So first I headed off with my friend Massiel to Arequipa where we had a great time visiting some of our girlfriends.

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Then Massiel and I headed off on a 3 day hike of the beautiful Colca Canyon, which is the deepest canyon in the world! __________________________________

(Even deeper than the Grand Canyon)

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Our third and last day of hiking started with a “3 hour” climb up out of the canyon…which Massiel and I dominated in just about 2 hours exactly! We were the first to make it to the top and felt like superwomen!

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With the rest of our group once they all reached the top as well.

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On the trip back from the Colca Canyon I made friends with some of the locals…

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And decided it was finally time for some uber cliche tourist pictures with llamas, alpacas, and giant hawk thingy.

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This little guy was soooo sweet…and really likes potato chips!

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We stopped at some amazing hot springs on the way back…set in the middle of some beautiful mountains.

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Once back to Arequipa I bid Massiel farewell and spent an afternoon whitewater rafting on the Rio Chili outside of Arequipa.

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Our two guides were two young Argentian guys who live and breath rafting and absolutely love their job…

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and in turn made the whole experience a TON of fun!

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It was a relatively tame rafting experience…

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with just a few class 4 rapids,  which were an awesome rush.

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The whole experience definitely wet my appetite for some more whitewater rafting in the very near future!

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I then headed to the province of Ica, Peru to the tiny oasis of Huacachina….a VERY neat and tranquil little oasis…

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which lies in the middle of hundreds of miles of desert and sand dunes.

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Beautiful view from my hotel room in the oasis!

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The big draw to Huacachina is the amazing sandboarding that you can do on the massive sand dunes right outside the oasis.

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Sandboarding standing up is incredibly difficult (even for master snowboarders) and generally kind of dull as you must go fairly slow in order to keep standing…thus the majority of the sandboarders, including myself, go down on their stomach…

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Doing so you can REALLY fly down the gigantic sand dunes! A huge adrenaline rush!

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Walked away from the sandboarding fully intact…

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with just some minor bruising from the board…when you hit a bump flying down a dune on a piece of wood your bones take a good beating!

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With my group, guide, and our crazy fun dune buggy!

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While still at Huacachina I went with a group of other American tourists I met to take a tour of the Tacama winery and vineyards, which is the oldest winery in all of South America!

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The tour of the winery was free…

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along with a free wine tasting of about 10 of their wines, which I found to be surprisingly delicious, since Peru isn’t really known for its wines.

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The next morning I took an hour bus ride to the ocean and went on a tour of the islands of Paracas, which are home to an UNBELIEVABLE number of various bird species and a number of mammals as well.

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This island was literally a solid MASS of birds…all that you see that is black are birds! Literally hundreds of thousands on just one of the islands alone!

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Saw a handful of adorable little penguins…

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Saw thousands of the Peruvian seabird called the Peruvian Booby…yep…that’s really its name…

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Saw some absolutely precious sea lions…

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This girl was posing so nicely for us!

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Saw a handful of dolphins…but was never quite quick enough with the camera!

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And at the dock there were tons of huge and amazing pelicans!

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I then headed off to the city of Nasca and took a half hour flight to see the Nasca lines…which are one of Peru´s and the world´s biggest mysteries/wonders.

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There are over 350 different designs and lines in the Nasca plains…covering hundreds of kilometers, and they are sooooo gigantic that they can only be seen by air. It is believed that the Incans made these enormous designs across the plains as a way to communicate with their gods or with those from another world…since they are sooo huge and only visible by air, it is an incredible mystery how a civilization could have made the designs hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  Below are pics of some of the most famous designs…

The monkey…

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The Condor…

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The alien man on the mountainside….

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The hummingbird…

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The spider…

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And the tree of life and hands….which are two of the much smaller drawings, and you can still see how large they are compared to these buildings!

Having seen the lines…I can understand how many believe that extraterrestrials had a hand in it…they are just so enormous and spanning so many miles…seems truly unbelievable that humans could have made them hundreds of years ago!

After my visit to Nasca I headed back home to Puno…and was soon off working and playing in Bolivia…stay tuned for my stories and pictures from my adventures there!

My friend Darla flew in from Iowa for a week and a half long visit…and did we ever make the most of each and every minute! We saw and did sooo many incredible things…and so I will once again try to let the pictures do MOST of the talking in this entry.

The day after she got in we caught an early morning boat ride out to the Uros floating reed islands. The floating islands are always a fascinating experience, and the bright vivid colors of the women’s traditional dress make them looking like walking art…

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After our visit at the Uros we headed out to the charming and traditional little island of Amantani to spend the night with a host family. Pic on the left is of Darla and I looking local…well okay, as local as we possibly COULD look…with our host sister and host mother.

