Thunder and Lightning
It is the dry season here in Urubamba, but last night there was a lightning storm, it was so awesome. The thunder seriously felt like it shook our house and the lightning lit up the entire sky. I was so impressed. But I also felt so blessed that I wasn´t here in the rainy season.
Yesterday and today I have been working really hard with the health team here. Yesterday we went to four different communites and delivered Pap Smear results (most of which were negative!) and lots of medications for bacterial infections. It was really great getting to talk to all of these women and get to know a little more about them and their way of life. Today and tomorrow we are getting ready for our huge health campaign on thursday. Thursday we have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to leave at 5:00 for the health campaign. After an hour of driving it is another hour and a half on foot to the village! I´m actually really excited to go, and I am working my butt off to get everything organized as possible so that we can help the most people. Although a lot of my work today and tomorrow is tedious (I have to count all the pills in all the bottles for inventory!), I really feel like I am making a huge difference in the way the ProPeru health program is run and therefore in how effectively we can reach and help these different communities. So I´m very happy and very busy. :)
Tonight in our tuesday night dinner/discussion, we talked a lot about the term ´ethnosphere´ and the loss of culture. This was a really cool discussion, and we got to talk a lot about languages and how I think that the loss of language is much more detrimental then the loss of customs or way of life. Language is so rich and beautiful, but also limiting and damaging when one culture needs to know another language (english, spanish, chinese...) to survive. It was a difficult topic but I enjoyed the discussion. :)
Yesterday and today I have been working really hard with the health team here. Yesterday we went to four different communites and delivered Pap Smear results (most of which were negative!) and lots of medications for bacterial infections. It was really great getting to talk to all of these women and get to know a little more about them and their way of life. Today and tomorrow we are getting ready for our huge health campaign on thursday. Thursday we have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to leave at 5:00 for the health campaign. After an hour of driving it is another hour and a half on foot to the village! I´m actually really excited to go, and I am working my butt off to get everything organized as possible so that we can help the most people. Although a lot of my work today and tomorrow is tedious (I have to count all the pills in all the bottles for inventory!), I really feel like I am making a huge difference in the way the ProPeru health program is run and therefore in how effectively we can reach and help these different communities. So I´m very happy and very busy. :)
Tonight in our tuesday night dinner/discussion, we talked a lot about the term ´ethnosphere´ and the loss of culture. This was a really cool discussion, and we got to talk a lot about languages and how I think that the loss of language is much more detrimental then the loss of customs or way of life. Language is so rich and beautiful, but also limiting and damaging when one culture needs to know another language (english, spanish, chinese...) to survive. It was a difficult topic but I enjoyed the discussion. :)