Mi ultima dia

This will be my last blog post.

For this trip.

Thanks to all of my friends and family who followed for what turned out to be a lot more than 30 days in Peru. I return to the States around midnight this Saturday. Part of me is ready to go home, but there are definitley things in Cusco that I´m not ready to leave.

My time here has been incredible. I´ve gotten to know so many interesting people not only from Cusco, but from all over the world. If you´ve never traveled, my only advice to you is: GO! In fact, come with me here next summer.

Although I am returning to the States, I will still be involved in many of the projects that I was a part of here. If you want to get involved or want more information, just ask me!!!

See you in the Northern Hemisphere soon!!!

Tegan

10 things I will miss from Peru (in no order):

1. Friends and "family"
2. Coca tea
3. Mountains
4. Taxi rides for less than $0.75
5. Ladies with no teeth selling fermented corn-juice out of buckets in the street
6. Bebidas gratis a cada discoteca
7. Pisco, roof parties, salsatecos, y mixto tacos at 4am...
8. Belempampa
9. Speaking Spanish with a bad American accent
10. Flying kytes next to a giant statue of Jesus

Con mi hermano...

For the last few days I´ve been babysitting Gabriel, my "little brother" because his school has been cancel and Dr. Haydee has work and/or class. I´m getting better at cooking Peruvian style, and have been "adopted" into the family. I´ve promised to return (probably in the Summer), so everyone, start booking tickets to come with me!!

I LOVE third-world amusment parks! Unfortunately, I only have my disposable camera now, but here's a mental image: for roughly $0.33 Gabriel and I could play all afternoon on really high, dangerous, fast playground equipment that would never pass inspection in the US.

The plans for the jungle have been canceled (the location they wanted me to go was too dangerous), but I´m not disappointed; I´m such a part of my family here now, that an extra week in Cusco won't be bad at all :)

Arequipa y football

Some photos of Arequipa. Although you can´t always see them in the pictures, sourounding the city are snow-capped volcanoes. If you have facebook, photos from the full adventure are posted.

The volcanoe behind a small lake in the country side.

Our group in the main square. Note the palm trees in front of a replica of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Beautiful!

Horseback riding in the countryside!!

Because it was the anniversary of Arequipa, there were tons of parades (below) and fairs . Rhiannon and I got a free make-over at one of the fairs (right). They were so excited to see our skin and eye color. During the process, the Avon girls kept remarking about how beautiful the makeup around our eyes turned out. Although it photographed well, we ended up looking what Americans would consider a little over-done and/or trashy. However, the stylists from Peru considered it an exotic look and we were photographed for a long time before we were let go.

Below: part of our group at a national soccer championship between the local team and Uraguay. We won 2 to 0. I´ve been told by a lot of my friends who didn´t go, that we were on TV. I´m still looking for the video on Youtube.

Mas que 30 dias...

Thanks to everyone who has been following this blog! I´m so glad that so many of you want to help!! At the end of this blog, you can find the address, etc. for donations.


It´s a long one, so for those of you who just want to skim, here are the highlights of the last few weeks:


- Climbed a mountain
- Went to Arequipa
- Partied with the locals
- I´m living in a new house
- Rode on an over-crowded bus for 11 hours
- Learned some spanish, worked at the hospital, etc.
- Going to the jungle in September?



This month I've moved into the family home of one of the doctors at the clinic. Even though all of the doctors in Peru have the same amount of education and experience, if they choose to serve the poor rather than the wealthy, they make less than a quarter of the salary of doctors who serve the rich. Dr. Haydee (below on the right) is a single mom who was having trouble making her rent on a doctor's salary. One of the volunteers donated some beds for a spare room so that she could rent it out to volunteers at the clinic.


We're still continuing to work on improving conditions at Belempampa. This week we are constructing shelves so that they can re-organize their patient histories. Originally, the forms were stacked in piles arranged numerically by the last two digits of a seven-digit number, separated in two piles of the same number... sometimes, maybe... (???) While it would take over a year to re-organize the thousands of files alphabetically, we can at least arrange them numerically, vertically, in order, and in one place. (Pictures coming soon.) We are also installing seat belts in the "ambulance" which right now is a just a truck with a backseat for the patient. I think the next step for the ambulance will be medical supplies of some sort...



For those of you who are curious, here is link ([URL=http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2749123230105416534yMdCgG][IMG]http://thumb14.webshots.net/t/55/555/1/23/23/2749123230105416534yMdCgG_th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] ) to pictures of the delivery room in Belempampa (considered the most sterile and high-tech in the hospital). One of the requests from the obstetricians who work there is for a sink or any kind of access to water for bathing the babies, cleaning, and hand-washing. (As of now, we constructed a mobile cart with a basin and water which they use in some of the exam rooms- also missing sinks. )

The other pic is of us volunteers at an orphanage. The child in Courtney's lap is one of many that have been found wandering alone in the jungle.


