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Goodbyes Are Always the Hardest

I believe one of the greatest characteristics about Peru and Peruvians is their ability to celebrate - everything and anything. And what better a reason to celebrate than 14 successful surgeries, lives changed and incredible connections made. The staff of Mother of Christ Clinic threw the medical team (and Jessica and I) a beautiful goodbye ceremony filled with (many) tears. Wanted to share some pictures of our last day with everyone - was a day of happiness at its purest. 

It always amazes me how as humans we can create such a deep and meaningful connection with others so quickly. It had only been six days, and it was a difficult goodbye for everyone who had been a part of the team. It was especially special for me, because I had the privilege of translating some really emotional and beautiful goodbyes between the American and Peruvian staff who had created such a strong bond over the last few days. There were a lot of “I love you’s”, “te quiero mucho”, “thank you for everything”, and “gracias’s” I was translating. Was very beautiful. 

Hermana Sandra, the director of the Clinic and one of the masterminds that worked night and day for months to make the mission possible, handing out certificates to each one of us. She is amazing. Never passed a day where she did not flash her million dollar smile. 

With one of our favorites throughout the week. Had to take a picture with him to remember all of the jokes and laughs we shared over the week!

The only way we were able to get a full team picture - van selfie, of course!

And of course, without safe transport, none of this could have been possible (especially since there was a transportation strike that week in Trujillo!) Lots of gratefulness to our awesome driver that Jessi and I got the pleasure of getting to know a bit throughout the week. 

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Octubre de aventuras!

Wow, it has been quite a while, I have no idea where October and November went! Never in my life have two months passed by in the blink of an eye like the way these past two months have. In the last eight weeks, I have been blessed with some of the most amazing experiences of my trip so far! I don’t even know where to begin, but to make things easier I’ll start with October. :)

In the second week of October, the Mother of Christ Clinic run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, who CMMB partners with, received a medical team with quite the mission. They came to Peru in hopes of doing as many free gynecological surgeries as they could, within 5 days! Now, where do I, public health volunteer, fit in in all of this? Two days before, my boss Nancy, told Jessica and I to get ourselves ready, because that whole next week, we would be in charge of translating for the doctors and the nurses in and out of surgery! What a shock it was. Nervous and not knowing what to expect, we started a whirlwind of a week with this incredible team. 

We began the week on Sunday, with Dr. Hyde consulting with all the hopeful patients the day before the surgeries began. Within a span of 9 hours, Dr. Hyde saw about 20 patients, and left the day with no voice (poor guy) but having seen as many patients as he possibly could have. Jessica was placed as Dr. Hyde’s translator, while I was in charge of translating for the nurses on the medical team, outside with the patients! This team came with all of their supplies, all of their personnel, ready to do life-changing surgeries for women who were most vulnerable and most in-need. They came with one surgeon, Dr. Hyde, one anasthesiologist, one surgeon assistant, one materials manager, and four nurses to do the job, and they sure did. 

And so began the surgeries on Monday! Dr. Hyde scheduled 15 surgeries to be done within 4 days. Jessica and I, nervous as ever, jumped into it - both feet first. I switched between translating in the operating room, to translating between the American and Peruvian nurses outside to translating between administrators trying to evade a pain-medication dilemma. This was by far one of the most adrenaline-filled, stressful, incredible experience I’ve ever had. The whole time I felt like....what am I doing here? I’m just 22, with no medical experiences, and intermediate-advanced level Spanish and in Peru and now in an operating room?! But all in the best of ways. Its always when you’re pushed into challenging situations that you realize, you do have it in you to rise and absolutely crush whatever it is you have to do. 

And finally after many, many hours on our feet, we ended our week with the team not just having completed 14 surgeries, but having changed the lives of these women. Operating on them was an incredibly gifted surgeon (Dr. Hyde), who used the latest technology to do minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery, for those who qualified, resulting in many of the women on their feet and walking out of the hospital the very next day. We heard from some women that if it was not for this team, they wouldn’t have not only been able to afford this needed surgery, but they wouldn’t have been able to take the days off work because of the recovery days needed. With the laparoscopic surgeries, many of these women returned back to work immediately, not missing a beat in supporting their families. 

It was quite incredible for me getting the chance to see this mission right before my eyes for the women of the community that I have been serving for the last nine months. I couldn’t have wished for a better blessing for these women, who deserved a little moment of relief knowing their condition could be fixed, and free of cost. 

What was even more incredible for me was watching an incredibly gifted and passionate team working on what they loved the most, for the greater good of others. Although there was a significant language barrier between the medical team and the local clinic staff, there was an immediate and deep connection between all of them. There was a beautiful sense of humanity and duty that connected us all in that week. Its something I can’t explain well in words, but there was a beautiful aura of love, deep caring and gratefulness from all sides: the medical team, the local staff and of course all of the women receiving the surgeries. It was hands-down the best, most challenging, stressful, and incredible week I have had in my time here. Blessed, is the best word to describe how I feel when I think of that week. 

