MU in Peru

Well, this post is a little bit overdue, but I really wanted to write about the day we spent at the beach last weekend. Our first week of work was filled with orientation, meeting new people, and visiting new places. The staff was kind enough to give us a trip to the beach which offered some much needed respite to us all.

reyna, veronica, and matt

We all piled in a van and drove about 45 minutes to the ocean town of Colan. We were all quite surprised when we arrived at a beach resort there that was nothing short of picturesque. It was an amazing change of scenery to go from driving through the desert and then the moment you cross over the ridge appears a spetacular view of the ocean.

cliffs above the water

the pacific ocean

It was the perfect beach day – although we pretty much had the resort to ourselves considering it’s winter here. They probably thought we were crazy gringos for being at the beach in the middle of winter. Anyways, we all spent the day doing various things – going running on the beach, laying out in the sun, playing volleyball and soccer, and swimming in the pool. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to go very far into the ocean because the tide was so low that the stingrays were coming up near shore. Instead, we enjoyed the resort’s pool which I suppose is a good alternative to being stung by a stingray.

cooling off in the pool

a hut along the beach at the resort

We also enjoyed a great lunch of delicious Peruvian food. They brought out family style plates of fish, chicken, rice, potatoes, “mozzarella sticks”, and ceviche – a Peruvian seafood specialty. As we were leaving, we drove by a small church which we learned to be La Iglesia San Lucas – constructed by the Spanish invaders and the oldest church in South America!

iglesia san lucas

So, altogether a great day, and we were sad to leave. Hopefully we will get to go back before we return home!

- Alli McBride

marquette nurses!

You never forget the smells of a third world country. 

The hot dusty air of the church lingers in the evening and mingles with the incense that has permanently sunken into the walls. The multitude of people attending Mass leave the room feeling lived in with breaths of perfume and cologne traces even once they have gone. The streets are sandy and filled with the juice of the freshly squeezed oranges and honey residue from the man scraping off the comb on the curb corner but also reeks of the flea bitten dogs that have not been fed or bathed properly in months. Perhaps the times that the smell is most potent, most poignant is when we are in the villages. 

In the village homes, fires are perpetually blazing in makeshift kitchens and the billowing smoke reminds me forcefully of camping as a child. The scent of frying potatoes competes with the stench of heated garbage, rotten milk and spoiled meat left out  in melting plastic bags or tossed without thought in open sandy space. Unkempt streets littered with banana peels, spilled soda cans and moldy milk cartons leave a permanent mark under the bridge of your nose and serve as a contrast to the paved roads and fresh dinner of marinated chicken and plates of baked vegetables that await our return every afternoon and everning. While we enjoy the brightness of fresh flowers and even the exhaust of the mototaxis, the lack of a functional santitation system in the villages sometimes leaves communal latrines uncared for and left to fester in the sun. Flies, rodents and dogs so bony you can count their ribs serve as permanent reminders to what sits rotting within the walls of the bathrooms.

The smells are just the beginning.                                                                                 Life here in Piura serves as a learning experience every day.

Kathleen Blaney

So almost everyday, 2 students go out with the head nurse here and visit about 3 homes. Depending on the patient in the home, we do various things such as give a manicure or pedicure (minus the nailpolish), cut hair, shave their face. On every patient we take vital signs and we take blood sugars for all the diabetics. I have done 7 home visits so far and there are several that have stood out to me. So I have never shaved someone else before especially not a man’s face. I got my first chance to on this lovely old man who had a stroke several months before and didn’t have a lot of strength in his left arm. He told me he only shaved once a week because that was all he could do with his one hand. It hit me then how much these people need help with some simple everyday things. Another visit I really enjoyed was with this woman who couldn’t see because of cataracts. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to have the cataracts surgery because she also had glaucoma and her pressure in the eyes was too high. While I was taking care of her nails, she kept calling me her “madrino” which I had no idea what that was. I shortly learned that there are “madrinos and padrinos” which are younger people who come and assist their elders with grooming and it is customary in Peru for this to occur. Another visit was to this elderly couple who both had a hard time moving yet were still living alone. The wife was a diabetic and was not always very consistent with taking her blood sugars. While we were there, a neighbor came and brought them some food so they wouldn’t have to worry about trying to get up and cooking. I am constantly surprised at the generosity of the people here and how willing people are to help.