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Our host mother assisted us in getting our traditional dress outfits put on correctly…and then we were off to a local party with lots of music, dancing, and fun!

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Taking a break from the dancing with our host sister!

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The next morning we bid our host family farewell and headed off to the beautiful island of Taquile…where the locals also dress daily in their traditional dress and where you can enjoy some of the most stunning views of Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian mountain ranges in the distance.

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While on Taquile we purchased some of wonderful local handmade goods…

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And enjoyed a scrumptious lunch of some of the freshest and tastiest trout I’ve ever had.

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Then we headed back to Puno and set to the task of getting all of our luggage ready for our trip the next day…double blessing—-Darla brought down with her a huge suitcase filled with over 550 toothbrushes donated by generous Iowans, which will be used in our school toothbrushing programs…and as if that in and of itself wasn’t awesome enough………..it also meant that she had an ENTIRE huge empty suitcase in which to haul tons of stuff back to the states for me!…and boy did we ever fill that baby tight! (You wouldn’t believe how much stuff you can accumulate, such as gifts, etc, when you live in another country for 6 months!)

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Once the luggage was all ready to go we headed out for a fun night of dancing with a bunch of my local friends to celebrate my birthday! Turned the big 24!________________________________________________________

The next day we caught an early bus to Cusco where we met up with Bev and Scott…and sweet and thoughtful as always, they had bought me a birthday cake!________________________________________________________

The next morning we had an early start around 4:00am and headed off on our AMAZING five day trek on the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu!________________________________________________________

The first day of the trek was quite easy, with about 6-7 hours of hiking on relatively flat terrain.

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The day was not without it’s memorable moments, however……….Darla had a little accident just about 5 minutes before arriving to our campsite!…………not EXACTLY what it looks like…she just fell into a shallow river we were crossing!________________________________________________________

Her boots obviously got soaked and were still not dry by the next morning…so she spent the whole second day hiking around with her high fashion plastic bag socks in order to keep her feet dry!________________________________________________________

Although the price we paid for our trek was that which you pay to be part of a group of about 15 tourists with one guide….we somehow had the random and incredible fortune of being in a group with just the two of us, our guide, AND an assistant guide! So we had our own private guides and were able to hike the whole trek at our own pace and in our own way…was wonderful!________________________________________________________

Additionally, we had our own private cook AND assistant chef who prepared truly UNBELIEVABLY delicious meals for us…using a mini propane stove…I kept saying to Darla…I would be WAY impressed if someone served me this meal from their full kitchen…and so I am outrageously impressed that he just whipped this up on a propane stove beside a river!________________________________________________________

The cook was such a sweet and kind man…and he even woke us up every morning with hot tea served to us in our tent to wake/warm us up! Needless to say, we felt CRAZY spoiled!________________________________________________________

The second day of our hike we climbed up to the Salkantay pass…which sits at about 4600-4800 meters above sea level (they all disagree on the exact altitude!)…

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Upon arriving at the pass we had a breathtaking view of the Salkantay mountain…the photo does it ZERO justice…

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Since our group was just the 4 of us, we had a lot more freedom to eat, camp, etc. wherever we felt like it along the trail…such as this wonderful afternoon where we ate lunch beside some beautiful rapids while soaking our feet in the cool waters…amazing!________________________________________________________

Our third day was a hot one as we started entering the highland jungle…along the way we stopped at an amazing waterfall…

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and after some convincing we decided to get in the ICE cold waterfall and enjoy the first shower we´d had in days! Was such an exhilarating experience but also a thoroughly numbing and freezing one!________________________________________________________

Our fourth day of hiking was our most challenging day…starting with a 3 hour climb up the side of a mountain…then a 2 hour climb down the other side of the STEEP moutain (which was rather miserable and a KILLER on your knees)…

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We passed a MASSIVE waterfall and then finished up with another 4 hours or so of relatively flat terrain before reaching our final destination town of Aguas Calientes…

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Darla and I both agreed that we got DOMINATED by this day of hiking…as can be seen in the look on my face in the pic on the left……..pretty much destroyed.

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The next morning we were up by about 4:00am and by 5:30 or so we were on our way up to Machu Picchu! The sun was still not high enough over the mountains when we entered Machu Picchu…and our first site of the ruins was majestic…with these clouds and fog hanging much of the city.

