Sunday, June 23:
I love pick-up trucks, especially when I get to ride in the back. We piled in
the pick-up to a local church for mass. It was national farmer's day, so many
of the farmers from the local community were honored. They invited us to attend
their fiesta afterwards where we were the special guests. We rode through a
small farming village to an enclosure which must have been the community
meeting place. The emcee of the fiesta chose ten American students to pair up
with some of the farmers for dancing. My attempts to avoid eye contact with the
emcee were successful so I was not chosen and therefore was able to just spectate
the dancing. We were served rice, sopa de novias (soup of lovers), and some sort of meat for
lunch. This meal may or may not be the reason that I'm feeling very sub-par
today. Our afternoon consisted of downtime and in the evening we had a party
for our Peruvian mom, Erika. Marquette nursing hosts a family here in Peru and
we see them every evening before and after mass. Erika and Eduardo have 3
children whom we also get to play with. It was Erika's 30th birthday so we
ordered pizza, had cake, played musical chairs, and gave presents. The three
hours before bed were spent making friendship bracelets on the balcony outside
of our rooms. I'm just as bad at making bracelets as I used to be…fail.
Ellen and our new friend Jose riding in the truck
The suspicious meal
Monday, June 24:
I've been feeling pretty shitty today so I took the morning off and stayed back
while both groups went on a tour of another hospital in town. Luckily clinical doesn’t
start until tomorrow (actually Friday?!). Hopefully this bug will be gone by
then. After a few extra hours of sleep, medicine, and a cold shower I'm feeling
a bit better. I ventured to the Supermarket with the gals where we were excited
to purchase PEANUT BUTTER! It was 16 soles or about $6 for one jar...dang. This
afternoon we met with a women's group called Vaso de Leche. We talked about
exercise and danced the Macarena and chicken dance with them. They were extremely
attentive and grateful to us. Five year old Rosita was there with her mother…she was
prettiest little girl ever! After dancing, the ten of us toured the parish
compound where we visited the pro-life clinic, legal offices, psych offices, alcoholics
anonymous, and the operating room where the cataract team has been working for the
past couple of weeks. I just got done playing cards with the group and I kind
of suck at lying sooo BS did not turn out in my favor…maybe tomorrow.
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| The trophy table. These are the cataracts that have been removed from people's eyes. Good work cataract team! |
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| Rosita bonita!!! |
The suspicious meal