And with swollen feet, we ended the week tired and very, very content. Mission was accomplished. 

(All pictures were taken with the consent of the patients.)

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Going hard on these excel spreadsheets! Currently inputting vaccine information of every single child within the 1000 Days project (close to 500 children!!!). This data is incredibly important because it allows us to know which kids are vaccinated, what vaccines they have, and what they’re still missing. This helps us go about in an organized manner making sure we get all of the children of the projet vaccinated to avoid preventable diseases like polio and rubella!

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Low-income, low -resource communities = innovation and creativity! We bring all of the supplies: mini-stove, mini-gas tank, plastic tables, cutting boards, plates, knives...down to the toilet paper and buckets of water to wash the dishes after the session has been taught! 

The more innovative, interactive and dynamic our lessons are, the more the mothers capture the messages we try to relay. Month by month I’ve been learning how to be innovative and creative, but mostly resilient to challenges that the realities of this community present to us as educators. 

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My absolute favorite part of volunteering: TEACHING! No matter the nerves of presenting in Spanish, nothing feels better after a long day than feeling like your educational session were effective and our mom’s left knowing something new they could do for the health of their children.

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During a long week of demonstrational sessions that included both a strong earth tremor (that scared me to my core - pardon the pun) and finding a woman having an epileptic seizure on the street of a home we were teaching in (she is okay now)...we found 3 day old puppies!!! They were a bit of cuteness to light up everyone’s week, 

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This week has been crazy busy, filled with lots of nutrition education, demonstration and healthy fooooood! We just finished week 1 of our demonstrational sessions with about 16 mothers from the 1000 Days Anemia Project I work on. We have asked these 16 moms to alternate everyday in attending a demonstrational session where we had them cook nutritious, iron-rich food. We provide all the food, materials, and of course instruction. What do they get in return? Besides bringing in their children to eat a balanced, healthy and most of all, yummy lunch for two weeks straight free of charge, these moms get the opportunity to learn new recipes, cook one on one with our nutritionist (along with Adriana and I), ask any nutritional questions they may have, and increase their confidence in knowing how to cook delicious yet healthy foods their children have been wanting more of!

Here’s how we did it:

1. Before anything we always had our mom’s wash their hands. To demonstrate how to wash hands in the case the mom’s didn’t have running water in their homes, we used a bucket with a spout, filled it with water and put some soap on the side to show them an example of what they can do in their homes to always have an easy way to wash their hands.

2. We weighed all of the 24 children that are participating in this session to see if their weight will increase just from the two weeks of healthy eating. We won’t see a big difference since it isn’t much time, but we just like to see how their weight does. 

3. Food prep. (usually took 2 hours-recipes were taken from the Peru Ministry of Health recipe book that focuses on iron-rich, innovative dishes that the children would love, and they did! These recipe books will be given to each of the moms at the end of the session so they can follow it in their homes.)

4. Handwashing for every kid before eating!

5. FOOD TIME

6. Clean up

7. Absorption time- now that the kids are filled with a nutritious, iron-rich lunch, they get to sit back, relax and let their bodies absorb up all that iron and raise their hemoglobin levels back to normal!

Until next week, I am pooped!

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Everything I love in one photo: healthy food (rice and eggs with liver and squash sneakily hidden so the kids don’t notice), children, children eating healthy food, feeding kids healthy food, nutritional counseling for mothers (top right), demonstrational sessions (as long and tiring as they may be), and of course pineapple juice! Oh and myself, because self-love is always important. :)

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After an incredible, exhilirating week vacation in Huaraz, I am officially back in the office here in Trujillo, reminiscing on beautiful memories I will never forget. This past week, I was incredibly lucky to have my mother and sister visit from the states. We spent three days in Trujillo, in which they got to see the city I lived in, meet my CMMB family, and experience my little slice of heaven. We then headed out to the beautiful mountain town of Huaraz, booked some hiking tours to the famous lagunas in this neck of the Andes and did some major hiking!

To be honest, I can talk about the beauty of the hike and the lagunas for hours, but I believe that the pictures I have posted do better justice to its beauty than my words ever could. What I do want to share are the lessons that I believe hiking in the midst of nature teaches us (at least me) about life. As I was walking along with my mother and sister, trying to catch my breath every few minutes (4,680 meters above sea level!!!!) I picked up on a few themes in hiking that I believe directly correlate to life.

