Where to start?

This has been a difficult blog to begin…not because I don’t have anything to say to everyone at home, but because there is so much to say about what has taken place this week!

Winter is just now beginning in Peru, and in Trujillo although it is still 70 degrees all of the Peruvians are running around in jackets. The kids come in with temperatures and sweating because they have been running around playing in all of those clothes! The city doesn’t get much sun this time of year and is engulfed by a permanent cloud of fog and pollution. This fog is analogous in many ways to the way I feel after my first few days in Peru. I find myself focused on what is tangible and close at hand, and have difficulty looking beyond the day I find myself in. There is always more to do, and the days here go by quickly but are just tiring in every way. Even cooking here is harder...you have to find "normal" ingredients, wash everything, light the stove (We have a portable propane tank next to the stove), then wait a good 15 minutes for the water to boil, etc. Just keeping up with the pace here is exhausting!

After over 24 hours of traveling I flew into the city over the water as the sun was rising over the hills that dominate the horizon around Trujillo (on a clear day). It was beautiful, but as soon as I stepped off that plane I knew I was in another world. As the light grew brighter I saw more of the city, and although I knew it would be big I had no idea of the sprawl and expanse of it. As we drove deeper into Trujillo the noise grew and so did the number of taxis, pedestrians, window washers and sidewalk snack vendors. Finally we arrived at our destination “Larco y Espana”, the (noisy!) corner of two major streets in the city where Peru Mission’s English language school (San Augustin Language Institute also known as SALI) is located. Next to SALI is a white building (The interns call it Casa Blanca or the White House) that houses the Peru Mission office (2nd floor) and the girl intern’s apartment (3rd floor).


I live in the apartment with 5 other wonderful girl interns: Heather Campbell, Gillian Baikie, Annie White, Sarah Story and Julie Rogers. We just moved here and are still getting upacked and settled but already the place has a lot of promise and I know it will be a place of refuge and retreat after a long day of work. The other girls teach at SALI until 9 pm! I however am on a completely different schedule, the clinic opens at 8am and on normal days when we don't have short term teams in I will usually be there until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. However when we have medical teams come in from the States they will often hold a Campaign (mobile clinic out of the churches) in different areas of the city (Larco, Arevalo, Wichanzao, Clementina, etc.) On those days I will help set up in the mornings and then triage the patients that come in, translate (or at least attempt to!), and try to keep things running smoothly.