So the pace is S-L-O-W. I'm in Cusco today and it's a pretty Sunday and have been S-t-r-o-l-l-i-n-g. My english student, Juan, (a very handsome Peruvian man) asked for the afternoon off. We usually spend a couple hours together while he reads me articles from an English newspaper. He is trying to get into the tour business and needs his english to be better. So, our lesson will be Tuesday instead.
I have been editing the pictures. What a job! I wish I had more time to get creative with this blog thing...I have seen some really cool ones. (But, the next time I have pictures, I'll be more timely in posting them, then they won't be out of order and I will have more to write about them too.)
As alluded to, things are slow here. And don't get me wrong, that's just fine! Many days I head out to do something and plans just change. (And there's always mañana.) After all I'm on foot mostly, everything seems to shut down between 12 Noon and 2:30PM, or if I'm with Ramon, we need to check out every possibility before we commit to anything. And again, we're on foot!
So the big adventure yesterday was that I got my haircut and, a different color, (actually 2 colors)!! Well the build-up to this lasted a few days, after I mentioned what I wanted to do, because we then walked by I think every pelloqueria (beauty shop) eyeing whether there were customers, how old they were, and then the hairdressers looking at the same criteria. (Here is an example of the mañana strategy...all of those days I said , 'OK, it'll be today,' but after walking all over...mañana...mañana...) By the time I sat in a chair, I think I was half crazy from looking! So I was then in the hands of both Ramon and a gay Peruvian hairdresser, because I just don't know words that apply to getting a hair cut and color. So picture this: blaring latin music, a tiny shop, a bunch of customers, a cute gay peruvian hairdresser, 4 or 5 young women finishing up what he starts, a tiny closet where if you really need your hair washed, you get it but the water is out of a barrel...I have never had a guy stay for the whole thing start to finish either. So now it is short and darker with a few blond streaks. (Just right for Sipascancha!) I'll put a picture on soon.
Speaking of Sipascancha, I really like working there. But it is an adventure. I saw about 20 patients my last time there. I mostly see the kids and moms and a few men. But I did have an interesting male patient. The day I arrived I first saw him; he came in with a cough. He had not had it long, so I gave my talk on more liquids, soup, mates (teas), to breath water vapors and to use tylenol for the fever and aches. So he doesn't come back during the day (a good sign), but that evening, about dusk, his daughter runs down crying giving me a hand signal that he cut his throat. Well, I had no idea what it menat and she didn't speak spanish. So I got one of the teachers and we trudge up the mountainside to his house. What a trip. Its adobe, and there is a tiny opening for the door...and dark, totally dark...So they light a candle, and thankfully I can see he has not slit his damn throat. After a translation, he coughed so hard his chest hurt and he thought he heart was going to stop. He was so sweaty from the fever and in tons of clothes (you would not believe how many clothes these people wear!). So I got him to take off some and checked him all out. BP fine, breath sounds just fine, pulse a little rapid...and I say do you have any tylenol left, but in spanish for the teacher who then translates it to quechua and it turns out he had not used any of it! Or had fluids, or breathed vapors! So that was a lesson. Now I know it isn't their custom to drink water and that I can't just be general in my instructions. So I told him he was fine and that he needed to drink soup, and 8 cups of mate and to breath the vapors when the water is boiled. He was supposed to return to the clinic the next day but didn't; I'm assuming he was fine.
I have been editing the pictures. What a job! I wish I had more time to get creative with this blog thing...I have seen some really cool ones. (But, the next time I have pictures, I'll be more timely in posting them, then they won't be out of order and I will have more to write about them too.)
As alluded to, things are slow here. And don't get me wrong, that's just fine! Many days I head out to do something and plans just change. (And there's always mañana.) After all I'm on foot mostly, everything seems to shut down between 12 Noon and 2:30PM, or if I'm with Ramon, we need to check out every possibility before we commit to anything. And again, we're on foot!
So the big adventure yesterday was that I got my haircut and, a different color, (actually 2 colors)!! Well the build-up to this lasted a few days, after I mentioned what I wanted to do, because we then walked by I think every pelloqueria (beauty shop) eyeing whether there were customers, how old they were, and then the hairdressers looking at the same criteria. (Here is an example of the mañana strategy...all of those days I said , 'OK, it'll be today,' but after walking all over...mañana...mañana...) By the time I sat in a chair, I think I was half crazy from looking! So I was then in the hands of both Ramon and a gay Peruvian hairdresser, because I just don't know words that apply to getting a hair cut and color. So picture this: blaring latin music, a tiny shop, a bunch of customers, a cute gay peruvian hairdresser, 4 or 5 young women finishing up what he starts, a tiny closet where if you really need your hair washed, you get it but the water is out of a barrel...I have never had a guy stay for the whole thing start to finish either. So now it is short and darker with a few blond streaks. (Just right for Sipascancha!) I'll put a picture on soon.
Speaking of Sipascancha, I really like working there. But it is an adventure. I saw about 20 patients my last time there. I mostly see the kids and moms and a few men. But I did have an interesting male patient. The day I arrived I first saw him; he came in with a cough. He had not had it long, so I gave my talk on more liquids, soup, mates (teas), to breath water vapors and to use tylenol for the fever and aches. So he doesn't come back during the day (a good sign), but that evening, about dusk, his daughter runs down crying giving me a hand signal that he cut his throat. Well, I had no idea what it menat and she didn't speak spanish. So I got one of the teachers and we trudge up the mountainside to his house. What a trip. Its adobe, and there is a tiny opening for the door...and dark, totally dark...So they light a candle, and thankfully I can see he has not slit his damn throat. After a translation, he coughed so hard his chest hurt and he thought he heart was going to stop. He was so sweaty from the fever and in tons of clothes (you would not believe how many clothes these people wear!). So I got him to take off some and checked him all out. BP fine, breath sounds just fine, pulse a little rapid...and I say do you have any tylenol left, but in spanish for the teacher who then translates it to quechua and it turns out he had not used any of it! Or had fluids, or breathed vapors! So that was a lesson. Now I know it isn't their custom to drink water and that I can't just be general in my instructions. So I told him he was fine and that he needed to drink soup, and 8 cups of mate and to breath the vapors when the water is boiled. He was supposed to return to the clinic the next day but didn't; I'm assuming he was fine.
posted by Laurie at
2:16 PM
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