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.