a solid few days

Well work is still going really well. I am able to have my own patients which is nice and I have been able to give more vaccines. It is starting to get a bit of the same thing every day, but that is okay, I suppose that is sort of what a job is. I am definatly learning Spanish though which makes me feel more comfortable in the medical center and in Lima in general.

I just had an amazing weekend too. We went to this place called Ica about five hours away. Its like in the middle of the desert where they have all these oasis´s with trees and water. We stayed in a hostel that was 7 dollars a night and had a bar/club, a restaurant and a really nice swimming pool. We ended up staying two nights there because it was so beautiful. We met a group of people from France who spoke English which was nice. It turns out that they live very close to us in Lima. One of the days we were there, we took these big sand buggies out into the sand dunes and the guide drove us around like mad all over the dunes... sooo crazy but so much fun, better than any rollar coaster I have ever been on! At different sand dunes, we got out of the buggy and actually sandboarded, like snowboarding only in sand, down the dunes. I only did one standing, then I layed on it instead. It was wicked fun. The next day we went the Nazca lines. The lines were really beautiful, but Nazca wasn´t that exciting. Overall it was a great weekend though. Back to work this week... I cannot believe I have been here a full month!!!

finally useful

I finally felt useful today at work. I was able to assess 13 of my own patients today. The nurses were understaffed a bit today so I got my own patients and was responsible for assessing their growth and development. The children ranged from 10 days old to three years old. Luckily for me (and them) they were all within normal ranges of height and weight and development. I also got to practice my spanish quite a bit to try and tell the mothers of the children what to work on for the next check up. I also learned how to sterilize gauze by folding it up and making handmade packages with paper to put them in the sterilizer. It was actually interesting. I then got to watch the doctor there (who spoke english) sew up this man´s hand who had cut it open pretty bad. That was also cool and reminded me of the ER a bit. Anyways, today was the first day that I finally felt useful. I suppose I should wish for it to be understaffed more often. haha. Well off to Ica and Nazca for the weekend!! I am excited!!

handwashing

So today I went to a day care for children under the age of 5. The guy I was working with, who was actually a dentist, and I went to the day care and taught about about handwashing and dental hygiene. The children were soooo cute. They were a lot of fun to teach. Although I could not speak much of the language, I was able to help the children physically with the handwashing. They were really interested in what we were trying to teach them. They also were really excited that I was from the United States so I got to play with them a bit. It is very interesting that whenever I tell people where I am from, no matter what age, they are very excited that someone from the the United States is here to help them. I definatly have days where I feel more useful then other. Today, I had a really good time playing with the children and teaching them something that I know will be useful for them. My spanish is also still coming along. I am going to try and travel a bit this weekend so it will be fun to try and speak to people in a different area of the country. I am still getting used to the job thing here though. It is just so different, I really miss the pace of the Emergency Department, still trying to get used to it....

pigs and vaccines

Well it was quite an interesting day. I have to say that this was the most productive day that have had here. Three nurses and I actually took like two hundred and fifty vaccines to a pig slaughtering factory and gave them out in the locker room. It was quite different than what I am used to. We just sort of set up shop in the coed locker room and waited until all the workers came through so we could vaccinate them against Hep B, tetnus/diptheria and influenza. I have to say that they treated us really great. There was a lady that came around to give us breakfast which consisted of meat empanadas (I learned that we were in a pig slaughtering place after I had already consumed the empanada) and this strawberry smoothie thing. I have also learned that my stomach is still trying to get used to the Peruvian cuisine. Although it usually tastes great, it occasionally does not feel that great.
Anyway, I got to draw up over 100 vaccines and I was able to give about 60 of them. I am still learning how to document using the paperwork that they use here (due to my lack of Spanish). It was definatly an interesting day. They fed us a really great lunch too which took me a bit to figure out what it was exactually (pretty sure it was pork), but it was good especially since I was hungry. Tomorrow I am going to the obstetrician section which should be interesting if I can understand anything, it would be cool to see a birth though.

