Things I Never Thought I´d See

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I (julie) recently just got back from my first 2 trips to the mountains. The 2 weeks that we were translating for the American doctors was pretty amazing for many reasons. One, because for the first time since i{ve been here i actually feel useful, like i have a purpose. The doctors that are here are absolutely unbelievable. One of the surgeons is rated in the top 10 best in the US! and the rest of them are all pretty incredible, but on my first trip to the mountains i went with 2 nurses and 2 doctors and i translated for them and for the patients. I also got to help give a talk teaching about prenatal care with the people from surrounding villages in the mountains who act as the midwives and things like that when there is no hospital (which there usually isnt)
i got to see lots of things i never thought i would see like womens uterus's falling out of them because they´ve had so many kids they are too stretched out, or inflamed vaginas, and hernias, and sores on a man´s penis - sorry about the graphicness, but you just need to hear all these things to understand what we were doing, and it was all so interesting. i actually learned how to take blood pressure and do pregnancy tests and kinda test urine but i still dont reallly know what the results actually mean - just if they´re bad or good. so it was pretty amazing. also the views from the Andes are probably some of the most beautiful i have ever seen. the view from our window was just unbelievable. it was like you were standing in the middle of a national geographic magazine. This sisters were also hilarious, one of them wants to be a dancer in her afterlife and she´s always twirling around and has this glow about her.
The first 2 villages we were in Pacaypampa and Chalaco and the second visit was to Frías, where there are other marist sisters. Chalaco wasnt nearly as warm and friendly as Pacaypampa, but one thing that was really interesting was how the women acted. they were so so much more quiet and reserved and embarrassed in the mountains than i have even seen here in Chulu. When we had to do pap smears and things like that the women were soo soo embarrassed to take off their underwear and kept saying Tengo verguenza tengo verguenza, meaning i´m ashamed, and would try to pull their shirts down to cover themselves up. one women in particular had been bleeding for 15 days and lets just say i had to run to get some wipes- not to pretty, sorry again for the graphic, but it was just really interesting.
So many of them were complaining of body pain, and we were like well when you work in the field all day long and then walk 6 hours to get to the clinic you are going to be sore. One man in particular was over 75 and had the heart of a 20 year old. and he was complaining that he couldnt walk 6 hours without taking a break. He would get tired he said. No shit! its just unbelievable how different they think. The other thing that was interesting was when the guys that were having sexual problems were coming to the clinic and they are met by a group of all women. Not too comfortable for them to say what the problem is. It would take a lot of questions to get it out of them. Questions that i never thought i would be asking before in my life. Oh and i pretty much kinda just washed my hair once in 5 days' adn that shouldnt really even count. There was barely any running water, and when there was water is was absolutely freezing cold.

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