Advertisement
Published: November 4th 2011
Edit Blog Post
008
the bus I catch in the mornings to the health clinic The best way to describe Huancayo would be to call it the ‘town that never sleeps’. It’s a Wednesday morning, 8am and I’m standing on the edge of the busy street right outside my apartment. There is traffic and pedestrians everywhere and I am about to flag down my first bus. “Hand up high, make some noise and make sure you are seen” were the instructions given to me by Juliana. Within about 3 minutes of exiting my apartment I suddenly found myself flagging down a beaten up old 12 seater minivan. As the bus some-what slowed I found myself legging it in amongst the cars and vans only to find myself literally jumping and just making it into the moving vehicle. The vans are extremely crammed and small and I found a tiny seat next to an old traditional Peruvian woman who seemed to be in a world of her own.
The buses are run by two people. There is a driver (usually an older man) and a scout (usually a young kid 12 – 14 years old) who stands in the open door way of the moving vehicle and hustles passengers on and off the bus. There are
010
One of the many bus's coming up my street! no designated bus stops, time tables or organisation for that matter. You just stand and wait for a van with your destination on it and hop on and off at will. The kids who work on these buses are what we (the volunteers) call STREET KIDS. That is, some of them go to school and then work in the evenings, whilst others must work throughout the days and evenings to supplement the family’s income. One of the volunteer projects run by the volunteer organisation (Makikita) is to provide a fun, safe and educational shelter for these kids in the afternoons and evenings. This is one of the projects I am working on and will fill you in a little later on what it’s all about!
As the bus finally came to a halt (the final destination), I hopped off only to find myself surrounded by shanty shacks with crumbling walls and rickety roves, many small dry and dusty roads, litter and pieces of metal strewn all over, a few stray animals (sheep, goats, dogs, cats and chickens) meandering the streets and a very small polluted stream trickling down what looked like a dry river bed and it became obvious
002
Some of the housing on the outskirts of town. there was also very limited electricity and plumbing in this part of the town. This is where the Health Clinic (Another Volunteer Project I will be working on) is located and it’s definitely one of the poorer areas of Hauncayo.
The clinic is a small white building which is comprised of a waiting area, an admissions desk, three doctor’s consultation rooms (each appeared to be clean, tidy and adequately stocked with clinical instruments), two treatment rooms, a labour room (there is a stool with a hole in the middle of it and a rope hanging down from the ceiling where women pull and squat simultaneously to bare their child) and a tiny pharmacy (antibiotics are so cheap – 10 cents per tablet)! My first day at the clinic was extremely memorable – I was assigned to work with Dr. Paul (a fantastic doctor and such a nice guy). Although my Spanish is still very limited and communication with the doctor and patients (a massive challenge), I was able to assist with paperwork, patient observations and general health checkups. Over the coming weeks I will also be assisting with obstetric consultations, home visits, paediatric checkups/educational sessions on child development, helping
001
A river on the outskirts of town. out in the pharmacy and treatment room/emergency support. The patients that attend the clinic appear to have very limited knowledge regarding their health and general hygiene. Some patients come to the clinic for the most ridiculous things such a cough and cold, whilst others have been living with chronic aches and pains for months, only to be told they have some terrible illness that could have been treated earlier if only they had been to the clinic. The patients respect and view the doctors with a godly status – and whatever they say or suggest is taken as sacred information. In saying that the doctors are incredible!!! I have not seen such respectful bed manner (what nurses call good communication skills with patients) in a very very long time! I am very excited about spending the next 5 weeks in the clinic. I can already feel my passion towards nursing and healthcare returning. I think the language barrier will be my biggest frustration in the next 5 weeks – I say bring on the Spanish lessons, PRONTO!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0624s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb