Well, Sunday started holy week here. I happened to be in Cusco since a large group of us had gone out the night before for my friend Kaitlyn's birthday. As Peru is a catholic country, there were multiple masses for Palm Sunday at the cathedral in the Plaza de Armas (Central Square). We all decided to meet for the 8am mass. Kaitlyn and I were the first to arrive so we bought our little crosses decorated with palms and oregano. As the others arrived, we decided to try to get closer into the church to see what was going on. The cathedral was full of people so you had to wind your way through the crowds. My brain told me to be careful with my bag so I put it in front of my body and thought my arms would deter any pick-pockets. Well, I was wrong.
Somehow my wallet was stolen. At one point I looked down and my bag was unzipped. I knew immediately that my wallet was gone. I just couldn't believe that someone would actually steal a wallet inside of a church!! Talk about bad karma and going to hell! So needless to say, I was quite upset. Really, I had hardly any money in my wallet (about 30 soles or $10 US dollars), however, the wallet itself had been a Christmas present and I really liked it. Plus, I lost all of my cards. So, the ironic thing is that I had only just got my new debit card less than 2 weeks before. So here I was again, without a debit card. I don't have enough time left to have new cards mailed to me. So I am without any debit or credit cards for the next 3 weeks until I get home. All in all, I only had a debit card here with me my very first day in Lima and then for less than 2 weeks! How crazy is that -- 3 months and only a debit card for 2 weeks!
Anyway, I have figured out my money situation, it is just a pain in the butt. I now have to have tons of cash on me. I will be very careful with it though. So, that did put a damper on our Palm Sunday mass experience.
This week, we are not eating any red meat. The big day during Semana Santa is Friday. Everyone eats what is called Doce Platos (12 plates). You literally eat 12 different plates of food. There are multiple soups, entrees and desserts. My family will be gathering at Ana's mother's house. The sisters are all cooking different plates and then we will come together to eat. It is going to be ridiculous! I missed this tradition last year because I was at the beach during Semana Santa.
My friends and I are getting together on Thursday night to dye Easter Eggs. Shura and I are going to dye eggs as well and do an Easter Egg hunt for the little nieces and nephews. My mom sent me a large Easter care package with egg dye and lots of delicious candy. The little kids here are going to love it. They do not understand why we dye eggs or know anything about the Easter Bunny. It is going to be a riot.
Everything else is going really well. I go to Cusco next week on Thursday to hang out for 2 days before I leave for the Inca Trail. They make you stay in Cusco for 2 days prior so that you can acclimate to the altitude. I think it is a little ridiculous that I have to do this too, since I live in Ollanta, but it gives me a couple days to chill out and do some touristy stuff that I never have. I also want to buy some items. Luckily, Shura can bring my stuff back to the house so I don't have to cart it around with me on the Inca Trail.
I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left. Time has flown!! I have a meeting now so I will write more after the 12 platos on Friday!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Election Day in Peru
So today is the first round of the presidential elections here in Peru. Presidents are elected for 5 year terms. They are not allowed to run for 2 consecutive terms, but must wait at least one term in between. For example, one of the candidates was president the term before the current president. So he had to wait the 5 years and is trying again for a 2nd term. As of now, there are 5 front runners. Today's vote will bring it down to 2. In order for a candidate to win, they must take more than half of the popular vote. For this reason, there are normally at least 2 rounds of elections.
In Peru, if you are over 18, it is mandatory that you vote. If you do not vote, you will have to pay a fine. There is a dry law where it is illegal to buy or to drink any alcohol 48 hours before the election. They do this to cut down on fighting and rioting due to drunk supporters. Of course, gringos are allowed to buy liquor and to drink since we can't vote!! Also, the law is not strongly enforced as we were able to buy beer and wine in little shops yesterday while we were in Cusco performing the jurca.
I will get to the jurca later. Anyway, the polls opened at 8 this morning and will close at 4pm. We should know by this afternoon who the two fore-runners are. There is one candidate named Ollanta Humala who is with the nationalist party. He is very extreme and has been likened to Chavez in Venezuela or Castro in Cuba. All educated Peruvians are totally against him, but he is going for the ethnic communities who are not literate. Unfortunately, it seems he will be one of the two to move on to the 2nd round. However, most people are confident he will defeated then. The thing about him is that he has said he wants to try to kick out all foreign NGOs that are working in Peru. So if he wins, Awamaki could be in for some problems!
So, back to this jurca. Celestino is hosting the cargo for his dance, the Majenos, during the 4 day festival in June. Hosting the cargo means that you have to feed all the dancers, their family and friends, as well as a rotating cast of other dance groups and people over the 4 days. You have to have breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as beer and alcohol available for the four days. These cargos cost upwards of $5000. Someone told me the other day that they saw a statistic that said people in third world countries spend an exorbitant amount of money on festivals and parties as compared to health costs, food, and daily living. It seems to be completely true here. Considering Ana and Celestino spent more than a month's salary on Fabricio's first birthday party and they are going to be spending so much on the cargo.
Anyway, as part of the tradition, the people host the cargo go around and make an offering of bread, beer and wine to their friends and family in return for them bringing a case or two of beer or something to help with the cargo. Jurca is a Quechua term meaning offering. So on Thursday night, Ana and a family friend named Hugo went to Urubamba and bought 120 pieces of what I call "Cusco bread". It is a big loaf of round bread. They bought 3 different sizes (large, medium and small). There were 40 people we were going to offer jurca to in Ollanta, Urubamba and Cusco.
So, we put together bags of each size of bread (so three per bag), then we set out to visit people with the bread, a photo of Senor de Choquekilka (the saint who we are celebrating during the festival) that is mounted on this little wooden altar thing, a bottle of wine, and some beers. Everyone is offered the altar and gives Senor a kiss, then they are offered a glass of wine, which they have to poor a little out in reverence to the Senor and Pachamama. Then we give them the bread and a bottle of beer. Ana and Celestino then hope that they will voluntarily bring something to the cargo to help out.
On Friday night, we visited 21 people in Ollanta. On Sat morning, they went to Urubamba for a bit. Then Ana, Celestino, Shura, Fabricio and I headed to Cusco to see 10 more people. What a long day it was. At some points I really wanted to kill myself from boredom, but for the most part, it was really cool to see what the jurca symbolizes. I got to meet Celestino's extended family and see lots of parts of Cusco that I had never been to. One of his cousins lives in the nicest house I have seen here. Plus, there were many parts of the day that Shura, Ana, the baby and I just set out and did our own thing. I love spending time with them so we had a good time together. We were gone all day though and all of us were exhausted when we finally got home around 9pm.
I was in bed with the flu for Wed and Thurs of last week. I now have a horrible hacking cough and haven't been sleeping well, so the long day really took it out of me. Today is a beautiful day though. Jess and I did our P90X and I am now waiting for the water to be turned back on so that I can shower. You never know when they are just going to turn off the water. I am surprised they turned it off today though, since there aren't any construction jobs happening today because of the elections.
So that is what is going on. Awamaki rented a new house for volunteers to live in so we spent a lot of time last weekend and last week painting, cleaning and moving. I've been at the Posta when I can be. As I was sick last week, I lost two days. On Friday, I cleaned up Santiago's leg and then headed to a nearby town to help do some physical therapy with a boy named Alex who has cerebral palsy. It was heartbreaking. Alex is 13 but is about the size of a 6 year old. His family does not take care of him that well. When we got there, I had to change his diaper. It was so saturated with urine that it had leaked through to his pants and sheets so we just changed him completely. He lit up like a light bulb while we were doing the exercises. We took him outside and he sat on my lap while we did some exercises and just goofed around making animal noises and stuff. He was laughing so hard. He has horrible hip dysplasia so it is difficult for him to sit up for a long time. He normally just lays in bed all day. No one ever takes him outside, yet he loves being outside to look at the animals and sky and trees. His little face just crinkled all up when it was time for us to leave. He was so sad. It really did break my heart.
I am going to work on the curriculum for Tuesday's health class and then just enjoy the nice weather with my book. I think my friends and I are going to eat at a nice restaurant in town tonight. We were supposed to on Wednesday but I got sick so we had to cancel that. I am down to less than 5 weeks left. I can't believe it. How sad!
In Peru, if you are over 18, it is mandatory that you vote. If you do not vote, you will have to pay a fine. There is a dry law where it is illegal to buy or to drink any alcohol 48 hours before the election. They do this to cut down on fighting and rioting due to drunk supporters. Of course, gringos are allowed to buy liquor and to drink since we can't vote!! Also, the law is not strongly enforced as we were able to buy beer and wine in little shops yesterday while we were in Cusco performing the jurca.
I will get to the jurca later. Anyway, the polls opened at 8 this morning and will close at 4pm. We should know by this afternoon who the two fore-runners are. There is one candidate named Ollanta Humala who is with the nationalist party. He is very extreme and has been likened to Chavez in Venezuela or Castro in Cuba. All educated Peruvians are totally against him, but he is going for the ethnic communities who are not literate. Unfortunately, it seems he will be one of the two to move on to the 2nd round. However, most people are confident he will defeated then. The thing about him is that he has said he wants to try to kick out all foreign NGOs that are working in Peru. So if he wins, Awamaki could be in for some problems!
So, back to this jurca. Celestino is hosting the cargo for his dance, the Majenos, during the 4 day festival in June. Hosting the cargo means that you have to feed all the dancers, their family and friends, as well as a rotating cast of other dance groups and people over the 4 days. You have to have breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as beer and alcohol available for the four days. These cargos cost upwards of $5000. Someone told me the other day that they saw a statistic that said people in third world countries spend an exorbitant amount of money on festivals and parties as compared to health costs, food, and daily living. It seems to be completely true here. Considering Ana and Celestino spent more than a month's salary on Fabricio's first birthday party and they are going to be spending so much on the cargo.
Anyway, as part of the tradition, the people host the cargo go around and make an offering of bread, beer and wine to their friends and family in return for them bringing a case or two of beer or something to help with the cargo. Jurca is a Quechua term meaning offering. So on Thursday night, Ana and a family friend named Hugo went to Urubamba and bought 120 pieces of what I call "Cusco bread". It is a big loaf of round bread. They bought 3 different sizes (large, medium and small). There were 40 people we were going to offer jurca to in Ollanta, Urubamba and Cusco.
So, we put together bags of each size of bread (so three per bag), then we set out to visit people with the bread, a photo of Senor de Choquekilka (the saint who we are celebrating during the festival) that is mounted on this little wooden altar thing, a bottle of wine, and some beers. Everyone is offered the altar and gives Senor a kiss, then they are offered a glass of wine, which they have to poor a little out in reverence to the Senor and Pachamama. Then we give them the bread and a bottle of beer. Ana and Celestino then hope that they will voluntarily bring something to the cargo to help out.
On Friday night, we visited 21 people in Ollanta. On Sat morning, they went to Urubamba for a bit. Then Ana, Celestino, Shura, Fabricio and I headed to Cusco to see 10 more people. What a long day it was. At some points I really wanted to kill myself from boredom, but for the most part, it was really cool to see what the jurca symbolizes. I got to meet Celestino's extended family and see lots of parts of Cusco that I had never been to. One of his cousins lives in the nicest house I have seen here. Plus, there were many parts of the day that Shura, Ana, the baby and I just set out and did our own thing. I love spending time with them so we had a good time together. We were gone all day though and all of us were exhausted when we finally got home around 9pm.
I was in bed with the flu for Wed and Thurs of last week. I now have a horrible hacking cough and haven't been sleeping well, so the long day really took it out of me. Today is a beautiful day though. Jess and I did our P90X and I am now waiting for the water to be turned back on so that I can shower. You never know when they are just going to turn off the water. I am surprised they turned it off today though, since there aren't any construction jobs happening today because of the elections.
So that is what is going on. Awamaki rented a new house for volunteers to live in so we spent a lot of time last weekend and last week painting, cleaning and moving. I've been at the Posta when I can be. As I was sick last week, I lost two days. On Friday, I cleaned up Santiago's leg and then headed to a nearby town to help do some physical therapy with a boy named Alex who has cerebral palsy. It was heartbreaking. Alex is 13 but is about the size of a 6 year old. His family does not take care of him that well. When we got there, I had to change his diaper. It was so saturated with urine that it had leaked through to his pants and sheets so we just changed him completely. He lit up like a light bulb while we were doing the exercises. We took him outside and he sat on my lap while we did some exercises and just goofed around making animal noises and stuff. He was laughing so hard. He has horrible hip dysplasia so it is difficult for him to sit up for a long time. He normally just lays in bed all day. No one ever takes him outside, yet he loves being outside to look at the animals and sky and trees. His little face just crinkled all up when it was time for us to leave. He was so sad. It really did break my heart.
I am going to work on the curriculum for Tuesday's health class and then just enjoy the nice weather with my book. I think my friends and I are going to eat at a nice restaurant in town tonight. We were supposed to on Wednesday but I got sick so we had to cancel that. I am down to less than 5 weeks left. I can't believe it. How sad!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
What a Week!
Well, my week started off on a great track...I saw a birth at the Posta. I was working on Monday morning when one of the nursing interns told me a woman had just arrived and was in labor. So I went back to the birthing room and introduced myself. I was able to feel the baby's position and find the heart beat using the Doppler machine. We thought she was going to give birth relatively soon due to the time in between contractions and the position of the baby, but hours passed. The poor thing was in so much pain, but these Peruvian women sure are troopers. She breathed through it and walked around. There are no epidurals here!
