scarfed down our food at our house and then headed back to the clinic for two more hours of cleaning. We then had to rush home and take the quickest showers of our lives b/c Michelle's host sister was teaching those interested how to salsa dance at 6pm at the pub. We had about 10 people there dancing around. It was tons of fun. We learned the 4 basic steps and just did versions of that for the hour. I have no idea how these women are able to move their legs, hips, shoulders and arms so beautifully at the same time. Wow! After salsa lessons were over, we had a big dance party to old school hip-hop, pop and good old Michael Jackson. Everyone was having a great time.
Last week, Porfi, the owner of the bar, had said that he was worried that we weren't having fun here in Ollanta. Well, I think he definitely saw that we indeed can have a lot of fun after last night.
The Oscars started and we were all a little disappointed when the Spanish dubbing started. So we did our best to understand, but Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were just not as funny in Spanish. I only made it until about 10:30 before I was ready to go home. Keri stayed to chat with Ben and I read until late into the evening.
Unfortunately, I was extremely embarrassed last night when I got home from the pub. Unbeknownst to me, the water was off again and so I just did my usual nightly ritual which includes going to the bathroom before washing my face and brushing my teeth. Well, with no water, the toilet doesn't flush. So I tried to get some water from the canal outside our house but when the water is off, the canal is low so I couldn't even do the bucket flush thing. Horrible! I learned this morning that the water went off around 8pm and as of 9am this morning, it was still off. You don't realize how dependent you are on running water until you don't have it anymore! I am hoping it will be back on when I go home for lunch in the next half hour.
On a disappointing side note, Keri and I are beginning to accept the fact that we will most likely not be able to do our Machu Picchu trek at the end of the month. Word on the street is that Machu Picchu will not actually open on April 1st as planned. We are hoping that those of us who come into Machu Picchu from the Inca trail will still be able to do it, but train tickets are still not available for those who do not plan to hike in. I haven't heard anything from the tour company so we are still keeping our fingers crossed. We shall see. If we can't do the Inca Trail, we will probably spend more time in Northern Peru and maybe even Ecuador.
We have decided not to do the jungle trip as the agency we were trying to book with turned out to be extremely sketchy and to really do the jungle trip we want to do, it would be expensive and I don't have the money. Since we both plan on being back here next year for a short stint, we can always do both the jungle and Machu Picchu then if need be.
Okay, lunch time. I wonder what we will have...let me guess...white rice, potatoes and meat! Although, I weighed myself at the clinic and somehow I am managing to lose weight, even with all the starch. I'm down about 6 pounds. Only 15 more to go!
Hope everyone had a great weekend. Talk soon!
It is one of those things that although we repeatedly changed out dirty water for clean, you probably would not even see the difference. the dirt had been caked on for so long. We still also need to move unused and broken equipment out of the clinic into a storage area. All of my former co-workers at the VA will appreciate the 5 S-ing that I am going to be implementing in their chart room as well as equipment and supply rooms. Thanks Heather!
So, we got some good photos and Ben is working hard on getting the Awamaki Health website up and running. You'll have to have a look when I send the link out.
Yesterday was actually a really fun day, even if it was long and tiring. We met the group at 8am to go walk around the huge Inca ruins in town. The ruins are called the Sun Temple and they became an Incan military post. We learned some really interesting facts and were just blown away by the intelligence and power of the Inca people. You should see these rocks that they cut so perfectly and carried hours down the mountains from las Canteras (quarries). They also created underground water canals to channel their water. Amazing!
Anyway, after the morning ruins tour, we headed to the clinic to begin cleaning. We were there until about 2:30 before breaking for lunch. Keri and I scarfed down our food at our house and then headed back to the clinic for two more hours of cleaning. We then had to rush home and take the quickest showers of our lives b/c Michelle's host sister was teaching those interested how to salsa dance at 6pm at the pub. We had about 10 people there dancing around. It was tons of fun. We learned the 4 basic steps and just did versions of that for the hour. I have no idea how these women are able to move their legs, hips, shoulders and arms so beautifully at the same time. Wow! After salsa lessons were over, we had a big dance party to old school hip-hop, pop and good old Michael Jackson. Everyone was having a great time.
Last week, Porfi, the owner of the bar, had said that he was worried that we weren't having fun here in Ollanta. Well, I think he definitely saw that we indeed can have a lot of fun after last night.
