Welcome to the crazy life of Mindy Schreven. It has been many a day since I have tuned into my blog. After many days of organizing, pricing, and purchasing medicines, it was finally time for clinic to start. But first we had some fun. Last Sabbath afternoon after feasting on pasta salad with fresh veggies with a unique lemon-poppy seed-avacado dressing that I concocted, we piled, squished and crammed into the truck for a bumpy ride to a distant land with a small lake. The lake is uber warm except for a sliver of cold about 5.72 ft under (definitely not quite 6 ft under). The water was mucky brown, which is good because then you can’t see all the fish that bite. As long as you stay active though, no fish will bite. We splashed around in the lake for a good hour and a half. We swam and launched people and played some games with the local Peruvians. It was a great afternoon before the frenzy of packing up our entire pharmacy/medical clinic/dental clinic later that night. Our little Toyota truck was piled high with anything and everything we might possibly need for doing tasks such as pulling teeth to doing surgery to simply giving out Tylenol (we may have even squeezed a few cookies in some of the cracks too) In the end the stuff stuck up about 6 ft above the rim of the bed of the truck. Way over packed by American standards, but about normal for Peruvian standards. The next morning (Sunday) I got up soon after 5 , took a cold shower in the dark and hurriedly helped grab the last few things we needed before driving off to the clinic site. Thankfully we had delivered the bulk of the stuff the night before, leaving us half the bed of the truck to squeeze 9 people into. The only hard part is that we all had to sit in the bed of the truck, we couldn’t stand or else the police will pull us over. The cab of the truck was equally crammed with 8 people. With a lurch of the stick shift truck we were on our way to clinic driving into a brilliant jungle sunrise. About 45 minutes later we arrived at the clinic site in the outskirts of Pucallpa, gobbled up some cold oatmeal cooked the night before and thus began the first clinic. My first job was to assist in the pharmacy. Before too long prescriptions were pouring in from Dr. Matthews and Dr. Mike. Thus jump started my career in deciphering doctor’s handwriting. It is a tough job just as everyone says, especially when the prescription is written in Spanish. After deciphering the prescription I got to search for the named medicine, the write out he medicine instructions in Spanish, then explain the instructions to the patient. With limited Spanish this is a fun and exciting task, but it was a great learning experience. I was so busy all morning that I didn’t even look at my watch until about 2 pm and that was only because of an enormous tummy grumble. So I gulped some more water to hold me over until lunch. I had been so busy that I had barely had time to think about being. Throughout the remainder of the week we spent our time helping about 140 patients a day. We had the opportunity to help many people who were in great need of help. We tended to many kids that without immediate help would have died before morning. One little boy was especially sick, the hard thing was that he was too small to have any veins that we could put an IV in. After about 15 minutes of searching for a vein we finally found a large enough one in his foot. We then gave him the prescribed meds and got some good fluid in him. We kept him in the clinic for the next few hours monitoring him, and sent him home later in the afternoon since he was beginning to perk up. Besides giving out meds, taking blood pressures and giving shots to the slightly less lucky individuals I also got to work in triage. For the first few hours of doing triage I had a translator to help me interpret all the symptoms the patients were talking about. But then for the rest of the week I was on my own. This I would say was the toughest part of my week. My limited Spanish (especially in the medical field) made it a little bit hard to determine what the patients were saying. But before too long I found myself being able to communicate fairly decently with the patients. On the second day of clinic I had the opportunity to glove up and assist Dr. Mike in a biopsy on a possible melanoma. Yet again this was an amazing learning experience. I have learned more this week than I could have imagined, and yet in learning all this I am only realizing how much more I have to learn.
After the frenzy of clinic week we decided just to rest at Km 38 for Sabbath afternoon. But I could only sit still for so long, so I gatherd up a small army of two others and we grabbed machetes and headed off into the jungle in search of an adventure. After about 17,034 bug bites we finally had the grand pleasure of seeing 6 wild monkeys. They were small black ones with poofs at the end of their tails, but they were my first wild monkey sightings, which completely made my day.
