"Little Adult"

 This is Rolando, in my opinion he would probably be the leader of the group of kids that mostly hang out at the clinic. He is the tough and street savvy character you would see in a movie with a group of kids. I am not really sure how to describe it. Many times I forget that he is actually a kid. Lately our conversations have been dominated by his new job, where he fills bags with dirt or coal I’m not really sure which. He has a quota of 200 bags and he gets 25 soles for it, takes him about 2 days and a half, for about 10 bucks. Things like this make me forget he is a kid, when he tells me about how is back hurts from the long day working, or when he falls asleep in the hammock that is in the dinning room. This is the life for most of the kids here that don’t have the ability of going to school, working and helping out the family of 4+ kids.

Even though I see him as a “little adult” moments like these, fishing with Luis Angel make me smile. Running around yelling about the tiny fish they just caught, laughing and showing of their fish to Taylor and me. I hope that Rolando has more of these moments in the next couple years. I have noticed that these kids grow up very quickly because of their situations, having to become the man of the house for their younger siblings. My kids better appreciate growing up in the states. 

This is my last blog while I’m in Peru, I want to take all the free time I have left to spend time with the kids I have come to love. 

Desert, Mountains, and Cloud Jungle

I have been traveling the southern part of Peru. I NEVER want to see another bus in my life again. I went to 5 different cities and most of them on bus, thankfully the bulk of them were at night so I could TRY and sleep. Most of the time I never really achieved the deep sleep that I was wanting so bad. 

So before I get into the bulk of the traveling, right after the groups were here in march everyone from the clinic and people who lived at km 8 went to Tingo Maria. It was a 2 day trip for everyone to wind down from the constant go go go. It was nice to relax with everyone and take in some sites. Visited a waterfall and a very large cave, it was nice.  It worked out perfect for me because that Monday I started my trip with Taylor, Hayden, and Russell. 

Huacachina was our first stop, a tiny oasis type town in the middle of massive sand dunes. I would have never thought that Peru would have a dessert. This was probably my favorite place, we went sand boarding and road in a dune buggy. By the end of the day I gave up on sand boarding down and just laid on it, this way was way faster and more fun. Unfortunately after Haucachina Hayden had to go back to the states.

But Russell, Taylor and I went on to Arequipa. To me this was the best city to walk around in and hang out. I wish we could have spent more time there. We were awaken at 2:30 am for the Cocoa Canyon tour. This was not idea because we were all feeling a little under the weather so it was the last thing we wants to do. It was not my favorite place but it was still very beautiful. I am sure if it had been in the middle of the day I would have enjoyed it more. 

Out next city was Puno, located on Lake Titicaca. The city it self was not the nicest, a little on the dirty side. Also I was extremely cold in our hostel it was terrible! We went on a tour of the lake going to Uros the floating Islands, those were pretty cool. Then on to a real island over looking more of the lake, it was beautiful the altitude messed with us a little but it was bearable. 

Moving on to Cusco we stayed there 3 days the longest of all the cities. There were a little to many tourist for me. It was a little overwhelming, and expensive. I am used to eating street food in Pucallpa for less then a dollar, and here I am spending way more than that. We went to Machu Picchu, that was just amazing. Everything about  the city on the mountain was impressive. Climbed up Wauynopicchu (not sure how to spell it) the mountains behind Machu Picchu. It was long and steep, it was extremely cloudy and hazy i was worried that we would get to the top and wouldn't be able to see anything. Thankfully we got to the top and it cleared up so we could look down on Machu Picchu and take in the sites. We spent most the day wandering the ruins and on a informational tour. On our last day of the trip we went paragliding, so cool! Taylor went first and she flew for about 25 min going extremely high. It finally came to be my turn, the take off was interesting. We got picked up immediately by very strong winds, we did our circles going higher and higher and higher when I hear the pilot man go "crap, crap.." using more colorful language. Turns out the winds had gotten crazy and inflatable we had to land after a whopping 13 minutes. It was no 25 but I still got the beautiful views an pictures. It was worth every minute of those 13 min. 

That sums up my travels. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to travel through Peru.  I am back at the clinic now, the trip was fun but I was missing the kids. It is good to be back sleeping in my hammock. Time flys way to fast, gotta take in as much of the last month as I can. 

