One Month Anniversary

So I never thought I would be able to admit this...but I am definitely feeling some culture shock after one month here in Peru. I was sick this past week (finally!) and I think that broke me, hah. I was in denial about it but I definitely miss everyone at home (the food too!).

I am starting to get settled here after a month. Well, at least I am past the point of being nonfunctional! The first week I was here I couldn’t get around by myself anywhere or go to the store and now I feel completely confidant in doing that. I’ve figured out how to cook pretty well on our little stove, and to wash clothes. Sounds easy, but it’s not! The washing machine doesn’t have water so you have to fill it up and watch it…refilling when necessary. Very time consuming!

Every week here has been completely different. My first week we had a medical campaign here in Trujillo, the second week was spent in the clinic getting to know everyone and how things work…checking out the neighborhood etc. Then the third week I was in Cajamarca, and now I am coming to the end of week four—a normal week in the clinic. This week has been great and has allowed me some time to talk more to Dale and Lora and reflect on what my role in the clinic will be this next year. A lot of things will be changing and I am trying to get oriented to the administrative and clinical responsibilities I may/will have over the next 11 months. On a normal day (I use that in the loosest sense here in Peru) I leave my apartment at 7:30 to be at the clinic for 8:00 and work until about 2:00. Most of my time thus far has been spent in triage with patients. If they are new I put together a new record for them and go through a few basic questions on personal and family history, etc. Apparently this is not commonplace in Peru…most people only come to the Doctor when they are sick to get medicine for their chief complaint and then they are outta there! So unless I explain why beforehand, people look at me like I am crazy when I start asking if they have diabetes, HIV (slightly taboo as you can imagine) or asthma. But once we get through the history I take vitals, weight, height, etc. and try to talk with them a little. Being in triage was definitely stressful at first, I had no idea how to ask these questions, how to spell names or street addresses or what to say but being thrown in and having to figure it out was the best thing that could have happened. It was quite humbling…and I have learned so much Spanish this way. It actually puts the patients at ease a little I think when I can ask them a question about my Spanish. It makes them feel like they are helping teach me and we both get a laugh out of it sometimes..either that or I just feel embarrassed and silly!

In the afternoons I read, do random things for the clinic (setting up a blog, photo albums, writing thank you cards) and I also try to study a little bit. This week I am starting Spanish lessons with one of the Peruvian SALI teachers—Rebeca. I’m reading a lot of books and lecture files online as well as watching videos on the internet to learn basic skills such as auscultation so when we go on house calls I can get an update on how the patient is doing. I try to get the Peruvian doctors to explain things, but we are not just faced with one language barrier but two! The Spanish is tough but when you throw in medical terminology sometimes things get lost in translation. But thankfully most of the words are very similar!

We don’t do house calls every day, however if we have a mother with a newborn, or an older patient who is not able to get to the clinic sometimes Dale Ellison (Peru Mission missionary who runs the clinic) and Percy Padilla (the Peruvian Pastor for the clinic…both awesome guys!) and I will go out and walk to Wichanzao or Clementina, Primavera, Los Pinos, Alberto Fujimori or some of the other developing communities where patients live. We visit for a minute, do a quick check up and then Percy will read an appropriate passage of Scripture (often a Psalm) then we pray. These visits are mostly pastoral in nature, so we can let them know we are checking up on them and looking out for them...it's a good opportunity to address spiritual and other concerns.
I really enjoy these visits, for several reasons but certainly because it brings an increased awareness of the raw reality of the ministry here in Wichanzao. Put yourself in my boots for a second on a sandy hill (a dune really) in Clementina: You are standing in front of two women and their children (no men sight)and their home…mostly made of sticks, woven plant fiber and cardboard (plastic or tin roof if they are lucky). The sky is dark grey and it’s misting…the fine, sticky kind. Percy is reading a Psalm in his strong quiet way and you are trying to listen to the Spanish but this thought keeps pressing into your mind of how when you leave everyone will just file back inside and sit…sometimes hungry, probably sick, and definitely, always dirty. And you know that at the end of the day you get to go home to a hot shower, electricity and good nutritious food…probably with desert. The only thing you have to remind yourself that you were even there is the sand in your shoes and a few black boogers from being out in the desert for an hour.


I feel like in my short time here in Peru I have seen medicine, hopelessness, poverty, faith and kindness in some of their purest forms. Don’t get me wrong I am probably making it sound terrible...but it is not all bad here and there is progress being made. The church here in Trujillo is living and active and growing. But there is so much hurt and worst of all loneliness here…the kids, the fathers working all day in their cabs or a dead end job, the housewives alone in the house, the elderly woman who lives on the street corner by our house.

“There is so much suffering in the world—very much. Material suffering is suffering from hunger, suffering from homelessness, from all kinds of disease, but I still think that the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, just having no one. I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience. In these times of development, the whole world runs and is hurried. But there are some who fall down on the way and have no strength to go ahead. These are the ones we must care about.” –From In the Heart of the World by Mother Teresa

Christ served at every level of society and in many forms...but he always met the immediate needs of the people he was ministering to. He fed them, comforted them, healed them, gathered to talk and eat with them and then he preached to them. I think that as long as we are seeking to follow this we will continue to see the Church and Gods kingdom grow in this area of Trujillo. Please pray for the staff and missionaries as we witness to the lonely and lost in this community. It is our hope that we are lights of Gods grace in this neighborhood and that we will continue to be prayerful, conscientious, and consistent to that end.