Day 9

June 12, 2012

As always, today was another eventful day! We braved the mountains on our precariously swerving bus, and treated 93 people in the town of Pampallacta (in the Pisaq district). The community was rural, with people speaking mainly (or only, really...) Quechua, to the dismay of our translators who then had to stumble from one station to the next for the entire day. We saw a lot of children from a nearby school, and a significant number of middle-aged or older individuals. The children had a blast singing the "cepillase los dientes!" (brush your teeth) song that Penny and Sharon (our two volunteers in the pharmacy for the day) both sopranoed, and that Sharon tenored in a voice akin to Clark's (one of our clinical coordinators) now infamous "deep-and-manly-listen-to-me-now" voice - to the delight of all of us. In exchange for a bright green toothbrush they were cajoled into chugging the pasty orange Albendazole that, in our nurses' words "matan las lombrizes", or in other words, "kill the worms". The adults, on the other hand, were treated mainly for gastric reflux, back pain, abdominal pain, and vision difficulties.

The day started out with a cheer, and ended with a chomp. The building we worked in was newly built two months prior and we had the honour of inaugurating it and were nominated "godfathers" of the clinic. Dr. Morales will be visiting this clinic once a month, and provide some degree of continuity of care. The inauguration itself heralded a great day: Isaac, Emily and Andrea (medical students) ceremonially smashed a bottle of chicha (homemade corn alcohol) hanging from the main doorway using a hammer that was wreathed in daisies. This set up our first goal of the day: nobody cut their feet - especially the bare-foot children that were trying to escape the teacher's and nurses' grappling hands and oh-so-delicious Albendazole. The next incident of the day involved our student - He Who Shall Not Be Named - putting into practice Isaac's previous night didactic on "Altitude Physiology and Sickness". He promptly proceeded to demonstrate the enlightenment altitude sickness could bring, as he grew to intimately know the local restrooms in the Sacred Valley. [He eventually survived]. 

The rest of the day was quite hectic, and very fulfilling for all other members of our team. The most exciting case that I helped face, alongside my favorite German, Ilka, was a gashed foot wound of a middle-aged Quechua woman. I cleaned my very first wound with the patient crying out only a little bit, and Clark and Ilka bandaged the foot using our donated Medwish supplies. Technically speaking, I was told by a senior medical student that the "gashing wound" was more of a "bad scrape." I personally like to think we saved a life. At the very least, we prevented a potentially dangerous infection.

To end the day, we were called out of the building to share a meal with the locals, and were dutifully promised it was fully cooked. The meal was absolutely delicious and consisted of lamb (still on the bone) and boiled potatoes. We enjoyed it while sitting under the sun on the grassy field outside our newly inaugured clinic. We then gathered up the myriad of suitcases, tossed them on the top of the bus and with a rattle and a bang we were back on our way, swerving down the narrow mountain road and sharing stories and snacks. Chizitos, anyone?

-Erica Giraldi
 2nd year medical student, Case Western Reserve

Checking out our bus...

Ready for some albendazole!

The clinic front

Hard at work