cotton balls forgotten

I forgot to say why I titled the other post cotton balls. I learned how to roll cotton balls today. Not so fun. They literally give you a huge sheet of cotton then I had to cut it up then pull it apart into small sheets then roll it up into a ball. I had to wear a mask because everytime I pulled the cotton apart it blew up in my face. Awesome. I supposed it could be a useful skill sometime in the future if I ever decide to go to a third world country and do this again. Also, my Spanish is coming. I have my last day of class today though which is sort of a bummer because I could use some more, but luckily my dictionary is my new friend...never thought I would say that..hahaha

cotton balls

Well I had a good weekend. I went out with the other volunteers on friday which was fun because we sort of explored Barranco, which is where I live. I took it easy on Saturday and did a lot of walking into different areas of Lima. On sunday, I went with my family to their aunt´s house and sat in the sun and swam in their pool. It was a lot of fun. My family is really great. It is also amazing how different it is right outside of Lima. The weather is beautiful. It was so sunny and warm, quite a contrast to what it is in Lima which at the present moment is cloudy and cold.
Today at work, I was able to give some vaccines, as well as assist the nurse in the growth and development chart. I was also able to do a couple of assessments on my own which is nice. The more I learn Spanish, the more I am able to do. Tomorrow, I thought that we were going to be teaching handwashing to the children at the school, but I am actually headed out of the center to do a vaccine tour. We are going to drive around Chorrillos (where I work) and give out vaccines. It should be interesting... will keep you updated!

another day

Hello again... it has been a decent couple of days. I have been taking spanish classes everyday for the last week and a half, so my spanish is coming a bit. When I first arrived here, I knew almost no spanish, so I have improved quite a bit. My family took me out for a fun night the other night. It was someones birthday and that was a blast. It was sort of a clown theme dance club which was interesting. Here is a picture of my family. Anyways, at work I have been doing a lot of vaccines and assessing the growth and development of the children. It has been interesting. I am still getting used to the language, but it has been really cool to help the nurses with their tasks. I have also put in a few molar sealants on the teeth of the children in the school near the center that I work in. I am really excited for next week though because we are going to talk to the children in the school about the H1N1 virus and handwashing which is important for the spread of the virus. It is amazing how little the children here know about hygiene. Half of the children have teeth that are rotting out of their mouths or missing teeth that are supposed to be there. They also do not know much about handwashing so it will be interesting to teach them how to properly wash their hands. There are also soooo many stray dogs around that the children play with in the school, that probably have other things that can be spread therefore reduced with handwashing. Anyways, I will keep you updated.

First few days

Well this is the first time that I have every blogged so this is a new experience for me. Anyways, I got to Peru just fine. I had really good flights and there was this little man with my name on a sign there to pick me up. My first experience in Peru was this, unfortunatly he spoke no English, and I spoke no Spanish so it was quite a quiet ride to the house. It was dark out when we were driving so I could not really see many of the sites, but when I got to the house, I was shocked. It was huge and had this really cool look to it. (above is the house)The daughter of the lady who lives there let me in, she also spoke no English so that was sort of a bummer, but she was wicked nice anyways. The next day a lady from the program I am with came to pick me up and take me for a walking tour. For those of you who don´t know, Lima is a HUGE city. It is made up of many districts and has like 8 million people in it. Anyways, I live in the area called Barranco, which is a really nice spot. We walked around Barranco and another place called Miraflores. Miraflores reminds me of just an urban city and is pretty touristy but beautiful. We had a great walk and I got to taste my first Peruvian food which was really good.

The food here is really good, I was a bit shocked to eat a chicken leg though, I have learned to be more careful with what I eat. Anyways, I walk everywhere so I have been getting some exercise.

Anyways, the third day that I was here I went out to the center where I am working for the next four months. I was sort of shocked. It was a place where the roof isn´t finished, there is dirt all over the floor and people just sort of line the walls waiting to be called. I am still not sure exactly what my job is supposed to be, but the first few days I just sort of just recorded the height and weight and the development of the children ages just born to 5 years old. Eventually I was able to tell the nurses that I was able to do both of those, so I was able to perform both of those tasks. After that, I translated the entire development chart so that currently I am also assessing the development of the children according to how old they are in months. It has been very interesting. Most of the children have been pretty normal, they are graded according to language, motor skills, coordination and social skills, there have been a few that are deficit in one area, but the majority are okay. I have seen a child with two thumbs on one hand which was sort of interesting and a child that did not speak at the age of three. Both of them got referred to a childrens hopsital.

The center that I work in is funded by the government. They have a nurses station (where I work) an ob/gyn, dental, psychology, pharmacy, and a labratory. I was also able to work in the lab. They take samples of all sorts of specimans then test them for different things. The only day I was there, I got to do a few Gram stains on blood samples, I got to see different bacteria in a stool sample and urine samples, learned how to measure hematocrit. It was definatly interesting. I also got to do a few blood draws which was nice to practice some more, although the equiptment is very different than it is in the US (as expected I supposed). Anyways so far it has been interesting, I will keep you all posted!