Yesterday was a day full of emotion... some good, some sad, some filled with hope, and some completely devastating. The morning started out as usual: woke up at 5 (it gets light out extremely early here), dressed, and breakfast at 8. Dr. Bob, Father Alex and Ben arrived later in the morning. We had a quick lesson about the Mission of Alto Cayma from Father Alex, then it was off to visit the projects of the mission. We first stopped at the women´s knitting shop where some of the women in the community, many of them have been widowed or deserted by their husbands - so this becomes more than just work for them, it´s a gathering of support, we´re free to look through some of the items they made. Their work is amazing... sweaters, scarfs, hats, gloves, bags, bracelets, etc. I immediately spotted a beautiful red hat... nd for $18, it was mine. From there, we headed back to the volunteer house to meet with Maria, the social worker. Maria´s job is to do home visits with those that can´t make it into the clinic, or even to the market, for that matter. The family we visit is a young husband and wife with two small children (ages 2 and 5). The husband was working a few years back and fell from a 5-story building. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, is unable to walk, talk and eat. He is taken care of by his wife (who just by looking at her, looks beyond exhausted). They live in a 1-room house with 2 beds... one for him, and the other for the rest of the family. The wife isn´t able to work, since taking care of him is a full-time job. He needs to be changed (he is incontinent) and fed through feeding tube regularly. This visit hit many of us pretty hard. The walk back home to the volunteer house was a quite one, as we all try to process what we had just witnessed.
By now, it´s just about lunch time. Cassie and Sandra are heading off with Maria to take care of the food distrubution... I will be getting my chance later in the week. For now, the rest of us enjoy a nice lunch here at the house. After lunch, a few of us went to the child care center to play with the kids. Many of these kids are here every day while their parents head into town to find day labor. Some of them are picked up early, some of them stay as late as 5:30. There is an agreement with the staff and parents that if the children aren´t picked up by 5:30, they will go home with one of the teachers to wait for their parents to pick them up. The kids are so exited to see us... ¨visitas¨, they yell and run into our arms. They apparently LOVE visitors! We play with puzzles and get LOTS and LOTS of hugs. Many of them sing along with the music the teacher is playing.
We left the child care center at about 2:30, where we then head down to the health care clinic. The clinic opens in the morning, but then closes between 1pm and 3pm for lunch. When I say ¨closes¨... I really mean closes... like everyone leaves to go home, and the door is locked. I guess they take their mealtime with family seriously! I´m with Karen and Sally, both RNs. I´m sad to hear that the laboratory is closed for the day. On this particular day, we are helping in the admissions room, where once the patient is registered at the front desk and they pay their 5 soles for the visit, they come to the admissions to have their height, weight and vitals taken. I leave that part up to the nurses in my group, and take on the responsibility of pulling charts. Boy, I thought we had an outdated system at work... all of these charts are hand-written!
We stayed at the clinic until about 6 or so, then headed back uphill to the volunteer house. I think I´m finally getting used to the high altitude here, as I´m actually able to talk while I walk back uphill. The volunteer house is at about 8700 ft above sea level... so it´s been quite an adjustment! We all met for dinner at about 6:30, had a quick lesson with Ben from HBI, then some went off to their rooms. Cassie, Denise, Stephanie, Leah and I play a mean game of UNO. By 9pm, its ¨quiet time¨at the volunteer house, so we all head back to our rooms to journal.
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