3.31.10 – Semana Santa

This week should be a short week for Anita and I as all of Peru will celebrate Semana Santa Thursday and Friday.  However, Cherlita, the 16 year-old gestante and her man Riker are utilizing the casa de espera.  She hasn’t shown much sign of labor yet, but we will see!

Earlier today it rained HARD and we spent the morning sweeping the rain out of the clinic and our home.  Sweeping rain is part of the routine as I have mentioned.  Rising early is another part of the routine and I am slowly adjusting.  You all know that I am a lady of the night, a night nurse at heart, a morning soul sleeper.  In contrast, at the heart of Peruvian Pucallpiño and carretera culture is early rising (even after dancing the night away – another part of the culture, but a part that I LOVE and I dance most Saturday nights until 5am!). Chickens make their morning cawk a doodle dooooooo and I am really good at tuning them out and sleeping just a little tiny bit longer J.  Nonetheless, life really does get started around 5am here and so I have begun my morning running routine (not until 6am though).  I rise to a beautiful mist of clouds and set off along the dirt road.  Life is alive and awake, and not only my neighbors think I am crazy.  They stare and laugh and stare some more.  One morning as I ran past a lush tree a bird began to make its call in the sound of an alarm!  Oooo aaaa ooooo aaaaaaa oooooo aaaaaaa, exactly like an old school ambulance.  I laughed out loud.  When I run I feel like a show on the road and more recently some of the neighbor kids like to join me, making a bigger and much more entertaining show!  It all started with my neighbors Priscilla and Ruben, 17yo and 12yo.  Then others wanted to join in and each day I run I have a few more new partners.  My favorite partners are the 9yo, Jean Carlos who planted our casa de espera garden and Brisette, the sister of the babe I delivered in Pucallpa a couple of months ago.  We race and play and laugh.  Last night we ran as the full moon rose up in the jungle sky.  Beautiful! 

Cherlita hasn’t given birth yet.   She is rumbling, but only is dilated to 2cm and hasn’t had any consistent contractions.   As I type now Cherlita is sitting next to me singing to the music of Dina Paucar, typical Peruvian music de la Sierra, that we have playing on my computer.  She just turned to me and said, “When this baby comes I am going to name her Anita Elizabeth.”  

3.27.10 – 50/50

After Juana’s magnificent birth, life filled again with the daily routine of health post work, but not for long.  The day after Pedro Daniel arrived, the husband of a gestante came to the clinic with his 4 year-old-son to do a well-child check.  Anita knows every single one of the millions J of members of the communities she serves and so she asked if his wife was contracting yet (her due date was approaching).  He paused and nervously responded, “She gave birth yesterday.”  OOOOoooooh Anita was mad.  In Spanish we say, “Me da colera” when we get really ticked.  It’s one of my favorite new sayings.  The phrase is said with a type of disgust.  Anyway, we packed up for a post partum home visit.  19 year-old Vanessa gave birth to her second child with a partera (traditional birth attendant) in her home the previous day without complications.  She says that she did not intend on having a home birth, that their family’s 2 forms of transportation broke down, that no transportation was available at noon the day she delivered, and that her labor was very fast.  However, because there was a partera present that had traveled from a far distance to be with the family close to Vanessa’s due date, both forms of transportation were working the day we visited, and other clues, Anita and I feel sure that Vanessa and her family planned a home birth. Without judgment, I would love to know their real reasons for planning a home birth, but because I am associated with the health post I might never get to know those real reasons (but I have lots of ideas).  I’ll keep trying though!  My PhD thesis perhaps, eeeeeek!

Later in the week Anita and I were out in the field visiting each community’s health leader when we heard of another one of our patient’s who delivered in her home.  We visited her for a moment as we were nearby and all was well.  She told the same story as Vanessa, but also was attended by a partera.  She had a wicked tear and transferred to the hospital for sutures the same day that she delivered.  She brought her baby to us a few days post partum and we discovered an infected umbilical cord.  With 2 home births this month, 1 birth at the health post and Cherlita at the casa de espera until she delivers, our March health post birth stat is 50%.  Poco a poco I think we will see this number increase.  We have many women come for their paps and say they want to get pregnant just to come utilize the casa de espera J and deliver vertically.  In addition to Juana and Cherlita, they will help spread the word. 

