Free Day and More Clinics!!!!

1. On Sunday, we had a free day where we could do whatever we wanted and we went to the travel agency at 12:30 and by 1:00 we were on a bus headed to the middle of nowhere to ride ATVs! It was actually so much fun and felt very freeing to ride the dirt roads & be able to look to my left and right and see beautiful mountains. We stopped at a lagoon/lake, and we also stopped at the salt mines. The salt mines were truly incredible and they have been using them since before the Incas. We even got to try chocolate with the salt from the mines (and I bought some for later of course!)

2. Clinic day 2! For day 2 I was on intake. For the first half of the day, after a patient had been treated someone would bring me a paper of their information and I would put it into a computer. This way, we would have their appointment on record. For the second half of the day, I was in charge of checking patients in. This had me ask patients for their ID, phone number, and occupation. Our group "leader/helper" helped me out with translating certain information. On this same day, the town the clinic is in, Cachimayo, was having a celebration. Through the window you could hear music and see children playing games. One volunteer saw guinea pig being served, and now he really wants to try it as it is a common dish here; I'm not sure if I could eat a guinea pig. At lunch, there was a parade and some of our volunteers went out and bought Italian ice or other treats. It was only one sol! In Peru, the currency is the sol, and $1 is about 3.6 sol. Therefore, the whole trip, people in my group just like to transfer things to dollars because it seems so much cheaper! For example, we went to a steakhouse and it ended up being "$20 American dollars" for a 12 ounce steak, salad, and potatoes. It is crazy to think about how currency differs in different countries, and I have felt it firsthand here, and it has been hard to get out of the mindset of just changing it to dollars in my head and thinking "oh, that's a sweet deal in America, I'm going to buy it!"

3. Clinic day 3! Today I shadowed again! There are three doctors with us and we are supposed to shadow three times, so I went with Dr. Jenny today, and hopefully by the end of the trip I will have shadowed them all. Today something that stood out to me the most was when a patient came in and brought their dog and it sat so politely in the corner waiting for its owner; it was so cute!

I have also noticed that throughout the days the dentists are becoming more conversational and the environment is very relaxed and fun. We are learning a lot of Spanish terms and it has been great getting to know them. One of the things I admire most about these doctors is that people will come in with so many cavities, but the doctors are able to pinpoint a certain one to fix that day and they get it done so efficiently. This way, the doctors can see as many people as possible in one day, and then they can offer the patient to come back the next day and have more work done. I am always very impressed with they way they are able to work; it's like they can just look at a tooth for a millisecond and know what is going on with it. Dr. Jenny in particular today was very helpful in explaining why she was using certain tools and what situations our patients were in. This made it so we weren't just watching them, but we were learning. Overall, today was a great day in clinic!

4. At sunset, we all decided to go to Cristo Blanco, which is a statue on the top of Cusco, so we could see the whole city below. It was absolutely breathtaking and no pictures I take will ever do Peru justice. It really is just stunning to see all the mountains and I will never understand how people were able to build homes and buildings on such terrain. Our taxi driver may have ripped us off on the way up, but it was well worth it. The weather here has been pretty warm during the days and definitely chilly in the night, but it was such beautiful weather and a sight I won't forget! For dinner, we went to a restaurant that overlooked the entire city. At night it was stunning to see all the lights of the city as we ate. The restaurant was recommended by one of the volunteer's host family. They served American food! I got some chicken nuggets and most others got burgers. Someone even got an alpaca burger! I did try alpaca myself, and... it was okay. Overall, the meal was great as well as the view. Today was just simply awesome.

Also!

Fun fact:

Laundry! I needed to do laundry and the process was interesting. Our host family's granddaughter took us to the laundry place. She is only 10, but she is the best tour guide and uses our phone to communicate through an app with a microphone. We probably look crazy as she speaks into the phone and then we take it and read what she said and go "oooohhhhhhh!!!!" and respond back through the phone, but oh well! She is the best. Anyways, laundry here is as I said, interesting. You bring it to them and then you just drop it off and pay and come back to pick it up the next day. It came back washed and dried and folded all in a neat bag for us. It was kind of amazing in my opinion.

Snacks! We had our 10 year old tour guide pick a Peruvian snack for us to try. She picked a bubblegum flavored licorice. Not my cup of tea, but I could see why she would like it! I also got some Doritos which are unfortunately not nearly as cheesy as the ones in America, but I also got cookies and cream Oreos which were delicious (doesn't really make sense why there are cookies and cream oreos but oh well). As for other foods, in the mornings we have consistently been having fruit with cereal on top along with bread. Sometimes the bread has eggs, other times bologna, and other times butter. And for lunch each family prepares a different meal so when we eat on the bus we always compare & share!

Overall, I've been having a lot of fun and I know it will be bittersweet to leave. We've reached the halfway point and only have three more clinic days left. Tomorrow I am on sterilization so I will be cleaning and using the autoclave all day.

Stay tuned!

Paige