Huacachina

On top of dune about to go down 

Pigeons in Areqiupa 

Hawk in Coca Canyon 

Coca Canyon

Uros Island on lake Titi Caka 

                                                   
                                                                                                   Floating Isalnds

Machu Picchu 

Paragliding 

Numb

It has been a while since I have blogged. I have been mulling some stuff over in my mind and well here it goes. It isn't very pretty and it probably doesn't flow perfectly, but who cares...it is hard to write on a tiny iphone screen. 

I was sitting at the table at the clinic right around sun down and realized I hadn't looked for the sun set in a long time. This came as a shock to me since I love sun sets.  Was I becoming numb to them? Not appreciating the awe and beauty like a used to? 

It is scary how easy it is to become numb to the things around us. Not appreciating  the beauty of nature around you. Not appreciating  people that are in your life. Taking something for granted assuming it will be there whenever you come back to it. When you  can access these things or people so easily they cease to have the importance they once did. The scariest thing to become numb to...spiritual things. Just something that makes me think and keeping me on my toes. 

Two of the best friends I have made here while in Peru are Gerson who is 12 years old and his 4 year old brother Jonathan. They come by the clinic everyday, every time Jonathan yells my name and runs to me, makes me feel all good inside haha. Right before my trip through Peru I told Gerson I was gonna be gone for a bit. He understood it as I was leaving for good, he looked at me and said, don't you guys get sad? I was a little confused but in talking more he was referring to the missionaries that leave. He was asking if we are sad to leave and not see them any more. Of course I'm gonna be sad and miss the kids a ton but, talking to Gerson that day I could see it was different from the kids point of view. 

When I got back from my trip Gerson told me that Jonathan would go by the clinic and look for us, but of course we weren't there and he would get sad. In my mind it isn't very fair for us to come to other countries and meet these kids and then in a year leave. When most of us have no way of communicating with them and probably won't see them again. These kids look up to us and look forward to hanging out with us everyday only to have their gringo friend leave.  Seems messed up to me, through Gerson I saw that he wasn't looking forward to it either. There isn't much I can do to change that, I'm still gonna give them my all when we hang out. I just hope that when I do leave I don't forget quickly and keep making an effort somehow. One day I'll be back in Peru, after I finish school or something. 

I am currently working on a blog of my recent travels of the last week and a half, but i am not done. I want to put up pictures to go along with it and the internet i am currently on will not support that kind of loading. So sunday there will be a travel edition of my blog up. :) 

There will always be sick people.

          I would like to thank Brad Walz for the music i am listening to while I blog...yup

I am sitting here at our normal internet/ice cream place, just coming of the week long medical campaign with Easter Virginia Medical School. The medical campaign was from March 16-22, starting at 8 am and ending usually around 6:30, by the time the last patient left. There was something like 4 doctors and a bunch of med students. The first day we saw over 300 patients, it was a mad house to say the least. The following days we were more at around 200+ patients a day or something like that, cause each doctor got a day off. There was general medicine offered, ophthalmology , and dental services offered.  It was very rewarding to be able to be part of such a big campaign that could reach so many people. The look of happiness and gratitude on those peoples faces made it so worth the long days and lack of sleep. With all those happy feelings there is also the flip side to that. 

To give you an idea of the lines and the amount of people that would come to the clinic. There would be people sleeping outside our fence at 10 pm, so that they could get in and be seen by the doctors. I told myself every day i would not get stuck talking to the patients outside, and being the one that had to inform them that we were done for the day. Unfortunately some how i was always out there with Mauro ,our "security" guy, talking to patients at the end of the day. It honestly was one of the worst things I had to do, it would make me sad telling people that we were done registering patients. The look of disappointment and sadness on their face when i would tell them. Most of them very sweaty from standing in the sun for a couple hours, only to be turned away cause there was no possible way to see all of them in the day. Mauro would poke fun at me because at the end of each day there was about 10 extra patients that i would secretly register because i would just feel so bad for them. There was one that stands out in my mind, it was a 13 year old boy. 

The 13 year old boy showed up around 4:30 on thursday hoping to be seen so he could get some glasses. He was wearing a very dusty shirt and and was wearing these sleeves that most motokart drivers wear. He came up to me (since i was the one at the desk talking to patients) and explained that he had just heard about our clinic while working and really wanted to get some glasses cause his eyes hurt when he would drive. He didn't know that we had stopped registering patients at 2. The look on his face when i told him we were done literally made me feel like a horrible human being.  His shoulders slumped he put his head down and thanked me, i'm not sure for what, but he turned and started to walk away. I felt extremely bad that i went and got him and slipped his name into the list for the day, because i knew that he probably wouldn't be seen at all if he had to fight the lines outside in the morning. 