On another note, this week I did a total of 28 well woman exams and a total of 25 paps.  Pap land success!  I am getting to know each of the communities and starting to recognize women and their families as they come into the clinic.  What an honor it is to serve these amazing Amazon women.

After our long Saturday, Anita and I packed for our weekend return to the city.  This time we not only carried our personal belongings and dirty clothes from the week, but we also hauled the empty stove gas tank with us.  Gas is cheaper in Pucallpa.  If there is no Luz, there are no gallinas.

3.23.10 – Where’s Juana?

Juana has not come yet.  I am thinking about her.  Early this morning a woman came knocking on the door to our house and I thought for sure it was Juana.  I sat up in bed and began untangling myself from my mosquito net expecting to see Juana ready to push out her babe.  Alas, it was a woman who had come to pay Anita for a previous clinic visit.  Where’s Juana?

Anita wants to start a sex ed program at the school house.  What a great idea!  We walked down to the bright blue building where school is held in about 6 classrooms to look for the director.  He wasn’t available but we will continue to work on that idea.  Anyone have materials in Spanish or experience with teen sex ed programs?  I would love any ideas or suggestions.

Spent the day doing more well woman exams and paps until the lights went out.  Having electricity does not mean that we ALWAYS have electricity.  My computer still had some power left so Anita and I hung out in our respective single frame beds that are stuffed into our tiny little room and listened to my favorite banjo music (Thanks for the GREAT banjo music Luc!) until we heard a tap tap on our door.  Guess who?  Juan, Juana’s husband J. 

Juana arrived contracting lightly but dilated to 4 cm.  We showed her family to the casa de espera where her 2 little girls went to sleep soundfully.  Juan, Anita, and I returned to the health post where I massaged Juana’s back by candlelight until she felt the urge to push.  She wanted to birth horizontally, but liked the idea of pushing in a comfortable bed instead of the hard exam table of which most women that deliver in health posts are accustomed.  Anita and I had prepared everything for any type of birth (any position and any complication) and bought a huge piece of plastic to cover a comfortable mattress on a 70s like bed frame.  The bed frame must be an old medical model because the head inclines, which worked out well for pushing.  Electricity returned just in time to dar a luz (give birth) and big beautiful baby Pedro Daniel was born at 23:43 under the bright fluorescent lights of the health post.  I passed Pedro directly to his mama with cord intact and his mom and dad rejoiced!  Just after I sutured a small tear, the lights went out and we enjoyed a post partum recovery by candlelight and free of complications.  Juan and Juana asked that I name their new little babe and so together we came up with Pedro Daniel.  Pedro after Juana's brother and Daniel for my best man friend in Denver.  Juana, Juan and their beautiful family lived and loved in the casa de espera for 2 full days.

As Juana and family packed up, Cherlita and Riker packed in and for 1 day the casa de espera was occupied by 2 families!  One of the local boys, Jean Carlos, who is 9 years-old planted a garden in front of the casa de espera upon his own volition.  He planted it smack in the middle of the entrance J and as the casa de espera blooms, so will bloom its beautiful welcoming garden, literally, at its front door.

3.22.10 – Week 3

Arrived at the health post this morning after our routine bus ride with my favorite mouth honker, Cesar, and 2 women were waiting for our arrival.  They live in San Martin at CNC Km 4 near Juana and brought news that she is having light contractions today.  I packed my bag immediately to visit her in hopes to convince her to come to the casa de espera with me.  Anita stayed behind to run the health post.  Upon my arrival I found Juana resting in her home (which I have described previously, see pics on flicker) with 2 of her daughters at her side.  She was comfortable and happy.  We chatted and conducted an OB appointment in her bedroom.  She is not contracting yet nor does she have any warning signs, either of impending labor or danger in pregnancy.  Her baby has dropped significantly since her last appointment a week ago.  We discussed the casa de espera again at length and she says she will come this afternoon.  Her husband, Juan J, is in Pucallpa and she wants him to accompany her with their 4 children when he returns this afternoon.

