The S.A. Node: Cuna

Peru was true to form yesterday, encompassing all things that make this country both unpredictable and exciting. I started the day thinking I would be shuffling my feet in the clinic, going for a hike or brushing up on my Spanish lessons, but ended the day feeling both satisfied and worn out. After my morning coffee, Carla (resident obstetrician/ cook) came upstairs with arms full of groceries ready to start cooking for the days’ lunch. I was kind of confused since the clinic was supposed to be open and who would be making things run downstairs with Carla in the kitchen? One thing that I’ve come to realize here in Peru that there are plenty of things that prevent people from working including, festivals, birthdays and cooking, with all of them seeming to happen multiple times a week.

Carla proceeded to cook some of the best food I’ve had since being here, making a shrimp soup with potatoes, corn, squash, rice and spices that I can’t name. I’m not entirely sure of the occasion for the large meal but I think it was in a late birthday celebration for the dentist who works upstairs. During the middle of eating we were told we would be leaving in an hour to go on a campaign somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Before this time I had no previous knowledge that we had a campaign that day. I asked a couple of times about where exactly we would be going and no one seemed to know or want to tell me where we were headed. Not five minutes after finishing the meal, I was packing my bag with the essentials of a headlamp, rubber gloves and white coat to meet the taxi downstairs. The four of us students jammed into the small taxi with a suitcase full of supplies, two “exam” tables and no idea where we were going. We had been informed to get dropped off downtown and wait for a lady in a black jacket to meet us and give us further directions. We had been given the lady’s cell phone number but it proved to be no use to us as we forgot both the sheet of paper with her number and our personal cell phone.

We got dropped off downtown and waited on a set of stairs at a government building for the lady in a black jacket. No one knew her name or what she looked like, but my only guess was that she was short and Peruvian. My intuition proved correct when Alina walked up. We all gave the traditional kiss of the cheek greeting and followed her down the street. Still somewhat confused as to our direction we stopped at two police vehicles and were told to throw our things in the back of the truck and pile in the back. Where the hell are they taking us, I thought? The officers were nice and told us we were headed to a very poor part of town only fifteen minutes away. As we came to the section of town I agreed with the officers about it being stricken with poverty but it still looked very similar to other places we have been. It took a while for the officers to figure out where we would be setting up the makeshift clinic but after thirty minutes of waiting around we drove across a dusty soccer field and got out. We grabbed our supplies and headed down to the building where we were to set up.

As we approached the building I could hear yelling of little kids and it sounded more like a daycare than a ministry of health and that’s exactly what is was, a daycare. We walked into the small one room building that smelled of urine and dirty diapers and we were greeted kids running around and playing. My first thought was if they want to get local women screened then set the damn thing up where they have to come pick up their children. My next thought was where are we going to perform the Paps? We had two tables but nowhere to set them up with any sort of privacy. I looked up at the low hanging ceiling and realized we could possibly hang sheets creating our exam rooms. I knew that my countless hours of making forts in the basement of my parent’s house had paid off when in a matter of minutes we had two private exam rooms! We made quick work of the twenty or so women who had come to get screened all the while swatting away the little kids trying to get a glimpse of what was going on behind the sheets. The women of the community seemed to greatly appreciate what we were doing for them which is sometimes surprising considering the fact that within a minute of meeting them we make them remove their pants and stick a plastic speculum inside of them.

As we packed up all of things I thought about how great it was to be at that spot and get an even better glimpse of how these people live. I was reminded of how flexible you must be when working in Peru and how rewarding it can be. I also realized how great it was playing with the kids of the daycare and how one day I could come back to help them with the endless coughs and infections they seemed to carry. I do enjoy working with the women but seeing the kids makes me want to work more with them.

After we got dropped back off downtown we decided to relax, grab a beer and play some trivia at one of the local gringo bars. Our team was appropriately named the “Spectaculums”. We probably would have won had one of the final categories not been “famous futbol stadiums around the world”. The team made up of Europeans had a hay day with this topic and they took the win. All in all it was a great day in Peru and right now we are about to head off to another campaign that sounds like it is going to be very similar to the one yesterday...