Typical Workday

So I am currently volunteering in a medical clinic called "CENTRO SALUD DE TTIO" which basically means health center of ttio, which is an area of cuzco.

I volunteer Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

Here is a picture of Luis (fellow volunteer) and I at our place:



Funny story about Luis, we were cabbing to the clinic on Day 1 doing standard chit chat. Hes like oh what experience do you have, I of course say pretty much none I just want to go to dental school eventually. Then I say, well how bout you luis? He says well I am pretty used to working in chaotic environments because he has been a war time doctor in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last 10 years HAHAHAHAA. He is also born in puerto rico and fluent in spanish. I had never felt so owned in my life. He was a real cool guy, he is already gone though because he is starting school again and had to go back home to Colorado.

I still haven't taken my camera to clinic, sorry, but I didn't want to be the tool standing around snapping pictures while everyone else is running around super busy. I will take it on Thursday though, we usually dont have as many patients then.

So from 8:00 to 10:30 we have a ton of people, so I usually help in triage (EL TRIAJE), which sees all the emergency/obstetrics/general med/dental patients that come through. So we have to interview all the patients and find their numbers and addresses and vitals like height, weight, pulse, blood pressure all that jazz. So I help with that and weigh babies and interview patients and do whatever helps people get through faster. All the emergency patients are usually people with really high fevers or parasites, we have had a couple malaria cases as well.

I work with one nursing student, Ruth, and a different nurses depending on what day it is. Today they told me I am cute and asked if I have a girlfriend in the USA, i said yes so they wouldnt try to set me up with ruth (who is shy and would probably explode), and they said triste triste triste (sad sad sad). So apparently the peruvian 40-60 age woman bracket is my new home base.

The nurses are real awesome though, and I teach them english words while they teach me spanish and kechua words. Kechua is a peruvian dialect that people speak in the mountains, and sounds NOTHING like spanish, so that is quite the learning experience.

After 10:30 there is not nearly as many patients, so I usually either help with making materials for the clinic or wander around topico (emergency room basically). You dont just buy gauze bandages or cotton balls here, everything comes in huge sheets/rolls and you have to make it. So if there is no one in triage I will usually roll cotton balls for a while or cut and fold the gauze into different sized bandages for different things while talking to ruth and the nurses. More spanish practice baby.

When I am in topico, I work with Dr. Julia and she is super great about showing me all these different procedures and stuff. There is obviously no patient secrecy down here, so girls just drop their drawers while I am sitting there in the room and they show me random files and X-rays and personal stuff all the time hahaha. If you have never seen infected internal c-section stitches taken out and cleaned, let me tell you, it is quite the experience (first class ticket to gag city).

The majority of patients in Topico are usually people needing injections (hep. B is the rage right now) or who have infected wounds from cuts and stuff that we just clean and restitch. It is cool and a great experience, plus I am learning a ton. They would let me stitch and give injections if I wanted, hahahaha.

As a whole, the clinic is nice and crazy. It is one of a few clinics in the city that accepts SIS (the Peruvian social security basically) so we get a lot of low income patients. When I show up at 8:00 there is usually 100-200 people waiting outside in a line to the street. There are kids everywhere (EVERY woman in peru is either pregnant or already has 10 kids I swear) so it is just chaos crying, breast feeding, daycare city. Sometimes it is my job to chase out the stray dogs that wander in, or to reach anything above 5 ft (I am the resident gringo giant)

Overall, great experience, no dental stuff yet only because I have been enjoying myself and feel like I am pretty helpful in my current capacity, so I haven't asked. I go to the jungle on Friday for 2 weeks for reforestation/conservation work, and anticipate specifically asking for this new dental clinic Maximo Nivel is working with when I return. I like all my friends at TTIO though and will probably work at least a day or two per week for the rest of my time here at this clinic just because it is fun.

CIAO AMIGOS