On another note, Cherlita, a 16 year-old gestante, 39 weeks pregnant came to visit us after we gave her a tour of the casa de espera last week.  She lives at Km 86 of the main highway from Pucallpa and is excited to come live in our community with her boyfriend, Riker this week as her due date approaches. 

Luz is back, thank God.  She killed one of the gallinas (chickens that roam free) that a patient gave us last week and we ate the most delicious and famous caldo de gallina, a chicken broth with noodles and potatoes.  Though caldo de gallina is a traditional meal for all in Peru and in the jungle (most often for breakfast), women always enjoy a freshly prepared bowl after giving birth.  For example, Anita tells me that when Juana comes to live in the casa de espera she will carry her chicken with her and her husband will prepare caldo de gallina for her and the family after she delivers.  Everyone travels with their chickens here.  Perhaps I find it amusing because I grew up in the city, but when Luz packs her chickens into a little sack and we set off for Pucallpa each Saturday afternoon, I chuckle chuckle chuckle.  Those little chicken heads pop out of their bags on the bus. 

In addition to eating caldo de gallina after giving birth, many other traditions exist.  Juana has informed me that it is customary for the husband to cook, clean, wash clothes, care for the other children, etc for one full month after a new baby comes.  Excellent idea!  Let’s make it longer J!  Also, women wear a white cloth baby diaper around their head for 15 days after delivering.  The cloth diapers are much thinner and more like a blanket wrap here than in the US.  Juana says the wrap functions to prevent dizziness, headache, cold, and chills.  See photos of the women in their head wraps.  I like them.  It’s kind of kung fu, like she has won a battle and indeed she has, through her strength and courage she has brought new life into this world.     

3.20.10 – Swiss Family Robinson

Me da cuenta (I realize) that I live the Swiss Family Robinson life!!!!  My sisters and I LOVED the Swiss Family (how could you not!), and I could never have imagined that one day I would live this jungle life. 

First though, I have to tell you that Luz (Jose Antonio’s mom) is not here this week.  OH man, what will we do?  Anita and I don’t have time to prepare our food and though we have electricity, we don’t have a refrigerator.  We prepare our raman noodles every night and I fry platanos.  Mmmmmm, I love fried platanos, but I love having Luz here more.

This week was yet another FULL week of action.  Anita and I visited another 5 remote communities only this time our mission was to Pap it up home visit style. 

After doing 20 paps and well woman exams at the health post, we packed for more paps in the jungle.  First we attempted to get to Nueva Jerusalen (a community about 20 Km away) but motocar pushing became tiresome.  Every 5 minutes we came across large mud puddles, baja’d the motocar, and started pushing.  We kept thinking that this muddy mess would be the last, but there was always another waiting.  We looked like chanchitos playing in the mud!!!  After the heavy rains we have had over the past few days, we should not have attempted to get to Nueva Jerusalen, but we thought that the long day of strong sunrays would have dried out the mud by now.  Not so much.   Luz swept rain from our house most of the day of rain as it seeps everywhere with its force.  After our failed attempt to get to Jerusalen, we switched gears and went to Santa Rosa where we held a women’s clinic at their tiny health post.  When we arrived to the quiet town, we walked the small square surrounded by houses and advertised our pap clinic.  6 women came and I did paps and breast exams on a little mattress in a makeshift clinic room.  I use my headlamp as an exam light and am not sure that I will ever give up this routine even when I return to the US.  It really works well. 