So finally at 3pm, she started pushing. There is no crying or screaming involved with these women. They are told to close their mouths, put their chins to their chest and push, push, push! By screaming or crying out, you lose strength in your pushing, so that is why they close their mouths and buckle down. I was right there as the baby crowned and out he came into the world. Little Sebastian was born at 3:25pm! We waited about 20 minutes for the placenta to follow. The woman, Flora, was from a neighboring mountain community. She is 20 years old and this was her second baby. Unfortunately, her first child, who was born only a year ago, died after three weeks due to a respiratory infection. I hope that little Sebastian is able to thrive.
What a high to feel for the rest of the day. I loved every minute of it and am soooo excited to start my midwifery program now. Births here are just so different than ours in the States. There are no gowns or comfortable beds. The parents-to-be have to buy a piece of plastic, plastic bags, sanitary napkins, blankets and things to clean the baby, etc. They are not provided. The woman wears her clothes and they just put the piece of plastic under her rear and then drape it down into a trash can to catch all of the blood and birthing fluids. Luckily, she does get to spend the next couple of nights in the clinic, but not in her own room. The family has to bring her food. So very different from our amazing birthing suites or even the comfort of your own home!
Tuesday was a fun day as well. I can happily say that I have access to my money again as my debit card finally arrived. I have been 6 weeks without a debit card! I was actually on my way to Urubamba to exchange some US Dollars that Kaitlyn had given me to pay her portion of our tickets to the beach when I stopped in the Serpost shop on the off chance the envelope had arrived. And it had! The Serpost woman and I did a little happy dance. We have become friends over the past 2 weeks as I have been waiting for my envelope to arrive.
I went to teach my health class to the kiddies at the Telecentro after-school program that evening, but the director had totally forgotten I was teaching that night and the kids were not prepared. So I spent the hour helping with homework and playing games with the kids. We will try again next week!
That night we had Laya's birthday party/Kristi's going-away party at the bar. Everyone had a grand time chatting and hanging out. Porfi ran some good happy hour specials for us and Kaitlyn had bought lots of bar snacks. We were all psyched to have some pretzels!
After working out on Wednesday morning, Jess, Amos, Bricia and myself headed out to Rumira to the school there for our cleaning day. We were all more than a little shocked and dismayed to see the absolute mess the room we were supposed to clean out was. Words do not do it justice. You need to see the photos. The room is a large rectangle and it was full of stuff -- eucalyptus trunks, branches and leaves (the director makes herbal medicines), other trunks and leaves of herbs, desks, tables, broken chairs, paint cans, buckets, metal rebar, trash, trash cans, etc. Well, we jumped right in and started clearing it all out. As not one of us are fans of spiders or other creepy crawlies, we were a bit on edge carrying all of the stuff out. Gradually other health volunteers came to help as well. It was amazing that in less than 4 hours, we cleared out the room, distinguished what furniture was salvageable, cleaned that furniture, swept/mopped out the room, and put the good desks/tables/chairs back in. All in all, we saw 3 tarantulas (yes, lots of hopping around and "Oh my Gods" were said in high pitched voices), lots of little spiders, tons of roly poly bugs and 1 scorpion.
The school kids were adorable and helped us with the mopping and cleaning of the desks and furniture. Or next task is to go back with paint and decorations to get the room in order. We had to walk back to Ollanta from Rumira as no combi (communal vans) were available. The walk isn't a bad one, only about 25 minutes but unfortunately it had been raining all morning so the road was pure mud. I made it home absolutely exhausted and completely covered in mud! My shower was heaven!
In the afternoon, I met Santiago at the Posta to clean his leg wound and then did some data collection. I made plans to eat lunch with my favorite nurse intern, Andrea, since she is leaving tomorrow.
I had a great time in the Posta this morning. For some reason they were fully staffed even though Thursdays are slow days. We all just sat around in the reception area talking and laughing. One of the administrative workers who I had been friends with last year just came back from her month of vacation so it was really nice to catch up with her. It is mornings like today that make me feel good about what I am doing. To know that I have built a great relationship with the workers in the clinic is an accomplishment I am proud of. Then Andrea and I spent 2 hours doing data collection. What am I going to do without her helping me read the horrible handwriting in that darn book??? She says she will come back and help me on the weekends but I can't allow that. She has a young son in Cusco and she has to find a job.
Anyway, Andrea and I went out for lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed each others company. I really am going to miss her. She is very good at her job. She really cares about the patients. The Ollanta Posta needs more nurses and staff like her. Our volunteers and the community wouldn't have such a negative view of the Posta if it was staffed with more people like her. I just had one of those "light bulb over the head" moments -- Andrea would be amazing as our Peruvian health coordinator. I wish we had the funds right now. She has to wait a year before she can sit for her nursing license and is just going to be looking for a job in Cusco to pay the bills. She loves it here. I wish we could work something out. Of course, I would never say anything to her about this until I knew we had money to pay. Something to keep in mind though!
Okay, time to get back to the Posta and back to the snail pace of data collection.
So finally at 3pm, she started pushing. There is no crying or screaming involved with these women. They are told to close their mouths, put their chins to their chest and push, push, push! By screaming or crying out, you lose strength in your pushing, so that is why they close their mouths and buckle down. I was right there as the baby crowned and out he came into the world. Little Sebastian was born at 3:25pm! We waited about 20 minutes for the placenta to follow. The woman, Flora, was from a neighboring mountain community. She is 20 years old and this was her second baby. Unfortunately, her first child, who was born only a year ago, died after three weeks due to a respiratory infection. I hope that little Sebastian is able to thrive.
What a high to feel for the rest of the day. I loved every minute of it and am soooo excited to start my midwifery program now. Births here are just so different than ours in the States. There are no gowns or comfortable beds. The parents-to-be have to buy a piece of plastic, plastic bags, sanitary napkins, blankets and things to clean the baby, etc. They are not provided. The woman wears her clothes and they just put the piece of plastic under her rear and then drape it down into a trash can to catch all of the blood and birthing fluids. Luckily, she does get to spend the next couple of nights in the clinic, but not in her own room. The family has to bring her food. So very different from our amazing birthing suites or even the comfort of your own home!
Tuesday was a fun day as well. I can happily say that I have access to my money again as my debit card finally arrived. I have been 6 weeks without a debit card! I was actually on my way to Urubamba to exchange some US Dollars that Kaitlyn had given me to pay her portion of our tickets to the beach when I stopped in the Serpost shop on the off chance the envelope had arrived. And it had! The Serpost woman and I did a little happy dance. We have become friends over the past 2 weeks as I have been waiting for my envelope to arrive.
I went to teach my health class to the kiddies at the Telecentro after-school program that evening, but the director had totally forgotten I was teaching that night and the kids were not prepared. So I spent the hour helping with homework and playing games with the kids. We will try again next week!
That night we had Laya's birthday party/Kristi's going-away party at the bar. Everyone had a grand time chatting and hanging out. Porfi ran some good happy hour specials for us and Kaitlyn had bought lots of bar snacks. We were all psyched to have some pretzels!
After working out on Wednesday morning, Jess, Amos, Bricia and myself headed out to Rumira to the school there for our cleaning day. We were all more than a little shocked and dismayed to see the absolute mess the room we were supposed to clean out was. Words do not do it justice. You need to see the photos. The room is a large rectangle and it was full of stuff -- eucalyptus trunks, branches and leaves (the director makes herbal medicines), other trunks and leaves of herbs, desks, tables, broken chairs, paint cans, buckets, metal rebar, trash, trash cans, etc. Well, we jumped right in and started clearing it all out. As not one of us are fans of spiders or other creepy crawlies, we were a bit on edge carrying all of the stuff out. Gradually other health volunteers came to help as well. It was amazing that in less than 4 hours, we cleared out the room, distinguished what furniture was salvageable, cleaned that furniture, swept/mopped out the room, and put the good desks/tables/chairs back in. All in all, we saw 3 tarantulas (yes, lots of hopping around and "Oh my Gods" were said in high pitched voices), lots of little spiders, tons of roly poly bugs and 1 scorpion.
The school kids were adorable and helped us with the mopping and cleaning of the desks and furniture. Or next task is to go back with paint and decorations to get the room in order. We had to walk back to Ollanta from Rumira as no combi (communal vans) were available. The walk isn't a bad one, only about 25 minutes but unfortunately it had been raining all morning so the road was pure mud. I made it home absolutely exhausted and completely covered in mud! My shower was heaven!
In the afternoon, I met Santiago at the Posta to clean his leg wound and then did some data collection. I made plans to eat lunch with my favorite nurse intern, Andrea, since she is leaving tomorrow.
I had a great time in the Posta this morning. For some reason they were fully staffed even though Thursdays are slow days. We all just sat around in the reception area talking and laughing. One of the administrative workers who I had been friends with last year just came back from her month of vacation so it was really nice to catch up with her. It is mornings like today that make me feel good about what I am doing. To know that I have built a great relationship with the workers in the clinic is an accomplishment I am proud of. Then Andrea and I spent 2 hours doing data collection. What am I going to do without her helping me read the horrible handwriting in that darn book??? She says she will come back and help me on the weekends but I can't allow that. She has a young son in Cusco and she has to find a job.
Anyway, Andrea and I went out for lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed each others company. I really am going to miss her. She is very good at her job. She really cares about the patients. The Ollanta Posta needs more nurses and staff like her. Our volunteers and the community wouldn't have such a negative view of the Posta if it was staffed with more people like her. I just had one of those "light bulb over the head" moments -- Andrea would be amazing as our Peruvian health coordinator. I wish we had the funds right now. She has to wait a year before she can sit for her nursing license and is just going to be looking for a job in Cusco to pay the bills. She loves it here. I wish we could work something out. Of course, I would never say anything to her about this until I knew we had money to pay. Something to keep in mind though!
Okay, time to get back to the Posta and back to the snail pace of data collection.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
An Amazing Weekend
Well look at this, two posts within days of each other! However, this was such a great weekend, I just had to get back on the blog. Saturday was such a great day with the medical campaign. So last year around this time, a big group of doctors, NPs, PAs, dentists and med students from Idaho came through for a campaign. Well, this was the same group as last year. They had about 20 practitioners in all but had about 50 other students/helpers with them. I had been told to be there around 8:30am to help translate. Of course, I should have known that in Peruvian time, this really meant 9:30am. So, I made a second trip back to the municipality building at 9:30am. At this point, they were set up in their stations -- Dentistry on one side of the room and Medicine on the other. My job was to help a undergrad kid who didn't speak Spanish to go through the lines and "triage" the patients. There was a huge line of elderly patients and then a second huge line of non-elderly patients. The dental patients were on the other side of the building in their own line. What we did was go through and get the name, age and ailment of the patients. We would hand them their paper with either GM (General Medicine), Ortho (Orthopedist), or GYN (gynecology) on it. Then this guy would help them through to the next available practitioner. Bricia was with me and she went to go translate for a doctor. I spent most of the day helping to translate.
We got some good photocopies of stretches and therapy exercises we could do with our disabilities patients from the occupational therapist who was there. The majority of the patients seen (unfortunately not all were seen due to time) were the elderly with joint and back pain due to arthritis. The people here spend their lives walking up and down mountainsides with sacks of produce/agriculture on their backs that weigh a ton. The women carry the babies on their backs for the first few years. So it is no wonder they all have back, knee, shoulder, foot, etc pain. They all also have constant headaches due to dehydration and the arthritis. The people here just do not drink enough water throughout the day. Because they believe that cold water is really bad for your health, they will drink tea but that is really it. Only a few cups a day.
Anyway, at one point I had to run out and when I came back, I saw a man named Santiago in the line. I had gotten to know Santiago last year while I was here. Santiago is probably in his late sixties. He has venostasis really badly in his right leg. Well, for those non-medical people reading my blog, a basic description is that blood will travel down his leg to his ankle, but it cannot travel back up his leg well. So he started getting an ulcer on his ankle due to this issue about 4 years ago. Over the past four years, more and more tissue has become ulcerous and his whole bottom half of his leg is just an open sore that looks like Freddy Krueger's face. I was happy to see him in line because the doctor that had been treating him for this at the Posta was Dr. Arnaldo. He left to pursue a specialty degree last year. So Santiago has been having his dressings changed regularly, but no one at the Posta really had been following him anymore.
Santiago asked me to go into see the doctor with him once it was his turn since I knew his history. We got really lucky in that the Nurse Practitioner who was free at the time had worked in vascular surgery for two years. He knew exactly what was wrong and was very positive about actually healing Santiago over time. We drew quite a crowd around Santiago's leg as the NP was cleaning the wound. Most people could not believe that he had been living with that for four years. They all saw it and immediately said, "he is going to lose his leg". When I said he had been doing okay for the past four years, they were all in disbelief.
The NP cleaned the wound, showed me how to do all the things that would be necessary for continuing the cleaning and treatment. He stressed the importance of elevation of the leg, using a compression stocking (which the NP actually took off his own and gave to Santiago), and taking some antibiotics. So now I am in charge of Santiago's care. The group loaded me up with gauze and antibiotic ointment. I am meeting Santiago every day in the Posta to clean and debride the wound and redress it. Good practice for nursing school!!
Anyway, Santiago was so thankful to everyone and I really believe that we will be able to heal this horrible wound of his as long as he is good about elevating it and coming in for the new dressing changes and cleanings.
