Dental Project Peru – Trip Report

Trip 3 – 23-30 July 2005

Bob, Sherry & Hannah

(Written by Bob Daniels)

This Trip Report has been written and submitted by Bob Daniels.  He volunteered on this DPP trip with his wife Sherry.  They divide their time between living in Colorado, USA and Mexico.  Bob is a retired dentist and has volunteered with another dental organization in the states before coming down to Peru to help the patients of the Andes.  Sherry volunteered her time with us and was a wonderful member of the team as she not only took care of all the sterilizing of instruments but took good care of the team in general!  They celebrated their 35^th wedding anniversary during the trip – congratulations Bob and Sherry.  Before Friday 22^nd of July (where the report begins) Bob and Sherry fly down to Lima and then Cusco from the states.  They had a couple of days in Cusco acclimitising and preparing for our trip together.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Upon our return to our hotel, Jacqui called our room and I heard for my first time her sweet Scottish accent and pleasant personality.  No surprise, as I felt that I had known her through our months of communication via electronic mail.  Sherry and Jacqui arranged to go and have massages at a clinic in the city later in the afternoon as Sherry’s soreness had reached an elevated level from the ordeal of two nights ago. The massage helped immensely. 

We taxied to Jacqui and Clark’s apartment at 7:00 P.M. where we met everyone involved in the dental trek:  Jacqui, Clark and Hannah from the U.K.  Hannah is a beautiful young lady, twenty-six years old, with an infectious smile that immediately makes one like her.  After graduating from dental school she practiced dentistry in England for two and a half years.  She now is traveling the world by herself.  Hannah has been in South America for the past six months and now has landed here in Cusco for her planned volunteer dental  experience.

The five of us visited for a while in the apartment and then walked through night-lit Cusco to a favorite restaurant of our hosts.  We enjoyed an unbelievably delicious meal with excellent food, drink, atmosphere and service.  A very fun evening!

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Sherry and I awoke at 7:00 A.M., had breakfast at the hotel, packed our bags and taxied to Jacqui and Clark’s home at 9:00 A.M.  There the five of us packed the 4-door Toyota diesel truck high to the sky with all the dental gear, food, fuel, sleeping bags, clothing, etc.  At 10:00 A.M. we were ready.  Off to the Apurimac!  Five happy campers!

A most unforgettable five and a half hour drive to where I now lay in bed writing these words.  The spectacular mountain terrain up here is amazing.  The villages, people, rivers, streams, eucalyptus groves, pigs, cows, horses, llamas, parrots all light up my senses and shape my mouth into a pleasant smile.  I only hope that our photos will capture some of the beauty and spirituality of this majestic place…

We are staying in an orphanage high in the Andes mountains.  The orphanage is home to 137 girls between the ages of three and eighteen and 8 nuns.  When we arrived here this afternoon we split into separate groups and spent time conversing and exploring the grounds with the girls.  A dozen or so girls gave Sherry and I a tour of the animal quarters and the gardens.  They rarely see westerners and were quite intrigued by us and asked us many questions.  Jacqui and Hannah were swarmed by another large group of girls and they sang and danced together.  The girls were very curious of Jacqui’s long blond hair and could not restrain themselves from touching it.  Everyone seemed to be in a festive mood.

Later we five cooked a simple meal of beans and macaroni over a small backpacking stove in a cold little room in the complex.  We warmed ourselves with coffee and tea and retired to our beds.  Buenas noches…

Sunday, July 24, 2005

We arose in the chilly dark at 5:00 A.M. and had a quick simple cereal and yogurt breakfast before re-packing the truck with all our gear.  Off we drove for three more hours through once again the most amazing and spectacular high mountains I have ever experienced.  It does something to me!  It does something for me!  I feel good!  The people, the huts, the potato fields, the llamas….everything is so beautiful!

As we approached the small village of Chaccaro the natives saw our vehicle and stopped their work in the fields to watch.  Some came running down the mountainside to ask if indeed we were the dentists coming to help them.  We arrived at the health post at about 9:30 A.M. and were set up to begin seeing patients at 10:15 A.M.  They lined up in droves!  They were happy to see us.  Several boys helped us carry the equipment to our “dental office”, a small cramped room with plastered walls and wood floors.  We set up three patient chairs:  two portable manufactured dental chairs and one old wooden chair leaned against the wall with a wool blanket rolled into a headrest.