The very next day, Anita and I traveled the CNC to KM 12 to visit 2 small communities today: Nueva Juanjui and Libertad de Pasa Raya.  Neither town has electricity or running water and both towns are lush and beautiful, inundated with palm and platano crops.  Juanjui doesn’t have a town center and appears to be a few houses each hidden amidst its owner’s crops.  It often took us awhile just to locate a house, let alone the time it took us to locate the owner’s of the house.  Luckily, as I have mentioned, Anita knows ALL!!!!!  And I have learned the special call we use to alert people in the jungle that we are looking for them.  It’s a little like a cross between a monkey and a bird call.  You can see Anita doing the call in a photo on flicker.  You have to form your lips into a trumpet horn.  I LOVE it!  

I did a well woman exam with a woman who raises cows with her husband in Juanjui.  Their land and home is beautiful and they live there with their 3 children.  They met and fell in love in their home town of Iquitos, but because land is so expensive there they decided to leave their families behind and start their own life together in Ucayali.  They are younger than me and have built a beautiful life for themselves here.

Home visits are one of my favorite activities because I get an insiders view into the life of an Amazon jungle mama.   You all have read about the small farm chacras that we visit.  They are BEAUTIFUL and often tucked away and surrounded by lush jungle and crops.  Not only are the homes surrounding by lush beauty but they are constructed in an open home fashion.  Imagine a wooden frame built about 2-3 feet off the ground in case the rivers grow (we are completely surrounded by rivers, small and large).  Add a thatch roof on top and vua la.  Most families build a few small frames in a cluster.  One frame serves as the kitchen, another as the main living home, etc.  The main living home most often consists of 2 stories.  It has a tall ladder that takes you up up up closer to the thatch roof for slumber in the sky.  Slumber in the sky in this jungle includes a blanket underneath your body, your dreams, and your loved ones nearby, nada mas.

I HAVE to tell you about “nada mas.”  Here in la selva, the Spanish makes my head swoon starry starry night (one of my favorite songs) fashion.  My new favorite sounds in this entire world are musica de la selva, sonidos de la selva, and selva Spanish.  When I hear the music from this region, my body moves and my bottom begins to shake all by itself (Check out Juaneco, a group from this region)!  When I hear the sounds of the selva, my muscles soften and my nerves crawl into their cave to sleep.  And when I hear the Spanish of the selva my smile and my soul grow as quickly as the platano leaves after a long day of rain.  OH HOW I LOVE THE SOUNDS!  Selva Spanish is rustic and pointed, yet it smooths off the tongue.  It’s a combination of indigenous languages with lots of hard “K” sounds and as many soft “ssshhhhh” sounds.  In addition, in the carretera communities, everything gets the “-ito” end, particularly if one is impassioned, and most everything is a topic of passion to these beautiful and very passionate people.  When discussing pain, women point to the pain and say “Todo todo todatito todito le duele, acaaaaa, aaaaaaKa, aca de todadito de mi curepito…” I get so caught up in the sounds of the hard “D” and lovely “-itos” that I forget to mind the importance of the signs and symptoms to which I am assessing and frequently have to ask for a repeat story.  At first, I couldn’t understand a word of Selva Spanish.  Now, I live for it AND understand it sometimes too.  So, back to “nada mas.”  “Nada mas” = “That’s all” or “no mas” = “nothing more” get added to most complete sentences.  It’s SO beautiful to me, nada mas.  Drop me off here, no mas.  I miss and love you all, nada mas.  It adds strength to what you are saying, but you have to say it with a certain tone, like you are shrugging your shoulders, obviously, nada mas.

I will say goodbye for now but hope you all are doing fabulously! Nada mas.

3.17.10 – Anamalitos

Thank God I read Barbara Kingslover’s magnificent novel Prodigal Summer before I left for the jungle.  One of the 3 protagonists, Deanna, lives in the mountains of Zubulon County in southern Appalachia and works as a ranger for the National Parks Service.  She lives alone in a cabin deep in the woods.  Among the thousands of other animals, birds, and insects that Deanna observes and articulately describes, she details the sounds and life of a snake that lives in her ceiling all summer.  I, too, live with creatures in my ceiling, only mine are LOUD and incessantly playful at night.  Murcielagos (bats).  I don’t sleep so well sometimes. 

