Me voy

It's my last day in Peru. I'm in Lima right now, staying with a friend of my co-volunteer Katy's. Lima is incredibly enormous, but somehow I've enjoyed my stay here. I'm not so sure if I'd say the same thing if it wasn't for Katy's friend and his social network down here. Which makes me think about my time here in Peru and all the great people I've met and experiences we've shared. It also reminds me of how much I will miss them and all the things they've brought to my life. From Arequipa to the Sacred Valley to Lima, people are what have made this trip special. And I am already sad that I have made most of my good-byes.

Onto the next adventure.

I'm excited to get back to the states: friends, skiing, cheeseburgers, calling people with my phone, driving, a job with a salary, Mexican food, flushing TP instead of putting it in the trash. It's all about the simple pleasures in life. However, I will be missing the simple pleasures and other quirks that seem totally normal to me here in Peru. For example, I'm using a computer from the states right now, and its keyboard is different and doesn't allow the accent to be put above the 'U' in Peru. And the question mark is in the wrong place. In addition, I'll miss Choco Sodas, Cuates, Angel Chock, lomo saltado, aji de gallena, maracuyas, Nana, combis and cheap taxis, smelly bus rides, haggling with street vendors, not knowing what you'll find in the bottom of your soup or salad, Coca-cola made with real sugar, constant streams of Spanish, Peruvian Spanish, verano, Peruvian time, no refridgerator, hand-washing clothes, the smell of diesel, street-cred you get for calling/chatting from Peru, crowing roosters at 4am, inspiring awe with my mere presence/being a giant, jokes that don't translate well, eggs and papas, La Coyanita, street dogs and street dog procreation, being called Doctor on the streets, Yunsas, Carnival, Rocio, el patito, dark and noisy internet places, intestinal hitchhikers and subsequent self-diagnoses, surgeries, Quechua, addressing ladies as Mama and men as Papa, paros, breaking paros, playing gringo guess, unsafe-to-drink tap water, the slight fear when riding in any automobile, choclo con queso, llamadas llamadas llamadas, tamales-quatro por un sol, Nuevos Soles, Kausay Wasi...

But most importantly, I'll miss la familia Paz-Cornejo, Guido and Sandy, Edy and Naomi and Noah, Ben, Katy, Amelia, and Holly. Thanks for an incredible four months.

Machu Picchu

I finally went to Machu Picchu. I had been putting it off for so long that I almost didn´t want to go. I didn´t want to deal with the hassle (bus rides, train rides, etc), the tourists (I saw more gringos today than I have in 4 months), and the price (about $40, which is expensive down here). And, immediately after I had reserved a seat on the Monday morning train, I learned there was to be another Paro on Monday. Aghast, I called PeruRail and tried to figure things out. Turns out there was no Paro, but they had shut down the train anyway. So after a day delay, I headed out Tuesday morning.

After arriving by train in Aguas Calientes (a junky tourist town that serves to host travelers to Machu Picchu), I climbed the steep footpath to the entrance. It was up there, but took only about a half hour. Sweaty, I returned to my hostel to get some fuel and sleep for tomorrow. However, I couldn´t sleep too well because of the anticipation. It was like living in Jackson the night before a big powder day and knowing I had to get up early and move quickly to get in line for the first tram. I got to the bus station at 5:15am, and was about 100th in line, which put me on bus #4. No problem. I got to the gate, got through, and boogied up to the site where the pictures on the postcards are taken. I snapped a few quick shots, and then hustled over to the gate to Huayna Picchu, the big mountain seen in that same picture-postcard (they let only 400 people per day ascend it). Instead of going up right away, I headed down to the Temple of the Moon, a cave that has ruins built into it. I was the only one there for a half hour, and enjoyed the tranquility. I then busted up the backside to the summit, where I was able to relax in the sun and then the shade as the first round of hikers were descending back to Machu Picchu. I took in the grandeur of the scene, and then took a nap.

After a few hours relaxing on the top of Huayna Picchu, I descended and made my way through the ruins of Machu Picchu with my new friends from NY. We cruised around the ruins, dehydrated, and tried to tag along with guided tours to learn some history behind the ruins. I wish I could tell more about the history, but I´m tired and I want to reasearch more. However, if you have time, I suggest you check out "Lost City of the Incas" by Hiram Bingham. Bingham was the firt man (gringo) to ¨discover¨ Machu Picchu in 1911 (while he was looking for Vilcabamba, another lost Incan city), and subsequently cleared and excavated the ruins. It´s on the top of my list now.

