Sunday, May 27, 2012

Downhill


        Finally got to get on a bike today! I headed off with Sam,  the son of one of the volunteer Docs at the clinic, and a local tour company to do a day in the Andes full of technical single track and some dirt roads that might as well be a downhill course. We were met in the morning by our guide Uri(?) a local pro downhiller and our driver Fidel. Uri’s English was a little better than my Spanish and you could tell he has had his run in with high speed bike crashes by the dazed look he had on sometimes (or maybe he was just stoned). The bikes were as expected, hard tail, 26-inch wheels and minimal front suspension. I wasn’t too concerned with our bike set-up until I saw Uri’s full suspension full downhill rig in the back of the truck.

Uri, our guide....
            

We drove over an hour to get to the first section of trail but not before getting stopped by police and having to bribe them with money to let us continue our trip. I’m still not exactly sure why we were stopped but our guide seemed to think it wasn’t all that uncommon. After getting the pedals on and checking the brakes we followed Uri’s line down the first section of trail only to be met with Sam almost immediately getting a pinch flat. A soon as we fixed his, I noticed my front tire was losing air. I guess it was only appropriate to have a bike ride in true Magner style, with a couple of flats in the first few minutes. We continued the ride passing amazing views of snow capped peaks, salt mines and locals carrying the fall harvest. It ended up being probably 30 minutes of nothing but downhill without any casualties.  

            We waited for Fidel at the bottom of the trail for almost thirty minutes after we were done and it seemed the communication between our two guides wasn’t the best. Uri flagged down someone on a motorcycle and hopped on the back to try and get to a phone. Fidel showed up not too long after Uri left, but we were reunited when Uri climbed out of a bus packed full of people.

            The next section of trail took us through the town of Urutamba. On the way up we passed terraces cut into the mountain used for farming and it was hard to believe the effort it must have taken to put those in the hillside. We ate lunch atop the mountain before getting back on the saddle to tackle what Uri said was some of his favorite single track. The trail reminded me a lot of Pisgah, with some really technical rocky sections and creek crossings. We dropped down the mountain for a good while before hitting the town and loading up for the final section. This was definitely my favorite section of the day.

            We drove for almost 2 hours to get atop the mountain that separates Cusco and Pisac. By this time Sam and I were somewhat comfortable with the set up and realized the limits to our 600 $ bikes. As we headed down, my hands immediately began to throb from the previous trails as well as my lack of riding mountain bikes for the past month. The first half consisted of manageable double track but things changed immediately when Uri cut through to a hidden trail. He stopped to tell us we would be doing the Red Bull course (wtf?) for Cusco downhill competitions and to simply follow his line and lower our seats for better control. Surely this wouldn’t be a problem seeing as though we had bikes meant for sidewalks rather than grueling downhill. We followed his line (when we could see him) for the most part and I was grabbing a handful of break the whole time, doing a controlled slide while going way faster than I felt confortable. During the hardest section I came up on Sam who would was barreled over with his bike laying 10 feet away. He had no broken bones but his bike was not so fortunate. The seat rails were bent, as was his big chain ring. We managed to fix the bike with the Peruvian style of banging it with a rock and we rode the last few minutes back to the car, thankful that the bike took the brunt of the impact. Uri didn’t seem to upset about the bike and I forced him to say that we weren’t bad for a couple of gringos.


whip sticks



f            I definitely won’t forget the experience and I’m glad I got a taste of some of the best mountain biking around Peru. I’m starting to rethink trying to buy a bike while I’m down here. It sounds like I won’t be able to find a bike that is really fit for downhill unless I spend a ton of money and the cheaper bikes may get me killed on some of this terrain. But, who knows, I may be able to find the black market of sweet downhill whips and be able shred the gnar on the Red Bull course. 

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Desayuno...?



We got to sleep in today so we decided to try out the local breakfast place two blocks from the clinic. The place was dead empty when we arrived but were greeted by the owner Miguel, as soon as we came into the gate.  We placed our orders of arroz y huevos and café con leche and sat somewhat patiently while nursing our headaches from the previous night of salsa lessons and pisco sours. We realized breakfast might not be primary meal served by the restaurant when we see the owner sprint out the back door, only to come back with supplies from the neighboring Mercado. The meal was served in the usual fashion with the coffee being instant powder, the food coming 30 minutes after ordering and the price being less than three U.S. dollars. Although the food wasn’t the best it was good to check out a new place and know that we should search for a better breakfast spot.


 






The rest of the afternoon consisted of trying to wrap our heads around the research project and what the goals really are. Luckily we do have some data from the past week of campaigns, but I’m realizing that the goal of 5,000 surveys for the summer may be a little ambitious.