The Oscars started and we were all a little disappointed when the Spanish dubbing started. So we did our best to understand, but Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were just not as funny in Spanish. I only made it until about 10:30 before I was ready to go home. Keri stayed to chat with Ben and I read until late into the evening.
Unfortunately, I was extremely embarrassed last night when I got home from the pub. Unbeknownst to me, the water was off again and so I just did my usual nightly ritual which includes going to the bathroom before washing my face and brushing my teeth. Well, with no water, the toilet doesn't flush. So I tried to get some water from the canal outside our house but when the water is off, the canal is low so I couldn't even do the bucket flush thing. Horrible! I learned this morning that the water went off around 8pm and as of 9am this morning, it was still off. You don't realize how dependent you are on running water until you don't have it anymore! I am hoping it will be back on when I go home for lunch in the next half hour.
On a disappointing side note, Keri and I are beginning to accept the fact that we will most likely not be able to do our Machu Picchu trek at the end of the month. Word on the street is that Machu Picchu will not actually open on April 1st as planned. We are hoping that those of us who come into Machu Picchu from the Inca trail will still be able to do it, but train tickets are still not available for those who do not plan to hike in. I haven't heard anything from the tour company so we are still keeping our fingers crossed. We shall see. If we can't do the Inca Trail, we will probably spend more time in Northern Peru and maybe even Ecuador.
We have decided not to do the jungle trip as the agency we were trying to book with turned out to be extremely sketchy and to really do the jungle trip we want to do, it would be expensive and I don't have the money. Since we both plan on being back here next year for a short stint, we can always do both the jungle and Machu Picchu then if need be.
Okay, lunch time. I wonder what we will have...let me guess...white rice, potatoes and meat! Although, I weighed myself at the clinic and somehow I am managing to lose weight, even with all the starch. I'm down about 6 pounds. Only 15 more to go!
Hope everyone had a great weekend. Talk soon!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Getting a little "Alison" time
So I went on a nice hike on my own this morning and had some time to think as I listened to my iPod and urged my legs to just keep going a little longer. I only hiked up to the first Canteras (quarry) but the first 45 minutes is pretty much all uphill over rocky terrain so it is difficult. It is a nice hike because it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the Canteras and then only about an hour to go back down. So you feel like you got a good workout without really killing yourself. My friends went on a longer hike today but I decided to just do my own thing as I´m still fighting a respiratory infection and hadn´t worked out in a week. I wanted to go at my own pace.
With my two and a half hours of "Alison" time, I thought a lot about what we are trying to create here in Ollanta. Awamaki Health has the potential to really become something big. The more Ben, Keri, Annie and I talk about what we would ultimately like to establish, the more excited we get. We have to remind ourselves to start small. So we have set out some short term and long term goals. We are creating our mission statement and trying to see what we can accomplish before everyone leaves. Annie is leaving next week, Ben leaves in the beginning of April and then Keri leaves on April 21st. We have a lot to do but we are motivated.
My plan now (since the Peace Corps is out) is to return home in July -- but really it is August b/c I am traveling for weddings in July until the 27th -- and just work for about 5 months and save money. I will work on Awamaki Health things from afar like getting public health education curriculum finalized, getting supplies for teaching classes, and searching for and applying for grants. Then I will return down to Ollanta in January or February of 2011. I will stay here, working, until the summer and then hopefully move to wherever I get accepted for nursing school. I am really hoping it is Yale, but we shall see.
Friday was an eventful day in the clinic. We have started implementing "Chocolatada" on Friday mornings. Normally, Fridays are extremely busy because people who live up in the mountain communities come down for medical care. So we, Awamaki and the doctors at the clinic, have decided to serve breakfast to the people. I also want to implement some bathing stations (at least for children) but that may take a little while. Anyway, we also decided that we needed to start implementing a cleaning schedule. We are starting on Sunday with a major clean of the whole clinic. So on Thursday, Keri and I joined Miguel for a shopping trip in Cusco. We got 50 plastic mugs to serve the breakfast in (it is like oatmeal but more liquidy) and tons of cleaning supplies.