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As the sun began to rise and cast its rays on the city…it was like each ray unveiled a new layer of the city’s beauty… 

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just breathtaking

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I have to admit that because of all the hype… I didn’t have TOO high of expectations for Machu Picchu…just in that I thought…ya, so they are old Incan Ruins on the top of a mountain…but I don’t think it is probably THAT awe inspiring and miraculous like everyone makes it out to be…AND THEN I SAW IT. And I have to say…it TRULY is a wonder of the world.

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You look all around to the sides of the mountain where Machu Picchu sits and this is what you see…just huge, steep, forest covered mountains…and think…what on earth were they thinking???? And how on earth could they have built this huge city…which was so perfectly planned, with elaborate terrace and canal systems, HERE…in the middle of this rugged mountain range???…words really can’t describe it…IT IS incredible. PERIOD.

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Upon appreciating the cities full beauty…was time to branch out from the typical Machu Picchu photos…

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Although we were quite exhausted from the previous 4 days of hiking and lack of sleep…we made the hike up to Waynupicchu…

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(Waynupicchu is the big peak you see in the distance right behind Machu Picchu).

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It was crazy steep…kicking Darla’s fear of heights into gear!________________________________________________________

Photo on the left is of the view of Machu Picchu from Waynupicchu…putting into perspective how Machu Picchu was literally built in the middle of nowhere on the TOP of a steep mountain…C-R-A-Z-Y!________________________________________________________

After our incredible day at Machu Picchu, Darla had just one day left in Peru…and we decided to end it on a HIGH note…by paragliding over the Sacred Valley in Cusco!________________________________________________________

While the whole act of running and jumping off the side of a cliff was a pretty big adrenaline rush…the rest of the experience/flight was surprisingly incredibly calm and relaxing… ________________________________________________________

you just feel like you are calmly floating…

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thousands and thousands of feet above the ground! ________________________________________________________

And you really do go super high!________________________________________________________

Coming down was quite a rush too…as our pilot’s method of lowering us to the ground is by doing back to back 360´s…a real rush…but did a real number on my stomach too! ________________________________________________________

Okay…well I TRIED to make this a reasonably short entry…but was not so successful…so if you´re still reading…congrats and THANK YOU!________________________________________________________

For more pics of my adventures with Darla click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/1625 .  Stay tuned for my next entry about my recent travels and exploring in Peru!

Like the first session, our second training session was three and a half days long and was jam packed with lots of presentations, learning and fun! We tried to do a lot of hands on and active learning in our training…for example…Bev didn’t want them to just read about stretching exercises…she wanted them down on the ground practicing them so they remember them and understand which parts of the body they each help!

It was so neat to see how much confidence our healthcare promoters had gained and how much more comfortable they were teaching one another, giving presentations, etc. On the left and below you can see a couple pictures of some of the drama presentations our healthcare promoters put on about how to address certain first aid emergencies.

A couple of our healthcare promoters who had taken courses and received prior training on herbal and traditional medicines gave a presentation about how to use various local plants to treat a variety of illnesses and ailments. The other healthcare promoters took incredible interest in the presentation, I think not only because it’s a type of medicine that is more comfortable and familiar to them…but because it’s practical for them. Living in rural areas as they do, they will not have access to many modern medicines….so using plants and herbs to treat is going to be something they can do without being limited by financial resources or access issues.

During the training, all of our healthcare promoters also had the opportunity to visit a local school and teach students ranging from ages 4-13 about dental health and proper toothbrushing techniques. It was so cool to see them all putting their new health knowledge and skills to use for some of the first times in order to reach out to the community and spread the messages of health education and prevention. It was also a great opportunity for them to work together in pairs and continue to gain confidence in giving presentations and working as healthcare promoters.

In addition to just sharing dental health education with the children, we were thrilled to have all of our healthcare promoters there to help implement our first pilot school toothbrushing program! With the school toothbrushing program, each student in the school received a toothbrush, which they put their name on and will keep AT SCHOOL in a safe and clean location…and then everyday after lunch the entire class will brush their teeth together with their teacher! In these rural communities where many of the children have almost never brushed their teeth in their life….this will help to ensure that at least 5 days a week their teeth will be brushed, and along the way we hope that they’ll be developing what will become a lifelong habit of proper dental care!

Below are a number of pictures of our healthcare promoters presenting to classes about dental health and helping kids learn how to brush properly.

Altogether we have been soooo pleased with our healthcare promoters and their interest, enthusiasm, progress, and potential to continue to help their communities. I’m looking forward to spending my last 2 months here working with all of them one-on-one in their communities, particularly to start up more school toothbrushing programs! Stay tuned for my next update…which will be about my fun and adventures with my dear friend Darla who just arrived today from the states!!!

