I lift my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord,the Maker of heaven and earth-Psalm 121:1-2
Saturday, April 30, 2011
What??
Well, yesterday was extra special because my person per day quota happened to be someone I saw on a home visit. Even better was that the visit ended up being three and a half hours. In my defense, there was some Quechua mixed in there at times.
Needless to say it was a long visit and unfortunately I had very little to contribute to the conversation...
Monday, April 18, 2011
Burned
We started out pretty busy for a couple of hours and then all the busyness and fun came to an end. It started raining and that was the end of our patients for the day. Sad since I'd much rather be busy than just sitting around for a couple of hours.
About an hour before we closed, woman came it who had burned both of her feet(pretty badly) about five days ago. I think she had been cooking? They were easily second or third degree burns. They looked horrible and the patient looked like she was in so much pain. I felt so bad for her.
As I started to clean the wound, and dress it, the patient started to tell me about the care she had received at a local hospital over the past five days and how she had waited for hours and hours each visit. She then went on to tell me about how they pretty much did a half done job for her wound care. Again, it made me sad to hear about the care she had received. I asked her how she ended up at La Fuente. She said that a friend had told her about the clinic and about how good the care was. It's always great to hear how people in the community see La Fuente in a positive way as we strive to give good care and serve the community around us. I'm glad that God has given us the opportunity to give this woman good care, minister to her, and walk with her through this time of difficulty.
The best part is that we will be going to her house every day at least for the next week or so to clean, dress, and look after the wounds. I'm super pumped to visit her and do wound care for many reasons, but one of the top reasons is that I love wounds!! It's just one of my things I've always enjoyed as a nurse(it's close behind Cardiac Nursing). I always enjoyed working with skin grafts, burns, and all other kinds of wounds when I worked in trauma. It's just so cool to see the progression of healing and such. Probably the only wound stuff I don't like is when skin grafts are failing and as a last resort leech therapy comes to the picture. That's one of the things I cant handle...
As I work more and more in the clinic, its been an adjustment getting used to the fact that it's just not as exciting as working in the hospital where I have spent my entire work life up until now, so it was pretty sweet to add some excitement to my life with a cool case and be able to be more directly involved in patient care for a bit.
So....in the end it was a pretty interesting Monday!!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Ruins
Our first stop was Moray, which is one of the many Incan ruins around Cusco. It was a cool descent, but the way back up was a bit more challenging, but was worth the work(even though I'm feelin it in my quads today) But.....it was absolutely spectacular!! Here's just a few pics.
On our way...
Moray
Just beautiful from above
Nice from within, but quite a hike back up
Just passin through....
The next place we stopped was Maras, a town very close to some really cool salt ponds. The main attraction was the salt ponds, which are still owned by different families in the surrounding towns(each fam has about 5). The salt ponds still produce salt, which is exported to other countries and used in Peru as well. The salt comes from a single underground stream, but the all the separate ponds are supplied by different channels. After all the water in each little pond evaporates in about two months time, it’s ready to harvest.
After taking a look from the top, we got to hike our way down the mountain.
It was quite a sight to see!!
The first view was just breath taking!!All different stages of the process
Irrigation system
Pillars of salt
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Staying
My trip to Lima last week was to finish the application process for my residency card for Peru. It was a long day of waiting at the office of immigrations(for all you Marylanders out there, it was kind of like doing anything at the MVA), but.......I am happy to report that I am now a resident of Peru. Yay!!!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Encounters
Well, today on my way to work I said good morning to this older woman. She immediately started talking to me and then proceeded to touch my hair and remark about the color. And then she started talking about my eyes and how they were the color of the sky. Wow!! I'm used to kids staring or making comments about the gringa, but adults don't usually say anything It just made me laugh for some reason.
I guess it's my every now and then reminder that I'm Cusqueñian....