Also: pictures coming soon!!!!! - This weekend we went to Arequipa, one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever seen. Snow-capped volcanoes, elaborate churches, and palm trees. It was the aniversary of the City, so the weekend was filled with parades, fairs and parties day and night. (Apparently, 7am is a normal time to leave a discoteca if you´re Peruvian). However, my purse was stolen along with my camera, so pictures from here on may be a while in coming.








HOW TO HELP:


I´m still helping my teacher make the bilingual website, but you can mail donations for the street children (such as candy, used clothes and shoes, toys, toothbrushes, etc) to:


Jorge Alberto Huaman Condori
Tandapata 676-B
San Blas, Cusco- Peru


Keep in mind that it can take up to a month for the package to reach Peru, so you would need to mail items by October to make it here by Cusco. If you would like to become more involved, let me know and I can make you a contact for the website.


If you would rather donate money, I can ask about a paypal\ bank account for the Street Children. To donate money to Belempampa, we are currently working with a rotary here, but you can also paypal funds directly to the volunteer organization at payment@maximonivel.com. Just make sure that you make sure the message says Belempampa.


And you can always email me with questions!!






There is so much more that I´ve experienced here, but words on a blog site just aren´t enough. I don´t even think pictures are enough. If you have a free afternoon sometime when I get back to the States, maybe I´ll try to tell the story and do it justice.

September 12th

I have decided to extend my stay until September 12th.

It may be hard to understand unless you are here, but let me tell about the projects I'm working on.

The new program created by Daniel, another volunteer at Belempampa, has really taken off. Basically it's a way for outside organizations to donate to the hospital and also for us to make sure that Belempampa has more of the nescessary supplies it needs. I've had the privilage to be a part of several meetings with the Ministry of Health here in Cusco to update health standards in Belempampa and sourounding hospitals. Yeah, within the last week it's turned from an idea to help the hospital into a reality involving more organizations than we imagined. You can check out Daniel's preliminary website at www.friendsofbelempampa.org.

For the last few days, I've been studying pharmacology with a doctor here so that she can update her notes from 10 years ago. They do not have any access to medical information when questions arise, and books are really scarce. I'm trying to work with my school, the medical school, and college of nursing to establish a rotation for students here. So far, my school will be sending books and it looks like they're really interested establishing a connection with Maximo Nivel and Belempampa. The meeting with the deans to discuss the new rotation is August 17th-ish...so keep your fingers crossed.

My spanish teacher, Jorge, and his family try to feed and clothe all of the street children in their area every Chirstmas. Ninos de la calle, or street children, are a big problem in Cusco because families cannot afford to keep their children and most orphanages are over-crowed and have a time limit of a few months and then the childeren must be turnned back into the street and cannot go back to any orphanage. Ever. I'm helping Jorge start a bi-lingual website to bring awareness and try to network for donations such as clothing, shoes, food etc. Right now his family helps about 60 children ages 6 to 13 every Christmas, but it's a stuggle to help out on an average Peruvian salary. Eventually, the website will be www.navidadencusco.org, aka Christmas in Cusco.

If you or anyone you know would like to help with any project in anyway, shoot me an email. It can be anything from just giving me the contact email of an interested church, to mailing some toothbrushes or even a pack of pens.

It seems unreal the impact that just four or five of us volunteers have made at Belempampa and beyond in just under three short weeks once we came together.

Ask around.

:)

Valle Sacrado

Into my third week in Cusco. And there is so much to write about.

Sunday was spent touring the Sacred Valley of the Incas with some of the new volunteers. Therefore, some more amazing pictures of Peru and its ruins. I still can't get over how surreal the landscape is here.



Once again, everything is a lot bigger than it seems in the pics. These terraces (above) are each about 4 feet high.




These steps, too close to the edge for comfort. But we still climbed them.



Below, a cross in Chinchero against the night sky.

El Fin de Semana (y mas)

The weekend (and more).

On Saturday, a group of us were invited by a Peruvian friend to a cookout in the countryside to help raise money for his neice's heart operation. Urpi, who's name means "dove" in Quechua, is an adorable 8-month-old girl born premature. Pictured below is trucha, a traditional Andean trout dish. The 10 soles a plate we each donated was considered very generous (about $3). I only speak broken Spanish, but from the conversation I had with her aunt, it sounded like the operation was going to be a lot more money than what they had.

Sunday was Machu Picchu day! Pictures cannot accurately show how breathtaking this place is. Ten megapixels is just not enough to capture the humid jungle, the cloud forrests, the jagged mountains rising out of sight, or the absolute still that seems to hover over you at the top. It truely deserves to be one of the seven wonders.