Additionally, our first three clinics with the team were held in very rural communities on the northern side of Lake Titicaca, where we had not yet been able to go with any of our previous mission teams. We worked at/with the small local clinics in each community and were delighted…and slightly overwhelmed….to have about 250 people show up at each of the first 2 clinics. The amazing thing about having so many people show up is that the medical team is able to treat incredible numbers of people (which is precisely what they’ve traveled thousands of miles to do) and we’re able to educate incredible numbers of people about disease prevention, dental health, eye care, etc as they wait in line. The downside is that with hundreds of people showing up, by night time we inevitably have to turn people away, which is beyond heartbreaking…since they all have such incredible needs and have been waiting for hours upon hours to be seen.

We also held a clinic out at the health clinic on the Uros floating reed islands. 

Our medical team headed to the clinic in style on a traditional reed boat.

As always, when working down here flexibility is absolutely essential…for instance…as a dentist you just might have a handicapped 20-year-old show up at the clinic with more than 5 teeth to be pulled…at a facility that is NOT handicap accessible. So you can either turn the kid away…or you can haul your instruments outside and do the extractions in the middle of the parking lot. FLEXIBILITY.

As with our previous clinics, my primary role at our clinics was interpreting for our dentists and teaching those waiting in line about dental health, toothbrushing, causes of cavities, etc.

But perhaps the best education of all was received by the crowds of kids and adults peering through the window of the room where the dentists were working…seeing the traumatizing process of extractions and all of the decaying teeth we worked on should have been some pretty serious motivation for them to start brushing and caring for their teeth.  

As always, our clinics are one of our primary means of training our healthcare promoters and giving them the opportunity to teach their communities about healthcare prevention practices. On the left you can see a picture of one of our healthcare promoters teaching about proper toothbrushing techniques.

The dental gang!

Being at high altitudes and with no central heating almost anywhere in Peru, particularly out in the rural communities, you really have to bundle up in the evenings.  Gwen (my roomie from the April mission team) and I headed to bed complete with scarves, hats, gloves, long underwear…and about anything else we could cover up with!

Our last clinic was held at a school outside of Copacabana, Bolivia, which provided us with yet another great opportunity for dental health education with the kids.

After the clinics were finished…it was officially time for some rest, relaxation, and FUN! Before heading out of Copacabana a group of us took a boat out to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island),

which had some spectacular views…especially of the Bolivian mountains and snow caps in the distance.  

At the southern end of the island you can climb old Incan steps, which are set beside a truly phenomenal waterfall of sorts….phenomenal in that 24/7 for hundreds of years it has had a strong and rapid current of water running down it….and where the water is coming from????? No idea. They hadn’t had rain in weeks and the water was rushing down….and there are no snow caps or any visible source at the top…it’s a pretty small island. Phenomenal. Best I can guess is that back in the Incan days they must have tapped into a high pressure water source way below the island…very neat to see.

In La Paz, I was utterly spoiled by the mission team…treating me out to dinners, souvenirs, and on our last day, a round of golf at the La Paz Golf Club. Being treated to a round of golf in and of itself was very special, and it was all the more special because the La Paz Golf Club is titled as the Highest Golf Course in the World!

Before starting off we shared a wonderful lunch together on the country club’s scenic patio.

The golf course was truly beautiful…surrounded by mountains, canyons, lakes…and to top it off it was a beautiful, breezy, sunny day! Couldn’t have asked for more.

And as if a beautiful day on a beautiful course wasn’t enough…for the first time in my life I had a caddy!  He’d been working at the course for 18 years, and since he could speak Spanish to me, he gave me tons of pointers, helped me improve my swing, my stance…it was essentially a private golf lesson!

And contrary to his serious expression in the photo, he was a very lighthearted and fun guy!  

Working side by side, sharing common interests and passions…I have been blessed to develop wonderful relationships with all of the incredible missionaries that have come down…which in turn makes it very difficult to bid them all farewell when their 2 short weeks are over. Luckily, they’ve almost all been from Idaho…so I hope to be able to see many of them again sometime next year when I make a trip out to Idaho to visit Bev and Scott!

On my bus ride back to Puno I enjoyed the beautiful scenes…it’s harvest season right now, and their handmade haystacks spread across the countryside are really beautiful.

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For more pictures from my work with the April mission team, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/1496

Stay tuned for my next entry about our 2nd training session with our healthcare promoters!

