Little Earthquakes...

I was realizing that on this blog so far I’ve mostly just talked about festivities on the weekend and not bored you all to tears with the every day details of training which does in fact constitute most of what I spend my time here taking part in….but last week training got a little more interesting because we had a our first ‘dia de practica’ where we got to go out to health post and shadow the providers working there. The first day my group was supposed to do visits to people in the community of Tarazona who are undergoing TB treatment, and after an hour and half of trying to find this one patients house (we had 5 people in the community following us around trying to help!) we had to give up so that was disappointing, but that’s how things kind of work around here…if the community doesn’t know where the guy lives, there’s a good chance the address or something was just taken down wrong…but the next day was much more productive, I got to watch what would probably be the equivalent of a pediatric nurse do her job and held a two month old while she gave him his vaccinations by mouth, then helped her weigh babies up to two years so that was a nice start to the day until she asked me to give the baby an injection, of course I explained to her that I‘m only here to watch during training (I think there is the assumption we must have some background in hands on health care, and even if I did PC doesn’t allow us to give injections)…after that I sat in on an obstetrz which is similar to a nurse/midwife and saw how she worked with patients, afterwards we had a good talk about the nature of how these health posts work and I felt like I came away from it knowing a good deal more about the nature of what can be treated at the posts and what needs to be done at the regional capitals.
Friday night I stayed in and just read my book and slept early, Saturday I went to La Agraria and got to try some crazy different fruits I’d never heard of before, some of which were horrendous and others were soo good, I’ll make sure visitors get to try them! After La Agraria my friend Anne and I decided to head into one of the big plazas because she had some shopping to do, it took us ages but we had a great cup of coffee (yay!) and it was worth it, seeing the prices of Starbucks in Soles (Peru’s currency)definitely puts things in a bit more perspective here, especially because I’m living most days on 8 soles, less than 3 US dollars…so seeing the star bucks prices shook me a bit more then it usually would, but who knows when the next time will be (awhile!)…it was also a bit of a shock seeing the prices on everything at the department stores too….I just kept thinking of my family in Chacrasana and how prohibitive any of the prices would be…there’s a very stark contrast in the crowd you would see in these places in Lima and the places closer to Chaclacayo but I sort of wonder if where I am now (as poor as they seem) is more like the middle class here compared to where I‘m going…the other day we were told to expect ‘caves‘…maybe some with windows?!
Sunday I rested as well, and in the afternoon Jason, the previous volunteer who lived in my house came to visit….he’s been in Lima trying to get a root canal for 12 days and the dentist keeps dragging things out, only doing one step at a time and making him come back in every day so he was not a very happy camper. However, he and my little brothers and I all went to Chosica to play some air hockey and as we were getting ready to head out Jason spotted some Choclo (oversized sweet corn) and wanted some so we headed over to a street vendor…..one thing led to another and my host mom ended up ordering me anticucho (cows heart) with potatoes (of course)…..I normally would probably not have protested (it takes more effort than its worth I’m learning!) but given that I’m definitely still in feeble shape after being sick this week I opted just for a tiny piece, enough to be polite. When I was happy with myself for getting out of that we went for a walk over to the big white Jesus statue, and my host brother decided he wanted a burger, so in we went….everyone had burgers and I ended up getting a little icecream (better than hot pink burgers) and pushing my 6 year old brother to finish it off….Its always an adventure trying to avoid eating here :)
In other news, one of the other volunteers gave me his hard drive to share his music, so my itunes collection went from like 400 songs to 7 days worth, I’m very happy with that as its really my only little entertainment solace!!! Tonight I was listening to some songs and I heard a loud bang outside and next thing it felt like I was really dizzy or something….my room was moving and my bed was shaking and it seems that usually only means one thing around here…so I threw on some shoes and headed outside where my family were and they had a good laugh at me…I asked them if they had felt that, they said yup, it’s a pequeno terremoto (small earthquake) and when I asked if that happens often the explanation I got was that it happens when the ‘climate changes!’ So there you go, it may have only lasted 10 seconds but I felt my first earth tremor…of course I’m sure it was laughable here, many still talk about the Ica earthquake in 2007 and how they felt it all the way up here in Chacrasana and that one was ridiculously high on the radar. Today I found out though that I definitely wasn't imagining things, lots of others felt it too..
Only one more week until I get to go to Huarez in Ancash, very excited for that! After that only one more week and I will know my permanent site…I had my chat with Amelia, our supervisor for health again today but honestly, I think she already has in mind where we are going based on need over our individual preferences, so we will see how it all pans out in terms of where I get put...
Enjoy some pics below of the carbfest that was my dinner the other night, and when Jason came to visit the picture of the two of us that looks horribly awkward is because as it was being taken my host family was rambling on about the two of us as a cute couple in the sierra...hahahha no. The Scranton one is especially for you Joe...

Con Carino,
K.