My second week in Cajamarca

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Although I felt SO much better on Monday after my amusing trip to the clinic on Sunday, I didn´t feel quite up to attending the hospital... not as a student at least! I did however make it to my Spanish class with Wilmar (my male Spanish tutor who´s commonly referred to as Wilma it would appear!). And that evening I joined Ian and the girls for a nourishing meal of consomé soup and coffee... Everything was to improve as the week went on!

I was astonished, but thrilled, at how quickly my tonsilitis cleared up! By Tuesday I felt almost back to normal and was able to spend the whole morning in "Cirugia", the surgical department, at El Hospital Regional Cajamarca, before going to my Spanish class in the afternoon. Again we all went out for dinner together that night...

The rest of the week was to follow a very similar format of hospital in the morning, Spanish class in the afternoon and going out for dinner of an evening... as the week wore on I was able to move from eating only soup to eating noodle-soup then to eating noodles and finally back to normal food... which tasted SO much sweeter and went down so much more smoothly than I remember before!

Thursday was a particularly incredible day... having waited (im)patiently for about 45mins in Cirugia for a doctor to give us some teaching, Ian and I took it upon ourselves to seek out better experience! We confidently strode into "Sala de Operaciones" (the operating theatres), changed into scrubs and walked in on an operation that was already underway. Operations are made even more exciting here, in a Spanish-speaking country, as we´re never quite sure what´s happening! Before we knew it a large black tumour appeared to be protruding from the patients abdomen... and then out popped a baby! My first experience of C.Section, and seeing birth for that matter, was quite a surprise but wonderful at the same time!

Later Ian and I went to Banyos del Inca where we enjoyed the thermal baths and waterslide of "la piscina" in the scorching sunshine. To celebrate Ian´s last night in Cajamarca we all went out for a huge meal at a Pizzeria/Mexican... both Ian and I thought it was only right to have a pizza and a fajita! Afterwards we chilled out round a wood-burning fire in an open-air pub - a great way to say "bon voyage" to mi amigo Ian, who I´ll see again in Cusco in a few weeks time... Machu Picchu here we come!

Next week I´m spending 5 days in Cadmalca, an Andean mountain village where I´ll have my first real taste of rural medicine, which I´m looking forward to a lot. I´m bound to have some good stories to write about on my return...

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Photos

Caring for the patients...
This wee guy had his appendix out and he´s only 5 years old... un chico valiente

Cuy
I had my first taste of the Peru´s nation delicacy this week... Guinea pig! Verdict - quite ordinary!