1. Positive attitude: starting off a hike knowing you have 3-4 hours of intense upward climbing followed by a 3 hours downhill, thinking positively is key. I realized the more I told myself I couldn’t do it, that it was just too hard, the heavier my muscles felt. The more I told myself, hey this isn’t that bad, we’re almost there, the faster the time went. Mind-body connection is just that strong. I believe this is the same in life, you can’t get anywhere with a negative attitude, and I’m glad I’m learning that early on.

2. One foot at a time: The last hour of the hike was definitely the hardest. Lungs constantly gasping for air, muscles burning from the lack of oxygen, exhaustion (both mental and physical). We were literally at a point where the only option was putting one foot in front of the other. Slowly but surely we made it! There have been many instances in my life, where the only way to move forward and keep going was one foot at a time. No matter how frustrating and slow it was, I moved on, and only because I put one in front of the other.

3. Admire the beauty in everything: from the streams, to the flowers, waterfalls, grazing cows, grandiose landscapes, we can never forget the beauty that has been created for us to live in. In the midst of pain and exhaustion, my mom and I would stop, take a second and admire the immense beauty we were in. It’s in that moment where you remember, the world is beautiful and life is beautiful. How can we get so caught up in minute issues when we’re so blessed to be here?

4. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel: just as it rained on us for an hour, getting all of our clothes wet and making us shiver from the cold, a spectacular rainbow came out, illuminating the mountains just after. Just as our muscles were dying and our lungs felt like they were collapsing, we finally turned the corner and saw the blue of the Laguna 69. In that exact moment, you realize going through the the tunnel was worth it. And just as in every difficult moment we go through in life, there will always be the light, we just have to remember there is one and focus on it till you get to it.

Hiking and being one with nature always has a way of grounding me, and what a perfect country to do it in (thanks for your incredible beauty, Andes Mountain Range!!). Until next time, I am here at the office about to start new educational nutrition sessions with our nutritionist. Excited for coming adventures, whatever they may be.

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Why it’s easy to get up and go to work everyday. 

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Another three months have past, meaning in a week from now we’ll be starting another round of ‘antropometria’ again! Anthropometry is an incredibly important part of the 1000 Days project, allowing us to measure each child’s height, weight and hemoglobin count. More importantly, it allows us to evaluate the success of the project by tracking the children’s progress in raising their anemia level along with their height and weight as well. All is linked. Ferrous sulfate supplementation, nutrition education, and hygiene education to eliminate anemia and malnutrition ailing this community. 

Aside from all the screaming babies scared of the inevitable hemoglobin finger prick, I’m excited to be in charge of the registration section again and get a chance to speak with our mama’s!

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Yo hago lo que usted no puede, y usted hace lo que yo no puedo. Juntos podemos hacer grandes cosas. I do what you can not, and you do what I can not. Together we can do great things.

Madre Teresa de Calcuta

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A Day in the Life of a Trujillana :)

I generally wake up around 7am, shower, get dressed, have breakfast and am out of the house by 7:50am most days. After hailing down a bus that goes to Ovalo Papal or Metro (the stop to the office), I get on and luckily only pay 1 sol each way (so cheap!). Workdays last from 8am till about 6pm with an hour break for lunch, which was a surprise for since it is a 2 hour longer workday from what I’m used to in the states however, I think I’m more or less used to it now! For lunch we usually go to a nearby restaraunt called La Marinera and get a ‘menu’ which generally costs 8 soles. Recently we have been cooking in the office, so it really is more of how we feel that day.

During work we are either in the office, or in the field or a mix of both. There are certain weeks where we have so much going on, lots of sessions in the community and meetings, which is incredibly interesting and fun (but very tiring!). Other weeks are more sectioned off for planning, doing some research, and budgetting, so it is definitely a good mix of office and field time. (Although my personal favorite is being in the field where all the action happens!!) 

After work, I generally walk home with Adriana, the other volunteer and my roommate, which takes about 20 mins. We live on a very busy and main street of the city, called Avenida Husares de Junin. Lots of restaraunts, lots of action...lots of noise, but I love it! We live in a beautiful two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in an incredibly safe part of Trujillo. On our way home, depending on the day, we’ll stop by and buy some veggies for dinner at the fruit market we have, called the fruteria. Come home, cook dinner quickly, eat and chat. 

Adriana and I made a gym membership at the end of March, so usually after dinner we’ll go to the gym (if I’m being motivated and all cute) for an hour or so. The walk to and back from the gym is about 5 minutes each way. There is no better feeling then being sweaty in a (slightly) warm gym then stepping outside into beautiful, windy, 70 degree weather for a cool down on my way home. Which speaking of the weather, its beautiful. Trujillo is known as the land of eternal spring, and that name is very suiting. The weather is now down to about 19C which is about 66F on average. A little chilly but, perfect overall. 