Things have been pretty crazy here on our funny farm. Sadly our little kitty got attacked by the dogs and got his back leg broken. Fortunately he is a strong little creature and has now figured out how to hobble around on 3 legs whenever one of us is not carrying him around. A grand addition to our funny farm is a little brown monkey. We are till trying to teach him not to bite, but he is a grand little creature. A moment never passes when he is not chasing frogs or bugs or scrambling all over the hammock or the nearest person.
Chau for now!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Oh the life of simplicity!
The other day or limited electiricty went out. Unfortunately we were in the middle of cooking supper when it happend. We ate supper by candel light and had a magnificent time. After supper and dishes we trekked over to the other house and squished on our couch (a old matress stuffed with wood and straw - not the most comfortable thing but definitely great if you imagine you are sitting on a couch) Anyways the fun part of it was that there was a small group of us just chilling on the couch or on the floor. We each had our little headlamps and were happily reading books. Every once in a while someone would make a comment out loud about something interesting they had just read. I will have to say that this was one of the most peaceful experiences I have had yet in Peru. The little hallway we were reading in has screened windows along one edge allowing all the nighttime noises of the jungle to seradade us. As the night proresses one by one we headed off to bed. It was a most enjoyable night to just sit with friends, without the distraction of computers, cell phones, television or any other electronic device. It was great to just spend time together as friends. So if you ever find yourself bored, get together with some friends grab some headlights and some books and just chill on your floor (but first remeber to turn off ALL electronic devices or else there will be no peace) I think you would be suprised at the fun you can have with simplicity.
I will not step down from my little pulpit and let you know what has been happening lately. The past few days have all pretty much consisted of the same acticities. Most of my time has been spent sorting through all of our medicine - organizing it and packing what we will need for our first clinic that starts on Sunday morning. Right now my brain is overflowing with the Spanish names for hundres of medicines. There have been many laughs as te newbys try to figure out how to pronounce all the million letter long medicine names.
Yesterday I had the unfortunate experience of catching the bug that 87 percent of the other SM´s have already caught and faught. I was on the verge of throwing up for a good 40 hours, but thanks to a strong stomach I never actually emptied my little stomach of its biley contents. Along with a horribly upset stomach I also had a terrible headache, diziness and a complete loss of appetite. I only ate two little apples that were about the size of silver dollar coins - which means once you take the core out you have about a half a mouth full of apples (The fruit is really messed up here - lemons the size of invadnig planets and apples the size of cherries - wierd) Anyways, luckily this little disease only last for about a day and a half so now I am just getting my strength back. I still don´t have an appetite, but that will come. The guys keep saying that I must be sick since I am no longer eating just as much or more than them!
Right now I am in Pucallpa running around to different pharmacies searching for the best prices of the medicines that we will need to buy for next weeks clinic. It is a bit of a challenge to comunicate in Spanish, but with hand motions and lots of slaughtered words you can get the point across. My Spanish still needs a lot of work but at least I am getting some practice in.
Time to get back to work.
Chau!
I will not step down from my little pulpit and let you know what has been happening lately. The past few days have all pretty much consisted of the same acticities. Most of my time has been spent sorting through all of our medicine - organizing it and packing what we will need for our first clinic that starts on Sunday morning. Right now my brain is overflowing with the Spanish names for hundres of medicines. There have been many laughs as te newbys try to figure out how to pronounce all the million letter long medicine names.
Yesterday I had the unfortunate experience of catching the bug that 87 percent of the other SM´s have already caught and faught. I was on the verge of throwing up for a good 40 hours, but thanks to a strong stomach I never actually emptied my little stomach of its biley contents. Along with a horribly upset stomach I also had a terrible headache, diziness and a complete loss of appetite. I only ate two little apples that were about the size of silver dollar coins - which means once you take the core out you have about a half a mouth full of apples (The fruit is really messed up here - lemons the size of invadnig planets and apples the size of cherries - wierd) Anyways, luckily this little disease only last for about a day and a half so now I am just getting my strength back. I still don´t have an appetite, but that will come. The guys keep saying that I must be sick since I am no longer eating just as much or more than them!
Right now I am in Pucallpa running around to different pharmacies searching for the best prices of the medicines that we will need to buy for next weeks clinic. It is a bit of a challenge to comunicate in Spanish, but with hand motions and lots of slaughtered words you can get the point across. My Spanish still needs a lot of work but at least I am getting some practice in.
