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.