I carry the last paragraph of Prodigal Summer with me in my journal “Solitude is a human presumption.  Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end.  Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.”  Life in the jungle of Peru only exemplifies this beautiful quote.  Unfortunately, I am often the prey in this world…

I have had Isangos twice now.  Connie, my stepmom won the “What are Isangos???!!!???” competition.  CHIGGERS!  They love me.  I have a Doctora de Isangos named Juanita.  She is 15 years old with impeccable eyesight and she comes over to pick Isangos out of my bum cheeks and bra line once a week on average.

Anita, Luz, and I eat dinner in plastic chairs in our 3ft by 8ft kitchen and 1 or 2 little flies always seem to fall from the millions bouncing off the florescent light above.  Luz looks up occasionally and says, “OHhhhh, these anamalitos.”  I laugh and laugh and will forever and ever call insects little animalitos.

I have decided that I am officially a jungle woman now.  My body is full of bites and even living anamalitos at times when there isn’t time to pick out the Isangos.  No me importa.  I really don’t mind.  I eat, sleep, daydream, and work immersed in anamalitos and figure that if I make them my friends, I will live a longer life in the end.

3.13.10

Anita is keeping me BUSY here and as we near the end of my first week I feel as though we have accomplished a month worth of work.  We have visited 5 of the 13 remote communities that we serve, kicked off a well-woman exam extravaganza, and I conducted 2 education sessions to groups of women and men promoting women’s health, natural empowering birth, la casa de espera, and the pap extravaganza program.  No births this week, but many due dates approaching quickly.  Oh, as I am typing a beautiful brown horse just ran by the open clinic door, two pigs (chanchos) snorted outside (a grey one and a pink one that travel together frequently.  They visit often), and the breeze is lovely.  I am looking out at a gorgeous jungle full of green leaves and tall trees.  I wish you all could be here! 

3.11.10 - Smiles

Birth stories abound here and I want to hear the details of each and every one of them!

Yesterday I gave a gestante, Dina, due 4/17/10, who lives in a very distant and difficult to access community called Nolberth, a tour of the casa de espera and encouraged her to come live in it close to her due date.  She is unsure.  All her babes have been delivered in her house.  She attended one birth herself, alone.  Her last babe was a fetal demise at 6 months.  She went to hospital Yarinacocha for delivery and then later had retained placenta and endometritis.  “Please come to the casa de espera!!!!,” we begged her.  We discussed her increased risk for post partum hemorrhage as well.  She fears delivery in our health post and in hospitals because “she has heard and seen how women are treated there.” 

Another woman named Juana lives in San Martin, our closest community outside of Olivos about 7 Km away.  We visited her in her home today after realizing that she hasn’t come to her prenatal visits for over 2 months.   She was thrilled to see Anita and I and welcomed us.  When we explained why we had come, she set a thick beautiful blanket onto the floor of the empty main living area in her thatch-roofed home and there, on the big blanket, we conducted her appt surrounded by her 2 hijitas (little girls) and their neighbor friends laughing and playing as they stared at the weird looking gringa girl!  This will be Juanita’s 6^th babe.  She has delivered 1 in her home and 4 in health posts.  Her 5^th babe died at the age of 1 month.  Anita tells me that he was born healthy at our health post, but developed what she calls Pemphigus because of the type of blisters that he had all over his body when he presented to the clinic.  His parents didn’t bring him to be checked until he was very weak and sick.  He had lost weight from diarrhea, etc.  He was taken to Neshuya where he died the next day.  Juanita says that she is excited to utilize the casa de espera and have her baby with Anita and I in Olivos.  I look forward to working with her in only a week or so!

