On the eve of my birthday...

Hello hello!

I am just finishing up a busy week, heading into my birthday weekend, and I wanted to sit down and write a little update. I have some more photos from what I am doing currently, but alas, my camera sits (safely) in my room, so the photo uploading will have to wait for another day. Soon, I promise!

I have finished my 3rd week of volunteering and all is well. I work in a govt health post, La Poste Belen Pampa, which is in Southwestern Cusco. It serves mostly poor folks from Cusco and the surrounding mountains. I am rotating through all of the different parts of the health post; I just finished a week of gynecology with a great doctor who loved to teach. What I do on a daily basis depends on the doctor I am working with, but because I can hold my own with my Spanish, it tends to be a fair amount. What I am really getting out of the experience is a perspective on the healthcare here in Peru. Apparently, the rate of cervical tears during childbirth is very high here because of the malnutrition problem (sorry for the medical reflection...it is a big part of why I'm here), which is fascinating because it isn't a problem that I had seen in the states. And I also helped diagnose a patient last week who had mumps...interesting stuff!

I have to tell a non-medical story, just because it has had a bit of an impact on me. My work is about a 15-20 minute walk from my house. I was walking home last Friday at about 2pm. The streets were busy and full of people. I was walking in an area that was completely Peruvian, heading toward the bank to draw money out for the next week. I never carry my bank cards with me, unless I am going to the bank because it isn't safe. I had just gone to coffee with a friend from work and had paid the bill. Afterwards, stupidly, I put my change purse in my front pocket. While I was walking, I came to a place that was very congested with people. A man stepped in front of me and slowed down, way down. I didn't understand what was going on and tried to get around him, but he blocked me. There were people coming the other direction and one guy bumped into me. In that same moment, I somehow realized what was going on, that they had stolen my wallet. I turned around and grabbed the guy who bumped into me. He turned toward me with quite a shocked expression on his face (I guess he thought he had gotten away with it). In his hand was still my wallet - he hadn't had time to even put it in his pocket. I grabbed it back, shouted an obscenity at him, and stormed off, shaking with adrenalin. QUITE an experience, catching a pick-pocketer. I was super lucky and it has definitely made me much more cautious. A good lession to learn and I am very thankful for my cat-like-reflexes...

Tomorrow is my birthday. Yeah! Tonight I am heading out to a local bar that has great live music and dancing with friends from school and work. Tomorrow 6 of us will head to a little town south of here called San Pablo, where a Peruvian friend of mine is working at an NGO and is holding a fishing contest on Sunday to raise awareness and money for nutrition for the local campesinos. It should be great to get out of the city for a spell.

That is all I have time for. I will get pictures up sometime next week. I hope everyone is doing well; keep sending the updates!

Ciao,

Laura