Goodbye to the final team.

Week 4 of life in Cajamarca, Peru has come and gone, medical clinics are finished for the summer, and the final team has left for the States.  It’s back to just the daily grind here at Villa Milagro with Claire, Larry, the workers, and the Heaths.

Let’s recap the events of June 30-July 4.

The team consisted of around 32 people, many from San Angelo, a family from Melbourne, Arkansas, a few from the Dallas area and some from Amarillo.  Saturday, the 30^th was the first clinic for this team.  We drove to a school in Huallaypampa, elevation around 10,000 ft, and got to work.  I worked the intake table, took names and ages and asked where the pain was.  The day was slow off and on because whoever was supposed to get the word out to this district about the clinic did not.  But nevertheless word spread pretty quick and we saw nearly 200 people I believe.

Looking down on the intake and triage tables.

Sunday, July 1^st was fun.  We went to church at Monte Sion that morning and then spent a few hours at the Aldea Orphanage that afternoon.  We played sports with the kids, painted fingernails, read stories, and gave out little brown sacks with goodies.  The Heath boys found a llama at the back of the orphanage and took me to see it and to take pictures with it.  I was a chicken and wouldn’t get as close to touching it as they did because it kept making growling noises and was preparing to spit on me.  I was proud of their bravery though and I got some cute pictures and a few videos of the three of them. 

After painting her fingernails.

My bravery...

The boys bravery.

Giving out the goodies.

Monday we held another clinic in Jesus which is only about 20-30 minutes away from VM.  A Peruvian family let us use their home for the clinic.  My job was to give parasite medication and vitamins.  I got to work next to Crissy as she taught people how to properly brush their teeth.  It was a good day but very hot and lots of little bugs everywhere.  No pictures from that day, sorry I don’t know why I didn’t think to take a single one.

Tuesday was the third clinic in Chamis.  This was an early morning with breakfast at 6:30 and leaving the farm by 7:15.  We traveled about 45 min to the area and set up the clinic at another school.  The building was really nice and the kids were fun.  Come to find out though, the advertisement for our clinic was for the students only so that changed a lot of things for our team.  I for one was out of a job because we weren’t going to give parasite medicine and vitamins to just children with no adults to explain to.  Also, the pharmacists had a lot lesser load as well because of the same reason.  The kids did see the doctors though so they could at least listen to their heart and just provide a general check up.  Every kid at least walked away with a toothbrush and toothpaste and some had a tooth pulled or their teeth cleaned.  One neat thing of the day though was before we began working the students sang a special song for us in a native language called Quechua and then a man played “an original Peruvian song on an original Peruvian instrument”.  It was a fun little presentation and a very nice thank you from them.  After we had seen the students we waited for a bit to see if any adults would come and only a handful did.  Therefore we closed up shop around 2:30 and headed back to VM.  I had heard about a little lake nearby so I walked with one of the doctors and the two van drivers to go see it.  First lake, or any form of body of water for that matter, that I’ve seen since arriving here.   

The school - really nice facilities.

The performance

Teaching the correct way to brush your teeth.

Ready to go with their toothbrush, toothpaste, and new testaments.

Things got interesting when we were bored. Celso, Kent Terrill (the team leader), & Sean

So pretty

Wednesday (Independence Day!) was the conclusion of the medical clinics for me for the summer.  It was the earliest morning of the week with breakfast at 6 a.m. and left the farm by 7.  This time we had to travel an hour and a half to Matara to set up the clinic.  The scenery was the best yet though which made the trip seem to go a little faster.  The pictures of the landscape just do not do it justice.  What was neat was our team met with a mobile clinic of nurses and doctors employed by Cajamarca to help us.  It took a long time to set all their tents up so while we waited I went with the Heaths to walk up the hill to the school.  On our way a Peruvian man invited us into his home to look at this art.  His house was neat, had a few carved animals around but the inside was even better.  Every wall in his living area was decorated with a different mural.  Each one represented some portion of Peru.  It’s neat to think how people are just born with natural artistic talent with no schooling at all.  After that we continued up the hill to see the school but the kids were called into their classrooms shortly after we got up there.  So we traveled back down to our site but didn’t start seeing patients until after 10 a.m.  There was no shade so some of the team set me up a nice little spot on the back of the Heath’s truck with a blanket that a Peruvian couple let us borrow.  I was the first station the patients came to and I gave out more parasite medicine and vitamins.  We had 4 doctors I believe, 3 or 4 dentists, our pharmacy and the mobile clinic’s pharmacy.  It seemed like chaos because of all the people but after lunch it died down quite a bit.  We still didn’t leave until after 6 p.m. though.  We finally arrived back at VM after what seemed like a 3 hour van ride, we were all exhausted from the work and the sun and definitely ready to eat.  Walking into the sala (the meeting/dining room) was a fun surprise, the VM workers had decorated it for the Fourth so we could celebrate a little bit even though we are 1,000s of miles from the States.  After dinner we had a fun little gospel session of sing-alongs and then hit the sack not too long afterwards.

Scenery on the way to the clinic

Setting up my fort

Hard at work

The clinic with all its stations up and running.

Sharing Christ's love with the children.

Melt my heart.

The sala

My fourth of July shirt!

Ryan also wore his shirt on that day and we took pictures acting like we were together. And Sader had to be a part of it too of course.

On Thursday the team was supposed to deliver food to some poor families and go to the plaza downtown to go souvenir shopping before they left but we heard that the strikes were going to be bad so they hung out around VM instead.  All 32 of them took off back for the States at 3 p.m.  It’s back to just Claire and I on our own here.  She is still working at the school teaching English every day but now I am out of a daily job.  Larry said he has plenty for me to do and not to worry, I fully believe him.  That man never stops working, he’s amazing.  It should be interesting what my days will look like, I’m thinking a lot more relaxed though. The big bummer for Claire and I though is no more meals cooked for us.  The food is wonderful here and we are very sad to go back to our own cooking.  We’ll manage somehow. 

And if anyone is wondering, here are some random foods I’ve been craving from home: a Hershey’s chocolate bar, pizza – any kind, from anywhere, Ichibans rice and teriyaki chicken, Johnny Carino’s cheese tortellini and caesar salad, Rosas’ cheese enchiladas and tortillas with honey, chips and salsa, and a vanilla cream Dr. Pepper from Sonic, easy ice.  All junk I know but mmm!!

Chao for now!