Naturally, in addition to birth stories, there are a mountain of stories of human suffering, women suffering.  Chronic ailments abound and with very little “plata” (dinero, money), there is often very little hope for treatment.  Today a young man, Franklin showed up at our little casita on his motobike at 630am.  He brought news that his mom has chronic pelvic pain and wants us to come to their chacra to see her.  Anita and I hopped on his bike and the 3 of us traveled the dirt roads to Santa Rosa de Guinea, about 10 Km from Olivos.  There we met Octavia and her husband, Guillermo, and another son, Juan Carlos.  Octavia has had chronic pelvic and low back pain for years.  She has tried a series of natural remedies from her local curandera in addition to seeing specialists in Pucallpa.  She has had 10 babes and I am sure she has a prolapsed uterus, perhaps among other things...  I need to learn how to fit pessaries!!!!  Franklin shows up at the health post roughly once a week so our visits to Octavia’s farm have become routine.  I massage her belly (I wish I had learned Mayan Uterine Massage before I left the states too.  I realize that I am closer to the origins of uterine massage here in the jungle, but I can’t find anyone that has heard of it.  I believe it comes from… Belize?) and Anita gives her an analgesic injection.  Their family is lovely.  Her son Juan Carlos might be one of the happiest people I have ever met.  He is in his 30s, an artist, and has traveled all over Peru selling his beautiful silver jewelry.  He came back from his travels after 4 years to be with his sick mama.  He smiles and laughs chronically (seriously) and when I asked him where his many brothers and sisters live and what they do, he smiled as he said, “Well, 5 of them are dead” (in spanish) and chuckled.  I didn’t ask further because this family speaks REALLY fast Selva (jungle) Spanish and mostly speaks Quechua, so I don’t understand much, but I love visiting them all and soaking in the chronic smile of Juan Carlos and the sound of Octavia’s mix of Spanish and Quechua.  I frequently run along the dirt road of the CNC and sometimes Juan Carlos passes me on his motorbike.  I see his smile before I see the bright red bike J.

3.9.10 – Day 2

As I have described in previous posts life here changes rapidly and most often I don’t have a clue.

Today I was learning the ropes here at the Monte de Los Olivos health post, observing an OB Intake (1^st prenatal appt), when one of those serious looking 4 wheelin’ USAID trucks pulled up.  Out popped a super lively smiling man named Lucas Vargas.  He works for another NGO named MSH, which is based in Boston, and came to deliver a health registry to one of the communities with which we work.  Despite thinking we would be working in the clinic at Monte de Los Olivos all day, Anita and I quickly changed gears and packed up for a day in the jungle (Fetoscope, measuring tape, blood pressure cuff, etc).  However, I had no idea what a day in the jungle really meant.

We loaded into the grey truck (padded on the inside with very thick rolls of foam and thank GOD or my head would be mush) and drove deep into the jungle.  DEEEEEEEP into the jungle we went with our bodies bouncing, flinging, and flying back and forth in the backseat.  WOW is this jungle beautiful.  WOW I totally understand why pregnant mothers prefer to stay home and deliver their babies.  The road is ugly and I felt like my insides were going to fall out from the bouncing.  Imagine if your baby was part of your insides!  Uggghh.

Cadena Tropical is one of the farthest communities that we serve located 25 Km deep into the jungle.  Cadena translates to “chain” or “network” and as the first settlers of this beautiful community arrived (completely exhausted) to the land in which they would settle, they couldn’t help but notice the chain of “up and down and up and back down again” of the hills through which they traveled in their new lush forest.  For this reason they gave their community the name Cadena and added the self explanatory “Tropical..”  In this very small community of about 31 familes (110 people) we encountered one small house.  No one was home.  After exploring a bit further, we found a path descending one of the cadenas of hills and down we went.  On our way, we met a man carrying large blocks of wood tied to his back and supported by the strength of his forehead.  Woooooooh!  Exporting wood is one of the few ways that this community survives.  They also grow platano, yucca, and rice. 

