Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Mucho Alto
Rainy Campaign...
*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
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...
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