Time to get back to work.
Chau!
Monday, August 3, 2009
I have now been in Peru for over and week and gone from the States for almost 2. I have definitely had my share of rice, but I am loving it still. After a few days of cooking, I and the other volunteers have finally learned the secret to cooking rice in Peru (yes it is more difficult than it sounds and takes a much different technique than in the States). No longer are we eating burt rice with every meal.
I have found one of my new favorite fruits. It is called granadilla. It is a small fruit, about the size of lemons in the states (Not the lemon hunks that we have here). When you peel off the foamy, porous like outer shell the fruit is exposed. The fun thing is that the fruit is like a little pod of frog eggs - gooey jelley around a dark crunchy seed. If you ever have the opportunity to try granadilla I would definitely recommend it, if you never get the chance maybe go find some frog eggs, eat them and just imagine a fruity taste. The experience will probably be about the same.
On Sabbath afternoon we had our first machete accident. A few of us decided to journey out through the jungle to the nearby pineapple field and on the way back one of the dental volunteers accidentally sliced a small hole in his leg. It was just a small cut, but it still gushed a fair amount of blood. When we got him back to the mission, we layed him out on the kitchen table, gave him some local anesthesia and then our volunteer doctor stitched him up. 3 stitches later we cleaned everything up, then a few hours later ate supper on the table.
A fun thing about life down here is going to the market almost daily. I have been only once, but it is fun to go around from one little stand to the next searching for the best deals and the best food. It is a bit of a challenge right now seeing as I do not speak Spanish very well.
The other day I got a better picture of Peruvian life when I went out into the fields with the guys. Our only weapons were machetes and our goal was to cut the grass - to mow the lawn. The grass grows fast down here, so we must chop it down regularely. The best way to accomplish this is to hack at it with a machete. When the machete goes dull you have a short break, while you sharpen it. Then its more hacking at the grass. As they say down here, the machete is definitely my new best friend. With a little bit of muscle and machete, you can get through almost anything.
If any of you would like to send me mail here is my address:
Mindy Schreven/ Andrew Vizcarra
Casilla 202
Pucallpa, Peru
Make sure to include both my name and Andrew´s. I will never be picking up my mail. Only Andrew will be in town to pick up packages - Customs is only open about 4 hours a weeks and those times are when I am working.
Chao!
I have found one of my new favorite fruits. It is called granadilla. It is a small fruit, about the size of lemons in the states (Not the lemon hunks that we have here). When you peel off the foamy, porous like outer shell the fruit is exposed. The fun thing is that the fruit is like a little pod of frog eggs - gooey jelley around a dark crunchy seed. If you ever have the opportunity to try granadilla I would definitely recommend it, if you never get the chance maybe go find some frog eggs, eat them and just imagine a fruity taste. The experience will probably be about the same.
On Sabbath afternoon we had our first machete accident. A few of us decided to journey out through the jungle to the nearby pineapple field and on the way back one of the dental volunteers accidentally sliced a small hole in his leg. It was just a small cut, but it still gushed a fair amount of blood. When we got him back to the mission, we layed him out on the kitchen table, gave him some local anesthesia and then our volunteer doctor stitched him up. 3 stitches later we cleaned everything up, then a few hours later ate supper on the table.
A fun thing about life down here is going to the market almost daily. I have been only once, but it is fun to go around from one little stand to the next searching for the best deals and the best food. It is a bit of a challenge right now seeing as I do not speak Spanish very well.
The other day I got a better picture of Peruvian life when I went out into the fields with the guys. Our only weapons were machetes and our goal was to cut the grass - to mow the lawn. The grass grows fast down here, so we must chop it down regularely. The best way to accomplish this is to hack at it with a machete. When the machete goes dull you have a short break, while you sharpen it. Then its more hacking at the grass. As they say down here, the machete is definitely my new best friend. With a little bit of muscle and machete, you can get through almost anything.
If any of you would like to send me mail here is my address:
Mindy Schreven/ Andrew Vizcarra
Casilla 202
Pucallpa, Peru
Make sure to include both my name and Andrew´s. I will never be picking up my mail. Only Andrew will be in town to pick up packages - Customs is only open about 4 hours a weeks and those times are when I am working.
Chao!
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