Week two
The Medical Clinics
As the last of my bug bites fade the memory of the second half of our trip does not… It is here that we were able to see and feel and touch the pulse of the people, both literally and figuratively…
Because of our fundraising efforts we were able to purchase and fill 5-50# bags of medicines and medical supplies. As “luck” would have it, even in the midst of the crazy terrorist alert day that we took off on, our bags made it all the way thru and we picked them up in Lima transporting them to Iquitos without a hitch…It was the contents of those bags along with another $600.00 worth of medicines that we purchase locally that enabled us to do the clinics in three villages over the course of the next five days.
The three villages were selected because of their proximity to the Children’s Center. It is our desire to build bridges with these people as well. Their needs are just as great as the street children that we are ultimately seeking to help. We joined with Peruvian Dr.’s Nurses and Dentists to assess, treat and document over 600 people the majority of which were children. Peruvian dentistry at this level primarily consists of pulling teeth, probably well over a hundred during two of the three days.…There is no preventative dentistry here, no tooth paste, no tooth brushes, no fluoride.. Lumps of sugar cane are sold everywhere for chewing and the resulting decay is evident even in the younger ones.
People lined up outside in the hot sun and waited, for the most part patiently to be triaged, documenting names, basic health information and the nature of their problems. We ran into many cultural myths, about how to break fevers, heal wounds, or cure something, most of which were clearly illogical and primitive and sometimes even dangerous. But some methods of treatment made sense and the process was fascinating.
The Dr’s offices were not private but consisted of a corner desk in a room at the local school. We had a make shift pharmacy set up where prescriptions were filled and directions were written down and gone over again. Needless to say that provided some challenges. We had interpreters, generous people that spent hours and hours volunteering to work with us to help us translate the process .
The air is stifling hot, and the crowds of people constantly pushed forward to make sure they or their child are one of the ones to be seen by the Dr or Dentist... Occasionally you can see people step aside or bring someone to the head of the line who needs immediate attention or who is clearly sicker. These are the good moments, when you see someone putting their own needs aside so that others more desperate than themselves can be helped. Regardless of the country, the culture, the differences, these are the Godly moments where kindred spirits act as bridges between cultures and people... One village we visited has never had a Dr. visit them before and were in the midst of a Malaria outbreak, so we stayed long hours attempting to see all that we could.
I find it ironic, that here in the Amazon jungle where plants are such an integral part of their culture, their healthcare and their religion, that these people are so desperate to get any medicine we have to offer. In many cases they will come back two and three times with different aliments each time until one is treatable with ”western” medicine. And yet, in the midst of this very same jungle, western medicine is seeking desperately to cull the secrets of the healing properties from these plants before they are destroyed in the name of progress.. It shows me once again we do not live in a black and white world, where one way is completely right and the other way wrong, our medicine is not necessarily the only right way and theirs wrong. We must remind ourselves, especially when we do these trips, that it is not an “either /or” but a “both/and” world that we live in.
We have many things to learn as well as to teach and it is in these moments that the gap between our cultures narrows. It is our hope, the hope of Global Support, that we are able to build bridges, or at least the beginnings of one, through outreaches such as these. And as we fly home and they go back to their lives hopefully each one of us has been touched and changed by our meeting.
As the last of my bug bites fade the memory of the second half of our trip does not… It is here that we were able to see and feel and touch the pulse of the people, both literally and figuratively…
Because of our fundraising efforts we were able to purchase and fill 5-50# bags of medicines and medical supplies. As “luck” would have it, even in the midst of the crazy terrorist alert day that we took off on, our bags made it all the way thru and we picked them up in Lima transporting them to Iquitos without a hitch…It was the contents of those bags along with another $600.00 worth of medicines that we purchase locally that enabled us to do the clinics in three villages over the course of the next five days.
The three villages were selected because of their proximity to the Children’s Center. It is our desire to build bridges with these people as well. Their needs are just as great as the street children that we are ultimately seeking to help. We joined with Peruvian Dr.’s Nurses and Dentists to assess, treat and document over 600 people the majority of which were children. Peruvian dentistry at this level primarily consists of pulling teeth, probably well over a hundred during two of the three days.…There is no preventative dentistry here, no tooth paste, no tooth brushes, no fluoride.. Lumps of sugar cane are sold everywhere for chewing and the resulting decay is evident even in the younger ones.
People lined up outside in the hot sun and waited, for the most part patiently to be triaged, documenting names, basic health information and the nature of their problems. We ran into many cultural myths, about how to break fevers, heal wounds, or cure something, most of which were clearly illogical and primitive and sometimes even dangerous. But some methods of treatment made sense and the process was fascinating.
The Dr’s offices were not private but consisted of a corner desk in a room at the local school. We had a make shift pharmacy set up where prescriptions were filled and directions were written down and gone over again. Needless to say that provided some challenges. We had interpreters, generous people that spent hours and hours volunteering to work with us to help us translate the process .
The air is stifling hot, and the crowds of people constantly pushed forward to make sure they or their child are one of the ones to be seen by the Dr or Dentist... Occasionally you can see people step aside or bring someone to the head of the line who needs immediate attention or who is clearly sicker. These are the good moments, when you see someone putting their own needs aside so that others more desperate than themselves can be helped. Regardless of the country, the culture, the differences, these are the Godly moments where kindred spirits act as bridges between cultures and people... One village we visited has never had a Dr. visit them before and were in the midst of a Malaria outbreak, so we stayed long hours attempting to see all that we could.
I find it ironic, that here in the Amazon jungle where plants are such an integral part of their culture, their healthcare and their religion, that these people are so desperate to get any medicine we have to offer. In many cases they will come back two and three times with different aliments each time until one is treatable with ”western” medicine. And yet, in the midst of this very same jungle, western medicine is seeking desperately to cull the secrets of the healing properties from these plants before they are destroyed in the name of progress.. It shows me once again we do not live in a black and white world, where one way is completely right and the other way wrong, our medicine is not necessarily the only right way and theirs wrong. We must remind ourselves, especially when we do these trips, that it is not an “either /or” but a “both/and” world that we live in.
We have many things to learn as well as to teach and it is in these moments that the gap between our cultures narrows. It is our hope, the hope of Global Support, that we are able to build bridges, or at least the beginnings of one, through outreaches such as these. And as we fly home and they go back to their lives hopefully each one of us has been touched and changed by our meeting.
posted by Global Support {with a mission} at
11:20 AM
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