The four of us went on a full day hike in the beautiful mountains outside of Sucre…

absolutely beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, and

…probably the best guide in town! (as our guide’s shirt clearly indicated!)

There were amazing plants and flowers along the way, including these adorable flowers that I named peppermint flowers.

Along our hike we were also able to see ancient cave drawings/paintings, dating between 20,000-30,000 years old! Incredible.

Even got crazy and enjoyed a refreshing drink of fresh mountain spring water (with the go-ahead from our guide that it was safe!)

After Sucre we headed on to Potosi, Bolivia…a mining town that is said to be one of, if not THE, highest “city” in the world, at around 13,400 ft above sea level.

In the 1500′s Potosi was the biggest city in the world, earning its wealth and fame from its mountain, Cerro Rico, which became one of the largest silver mines ever discovered. For over 500 years millions of people have spent/lost their lives mining Cerro Rico, today there is little to no silver left in the mountain, but it is still mined for zinc and copper.

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 I even spotted a rare Potosi big footed bird!

While in Sucre we watched a documentary called “The Devil’s Miner” (highly recommend watching it) about the life of a 14 year old boy, Basilio, who’d been mining in the Potosi mines since he was 10 in order to support his family after his father died. It is a moving documentary and afterwards we were left asking what ever became of this boy? Is he still in the mines? How old is he now?

So when I arrived in Potosi, I made plans to take a tour of the mine, and planned on asking our guide if they knew anything about the whereabouts of Basilio. Imagine my UTTER shock and joy when I showed up at 8am the next day only to find that MY GUIDE was Basilio himself!!!!!!!!

There are 100′s of mines on the mountain and probably at least 50 tour groups that lead tours of the mines each morning….and I just so happen to sign up for this group! The others in my group had never seen the documentary, so I was the only one who was amazed by this now 20 year old boy who was our guide. He has been working as a guide for just 2 months now, and was such a fun and amazing boy…just couldn’t believe I’d found him!

The tour of the mines were very interesting….

We saw how they drilled holes in the walls that they place the dynamite in.

Along with the dynamite they actually use.

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Their masks and gear are very mediocre and do a marginal job of protecting their lungs.  

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One of the most interesting things was our visit to the mine’s “Tio” (literally translated as uncle), which is a statue that they daily give gifts of alcohol, cigarettes, and coca leaves to in order that the Tio will protect them from harm in the mines.

And at the end of our tour, Basilio…being a typical 20 year old boy….says, “If you want to buy some dynamite we could blow something up…if you want.” Ha ha….ya that’s right…buying dynamite is as simple as walking up to a stand and paying a whopping $3.00 for a stick! CRAZY. So we agreed to it and he showed us how they rig up the dynamite with the cord that you light, etc…and then blew up a big mound of dirt in a vacant area, just to show us an explosion.

Is that me holding a lit stick of dynamite you ask?……ummmm………..yes. (This is probably the appropriate time for one of those…”Do not try this at home”….warnings.)

After Potosi I headed off on an AMAZING 3 day organized tour of the Uyuni salt flats, lagoons, mountains, etc.

They send off tourists in groups of 6 in 4×4 vehicles for a fast paced and incredible journey through some of Bolivia’s most beautiful landscapes. At first sight our group was an awfully odd bunch…we had a mid-40′s German couple, a late 40′s Irishman who has lived in Boston for the last 20 years, a vibrant 19 year old from the Czech Republic, a spunky 27 year old South African girl, and ME! But over the course of 3 days our “odd bunch”  absolutely hit it off, and had an absolute blast together!

On our first day we visited the Uyuni salt flats, which are the largest salt flats in the world! Literally hundreds and hundreds of square miles of salt!

The flats are the perfect place for fun photos

 and great optical illusion shots!

Near the flats they have learned how to make EVERYTHING out of salt blocks!

Our hostal on our first night was made entirely of salt…the walls, the beds, the tables, EVERYTHING!

 Taking a ride on my salt llama!

We visited the “Isla del Pescado”, which is a totally bizarre phenomenon of an island that sits right in the middle of the salt flats, is covered in these incredibly huge cacti, and just beautiful!

We visited a number of incredible lagoons…

the overwhelming majority of which were home to hundreds of STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL flamingos! SOOOOO cool!

Along the way we also saw incredible rock formations……….

Including my parrot rock!

deserts………….

wind tunnels…….

vicuñas (a beautiful cameloid that is native to the Andes)…..

more than a couple of flat tires…..

BREATHTAKING sunrises…..

and some beautiful mountains on the flight back to La Paz, Bolivia…..