I´m glad I finally decided to go. Although I didn´t get the official guided tour, the vistas and the grandeur of the place is truly amazing. No pictures can ever do it justice (and I´m not sure any have). But I took a lot, and they will be available soon on my Picasa page. I´m off to Calca for a couple more days!

La última semana

Well, here it is. I begin my last week in Perú today, while also finish my last weekend in Calca. Next Saturday, I fly to Lima and await a flight back to Portland on Monday. I can´t believe the end is near. But it´s just a beginning. For everything that I´ve learned while down here, a door has been opened to more exploration in the future. I´ve barely scratched the surface of learning Spanish; the living conditions of the people here in the Sacred Valley are still a long way from being healthy and a lot of work is left to be done; and I have barely seen Perú. Well, you may think that sounds absurd as I´ve been here almost 4 months and been a lot of places. But heck, I haven´t even been to Machu Picchu yet! (Just bought a ticket and am going up tomorrow). Perú is a huge country, rich in archeological history, beautiful landscapes, high mountains, cosmopolitan cities, and very interesting people. Although I think I am ready to head back to the madness of the states, I am definitely going to be missing my time in Perú as soon as I step on that plane in Lima. New adventures await. And that burger from Concordia is going to taste sooooo goooood. But I have one week left, including a trip to Machu Picchu, and a few more days at the clinic finishing things up after the plastic surgery campaign. So, I will be checking back in soon. Chau!

Cirugías Plasticas

The plastic surgery campaign was last week. It was a junk show. The team was totally unorganized-they lost the prosthetic ears for a day or two, they didn´t have enough of their own supplies, and dealing with post-op was a disaster. To top it off, the pathologist we use in Cusco informed Guido (the clinic owner/director) that he had misdiagnosed a patient after Guido had told his family that he had cancer (his tumor was benign). Guido called him an asshole, and a few other choice words, I´m sure. On the bright side, I saw a bunch of cool surgeries-Microtia repair, bone grafts, skin grafts, cleft lips and palates, burn patients, and tumor removals. I scrubbed in on a surgery to remove a mass above the eye of a patient who had had multiple head traumas in her life. Although I just held retractors in different positions, it was quite the experience to get in there and be a part of the surgery. The doctors were super nice guys and loved teaching us about anesthesiology and the surgeries. I plan on keeping in touch...

Which brings me to my next story. A 2 year-old boy came into the clinic with a huge tumor-type growth in his face, just below his eye to below his chin. It compromised his mouth so much that his teeth were warped in different directions, and he barely had space to fit food into his mouth (although he had no way to keep it in there as he couldn´t close his lips). It had closed his eye and caused some vascular swelling on his cheek. It was huge. While taking a biopsy, the doctor could barely put the needle in because of the boney structure of the mass. The question loomed: does the team do the surgery here, or try to find a way to get the boy to the states? With the possibility of severe blood loss without a sufficient supply to replentish it during surgery, as well as uncertainty of adequate follow-up led the team to decide to try to do the surgery in the states. Most of the team is from OHSU, and after a few days of phone calls and emails, progress is being made to do the surgery pro-bono at Doernbecher´s Childrens Hospital at OHSU. As I´m returning to the states next week, I hope to be around when the boy and (hopefully) his father arrive in Portland to help them negotiate the craziness of a new country, a foreign language, and of course the surgery. Without this surgery, it is likely that this child will die. And of course, his family lives in a small community in the mountains near here and has barely enough money to catch the bus to get to the clinic. I hope that there´s a way for this boy to receive the surgeries he needs to live.

Holly regresó y hay fotos!!!

Holly got back to Perú on Thursday. Finally! After we left each other 6 weeks ago, she continued on down south thru Chile and over to Buenos Aires. She returned to Cusco and the Sacred Valley and is looking to teach English at a school in Urubamba, a town about 45 minutes from Calca. Unfortunately, our Kiwi friend Amelia is returning to New Zealand to finish off medical school there. She will be missed. In the meantime, Ben and I are trying to talk Holly into moving into our place here in Calca. This morning, we cooked up a huge breakfast and lounged around the house. It´s great to be together again, and I´m looking forward to the next month.

Speaking of the next month... I think it will be my final month in Perú. I recently interviewed via phone with Northwest Outdoor School in Portland. They offered me the job of Health Coordinator at their site called Westwind, which is just north of Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast. I will be working under the director to maintain health at the camp. I´m stoked about the job. However, the end of my Peruvian adventures is in sight, and I will be sad to leave here.

