Campaign - I do post pictures!

We were leaving at 9 o´clock Saturday night. Or 10. Or 11. Or 12. Or by the time we shuttled medical gear out to the road to load on the rented pickup, that couldn´t make it down our dirt road because the already loaded and tied down evengistic tent poles hit the overhanging mango trees, 12:30am. It was cool how nobody got the least bit bent out of shape as we waited for the missing truck to show up.


Having 7 adults (4 in back, 3 in front, packed into a doublecab has it´s advantages - readily available shoulders to sleep on, with a minimum of spinal torqueing. Good thing we´re frie-amily, and everyone has a good sense of humor! At around 1-1:30 am, the pavement ended. Around 2:00, I took over the wheel, with Jenni keeping me awake, and catching me up on a lot of background information I´d been wanting to know about the project, vision, and Peru life. Somewhere near 4:30, I switched out with Brent, and grab a couple more minutes of sleep.

The road passed over (or in a couple cases, around using nearby fords because of shaky condition) lovely plank-over-treetrunk, sagging-in-the-middle, bridges. The scenery was the usual slendidly brilliant green, with cattle fields and pens (and a man carrying a clean, good looking, though disattached, cow´s head) . At least after the sun came up. During the night, I was surprised by the number of people walking the roads, and partying in the little hamlets we passed. Likely had to do with it being Saturday night, but a noticeable change from the very strict, moral Muslim culture I´m most used to from North Nigeria. The parejas de enamorados (enamored pairs - couples) and their public affection too.


On arrival, we ate two scrumptious breakfasts (bread, cheese, fried yucca, fresh calamine tea, and pan de arbol - breadfruit, but way different from Asian, little nutty-potatoey things about walnut sized for the first, and I don´t remember what, but even more for the second - we ate well all week long, despite the lack of fruit for sale in the city - apparently ours came in with travelers, at the church ladies´request! Amazing hospitality!). Then we got to work on setting up for clinic. It took some figuring out where, as plans usually change, but we ended up setting up burlap partitions in the church (outside at left). In the slow moments waiting for decisions to happen and rain showers to pass, we caught up on worships and sleep. We borrowed tables and chairs from church members, and hauled them to the church for our clinic!

The afternoon we spent putting up the huge evangelistic tent, a task made more interesting by the fact that we´d only brought half the poles, since the rented pickup couldn´t handle the weight of all of them! The rest were to be replaced with bamboo/roughcut wood. Hard work, and my lack of sleep and water started catching up with me, in fatigue and a headache. But with the help of a lot of church members (and apparently, random bystanders as well!), it it was up just after dark, in time for a very welcome supper, then bed in the beautiful yard of a church member (more amazement at the sense of beauty here! Hibiscus, rock paths, an eyesore drainage ditch turned into an attractively landscaped pond-stream, incredible!)



The next day began my dental training. Between two hours of watching videos on oral anasthesia, doing one coached trial of each type (inter-alveolar, palatal, and that other one - lingual?) on Laura (and experiencing one, supposed to be one of each type, but left as good after my body´s unconsious needle hatred made me faint), I felt vastly underprepared, but with watching Manuel, Brent, and Laura, and knowing that one of them, usually Manuel, with 10,000 extractions under his mask, would bail me out, I started in. One tooth out on Monday, one more on Tuesday, and three on Wednesday, along with lots of assists, sterilizing, and quite a few started that others finished. There really is a good feeling when a tooth you´ve been wiggling at gives the good pop (not the cracked root pop!) and pulls free!


Thursday and Friday, I moved over to triage, first listening to Jenni, then moving more on my own, taking basic patient histories and symptoms, to pass on to Dr. Matthews (or if I´m really lucky, it matches uncomplicated ¨bichus¨- parasites, and I can follow a prescribed EMS style protocol, and treat them with Mebendazole from our farmacia! Definitely exciting. And makes me more sure I actually do want to go on with med school, to be able to handle the more interesting cases too!


Thrown in during all of this were plenty of exciting (may I say, often times hilarious?) moments. Manuel opening and closing a huge pair of forceps, right in front of his already screaming 5-year-old patient. And calling for ¨gaza de mono¨(gauze of the monkey), in reference to our self-folded and well sterilized 2x2´s, but yes, made the same room as the monkey was (incidentally, our living/dining room at 38). ¨Vegetarian¨chicken soup, with hearts in some bowls, wings or legs in others. New fruits, including pifwayo, which apparently is only for women and macho men, because the high progesterone levels might put lesser men in danger. :) I like the stuff. And

doctor knocking out our tiny (much loved and much griped over, from differing quarters) monkey, with a dose of diazapan, which left him out/severely uncoordinated for much of a day.


Then pack up, and repeat the journey, back home to 38! I rode part way in a cozy nook in the back of the pickup, well wedged and tied in, until rain drove me in, then later Dr. took the spot over (much to my delight, as he´d insisted as I made it that it would be dreadfully uncomfortable!)