delanaeby

This is Africa. A place where a lot of our patients are HIV positive, where medical supplies and facilities are limited , and where we have blackouts almost every other night, but yet I have found the people here to be incredibly welcoming and unbelievably strong. At St. Joseph's Mission Hospital I have had the opportunity to witness all these things as a volunteer through Medics to Africa. For two months now I have lived in a rural town in Kenya, Migori, and have had the most amazing and unique experience of my life so far. Overall, I have been able to do so much more than I would have dreamed of doing in the US. Yes okay, the ward rounds are pretty boring usually since I don't actually know how to treat patients, but I ... read more

Wednesday (Oct. 12th) - Thursday (Oct. 20th) Two weeks with my brother. Many people would groan at that thought but I was actually excited to see him. After 3 months of traveling and meeting new people it was good to see a familiar face and we had some crazy adventures together. Brendon (my brother) met me in Cusco after my Inca Trail trek and after I had sufficiently recovered from the hike we began the next leg of my trip. I should have known this ahead of time since I was with Brendon, but from the beginning nothing really went according to plan (if what we had could even be called a plan.) First stop was Puno in southern Peru. It's not that pretty of a city but the lake shore with the reeds and the ... read more

**Note: This is from a long time ago and I had written it but forgot to post it. Sorry! Monday (Oct. 3rd) My first day back at work again after I was sick and I was a bit scared for my reception by the girls at Casa Acogida. Last Tuesday I felt like I connected with them really well and I was worried I lost that by ditching them all last week. But it was fine. I apologized and then promised them a small fiesta this week to say goodbye, so I think they forgave me. We did exercises and played volleyball as usual and then I showed them the posters I had bought to put on their walls. I had a numbers poster with numbers 1 through 100 written in spanish and english as well ... read more

Tuesday (Sep. 27th) We got back this morning at 6 am and I had work at 8 at Casa Acogida. I didnt want to miss another day of work, so we just went home, showered, and it was off to work. The girls were fun today, pretty much everyone was willing to do the exercises with me. There were also 2 new girls so there are 12 in total. I asked about where some of the girls go some mornings and I couldnt quite understand what it was, but it was some place on the other side of town (not a school I dont think) and the girls have to have been at the shelter for at least 2 months before they are allowed to go in the mornings. I talked to the psychologist woman a ... read more

Sunday (Sep. 25th) 3 am start. Obnoxiously early, but we had a 3 hour bus ride that we could sleep on so when I woke up for breakfast I was refreshed and ready to hike! Breakfast was slightly disappointing, just bread and jam, but that is normal here, so oh well. Another hour and a half bus ride and we reached our starting point for the hike. Brittany and I had started to get to know the other people on the bus and they were a really cool group, but then our bus driver called for the two of us to get off to meet our guide. Turns out we were hiking seperate, just the two of us with our guide. At first I was a bit bummed because it would have been fun to hike ... read more

Saturday (Sep. 24th) We made it to Arequipa! Our bus got in at about 6:30 am so we went to find our hostel (Bothy Hostel), thinking we would sleep a few hours before exploring. Our taxi ended up taking us accross to the wrong side of the bridge from where out hostel was, but we didnt know that, so we just got out and wandered around until we fingured out we were on the wrong side of the street. But it was a gorgeous morning and we got to see a little more of the city than we would have otherwise, so it was a nice walk. By the time we found our hostel and got checked in we were starving. So we said screw the sleep and went to find any restaurant that was open ... read more

Thursday (Sep. 22nd) It was raining this morning so I am trying to figure out which of the 5 billion bus companies go to the street where Casa Acogida is, but all the ones I asked said no. So I will have to figure that out a different way. I ended up just taking the bus I normally do into town and then walking to Casa Acogida like we did when we were doing the diverse program. I learned from yesterday and arrived a bit later so the girls were just hanging out and listening to music when I got there. I listened with them for a while and then made them join me for some exercise before we did some salsa again (there were 3 new girls that I helped teach like last time.) Today ... read more

Monday (Sep. 19th) My first morning without spanish classes! I was supposed to start my morning volunteering at Casa Acogida (with the trafficked girls) but I was still recovering from my sickness, so I slept in a bit and took the morning easy for once. Then I went like usual to San Judas in the afternoon, although this time I went all alone since Vivi is working somewhere else this week, it was very sad. I had been helping out in the older girl's room but since Vivi isn't there anymore to help with the younger girls I will be working there for the next three weeks instead. At first I was a little sad I won't be working with the girls I had gotten to know in the other room, but the little girls are ... read more

Saturday (Sep. 17th) I was supposed to go on a tour today of the South Valley and its ruins, but I ended up being sick all day. It was no fun, I literally spent almost the entire day in the bathroom, and I ended up having to pay for the tour I missed anyway since I hadn't told them enough ahead of time to cancel it. Oh well. Sunday (Sep. 18th) I felt infinitely better today so I went on the tour we had planned to the Moras salt mines and the Moray ruins. They were incredible, I am so glad I got to go, and there were just four of us on the tour (Vivi, two other guys, and I) so it was basically a private tour. The Moras salt flats (also called the Salineras) ... read more

It´s crazy I am already halfway done with my time here, it went by so fast! I will again just summarize each day of my week, I still had spanish every morning and I was at San Judas Chico (the girl´s orphanage) every afternoon. Monday (Sep. 12th) I have decided to stay at San Judas Chicofor work every day this week. We just worked on homework today and I was with the older kids again. Turns out some of the math I was helping the girls with was for an exam today... oops. But the girls were so demanding for my help and some of them had no clue what they were supposed to do so I tried to teach them a little while helping, and I made them do as much work as I could. ... read more