Friday, July 8, 2011
We were informed that the CerviCusco workers wouldn’t be coming in on the 8th, as it was the 100 year celebration of Machu Picchu. No complaints here; this gave Sarah and I the opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep and slept in till 2 - quite an amazing feat for Sarah Hilton, who can’t sleep in past 9 on a good day. Clearly, we were sleep deprived.
Later, we went to the plaza with Clay and Mack to talk to a travel agency about the rainforest, and magically ran into Derrick and Scott. This city seems so big, but we keep running into each other as well as Peruvians and travelers that the others met earlier this summer. Sarah and I showed the boys the shops and got some souvenirs and gifts. You cannot imagine the disappointment in myself that I feel for haggling with not one, but two children under the age of 10... I did manage to get a hat and mittens set for 15 soles though. Pretty sweet.
Later, Sarah and I cooked a delightful veggie pasta dinner with cucumbers as an accidental, but delicious side (we thought they were zucchinis). Speaking of inadvertent purchases, I managed to be the only one out of 10 of us who got plantains instead of bananas at the grocery store. Lesson learned: do not buy "bananas" that are larger than 5 inches. As such, I've decided to do plantain experiments, so we've had salt/pepper baked plantains, fried plantains in caramelized syrup, and next up will have something to do with peanut butter.
Everyone else was out watching a world cup game, so it was a quiet and romantic lady date. When the others got back, we played cranium then went out again for Andrew's last night. We started at 7 angelitos for a Cuban band, then Inka Team, where we danced the night away. We managed to squish 6 into a cab, although the cabs here won't let you get in the back if it's a hatchback, nor will they let 2 sit in the front seat. This left 4 butts miraculously filling the tiny backseat, and me laying across them for the 15 minute ride home. I was actually quite comfortable & content until I got out of the cab and realized my wallet was nowhere to be found. Luckily, my passport wasn't in there, but I am now cardless. :( Could've been worse, I suppose. Incidentally, I had lost my wallet a day before leaving for Peru, so I didn't even bring my license, 50 credit cards, school ID, etc. I guess I was a little lucky in that sense.. Apparently another boy on the trip was pickpocketed earlier on the trip while in a crowd, but they managed to hunt down the suspect and pat him down, retrieving the wallet. Oh, sketchy South America.
Saturday, July 9th, 2011
The clinic opened at 8 today, but the staff didn't show up till 9 and the patients till 9:30. I slept in till 10 or so, then headed downstairs, where I saw that it was quite dead, as warned previously. Things picked up a little bit after Dr. Ferris and Dr. Bob arrived from the States though.
Dr. Ferris is an ob/gyn/family med doctor at MCG who founded CerviCusco about 3 years ago. It's really amazing what he's done here in 3 small years.. He says he comes about 8 times a year. The 4-story building houses the clinic on the 1st floor; the ladies' rooms, dining room, and big kitchen on the 2nd floor; boys' rooms and a smaller kitchen on the 3rd floor; and the "casita" - 4 bunks & a bathroom - on the 4th floor/roof, where I'm staying. There's even a nice little backyard, complete with a floral garden and croquet set for the green lawn. I hear the campaigns usually bring in 100+ patients, although I'm not sure what the flow is through the CerviCusco clinic. They are able to do procedures at the clinic though, such as colposcopies to detect metaplasia, loop excisions to remove those cells, polyp removals, and probably much more. There's also been a lot of interest from doctors wanting to volunteer and even add some departments to the clinic in the future.
Things were fairly slow at the clinic and there were too many students, so I decided to go with David and Katie to the hospital to get an xray for her leg. She had fallen on a solitary hike up the mountain behind the clinic a week prior and twisted her ankle. It was purple and swollen and painful, so after a quick exam, Dr. Ferris told her to go to the hospital in the city. It was a mere a 70 soles & no wait. Pretty amazing. Although the guy walked out and handed her the radiographs without any explanation. The three of us attempted to read the xrays, but of course we're first year med students and know pretty much nothing about reading xrays, so we saved them for Dr. Ferris. Katie went limping back to catch a cab to the clinic, while David and I went on a hunt for his vaccines/meds for the jungle (yellow fever, typhoid, anti-malarial). We found that the vaccine people don't work on Saturdays or Sundays, but we did get chicken and apple empanadas from a lady on the street, which were AWESOME. Not as awesome as in Argentina, but I don't think empanadas are nearly as big here, unfortunately.
He took me to Chicha, an amazing restaurant named after a Peruvian drink made from purple corn. With a huge menu full of Peruvian dishes as well as pasta, pizza, and meat dishes, it was a tough decision, but I finally settled on pumpkin-filled ravioli with a cheese sauce, and David had pesto-filled gnocchi covered in marinera sauce and cheese. Absolutely delicious, only made moreso by the fact that it only cost me 10 bucks.
Later, Clay escorted Sarah and I to Two Nations, a tiny restaurant run by an Aussie and his wife. I finally tried ceviche - his version was 2 raw purple onion rings housing chunks of trout in a citrus juice, with potatoes and pepper rings on the side. He claims spice is harder to handle at higher elevations if you haven't been here long, so he lets the customer tailor the ceviche to their tastes.. whatever, it was delicious. I had bacon-wrapped chicken, recommended by both the chef and Clay. Sarah had mushroom risotto, and Clay had an alpaca burger, which was juicy and tender!
We got back to the clinic and called it a night due to the 4am departure (thankfully moved from 3am by Dr. Ferris) for our campaign the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment