Thursday, February 24, 2011

Just call me nurse Senorita Jillian!

I am really starting to get the hang of all of this. Monday I started working in the health post at the request of one of the nurses. Technically I should have been doing more of this a long time ago, but I have been hesitant. First, because my Spanish wasn’t that great and I was nervous for that reason. Secondly, because I really don’t like the doctor, he gives me the creeps. Even my regional director told me to stay away from him and work with others in the health post.
Let me explain the healthcare situation here in the valley a little bit. All towns have a health post, which at the very least usually has a nurse and a technician, and sometimes a pharmacy tech. Since my town is the biggest in the valley, we also have a doctor and an obstetrician. However, and fortunately for me the doctor is a resident and he is on rotation and is leaving in April. Each health post is connected with a Heath Center, usually in the district capital. Which for us, is Las Lomas. The health center is just a much larger place with more doctors and more resources. All of these places are funded by the Ministry of Health, so they are equivalent to our health departments in the United States. They also offer free healthcare to children 4 years and under. This means all of their monthly checkups and vaccinations. All of that is done through the nurse, if they have to see a doctor for any additional illnesses or problems they have to pay. But the expenses are extremely minimal. But can be costly for the poorer population.
So Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, the nurse administers monthly check ups and vaccinations. So Monday I went and I weighed and did the heights of the children. I also marked off this information in the growth charts the Moms carry with them. These charts let them know if they are within normal range or not. Unfortunately most children border between malnutrition and normal, not a good line to be on. Then the nurse asks about what they are eating, and she checks for developmental indicators depending on their age. For example, do they know their name, can they point to their nose, can they stay seated erect using their hands….etc. Then depending on how well or not well they are doing they usually get a lecture from the nurse. I think this is a very nerve racking experience for the Moms.
Well the nurse asked me if I would come back on Tuesday and break out of our Monday, Wednesday, Friday arrangement to help her with the books. For all you Healthsouth readers, you might end up really mad at my next sentence. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the nurse does not see patients, those are her days to catch up on paperwork. So I helped her with this. We pinpointed what children were missing what vaccinations, and the next time I go to the clinic we are going to go to the homes of those children and make sure they have what they need. This isn’t going to be my regular job here, but it’s introducing me to the system, which is great! We also talked about some sessions she would like me to put together to educate mother’s on early childhood stimulation. As well as health projects with adolescents, and she liked to do some stuff with the elderly, who never get any form of health education. And since I love my old people I was happy to oblige.
So it felt great to be at the health post and feel like the work is falling into my hands. They really have a desire to use me which makes me really happy!
As for the other highlights of the week. I did some more survey’s Saturday and it went so well. Mom’s were calling me into their houses, which I was thrilled, and they were pointing out other mom’s who would be happy to sit and chat with me. So that couldn’t have gone better and left me in a great mood. Then, Sunday BJ came by and we went to the internet cafĂ© and decided afterwards to join in the Sunday festivities.
Sundays are pretty much the only day of the week where people don’t work, and pretty much the only time it feels like a weekend. I usually don’t leave the house on Sunday’s and just do chores because there are nothing but drinking circles of men lining the streets who tend to yell all kinds of things at me or try and get me to drink with them. So this past Sunday, BJ and I decided to have a beer. We went to the little town in between our towns because I didn’t really want to drink in my town and be seen it would make invitations to drinking circles much harder to turn down if they see me partaking. So we found a happy medium. We sat in one of the dirt floor bars with all the other Peruvians and ended up having 3 beers (they are the size of a forty in the US) and we shared them. When we were finished we tried figuring what the cost would be. Since we live in such a poor place and people are constantly drinking, we figured they were really cheap, no more then 3 soles a bottle. We were both SHOCKED to find out they were 5 soles. 3 of those beers was nothing in comparison to the amount that the people of our valley do in a day when they drink to black out! So it was shocking that they pay 5 soles a bottle. In fact it pissed me off to know that all these children here have nutrition problems but the Dad’s always seem to find money to drink on Sundays until they can’t stand anymore. I would be so pissed to know that my husband was out spending all the money we made that week on getting blasted. Definitely brought a new problem to light for me.
Later that night, I was called to dinner and my host Dad was sitting at the table. He had gone to a meeting during the day, so I knew he was coming home plastered. This night was more than usual, and he was talking my ear off about how poor people are here, and how poor he is, and then a bunch of other stuff I didn’t really catch. Instead I just whispers from my host mom and sisters in the kitchen letting me know, in case I wasn’t’ sure, that he was inebriated. I ate my dinner quick, it was an awkward situation, and then I went back to my room.
So I am heading into Piura on Thursday because Friday is the big 50th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps. It is kind of cool to be here for such a milestone of this organization. So although I am not thrilled that we are throwing the party for Peruvians, when I believe it should be more of a celebration for the volunteers and staff, I will silently appreciate as always that I am one of the lucky ones to be here.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Hes Gone

HE'S GONE

So the crazy mean uncle is gone!  He left this morning.  Of course not without keeping me awake from 2am - 5am when they finally left. But I made sure not to leave my room because I didn't want to say goodbye.  Which was bitter sweet, because I still would have liked to have said goodbye to the grandmother who was nothing but sweet to me, and to his HOT son who just showed up the other day.  I have enjoyed his presence the past few days!  But I really just didn't want to get out of my bed.  Unfortunately, this has left me host Mom really sad.  Her brother left to spend the last days, weeks, months of his life in their hometown in the jungle, and I know it's going to be torturous for her to think of it.  I am hoping she may consider taking a trip there soon.

This has been an intersting week.  I took a trip into Piura this week to be support to a friend who was trying to accomplish a few things.  However, when I got there, turns out I had what we like to call "exploding persons disease",  I don't think anymore explanation is needed.  Well, there was evidence that led me to believe I had a parasite.  All of this may sound really foreign and gross to you, but for us it's just another hang up to being a peace corps volunteer.  So to handle this, we have our own set of doctors, and I called up the peace corps doctors and they sent me over to the clinic they are partners with to be tested.   It's funny, when you approach the counter and say "Cuerpo de Paz", there is no hesitation, they are familar with our organization and they know just what to do next.  In the end, it turned out not to be a parasite, but I was given antibotics to clear everything up.  It was just a hassle because I had to spend an extra day there to try and figure it all out.

I have been working on my "encuestas", which are my surveys  that are aid to my community diagnostic.  I have not had a huge amount of support from my health promoters who usually would be helping me with these, so I have been doing them on my own.  So I go door to door and ask mothers a series of questions.  Unfortunately I am finding out the obvious.  The nutrition here is very very poor.  Most of the households do not have hygenic bathrooms.  Which here, is simply a latrine ( an inclosed space with a toliet that leads to a hole away from the house).  Most of the bathrooms, are literally dirt holes in the ground surrounded by a poorly made plastic fort.   And many mother's are cooking over fire, which is causing respiratory problems in the homes due to the smoke.  Also, the majority of households I have surveyed, one or many times both of the parents didn't complete elementary school.  It's also very sad as to how many women are 17-20 with children.  Just the other day I was sitting with my two host sisters and my host Mom talking about ages.  One of the sisters is a year older then me, and the other is a year younger.  So the older one was telling me how she is my older sister and then I started to tell the other one how I am her older sister.  But she told me "Not really, because I have a husband and 2 children which makes me older then you."  And sadly, I thought to myself, how at 25 she has a 5 year old and a 1 year old, she and her husband run a failing store, and they have no money at all.  But if in those ways she believes she is "older" then me, I'll let her have it.

One thing about my surveys that I have been pleasantly surprised with, was how open and willing the women were to participating.  Yesterday, when I was going door to door, the mothers just started waving me down and wanting me in their house next.  Mostly because I am in the white girl living in town, and nosiness and curiousity gets the best of them and they want to invite me into their homes.  They also know that I may be able to give them something, so they want to see what I have to offer.  But for me, someone who has been nervous about doing them, due to the intimacy of the questions, and because I am always so worried that my language skills will get in the way, it's going great!!!

The end of this month (which is in a few days), officially marks the end of my "probationary" period, my first 3 months in site where I have not been allowed to travel, other then to my capital city, and I have not been allowed to have visitors.  So it's finally over!  My friends and I were hoping to plan a trip into the jungle in April over a vacation week to celebrate, however, there has been a ban placed on travel to that department due to an outbreak of dengue.  So the other day Brittany and I were looking up a long weekend in Mancora, at a beautful beach resort.  So I am not too disappointed to not be going to the jungle.  I think I will survive, and maybe we can go when it's not so ridiculously hot.  And then, in exactly 124 days my parents and brother are coming!!!!

Hes Gone

HE'S GONE

So the crazy mean uncle is gone!  He left this morning.  Of course not without keeping me awake from 2am - 5am when they finally left. But I made sure not to leave my room because I didn't want to say goodbye.  Which was bitter sweet, because I still would have liked to have said goodbye to the grandmother who was nothing but sweet to me, and to his HOT son who just showed up the other day.  I have enjoyed his presence the past few days!  But I really just didn't want to get out of my bed.  Unfortunately, this has left me host Mom really sad.  Her brother left to spend the last days, weeks, months of his life in their hometown in the jungle, and I know it's going to be torturous for her to think of it.  I am hoping she may consider taking a trip there soon.

This has been an intersting week.  I took a trip into Piura this week to be support to a friend who was trying to accomplish a few things.  However, when I got there, turns out I had what we like to call "exploding persons disease",  I don't think anymore explanation is needed.  Well, there was evidence that led me to believe I had a parasite.  All of this may sound really foreign and gross to you, but for us it's just another hang up to being a peace corps volunteer.  So to handle this, we have our own set of doctors, and I called up the peace corps doctors and they sent me over to the clinic they are partners with to be tested.   It's funny, when you approach the counter and say "Cuerpo de Paz", there is no hesitation, they are familar with our organization and they know just what to do next.  In the end, it turned out not to be a parasite, but I was given antibotics to clear everything up.  It was just a hassle because I had to spend an extra day there to try and figure it all out.

I have been working on my "encuestas", which are my surveys  that are aid to my community diagnostic.  I have not had a huge amount of support from my health promoters who usually would be helping me with these, so I have been doing them on my own.  So I go door to door and ask mothers a series of questions.  Unfortunately I am finding out the obvious.  The nutrition here is very very poor.  Most of the households do not have hygenic bathrooms.  Which here, is simply a latrine ( an inclosed space with a toliet that leads to a hole away from the house).  Most of the bathrooms, are literally dirt holes in the ground surrounded by a poorly made plastic fort.   And many mother's are cooking over fire, which is causing respiratory problems in the homes due to the smoke.  Also, the majority of households I have surveyed, one or many times both of the parents didn't complete elementary school.  It's also very sad as to how many women are 17-20 with children.  Just the other day I was sitting with my two host sisters and my host Mom talking about ages.  One of the sisters is a year older then me, and the other is a year younger.  So the older one was telling me how she is my older sister and then I started to tell the other one how I am her older sister.  But she told me "Not really, because I have a husband and 2 children which makes me older then you."  And sadly, I thought to myself, how at 25 she has a 5 year old and a 1 year old, she and her husband run a failing store, and they have no money at all.  But if in those ways she believes she is "older" then me, I'll let her have it.

One thing about my surveys that I have been pleasantly surprised with, was how open and willing the women were to participating.  Yesterday, when I was going door to door, the mothers just started waving me down and wanting me in their house next.  Mostly because I am in the white girl living in town, and nosiness and curiousity gets the best of them and they want to invite me into their homes.  They also know that I may be able to give them something, so they want to see what I have to offer.  But for me, someone who has been nervous about doing them, due to the intimacy of the questions, and because I am always so worried that my language skills will get in the way, it's going great!!!