We treated only adults this first day.  Fifty-six in all.  The least number of teeth I extracted on any one patient was two.  Most needed multiple extractions -- 3,4,5,6 or more.  I removed eleven infected teeth for one woman.  I would guess I extracted in excess of fifty teeth today.  Jacqui and Hannah removed as many, if not more, teeth than I did.  Both are very fine dentists with great dental and people skills.  Such pleasures to be working with!

Sherry worked very hard today, too.  She did great!  I loved having her there with me,  sharing an amazing experience…  She helped all of us with all our needs.  She sterilized instruments, cleaned up after us, escorted patients to and from the chairs, comforted them, comforted us, and was just a happy, giving spirit among us. 

Clark also worked his butt off.  He helped with sterilization and cleanup and post-op instructions and administered oral liquid antibiotics to each and every patient.  Most importantly, he played crowd control cop!  A very necessary job.  These people wanted to get in and be treated NOW! 

We took a thirty minute lunch break some time in the afternoon for rest, relaxation, and nourishment.  We scarfed down  sandwiches, chips (Hannah calls ‘em “crisps“) and fruit which we had brought with us.  Just as we were getting ready to return to the patients, several of the locals entered the lunchroom with huge plates of chicken, rice and vegetables. Already full, we were too honored and embarrassed not to eat the food.  We were stuffed!

We called it quits at 7:30 P.M.  We were extremely exhausted…or, at least I was!  We had a relaxing pasta dinner cooked over the ever-trustful backpack stove and retired to the floor for a necessary good night’s sleep.

As I lay here on a mat upon the wood floor upstairs from the “clinic” writing these words, I smile with awe and grimace in pain.  My back is killing me!  Hope it behaves tomorrow…  I popped a muscle relaxant to help with the pain.  It seems to be kicking in.  The awe-felt smile won’t go away.  I hope it never does.  This is very hard work!  But, at the same time, so very gratifying.  The people are obviously pleased to have us here and grateful for the relief of pain.  I am pleased to help.

It’s dark outside and the high-altitude air is chilled.  I lay beneath three heavy Peruvian wool blankets borrowed from the convent as my sleeping bag somehow disappeared

while packing the truck with all our gear.  The blankets feel warm and heavy upon my exhausted body.  Thanks Sisters for the comfort…

Monday, July 25, 2005

Good morning!  Happy anniversary Sherry!  Did you ever imagine we’d be pulling teeth high in Andes on our 35^th wedding anniversary?  Happy Birthday brother Dan!

Sherry and I woke earlier than the others; so we dressed and went for a walk around the village of Chaccaro.  Cold, crisp, fresh mountain air.  Feels good and healthy to pull the breaths deep into our lungs.  The town was just awakening with roosters crowing and  mongrels barking.  We strolled among the old adobe homes with thatched roofs along well-worn dirt walking paths.  An old adobe church, abandoned and deteriorated, caught our eye and we explored it for a while feeling a sense of awe.  The few villagers we ran into were dressed in their colorful, traditional clothes and hats and all greeted us with warm friendly smiles and sincere words of salutation.  They were as amused with us as we were of them.  Magical.  Different.  Peaceful.  Beautiful.

We later returned to the health post and ate a cereal and yogurt breakfast before going downstairs to resume the business of dentistry.  Multitudes of patients were waiting.  Adults and children strung out in long rambling lines in their colorful clothing.  A sight to behold.  Once again, we worked very, very hard.  We treated patients from 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. with a half hour lunch break in the afternoon. 

After treating all of the patients we cleaned up the clinic and packed up our gear.  We departed the pueblo in the dusk at 6:15 P.M.  There were about sixty people who gathered to say goodbye and thank you.  They only see one motorized vehicle pass through their village each year, so we were quite popular and interesting.  Adios, good people…

We drove the three hours back to Cotabamba and ate dinner at a small cozy café near the convent.  We ate a family-style meal of rice, fried eggs and French fries and paid less than five dollars for the five of us.  The cold beer was extra.  Comfortably satisfied, we returned to  the convent for a good nights sleep.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

We arose at 5:00 A.M. and drove another three hours to the village of Sorcco.  Sorcco is more spread out than Chaccaro and sits 14,000 feet above sea level.  We began seeing the very young children by playing a game on a felt board teaching which foods and drinks are good and bad for the teeth.  I screened about ten of these youngsters and  all were very cute and cooperative.  Luckily, none needed any treatment as they were only 2-5 years of age.