I hope i never have to be the one to turn people away again, it sucks. It is just so sad that in the end there will be people that are always turned away at the end of the day. People that showed up and stood in line for hours and still couldn't be seen. What can we do about that? I hope that one day i am in a position where i can come back to a place like this and give as much medical help as possible. it is a problem that is very hard to solve, and probably won't be solved anytime soon. 

Quick awkward medical encounter, I assisted Dr. Matthews in a circumcision.... of a 12 year old boy. We only do local anesthesia  so it was kinda odd to be suturing and cleaning with him looking at me. Poor guy had an infection, and needed some surgical intervention. 

On a happy note, some of the kids that hang out at the clinic are bakers. I didn't really believe them when they told me, but it is true. David (14), Rolando (11), and Jr (11) are bakers down the street from the clinic. They let me and Taylor come along one night to help bake. Much like when i work with Ever me helping them probably just slows them down. It was fun though to be there in the baking garage with the kids helping them do the baking for the next day. I wasn't very good at rolling out the rolls that they were making. The kids just laughed with us when we would show them our finished product. They were going to make 2,000+ rolls of bread that night. I couldn't stay all night with them because i had to wake up for clinic the next day but seeing the type of work they have to do, gives me a new appreciate for the childhood i had. I am very thankful that i never had to work from 11 pm till 4 am baking bread. Robbie raised a question on saturday, how different do you think you would be if you were rased here in Peru? I dont really have an answer for that yet, i am still working on that in my head. But one thing is for sure is that i think i would be  much harder worker. Since the families that live around the clinic all are extremely hard working people that most the time just scratch by. Blows my mind how much we dont appreciate what we have. I have said this before but i will say it again, i think i'm going to have a hard time going out to eat as frequently when i get back, it is just so much money. 

That is all i have for now. 

Random Pictures...

 Applying local anesthesia

pulling teeth with Russell 

  stitches 

 We found all the glasses 

Rope Swing 

On the way to the water falls. 

Not sure what to call this...

I have never really considered myself a person that gets home sick. When I was attending Southern I never got sad or home sick. This doesn’t mean I did not miss the people that weren’t with me; I just never got full on home sick. When I worked at camp I missed my family but I was never homesick. I have found that while here in Peru as a student missionary I got a little homesick on Friday nights. I miss my family every day but on Friday nights I would say I actually get homesick. If I had good Internet I would make Friday nights my Skype day. Unfortunately Friday’s are too unpredictable, and don’t have good internet. That is all I have to say on that.

Once again I am reminded how I am not a Peruvian workhorse. The guys from km 38 have been coming to km 8 to do some work on the fence and other odd jobs around the clinic. I am amazed at how good they are with a hammer and nail. I thought to myself man that looks easy. I tell them I am going to give it a shot, I probably bent around 30 nails, and got blisters on my hand. Man it was embarrassing, but it gave the guys a good laugh. I enjoy working with them, I hope I can get a chance to spend some time at km 38 before I leave.

Pretty much every kid here in Peru is a beast with a slingshot. Most of the boys are walking around with a slingshot around their wrist or slung across their chest. They aren’t the kind that I am used to, on a “Y” shaped stick. It is just the rubber band, and you use your fingers to anchor the band as you shoot. I recently purchased one at the corner store. I am not very good to say the least; I have never been so scared of hitting my hand with a rock before. It hurts so much! While trying to learn and practice I usually have 3 of the regular sling shooters that hang around the clinic laughing at me. Rolando, Jerson, and Jr are the boys I shoot with; they are all way better than me. It blows my mind how content these kids are to just hang out and shooting rocks at different targets around the clinic. We can easily spend over an hour shooting at random things, but I resist the temptation so that the guys from 38 don’t think all I do is shoot rocks with kids all day. They are beasts with slingshots too; one of them made me a little “Y” stick sling shot so I wouldn’t hurt my hand too much. I enjoy my slingshot time with the kids, makes me remember how easy it is to make a kid smile, just spending some time with them embarrassing yourself shooting rocks.