Tonight we headed downtown to check out a festival. No one was quit sure of what to call it but it seemed to be an Incan celebration of the city of Cusco. We stayed downtown for a while after and checked out one of the more famous coffee and pastry shops and it didn’t disappoint. Much better than the instant coffee that seems to run so rampant in the country known for its great whole bean coffee.  The bus ride home proved to be one of the more crowded I’ve experienced thus far, with the roof being built for the small build of Peruvians and not the tall lanky gringo. The windows fogged up within 15 seconds of entering the bus and the smell wasn’t too far behind. We made it home safely but not before talking with the group of women in the back row of the bus about the importance of a Papanicolouae. Ha!

Tomorrow. Andes Mountains. Single Track….

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Mucho Alto



       Had the day off today, so decided to climb the little hill behind the clinic. We made it 30 feet shy of 13,000 feet! One of the best hikes I've done in my life, besides maybe the Grand Tetons. After the 5 hour hike we were treated to a traditional Peruvian meal provided by some of the local women who work at the clinic. As they say in Athens, "soo goood"! Tomorrow will be the one week mark of my time here in Cusco and I must say there hasn't been a dull moment. I'm picking up new Spanglish everyday thanks to all the folks I'm hanging with including the new guy from Arkansas, Tim (Bill Clinton supporter), who will be here for 6 weeks. Another 6 a.m. wake up for me tomorrow as we travel to a town I can't pronounce but will probably never forget..

Rainy Campaign...

Our campaign was faced with a little bit of bad weather yesterday, so it allowed me to have some time to shoot some footage of the local people, rain or shine...

*trying to figure out how to load the HD video on the blog.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Down in the Valley


Limatamba, Peru 

Today we headed to Limatamba, a town nestled in a gorgeous valley about two hours north of Cusco. I was pretty excited for the later 7:00 a.m. leave time as well as the fact that most the women of this town spoke predominantly Spanish. Yesterday, 90 percent of the women who came to the clinic spoke only Quechua. This was somewhat a problem considering we saw over 300 women and we quickly learned that getting the Quechua women to complete surveys was going to be a challenge. At the end of the day we were all worn out but satisfied with the work we had done.
           
The day before was hard indeed, but today things went much more smoothly. A big milestone for me was to fully complete some surveys with the Spanish women without any translation help. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still at toddler level of Spanish but I cant almost accurately read the survey and mark the answers the women give me. Many times they say way more that is needed and I can now have at least somewhat of an idea of what they are trying to say.

The kids were way cool today as long as they weren’t crying. I ended up standing next to a two year old for fifteen minutes trying to get him to stop screaming while his mom was in the exam room. I think he was dehydrated when she finally came out because he had tears that flowed the whole time. Luckily, most of the time when a baby is crying there is a quick flip of the wrist, the shirt goes up, and the baby is latched on to sweet goodness, forgetting all of his or her worries for the time being.






It seems as though all of the campaigns we go on will be pretty similar; beautiful scenery, poorest of the poor Peruvian women/people, good food and new learning experiences. As we travel to these villages I can’t help but think about the families that live in what we would call mud huts and they call home. Most live on less than 1,000 Soles a year but somehow sustain and don’t seem to feel sorry for themselves or beg the government for money. Maybe its because they don’t know any better but it seems these people have a work ethic like no other and a kindness that is truly warm. 

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Urubamba- hablo poco espanol

 Urumbamba- Campaign 1

I awoke this morning to the rooster crowing right next to my window at 6:00 am. We were getting ready for the days trip to Urumbamba, which is about two hours north of Cusco. With the only real knowledge of what to expect being that most of us would performing a Papanicolao (Pap smear) or giving a survey to the indigenous women of this rural town tucked away in the Andes. Our group anxiously stood outside our clinic in the cool, but not quit winter air, awaiting our bus that would ferry us to our destination. I was pleased when the bus arrived well equipped with the modern amenities of four tires, a roof, and a windshield. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe something similar to the bus we crowded into the previous night, which consisted of forty people piled in a bus fit for twenty.
We made our way out of the Indy 500, also known as downtown Cusco, into the more rural sections of town and I was amazed not only by the backdrop of 20,000 ft. peaks but the community of people who live in this area. People who have been to developing countries always try to explain the conditions that the people live in but truly, it is hard to grasp until you see it for yourself. As we got closer to the clinic it became more and more rural, dotted by the Quechua women with babies wrapped around their backs and kids running across the dirt road getting good warning of our presence by the horn blown by the bus driver.

The goal for the trip today, as well as the research for the whole summer, is to assess the care that women receive from our screenings in our one-day makeshift clinics and also at the permanent CerviCusco clinic site. We assess this by surveys given that day. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem. Hand a person a survey, let them fill it out, get it back and done, instant data. This is no problem for the women who speak Spanish because most can read and if not, someone is able to explain the questions to them. The problem lies when we get to our true target population, the Quechua women. What is so special about this culture? Quechua is ONLY a spoken language. One can only imagine the problems that can occur when trying to administer a survey to a person who speaks a language that is not written. Did I mention that this language is NOT written? My head is hurting just thinking about it. Long story short, the tool used to do this consists of a translator, powerpoint presentation and some numbers and symbols that represent answers. Really, I’m going to need a few more weeks to wrap my head around this convoluted system of data collection but it seems the only way to get feedback from these women about their medical history and experience at the clinic.

