July 14, 2013

• Back to Peru

  Well, that is bad when you can’t complete writing of your one trip, before you go on another.  How is it that I am back in Peru so soon?  Well, a year ago, I signed up for a Medical Mission International (MMI) trip to the Colca Canyon area of Peru.  Normally this is a very sought after trip, as it involves hiking long miles up in the mountains of Peru to Quechua Indian villages, and so you need to sign up early.  So after my service with EMM (Eastern Mennonite Missions) in Africa, I decided to see if they could use any help in their medical work in Peru, since I was going to be down there anyway.  I was given the go ahead to come down, that several doctors were on extended furlough over the summer, and they could use the help.  And then while I was arranging that, I got the call from University of South Alabama medical School that needed people on the trip to Iquitos.  I made the EMM work here in Cuzco go up until the trip to the Colca Canyon, so that was one trip, but couldn’t quite combine all 3.  So I flew back down here on Wednesday, from Pensacola, to Atlanta, to Lima, and then Cuzco.  Connections all went well on the journey, but for some reason (age 55?) I had a brain freeze, resulting in my checked bag staying in Lima.  When I was checking my bag in Pensacola, for some reason I asked if the bag would go all the way to Cuzco, with Delta cooperating with LAN.  He checked his computer and said that it would.  Somehow that translated to telling me I don’t need to worry about it until Cuzco, forgetting that I need to run it through customs in Lima before putting it back on the checked baggage carousel. And I had just done this a month ago!!  So, that meant I had no stethoscope, camera, or computer, not to mention my coats, and toothpaste and toothbrush.  Somehow, i didn’t pack very smart, did I?  I was able to get my bag on Saturday which has given me a lot more clothing options, anyway.

  Sleeping in the Lima airport with absolutely nothing to sleep on is not much fun.  You could try a cold tile floor up against a wall, with lights and racket all night long but I don’t recommend it.  I spent Wednesday night there before leaving early for Cuzco the next morning.    In Cuzco, I am staying with John and Cindy Kreider, long term missionaries with EMM.  They have been in Peru for 14 years total over 2 separate stints.  They have a daughter still at home, Orianna, but otherwise are empty nesters…so this will work out very well.  I went by bus to the La Fuente (the fountain) clinic on Friday for my first day of work, as Thursday was spent in getting acclimated to the high altitude. Cuzco is at 3400 meters, which is at 11,400 feet, and there is not as much oxygen up here.  It was interesting that everyone in the clinic has an oxygen saturation of around 90 % which would provoke panic in the US, but is not worthy of a second look here. 

  The first afternoon after a nap, I went to the the center of Cuzco, again by bus.  Cindy showed some of the sights to me, then left to go shopping.  I had a map, and explored.  The Inca buildings are incredible.  They had no iron tools, yet the stones are interlocking, and put together without any cement, and there is not a space between the blocks to put anything in.  It reminds of king Solomon’s temple with it’s perfectly carved stones.   They also built them with perfectly inward slanting walls, which made them by earthquake proof, since they won’t sway and topple over. They also built all this without the benefit of the wheel, which seems incredible.  Someone explain that too me.  The plaza de Armas is the center of what was the Inca capital, and many of the palace buildings of the Inca Kings are still in use in the downtown, although they are now coffee shops, stores, or tourist traps…

  Work in the clinic was busy the first day, but we managed well with 2 doctors doing the work.  It is very well equipped, even having a second building for ophthalmology, they do ophthalmological surgery such as cataracts there.   I didn’t have too many language struggles the first day, but I am starting Spanish lessons on Monday–4 days a week for 2 hours a day.  That will be in the afternoon, as I work until 1 pm or so in the clinic.  So my usual schedule will be to work 8-1 every day, and then lessons in the afternoon.

  Oh, By the way, it is cold here at night…about 30 degrees this morning, but relatively pleasant during the day if the sun shines, which it normally does in this their dry season.  It still feels good to have a sweater around most of the time (and now that I have my suitcase, I do have that, at least, as well as winter coats…)  Since I didn’t have my camera until yesterday, pictures will wait.  I do have better internet here, so hopefully can do better with updating at least…In Christ and su amor,  Jon

   

  • 4:38 pm
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