My time in Peru (Part 1 of ?)

I recently went on a mission trip to Peru, where I was gone for 10 days. I returned on Tuesday and was back to work today with a whomping 28 patients on my unit! In the 2 years I've been where I am, those are the highest numbers I have ever seen in a single unit census. So anyway, that was pretty wild for my first day back in over 2 days. But over the next few days, I will be sharing some highlights and a few pictures from my trip. There are so many things I want to share, but to do it all in one post would be both unwise and a bit challenging for me. So keep your eyes peeled for what's to come in store. I will start I suppose in the beginning.

For starters, our flight there was delayed by about 2 hours. We got all the way out to the runway and the maintenance light or something kept coming on. Turns out it was some sort of computer that keeps everything cool was too hot; it was 90 degrees when we left. The pilot said once in the air it isn't a safety issue, but a 2 hour delay was necessary to get everything cooled down. So in the meantime, I called my sister, called my mom and watched The Theory of Everything, which was a terrific movie. We finally left Atlanta around 8pm and landed in Lima around 2am. Once we landed it took a while to get our luggage and everything sorted and bused to our hotel. There were 18 of us on the trip, plus each one's luggage and the different supplies we needed for the children's ministry and medical clinic. Pretty wild. Most of the time on the buses our luggage was stacked all the way to the ceiling. We stayed in Huancayo, a beautiful city nestled around the Andes. The way up was no picnic though; 9 hours on a bus up winding mountain roads. Thank goodness for "blue pills." (So we wouldn't throw up on the bus). 

Our mission work was completed in Aramachay, about an hour away from Huancayo. Aramachay is even higher in the mountains, about 12,000 feet, and the way there was also a winding road by bus. While up in Aramachay, there were no toilets, so you had to pee outside...or hold it. We did four days of mission work. For the first two days, I worked in "triage", where we registered folks for what they were going to need. It was pretty crazy; the first day I triaged at least 120 people. The last two days I was in the clinic where I saw headaches, vitamin deficiency, dehydration and a few children and babies. Again, most of the children were simply vitamin deficient. The Peruvian diet consists mainly of chicken, potatoes and rice. After a few days, it got a bit old, but when you're there you take what you're given to eat and you say thank you. The higher altitude bothered me a bit for the first two days; a lot of headaches, shortness of breath and being super tired easily. Then I got used to it. That's about it for now.

Some of our medical supplies. Mostly donated. 

The winding roads leading to Aramachay