Overall, the campaign was quite a success but I couldn't help to think of the ways they could have been more organized and increased the success. Since they come every year, I talked to the guy who is the head coordinator about the possibility of starting up charts for the patients with their information and a picture so it is easier for continuity of care. We exchanged information so that we can get back in touch for next year's campaign. Awamaki can do some more organizing on the local end before they get here. It was just really cool to help out and think about being able to be the practitioner on campaigns like this in the future!
After the campaign, I had some lunch with the family and then went in search of some friends. Kaitlyn and I had a lovely dinner of pizza at Puka Rumi and then watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I am such a sucker for Disney movies.
This morning, I met up with Kaitlyn and we went to Jess's to do our P90x since we couldn't yesterday. After an invigorating morning of Kenpo Karate, I headed home to shower and chill with the family. At 2:30, I met up with Kaitlyn, Will, Jessica and Blair to go to the Chicheria in Yanahaura called Descanso. Now, chicha is the local beer made with corn here. I have had some really horrible chicha but also some decent chicha. I have to say, the chicha at Descanso was pretty darn delicious. It was by far the best chicha I have ever had. The greatest thing about chicherias is the size of the glass that they serve the chicha in. It is enormous!! I have pictures I will post. Descanso is in a gorgeous location with a great view of the valley from the roof. We had a fun time playing the "frog game". You try to toss these metal coins into this bronze frog's mouth. Then we just stood up on the roof enjoying the beautiful afternoon sunshine and the views.
I am now caught up in this. We are sick of the Core exercise video on Mondays for P90x so we are hiking tomorrow morning instead. After that, it is to the Posta with me. I teach on Tuesday night. We are going to the Rumira school on Wednesday morning to clean out a big room so we can start the after school program for disabled people in the surrounding communities. Tuesday is also the birthday of Laya and going away party for Kristi. So we will be at the bar, of course. I don't think I have anything planned for Thursday and Friday other than working in the Posta.
We got some good photocopies of stretches and therapy exercises we could do with our disabilities patients from the occupational therapist who was there. The majority of the patients seen (unfortunately not all were seen due to time) were the elderly with joint and back pain due to arthritis. The people here spend their lives walking up and down mountainsides with sacks of produce/agriculture on their backs that weigh a ton. The women carry the babies on their backs for the first few years. So it is no wonder they all have back, knee, shoulder, foot, etc pain. They all also have constant headaches due to dehydration and the arthritis. The people here just do not drink enough water throughout the day. Because they believe that cold water is really bad for your health, they will drink tea but that is really it. Only a few cups a day.
Anyway, at one point I had to run out and when I came back, I saw a man named Santiago in the line. I had gotten to know Santiago last year while I was here. Santiago is probably in his late sixties. He has venostasis really badly in his right leg. Well, for those non-medical people reading my blog, a basic description is that blood will travel down his leg to his ankle, but it cannot travel back up his leg well. So he started getting an ulcer on his ankle due to this issue about 4 years ago. Over the past four years, more and more tissue has become ulcerous and his whole bottom half of his leg is just an open sore that looks like Freddy Krueger's face. I was happy to see him in line because the doctor that had been treating him for this at the Posta was Dr. Arnaldo. He left to pursue a specialty degree last year. So Santiago has been having his dressings changed regularly, but no one at the Posta really had been following him anymore.
Santiago asked me to go into see the doctor with him once it was his turn since I knew his history. We got really lucky in that the Nurse Practitioner who was free at the time had worked in vascular surgery for two years. He knew exactly what was wrong and was very positive about actually healing Santiago over time. We drew quite a crowd around Santiago's leg as the NP was cleaning the wound. Most people could not believe that he had been living with that for four years. They all saw it and immediately said, "he is going to lose his leg". When I said he had been doing okay for the past four years, they were all in disbelief.
The NP cleaned the wound, showed me how to do all the things that would be necessary for continuing the cleaning and treatment. He stressed the importance of elevation of the leg, using a compression stocking (which the NP actually took off his own and gave to Santiago), and taking some antibiotics. So now I am in charge of Santiago's care. The group loaded me up with gauze and antibiotic ointment. I am meeting Santiago every day in the Posta to clean and debride the wound and redress it. Good practice for nursing school!!
Anyway, Santiago was so thankful to everyone and I really believe that we will be able to heal this horrible wound of his as long as he is good about elevating it and coming in for the new dressing changes and cleanings.
Overall, the campaign was quite a success but I couldn't help to think of the ways they could have been more organized and increased the success. Since they come every year, I talked to the guy who is the head coordinator about the possibility of starting up charts for the patients with their information and a picture so it is easier for continuity of care. We exchanged information so that we can get back in touch for next year's campaign. Awamaki can do some more organizing on the local end before they get here. It was just really cool to help out and think about being able to be the practitioner on campaigns like this in the future!
After the campaign, I had some lunch with the family and then went in search of some friends. Kaitlyn and I had a lovely dinner of pizza at Puka Rumi and then watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I am such a sucker for Disney movies.
This morning, I met up with Kaitlyn and we went to Jess's to do our P90x since we couldn't yesterday. After an invigorating morning of Kenpo Karate, I headed home to shower and chill with the family. At 2:30, I met up with Kaitlyn, Will, Jessica and Blair to go to the Chicheria in Yanahaura called Descanso. Now, chicha is the local beer made with corn here. I have had some really horrible chicha but also some decent chicha. I have to say, the chicha at Descanso was pretty darn delicious. It was by far the best chicha I have ever had. The greatest thing about chicherias is the size of the glass that they serve the chicha in. It is enormous!! I have pictures I will post. Descanso is in a gorgeous location with a great view of the valley from the roof. We had a fun time playing the "frog game". You try to toss these metal coins into this bronze frog's mouth. Then we just stood up on the roof enjoying the beautiful afternoon sunshine and the views.
I am now caught up in this. We are sick of the Core exercise video on Mondays for P90x so we are hiking tomorrow morning instead. After that, it is to the Posta with me. I teach on Tuesday night. We are going to the Rumira school on Wednesday morning to clean out a big room so we can start the after school program for disabled people in the surrounding communities. Tuesday is also the birthday of Laya and going away party for Kristi. So we will be at the bar, of course. I don't think I have anything planned for Thursday and Friday other than working in the Posta.
Friday, March 25, 2011
What an exhausting week!
Well, I know I haven't written anything of substance in the last two weeks or so. Time is just flying by. My days have been spent trying to read the handwriting of whoever enters patient information in the book at the reception area of the Posta. There is such a wealth of information, however, trying to not only read the handwriting but then understand what the translation of the diagnosis and treatment has proven to be very challenging. I have gotten lucky and had some of the Posta workers help if they have down time. They read and I enter the data, but that doesn't happen every day. As of now, I have finished with January of 2010 (about 200 patients), but knowing I have 11 more months to try to get through in the next 6 weeks is extremely daunting. Plus, my best helper, one of the nurse interns, is leaving on Friday since her placement is finished then. The data is so important that I just keep trying. It is boring but very informative.
I am absolutely exhausted due to my little host-brother's first birthday. Fabricio turned one yesterday. This last week leading up to the party has been crazy. We've been putting together treat bags, cake boxes, blowing up balloons (I believe that I single-handedly blew up at least 125 balloons over a two day span), decorating, buying things, cooking, etc. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I REALLY value my sleep. So this whole week I have been going to bed after midnight and getting up to workout at 6:05am like normal. Now that it is Friday, I am dead tired. My goal is to go to bed at 8pm tonight!
However, the party was a success! Now, I must say, I am a little perplexed as to why my host family would want to spend upwards of 1000 soles (about $360) on this party. Remember, the average income here is only 600 soles a month. I will post the photos today if I can, but definitely by the weekend. You will see just how elaborate the cake was. There was a giant Winnie the Pooh piñata. They had a clown who danced and joked around with the kids for 2 hours. So here is how it all works. Everyone comes in and sits on benches around the walls of the locale. We then go around and serve them popcorn, chips, cheese curls, jello, arroz con leche (rice pudding), massamora (think goopy purple syrupy stuff), cookies, animal crackers, hard candy, etc. All of these things are on little round trays that we walk around with. Then the clown did his thing. All the while, kids are running around jacked up on all the sugar they have been fed. After a couple hours, we finally blew out the candle then the kids smashed the pinata. Imagine my surprise when even adults were fighting their way through the crowds to get candy and stuff. The party started around 5pm and finally around 9pm we served beer and real food to the adults (but to the adults only -- kids are still hyped on sugar). Around 10pm most everyone had left. Then for the next 2 hours, those of us in the immediate family sat around and drank beer and chatted. I was so tired that I had to leave around midnight. Shura and I carried a big box of gifts back to the house.
I really have not done justice to the craziness of the party. The kids were running around helter-skelter. There was a Tigger suit that one of the teenage cousins put on to help the clown. Of course when Fabricio first saw it, he screamed bloody murder. I spent most of my time passing out food, handling the video camera, dancing with the little cousins or making sure Fabricio was happy. All I can say is that I am happy it is over. Although, we have to go back and clean everything up. There are cups and wrappers and popped balloons everywhere!
I have quite a bit of administrative work that I am trying to get organized and finished for Awamaki right now. We are writing up detailed work plans for the projects. I just really worry about the sustainability of some of our disabilities projects and want to make sure that whoever comes in as the next health coordinator can continue these things. Sunny is leaving in June. We need to get some recruiting done. Lord knows I wish I could stay, but nursing school awaits. My old Epidemiology adviser at IU wants me to come and do some presentations to his classes. I am hoping I might pique someone's interest.
The weather is changing here now. We are definitely moving into the dry season. Rain has been rare even though clouds hang in the sky. But the sun is winning right now. Luckily the mountains and valley are still all green. I was awestruck on my drive back from Cusco on Wednesday by the beauty of the valley. The snow-capped mountains were so clear, the fields were lush and green in the sunshine. It was gorgeous. Times like those make me sit back and smile and love my life.
Kaitlyn and I have booked our tickets to head back up to the beach in Punta Sal right before we both go home in May. She is only home for a couple weeks as a vacation (she is here through December). However, we are both looking forward to the beach trip. I think Amos and Bricia are joining us as well. Hopefully Gian can find us a good beach house to rent for the four days for cheap. That would be ideal.
Tomorrow the municipality has organized this gigantic medical campaign with upwards of 70 doctors from the States. We will be there to help translate. I am really interested to see how this goes.
Anyway, my mornings and afternoons for the most part are spent doing data collection. We have started up the health classes again at the Telecentro after-school program. I have those to teach on Tuesday nights. We still do all of our fun social events each week. The volunteer numbers are growing steadily as we head into high season.
I hope all is well with everyone. All my love and talk to you soon! Pictures are coming, I promise. I even will try to post a little video of the bashing of the pinata.
I am absolutely exhausted due to my little host-brother's first birthday. Fabricio turned one yesterday. This last week leading up to the party has been crazy. We've been putting together treat bags, cake boxes, blowing up balloons (I believe that I single-handedly blew up at least 125 balloons over a two day span), decorating, buying things, cooking, etc. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I REALLY value my sleep. So this whole week I have been going to bed after midnight and getting up to workout at 6:05am like normal. Now that it is Friday, I am dead tired. My goal is to go to bed at 8pm tonight!
However, the party was a success! Now, I must say, I am a little perplexed as to why my host family would want to spend upwards of 1000 soles (about $360) on this party. Remember, the average income here is only 600 soles a month. I will post the photos today if I can, but definitely by the weekend. You will see just how elaborate the cake was. There was a giant Winnie the Pooh piñata. They had a clown who danced and joked around with the kids for 2 hours. So here is how it all works. Everyone comes in and sits on benches around the walls of the locale. We then go around and serve them popcorn, chips, cheese curls, jello, arroz con leche (rice pudding), massamora (think goopy purple syrupy stuff), cookies, animal crackers, hard candy, etc. All of these things are on little round trays that we walk around with. Then the clown did his thing. All the while, kids are running around jacked up on all the sugar they have been fed. After a couple hours, we finally blew out the candle then the kids smashed the pinata. Imagine my surprise when even adults were fighting their way through the crowds to get candy and stuff. The party started around 5pm and finally around 9pm we served beer and real food to the adults (but to the adults only -- kids are still hyped on sugar). Around 10pm most everyone had left. Then for the next 2 hours, those of us in the immediate family sat around and drank beer and chatted. I was so tired that I had to leave around midnight. Shura and I carried a big box of gifts back to the house.
I really have not done justice to the craziness of the party. The kids were running around helter-skelter. There was a Tigger suit that one of the teenage cousins put on to help the clown. Of course when Fabricio first saw it, he screamed bloody murder. I spent most of my time passing out food, handling the video camera, dancing with the little cousins or making sure Fabricio was happy. All I can say is that I am happy it is over. Although, we have to go back and clean everything up. There are cups and wrappers and popped balloons everywhere!
I have quite a bit of administrative work that I am trying to get organized and finished for Awamaki right now. We are writing up detailed work plans for the projects. I just really worry about the sustainability of some of our disabilities projects and want to make sure that whoever comes in as the next health coordinator can continue these things. Sunny is leaving in June. We need to get some recruiting done. Lord knows I wish I could stay, but nursing school awaits. My old Epidemiology adviser at IU wants me to come and do some presentations to his classes. I am hoping I might pique someone's interest.
