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...

Best food of the trip cooked by Carlita.

Makeshift exam rooms

Futbol field and surrounding neighborhood

Chicitos of the day care

Todays view from yet another daycare turned clinica

We had to use small tables

Nice folks

Exam room from today, compliments of a tarp and thumbtacks

Corpus Christi

The past two days we have been celebrating Corpus Christi. Yesterday was a parade that carried statues of the Saints to the main cathedral in the square. It was a pretty amazing sight to see these massive statues getting carried down the streets followed by brigades of marching bands playing traditional music. The sights and sounds were great but the most interesting part of yesterday was the food.

As we walked to get lunch we came on upon tents that lined to streets. Underneath the tents, crowds of Peruvian festivarians were housed eating mounds of food. Looking more closely, I realized people were eating an array of things, with the most striking being the local favorite cuy, also known as guinea pig to us in the states. As hungry as I was there was no way in hell I would be going into one of those tents. Almost as soon as that thought went into my mind, we went directly into a tent thanks to our tour guides (nurses as the clinic). There was no turning back, especially seeing how excited they seemed to be about getting to eat. I decided to do my best Anthony Bourdain impression by trying out the local food. I can’t remember the name of the dish, but it is traditional Peruvian festival food consisting of; fish eggs, sea weed, pork sausage, chicken, cuy (guinea pig), cheese, and bread. We sat eating this massive plate of assorted (really salty) meat with about 5,000 other people in crowded tents downtown, all the while drinking the alcoholic beverage of choice, Cusquena. I can honestly say yesterday was the most adventuresome meal of my life. I can thank the nurses that work in the clinic for the experience because had we not gone with them there is no way I would have knowingly sat down at that tent.

After the episode of the food channel, we walked around and took in the sights of the festival. Today was more of the same but I took some time to take more pictures.

 

10 centimos game. I won!

vegetarian

Futbol

After a solid two days of being sick I’m almost completely back to normal. I guess it wouldn’t be a true experience abroad without some type of stomach bug or virus that causes you to wake up in the middle of the night with fever and accompanying vomiting. I’m not quit sure what was the culprit but Mariah seemed to have a similar experience the day before. My guess would be that our trip to the San Pedro Mercado gave us something we didn’t intend to bring back with us. Normally, arroz y huevos, lomos saltados and fresh fruit smoothies wouldn’t give me alarm but seeing as though Mariah and I both ate them and became sick….

            I’ve been going a little stir crazy since the day I got a here, watching the locals play soccer in the concrete field only a stones throw away from the clinic. Many days I’ll go to the rooftop to practice juggling and my touch and more often than not I look out and see people on the court playing the sport their country loves most.  Today I finally had enough of watching from the rooftop. The crowd didn’t seem too big at the court so it was somewhat less intimidating to approach them about playing. I knew that I could rely on the little Spanish I’ve learned so far to get me on a team but getting them to actually let me play could be a different story.

            As I nervously made it to the court I sat on the bleachers, catching a good number of “what the hell are you doing” looks from the twenty or so locals who were watching. I didn’t initially approach anyone about playing, I was kind of hoping they would just need someone to play and ask me. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. After about ten minutes of watching I got up enough courage to mutter “amigo, puedo jugar?”.  The young guy looked at me and pointed to the other side of the bleachers, meaning I could play with the other guys. I think he just didn’t want me on his team. I sat there for another fifteen minutes watching before asking again if I could play. This time it was a similar response to the other side of the bleachers. I felt like a fat kid getting the last pick of the kickball team in fourth grade or Smalls from The Sandlot! Finally I decided to ask one of the older guys (call him Benny the Jet Rodriguez) who looked like he had a little bit of street cred and wouldn’t be embarrassed to have the gringo on his team. After catching some grief from one of the young guys for taking his spot, I was put on the six-man team.