The chocolatada was not so successful yesterday because we had tons of rain Thursday night and so the roads to and from the mountain communities were not passable due to landslides and mud. We were able to serve most of the breakfast to the people who were able to come in and then we jumped in the back of the health center truck (pretty much an oxymoron when it comes to public health) and joined the Intern, two nursing students and two techs down at the area where people lost their homes to see patients. We were able to give the rest of the breakfast to the kids down there. Elio saw about 30 patients (they literally just line up and see him one by one). All Elio had was Amaxycillian, Ibuprofen and children´s vitamins so pretty much whatever you ailment was, you were getting the same treatment as the next guy. Then we all piled back in the back of the pick-up (along with a father and his 4 kids) and headed back to town. We all had to get out when we came to the bridge b/c it was not safe for the truck with all of us in it to drive across. So we all walked across.
So Sunday is the big cleaning day. We are roping all of the Awamaki volunteers into helping. We all are meeting at 7:30am to go hike around the huge Incan ruins in town for a couple hours (Miguel got us free passes) and then we are heading to the clinic. I think our host sister, Shura wants to join us too!
Tonight is a pizza party to welcome two new volunteers.
So, big weekend. Next weekend will be fun. We´ve got a group organized to go down to Puno and Lake Titicaca for the weekend.
With my two and a half hours of "Alison" time, I thought a lot about what we are trying to create here in Ollanta. Awamaki Health has the potential to really become something big. The more Ben, Keri, Annie and I talk about what we would ultimately like to establish, the more excited we get. We have to remind ourselves to start small. So we have set out some short term and long term goals. We are creating our mission statement and trying to see what we can accomplish before everyone leaves. Annie is leaving next week, Ben leaves in the beginning of April and then Keri leaves on April 21st. We have a lot to do but we are motivated.
My plan now (since the Peace Corps is out) is to return home in July -- but really it is August b/c I am traveling for weddings in July until the 27th -- and just work for about 5 months and save money. I will work on Awamaki Health things from afar like getting public health education curriculum finalized, getting supplies for teaching classes, and searching for and applying for grants. Then I will return down to Ollanta in January or February of 2011. I will stay here, working, until the summer and then hopefully move to wherever I get accepted for nursing school. I am really hoping it is Yale, but we shall see.
Friday was an eventful day in the clinic. We have started implementing "Chocolatada" on Friday mornings. Normally, Fridays are extremely busy because people who live up in the mountain communities come down for medical care. So we, Awamaki and the doctors at the clinic, have decided to serve breakfast to the people. I also want to implement some bathing stations (at least for children) but that may take a little while. Anyway, we also decided that we needed to start implementing a cleaning schedule. We are starting on Sunday with a major clean of the whole clinic. So on Thursday, Keri and I joined Miguel for a shopping trip in Cusco. We got 50 plastic mugs to serve the breakfast in (it is like oatmeal but more liquidy) and tons of cleaning supplies.
The chocolatada was not so successful yesterday because we had tons of rain Thursday night and so the roads to and from the mountain communities were not passable due to landslides and mud. We were able to serve most of the breakfast to the people who were able to come in and then we jumped in the back of the health center truck (pretty much an oxymoron when it comes to public health) and joined the Intern, two nursing students and two techs down at the area where people lost their homes to see patients. We were able to give the rest of the breakfast to the kids down there. Elio saw about 30 patients (they literally just line up and see him one by one). All Elio had was Amaxycillian, Ibuprofen and children´s vitamins so pretty much whatever you ailment was, you were getting the same treatment as the next guy. Then we all piled back in the back of the pick-up (along with a father and his 4 kids) and headed back to town. We all had to get out when we came to the bridge b/c it was not safe for the truck with all of us in it to drive across. So we all walked across.
So Sunday is the big cleaning day. We are roping all of the Awamaki volunteers into helping. We all are meeting at 7:30am to go hike around the huge Incan ruins in town for a couple hours (Miguel got us free passes) and then we are heading to the clinic. I think our host sister, Shura wants to join us too!
Tonight is a pizza party to welcome two new volunteers.
So, big weekend. Next weekend will be fun. We´ve got a group organized to go down to Puno and Lake Titicaca for the weekend.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Changing the Direction of my Future!
So, today has been a pretty momentous day. I just emailed the Peace Corps recruiter to withdraw my application at this time. I can reactivate it upon my return from Peru if I want to, but I think my future is going to lie in a different direction. My mind is running a mile a minute right now, but I am really excited.
