Toto, I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

I left Lima early Sunday morning to catch a 7-8 hour bus ride to Chimbote. I boarded a double decker Cruz del Sur bus at 8:00 am and began my journey. I somehow passed 7 hours with a little reading, a little eating, a little napping, and a lot of listening to music and watching the “scenery” pass by outside of the bus. When I say scenery I mean sand, sand, and more sand. I always thought that Peru was a very green country, but, as I would learn later from Sr. Lillian, Lima is the second largest metropolis with a desert (with Cairo, Egypt taking the cake for the largest).

Finally, seven long hours later, the bus pulled into the Chimbote bus station. I retrieved my bag and went to go meet Sr. Lillian and Sr. Margaret. To my surprise, they were nowhere to be seen.–Let panic mode set in (and trust me it did)–I circled both inside and outside of the bus station, praying and hoping they were somewhere, anywhere on the premises…but no luck. I had no service, no wifi, and no knowledge of where I was. Of course my brain immediately went to the worse case scenario: they forgot about me! I decided to wait and hope that they were just running a bit late. After 20 minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the sisters, I decided I had to do something, anything. Thankfully, there was a small store in the bus station that I found that had computers for use for a mere .80 soles (0.29 cents in the U.S.). I quickly e-mailed Sr. Lillian and Facebook messaged my parents because there was clearly so much they could do from the U.S., but it was comforting for them to know the situation. I glance outside to see if the sisters were there, at this point nothing left for me to do but wait. My prayers had been answered, the sisters were there!!! I had dinner with them that night and got settled, nervous and anxious for my first day at La Maternidad de Maria.

Monday morning I am up and ready, clad in scrubs and my own name tag, feeling very official.

After breakfast at 8, I walk to La Maternidad de Maria, which is only a block or so away from where I live (La Casa de la Iglesia). At La Maternidad I am introduced to everyone who works there (so many people, so many names, so little time) and given a grand tour of the compound, which includes an outpatient clinic, a laboratory, a maternal and infants unit, a pharmacy, an orphanage, and many other small practices. After the tour, I spend the rest of the morning in the orphanage, playing with the kids there who are a handful, but absolutely adorable and a ton of fun!

My afternoon is spent going on my first home visits with Sr. Lillian and two of the Peruvian women who work at La Maternidad. First, we help clean up and improve the house of a family whose father has prostate cancer. Next we go to what I would assume are the slums of Chimbote and bring food to a family whose father is diabetic. Their house is comprised of straw and cardboard walls with ceilings made out of tarps and plastic bags. There are hundreds of houses like this surrounding it. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

We ended the day with a visit to one of the orphans who was in the Chimbote Regional Hospital because she is hydrocephalic, has a heart problem, and a problem with her rectum; she is only two months old. Observing the facilities of the “nicest” hospital in the area and the care that is provided there is disheartening and in need of much improvement. It was a long, but very rewarding first day!