We started seeing the older children and adults at 1:00 P.M. and finished for the day at about 5:30 P.M.  This was a way more mellow day for us.  Sherry, Hannah and I were

doubtful whether we’d be able to keep up the previous two-day pace for the next six days.  So, this was a blessing!  I actually placed three composite resin restorations today.  The second restorative patient needed two large fillings on two upper anterior incisors.  The portable compressor broke down before I even finished the preparations.  So, I did the best I could with hand instruments.  I finished the resins using sandpaper disks by hand!  Hardly my best dentistry…

We saw lots of good kids and then some adults at the end of the day.  I snapped off the crown on a lower third molar on a nice twenty-five year old young man named Jorge.  Damn!  A blow to my sensitive ego though it happens to all of us.  Jacqui, having much more experience with extractions even at her young age, helped me out and eventually was able to remove the roots.  Thank you Dear Jacqui!  Otherwise, a good day with teeth…

So, we finished early today and don’t know whether to expect many patients tomorrow.  Apparently, not long ago, a Peruvian dental charity group run by the government came through this community and a patient died a few days later from post-extraction infection.  Maybe the people are a bit leery of dentists, heh?  But, they seem to very much appreciate us and what we are doing.  We’re doing a good job with sterility, antibiotic coverage, diagnosis and treatment…as well as can be expected under these remote circumstances. 

We don’t have x-rays, health histories, state-of-the-art equipment or many of the amenities we are used to in private practice; but the necessary treatment is obvious and we have an obligation to take these fine people out of pain and remove the infection.  The extraction forceps are all from the U.K. and are very different from those we use in the U.S.  It is a whole new challenge for me.  We are using Lidocaine 1:80,000 epinephrine as our local anesthetic.  That’s quite a bit more epinephrine than I am used to or comfortable with.  Rather than 2X2 and/or 4X4 gauze pads for intraoral clean up and post-extraction pressure application, we are using cotton balls and rolls made from large sheets of fuzzy cotton.  The cotton leaves fiber residue all throughout the mouth and clings to the instruments and gloves.  It’s quite messy!  We have no aspirating syringes which makes me a bit nervous while giving injections (especially with the large amount of epinephrine in the anesthetic).  The crowded conditions with three dentists and two assistants and all the patients in a small room make things a bit clumsy and cluttered.  And there is always a large audience peering through the few small windows with their noses pressed against the glass panes.  And others crowd at the doorways for a peek at the operation.  All this said and told, this is an excellent program which Jacqui and Clark have put together!  Doing great things for great people with what we have we have to work with…

When I walk outside through the huge crowds of waiting patients I shout “Buenos dias” or “Buenas tardes” as the case may be.  They always in unison shout back “Buenos dias, Doctor!”.  Feels nice…  They make me happy.  They smile and laugh with me as I stumble through my limited Spanish.  Sometimes they laugh hysterically at my stupid jokes and silly antics.  Never taking their eyes off me…  I love it!  I’m told that they’ve come to call me "Wiracocha" which means in their native tongue of Quechua “their creator”.  Now, that’s quite an honor!  It wouldn’t have anything to do with my white head of hair, would it?

This village of Sorcco is very interesting, too.  The people are all are dressed in the colorful traditional clothing, but they are very dirty…some filthy.  They have black feet.  Very black feet!  There is very little personal hygiene practiced in the village.  At one point, the town drunk, a woman, walked into the clinic unannounced with her two children in tow on rope leashes.  She didn’t want her teeth looked at.  She was there to have us remove an extra sixth toe on her left foot.  A very black sixth toe!  We declined.  But, the people are nice here and, for the most part, friendly.  Some very friendly. And smiley.  It’s a hard life up here.  Self-sustaining…  The rugged road we traveled two hours to get here sees one vehicle a year.   Ours was the first since last year’s Dental Project Peru visit!

Tonight we had popcorn and quesadillas with cheese and beans for dinner.  The meals always taste great!  Simple but scrumptious!  Sherry and I are sleeping tonight on mats on the floor of the health post birthing room.  Weird and a bit creepy…  This post has a “weirdness” about it that all five of us have felt.  Hannah is especially “creeped”.   She feels that it is haunted.  She is such a sweetheart with a happy spirit and always-smiling personality.  Until tonight…  She’s not herself.  We break the tension she is feeling in light and humorous conversation.  She teaches us words and phases used in England that we are not familiar with:

Cheeky monkey - naughty person, but not malicious

Brooding - feeling ready to settle down and have children

Neck it - “chug” it, as in beer, water, etc.