But like always, years from now it is not the sights or landscapes that I will remember most…

it’s the incredible people I met along the way.

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For more pics from my incredible journey through Bolivia, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/1163.

Stay tuned for my next update about our incredible work with the April Mission team!

The group got off to a great start with a successful dental clinic at the Puno church. Kade got right to work as a dental assistant for Jill, while John teamed up with our wonderful local dentist, Paola, who continues to graciously volunteer her time to assist with our clinics.

After a long clinic day in Puno the group had a short night’s rest and the next morning we headed off to the island of Taquile, which sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca—about a 3 hour boat ride from Puno. The group enjoyed a quick lunch of the island’s EVERYDAY special, delicious grilled trout, and then went straight to work. That afternoon we held a 4 hour dental clinic, with a line of patients so long that many had to be asked to come back to our second clinic the following morning.

Barb also made good use of our patients’ time and taught some back care basics and some simple physical therapy techniques to those waiting in line to be seen by our dentists.

 Barb also became the quick favorite amongst the group, providing wonderful and much needed massages after our long days of clinics. Thinking that a physical therapist might just have to be a requirement for each of the following groups….

With a tightly packed schedule, the group had yet another brief night’s rest and we loaded up and headed off to Copacabana, Bolivia for two additional clinics. Our first clinic took place at a small village outside of Copacabana on Palm Sunday. The group was blessed to be able to take part in the church’s Palm Sunday services and even sang some English worship songs for the congregation. On the left you’ll see a picture of the three guys making a solid effort to sing a hymn in Aymara with Pastor Juan.

Following the service our crew got back to business and held yet another incredibly successful dental clinic. We were thrilled that Paola was even able to travel to Bolivia with the group…with no extra chair she resourcefully made use of one of the church pews to see her patients…and the technique worked…with no anesthesia at all this little guy zonked out leaving Paola at peace to fill his cavaties!

 At all of our prior clinics one of my primary roles was training patients waiting in line about dental health and how to properly take care of their teeth. At this clinic, however, we were blessed to have a number of our local healthcare promoters present. In turn, I decided to use the clinic as an opportunity to provide additional training for the healthcare promoters that were present. I trained a group of 6 of them on dental health, teeth brushing techniques, causes of cavaties, etc. and then supervised them as they each took turns teaching patients waiting in line all the information they learned. It was SUCH an awesome train the trainer experience and I was so impressed by what a great job they did teaching!

There were A LOT of kids present at the clinic, many who were waiting to be seen and many waiting as their parents were seen by the dentists. Both Savannah and Delaney did an excellent job of interacting with the kids and keeping them wholeheartedly entertained. The bubbles they had brought along were a HUGE hit!

Our second clinic outside of Copacabana the following day took place at the local elementary school. This provided us with the unique opportunity to teach a large class of 4 to 7 year olds about dental health and teeth brushing techniques. I was excited to have one of our healthcare promoters, Juan, teach the class about cavaties and the importance of good brushing habits.

Then we used a plaque revealing dye to do a teeth brushing demonstration with the entire class. They each had a toothbrush and tiny mirror and brushed and brushed and brushed until all their blue was gone. They were SOOOO darn cute…terrified at first, but then thought the blue stuff in their mouth was quite funny.

After their teeth brushing activity each of the children was seen by one of our dentists, wherein the sad reality smacked us in the face….already by just age 4 or 5 EVERY single child had between 5-15+ cavaties…most of which were already so advanced that they couldn’t even be filled. It is moments like these that we are saddened, yet ever so motivated to continue our work with education and prevention. Most of the children had never brushed before in their lives, and neither they nor their parents were aware of the damage that sugar, soda, and similar foods cause to your teeth. In turn, it’s a situation where a tiny bit of education goes such a very long way. In an effort to at least provide some additional protection to their poor little teeth, we also provided fluoride treatments to each of the kids.

With education as the focus of all of our clinics, I was so excited to have 4 more of our healthcare promoters at the second clinic to train on dental health. I was once again so encouraged by how well they picked up on all of the information I presented to them and how many excellent questions that had for me as well.

To the right is a picture of me with our three wonderful dentists and six of our local Bolivian healthcare promoters who received training on dental health.

Although it was supposed to be our dirty little secret…this was just too funny not to share. At our last clinic, packed in amongst our dental supplies was none other than a big box of Idaho Spud bars…a chocolate bar made by Dave’s company, Idaho Candy Co. (Yes, that’s right….the dentist is married to the candyman…a wonderful husband keeping his wife in business!) So before our last clinic we all treated ourselves to a yummy Idaho Spud bar….right before doing dental work and teaching about the harmful effects of sweets…..hipocrisy in its finest….we had an excellent giggle over it…and justified our actions by the fact that we DO have good brushing habits.  