On to some medical/dental stuff, this past week I broke 2 teeth. Very frustrating! One of them they had to come back so Martin could get it out. The other one took a very long time of carefully working on the root and LOTS of little prayers. Those were my first two broken teeth thank the Lord, unfortunately they were both in the same day. I helped the doctor remove two sebaceous cysts, it was pretty cool, and He let me stitch her up. It was much easier on a pig head, having the doctor there watching me and the patient perfectly aware of what I was doing made me super nervous. The first one took me a little bit but the second one was much easier cause the nerves had gone away.

I had an exciting weekend last weekend. On Saturday afternoon we all decided to go to San Jose, which is pretty much a lake off the river. The previous Saturday we had gone and I saw a tree, which would be a prime spot for a rope swing. Robbie and I bought some rope and Russel put the rope up in the tree. I was not sure what would happen when we actually swung on the rope, so naturally I let Robbie go first. It turned out to be petty stable. We spent the afternoon swimming and swinging off the rope swing. Hayden made some friends with some people near by that were jet skiing and wakeboarding. It was a fun Saturday. The next day we went to Aguatia, not sure if that is how you spell it, it is a town right near the Andes. We actually went to Velo de la Novia, which is a waterfall right at the start of the Andes Mountains. The trip out there was a lot of fun, and beautiful the mountains are just majestic. It was pretty far so a lot of the day was spent on the trip out and back, but that was ok with me since it was good scenery. On the way back it got dark before we made it back to Pucallpa so I had a chance to do some stargazing. We were about 120 km away from town, so there were not many lights. It was beautiful, left me speechless and made me feel so tiny and loved. Tiny because the sky is so immense and I have no way of being able to fathom what is out there, and loved because God made the world beautiful as a reminder of His love. It just blows my mind; it was the perfect way to end a great weekend. A good trip to recharge before the medical group from VA gets here.

Something that is very frustrating to me is how I can read a book that is not abut God in two days, but have a hard time sitting and reading the bible. I am about half way through reading Steps to Christ, I don’t know how many times I have started this book but for some reason or another stopped reading it.  I have been reading different part of the bible and every time it is a struggle to finish the chapter. I don’t really know where I am going with this but, I have been trying and struggling with that. A case of spiritual ADD, that is all I have to say on that for now. It is a work in progress, baby steps; a little progress forward is better than no progress forward. I think.

            I wish I could stay longer in Peru, I was thinking about how fast time here has been flying. Pretty soon I will be on a plane back to the states. One thing that my time here in Peru has revealed to me about what I might want to do more of when I’m an adult is more mission work. I can see myself doing this for a couple years, not forever but defiantly do more.

         I saw an Asian man on a make shift road bike this past week. I miss my bikes, I love you Adrianna and Emma, and soon we will be together again.

My beard is growing.

My beard is coming in strong! I hope that soon the locals give me a nick name. Robbie and Hayden have one, they have been growing theirs since they got here. They are usually called Jesus or Barnabas, hopefully i get something along the lines of Zeus or Mountain man.

swimming with Edgar 

Well the swimming classes are coming along. There are some days where it is hard to get the kids to focus, that is usually the 9 o'clock class. So we practice stroke for a while and then at the end play freeze tag or shark. It is pretty fun, to swim with the kids and hang out.

There are some new people here for about 2 weeks. Two fourth year medical students from Loma Linda and a Nurse. We have upped the clinic hours to 8 am , 2 pm, and 7 pm. It has been nice to have some new people around and have more clinic hours. I have been pulling some teeth this week. Thankfully they have all been pretty simple. No complications. We had a kid come in that was terrified of us. I felt his pain, when it comes to being scared of shots. He screamed and kicked we had to hold him down. I felt really bad holding his head, poor little guy.

They gave me a shot last weekend. I had some intense Diarrhea and fever. So the Doctor decided to give me a shot. For those of you that know me, you know that i have a very big fear of needles. For some reason the people of Peru don't believe in arm shots. It was a massive needle that went into my butt. It took Wendy and Taylor a lot of convincing and talking before i finally laid down and let them give it to me. I might or might have not freaked out a little. it was horrible.

Digging the hole 

I worked with Ever again, we dug a hole for a new septic tank. When i say we i actually mean EVER, i kinda just threw dirt around for a couple hours. I was talking to Russell and we decided that we probably slowed him down. I have no idea how he digs so perfectly and quickly, i am not very good at this whole digging into pure clay business.

Thats all i got right now. It has been harder to write about stuff. My dad says i should write my reflections. so i will work on that for next time. Sorry this is so short and kinda lame next one will be better. I will end with a sun set picture...cause thats my thing.