The weather is changing here now. We are definitely moving into the dry season. Rain has been rare even though clouds hang in the sky. But the sun is winning right now. Luckily the mountains and valley are still all green. I was awestruck on my drive back from Cusco on Wednesday by the beauty of the valley. The snow-capped mountains were so clear, the fields were lush and green in the sunshine. It was gorgeous. Times like those make me sit back and smile and love my life.
Kaitlyn and I have booked our tickets to head back up to the beach in Punta Sal right before we both go home in May. She is only home for a couple weeks as a vacation (she is here through December). However, we are both looking forward to the beach trip. I think Amos and Bricia are joining us as well. Hopefully Gian can find us a good beach house to rent for the four days for cheap. That would be ideal.
Tomorrow the municipality has organized this gigantic medical campaign with upwards of 70 doctors from the States. We will be there to help translate. I am really interested to see how this goes.
Anyway, my mornings and afternoons for the most part are spent doing data collection. We have started up the health classes again at the Telecentro after-school program. I have those to teach on Tuesday nights. We still do all of our fun social events each week. The volunteer numbers are growing steadily as we head into high season.
I hope all is well with everyone. All my love and talk to you soon! Pictures are coming, I promise. I even will try to post a little video of the bashing of the pinata.
Monday, March 14, 2011
It's Definitely Fleas
Well, I have been besieged with bug bites since I returned to Ollanta. At first, they seemed to like my ankles, then my right leg, then my shoulder/armpit area, then my back and stomach. Now, they just seem to like anywhere they can sink their teeth in. I was perplexed though, because they are not really looking like flea bites. They look like mosquito bites and itch like crazy. So I have been trying to figure out what kind of bug could be eating me alive. I thought maybe it was some kind of fly, but last night, I came to know the truth.
I was sitting on my bed checking my email when I felt something tickling on my chest. So I lifted up my shirt and lo and behold, a flea jumps right off my boob to my pants and then to God knows where. So, it is fleas. I must have some different reaction than other people to their bites to make them swollen. I regularly wake up in the middle of the night scratching the crap out of my ankles and legs due to the itchiness of the bites. I can't even count how many I have. I am now very paranoid about fleas in my clothes. I put my workout pants on the other day before doing my exercise and as I was doing the warm-up, I felt all little bites on my right thigh. So I dropped my pants right there and sure enough, I had been bitten about 12 times in that short amount of time. Ugggghhh, I hate bug bites that itch!!
Yesterday was a really fun family day. We all slept in a bit and it was nice and sunny when we woke up. Celestino cooked pancakes for us (more like crepes) and we had a good breakfast. After breakfast, Shura, Celestino and I bathed our dog, Sando. As we were finishing up with the bath, Celestino turned the hose onto Shura and I so the games began. Remember, it is the end of Carnavales right now so the water games are at a peak. Shura, Ana and I ran to get our buckets and we proceeded to douse Celestino time and time again. He was able to get some good ones on us, so we were all a bit wet, but he was drenched. He never stood a chance with 3 against 1.
I went for a nice hike after changing out of my wet clothes. After a shower, we had a great lunch and then just chilled out. I read for awhile and then we watched the movie 127 Hours. After dinner, I did some reading and then hit the sack. We really all had a great day just playing and chatting and laughing. It was a lot of fun. Shura and I finished up the invitations and envelopes for Fabricio's birthday party. We also made the list of all the things we need to buy for the party. I can't believe they are about to spend over 800 soles on this party. Considering minimum wage for a month's work is 600 soles, that should let you know what they are spending. I plan on helping out with the party.
Today I am heading out to the Yanahaura posta to see how the last day of a dental campaign with US dentists is going. I've been trying to round up Peruvians to go, but no one is interested. They don't really like the dentist here. Probably because they only go when they need a tooth pulled due to decay.
Hope everyone has a good week. Sunny is back so I will be able to focus on the Posta. I have a birthday party to attend for Hallie's old host brother Alex, on Friday. He is turning 11. I bought him a soccer ball. Now he won't have to share with his brother, Luis!
I was sitting on my bed checking my email when I felt something tickling on my chest. So I lifted up my shirt and lo and behold, a flea jumps right off my boob to my pants and then to God knows where. So, it is fleas. I must have some different reaction than other people to their bites to make them swollen. I regularly wake up in the middle of the night scratching the crap out of my ankles and legs due to the itchiness of the bites. I can't even count how many I have. I am now very paranoid about fleas in my clothes. I put my workout pants on the other day before doing my exercise and as I was doing the warm-up, I felt all little bites on my right thigh. So I dropped my pants right there and sure enough, I had been bitten about 12 times in that short amount of time. Ugggghhh, I hate bug bites that itch!!
Yesterday was a really fun family day. We all slept in a bit and it was nice and sunny when we woke up. Celestino cooked pancakes for us (more like crepes) and we had a good breakfast. After breakfast, Shura, Celestino and I bathed our dog, Sando. As we were finishing up with the bath, Celestino turned the hose onto Shura and I so the games began. Remember, it is the end of Carnavales right now so the water games are at a peak. Shura, Ana and I ran to get our buckets and we proceeded to douse Celestino time and time again. He was able to get some good ones on us, so we were all a bit wet, but he was drenched. He never stood a chance with 3 against 1.
I went for a nice hike after changing out of my wet clothes. After a shower, we had a great lunch and then just chilled out. I read for awhile and then we watched the movie 127 Hours. After dinner, I did some reading and then hit the sack. We really all had a great day just playing and chatting and laughing. It was a lot of fun. Shura and I finished up the invitations and envelopes for Fabricio's birthday party. We also made the list of all the things we need to buy for the party. I can't believe they are about to spend over 800 soles on this party. Considering minimum wage for a month's work is 600 soles, that should let you know what they are spending. I plan on helping out with the party.
Today I am heading out to the Yanahaura posta to see how the last day of a dental campaign with US dentists is going. I've been trying to round up Peruvians to go, but no one is interested. They don't really like the dentist here. Probably because they only go when they need a tooth pulled due to decay.
Hope everyone has a good week. Sunny is back so I will be able to focus on the Posta. I have a birthday party to attend for Hallie's old host brother Alex, on Friday. He is turning 11. I bought him a soccer ball. Now he won't have to share with his brother, Luis!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Where has the week gone?
Wow! It is already Friday. I don't know where this week has gone. But the scary thing is, as I am trying to remember what I did on Monday, I really have to dig deep. Oh, yes, I had meetings all day on Monday. My 9am meeting was supposed to be with the woman who is a liaison to the disabilities office here. Unfortunately, she did not show so that was a bust. I had been told on Friday that there was to be a mass for an Intern at the Posta who had died in a car accident. This mass was supposedly on Monday morning, but when I was walking to Jess's house early in the morning for P90X, I saw Eloy (who works at the Posta) and he said that the mass is on Thursday. I love how things are just so disorganized here!
Anyway, we had a brunch for Margo's despidida (going-away). It was delicious, as always. We had bagels courtesy of Jess, crepes, fruit salad, banana bread, yogurt and juice. Yummy! After the brunch, we had our health meeting for the week. Sunny is out of town so I ran the meeting. We have some help from some of Leander's volunteers this week so we planned another toy-making day for Tuesday. I had some lunch with the fam and then it was back to the office for more meetings. I had some Skype dates that day too.
I ended up talking to a 3rd year midwifery student from Yale. She was great and was really able to give me an honest view of the program at Yale. She pretty much told me to go with my gut feelings. I had not gotten a good feeling from Yale when I had my interview. I had some serious reservations about their faculty. Morgan was able to tell me that yes, the Yale program has had tons of faculty turnover recently and that although the faculty are leaders in the field, they are just not good teachers. So, I have decided to follow my instincts and go to Vanderbilt. I am sad that I will not be near my bro, sis-in-law and cutest nephew in the world, as well as near my good girlfriends. But, I have to make the best decision for my future, and Vanderbilt is it!
Then, after dinner, I went over to the volunteer house to watch Inception with Katilyn and Carrie. What a great movie. That was my second time seeing it and I still would like to watch it again to try to figure it all out!
Tuesday's toy making day was a success. My Small Help's volunteers got really into it and made some great toys. Matt is going to be helping Laya build a scooter for Natividad. Natividad cannot walk so they are hoping this scooter will help her be more mobile. We have been on the search for wheels and wood for the past few days.
I slept horribly on Monday night so by the afternoon, I was pooped. I spent the afternoon doing administrative stuff for the health program. Shura and I went to Cusco on a shopping run on Wednesday. We are holding a t-shirt contest for past and present Awa volunteers. Lillie, Emma and I are the T-shirt Contest Committee members. Our job is to decide on the rules of the contest and choose the winners. As I am not creative at all, I jumped at the chance of being on the committee! We had a quick meeting to get the email ready and then Shura and I were off.
We had a great lunch and then shopped and shopped. We had to buy lots of stuff for both Awamaki, other volunteers, her mom and things for Fabricio's birthday party. So it was a very long day, but also very productive. We didn't get back until about 6:30pm. We had some chow and then hit the sack pretty early. I am psyched though because we bought some DVDs. You can get DVDs for $1 here really easily. I just hope they are of good quality. Now I have something to watch if I am bored at night.
P90X is still rocking. I need to add some hikes into my routine, but it is still pretty rainy on and off all day. We have actually had some torrential downpours at night. On the drive to Cusco, I got to finally see the place in the road that fell away into the river. It is pretty freaky to see the road just dropped away. Luckily no one was on the road when it happened. On our way to Urubamba yesterday, there had been a landslide within the last hour so that was freaky too. Huge boulders covered one side of the road.
Yesterday was another long day. I went to the mass at the Posta for Ana Gloria, the Intern who passed away. Then I met up with Kaitlyn and we walked to Rumira to meet up with Leander and the Director of the school in Rumira. He is also a doctor who currently runs his own naturopathic medical clinic. So we talked to him a bit and then went to his clinic in Urubamba. Sunny wants to start up an after school rehab center in the school in Rumira two days a week to allow the disabled children in the surrounding communities some time with peers and to get some rehab. We needed to ask Mariano if we could use the school.
Leander, Matt and I left Mariano to his patients, and then went in search of lunch. After lunch, we went in search of wood for Natividad's scooter. Where is the Home Depot when you need it??? Trying to find wood is extremely difficult. We went to a couple of places but they will only sell you the entire huge piece of wood. We need one that is 50cm x 75cm. We were told to search for Carpinteria Valentin. They should have smaller pieces. But we had no luck finding it. It was starting to rain and we were tired, so we just decided to head home. They are going to search again today.
I have been looking for housing in Nashville, now that I know I am going there. It is exciting! I really like Nashville, so I think I will be quite happy there.
I was up early to get the chocolatada ready today. It was a successful chocolatada. I was able to serve it all up -- no leftovers! The patient numbers have been quite low lately due to the rains. Many people cannot make it down from the mountains due to road closures and landslides. As I walked into the Posta at 7:15am this morning, I saw a huge puddle of blood and a man laying in the Topico room. I later learned there had been a car accident and a woman had died. The man had some head injuries, but he ultimately left later that morning. The scary thing here isn't the actual car accident, although no one uses seatbelts, but the fact that you are screwed for medical treatment in many ways.
After the chocolatada, I have been catching up on this stuff. So it has been a productive week. I am excited because I have date night tonight with Will and Jess. We are going to eat at Puka Rumi and then watch a movie at their house. I like to ingratiate myself in their relationship! They don't mind because they are the greatest. Then on Saturday night, a group of us are going to dinner at the Polleria. That means rotisserie chicken. Yummy!
Well, I hope you all have had good weeks. Starting next week, I am planting myself in the Posta and that is it!!
Anyway, we had a brunch for Margo's despidida (going-away). It was delicious, as always. We had bagels courtesy of Jess, crepes, fruit salad, banana bread, yogurt and juice. Yummy! After the brunch, we had our health meeting for the week. Sunny is out of town so I ran the meeting. We have some help from some of Leander's volunteers this week so we planned another toy-making day for Tuesday. I had some lunch with the fam and then it was back to the office for more meetings. I had some Skype dates that day too.
I ended up talking to a 3rd year midwifery student from Yale. She was great and was really able to give me an honest view of the program at Yale. She pretty much told me to go with my gut feelings. I had not gotten a good feeling from Yale when I had my interview. I had some serious reservations about their faculty. Morgan was able to tell me that yes, the Yale program has had tons of faculty turnover recently and that although the faculty are leaders in the field, they are just not good teachers. So, I have decided to follow my instincts and go to Vanderbilt. I am sad that I will not be near my bro, sis-in-law and cutest nephew in the world, as well as near my good girlfriends. But, I have to make the best decision for my future, and Vanderbilt is it!
Then, after dinner, I went over to the volunteer house to watch Inception with Katilyn and Carrie. What a great movie. That was my second time seeing it and I still would like to watch it again to try to figure it all out!
Tuesday's toy making day was a success. My Small Help's volunteers got really into it and made some great toys. Matt is going to be helping Laya build a scooter for Natividad. Natividad cannot walk so they are hoping this scooter will help her be more mobile. We have been on the search for wheels and wood for the past few days.
I slept horribly on Monday night so by the afternoon, I was pooped. I spent the afternoon doing administrative stuff for the health program. Shura and I went to Cusco on a shopping run on Wednesday. We are holding a t-shirt contest for past and present Awa volunteers. Lillie, Emma and I are the T-shirt Contest Committee members. Our job is to decide on the rules of the contest and choose the winners. As I am not creative at all, I jumped at the chance of being on the committee! We had a quick meeting to get the email ready and then Shura and I were off.
