Thoughts, Moments, and Pictures

I am a deep sleeper.  My college roommate Andrea can attest to this as she once had to wake me up, as I was sleeping through the fire alarm.  But it turns out that there are two things here in Huantar that are sure to wake me up.  One of which I am grateful for, the other not so much.

1) Sudden onset diarrhea.  You wake up, not sure why.  You’re slightly groggy, but like Miss Clavel from Madeline you know that something is not right.  Oh! Oh, you know what it is now.  It’s your large intestine.  It making sounds and movements that can’t mean anything good.  In this moment I felt like a parent with a small infant in the other room.  Yes, you would rather be asleep, yes it’s cold outside of the covers and stumbling through the dark to another room is no picnic.  But not getting up and stumbling to that other room is going to bring a whole another world of consequences that are INFINITELY less appealing.

2)  Fireworks that set off car alarms.  Insult on top of injury.  Who is awake at 4 am? Why are they setting off fireworks?  How are they not drunk enough to set them all off at once, instead of staggering them every half hour? Drink more! Pass out already!

Pictures of my Host Sister's Promotion from Inicial [Kindergarten]

Nicol receiving her Snow White-themed diploma

Nicol as she waltzes with another of her kindergarten graduates.  Kindergarten promotion is like a mini-wedding.

Nicol dancing with her father, Franklin

Nicol dancing with her mother, Melly

Lesslye and Melly

The clown (payaso) leading a conga line

Me about to try cuy (guinea pig) for the first time.  Notice me wearing a white shirt and not a fleece--I'm all gussied up

Nicol and fam with her two graduation cakes

Sometimes I wonder, why am I here?  The staff at the health post is well-trained and there are plenty of them.  There are already seven Community Health Agents in my districts.  Teen pregnancy is relatively low, and a surprising number of people can explain what diabetes is.  But then, sometimes, a little boy will go to the bathroom and come back with his hands outstretched to me, asking if I want some perfume.  I will panic, because what the hell is on his hands.  It will turn out to be soap, but he doesn’t know that it is soap, meant to wash the germs and residue off of his hands.  In that moment I think, well at least one person here is going to benefit from my talks on hand-washing.

The View from My Secret Eucalyptus Grove

One day I walked into the bathroom, sat on the toilet, and then realized that there was a chicken in the shower next to me, and that she was as surprised and displeased to see me as I was to see her.

Building the Christmas Nativity at my Health Post

From left to right: Me, Abigail [a nurse tech], Giselle [Lidia's daughter], Hilda, a tech's, daughter [name unknown], Lidia [a nurse tech], Nora [the obstetriz], and Andrea, [the doctor]

The Completed Nativity

I’ve seen it twice now, a cultural difference that I truly don’t understand.  After slaughtering a cuy, one occasionally finds a cuy fetus during the disembowelment.  My reaction to this—sad, yes, but let’s properly dispose of the body, perhaps feed it to a cat or pig.  The Peruvian reaction—let’s give it to the nearest child to hold as if it were still alive.  I walked up to breakfast to see my host sister holding a dead baby cuy in a rag stroking its head and saying how cute it was.  No.  No, it’s a dead rat and you should throw it away now please.

Text to another Volunteer: “Remind me to never leave my site with people from my site if I ever want to get back to my site.”