Though we were accompanying Lucas on his mission, Anita and I had a mission of our own.  We were looking for Gestantes that haven’t come for their regular appointments or are newly pregnant.  When we find them, we conduct home OB appointments, educate, and promote the casa de espera.  What FUN!!!!!  I love my jungle career!

On our way back from Cadena Tropical we passed through Virgin de Carmen where another gestante lives.  She is about 32 weeks pregnant and has not come for a prenatal visit in Monte de Los Olivos.  We found her working hard in her open-to-air home, washing the clothes by hand, doing dishes, and preparing food for the day.  She and her husband own a palm farm and raise chickens.  After preparing a delicious papaya juice for us, she sat down to visit.  We discovered that she had already begun her prenatal care in Neshuya (the closest town with 24 hour emergency service) and has had 2 visits during her pregnancy.  She didn’t know about the casa de espera.  Because she lives so far away her and her husband rent a small apartment in Neshuya in which they plan to live close to her due date.   She said that she would consider stopping by our health post before heading to Neshuya if she is in labor.  She did not have interest in staying at the casa de espera because she has already committed to renting the apartment in Neshuya.  Oooooooh this made my stomach sink.

Anita and I immediately began brainstorming ideas to get the word out to women that we have a free casa de espera to use!  

3.8.10 – Magnificent Mujeres

For every magical small man angel that abounds exists a beautiful woman angel who created him.

How beautiful that I start my work for women on this International Day honoring… WOMEN!  My life continues to be full of beautiful, strong, creative, and brilliant women that never cease to inspire me.  You know you all are one of them!  

Anita is one of them as well.  She works and works and works and her batteries appear to never run out. Her amor, Jose, and family live in Pucallpa, yet she lives full-time in Monte de Los Olivos.  Monday through Saturday she works around the clock and returns late on Saturday to spend the evening and 1 full Sunday with the loves of her life.  That one Sunday is full of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and preparing for the next week in Los Olivos.  Peruvian career culture is serious!  Normal hours are Monday through Saturday.  Who came up with that silly idea?  Saturday??!!????  I am not a fan of the Saturday workday.  Granted, I’m a Midwife, so normally I don’t pay much attention to the days of the week, but as visiting Midwife to Monte de Los Olivos it’s impossible not to notice.  Imagine being one nurse and one Midwife in a small town of 70 families in addition to serving 13 other small towns that aren’t that much smaller.  I’m learning a lot about public health and family medicine.  In addition, a family size here is not the family size that we are accustomed to in the US.  Families are BIG here and include Gmas, Gpas, sisters and brothers each with their own children, etc.  Wooooooooh.  In addition, Anita has done this work for 15 years, working either for small native river communities or carretera communities like Monte de Los Olivos.  She has been a nurse for 18 years.  She tells a good story and I LOVE hearing her stories about birth.  She once delivered a breach baby in a river.  WOW!!!  She is often the only trained medical professional for miles and miles and miles of jungle.  

So, as Anita works, I work.  Hard.

Anita and I arose in Pucallpa at 0430am, caught a motocar to the central bus station, and hopped on a bus to the jungle at 0530am.  This is my new Monday morning routine.  The Pucallpa bus “station” is a very small garage where taxicabs vie for your attention and where 1 bus sits waiting to take off.  Waiting is the proverbial verb when the bus is concerned J, hence the existence of the taxi cab drivers who stuff 2 passengers into the front seat, 4-5 into the backseat, and 1 or more in the hatchback trunk if possible (we frequently take the taxicabs home from Olivos).  We got to the bus station early enough to claim our very own seat which actually makes waiting fun at 6am (sleeeeeeep).  The bus involves 2 smooth operators: 1 to do the actual driving and 1 to do the co-piloting.  Co-piloting involves 2 things: 1. LOTS of mouth honking and 2. Lots of life risking.  I described the motocross track style of this city previously…  There are no rules in Pucallpa and there are ESPECIALLY no rules on the highway just outside of Pucallpa. It’s a big huge playground full of moto heaven and the bus is not to be excluded.  Cesar is ALWAYS our co-pilot.  He has poofy, yet aerodynamic dark hair that appears to be permanently windblown back, helmet style.  Like the chicken and the egg, I’m not sure which came first, his hair-do or his job!  He hangs out of the door that lies in the middle of the tall bus and calls out or hand signals to potential passengers standing on the side of the road.  He is responsible for when the bus stops and when the bus goes and his remote control is his mouth.  I LOVE the way he mouth honks.  Seriously.  He says “YAaaaaaaaaaayva!” (Lleva) to carry on and “BaaaaaaaaaHaaaaa!” to drop a patient off (Baja = down).  I have sort of fallen in love with the mouth honking here.  It has cadence, a little bit of rhythm, a 2 toned jingle, a life of it’s own that comes alive outside of the person’s mouth that creates it.  Who knew I could love mouth honking so much.  I even tried it myself the other day.  It’s really fun.