This morning, Keri, Ben, Annie and I met for about 3 hours and have planted the seeds of what could be a really great non-profit here in the Sacred Valley. We all agree that there is so much work to be done in the healthcare field here. There are multiple clinics of various sizes that need assistance; public health education is a necessity; and supplies are lacking. We spent hours coming up with a more organized volunteer handbook as well as outreach programs we would like to begin. Our goal is to start a donation registry that will allow people to choose what they would like to donate (kind of like a wedding registry). We have a ton of work to do, but the four of us are very motivated. Ben has an IT background but is planning on going to medical school in 2011. Annie is an RN who works in a birthing center in the States and she has plans to get her Masters in Public Health. Together, we have a lot of experience that we hope to all work together both here in Peru and when we all return to the States. The idea is to coordinate with each other and continue to come down to Ollanta as we can to keep Awamaki Health sustained. Like I said, it is all in its beginnings, but we hope to have a website up and running along with our donations registry by the 21st of March. I will post the link so you can see what it entails.
So I have decided that maybe I am meant to be doing this instead of spending 2 years somewhere in the Peace Corps. I can get my nursing degree and come down here and really do some good in a community that I know and that (after 5 months) knows me. I´d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this turn in my life. Any assistance from you all would be much appreciated. If you want to help, we would love to have you (Nicki -- we would love your non-profit expertise, Nyph and Jill -- remember our lunch conversations, we could use your skills!!).
Okay, gotta go to our weekly volunteer meeting. Tomorrow Keri and I are teaching the kids at the afterschool program how to wash their hands. We´ve been making posters and singing our newly created hand-washing song. Lava las Manos!!!
Love to you all!
This morning, Keri, Ben, Annie and I met for about 3 hours and have planted the seeds of what could be a really great non-profit here in the Sacred Valley. We all agree that there is so much work to be done in the healthcare field here. There are multiple clinics of various sizes that need assistance; public health education is a necessity; and supplies are lacking. We spent hours coming up with a more organized volunteer handbook as well as outreach programs we would like to begin. Our goal is to start a donation registry that will allow people to choose what they would like to donate (kind of like a wedding registry). We have a ton of work to do, but the four of us are very motivated. Ben has an IT background but is planning on going to medical school in 2011. Annie is an RN who works in a birthing center in the States and she has plans to get her Masters in Public Health. Together, we have a lot of experience that we hope to all work together both here in Peru and when we all return to the States. The idea is to coordinate with each other and continue to come down to Ollanta as we can to keep Awamaki Health sustained. Like I said, it is all in its beginnings, but we hope to have a website up and running along with our donations registry by the 21st of March. I will post the link so you can see what it entails.
So I have decided that maybe I am meant to be doing this instead of spending 2 years somewhere in the Peace Corps. I can get my nursing degree and come down here and really do some good in a community that I know and that (after 5 months) knows me. I´d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this turn in my life. Any assistance from you all would be much appreciated. If you want to help, we would love to have you (Nicki -- we would love your non-profit expertise, Nyph and Jill -- remember our lunch conversations, we could use your skills!!).
Okay, gotta go to our weekly volunteer meeting. Tomorrow Keri and I are teaching the kids at the afterschool program how to wash their hands. We´ve been making posters and singing our newly created hand-washing song. Lava las Manos!!!
Love to you all!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Hot showers and beds without fleas!
We just spent the last two nights kicking it at the KB Tambo Hostal in town. KB is an American guy who has lived in Ollanta for the past 7 years. He runs the hostal and a mountain biking tour agency. He is away on a 4 day trip so we are hostal-sitting for him. It is heaven! His hostal is really cute and there is a t.v. and dvd player in the room that sleeps 4 people. So we´ve been camping out there with Michelle and Will and Jessica. We´ve been watching dvds and eating popcorn the last couple days. The showers are hot and powerful. If you ever plan on visiting Ollanta, you should stay at KB Tambo Hostal. The restaurant adjacent to it is closed at the moment but we hear it has amazing food. It is owned and operated by a Chilean family. Keri and I are feeling a little guilty about leaving our host family these past couple nights. Ana looks so hurt and disappointed when we leave. So we are going to stay at our own place for the next couple nights. I can honestly say that I have gotten the two best nights of sleep I think I have had in the month I have been in Peru (yes, I can´t believe it has already been a month!). There are no fleas in the beds, the beds are firm and the pillows are soft and the greatest thing is that you don´t have to put your shoes on and go outside to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night!