- Veronica DeBiase

On our second day we visited Madre del Redentor, which is an all girls school for girls who have come from dangerous atmospheres.  This environment acts as a refuge for these girls and provides them with education and daily living skills so they can succeed in life.  These girls surrounded the van as we got out and took us each by our hands and showed us their environment.  After, they performed dances of their culture, and got up and got us out on the dance floor.  Let’s just say, they looked a lot better out there!  It was an unbelievable show of hospitality.

Monday Padre Joe gave us an overview of how he came to this parish.  After attending Notre Dame, he sought a life of equalizing the resources that less fortunate countries do not receive.  “Twenty percent of the world receives 80% of the worlds resources, which only leaves 20% for the remaining 80% of the world.”  It was this fact that drove him to work with Mother Teresa in the Bronx.  Through his journey he met a priest from this parish, and came to acquaint himself with the parish he would soon take over.

There are so many other great experience, but here are just a few more that stick out in my mind:

-All of us students have had an opportunity to do home visits.  We are accompanied by a nurse from the parish and a driver, who do not speak English, but sure do communicate well with their hands (for those of us whose Spanish is lacking).  One patient that two of us got the opportunity to visit passed away later that day.  We ask that you all pray for Flora, and her family who has spent a countless amount of time caring for her.  I have never seen such effort and care.  Here in Peru, it is their culture to respect and care for their elders.  Many families have three generations in one home.

Two Boys Showing Off Their Chickens to the Camera

-We visited La Vida Nueva, which translates to “A New Life.”  It was an awesome experience interacting with these men because they were so willing to share their stories with us.  There are so many men who are their on their own free will trying to change their lives after 20 years of using.

La Vida Nueva

-We rotate through an OB office, with a female doctor, an awesome accomplishment in this society.  Here, they do not give IM’s in the deltoid, but the gluteus medias.  They also cannot just pull out the Doppler to hear the baby’s heartbeat, we had to use our stethoscopes with cars driving by and windows open, not ideal, but a great experience.

-Dr. Weis was asked if she would be willing to bring some of us to a local ER.  This has been a great experience for all of us.  They only have 8 beds, and once they run out of beds, people sit in chairs.  The main doctor does speak some English, and all are eager to learn some words in English as well.

-Another opportunity that we’ve had is to go with Social Services.  One group got to build a house.  Others have delivered food that has been sponsored from parishes in the United States.  These families are so grateful.  They also take time to graciously show us their homes and show off their animals.  Lots of families have many animals living in their living quarters with them, or the have access to the house, or at least attached.

One Family

Most evenings we attend the nightly mass.  This past Wednesday was their healing mass.  There were no seats left in the church and rows of people lining the walls.  When it came time for Padre Jose to go out into the people and give blessings, he invited us nurses to join him, because we are devoted to healing.  This was an uplifting and enlightening experience for us all.  They entrusted us with the power to ask for healing for them.  People were reaching out to us, asking for our blessings.  We became a part of who they are and what they believe in.

- Lindsay Willgohs

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the blog of Marquette University’s Community Health Nursing group in Peru!  We hope this blog will offer you insight into our time spent here.  So far we have had an incredibly fast and exciting orientation to our surroundings.  We are staying at a church compound of La Parroquia Sacramento Santisimo.  Please feel free to visit the website of the parish online which is available in both Spanish and English (http://www.santisimo.org/es-principal.html). Padre Joe is the man in charge of the parish and is an incredible extension of the Catholic church into the community.  He provides countless services to the people through the parish which I’m sure we will be able to detail as we go along because we will be working at most of these various sites.  One of us will be writing every few days or so to keep you all updated, and we also hope to include some pictures!  Please let us know if you have any questions or if there is anything in particular you’d like to hear about.

our welcome sign at the parish

parroquia sacramento santisimo

Altogether, the few short days we’ve had here so far have been great.  The Peruvian people are a warm, welcoming bunch and all are happy to have us here.  We’ve also enjoyed countless cultural experiences thus far… no doubt there will be plenty more.  And it doesn’t hurt that we’re eating delicious food every day!  Lots of chicken and rice!

the group at a local village home

Hope all are well and enjoying summer… talk to you soon!