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!