We had a great lunch and then shopped and shopped. We had to buy lots of stuff for both Awamaki, other volunteers, her mom and things for Fabricio's birthday party. So it was a very long day, but also very productive. We didn't get back until about 6:30pm. We had some chow and then hit the sack pretty early. I am psyched though because we bought some DVDs. You can get DVDs for $1 here really easily. I just hope they are of good quality. Now I have something to watch if I am bored at night.
P90X is still rocking. I need to add some hikes into my routine, but it is still pretty rainy on and off all day. We have actually had some torrential downpours at night. On the drive to Cusco, I got to finally see the place in the road that fell away into the river. It is pretty freaky to see the road just dropped away. Luckily no one was on the road when it happened. On our way to Urubamba yesterday, there had been a landslide within the last hour so that was freaky too. Huge boulders covered one side of the road.
Yesterday was another long day. I went to the mass at the Posta for Ana Gloria, the Intern who passed away. Then I met up with Kaitlyn and we walked to Rumira to meet up with Leander and the Director of the school in Rumira. He is also a doctor who currently runs his own naturopathic medical clinic. So we talked to him a bit and then went to his clinic in Urubamba. Sunny wants to start up an after school rehab center in the school in Rumira two days a week to allow the disabled children in the surrounding communities some time with peers and to get some rehab. We needed to ask Mariano if we could use the school.
Leander, Matt and I left Mariano to his patients, and then went in search of lunch. After lunch, we went in search of wood for Natividad's scooter. Where is the Home Depot when you need it??? Trying to find wood is extremely difficult. We went to a couple of places but they will only sell you the entire huge piece of wood. We need one that is 50cm x 75cm. We were told to search for Carpinteria Valentin. They should have smaller pieces. But we had no luck finding it. It was starting to rain and we were tired, so we just decided to head home. They are going to search again today.
I have been looking for housing in Nashville, now that I know I am going there. It is exciting! I really like Nashville, so I think I will be quite happy there.
I was up early to get the chocolatada ready today. It was a successful chocolatada. I was able to serve it all up -- no leftovers! The patient numbers have been quite low lately due to the rains. Many people cannot make it down from the mountains due to road closures and landslides. As I walked into the Posta at 7:15am this morning, I saw a huge puddle of blood and a man laying in the Topico room. I later learned there had been a car accident and a woman had died. The man had some head injuries, but he ultimately left later that morning. The scary thing here isn't the actual car accident, although no one uses seatbelts, but the fact that you are screwed for medical treatment in many ways.
After the chocolatada, I have been catching up on this stuff. So it has been a productive week. I am excited because I have date night tonight with Will and Jess. We are going to eat at Puka Rumi and then watch a movie at their house. I like to ingratiate myself in their relationship! They don't mind because they are the greatest. Then on Saturday night, a group of us are going to dinner at the Polleria. That means rotisserie chicken. Yummy!
Well, I hope you all have had good weeks. Starting next week, I am planting myself in the Posta and that is it!!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Drunken Proposals by a 5 ft tall Peruvian
Well, I haven't written since Tuesday, so I apologize, but life just seems to be zipping by here. The P90x workouts have been a great way to start the morning. Shura has managed to get out of bed for every other one. Kaitlyn, Jess and I have moved indoors in Jess's house. We move all of the furniture out of the living room and use that space. It is much more comfortable (other than the really low ceiling so some of the overhead stretches are hard). Plus, we can hook the laptop up to speakers and can hear much better. I think we are starting to get the feel for all of the exercises.
Our toy making day was a big success. So much so that we are going to do it again on Tuesday. I made a jigsaw puzzle by coloring a sheet from the Madagascar 2 coloring book we have, gluing it to a piece of cardboard and then covering it in clear tape to seal it in. Then I drew out the puzzle pieces and cut them out. Worked like a charm and now some of our kids can try to do a puzzle. We also made play-doh, a texture book for the blind women, weights, rattles, stress reliever/squeeze balls from flour and balloons, etc. One of the other NGOs that we are partnering with for raising funds and resources for the disabilities campaign has some volunteers with nothing to do right now. So these Swedes are going to make more toys and try to build a scooter that one of the women needs.
My team won the pub quiz on Tuesday so that was great. We got a free beer out of it! I had a number of meetings on Thursday and again on Friday. The chocolatada on Friday was pretty slow considering this is the rainy season and many of the families from the mountain communities cannot make it down into town due to mudslides and flooding. I was able to catch up with the obstetrics nurse, Charo as well as the children's health nurse, Enrique. They are on board for me to start my data collection in the afternoons. Also, there is a mass on Monday in memory of one of the interns who died in a car accident while doing a health visit to one of the mountain communities. So I will be going to represent Awamaki (and try to round up some other health volunteers).
We are having a good bye brunch for Margo on Monday as well. I will most likely be late since the mass starts at 10am and the brunch is at 10:30am. I have a 9am meeting with Lenny, a woman who is a liaison between Lima and Ollanta's disability office. She also happens to be the mayor of Ollanta's daughter. She is a bundle of energy though and is very good at getting things done (which is kind of rare here). So there is a huge group of American doctors coming down for one day at the end of the month. I guess there are upwards of 8 specialties and as many as 70 doctors coming. She wants help with organizing the program for the day. So I will meet with her about this.
I also have an invitation to eat lunch at Hallie's old host family's house at 2pm. So I will be a fat pig on Monday between the brunch and lunch at Lucy and Ivan's.
Friday night was our pizza party since we had 2 new volunteers arrive last week. I finally got to meet Miguel's little baby, Noah. He is adorable! A good mix of Miguel and Zoneida, I believe. After the party, Kaitly, Lauren and Kristi and I went for a drink at the pub. By 9:45, I was ready to go to bed so it was an early night. But I had wanted to go out for a celebratory drink since I found out on Thursday night that I got accepted to Yale's Nursing School! Now I have a very tough decision to make -- Vanderbilt or Yale???
Yesterday was a crazy day. Celestino is the president of the dance group the Majeños this year. So we had all of the dancers and some of their spouses and other people over for a party. Not all of the dancers could make it, but Ana and her sisters and parents were in fine form all morning preparing all of the food. I had peeled about 25 carrots so at least I felt like I did something. The menu was ricotto relleno (stuffed peppers), papas al horno (oven baked potatoes), tallarine (a baked noodle dish with eggs, cheese, onions and olives), and chuleta de cerdo (pork chops). Of course there were cases of beer, a big tent in the yard, and bottles of pisco and anis. People started coming over around 4:30. They didn't leave until 2:30am! I was enjoying myself just talking to people, when at one point, I returned to the table and two new guys had showed up. They were both already really drunk and one took an immediate liking to me.
What I missed during the next time I got up for a minute, was that the one guy said to all the others sitting around, "watch and see how you can fall in love in six minutes". So as I sat back down, everyone was very interested in our conversation. The guy kept asking me about love and why I was single. He kept calling me his "esposa" and "amor" (wife and love). Luckily I have years of experience dealing with drunken men who like to profess their love to me from working at the pub in England and at Old Town in Carmel. This was no big deal. Of course, I didn't understand why Graham kept saying "cinco minutos, cuatro minutos, dos minutos" (five minutes, four minutes, two minutes). It wasn't until later that he told me the whole six minutes thing.
Once we were finished eating, people started dancing. So my new love wanted to dance too. When we got out on the dance area I, along with everyone else, couldn't help but laugh. I was a good 8 inches taller than him! He was like, you are so big!! I was like, you are so short!! He couldn't even reach his hand up high enough to spin me around. It was hysterical. We managed to dance and then I was asked to dance with tons of other guys. So it was quite fun. One of the guys here, his nickname is Wow, cornered me for quite awhile talking about energy and reasons for life, etc. Yes, he was quite drunk. But he was fun to dance with.
I was getting really tired by 11pm so I said my goodbyes to whoever was downstairs and headed up to my room to hang with the cousins. Ana's family reminds me of my mom's family. Ana is the 3rd of 6 daughters. The ages range from 42 to 20. The family is very close. I love having the extended family here since it makes me feel like I am home with my aunts, uncles and cousins. The cousins ages range from 22 to 11 months. They were making the invitations for Fabricio's 1st birthday party. Finally they all left and Shura and I hung out and chatted until we fell asleep.
The party was still going on, but we were both pretty tired so we were able to sleep through it. I had woken up at 5:30am on Saturday morning and couldn't fall back asleep so I was pretty dead after eating, drinking and dancing for hours.
I had hidden out in the kitchen with the women when I wanted to get away from my short suitor. Emma, my friend who is dating one of the dancers, had followed me in so we all had a good time just chilling in the kitchen. It is so funny that regardless of the country or culture, the women-folk always gather to socialize in the kitchen! Once I found out my suitor had left, I felt safe to leave the sanctuary of the kitchen.
Anyway, today we have been cleaning up and just relaxing. Today marks the first day of Carnavales. So we will most likely be getting drenched with water for the next week anytime we try to walk through town. Boys chase after girls and drench them and girls chase after boys. I try to hide behind groups of old people because they don't get wet.
All in all, a good week. I will be spending most of my time in the Posta from now on, so I will hopefully have some good stories to tell about that. The goal is to collect as much data as possible so we can start to write some grant proposals for programs that target the real needs of the patients.
Our toy making day was a big success. So much so that we are going to do it again on Tuesday. I made a jigsaw puzzle by coloring a sheet from the Madagascar 2 coloring book we have, gluing it to a piece of cardboard and then covering it in clear tape to seal it in. Then I drew out the puzzle pieces and cut them out. Worked like a charm and now some of our kids can try to do a puzzle. We also made play-doh, a texture book for the blind women, weights, rattles, stress reliever/squeeze balls from flour and balloons, etc. One of the other NGOs that we are partnering with for raising funds and resources for the disabilities campaign has some volunteers with nothing to do right now. So these Swedes are going to make more toys and try to build a scooter that one of the women needs.
My team won the pub quiz on Tuesday so that was great. We got a free beer out of it! I had a number of meetings on Thursday and again on Friday. The chocolatada on Friday was pretty slow considering this is the rainy season and many of the families from the mountain communities cannot make it down into town due to mudslides and flooding. I was able to catch up with the obstetrics nurse, Charo as well as the children's health nurse, Enrique. They are on board for me to start my data collection in the afternoons. Also, there is a mass on Monday in memory of one of the interns who died in a car accident while doing a health visit to one of the mountain communities. So I will be going to represent Awamaki (and try to round up some other health volunteers).
We are having a good bye brunch for Margo on Monday as well. I will most likely be late since the mass starts at 10am and the brunch is at 10:30am. I have a 9am meeting with Lenny, a woman who is a liaison between Lima and Ollanta's disability office. She also happens to be the mayor of Ollanta's daughter. She is a bundle of energy though and is very good at getting things done (which is kind of rare here). So there is a huge group of American doctors coming down for one day at the end of the month. I guess there are upwards of 8 specialties and as many as 70 doctors coming. She wants help with organizing the program for the day. So I will meet with her about this.
I also have an invitation to eat lunch at Hallie's old host family's house at 2pm. So I will be a fat pig on Monday between the brunch and lunch at Lucy and Ivan's.
Friday night was our pizza party since we had 2 new volunteers arrive last week. I finally got to meet Miguel's little baby, Noah. He is adorable! A good mix of Miguel and Zoneida, I believe. After the party, Kaitly, Lauren and Kristi and I went for a drink at the pub. By 9:45, I was ready to go to bed so it was an early night. But I had wanted to go out for a celebratory drink since I found out on Thursday night that I got accepted to Yale's Nursing School! Now I have a very tough decision to make -- Vanderbilt or Yale???
Yesterday was a crazy day. Celestino is the president of the dance group the Majeños this year. So we had all of the dancers and some of their spouses and other people over for a party. Not all of the dancers could make it, but Ana and her sisters and parents were in fine form all morning preparing all of the food. I had peeled about 25 carrots so at least I felt like I did something. The menu was ricotto relleno (stuffed peppers), papas al horno (oven baked potatoes), tallarine (a baked noodle dish with eggs, cheese, onions and olives), and chuleta de cerdo (pork chops). Of course there were cases of beer, a big tent in the yard, and bottles of pisco and anis. People started coming over around 4:30. They didn't leave until 2:30am! I was enjoying myself just talking to people, when at one point, I returned to the table and two new guys had showed up. They were both already really drunk and one took an immediate liking to me.
What I missed during the next time I got up for a minute, was that the one guy said to all the others sitting around, "watch and see how you can fall in love in six minutes". So as I sat back down, everyone was very interested in our conversation. The guy kept asking me about love and why I was single. He kept calling me his "esposa" and "amor" (wife and love). Luckily I have years of experience dealing with drunken men who like to profess their love to me from working at the pub in England and at Old Town in Carmel. This was no big deal. Of course, I didn't understand why Graham kept saying "cinco minutos, cuatro minutos, dos minutos" (five minutes, four minutes, two minutes). It wasn't until later that he told me the whole six minutes thing.
Once we were finished eating, people started dancing. So my new love wanted to dance too. When we got out on the dance area I, along with everyone else, couldn't help but laugh. I was a good 8 inches taller than him! He was like, you are so big!! I was like, you are so short!! He couldn't even reach his hand up high enough to spin me around. It was hysterical. We managed to dance and then I was asked to dance with tons of other guys. So it was quite fun. One of the guys here, his nickname is Wow, cornered me for quite awhile talking about energy and reasons for life, etc. Yes, he was quite drunk. But he was fun to dance with.
