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Lots of exciting things happening here! This past week we had our first 3 day training session for our healthcare promoters. The second half of their training will be another 3 day session at the beginning of May. They were 3 very long, but very exciting days, packed with teaching, hands on practice, presentations/dramas, worship, and much, much more! Altogether we had about 20 healthcare promoters attend, a very diverse group ranging from age 17 to 70′s, and representing approx. 8 villages in Peru and 3 villages in Bolivia.
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Scott did the overwhelming majority of the teaching and training (appropriate seeing how he’s the doctor and all) 
with the help of our dear friend Moises, who came all the way from Boliva to assist Scott with interpreting. Bev and I assisted in assuring that things were being understood, people were staying awake and having fun, and helped make sure that everyone was actively participating. Bev also kindly offered herself up with her awesome anatomy t-shirt as a learning device for the group as well!
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One of the things the healthcare promoters learned during the training was how to check someone’s heart, pulse, and lungs. When it came to the hands on practice with the stethoscope many of the women were a little timid at first. So I stepped up to the plate and offered up my own body as their learning device.
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After a while though they were a little less modest and had a lot of fun listening to one another’s lungs and heart. It was awesome to see their energy, excitement, and desire to learn! We had some great laughs when people struggled to find each other’s pulse, etc…..declaring their patient dead….and then celebrating that they were alive once they finally found it!
I was officially the tough professor who was responsible for giving them homework each of the 3 nights they were with us. Their homework entailed of practicing using their healthcare books and materials to look up illnesses, treatments, signs that you should seek immediate medical attention, first aid, etc. I would assign the same illness or emergency to about 5 or 6 of them, so that they could work together in the evenings to come up with answers and solutions.
They were told that each group would be responsible for presenting their answers to the rest of the group the next morning. Their first morning back Bev, Scott, and I were absolutely THRILLED when the groups got up and not only shared the information they’d found, but had actually put together short skits, dramas, and presentations! LOVED the creativity, and skits are always a fun and interactive way to teach…we were pumped to see them getting so into it!
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They were all excellent students, taking good notes, using their materials/book, and asking questions. At the end of the 3 days they all took a small exam, with less than 20 questions, in order to get an idea of what they had learned/understood and what we would need to possibly go over again during the next training session. 
They were able to use their book, materials, and notes to assist them during their test, so we felt that it was a pretty low-key and low-stress exam. They felt differently! What we learned from the experience was that many of them have not had any kind of formal schooling (and thus no formal/informal testing) in decades, and so just test anxiety alone really got to them. In turn, during the next training session we are planning to focus more on practical/hands on exams, where they individually demonstrate to us the skills they’ve learned. In this way we hope to gain a better understanding of their skill levels and knowledge, by eliminating the stress/challenges of the written exams.
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And last but not least, each day we of course made time for worship, singing, and praying. (I became the official drummer girl.) It was neat to be amongst this amazing group of people who not only share our interests in public health, but with whom we also share a common faith. Additionally, it was so great to see such a variety of people come together from two different countries and several different villages in order to achieve a common goal. We saw many new friendships develop amongst the group, and they have even started planning further partnerships amongst their churches, such as youth exchanges and training of pastors….so awesome to see them run with it! Overall a truly wonderful group of individuals, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to our next training with all of them in May! For more pics from our training click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/970
This is a daunting blog entry that’s been hanging over my head for over a week or so now….sooo much to catch you all up on my dear readers. Bev, Scott, and I headed off to Cusco a few days before the February mission team arrived from Boise in order to visit some of the local Methodist churches in the area and get prepared for the team to arrive. We had the opportunity to visit a number of communities that had been affected by the recent flooding in the Cusco area. The water supplies of many of these communities were severely contaminated, causing problems and illnesses from parasites, particularly among children. Scott had come prepared to encounter this and had brought along some tablets, allowing us to treat about 20 children in one of the communities for parasites.
We also had the opportunity to visit some of the church’s economic development projects, including their Cuy Farming projects…aka Guinea Pig Farms. These projects have allowed many of the church women to not only begin to have a stable source of income, but has also allowed them to be able to start financially supporting their local churches as well. Was a fun day of visiting all the cute little guys…until at the end of the day the church women treated us to a delicacy……that’s right….you guessed it….guinea pig. I’d already tried it once, but it was SOOO much harder the second time after visiting and playing with them all day! For more pics from our visits with the Cusco churches and communities, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/835
The February mission team arrived safe and sound all the way from Boise, Idaho, and two weeks of work, fun, and all sorts of craziness began! While in Cusco we had the opportunity to visit many of the Inca ruins and the Sacred Valley…truly incredible structures, set in picturesque mountainsides and valleys. For more pictures from my travel adventures with the group, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/740
While still in Cusco the team worked on a small water purification project for one of the communities affected by the flooding. We made buckets with pictures and simple instructions for making potable water using a two buckets system and Clorox. We then trained Wilbur, a member of the community, how to administer the purification process and how to teach his community about the precautions that must be taken with the Clorox. It was a small project, but was certainly much needed and appreciated for this small community that had been devestated by the flooding.
We arrived in Puno and bright and early the next morning we hit the ground running with our very first “La Buena Salud” (Good Health) Health Clinic. Many of the women from the mission group came well prepared with bible stories, crafts, and games and hosted an excellent Vacation Bible School for the children who came to the clinic. With assistance from a local nutritionist, Wilma, and a local Biologist, Vilma, our clinic had educational presentations about nutrition, dental health, and germs/bacteria/disease prevention. Community members were also able to pay a VERY small fee (less than one dollar) to visit our ophthalmologist, Scott, and our local dentist, Paola, who is generously volunteering her time
to help with our programs. Those who visited Scott received reading glasses if needed or sunglasses for protection, and almost every single person who visited Paola had several teeth that needed to be pulled…of which she could only pull 1 or 2 in a single day. (Dental health is a serious problem here….which is why a huge part of our clinics is TEACHING about how to brush your teeth and maintain good oral health.) For more pics from our Puno health clinic, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/880
The Puno clinic was a great success and gave us the boost and encouragement we needed as we headed off to Bolivia for two more days of clinics and VBS. We had excellent turnouts at both clinics, and in Bolivia we no longer had the assistance of Wilma and Vilma for our educational presentations on nutrition, dental health, and germs/bacteria/disease prevention…so Bev and I stepped up to the plate. I switched from Paola’s dental assistant to Dental Health Educator…which I actually REALLY enjoyed! I taught in Spanish about the importance of taking care of your teeth from a very early age, the way in which cavities and poor dental health can lead to further illnesses/diseases, how sweets and other foods impact their teeth, and when/how to properly brush their teeth. For more pics from our Bolivia health clinics and travels, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/908 .
Overall it was an incredibly exciting and fun two weeks of work and play with the February mission team, and I was very sad to have to bid them all farewell so soon. From the clinics, to the travel, to just getting to know such fun and interesting people, my experience with the February mission team has me looking forward to the arrival of the next two mission teams with eager anticipation!
Last but not least…I’ve been diligently working on creating pamphlets, presentations, and blogs (in both English and Spanish) with information about our mission down here and our “La Buena Salud” project in order to be able to better inform people here and in the states about the work we are doing here. Sooo, if you are interested in checking out our mission’s spiffy new blog, you can read it in English at http://laketiticacabordermission.wordpress.com/ or in Spanish at http://misionfronteras.wordpress.com/. It’s still a work in progress, so I would love to hear your feedback on whether or not there is info missing or questions that you still have after reading it, etc.
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