Finally, photos. I have a ton on the Picasa site.
Check them out:
Chinchero y Moray ACÁ
A la casa y la clínica ACÁ
Pitusiray ACÁ
La Cirugía ACÁ
La Fiesta del Árbol ACÁ

Enjoy!

La Yunsa

On Saturday, the owners of the clinic Guido and Sandy took us to a party held every year in Calca. It was a family party, and people came from Calca and the surrounding towns, as well as from Cusco. It started slow, and we sat under a tent as the rains came in from the mountains above. We hung out and chatted and danced when this old guy Alberto wanted to dance. It didn´t seem like there was anything special about this party, except the trees. There were two trees that had been cut down and "replanted" in the middle of the yard. It had ballons and presents dangling from the branches. We had hear the rumors of what the party was all about, and soon we were to get the whole experience.

The music changed to more traditional music, and in danced the family that hosted the party, carrying a Peruvian flag and an axe. They danced into the yard, circled the tree, and stopped. The kids went off to the small tree, while we all made a circle and danced around the big tree. Each person in the couple took turns taking swings at the tree, while the other paraded the flag around the circle. After a few knocks on the tree, the couple passed the axe and flag off to the next couple in the circle, who proceeded to dance, parade the flag, and of course take swings.


When the tree was a little less than halfway cut, everybody took a break to eat, drink, and watch the kids chop their tree. I was in the bathroom when it came down, and missed the excitement. Oh well, the big tree was still standing. They passed the axe, and with each swing, the anticipation rose. They passed it to us gringos, but when I took a few good whacks at it, they all yelled in fear. You see, the person who chops it down is responisble for putting the gifts in the tree next year. It might be hard to decorate the tree from the states. The tree was about 2/3 cut before it finally fell. Being nervous that a tree could fall in any direction at any moment, we were on the lookout. When it finally fell, instead of running away from the danger of the falling tree like us gringos, everyone ran to the tree and dove into and under it to get all the prizes. A melee ensued, and Ben and I frantically searched for the collander we wanted for the house. We came out with a few plastic wash tubs, and a lot of laughs.

Check out some pictures HERE!

Cirugías

Last week, the volunteers at the clinic had the opportunity to assist in a few surgeries. It was special because it was the first time the clinic has offered such a major surgery using Peruvian doctors. Our newest doctor Gabriela was to perform a hernia surgery on a 50-year-old man who had been suffering the symptoms of the hernia for about 5 years. His abdominal muscles had completely atrophied, allowing his intestines to be fully hanging out of his abdominal cavity, forming what looked like an enormous, lopsided beer-gut. He also had a few lesions on his stomach where the intestines had fused with the skin, and were threatening to protrude to the outside like a colostomy.

After scrambling all day to collect the necessary meds and equipment and to sterilize all the instruments, we were finally ready for the surgery. Gabby cut him open and found that the peritoneum was fused to the skin with thick layers of fibrosis. She spent most of the time separating the two layers with scapels, scissors, and an electric scalpel that essentially burned its way through the tissue. She then let all his intestines flop out onto his lap. After checking to make sure it was all there and separated, she sewed two pieces of mesh into his abdominal wall to contain the intestines, taking the place of the muscles. She then cut off a piece of skin and began to stitch him up, which took over a half hour. He woke up and we popped him into a taxi to Pisac for him to recouperate for the evening.

The following day we assisted on a vericose vein surgery on a local woman. The anesthesiologist gave her an epidural and she remained conscious during the surgery. Gabby made an incision in the upper groin area, and one near her knee. She tied off the vein, made an incision, and inserted a long metal cable. She attached a ball-like knob to the end, told us to stand back, and yanked it from below, completely removing the vein. She repeated this a few times to remove other vericose veins, and the surgery was over.

Next weekend we have a plastic surgery campaign coming from Portland (OHSU actually!). We are all really excited to see the surgeries that the medical team will perform. They repair a lot of cleft lips here, along with repairing burns and other injuries. This week will be a lot of work preparing for the team, while the following 10 days will probably be crazy long hours with lots of work. Can´t wait.

