Navigating the Napo

As our mission in Peru begins to wind down, we sure have learned how to pack in the activity! The past two weeks have presented us numerous opportunities to provide medical care, survey villages, work with local ONGs, clown around with monkeys and get sick (yes, that kinda sick. again.)

Like we said, we met up in Iquitos with Diana, Renzo and Emilie of DB Peru (a Lima-based ONG) to return to the Napo River and continue surveying and providing clinics to the villages. Before we took off, however, we finished our work remodeling the maternity "wing" of the Mazan clinic. We are happy to report huge success! We had hired a local carpenter to install a mosquito-proof door and he did a beautiful job despite the fact that "mosquito-proofing" something is about as feasible as like mess-proofing a kindergarten art class... Nevertheless, the painting, curtain-ing, decorating, cleaning, mattress-repairing, etc is completed and now the clinic represents a safe, clean environment for new mothers t0 spend their first few days.

After Mazan, we ventured on to the Napo, spending 10 short hours in the boat taking pictures of the diverse, multi-colored, shore line of the Amazon. nope. we all pretty much have the same shot of the same green trees. But nevertheless, it was wonderful to finally venture deep into the jungle.

On the Napo, we stayed at the Explorama Napo Lodge with DB Peru and spent each day launching out to various villages in the area. Diana and DB Peru have made numerous connections in the communities and relentlessly work to help provide sustainable resources in the area. On the mission, they helped to install a radio, delivered specific medications to chronically ill patients, met with community leaders to talk about concerns, continued to track the growth of the village children by measuring and weighing them and helped us set up our clinics and deliver our surveys. In addition, they invited village health care workers to a training and information session that they will be putting on later in September. Phew! 

Taking a cue from our new friends, we tried to stay equally busy. As we visited around 20 villages over the course of 5 days, Chris, Todd, Annie and Eric set up clinics and provided basic medical attention while Angela and Cindi continued to survey the local leaders and health care workers regarding community needs and concerns. In all, we were able to deliver medications and perform basic procedures, while the DU students we able to get an idea about the major health care needs in the Napo River area.

We were even witness to a local political campaign strategy that we're fairly certain would catch on in the States this fall: candidates dressing like lizard-men handing out chicks (no, not those chicks. baby chickens). Now that's a platform to believe in.

After returning from the Napo, we spent a few days back in Iquitos deciding on next steps and visiting a local animal refuge. Todd finally got to live out his fantasy of unlimited contact with millions of monkeys and the rest of us basically took pictures for him. Fantastic! He deserved the reward as the dysentery diet (as we fondly refer to it) finally had caught up with him on the Napo...

And so, as the trip begins to wind down, the three of us find ourselves finishing the summer with projects of our own. Eric is headed off to Lima to accompany a very young villager and his family as the child undergoes open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect (Tetralogy de Fallot). Todd will be staying in Iquitos for the week, working in a local clinic and at the regional hospital. Chris will likely be doing to same, as well as taking Spanish language classes. Annie headed back to the States to completely recover from her dysentery diet and get involved in another project in Colorado.

We want to take this opportunity to also say thank you once more for the support we have received leading up to and during this mission. What a ride! Despite to consistent inconsistency of this rollercoaster, we know what we have learned down here is never taught in a classroom and that therein lies the true value of these experiences. We have a first-hand understanding of the healthcare needs of these communities and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.

Thanks again! See you again State-side...

TCA

Mazan Madness!

Hello Listeners. Fortunately things have been calmer and running more smoothly since you last tuned in. The six of us relocated to Mazan, a larger village that sits between the Napo and Amazon river.

The DU students, Cindi and Angela, have been heading out to nearby villages to complete the surveys. Chris has been going along with them assisting with translation, logistics, and protection from river pirates...hahaha.

Meanwhile Annie, Todd and Dr. Bascunan have been remodeling the Maternity Ward (ward may be a misnomer, the single maternity room is more accurate) in the Mazan Clinic. They have been busy repainting the walls, installing mosquito nets, cleaning, etc... We have also had the opportunity to observe/lend a hand in some emergency situations and the delivery of a baby.

This past weekend Todd, Annie, and Chris went to Refugio Altiplano to learn about natural and traditional medicines/healing practices from 3 tribal shamans. We toured the botanical garden which contains several hundred different plants species used to treat anything from digestive problems to cancer. Many of the villages still rely on traditional medicine and it was an important complement to our understanding of the region as well as our western medical education.