On the weekends, Trujillo has a very young and popping nightlife with tons of bars and clubs throughout the city. If you love dancing, Trujillo is the place for you! Another option is going out to Huanchaco, the small beach town near us, offering tons of bars, with tons of gringos (foreignors) to mingle with! 

Life is very chill, which is everything I need. I definitely finish the day completely exhausted and ready for some sleep between work, cooking, and gym, but always happy. 

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We’ve had a very busy May here at CMMB Trujillo! We’re currently finishing up a series of educational sessions that Adriana and I, alongside the nutritionist, were responsible for planning and leading! We chose to focus on the theme of MyPlate to teach to the mom´s in hopes of bringing awareness to the importance of balancing our plates with lots of nutrient-filled fruits and veggies, whole grains, and low-fat meats and dairy products. We ended all of our sessions with a little ‘Mi Plato’ snack (a plate with all 5 food groups), reinforcing the recommended proporcions of all the food groups to the mom’s and getting them to try something new...brown rice, or as its called here ‘arroz integral’! 

As of so far, this has been my favorite activity as a volunteer. It’s been incredibly rewarding putting in hard work to plan a dynamic yet effective lesson and battling through the nerves of presenting in Spanish. A moment that really touched me during these sessions was after our lesson and snack, I found a mom take out a notebook she had brought and began copying down everything we had presented. It really reminded me of firstly, how privileged I am to be able to have this knowledge that we often take for granted, and secondly, how important health education is within communities for the future health outcomes of these children. Just simply one piece of information a health educator can say, can seep in and make a world’s difference in the behaviors and overall health of an individual. Reminds me that education really is power. 

Next up: Demonstrational nutrition education series at the end of this month! Very excited :)

#CMMB #cmmbvolunteer  

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Where Did April Go?

So somehow the end of April is verrrrry near and I have been here for a bit over two months now! Despite having lost my iPhone (that was very near and dear to my heart), I am having a great experience being here in Peru and volunteering with CMMB. Slowly I have been getting accustomed to living in Trujillo: joined a gym, figured out all the best places to get my groceries, fruits and vegetables, and (maybe) started making a few friends here and there!

The biggest thing I´ve had to get accustomed to though has been everyone speaking in Spanish, everywhere, always. I obviously knew this is how it would be, however, it did take a bit to get used to that and more importantly, not getting nervous every time I paid for a few apples at the ´fruteria´. Its definitely been a challenging but fun time living in a country where the people speak a foreign language you´re not used to, and I think for the first time in my life, I´ve really learned to appreciate the bravery it takes people to migrate to a new country with a foreign language. I have been extremely humbled by this challenging, sometimes frustrating process, that slowly but surely is extremely rewarding. After a couple months here and hours of Spanish class every Monday through Friday, I can start to actually notice the improvement in myself. The anxiety in buying apples? Gone! Receiving instructions from my boss? Getting better-ish... Understanding people on the streets? Pretty much there :) 

There is still a lonnnng path ahead for me when it comes to improving my Spanish, but speaking and understanding (more or less fluidly) to a mother from the community yesterday only reignited my flame to keep chugging on in practicing, mistakes or not!

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One Month In!

Hey everyone,

So its been a bit over a month now here in Peru, and it already has been incredible! I am currently working a half day in the office, and spending the second half of the day in Spanish classes to improve my speaking skills to a workable point. I have another month of these classes and then I'll really be out and in the field! However, I've been really exposed to all of the projects going on now and have had the amazing opportunity to help out in the registration process of the children and families for the 1000 Days Anemia project here.

So far we've registered almost 150 new families, on top of the roughly 300 children already in the program. This program provides families in the community of Nuevo Jerusalen, an isolated and impoverished community, with Ferrous Sulfate (a mineral which eliminates anemia by increasing the amount of Iron and Hemoglobin in the body), nutrition education, environmental health education, hygiene education and much more. This program is completely free of charge for these families thanks to CMMB and your contributions and really makes the difference in these children's lives.

I've been blessed and extremely fortunate to be a part of this project and can't wait to tell you guys more about this journey. Stay tuned and please remember that all of your contributions, no matter how big or small, make the difference.

Much love,

Sama

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Our nutritionist Milagros, leading a nutrition education session for mothers with children under 3 years old. This lesson was focused on the types of foods they should be feeding their children during the different stages of development. This kind of education allows the mothers to give their babies the correct nutrition to both develop adequately but also fight off the possibility of malnutrition with food variation. Along with this, these lessons provide the mother will the confidence in knowing that what she is feeding her baby is the healthy choice!

Especially in these communities, good nutrition is essential for the proper development of the children, to help their bodies grow as well as fight off any diseases they may encounter as a result of their environment. 

Next week is the demonstrative lesson....lots of cooking and lots of healthy foooooods!