Home for Christmas

I’ve never been a huge fan of decorating the tree and playing Christmas music right after Thanksgiving, but it seems like this year I don’t have much choice in the matter since I’ll be in Cusco only til the 16^th of this month.  I’m super excited to go to the States for Christmas, see family and friends ,but also a bit sad to miss all the Christmas fun here.  I guess you can’t have everything….  At least for now my house is all decorated, the tree is up, the Christmas is on, and I have plenty of Christmas cookies in my house.

I’m hoping for a white Christmas or at least snow at some point during my visit (and hopefully my body won’t go into shock from the cold). 

the tree is up!! hopefully the cat won't bring it down...

the makeshift tree topper

Christmas is coming!!

I’m so excited that the Christmas season has officially arrived for me.  Christmas in Cusco always seems a bit strange for me, mainly because it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all.  Since our weather is opposite the weather in the States (we’re in the middle of spring and coming up on summer, which the kids here are getting excited about) it doesn’t feel like the right time of year to be having Christmas.

This past week I was tasked with making a few dozen cookies for a Christmas cookie exchange. AAACK!!  I’m a huge fan of baking, but I’ve had a bit of bakers anxiety since moving to Cusco at an altitude of 11,000 feet.  Over the past year I’ve been able to get a handle on breads and cakes, but for some reason, cookies haven’t ever worked out for me.  But, I went ahead and attempted one of my favorite Christmas cookies.  To my surprise, they turned out great!  I was so excited, especially since some valuable imports from the States were used to make the cookies.

It’s a really good thing they turned out well since they ended up making more than 5 dozen.  Otherwise, I would have had a lot of cookies to get rid of…..  yay!! Christmas is coming!!

yay for peanut blossems!!

Raining

Well, it looks like rainy season has finally arrived.  The past couple of months, I've been enjoying some lovely sunsets from my apartment, so I just wanted to share with you all.
Enjoy!

and.......this was the first good rain for the start of rainy season, which has put an end to the beautiful sunsets

change up

This past week we had a huge team from all over the world to do a medical campaign in Cusco for a few days and then in outlying areas for another couple of days,.  It has been a bit of a change from normal daily life here.

Pretty much every day was super busy with lots and lots of patients.  I helped out with triage most of the days. One of the days I was curious about how long patients were waiting to be seen, so I asked one of the patients how long they had been waiting and she told me that she had arrived at 530 a.m. and she ended up coming through triage at 10 a.m. as the 30^th patient in line. Yikes!  We were able to see lots of patients, but it just wasn’t possible to see everyone.

It’s been a long couple of days for my brain.  I’ve forgotten how much of a challenge it can be to continually switch between Spanish and English all day long as I was talking with the patients when they came and was then writing it all down in English since most of the doctors were from the States.  I had to laugh at myself when I wrote uterectomy on a patient’s history and couldn’t figure out why it just didn’t look right.  Glad I came up with hysterectomy a minute later.  But…….I did survive.

It was a bit of a crazy week, but I’m glad I could be involved in the fun.

one of the little villages where we had clinic for a day

patients waiting.....

triage

one of the many cute kids we saw at the mobile clinic

Explosion!!

There seems to have been an explosion of activity at the Josephine house over the past few weeks. In the past 6 months or so, there have been quite a few kids who have been adopted or have gone back home to their parents, which is great, but has left us empty at the Josephine House.  A number of people have been praying for more kids to come and a few weeks ago, God opened that door wide open....

Luke…….

A few weeks ago, one of the ladies who works at the JH was walking along the street, taking her normal route to her destination. She always walks on one particular side of that street, but on this particular day, there were a bunch of dogs who seemed a bit crazy, so she decided to walk on the other side.  As she was walking down the street, she heard crying.  As she looked around, she found a baby, wrapped in a blanket and a diaper bag next to him.  Shortly after, the process to get Luke into the JH was started.  Luke was just three days old when he was found.  He is a beautiful, healthy, content baby, is growing like crazy and enjoying his sleep.

Little Luke, just a couple of weeks old

Marleni came to the JH just days old as well.  Her mom brought her because she has a cleft palate that will require numerous surgeries.  Mom would like to take her back after the surgeries are completed, but for now, she can’t care for Marlene.  As with most babies with cleft palates, feeding and getting an adequate intake of calories can be a challenge, but the mamás at the JH are working diligently with this little one to help her get enough calories so she can grow and develop well.  Other than difficulties with feeding, she’s a happy baby.

The "battle" with Marlene to get her to eat.  I lost and ended up handing her over to one of the mamás to work their magic with feeding her.

Carlitos……

This little one came one day after Marlene’s arrival.  I would imagine life has been difficult for him from day one.  This little one was brought to the JH by his mother who is an alcoholic and willingly gave him up. According to his mother, he is five months old, but he’s about the same size as the other two new babies.  After taking him to La Fuente the pediatrician said, it looks like Carlitos is probably closer to 3 months old, but he is still severely under weight.  Eating has been a challenge and sleeping as well, but he is in good hands. Since some of the feeding issues have improved, he’s a calm little baby at times.

Marlene and Carlitos

Marlene(3 weeks), Carlitos(3 months), and Luke(3 weeks)

One more…Adrean

Last Friday, I found myself at the Josephine house playing with the kids and holding one of the babies.  All of a sudden, one of the mamas came in with a naked kid(wrapped with a  towel).  They went straight to the bathroom, immediately started applying lice shampoo into the kids head and then proceeded to wash him from head to toe(he wasn’t happy about all of it, but he was good and clean…).  Adrean is about a year and a half.  He was found sitting next to his mom who was passed out from alcohol intoxication.  He’s a VERY active child who just jumped right on in playing with the other kids. Photos on this little one to come soon!

So...as you can see, the Josephine House is plenty busy these days with all kinds of fun and activity for now.  Stay tuned for more soon!!

The lion sleeps tonight....

One thing I've wanted to do before leaving Peru is visit the Amazon.  During my parents visit, I had the opportunity to visit Puerto Maldonado, a southern portion of the Amazon in Peru.  It was just beautiful.  Besides getting to enjoy a few days of summer (temps from 70’s-90’s and 70-100% humidity), it was just so cool to visit the jungle.  The few days I was able to spend there were just so much fun, even though the days started pretty early(one day we left for a hike a 0500). 

The lodge where we stayed was pretty simple.  It didn’t have electricity, so we used candles at night. Also, there wasn’t hot water, but it didn’t really matter since it was so stinkin hot outside.  During rainy season, mosquitoes and malaria are a big issue, so we had mosquito nets around the beds to protect from the mosquitoes at night.

One of my favorite adventures was the night walks in the jungle.  Our guide saw and was able to point out some pretty cool animals “hidden” in the jungle.  There were plenty of spiders and bugs to be seen, but thankfully no snakes.  I was really hoping to see a puma, but sadly they were shy and or hidden too well for us to see them.

One night we ended up going out in a boat looking for Caymans (an animal in the crocodile family). We got to see a few and some bats as well.  Another morning we went out at 6 to go bird watching and saw plenty of macaws at a feeding sight where they licked minerals off rocks. It was pretty cool! 

Overall, the whole thing was a blast and a sweet time away to enjoy other regions of Peru.