The end of this month (which is in a few days), officially marks the end of my "probationary" period, my first 3 months in site where I have not been allowed to travel, other then to my capital city, and I have not been allowed to have visitors.  So it's finally over!  My friends and I were hoping to plan a trip into the jungle in April over a vacation week to celebrate, however, there has been a ban placed on travel to that department due to an outbreak of dengue.  So the other day Brittany and I were looking up a long weekend in Mancora, at a beautful beach resort.  So I am not too disappointed to not be going to the jungle.  I think I will survive, and maybe we can go when it's not so ridiculously hot.  And then, in exactly 124 days my parents and brother are coming!!!!

Wake Up Call

So just when I thought I was used to the animals and stuff and I could handle anything, my family surprises me once again!  At 3:30 in the morning I was awaken by a horrible screaming.  I noticed the lights were on outside of my room, so I got up to look out and see what was going on.  What I saw was my host grandma holding down the head of a goat, over a bowl and my host Dad had just slit it's throat while the goat was bleeding out into the bowl.  The poor goat was screaming and moaning.  It was really sad, and when my host Dad wanted more blood he kept digging down into the neck.  The entire time the goat was alive.  I was nauceous and put my ear plugs in and tried to go back to sleep.  However the rest of the morning I could hear my host Dad chopping up the goat.  And when I woke up the next morning there were tons of people in our house to buy the meat.  And the goats skin was thrown over a wall in the back of the house.

I get it, it's their livelihood, I just really struggle with it sometimes.  I am used to chickens and turkeys being killed, but a goat really stepped it up to the next level.   And the noises it made, made it even more difficult for me.

We finished up our summer school this week, one thing I didn't realize when it started how time consuming it would be, so we had to end a few weeks earlier then we thought because we have a lot of other work we needed to get started on.  For the most part the classes were successful, we had about 15-20 kids coming regularly in each town.  Some things we did went over way better then others.  For example, we played a bingo game with pictures that we would first do in spanish, and then we started to teach them the same words in english.  That ended up being somewhat successful.  However, when we had made props to try and teach simple frases for "i am going to eat pizza", that went over well in my town and not so well in BJ's.  It's weird sometimes what worked in one place and not the other.  In the end we made pictures frames, bracelets and did a lot of coloring and the kids seemed pretty satisfied with that which was really all we were looking for.  These kids have so little to do and even less to play with, so a couple times a week we were able to give them something exciting to do.  Today, the last day, we handed out candy, stickers and other things to kind of finish it up.  The kids seemed really confused as to what we were doing.  Some kids even asked what we were going to be studying.  We were really confused because we thought kids everywhere liked parties and treats, but they seemed weirded out. 

My Mom sent me quite a few things to give to the kids this last week.  Some of which were silly bands and bracelets.  My 22 year old host sister was much more excited about that stuff then any of the kids.  But once I started going through the things my Mom sent me I found glow bracelets.  You know the kind that you crack and then light up.  Well I showed them those...and WOW they were the most excited I've seen them about anything since I've been here.  I was sad to tell them that they don't last very long, they seemed really disappointed.  But the 22 year old told me that "My Mom has the most beautiful things in the U.S.", isn't that sad they feel that way about glow bracelets?

So I have a puppy now, his name is Roman.  I have no clue what kind of dog he is, I just know that he is really cute.  All dogs here are muts, so there is no telling anything.  We took them down to the creek the other day to  give them baths.  I had bought some anti-flea shampoo, and my family was convinced that it was going to kill them, I had to convince them otherwise.  Just like today, when I was drinking cold water that I bought in the store, they told me it was horrible because I have a cold, and I am only going to make my cold worse.  Here I have all these years of education that involve anatomy and physiology and when it comes to trying to explain any of it to my family here I just can't.  Stupid language barrier sometimes!