Thankful for what we have

No pictures, only stories here.  Today is our last day in Cusco - we travel to Urubamba tomorrow, which is much more rural and a very small town in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  The last 3 days have been an eye opener as Becca, K. Marsh, and I have been working in the only free nursing home in Cuzco - a town of over 300,000 people only has 1 nursing home!  The conditions there are meager, as there are only a few nuns (who have dedicated their lives to helping the elderly), a nursing student, an pre-med student from Georgia Tech, and a few other assistants for the many people who live there. 

The people here are the sickest of the sick - taken here only if they have no family or there family does not want to take care of them or cannot afford care.  In Peru, hospital trips are limited for the elderly, unless they have a good deal of money to pay.  The last doctor visit was over 3 weeks ago for these ancianos and the pain some of them are going through is unbearable due to the lack of knowledge, lack of willingness, and general lack of pain killers in the facility.  Some are in end stages of cancer with only days to live, several with uncared for hernias, many with contractures of the body so extreme it is hard to imagine what their normal body once looked like, one with a broken rib and possible punctured lung, another with a completely dislocated hip, and many more similar stories. We have been forced to start our own clinic here to help the people as best we can.  Relying on our basic medical instincts we have been taught and our modest at best spanish speaking skills (our G. Tech friend has been indespensable because of his spanish) we are trying to help the people as best we can.  Though frustrating in our attempts to communicate as some speak the ancient language of the inca called Quechua and limiting because we only have 1 year of school under our belt, we are satisfied to see that our attempts are helping the peruanos.

Este dia es el dia yo conozco por que yo soy un estudiante de medicina y un doctor del futuro.

La Plaza de las Armas - downtown Cusco. 

The flag on the left is of the Incan/Cusco flag and the right is the flag of Peru.  Behind is La Catedral where we went to missa en domingo.

 Clinic day at Puririsun - the orphanage that we are working with.  We saw 25 chicos this day and performed complete physical exams of the head, ears, eyes, nose, throat, belly, heart, lungs, and skin.  Most had recently acquired the chicken pox virus and many had obvious signs of sun damage to their face (known as ptyriasis alba).  The chicos familias do not have enough money for sunscreen and unfortunately Cuzco has the highest amount of UV exposure in the world.  Several also had recent signs of parasite and scabies infestations of the skin.  We are learning an incredible amount from the clinic days, it´s amazing how things start to click when you see them in person instead of learning out of book or lecture!!

Life in Cuzco

Life in Cuzco is off and running. It is such an amazing city - definitely a place that everyone should visit if given the chance.  We are working in an orphanage on the outskirts of town where the poorest of poor live.  Most of the chicos come from extremely poor families and most all have sun damage from not being able to afford sunscreen.  It is so sad to see, but I am very glad that we have the opportunity to offer our support to them.  Oh...and the chicos are the cutest kids ever...we have been debating whether we should take them all back to the states with us lol.  So far we have been working in the clinic doing physical exams on the chicos to make sure that they are healthy [or as healthy as they can be given their circumstances].  Monday we work with las dentistas to check oral hygiene.  We are getting great clinical experience and learning much about ourselves and how good life is in the states.

Working on getting some pictures up - i forgot my converter to put pics from my camera to the computer but i may be able to borrow one!!  Until next time, chao!

Sean

And we are off!!!

The adventure begins today.  We leave from Kansas City this afternoon to start the long journey to Peru.  Extremely excited, will miss you all while down there!  Best of wishes, adios!