Now I don’t want you to go thinking that this team was all work and no play….they absolutely knew how to have a great time! After a solid week of go, go, go and hard work it was time for the team to have a few days to just enjoy themselves.

The Wagers found the perfect souvenir for John…a one of a kind rainstick with real llama teeth!

The whole group, including myself, enjoyed the hammocks, swings, and tightrope in the beautiful yard of their Copacabana hostal–which has a wonderful view of the entire city and Lake Titicaca.

Our last night in Copacabana we all enjoyed watching a beautiful sunset over Lake Titicaca as we celebrated Bev and Scott’s 35th wedding anniversary!!! 35 years and still not only exploring, but working to make a real difference in the world…a truly wonderful and inspiring couple.

From Copacabana the team headed off to La Paz, Bolivia, where they visited the Methodist Church of Bolivia’s headquarters and were presented with medals and hats in thanks for their service.

We also visited one of the local schools, where the kids helped students from one of the English classes write letters to students back in Idaho. They will share the letters with their classmates back home in hopes of developing pen pal relationships for the English students in La Paz—very cool!

The group had a wonderful last couple of days in La Paz together and were blessed to spend some time with the Funk family (missionaries from the U.S. who have been serving in Bolivia for over 3 years)…their two boys were especially grateful for the opportunity to hang out with Kade!

I for one, simply could not find the words to express my gratitude to this mission team….each one of them was a genuine inspiration to me.  I just kept thinking….how blessed am I to not only be surrounded by amazing Peruvians and Bolivians, but then to also be in a position to meet and work alongside such truly wonderful individuals from my own country as well. I can’t thank them enough for the passion, love, and FUN that they shared with us during their time down here and am so grateful for the wonderful new friendships we developed.

For more pics from our work with the March mission team, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/1049.   Stay tuned for my next update with my incredible travels through 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!

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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.

So about a week and a half ago, Scott, Bev, the Bishop of the United Methodist Church of Peru, his wife, and I all loaded up in our car and headed off to Copacabana, Bolivia, which is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Puno….PLUS the extra hour or two that it takes to cross the border. Getting yourself across the border is quite a long process in and of itself….getting a car across the border is an outrageously painful process…but with some smooth talking by the bishop…we managed to make it across, car and all, in a little under 2 hours.

Once we got to Copacabana we immediately headed to the Methodist Church there, Nueva Jerusalem, where we were given a very warm welcome by church members from not only Copacabana but many of the surrounding areas as well. After a wonderful lunch prepared by the church ladies, we all gathered together in the church sanctuary for an exciting service, celebrating the covenant between the Methodist Church of Bolivia, Peru, and the U.S. During the service all of us guests from Peru were asked to stand at the front of the church, and then with music and celebration all of the local church members filed through greeting us, putting leis of fresh flowers around our necks, and covering us with fresh flower petals…it was an amazing experience, and definitely one of the biggest and warmest welcomes I’ve ever been given. 

That evening was the official ceremony where the Bishop of Bolivia, the Bishop of Peru, and Bev & Scott all signed the covenant for the Lake Titicaca Border Ministry. The ministry has already been under way for some time now, so the whole ceremony was really just a formality, but it was amazing to see how many people came from so far to celebrate and give their support to this ministry that we are working on.

The following day we had the opportunity to take a tour of the surrounding areas with many of the church members, and we were able to visit one of the nearby floating reed islands. I had already visited the Uros floating reed islands, but this time I actually went out on a reed boat and even got gutsy enough to stand up in it and paddle!

We were in Copacabana for just 3 days, and with so many church activities and celebrations, they flew by very quick. We got back to Puno safe and sound, thankfully with little to no problems at the border, and then had less than 2 days home before we headed off to Cusco to meet up with the February mission team from Boise, Idaho. The details of my adventures from Cusco onward will be in my next post…which I promise to try to make more exciting than this rather lackluster post. For more pics from my Copacabana adventure and more, click the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/693.

On a completely unrelated note…I finally had the chance to try the famous Peruvian dish of Cuy…aka….guinea pig. I was rather unpleasantly surprised at just how much it STILL looked like a guinea pig! That having been said…..it was actually quite good…and flavor…tastes a lot like dark meat chicken.