I was getting really tired by 11pm so I said my goodbyes to whoever was downstairs and headed up to my room to hang with the cousins. Ana's family reminds me of my mom's family. Ana is the 3rd of 6 daughters. The ages range from 42 to 20. The family is very close. I love having the extended family here since it makes me feel like I am home with my aunts, uncles and cousins. The cousins ages range from 22 to 11 months. They were making the invitations for Fabricio's 1st birthday party. Finally they all left and Shura and I hung out and chatted until we fell asleep.
The party was still going on, but we were both pretty tired so we were able to sleep through it. I had woken up at 5:30am on Saturday morning and couldn't fall back asleep so I was pretty dead after eating, drinking and dancing for hours.
I had hidden out in the kitchen with the women when I wanted to get away from my short suitor. Emma, my friend who is dating one of the dancers, had followed me in so we all had a good time just chilling in the kitchen. It is so funny that regardless of the country or culture, the women-folk always gather to socialize in the kitchen! Once I found out my suitor had left, I felt safe to leave the sanctuary of the kitchen.
Anyway, today we have been cleaning up and just relaxing. Today marks the first day of Carnavales. So we will most likely be getting drenched with water for the next week anytime we try to walk through town. Boys chase after girls and drench them and girls chase after boys. I try to hide behind groups of old people because they don't get wet.
All in all, a good week. I will be spending most of my time in the Posta from now on, so I will hopefully have some good stories to tell about that. The goal is to collect as much data as possible so we can start to write some grant proposals for programs that target the real needs of the patients.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Wow, what a day!
Today began the official start of my P90X workout regime. Luckily I have rounded up a few game volunteers to try this out with me. We met this morning at Jess's house to pop in our first video. It was just Kaitlyn, Jess and I, but we had a good time. Jess has this area up on their roof that we used. The only issue was that we couldn't hear the video due to the river rushing by us right next door. We also had problems seeing the video because every time the exercise was something on the floor, we would have to move the computer screen so we could see. All in all though, I think we did amazingly well considering we didn't have yoga mats, weights or a big screen tv! Tomorrow is Cardio X. I think we may have a few more people. We have also decided to try to move it indoors in Jess's living room so we can actually hear the instructions. My host sister says she is going to join us, but when the alarm went off at 6:10am this morning, she chose to stay in bed. We will see about tomorrow. I have had to change up my routine from morning hikes to morning P90x and afternoon hikes. I told the girls that if we really do go through with the full program, I am going to take some photos of our surroundings and send them into the P90x people. I doubt they have ever had anyone do their program at almost 10,000 feet altitude in the Andes on a roof!
I ran home and showered and ate some breakfast before meeting Sunny at the combi stand at 9am. We were going to a small town nearby called Piri to do some physical therapy exercises with a man named Mario who has polio. We hopped in a combi and off we went. Mario is 55 years old and got polio when he was 5. His right side is affected. His right hand is curled inward and is very hard to keep straightened. His right leg is extremely weak and his right foot curls downward. So we just did some stretching and then some strength exercises for his arms, hands, legs and core.
After that I went home to play with Fabricio and all the people who were at the house at the time. At 1pm, I met up with Sunny and another volunteer named Susan to do a home visit for a 19 year old (who actually just lives right down the road from me) with cerebral palsy. Jose is a happy guy whose family is very devoted to his care. We just did more exercises with him to work on his dexterity and to try to stretch out his legs. He spends all day in a wheel chair so his legs are tight and in a knees-up position at all times.
A quick lunch and family time and then it was back out to meet up with Leya and Susan to go to a mountain community across the river -- I don't know how to spell the name so I won't even try to butcher it. We waited in the combi for about 20min but since no other passengers were showing up, the combi won't leave with just 3 of us. We decided to walk. We headed down to the train tracks and walked along them until we came upon the bridge over the river and up to the town. We were looking for a blind woman named Albertina. She became blind about 6 years ago and our role is to help her walk better with her walking stick, help her learn braille, and also try to find her a job. She used to be a cook, but can't do that now. Unfortunately, we didn't head up there until 3pm and by that time, the town was in "Chicha Time". We went to Albertina's house but no one was there. So we went to a neighboring relative's house. There we found 3 drunk men and 2 drunk women. Of course they wouldn't let us just leave once they told us where Albertina was. We had to sit and listen to their drunken talk. One of the men was going on an on about the villages that he is President of up high in the mountains. How they were so poor and the children were malnourished and needed education assistance. Throughout his whole speech, which he made multiple times, he would apologize for his drunkenness. Then the mom started speaking directly at me, calling me "mamacita linda" (pretty woman)and asking me to help her youngest son who had been studying tourism in Cusco at the university but recently had a fall and is now unable to finish his schooling. In the midst of her pleas, she starting crying and I was just staring at her like a deer in headlights. This poor woman is crying to me and I can't really do a thing to help her. Luckily her other sons stepped in and came to my rescue. It was just sad. Too many people think that because we are foreigners, we have tons of money to give and can just solve all of their problems.
We finally were able to make it out of that little family reunion with only drinking a tiny amount of beer. They pointed us in the direction of the house where Albertina supposedly was. We had to make our way down the mountainside, jumping over little creeks, all the while thinking, "How in the heck did a blind woman get down here?". We found Albertina with a group of drunk people. She, too was quite drunk. Of course the children were all around as well. We got Albertina out to talk to her and she proceeds to start crying and telling us how her husband has been treating her horribly (we have heard that he beats her). That made us worried about her safety and her small girls. She gets herself together enough to tell us to come back on Thursday morning and how we can all go "camping" and she will make choclo con queso (big ears of corn with cheese). I tell you, the whole town -- which only has about 30 people in it -- gets drunk in the afternoons. You wonder why there is such poverty and domestic violence and the kids run around dirty as all get out.
We made our way out of town and back down to the river and the train tracks. I think we were all a little shell-shocked. The question really is, what do we have the ability to do about the domestic abuse situation? We had just heard one of the earlier drunk men railing about this man in his village who is a known abuser yet nothing is done about it. It is the ethical dilemas that make you really sit and think about what we can do as an outside organization. There is a boy here with cerebral palsy whose family does not care for him well. He lays in his bed all day and his mom only changes his diaper once a day. He lays there in his urine and feces. When Awamaki organized his consultation at a local NGO clinic, they found horrible bed sores all over his backside. The doctors said that if these bed sores get worse, he could get such a bad infection that it could lead to death. His family has said they would like to institutionalize him. There are actually some really great institutions in Cusco, but one of our volunteers who works with him, is staunchly against institutionalization. Ultimately, whose decision is this? What does Awamaki do in this situation? We don't want to be known as the group that takes kids from families, but at the same time, it is a bad situation.
Anyway, as you can see, it was quite a day. Tomorrow, the health volunteers are getting together to make some physical therapy toys to use in the home visits. We really need quite a few things, so I will put together a wish list and try to get some items organized.
Tonight is the pub quiz at Porfi's. Tomorrow morning is day 2 of P90x. I am already exhausted from today, but a little socializing would do me good. We have quite a bit on the social calendar this week, so it should be a fun week.
I ran home and showered and ate some breakfast before meeting Sunny at the combi stand at 9am. We were going to a small town nearby called Piri to do some physical therapy exercises with a man named Mario who has polio. We hopped in a combi and off we went. Mario is 55 years old and got polio when he was 5. His right side is affected. His right hand is curled inward and is very hard to keep straightened. His right leg is extremely weak and his right foot curls downward. So we just did some stretching and then some strength exercises for his arms, hands, legs and core.
After that I went home to play with Fabricio and all the people who were at the house at the time. At 1pm, I met up with Sunny and another volunteer named Susan to do a home visit for a 19 year old (who actually just lives right down the road from me) with cerebral palsy. Jose is a happy guy whose family is very devoted to his care. We just did more exercises with him to work on his dexterity and to try to stretch out his legs. He spends all day in a wheel chair so his legs are tight and in a knees-up position at all times.
A quick lunch and family time and then it was back out to meet up with Leya and Susan to go to a mountain community across the river -- I don't know how to spell the name so I won't even try to butcher it. We waited in the combi for about 20min but since no other passengers were showing up, the combi won't leave with just 3 of us. We decided to walk. We headed down to the train tracks and walked along them until we came upon the bridge over the river and up to the town. We were looking for a blind woman named Albertina. She became blind about 6 years ago and our role is to help her walk better with her walking stick, help her learn braille, and also try to find her a job. She used to be a cook, but can't do that now. Unfortunately, we didn't head up there until 3pm and by that time, the town was in "Chicha Time". We went to Albertina's house but no one was there. So we went to a neighboring relative's house. There we found 3 drunk men and 2 drunk women. Of course they wouldn't let us just leave once they told us where Albertina was. We had to sit and listen to their drunken talk. One of the men was going on an on about the villages that he is President of up high in the mountains. How they were so poor and the children were malnourished and needed education assistance. Throughout his whole speech, which he made multiple times, he would apologize for his drunkenness. Then the mom started speaking directly at me, calling me "mamacita linda" (pretty woman)and asking me to help her youngest son who had been studying tourism in Cusco at the university but recently had a fall and is now unable to finish his schooling. In the midst of her pleas, she starting crying and I was just staring at her like a deer in headlights. This poor woman is crying to me and I can't really do a thing to help her. Luckily her other sons stepped in and came to my rescue. It was just sad. Too many people think that because we are foreigners, we have tons of money to give and can just solve all of their problems.
We finally were able to make it out of that little family reunion with only drinking a tiny amount of beer. They pointed us in the direction of the house where Albertina supposedly was. We had to make our way down the mountainside, jumping over little creeks, all the while thinking, "How in the heck did a blind woman get down here?". We found Albertina with a group of drunk people. She, too was quite drunk. Of course the children were all around as well. We got Albertina out to talk to her and she proceeds to start crying and telling us how her husband has been treating her horribly (we have heard that he beats her). That made us worried about her safety and her small girls. She gets herself together enough to tell us to come back on Thursday morning and how we can all go "camping" and she will make choclo con queso (big ears of corn with cheese). I tell you, the whole town -- which only has about 30 people in it -- gets drunk in the afternoons. You wonder why there is such poverty and domestic violence and the kids run around dirty as all get out.
We made our way out of town and back down to the river and the train tracks. I think we were all a little shell-shocked. The question really is, what do we have the ability to do about the domestic abuse situation? We had just heard one of the earlier drunk men railing about this man in his village who is a known abuser yet nothing is done about it. It is the ethical dilemas that make you really sit and think about what we can do as an outside organization. There is a boy here with cerebral palsy whose family does not care for him well. He lays in his bed all day and his mom only changes his diaper once a day. He lays there in his urine and feces. When Awamaki organized his consultation at a local NGO clinic, they found horrible bed sores all over his backside. The doctors said that if these bed sores get worse, he could get such a bad infection that it could lead to death. His family has said they would like to institutionalize him. There are actually some really great institutions in Cusco, but one of our volunteers who works with him, is staunchly against institutionalization. Ultimately, whose decision is this? What does Awamaki do in this situation? We don't want to be known as the group that takes kids from families, but at the same time, it is a bad situation.
Anyway, as you can see, it was quite a day. Tomorrow, the health volunteers are getting together to make some physical therapy toys to use in the home visits. We really need quite a few things, so I will put together a wish list and try to get some items organized.
Tonight is the pub quiz at Porfi's. Tomorrow morning is day 2 of P90x. I am already exhausted from today, but a little socializing would do me good. We have quite a bit on the social calendar this week, so it should be a fun week.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Barro, Barro, Barro -- Mud, Mud, Mud!
So yesterday was El Dia de los Compadres up in a little mountain village called Marcacocha. There was food, dancing and a bull fight (I use this term lightly). Ana, Shura, Fabricio and I went up there aroud lunch time and stayed for quite a few hours. We brought our own lunch and camped out while watching some dancing. Then we snagged a good seat for the bull fights. Unfortunately, it was an extremely cold and rainy day so the roads were pure mud, the walkways were pure mud, and our shoes and pants were covered in mud. Actually, it was a pretty boring day. The dances were boring and the bull fight was ridiculous. The first bull was small and skinny. Many times during the "fight" he just stopped and started eating grass! The bull fighters, again I use this term lightly, were sitting around drinking beer and trying to get the bull to charge by waving their jackets at them. Definitely not what a true bull fight is. The second bull kept trying to get back out of the ring and into the area where the bulls are kept. By the third bull, I decided to socialize with some family members and stop watching! Also, the band decided to set up right behind us so that was a little loud and annoying to be near. We finally decided to leave once the bull fights were over and everyone just started drinking. We did not want to risk being driven back down the mountain on the curvy, muddy roads by a drunk driver -- very likely as the night went on. We were lucky and found a car and down we went.
Unfortunately, the altitude and cold got to me and I was feeling pretty sick by the evening. Throughout the night I had a splitting headache and was really nauseous. Luckily, I slept in the next morning and drank a lot of water and was good to go by the afternoon. I missed the chocolatada at the posta though. I was able to track Noah down in the afternoon and we set up a meeting with Kaitlyn, Sunny, Noah and myself. The meeting went well. Sunny and Kaitlyn brought me up to date on the health program and its current projects. They are working with disabled children and adults in the surrounding communities. Basically trying to offer support and rehab to the disabled and their families. We are now in need of physical therapist and Occupational therapist volunteers -- Mary Ellen, I need you!!! I am going to be spending my mornings in the clinics and then my afternoons gathering data for grants. There is so much data down here that no one has really used.