The bus drops us off in a small dusty town called Neshuya and from there we take a motocar 7 km north up a VERY bumpy dirt road called Caratera Neshuya Curimana (CNC) because it lies between Neshuya and Curimana.   Though traveling from Neshuya to Olivos gives me a headache as my brain knocks up against my skull, it’s also a beautiful journey.  The Amazon is just beginning in this part of the jungle and the land is flat.  This creates perfect terrain for growing crops and most families own a small farm called a chacra.  They mostly grow palm and platano, though there are some sugar cane, maize, arroz (rice), and chocolate J crops as well.  The palm is harvested for its oil and used for cooking.  Traveling the small road to my new house means being immersed in the beauty of the crops of palm and platano while soaking in the beautiful view of the wilder jungle in the distance.  Anita tells me that only 20 years ago this jungle was full of Coca Cocaine crops.  Imagine!  So much change in a short period of time.

We arrived at Km 7 of the CNC, Monte de Los Olivos and stood in front of the door to my new little house around 8am.  AND, guess what!?!  Man Angel #1’s (Jose Antonio) mom, Luz, greeted us with a freshly prepared breakfast (EGGS, my favorite).  This is only one example of the truth that for every man angel there exists a super star woman angel who created him.  WOW do I love Jose Antonio’s mother.  She whistles and sings beautiful Peruvian songs every morning.  She cooks yummy Peruvian food.  She fries platanos.  MMMmmmm.  She laughs out loud when I say something that I mean to be funny (which can be hard to pull off in my new language).  She takes care of Anita and I and I won’t ever be able to express to her how much I appreciate what she does for us.  And to think, I loaded up with top ramen Peru style noodles and peanut butter thinking I would be roughing it.

Anita and I got right to work after enjoying our breakfast.  We walk up a tiny hill to the health post where patients are often ready and waiting.  We attended patient’s all morning and as soon as the clock struck one we descended to our house to enjoy freshly killed and freshly cooked cow.  Climbed up our little hill after lunch and attended more patients in the afternoon.  Descended in the eve for more fresh animal goodness.  And that is how my first day went, up the hill and back down again soaking in the beauty of my new life in the country jungle.

3.6.10 – Rockin’ Women

Spent the last week of my work in Pucallpa training with INMED.  INMED Pucallpa consists of 4 women (all from Peru) who run the show.  They implement and often also develop training sessions for both patients and community volunteers throughout Pucallpa and Yarincocha.  The group sessions focus on keeping mothers and babies safe, family planning, utilizing local health posts, risks during pregnancy and birth, breastfeeding, etc. These 4 INMED women travel all over town by motocar carrying their materials, laptops, and yummy treats for the community volunteer sessions.  When you think of Pucallpa, you can’t think of a city like we have in the United States.  You have to think wilder, smaller, WILDER, dirt roadier, and WILDER!  This frontier city is a really large version of a motocross track or bumper cars gone WILD and the drivers fit the picture.  It’s a live video game!  I mention this to exemplify how super cool INMED women are as they bump and grind via motocar to their dusty destinations to get the empowering woman word out.  Rock stars they are.