Needless to say there was a tough learning curve today for Miles, Claire, Mariah and myself, but with any new thing you never now what to expect. Like Whatley says, “you can train all you want but until that first race of the season you don’t know where your fitness it.” In our case, we came across something new and had to adapt and tomorrow will hopefully run more smoothly. Also, I managed to butcher more Spanish words today and continue to give the locals a laugh. Most of the time I just stand there with a smile and hope they don’t think I’m a complete idiot. I was told the indigenous women think I’ve got pretty eyes, so I’ve got one thing going for me...

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Georgia to Cusco


Georgia to Cusco

            After a solid twelve hours of travelling I’m laying in my bed at CerviCusco in Cusco, Peru. I will consider this my first real night of sleeping outside the U.S. in the almost 26 years of my time on earth. Of course, if you take into account the two hours of sleep spent on the cold floor of the Lima airport last night, then this is my second night abroad.

I was somewhat worried that I might not be in this position in the first place when taking into consideration the gamble I took with a buddy pass in order to save money on a flight. Luckily, I found myself on a 5:20 p.m. flight to Lima from Atlanta yesterday. After trying to get as much sleep as possible on the flight we landed in Lima almost right on time and luckily I had my friend Mariah to show me the ins and outs of international airports. Having taken Spanish For Freshmen my senior year of high school (props to Mr. Burke), of course I was adequately prepared to take on a busy South American airport with my depth of Spanish knowledge. I easily spoke with airline officials and waitresses by saying” Hola, buenas dias” and then replying to their conversational Spanish with a blank stare and a desperate need for Mariah to step in and save my, “ Hey I’m American and I know one Spanish phrase” ass.

I realized that the cushion of time I gave myself to get to Lima with the buddy pass was not needed and that I would need to try and change my flight to Cusco for an earlier one. Mariah was on the red eye flight out of Lima so I figured it a good idea to try and hop on the flight with the person who could be my personal translator. I changed my flight for a much cheaper than expected fare and was on cloud nine until I realized they had given me a receipt for my flight with no boarding pass. Luckily I figured this out at the security checkpoint, at the time we were supposed to start boarding the plane. I quickly did my best Home-Alone (Lost in Peru) impression by sprinting to the ticket desk and back to get the matter resolved. I wasn’t even at altitude yet and I was huffing like a fat kid up Hogpen gap. As we were boarding the plane one of the flight attendants told me I had to pay more money (which I didn’t) but also led me to believe that my bag may get left in Lima. After the quick flight to Cusco we waited to see if my bag would show up and what do you know, it was the last to come off the plane, boom!

In Cusco, we (really only Mariah) hustled for a cab and we were taken to CerviCusco, our home for the summer. On the way to the clinic we stopped, started and sped through the streets of Cusco that welcomed me to the developing country. At the clinic, we were met by Juan, Carla and Erica who were very helpful in getting us in our place, and before I knew it I was asleep, only get awoken by hunger and the headache of 11,000 feet above sea level. We left the three, clade-iron gates of the clinic to search for food, stopping to get a fresh pastry for 0.20 soles along the way. We decided upon a small café that looked to have a decent choice of pescado or pollo. We were the only white people in the small café of five tables and as we sit down and wait to order the waitress brings us soup. The irony was great as me and Mariah examined the soup, one of the main dishes, which we were told to initially avoid. We couldn’t disrespect this place so we ate the soup and hoped to keep our good health. The soup was followed by chicken and rice which were amazing. We left paying 3.50 soles each for the two-course meal.

Venturing through a market and hopping a bus for 0.20 soles we made our way back to the clinic where we decided to go help with the remaining patients of the day. The first patient we saw with Dr. Ferris was nine months pregnant. We gave her a breast exam, the first I had ever performed and three cysts were felt, although they were more than likely benign. The next patient was in for a loop excision procedure where basically part of her cervix was removed in order to prevent further damage. This was the first time I had ever seen this procedure done and also the first time I’ve seen the speculum get used on a live person. The next two patients needed Pap tests and as it goes Mariah and I would be the ones to perform the test that we learned three days ago and just now had seen for performed for the first time. No better way to learn than to jump right in and do…

Peru so far has lived up to my expectations and I haven’t been here for more than 48 hours. I can’t wait for what is to come for the next 11 weeks. Buenas Noches!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A little over a week before I leave for Peru. Ready to be finished up with classes on May 11th. Looks like a hell of a busy time before then to round off the first year of the thing they call medical school. I'll have about 1.5 days to really get ready and packed before I have to head down to Augusta and do a couple days of classes. Until then...