Pitusary

The crew is growing, as Amelia´s sister and her boyfriend and Ben´s friend from Dartmouth are hanging out in our new house. Yesterday, we all went up to the picchus (mountains) above Calca for some well-needed backcountry time. Pitusary is the name of these Picchus, and they are spectacular. We have been looking at them in awe for weeks, and finally motivated to head up there. After about 6 hours of steep uphill hiking, we found a nice flat spot at the base of the high peaks. The view was unbelievable. We were easily 1500 meters above the valley floor, and enjoyed taking pictures in the evening light. We cooked up some ramen extreme, and watched the almost-full moon rise while warming by the campfire. It was really the first time I´ve felt "out there" in Perú. There really are people everywhere. We even slept in a field with cow-patties scattered about. But being away from the world of Calca felt just as good as getting away from the world I´m used to in the states.

We moved into our new place this week. It´s becoming rather comfortable, especially now that we have the ability to entertain guests and have dinner parties. There still are a few spiders around, and the bathroom is, well, a mess. The neighbors own a minimarket, and wash raw meat in the sink where we do our laundry. But other than that, it´s a sweet place. The house is right on the town square. And with Carnival coming up, we have the perfect roof from which to throw water ballons at kids. Ben and I are really looking forward to that...

I´ll put up some pics of Pitusiray soon, as well as some of the house and it´s view. Hope you´re well!
R

Calca

Calca is a small town, and word spreads pretty quickly. The other volunteers and I decided to move out of our luxury house and into a townhouse on the Plaza de Armas this week. The whole clinic knew what we were up to, and asked us questions all week about our living situation, prying their ways into retrieving more information from us. Of course we wouldn´t budge. But the town knows the gringos, even if we don´t know any of the people who know us. The town is thick with chisme (gossip), and as I enjoy a bit of anonymity, the thought of loose talk gets a little uncomfortable.


On another note, adjusting to Peruvian culture seems to get tougher as time passes. It could be because I´ve pretty much stepped out of the tourist mode and into a somewhat-of-a-resident mode. For example, I´m starting to realize the differences in the roles of men and women. And frankly, it has become annoying. Many women are openly rude to others, maybe becuase of some sort of ingrained competition for men, maybe because of jealousy. I guess it´s probably the same in the states, but it´s worse here. The men, however, aren´t involved in any of this, because often, they are off drunk in the streets. Alcoholism is rampant, even thought it´s not necessarily cheap to drink here.


Families stick together in Perú, too. Our friend here in Calca, with whom we´re developing a project to bring clean water to some rural communities, has a 6 month old boy with a gringa that he met down here. Although he´s a Peruano, he´s about as gringo as a Peruano can be. He is one of the nicest guys we´ve met down here, and is dedicated to helping the Quechua people in the villages improve their health. However, despite his knack for responsibilty and parenthood, when our friends Amelia and Katy babysat his kid, the family went to the house, accused the gringas of dropping the baby, and called our friend to tell him that the gringas were mistreating the baby. Of course, our friend trusts us enough to know the truth. Ahh, the drama.


Other news, our friend Jimmy, the resident optometrist at the clinic, recently went to Michigan for his first trip to the states. He got to travel around visiting optometry clinics and the people who came here to work on the campaign last month. The newspaper in Jackson, Michigan wrote an article about him and the clinic, which you can find HERE.

Also, the clinic posted some pics from the optometry campaign last month, including one of yours truly. Check ´em out HERE.

Chau!

El Asesino

Proud Parents

I arrived home on Tuesdayafter a long day at the clinic. We´ve been organizing eyeglasses for the past 2 and a half weeks. We can see the light, but it´s still pretty far off. We had done the usual routine-stopped at the internet, cruised around the town square-before returning just after dark to sit down for dinner. I sat down, joked quickly with Ben, and dug into my soup. However, Ben quickly informed me of the most recent development in the world of our pet ducks, Condor and Puma. Apparently Ben came home to find Condor, the smaller of the two, floating in the make-shift pond in their playpen.

We immediately felt like horrible fathers. How could this have happened? We built them a fenced in yard with a swimming pool and a house, and fed them everyday. Is it possible for a duck to drown? Were the chickens in the yard part of some chicken-mafia with a hatred for ducks? Or was it a cat, dog, or other random animal roaming the streets of Calca?

I went out the next morning to see the deceased and pay my respects, and to investigate the crime scene. Condor had some blood under his beak and on the right side of his neck. It was in the same place that we had witnessed Puma biting him the first weekend we brought them home. Puma has always been bigger than Condor. The blood and the previous bite marks lead me to believe that Condor was murdered by Puma.

The Victim

We were disappointed, especially because we were excited to give the grown ducks to our host Rocío´s mother for her birthday at the end of February. It´s going to be a feast-chickens, cuy, and hopefully one duck, whose name is now El Asesino.