We decided to climb from the base at Aguas Callientes to the top. Several locals told us that the hike would take around 40 minutes, and was not that difficult. However, because of the altitude, for Aena and I, it turned out to be a grueling two hour verticle climb in the rain. But it was totally worth it at the top. :)

This week I'm working in the obstetrics section of Belampampa. I was supprised how many births happen there every day. Yesterday morning we had four (two at the same time) with another one expected in the afternoon. Verticle births using a large wooden chair with the center cut out seem to be the norm. The mother waits in the "dilation room" and when she's ready, is walked across the hall to the delivery room where she sits over the chair while a nurse catches her baby underneath. It actually doesn't look as bad as it sounds, although there is virtually no pain medication available for the mom. Health standards in this section of the clinic are higher, but still not what I would consider great.

Side note: !Viva Peru!
Today is the Peruvian independence day, so most businesses including hospitals are closed down for the next two or three days. The annual parade has been canceled this year due to swine flu, which has also closed down many of the schools in the area as well.

Photos de mi Primera Semana!!

My first week!!

I know this has been a while in coming, but as promised: Photos!



I've been working morings in Belempampa, a smaller version of a public hospital. I will be posting more photos later, but basically, if you abandoned an elementary school for 10 years, then added about 100 pacients a day, you have Belempampa. The picture to the left is of the patients lining up outside the pharmacy to schedule appointments for the next day. Each of the 4 doctors only has 16 appointments a day, so it's first-come first-serve. We've been doing a lot to try to improve sanitation here. Today we brought bars of soap, because they only had one or two bars......in the whole hospital. Missing also: gloves, alcohol, hot water, alcohol, handsanitizer, etc.





This is all of us who are living at our group-stay home (minus one). We live with a family that runs sort of a hostel for the volunteers as part of their house. We went out as a "family" last night. There is a ton of nightlife here because of all the tourists.





























And here is an example of a city "bus" that we take to work and back. This is actually a really nice-looking one. Basically it's a minivan with about thirty people stuffed inside. Literally. You stand, or sit, or lean, or wherever you can. Or can't. Taxis (or the equivalent of an old geo-metro-ish car) are also quite normal, but cost more. (a taxi is 2.5 soles-about $0.75 verus a bus at 60 centimos- $0.20)





And just some general pictures of Cuzco. It's really a beautiful city. The streets always packed with taxis, buses, tons of people, and the occasional animal.

.

I´m here!!!!

Pictures will be posted soon.

And they will be incredible :)

It´s been a whirl-wind day of orientation and a little bit of exploration. The school is a lot bigger than I had thought, with over 1000 students yearly and nearly 200 at any given time, not counting members of the community who come to study daily. Although it may be what many of us consider 3rd world, Cuzco is beautiful and is busier than what it looks like in the photos i´ll post tomorrow.

Resting 2 miles above sea level, the air here is hard to breath not to mention the overwhelming smell of car exhaust. There will be protests tomorrow to block streets and reduce the number of cars on the road, so the taxis which we usually rely on, will not be running. I´ve been taking the coca tea and even some chocolate covered coca leaves in order to help with the high altitude sickness which will be for the first few days.

Tomorrow clinic orientation from 8-12, then an english-spanish exchange and spanish lessons from 3-6.

And Macchu Piccu Saturday.

Stay tunned.

The Final Count-down!!

Only 10 days left!!

A lot of you have been asking about the program I'm participating in, and I can never seem to remember the details. So, here's a link to their website...

The IFRE program (IFREvolunteers.org) partners with a language-school/intern program in Cusco (Máximo Nivel). I will be taking part in the intern program as a clinical volunteer (focusing on pharmacy...?).

An abridged version of my basic project placement:

"You will take part in intensive Spanish classes for 2 hours per day...You will be working at a small clinic in Cusco, Peru. The clinic is part of the national healthcare system of Peru, and provides both primary and emergency care to low-income families. The clinic receives approximately 180 patients per day, 10-20 of which are emergencies; you will be working with 14 doctors and 7 nurses at the clinic."

I do not know where I will be staying yet, but it will either be in the "Family House," which is run by the program and houses a large group of international students, or in a traditional Peruvian family home-stay, where I would be hosted by a local family with one or two other students.

If you're curious about the city I'm staying in, this website has a lot of info/pictures of Cusco. (AndeanTravelWeb.com)

Pre-Peru

Welcome!

For those of you who don't know, I'm going to Cuzco, Peru for four weeks to study Spanish and work in a rural clinic. I should have internet access while I'm there, so I've started a blog to share my experiences and pictures with friends and family.

I leave the U.S. on July 19th.
I'll be on the same time zone as US Central. (so, an hour behind Ohio time)
The best/only way to contact me is by email.
I also have Skype if you're interested in talking live :)


The adventure starts in less than 3 weeks!! Stay tuned....