We are still running the chocolatadas, but my public health classes have fallen to the wayside. So I will also be creating new education curriculum to begin again in the telecentro after school program.
Friday night was a lot of fun. The volunteers got together at Will, Jess, Noah, Willa and Blair's house for Sushi Night! The sushi was all vegetarian, but it was delicious! Our friend Alex joined us later with his brand new puppy who is just a ball of fur. So darn cute! It was great to be back with Will and Jess and Emma. The other volunteers seem to be really nice. I really like the volunteer coordinator, Kaitlyn. So all in all, I think the next couple months are going to be great. I am excited to get back into things.
Yesterday was a beautiful gem of a day. It didn't rain at all! I got up in the morning to sunshine and warmth. I ate breakfast and then went on our old usual morning hike -- I miss Hallie! It was gorgeous up in the mountains. Looking down on the town and all the green mountainsides. Beautiful! Then Shura and I ran some errands in Urubamba and hung out with Ana and Fabricio. I also had the pleasure of helping Ana prepare mashed potatoes for lunch. This meant peeling the potatoes. Of course, at home we use a peeler. Well, here they just use a knife. As I peeled more potatoes, I got faster, but it was pretty pitiful that Ana could peel about 5 potatoes to my 1! Back to the carb overload. We had white rice, mashed potatoes and corn for lunch. It is all delicious but just so much starch!
Today I am catching up on this blog, calling some friends and just chilling out. Of course since it was sunny and beautiful yesterday, it is rainy and cold today. I did book my Inca Trail trek so I am for sure going to Macchu Pichu via the 4 day hike this time. I leave on April 30. All of May is already booked out. Would love to hear from everyone so email if you get a chance.
Unfortunately, the altitude and cold got to me and I was feeling pretty sick by the evening. Throughout the night I had a splitting headache and was really nauseous. Luckily, I slept in the next morning and drank a lot of water and was good to go by the afternoon. I missed the chocolatada at the posta though. I was able to track Noah down in the afternoon and we set up a meeting with Kaitlyn, Sunny, Noah and myself. The meeting went well. Sunny and Kaitlyn brought me up to date on the health program and its current projects. They are working with disabled children and adults in the surrounding communities. Basically trying to offer support and rehab to the disabled and their families. We are now in need of physical therapist and Occupational therapist volunteers -- Mary Ellen, I need you!!! I am going to be spending my mornings in the clinics and then my afternoons gathering data for grants. There is so much data down here that no one has really used.
We are still running the chocolatadas, but my public health classes have fallen to the wayside. So I will also be creating new education curriculum to begin again in the telecentro after school program.
Friday night was a lot of fun. The volunteers got together at Will, Jess, Noah, Willa and Blair's house for Sushi Night! The sushi was all vegetarian, but it was delicious! Our friend Alex joined us later with his brand new puppy who is just a ball of fur. So darn cute! It was great to be back with Will and Jess and Emma. The other volunteers seem to be really nice. I really like the volunteer coordinator, Kaitlyn. So all in all, I think the next couple months are going to be great. I am excited to get back into things.
Yesterday was a beautiful gem of a day. It didn't rain at all! I got up in the morning to sunshine and warmth. I ate breakfast and then went on our old usual morning hike -- I miss Hallie! It was gorgeous up in the mountains. Looking down on the town and all the green mountainsides. Beautiful! Then Shura and I ran some errands in Urubamba and hung out with Ana and Fabricio. I also had the pleasure of helping Ana prepare mashed potatoes for lunch. This meant peeling the potatoes. Of course, at home we use a peeler. Well, here they just use a knife. As I peeled more potatoes, I got faster, but it was pretty pitiful that Ana could peel about 5 potatoes to my 1! Back to the carb overload. We had white rice, mashed potatoes and corn for lunch. It is all delicious but just so much starch!
Today I am catching up on this blog, calling some friends and just chilling out. Of course since it was sunny and beautiful yesterday, it is rainy and cold today. I did book my Inca Trail trek so I am for sure going to Macchu Pichu via the 4 day hike this time. I leave on April 30. All of May is already booked out. Would love to hear from everyone so email if you get a chance.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A welcome back lunch of cuy (guinea pig) in my honor
When I arrived back at the house yesterday afternoon, I found Ana in the kitchen area with her mother and about 10 dead guinea pigs at their feet. The proceeded to dip the cuy in boiling water, pluck the hair off of them and set them to the side. This morning, Shura and I traipsed down to the community oven (literally a huge fire oven in the house of a local woman) and put the cuy and some potatoes in to roast. Ana splits the cuy open, takes out the non-edible insides and stuffs them with herbs to be roasted. As I had never observed the full preparations for roasted cuy, I was quite intrigued. And today, as we ate them for lunch, I have to say it was quite delicious. I also spent most of my morning shelling abas (soy beans) and peeling the outer layer of choclo off. Choclo is large-kernel sweet corn. We made "crema de maiz" today and the soup tastes better when the choclo is peeled. I told Ana that this time, I am going to pay very close attention to how to cook some of these dishes so I can do so at home.
Ana's sister Norma, her husband Manuel, and their 4 year old daughter Maria Fernanda also joined us for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. MaFe (nickname for Maria Fernanda) is adorable so she and I played a lot. I spent part of the afternoon remembering my least favorite aspect of living in Ollanta -- washing my clothes by hand. I only washed my underwear and believe me, this is the easiest to wash by hand, but it still is a pain in the butt. Plus, it is the rainy season which means it rains off and on all day long. My underwear is currently hanging on a line in my room. I think I may resort to taking my other clothes over to Sylvia to pay her for washing them. Sylvia gives a discount to Awamaki volunteers. I get embarrassed to do that because I feel like Ana is disappointed in me that I don't wash my own clothes. I will take the disappointment!
This time around, Shura and I are sharing a room. She is 17 now and has graduated from high school in December. She is currently studying for the entrance exams for university. The exams are in March. She hasn't studied as much as she is supposed to so she doesn't feel very confident about her scores. She most likely will have to do a training course (I look at it like a Kaplan course for GREs, MCATs, etc) in Cusco starting in April. Getting into University here is very difficult. This exam is very, very important. So we shall see how she does. If she does have to do the course in Cusco, she will rent a room there throughout the week and just come home on the weekends.
Little Fabricio seems to be doing better today. He took a turn for the worse last night and ended up having to go to the hospital in Urubamba for urgent care. Today he is much happier and talkative. He is still having diarrhea but he has only vomited once today. It is just so sad when little babies are sick. Ana was very worried last night, but since he seems much better today, everyone is back to being happy. He only talks baby gibberish, but he will take a cell phone up to his ear and say something that sounds a lot like "hallo". He says "ma" too. It is my goal to have him saying "Tia Ali" (Aunt Ali) by the time I leave!
I haven't been able to have my introductory meeting with the health coordinator Sunny, the volunteer coordinator Kaitlyn and Noah, the director yet. I know Noah from last year and I just met Kaitlyn today, but both Sunny and Noah are sick with stomach issues so we will hopefully meet up on Friday. I am going to go to the clinic on Friday for the regular chocolatada. I am not in a huge rush this week to jump into things. It is nice to chill and spend time with the family and see my friends.
There is a little festival in one of the mountain communities tomorrow so we are going to pack up a lunch and head up there as a family. I hope it doesn't rain too much or we may not go.
Here are my parting words for today -- I took my first freezing cold shower this morning since last July. My alarm clock which has a thermometer on it tells me that my room is a toasty 60 degrees. It is funny how quickly I forget my dislike of hot beverages when I return here. My frozen fingers like the warmth of a hot mug of tea.
Regardless of the clothes washing, the regular rains, and the pervasive wet chill, I am very happy to be back. As my friend Marjo says, this is the price I have to pay so deal with it!
Ana's sister Norma, her husband Manuel, and their 4 year old daughter Maria Fernanda also joined us for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. MaFe (nickname for Maria Fernanda) is adorable so she and I played a lot. I spent part of the afternoon remembering my least favorite aspect of living in Ollanta -- washing my clothes by hand. I only washed my underwear and believe me, this is the easiest to wash by hand, but it still is a pain in the butt. Plus, it is the rainy season which means it rains off and on all day long. My underwear is currently hanging on a line in my room. I think I may resort to taking my other clothes over to Sylvia to pay her for washing them. Sylvia gives a discount to Awamaki volunteers. I get embarrassed to do that because I feel like Ana is disappointed in me that I don't wash my own clothes. I will take the disappointment!
This time around, Shura and I are sharing a room. She is 17 now and has graduated from high school in December. She is currently studying for the entrance exams for university. The exams are in March. She hasn't studied as much as she is supposed to so she doesn't feel very confident about her scores. She most likely will have to do a training course (I look at it like a Kaplan course for GREs, MCATs, etc) in Cusco starting in April. Getting into University here is very difficult. This exam is very, very important. So we shall see how she does. If she does have to do the course in Cusco, she will rent a room there throughout the week and just come home on the weekends.
Little Fabricio seems to be doing better today. He took a turn for the worse last night and ended up having to go to the hospital in Urubamba for urgent care. Today he is much happier and talkative. He is still having diarrhea but he has only vomited once today. It is just so sad when little babies are sick. Ana was very worried last night, but since he seems much better today, everyone is back to being happy. He only talks baby gibberish, but he will take a cell phone up to his ear and say something that sounds a lot like "hallo". He says "ma" too. It is my goal to have him saying "Tia Ali" (Aunt Ali) by the time I leave!
I haven't been able to have my introductory meeting with the health coordinator Sunny, the volunteer coordinator Kaitlyn and Noah, the director yet. I know Noah from last year and I just met Kaitlyn today, but both Sunny and Noah are sick with stomach issues so we will hopefully meet up on Friday. I am going to go to the clinic on Friday for the regular chocolatada. I am not in a huge rush this week to jump into things. It is nice to chill and spend time with the family and see my friends.
There is a little festival in one of the mountain communities tomorrow so we are going to pack up a lunch and head up there as a family. I hope it doesn't rain too much or we may not go.
Here are my parting words for today -- I took my first freezing cold shower this morning since last July. My alarm clock which has a thermometer on it tells me that my room is a toasty 60 degrees. It is funny how quickly I forget my dislike of hot beverages when I return here. My frozen fingers like the warmth of a hot mug of tea.
Regardless of the clothes washing, the regular rains, and the pervasive wet chill, I am very happy to be back. As my friend Marjo says, this is the price I have to pay so deal with it!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Made it to Ollanta!!
Well, my beach vacation went by too fast. It was heaven up there. We had so much fun. On Saturday night, there was a barbecue at the restaurant where Gian has his bar so there were tons of people eating and drinking. Gian and Jose Maria were hamming it up with the customers. They were a perfect tag team. It was hilarious to watch. After we closed the bar, we all went over to the local discoteca and danced the night away. It was such a great night. On Sunday, I slept in and then hit the beach for the last time. I had to leave to catch my bus in Mancora around 4:30pm. I was sad to say goodbye to Gian, Diego and Jose Maria. Gian and Diego are going to try to come and visit me in May. I really hope we can make that happen. They are great guys.
The bus to Lima took 19 hours. Normally it only takes 17. I was so ready to get off that bus when we finally reached Lima. My stomach has been reminding me that it doesn't like it when I shock it with new foods/bacterias. I don't mind really, I am so used to dealing with stomach issues when I travel. However, on these buses you are only supposed to use the bathroom to pee, not do anything else. You are supposed to ask the bus stewardess to have the drivers stop so you can use a bathroom. Who the heck wants to be the person who makes the bus stop so then everyone knows you have to go number two? Needless to say, I just didn't eat or drink hardly anything for the 19 hours so I didn't have to use the bathroom!
When I got back to my hotel in Lima, I saw an email from my mom telling me I got accepted to Vanderbilt!!! I am very happy to know that I got into at least one of the schools I applied to. Plus, I really like the faculty at Vanderbilt so I am pretty psyched. I still haven't heard from Yale yet. I did some emailing and skyping and then just walked around the Miraflores neighborhood in Lima. After relaxing, I headed back out to grab some dinner. Since I was heading to Ollanta, where the only seafood we have there is lake trout, I wanted to get one good last seafood meal. I found a cute sidewalk cafe/restaurant and had a great meal and a celebratory Chilcano to drink. Chilcano is pisco, lime juice and sprite. As I was eating, a threesome sat at the table next to me. We started talking and they invited me over to join them. 2 were Brits and 1 was a Swede. They all work on a luxury yacht. The Swede is the captain, the female Brit is the Service Manager and the male Brit is the Chief Engineer. They were nice and funny and I ended up staying out til 3 in the morning with Alan and Max. What was a good idea at the time, was not a good idea when I had to wake up at 7 for my taxi to the airport. Needless to say, I am tired.
But I made it to Ollanta with no problems and had a great reunion with Ana, Shura, Tatiana, Mauro and little Fabricio. Celestino is in Cusco all day so I haven't seen him yet. Fabricio is gigantic -- he weighs almost 25 pounds and is only 11 months old! He is so stinking cute. He is sick with a stomach virus so he is a little cranky. Poor little guy.
We had a good lunch and spent a long time talking. I went over to Awamaki and saw Jess and Will and Willa. It was like I had never left! I love Will and Jess. It is so nice to talk to them. There is a pub quiz tonight so I will have to go and see everyone else then.
