Peru: Parte uno

Wow! It´s hard to believe that one week (of my three weeks) in Peru has passed. It feels like ages since I´ve been in the states! I am blogging from the guesthouse in Lima, with a foreign keyboard, so I apologize in advance for all the crazy punctuation typos which I will probably let slide :)

It has been a fantastic trip so far! I left Sacramento last Saturday and made it to Lima late, late in the evening after basically sleeping away all 12hrs of flights or so :) Although I certainly was sleep deprived, coming off OB nights with subsequent clinic, packing, and Friday night partying at Rocky´s, I keep my not-being-able-to-stay-awake-on-a-plane streak alive :) Dr. Mayes and the group of 15 Univ. of Richmond sophomores (part of this SSIR, or sophomore scholars in residence program) participating in his Global Health seminar, arrived and met me about 5 hours later in the Lima airport. After a sendoff breakfast at the home of the Espinozas (who started the nonprofit organization Pan Peru which serves the town, Pampas Grande, where we stayed), we drove the 8 hrs to the mountain town of Huaraz.

Huaraz

(I could live with waking up with this view every day! I think itçs the peak Huascaran, but I am not totally sure)

Students in el mercado

The next day, we drove another 5 hrs or so to the tiny pueblito of Pampas Grande, which lies at around 12,500 feet or so amidst the breathtaking Cordillera Blanca mountains of the Andes.

Pampas Grande, or "Pampas" as we called it

We were welcomed with a (much appreciated) meal of traditional cuy (roasted guinea pig) which I´m proud that the students tried! I´m glad the head was left off (when I was in Peru in 2005, I definitely got some cuy con cabeza!)

Here is Becky (another UR alum, and fellow adulto on the trip whose company I much enjoyed!) with her cuy!

We tried to acclimatize to both the weather (cold, cloudy) and altitude by going on a walk with the kids. Some photos of la gente

Leni and me

Las niñas loved playing with Kaitlin´s hair!

Ovejas

Welcome dinner, con mucho bailando

We spent the next 2 days participating in various activities regarding health promotion in the town. The Richmond students led workshops on toothbrushing, sex education, talks on first aid, child abuse, and domestic violence prevention.

Here is a picture of Becky and me in our Pan Peru vests, ready to start the day. 7 am was about the peak of warmth in Pampas when the sun was out



Me with "joven Jack," as he came to be known

I spent the days in the medical clinic just seeing patients who walked in for free services. They do have this small clinic there all the time, with an "intern" doctor doing his year of service in Pampas ¿all Peruvian medical grads spend one year serving a rural or underserved area before starting residency?... Unfortunately, I didn÷t take that many pictures. I also didnçt see as outrageous things that I did my last time in Peru, in 2005 with Amazon Promise in the jungles around Iquitos, but lots of abdominal pain, gastritis, parasites, and arthritis from hard work in the fields. Somehow, after disclosing the nature of my residency training program, I got labeled a "gynecologist" and ended up seeing lots of people in "consultation" for female problems... interesting. We brought lots of basic medicine to give out including antibiotics, acid blockers, pain medications, cough syrups, etc., along with vitamins, which were appreciated. While I felt that what I was doing did make a small difference, I still felt somewhat empty in thinking that, after weçre gone, I donçt know what would happen to patients that need continued care. There was really no place for things like antihypertensives for chronic high blood pressure, and I only wonder how many undiagnosed diabetics I saw. The work felt a bit limited, and very temporary, without a larger system in place to continue to deliver health care there. However, Pan Peru plans to continue to work to encourage trips like this one which gives us hope.

Here is a posted price list for regular clinic business. To give you an idea, one US dollar equals about 3 soles

Una paciente con su bebe

Las dentistas, who really were hard at work


Pampas at sunset

We spent two more days traveling back to Lima, where the Mayes group left me yesterday.

I have so many thoughts in my head, and while I have tried to convey some of it here, I feel like this blog entry has ended up too objective.

Not apparent in this post is the warmth of the people of Pampas, who welcomed us "gringitos" with such open arms. We were greeted by the schoolchildren of the town, with bouquets of flowers, and who shed tears on our departure, not knowing when they might again see a group of outsiders return to their isolated town. We were served 3 hot meals a day by Lucia and Pedro, which, for 19 people, was no small feat. We were given beds to sleep in and transportation and were cared for immensely. As we were there so briefly, I do wonder whether what we brought to the citizens of Pampas was any more valuable than what we received, in love, education, and experience, which I am certain none of us will forget.

Memories which I am noting for the sake of my own journaling...

= the children of Pampas playing futbol with such passion, and watching them light up at their first sight of a frisbee

= watching "Joven Jack" and his dance moves with the teenage ladies of the town

= how everything in Peru seems to get labeled =ito, which is a sign of affection

= the vast quantity of sopa and te we consumed in the course of the week

= what a tasty lifesaver Sublime chocolate is

= the bitter cold of Pampas and altitude headaches

= how a 50 foot hike up a hill at that elevation made me feel as if I had never worked out in my life

= how 3 days without a shower doesnçt seem that bad...

= the bucket seat and perhaps the most uncomfortable van ride of my life

= a van of college students singing Replay, over and over and over again

There are so many more things to say but not enough words to say them. The trip made me extremely nostalgic for college, as I remembered those days without worries about future jobs or responsibilities. I did kind of feel old ¿Becky and I, with Diana, joked about being the "adultos" that had to go to bed early, as a lot has changed at UR since I graduated in 2003. While, when I was there, there was a Girls" side and Boys" side to Westhampton lake, now the dorms are even co=edª Gottwald ¿the science building? is totally redone. I am wondering when I can next go back to visit.

I am so thankful to Dr. Mayes for inviting me on this trip. What a great and motivating start to another 2 weeks in South America. While I was a bit lonely today, riding public buses and braving the streets of central Lima, which Lonely Planet, on every page, notes is quite "dangerous," I have company joining me later. Mindy, Kelvin, and his friend arrive tonight and we set off for Nazca tomorrow. The plan is to visit the Nazca Lines, then make our way to Cusco, hiking, visiting Machu Picchu, and then Lake Titicaca and Bolivia.

Espero un buen viaje. Hasta luego for now...