Last, but not least, I’m excited to report that construction has finally begun on the second floor of the Puno church! The funds for the new addition to the church have been available for quite some time now, but the logistics of actually getting started had been a long and slow process. The new addition to the church will include two bathrooms (the church currently has no bathroom), kitchen, office, library, and 5 bedrooms….all of which is an incredible addition to what is now basically just a one room sanctuary. Our hope is that this second floor will provide living space for a pastor and for mission teams and volunteers working for the church. I’ll be sure to post more pics with the progress of the construction!

I let you all in on my exciting news in my last post, that I had been invited by some of the local Rotarians we are working with to be part of one of the dance groups that would be performing in the GIGANTIC Virgen de la Candelaria Festival. Our dance group, Morenada Porteño, was one of about 75 different dance groups that performed throughout the week long festival.

Each group has roughly a couple hundred people in them, so do the math and you’ve got around 15,000 people dancing in elaborate costumes from morning to night! C-R-A-Z-Y!!!! (and fun!)

The festivities officially began for me on Saturday morning with a 5:00am mass at one of the largest churches in Puno. (They held a mass every hour from 4:00-9:00am and each dance group was assigned to a certain time, as a way to manage the tens of thousands of people wanting to attend the mass.) After the service was over each dance group paraded through the streets with their own statue of the Virgen of the Candelaria—I was fortunate enough to be one of the individuals in our group who hauled our statue all the way across town to our reception hall, where we our group had a fancy breakfast waiting for us.

Saturday evening we had our first official parade through Puno, wherein we danced through the streets for about 5-6 hours! I had to ice my poor feet when I got home…heels are a woman’s worst nightmare when she has to parade for 6 hours!

Sunday was the first BIG day, starting with a hair appt. at 6:00am to get my hair braided/beaded…fake hair extensions included. Then my friend Janira and I got ourselves all glittered and dressed in our rather crazy costumes and headed off to Puno’s stadium, where our dance group competed around 9am.

After competing at the stadium our group proceeded to dance through the streets (with some breaks here and there) for about 7-8 more hours….endurance is key in this festival folks…(please note the insane size of the heels on our snazzy platform boots…7-8 hours of dancing in those bad boys….one word–OUCH!) THEN, once we were done parading through the streets the group headed back to our reception hall where they had a big party and celebration, with MORE dancing until the late hours of the night. (These people wait all year for this festival, and once it’s here, they go allllll out!)

Around lunchtime on Monday it was back to the hair salon to get our braids redone, another round of makeup, tights, and crazy costumes…and we were ready for THE Candelaria parade. This parade is by and far the biggest I’ve ever witnessed in my life…started around 8:00am and did not finish until around 3:00am. That’s an 18 hour parade ladies and gentlemen…insane. Our group was unlucky enough to be number 67 out of 75 different groups in the parade. We were supposed to start around 6:00pm, but due to delays didn’t actually start until about 10:30pm and didn’t finish until almost 2:00am! Not only was it very cold dancing at those hours in our rather tiny little costumes (we’re at about 12,500ft above sea level in Puno..so it gets pretty darn cold at night), but additionally at that point the parade had been going on for more than 14 hours, so most of the huge crowds had headed home and what was left was thousands of highly intoxicated spectators…not the highlight of my Candelaria dancing experience. But once again, after we finished dancing at 2am, there was an after party for our group at the reception hall, where somehow we all had the energy and desire to CONTINUE dancing for a few more hours! For more pics of my crazy dancing extravaganza click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/586.

One of the things that I loved most about all of the festival dancing was seeing the wide range of ages that participated. In the parades you have ages 3-80 dancing, and even in the wee hours of the morning at the reception hall, the dance floor was covered with people in their 50′s, 60′s and 70′s. It was so neat to see how much dance and music is such a huge part of their culture here. For more neat pics of performers in the festival, click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/516 

Altogether, my dancing extravaganza was an absolutely incredible experience, one which I could have never, ever fathomed that I would have had the opportunity to be part of. I had been so happy just knowing that I’d be in Puno in February when the festival took place, but never in my wildest dreams imagined that I’d be performing in it! While it was an experience far off the path of the type of missionary work I have been and will continue to be doing here, it was such a rare and wonderful opportunity to get an inside look at their culture, customs, and traditions.

 Additionally, I made sooo many wonderful friends thoughout the week of festivities, many of whom are doctors, engineers, bilingual speakers, etc and who have already and will continue to be wonderful contacts for us in our healthcare projects and economic development projects. Moral of the story…always take advantage of unique adventures and opportunities that come your way…in addition to having fun, you never know what other doors those rather (or in my case EXTREMELY) different opportunities may open.