Yesterday was a beautiful day in Ollanta. There was sunshine all day long and it was probably in the low 70s. I helped Celestino and Shurra wash our dogs. The dogs had not been bathed in two months and the old one, Yogi, really needs to be shaved because as Celestino says, he is a Rasta dog. He´s got so much hair and it is all clumped up like dreads. Well, we started with Yogi and just like washing clothes, washing the dogs is a multi-step process. We first washed them with laundry detergent; then rinsed; then washed them with dog shampoo to kill fleas and such; then rinsed again; then used dog conditioner; then rinsed again. Celestino also has some flea medication that goes under their skin. But I can tell you, they both had a lot of fleas. No wonder Keri and I wake up every morning with about 10 new flea bites. The dogs don´t come in our room but they sleep right outside our door and those fleas can jump! We´ll see how long the dogs stay clean.
We went and watched some local teams play in a futbol tournament. we ate some popcorn and were more entertained by the local children playing in front of us than the actual soccer games. School started today for the kids so there are all these little cuties walking around town in their school uniforms. Tourism is also picking up more and more each day.
Today, Keri and I felt more productive in the clinic than most days. I greeted the patients and pulled their charts and wrote receipts and collected money when people did not have insurance. It is crazy how cheap health care is. To have a consult with the doctor if you don´t have insurance is 3 soles ($1). An ambulance to Cusco which is an hour and a half away is only 120 soles ($40). I think a ten minute ride in the States is at least $500! We learned the other day while working with the dentist that because pulling teeth is so cheap, whenever anyone has a cavity, they will pull the tooth rather than give a filling. Pulling a tooth is only about 5 soles. I did a little triage today and then finished the morning off by sweeping the entire downstairs area.
We have a meeting about teaching in the school this afternoon. We then have to make our posters and figure out what we are going to say to the kids tomorrow. And that will finish out our day.
For those of you who were wondering if we were impacted by the huge earthquake in Chile, the answer is no. We are way inland and did not feel a thing. So if you were worrying, you can stop now.
Hope everyone is well!
Yesterday was a beautiful day in Ollanta. There was sunshine all day long and it was probably in the low 70s. I helped Celestino and Shurra wash our dogs. The dogs had not been bathed in two months and the old one, Yogi, really needs to be shaved because as Celestino says, he is a Rasta dog. He´s got so much hair and it is all clumped up like dreads. Well, we started with Yogi and just like washing clothes, washing the dogs is a multi-step process. We first washed them with laundry detergent; then rinsed; then washed them with dog shampoo to kill fleas and such; then rinsed again; then used dog conditioner; then rinsed again. Celestino also has some flea medication that goes under their skin. But I can tell you, they both had a lot of fleas. No wonder Keri and I wake up every morning with about 10 new flea bites. The dogs don´t come in our room but they sleep right outside our door and those fleas can jump! We´ll see how long the dogs stay clean.
We went and watched some local teams play in a futbol tournament. we ate some popcorn and were more entertained by the local children playing in front of us than the actual soccer games. School started today for the kids so there are all these little cuties walking around town in their school uniforms. Tourism is also picking up more and more each day.
Today, Keri and I felt more productive in the clinic than most days. I greeted the patients and pulled their charts and wrote receipts and collected money when people did not have insurance. It is crazy how cheap health care is. To have a consult with the doctor if you don´t have insurance is 3 soles ($1). An ambulance to Cusco which is an hour and a half away is only 120 soles ($40). I think a ten minute ride in the States is at least $500! We learned the other day while working with the dentist that because pulling teeth is so cheap, whenever anyone has a cavity, they will pull the tooth rather than give a filling. Pulling a tooth is only about 5 soles. I did a little triage today and then finished the morning off by sweeping the entire downstairs area.
We have a meeting about teaching in the school this afternoon. We then have to make our posters and figure out what we are going to say to the kids tomorrow. And that will finish out our day.
For those of you who were wondering if we were impacted by the huge earthquake in Chile, the answer is no. We are way inland and did not feel a thing. So if you were worrying, you can stop now.
Hope everyone is well!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
