The end of the Strikes

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There seems to be an abundance of barbed wire in Peru. A single wire runs around every patch of grass along the sidewalks no matter how small the patch may be. The reason for the barbed wire we are told, is to keep the dogs out of the grass. For this to be effective the wire ends up being just at calf height on a human leg and many a volunteer have fallen victim to torn pant legs. The dogs however, simply hop the wire and do their buisness. Oh Peru, when will you learn?

Peruvian miscommunicaiton was at its all time high this past weekend. The independence day celebrations actually took place the day before independence day and the running of the bulls on sunday was not running but actually a bull fight. Needless to say, we didn´t run, we watched and it was very interesting. I have never been to a bull fight before so I have nothing to compare it to, but I liked that they did not kill the bulls or really injure them too much. Out of 4 men in the ring only one was injured, not too bad in my opinion.

The strikes are officially over! Today was my first full day of work and it was very exciting. I didn´t realise how much the strikes actually stopped us from working. When we first got to the clinic we observed the obstetrition for a while and played with the 4 babies who were born last night. Then we ended up back in the emergency room to help with a man who was in a car accident last week. He was getting his bandages changed and his leg wounds cleaned. This basically meant pulling off all of the skin/scabs from his entire calf with out any sort of pain meds, just another reminder how strong peruvians. After the fresh skin was exposed the nurse just poured ample amounts of hydrogen peroxide onto the wounds until they foamed. I don´t think emergency room medicine is my scene considering I made more noise than the inujured man. The nurses laughed and called me weak. After this we helped out in Topico taking histories- more blood pressure, temps, weights and pulses. The morning ended with us handing out food provided by the governement to families with children under 3 and pregnant women. A very successful morning. I ran into Angel, the lab technician as we were leaving and he asked me to help him in the lab tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to take some blood. The more time I spend in the clinics the more I realize I like pathology and diseases much more than other types of medicine. Something to think about.

Most of these pictures are from different campaigns we have been doing in the schools and in the hills.

After spending the past two weekend here in Ayacucho a few of us decided to plan our own weekend excursion. Four of us are heading to Lake Titicaca this weekend on every imaginable form of transportation. The night bus will take us to Lima on thursday, a flight to Juliaca, a cab to Puno and we are at the lake. We are actually going to continue on to Bolivia for two nights as well and be back in Ayacucho tuesday morning to meet Lisa at the airport. Our plans to return monday fell through as the flights were all booked. I will write more about the trip as it happens though, this is just a heads up.

The good bye are becoming more and more frequent as the summer comes to a close. It began with beth and cara, then glena and matt and now leslie and pooja. Steph and bryce are this weekend then me and Katy next weekend. The time really goes fast. Only one more week in Ayacucho.

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