            The game had some interesting rules that I picked up quickly but for the most part if was your regular game of first to two goals wins. Winner stays on. I knew I had to prove myself as soon as possible so I took up marking what looked like one of the other teams best players. My goal was to not let him juke my socks off the first time he got the ball. I didn’t have a chance to defend against him first because I was passed the ball immediately. I made quick work and passed as soon as possible. It was surprising to me how different everyone played than I expected. It was a much more controlled game than the flashy Central American soccer that I had predicted and watched on T.V. We won our first game 2-1 and I came away with an assist on the winning goal. Boom. As nice as it was to win, I was dead tired. I hadn’t sprinted like that since I’ve been here and fresh off of being sick didn’t help much either. It was frustrating seeing the locals, some who were even playing in jeans, run constantly without getting tired. As soon as the second game began I started to taste blood, as they say, and also felt the burning of my lungs brought on by the altitude. I kind of hoped we would lose so I could take a break. I managed to score a goal to support my cause for them letting me play but they called a tie in the end because too much time had passed. I said “Cao” to my new amigos and thanked them for letting me play, with a promise that I would be back tomorrow whether they liked it or not…

Lapse in Time

The clouds have been gorgeous the past few days so I decided to try out a some timelapse photography with the iphone. This is from the roof of the clinic/home for the summer. Pretty magical up there. Yes, I have a little free time.

Semana Buena

It’s been a while since my last blog post! I’m sure everyone who reads this is on edge, checking my blog way more than their own Facebook newsfeed to see who got tagged in what. (Okay, maybe only my Mom checks this daily).  Honestly, life in Peru has slowed down somewhat and I’ve been able to take some much needed time to simply relax after a busy first couple of weeks that were filled with early morning campaigns and a few late night rendezvous to Plaza De Armes in downtown Cusco. All of the students, including a group of UGA undergrads that stayed for two nights, are now gone and we have dwindled down to the five of us that will be here all summer (winter). We’re not sure yet, but we think MTV is trying to do a Real World Cusco. We’re still trying to figure out the details and a tag line for the show, so if anyone has suggestions…Ha!

Around the clinic there hasn’t been too much going on. During the clinic hours we’ve been helping with the few patients that come in and also doing a lot of data entry from the previous weeks surveys. Our next goal is to set up some campaigns for June and early July in order to get more surveys completed. One cool thing that we are trying to set up is to be at the local hospital for some twelve-hour shifts delivering babies. I’m excited for the opportunity but want to get a little better at my Spanish before I try to bring a baby into the world.

I’ve really been working on my Spanish this week and have resorted to the method of notecards for all the important verbs and their conjugations (I didn’t even make notecards for med school!) Rosetta Stone has been a great supplement to my learning but I forgot the other levels back in the States and I’m almost through Level 1. Everyone has really been a great help to me in learning the language with the clinic staff and all my Spanish speaking roomies getting a good laugh out of some of my attempts speaking. I’ve found that one of the best ways to learn is to go out by myself and try to talk to people. I love going out with my roomies but having them as a crutch for translating makes it easy for me to sit back and be quiet. It does get frustrating sometimes not being able to express myself but my friends have to keep reminding me that I cant expect to learn a new language in two weeks.

Last night I had a great time meeting some new folks by the names of Liya and Juan who were introduced to me by my buddy Randal J Bourquin via Facebook. Randal met them both on a trek here in Peru and thought we should get in touch. It reminded me of a double blind date having never met these two people before and agreeing to meet up for drinks and conversation but truly, it was a great time! All of their friends were super nice and they took me to a cozy spot to listen to acoustic reggae and sip on Pisco. The place gave me a sense of something that should be in L5P in Atlanta. The sounds of Jamaroqui and Ben Harper let me know I was in the right place, not to mention that half of the crowd of ten or so people were sporting nappy roots. . It amazes me how nice people are and how good people tend to attract others than are like-minded. Once again, I was reminded of how much I’m enjoying South America.

The video I posted is from two earlier campaigns but I just got around to finishing the edit. I didn’t realize that the Rainy Day in Peru video was somewhat sad and depressing so I made sure to put happier music to this one. I was really just wanting nice music to accompany the rain but after watching again I realize it could be used a one of those sad commercials trying to get people to donate money to the needy or rescue dogs from the pound. Either way, this is the HD version of the rainy day video on youtube.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uf7ETD74dQ&feature=relmfu

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. 

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….