Now that I have caught up in this, I am going to rest for a bit. The mountains are super green and covered in flowers since it is the rainy season right now. Actually, it is raining as I type this. It is about 60 degrees or so. I am looking at another 2 months of rainy days and by the end of April it should start drying up. It is really nice to be back in this beautiful little town. I am going to meet with Noah, Kaitlyn and Sunny tomorrow to talk about the health program and then will most likely head down to the posta (clinic). Yay -- it is great to be back!
The bus to Lima took 19 hours. Normally it only takes 17. I was so ready to get off that bus when we finally reached Lima. My stomach has been reminding me that it doesn't like it when I shock it with new foods/bacterias. I don't mind really, I am so used to dealing with stomach issues when I travel. However, on these buses you are only supposed to use the bathroom to pee, not do anything else. You are supposed to ask the bus stewardess to have the drivers stop so you can use a bathroom. Who the heck wants to be the person who makes the bus stop so then everyone knows you have to go number two? Needless to say, I just didn't eat or drink hardly anything for the 19 hours so I didn't have to use the bathroom!
When I got back to my hotel in Lima, I saw an email from my mom telling me I got accepted to Vanderbilt!!! I am very happy to know that I got into at least one of the schools I applied to. Plus, I really like the faculty at Vanderbilt so I am pretty psyched. I still haven't heard from Yale yet. I did some emailing and skyping and then just walked around the Miraflores neighborhood in Lima. After relaxing, I headed back out to grab some dinner. Since I was heading to Ollanta, where the only seafood we have there is lake trout, I wanted to get one good last seafood meal. I found a cute sidewalk cafe/restaurant and had a great meal and a celebratory Chilcano to drink. Chilcano is pisco, lime juice and sprite. As I was eating, a threesome sat at the table next to me. We started talking and they invited me over to join them. 2 were Brits and 1 was a Swede. They all work on a luxury yacht. The Swede is the captain, the female Brit is the Service Manager and the male Brit is the Chief Engineer. They were nice and funny and I ended up staying out til 3 in the morning with Alan and Max. What was a good idea at the time, was not a good idea when I had to wake up at 7 for my taxi to the airport. Needless to say, I am tired.
But I made it to Ollanta with no problems and had a great reunion with Ana, Shura, Tatiana, Mauro and little Fabricio. Celestino is in Cusco all day so I haven't seen him yet. Fabricio is gigantic -- he weighs almost 25 pounds and is only 11 months old! He is so stinking cute. He is sick with a stomach virus so he is a little cranky. Poor little guy.
We had a good lunch and spent a long time talking. I went over to Awamaki and saw Jess and Will and Willa. It was like I had never left! I love Will and Jess. It is so nice to talk to them. There is a pub quiz tonight so I will have to go and see everyone else then.
Now that I have caught up in this, I am going to rest for a bit. The mountains are super green and covered in flowers since it is the rainy season right now. Actually, it is raining as I type this. It is about 60 degrees or so. I am looking at another 2 months of rainy days and by the end of April it should start drying up. It is really nice to be back in this beautiful little town. I am going to meet with Noah, Kaitlyn and Sunny tomorrow to talk about the health program and then will most likely head down to the posta (clinic). Yay -- it is great to be back!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Perfect Day at the Beach
I can honestly say that today has been perfect. I was able to sleep in so I finally felt caught up from all the flights/bus journeys of the last few days. I hit the beach with a huge bunch of grapes to have for breakfast. It was pretty hot when I first got out there, but then it cooled off and a nice breeze came up. I had been laying out for a couple hours when Gian took a break from the bar and joined me on the beach. I had just purchased a pineapple popsicle for lunch. We played frisbee for a long time. People don't play frisbee here so we had quite a few spectators, not to mention a local dog who wanted to join in the fun. After frisbee we spent some time out in the waves. They were perfect for playing in and body surfing. The water was a great temperature.
We laid back out on the beach for awhile before going back in for more wave action. After that it was time to chill out with a movie. Now I am showered and coated in OFF! since the mosquitoes are crazy bad here. I have bites all over my feet, arms and hands. I am going to head down to the restaurant that Gian works at part-time for some chow. Gian and Diego have some cousins and their kids in town for the weekend. Diego's friend Jose Maria has been keeping me company while Gian works. He is in town until next week as well. It is nice to have someone to eat dinner with while the boys work.
Altogether though, I enjoy the free time to just chill and decompress while Gian is working. I will probably turn in early again tonight to try to get some more sleep.
Silly side note -- I had forgotten how much Peruvian men love their fanny packs. Whenever I see a man (which is nearly every man) with a fanny pack, I have to smile. Even Gian, who lived in the States for 10 years, uses one and will laugh at himself for it.
I have quickly gotten back into the habit of not putting toilet paper in the toilet. No worries with that one. My intestinal tract is also quickly acclimating to the Peruvian food again. I had some amazing ceviche the other day. I love seafood!!
So life is very good at the beach. It is going to be hard to leave on Sunday.
We laid back out on the beach for awhile before going back in for more wave action. After that it was time to chill out with a movie. Now I am showered and coated in OFF! since the mosquitoes are crazy bad here. I have bites all over my feet, arms and hands. I am going to head down to the restaurant that Gian works at part-time for some chow. Gian and Diego have some cousins and their kids in town for the weekend. Diego's friend Jose Maria has been keeping me company while Gian works. He is in town until next week as well. It is nice to have someone to eat dinner with while the boys work.
Altogether though, I enjoy the free time to just chill and decompress while Gian is working. I will probably turn in early again tonight to try to get some more sleep.
Silly side note -- I had forgotten how much Peruvian men love their fanny packs. Whenever I see a man (which is nearly every man) with a fanny pack, I have to smile. Even Gian, who lived in the States for 10 years, uses one and will laugh at himself for it.
I have quickly gotten back into the habit of not putting toilet paper in the toilet. No worries with that one. My intestinal tract is also quickly acclimating to the Peruvian food again. I had some amazing ceviche the other day. I love seafood!!
So life is very good at the beach. It is going to be hard to leave on Sunday.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Ahhh, the beach! Me gusta la playa!!
First and foremost, Happy Birthday Dad!!!
So I made it to Punta Sal this morning. Unfortunately, when I went to pay for my return bus fare to Lima, I realized that I did not have my debit card anymore. So, this means I was an idiot and left it in an ATM machine in Lima, or someone managed to steal it from me. Luckily when I phoned the bank this morning, there were not any extra charges on it, however, I now do not have access to my cash. This presents a problem when living in a country where cash is the currency and rarely can you use a credit card. So, I am keeping cool and will see how far the cash I do have will last me. Gian is heading to Mancora tomorrow to get some groceries and stuff so I am tagging along to see if the Western Union office in the mini-mart in town will be a viable option. If not, Gian said he can cover me and I can transfer money to him. It will all work out, but what a pain in the butt! Seriously, I am without a debit card after 1 day in Peru!! How ridiculous is that?!?
Otherwise, all is great. Gian has managed to get me this cute bungalow right near the beach. I can hear the waves crashing from inside my little room. The bathroom is really cool as it is more like a garden bathroom. Part of it is open to the heavens so it is nice and airy. Although, it is hot as all get out here. The ocean feels sooo good. I already have a red nose and some weird red stripes down my arm where I obviously missed the sunscreen.
Gian has some friends in town right now so we have all been hanging out at the beach. I am very glad I made the decision to stop here first as laying on the beach in the sun is feeling pretty darn amazing! Punta Sal has been built up a little bit in the last year, but it is still a great, sleepy beach town. We are having a bonfire out on the beach tonight. Should be fun.
If anyone has advice about my money (or lack-there-of) situation, I would love to hear it. Hope all is well with everyone.
So I made it to Punta Sal this morning. Unfortunately, when I went to pay for my return bus fare to Lima, I realized that I did not have my debit card anymore. So, this means I was an idiot and left it in an ATM machine in Lima, or someone managed to steal it from me. Luckily when I phoned the bank this morning, there were not any extra charges on it, however, I now do not have access to my cash. This presents a problem when living in a country where cash is the currency and rarely can you use a credit card. So, I am keeping cool and will see how far the cash I do have will last me. Gian is heading to Mancora tomorrow to get some groceries and stuff so I am tagging along to see if the Western Union office in the mini-mart in town will be a viable option. If not, Gian said he can cover me and I can transfer money to him. It will all work out, but what a pain in the butt! Seriously, I am without a debit card after 1 day in Peru!! How ridiculous is that?!?
Otherwise, all is great. Gian has managed to get me this cute bungalow right near the beach. I can hear the waves crashing from inside my little room. The bathroom is really cool as it is more like a garden bathroom. Part of it is open to the heavens so it is nice and airy. Although, it is hot as all get out here. The ocean feels sooo good. I already have a red nose and some weird red stripes down my arm where I obviously missed the sunscreen.
Gian has some friends in town right now so we have all been hanging out at the beach. I am very glad I made the decision to stop here first as laying on the beach in the sun is feeling pretty darn amazing! Punta Sal has been built up a little bit in the last year, but it is still a great, sleepy beach town. We are having a bonfire out on the beach tonight. Should be fun.
If anyone has advice about my money (or lack-there-of) situation, I would love to hear it. Hope all is well with everyone.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cheap Airfare = loooong travel day
I am sitting in the Panama City, Panama airport appreciating the free wi-fi. Why can't all airports have free wi-fi? I am also sitting here enjoying the feel of air conditioning! It is hot and humid here which makes me realize that it is going to be REALLY hot and humid when I land in Lima tonight. Then it is going to be even HOTTER when I get up to the beach on Tuesday. However, after the crappy winter we have had across the U.S., I am not complaining one bit about the heat!
So for those of you who do not know, this is my plan: I arrive in Lima tonight around 10pm. I started my travels this morning at 6:20am from Indianapolis. Two layovers (one in Houston and one in Panama) and I will finally make it to Lima. I just really hope my bag makes it too.
Tomorrow afternoon, I hop on one of Cruz del Sur's finest buses and settle into my VIP seat for the 17 hour journey up the coast to the beach town of Mancora. From Mancora, I have to find a taxi or a collectivo (public transportation) to the little beach town of Punta Sal. My returning bloggers, Punta Sal is the beach town where Keri, Ben and I stayed over a week last spring. We made friends with the bartender, Gian, at one of the hotels, and I will be visiting him for the week. He is now running his own bar with his nephew from Lima so it will be nice to see how this new business venture is going for him. I am really just looking forward to a week of relaxation at the beach. After working nearly every day for the past 5 months, I need a break!
I will be at the beach until Sunday, the 20th. It will then take another 17 hour bus journey to get back to Lima. I will spend the night there on Monday night, and then catch a 9am flight to Cusco on Tuesday, the 22nd. I will be living at my old host family's home (Ana, Celestino, Shura and little Fabricio) for the entire time I am in Ollanta. We've talked a few times in the last couple weeks so they are excited for my return.
Once in Ollanta, I have no plans of leaving until it is time for me to hike the Inca Trail and then fly home. I only have 3 months in Peru this time, so I know it will fly by. It is kind of depressing. Just to bring everyone up to speed, I am currently waiting to hear back from both Vanderbilt and Yale on my (hopeful) admission to their accelerated nursing programs. I should get word from both schools within a few weeks. There are pros and cons to both, so we will just have to see what happens.
I will update the slide show with new photos as soon as I take some! I have my computer down here with me this time so hopefully it will be much easier to get photos uploaded. Hope all is well with everyone, and thank you for being a part of my adventure again!
So for those of you who do not know, this is my plan: I arrive in Lima tonight around 10pm. I started my travels this morning at 6:20am from Indianapolis. Two layovers (one in Houston and one in Panama) and I will finally make it to Lima. I just really hope my bag makes it too.
Tomorrow afternoon, I hop on one of Cruz del Sur's finest buses and settle into my VIP seat for the 17 hour journey up the coast to the beach town of Mancora. From Mancora, I have to find a taxi or a collectivo (public transportation) to the little beach town of Punta Sal. My returning bloggers, Punta Sal is the beach town where Keri, Ben and I stayed over a week last spring. We made friends with the bartender, Gian, at one of the hotels, and I will be visiting him for the week. He is now running his own bar with his nephew from Lima so it will be nice to see how this new business venture is going for him. I am really just looking forward to a week of relaxation at the beach. After working nearly every day for the past 5 months, I need a break!
I will be at the beach until Sunday, the 20th. It will then take another 17 hour bus journey to get back to Lima. I will spend the night there on Monday night, and then catch a 9am flight to Cusco on Tuesday, the 22nd. I will be living at my old host family's home (Ana, Celestino, Shura and little Fabricio) for the entire time I am in Ollanta. We've talked a few times in the last couple weeks so they are excited for my return.
Once in Ollanta, I have no plans of leaving until it is time for me to hike the Inca Trail and then fly home. I only have 3 months in Peru this time, so I know it will fly by. It is kind of depressing. Just to bring everyone up to speed, I am currently waiting to hear back from both Vanderbilt and Yale on my (hopeful) admission to their accelerated nursing programs. I should get word from both schools within a few weeks. There are pros and cons to both, so we will just have to see what happens.
I will update the slide show with new photos as soon as I take some! I have my computer down here with me this time so hopefully it will be much easier to get photos uploaded. Hope all is well with everyone, and thank you for being a part of my adventure again!
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