We have been in Iquitos the past few days collecting more supplies to rebuild the Mazan clinic. Diana and Renzo from DB Peru have also arrived. We have been helping them to organize the supplies needed for our upcoming trip out on the Napo River. Today we leave for Mazan and will finish putting in curtains that divide the maternity ward into private quarters and installing skylights and lamps to provide more light. Thursday we leave with DB Peru for the Napo to visit 28 more villages over 6 days. We will be completing the surveys, providing medical care, delivering meds to the local health tecnicos, and installing a radio in one village.

The only thing that we are truly ashamed of is our miserable volleyball performance. So far we or 0 of 4 against the clinic's team of 4 nurses.

Keep tuning in for future updates.

TCA37.6 Peru!

Real World Amazon

We knew coming down here that being flexible would be important, but we had no idea that we would be contortionists by a week and a half in. Starting with a cancelled flight and a broken backpack, we finally all met up in Lima June 12th. Since then, we have become the world´s greatest problem solvers. Starting with blown i-pod speakers from 220 voltage, dealing with lost laundry, a booked up flight to Iquitos due to an unknown festival week, and finding out about a first round of issues with our proposed project, Lima was an interesting introduction to our summer.

Once we finally got to Iquitos, the real problems began. We had planned on meeting with the Ministry of Health in the area but were deterred by an angry group of striking healthcare workers and were unable to cross picket lines. Somehow we have been put in contact with a miracle worker (a peruvian doctor that lives in Denver and will be accompanying us throughout the summer) and he was able to arrange a sit-down meeting with the surgeon general of Loreto (the state we are in) later that night. We were able to get a letter of support from the Ministry of Health of Peru that CU was demanding in order for our project to continue. The surgeon general also put us in touch with a doctor that knows the area exceptionally well and we got a lot of insight from her. At that point, everything seemed great and we were ready to roll.

We woke up the next morning ready to go on the medical missions with Centura Health and what did we find? Annie shaking uncontrollably in bed after passing out several times during the night and Cindi in slightly better shape but not well by any means. Both spent the day in the hospital receiving fluids for dehydration and labwork to see what was going on. Somehow they both contracted dysentery, but of different origins. Annie had bacterial dysentery and Cindi had amoebic dysentery but, after five days of recovery, both are fully recovered and now immune to those forms of dysentery, which is nice.

Now for the high points. Todd spent the last week working with the Centura team here in Iquitos. For two days he scrubbed into surgery with an American surgeon and observed reductions of the worlds largest scrotal hernias and gallbladder removals. He spent the other three days going out to the villages assisting with medical care of the people. Meanwhile, Chris set off with Dr. Bascunan (the overtly passionate and amazingly caring peruvian doctor who will be accompanying us) for the upper reaches of the Napo river (that feeds into the Amazon). While there, he worked with Centura`s missions, assisting with triage of patients and helping Dr. Bascunan remove cysts, abscesses, and the occasional bullet.

We have learned a very valuable lesson however. After every peak there is a valley, and sometimes they are deep. We learned on Saturday that bureaucracy cannot be excaped, even in a country that it does not apply. In order for our project to proceed as planned, our institutional review board is unexpectedly requiring documents that do not exist within Peruvian culture (HIPAA certification of all subjects, data use agreements, and removal of the GPS component of the project for fear of identifying our subjects) and this has caused our role in the project to change dramatically. This has been extremely discouraging and frustrating for the three of us, but the summer is not lost. Fortunately, the University of Denver graduate students that we came with will be able to continue the project. Our role has now changed from principal investigators in the study, to one in which we will support project logistics. Our role has also expanded in several different ways. We have been given the opportunity to help rebuild the only hospital located along the river, we will be spending a week with another NGO that sends medical missions to the area, we will be creating a GPS map of the area not linked with any surveys that will help estimate travel times and distances to the nearest healthcare, and we will be assisting Dr. Bascunan in giving direct care to the people along the river.

We will be moving our basecamp out to the jungle tomorrow and will be leaving behind the beautiful, welcoming city of Iquitos. If the chaotic whirlwind of the last two weeks is any indication of what the rest of this summer holds for us, we are in for an amazing, rewarding adventure.