Friday

Yesterday stared with mass at 7:30 at the big cathedral on the square. We showed up and they were celebrating a funeral and a baptism. As we sat down towards the back of the group of people, two things happened worth noting.

First, a very drunk man next to Jared and I and stared yelling at us. He was speaking Spanish and all we picked up was "sorry" in a sarcastic tone and "America" hatefully. Jared was whispering to me, "do I take him outside?" To which I said, "I don't think so... I'm not sure what to do." At that point, when it started getting really uncomfortable, one of the Spanish speaking dentists jumped in. He diverted the man's attention and tried to move him outside, but he wouldn't leave. Then Ricardo stepped in. Ricardo is a consecrated lay person called a Sodelate. The Sodelates are big in Peru and Archbishop invited them to Colorado which began this pretty powerful Colorado/Peru connection. Ricardo is amazing. I think everyone knows Ricardo. He sat next to the belligerent man and spoke very softly and got him to be quiet. Five minutes later he worked some kind of Catholic ninja magic and the drunk man was sleeping next to Jared and I and didn't wake up for the rest of mass.

The second thing that happened at the same time was another casket and funeral arrived. He was, quite literally, late to his own funeral. We thought of Gail Coury, Jared's mom and noted that this could actually happen.

The mission was a half day today so we expected to see about 100 patients. They started lining up at 1:00am. A about 3am, one of the volunteers, Edwin, was given the awful task of handing out 100 tickets to the 200 people in line. Walking into the clinic that morning we saw a desperation that we had not seen before. The people saw our green shirts and pulled at us, shouting at us to take them or take their kids. I felt like a celebrity, but not in a good way. The dentists and eye doctors were gone already.

I worked with the gynecologists helping patients get dressed and undressed for their exams. While the women all look plump and round, they are wearing sometimes 10 layers of clothes. They are skinny (malnourished) and pale underneath. The women weren't shy with the doctors which surprised me. Abby (my sis-in-law) saw a patient, a 17 year old, that shared she was raped at 9. Abby has a 9 year old daughter, so I know that was hard. However, in addition to the stories they heard, I would vote the OBs had the hardest jobs of the crew. Underneath the 10 layers and 50 pounds of clothes, most women had UTI's and yeast infections.... And let's just say they didn't smell like roses.

After we saw our last patients we helped pack up and inventory the pharmacy. Any medication that will expire before next year was donated to the hospital. That afternoon some of the docs did home visits and us non-medical went into the market in Ayaviri.

(We wanted to buy a few more gifts for those people that donated money for our trip. Here's the deal and what made that so difficult, no one is going to want anything from Ayaviri. We could buy something and bring it back for people, but we would rather just leave them money as a donation and head home. This is our mass apology for not having souvenirs.)

EDITED 10/23/12

In the market in Ayaviri.. yes, that's a lamb or alpaca or something.  And it's just sitting on the sidewalk.  The meat is in the booth right behind it.  And we wonder why these patients all have tummy issues.

Kelly & I in the market.

Fruit in the market.  No veggies!

That evening Jared and I and a group of about 10 went on a tour of the hospital in Ayaviri. This is a regional hospital and many patients from between Cusco and Juliaca are referred here. The poor in Peru have access to these government hospitals for free. And, you get what you pay for. This hospital visit was the most impactful part of the trip for me. It was dark and dirty, but the patients were still humans. We went with Ricardo and followed him around. He prays with these patients everyday. He handed Jared a box of baby clothes and said he could be Santa Claus. We visited the maternity and saw some brand new babies. Ricardo picked up a new baby named Jesus and asked if I wanted to hold the baby Jesus... Of course I did. Jared gave the mother a blue blanket for the baby and she was so appreciative. Like, overcome with gratitude appreciative. She called us the baby's godparents because we were the first people to visit the baby and bring gifts. It was very sweet.. We will remember that baby forever because he will be our god son. :)

Me and baby Jesus.



Jesus in his little blue blanket gift.



Inca warriors used gold to fix skull injuries 600 years ago before modern medicine.  While this is impressive, this mural depicting this in the hospital should be painted over.  Yuck.



Jared, our guide at the hospital, Justin & Suzanna (the medical director) near the ER.  



EDITED 10/23/12

In addition to a few babies, we visited some old patients in the hospital.  These 3 women where in their last moments of life.  Ricardo prayed with all of them and we prayed with them too.  At one point, he was giving them words to repeat back and he kept saying the same word over and over. I asked him the word and he said Patience.  Thank God for men like him.

That evening we had a nice farewell dinner with the group.  The nursing students that helped us all week put on several native dances which was so fun to watch.  My only advice would be to include a small talk with our group of over-privileged Americans about what it's going to be like for re-entry.

The head honcho table at the last dinner.  



The famous Ricardo and Raphael.  



Students dancing.



Alan, Jared, me, Bishop Kay, Justin & Abby (Finally!!)