Earlier today while traveling here in the truck, she had said in her sweet English accent that she wished to sit in the back seat between “Mommy and Daddy” -- Sherry and myself.  We adore her…

While treating patients earlier today a very old woman crawled into the clinic for treatment.  We are not sure whether beneath her long skirt there are legs or not.  She used her hands and arms as legs scooting to and fro.  We helped her up into Hannah’s chair and Hannah extracted teeth for this poor, terrified woman.  Hannah did great!  And the old woman thanked her.  Later, we saw her through the window down the valley about a half mile away scooting up a long steep mountainside to her house.  A few “steps” then rest, “steps”, rest…  She made it just fine.

Three days of treatment accomplished; three more to go.  Very hard work under all circumstances.  Part of me wants is finished, and yet I am loving the experience.  I guess I am getting worn down, but I push on and it feels good…  Exhausting, curious, sad, happy…lots of different emotions. 

Having Sherry with me has been a life-saver!  She’s so supportive of me and cares for my well-being.  Thank you, my beautiful wife.

Saw a condor today soaring through the skies between the high Andes peaks.  Wow!

Lots of horses, pigs, llamas, cows, sheep, alpacas and dogs here too.

Life is interesting!  I like that!  I’m blessed to have these opportunities!  Thanks God!

Good night…

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

7:00 A.M.  We awake in the birthing room.  What will this day present to us?  All is quiet except for the constant tick, tick, tick of the old wall clock.  The sun is shining outside.  I think there is time for an exploratory walk this morning.  Yep, that’s what I shall do…

I strolled along the country trails traveled heavily by the people and animals here.  The early risers all greet me with the familiar “Buenos dias, Doctor”.  I watched the people working in the potato fields and herding their sheep and cattle; doing “life” as it is here high in the Andes.  I came across five boys playing marbles on a trail.  We chatted for a while.  They wanted to know English and asked me how to say “this” and “that” pointing to their sandals, my visor cap, and every kind of thing.  They smiled all the while with my replies trying to repeat the tricky words and phrases.  As I bid adios and began walking  down the path one of the boys asked me for money.  I told him I had none.  And I didn’t.  He asked “what about your hat and your sunglasses?”  I told him no.  This is the first episode of this kind of “begging” I have experienced in these remote villages.  They have so little and yet if I give one person an item then we start a whole frenzied ordeal which will ruin what we’re trying to do here.  I strolled away…

Tomorrow is Peru’s Independence Day.  There is little activity in the dental clinic today.  These people are ready to party!  Today they have a special parade and we five are their invited special guests seated in the front row next to the speakers and loud speakers.  They give us thanks and applause.  We watch all the different age groups march before us and it is quite amusing.  They (well, most of them) take it very serious and they march eyes fixed forward with their stiff arms, stiff legs, backs slanted back and faces proud.  The little ones (or as Jacqui says “ the wee ones”) are cute and hilarious.  This is a nice break from the teeth and we enjoy the warm sunshine and entertainment.  Thank you Peru!

We had several patients in the afternoon following the parade.  A very leisurely pace.  Some of the local people brought us boiled potatoes and hard cheese.  Yum!  We gave some marbles and super balls to the few children hanging about.  Then, of course, more started showing up!  A mistake, I think.  They became very possessive, aggressive, greedy and more… So much for materialism…

Well, we finally made the call to pack up and move to the next village one and a half hours away.  We arrived in Nahuinlla in the dark and were greeted by the two nurses who “manned” the post.  We cooked our dinner of canned ravioli in a small adobe 5x10 foot hut with dirt floors and a cloth roof barely higher than our heads.  It was very cold outside, but we stayed comfortable in our small hut with the heat from our stovetop and warm clothes.

All exhausted once again, we retired to our rooms in the post.  Mattresses on the floor

were a warm and comfortable welcome.  We slept…

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Happy Birthday son Will!  We’re thinking of you this day!  Your day!

We awoke at 7:30 A.M. and set up the dental clinic in a small crowded room.  Patients arrived sporadically throughout the morning and early afternoon.  I removed three broken roots for a woman who then went in the next room and delivered a baby girl three hours later!  I extracted nine infected teeth for a very lovely lady and many more for many others.  I am finally gaining confidence in extractions -- I rarely did many in my twenty-six year career in private practice.  Today, I also placed six anterior composites fillings on Fredi, a nice twenty-three year old fellow.  These teeth had huge black holes on the front surface of his upper front teeth.  He was stoked at the results viewing the work in a tiny broken piece of mirror he had in his pocket.  He departed smiling…

Today, being Independence Day, there were not many patients…maybe fifty in all.  We took a two hour break at about 2:00 P.M. and wandered outside to watch the festivities of the village.  There were bullfights galore.  Without killing the animals.  Boys, men and women all took turns.  Very amusing.  Maybe more amusing was how many drunk people there were.  Men and women.  I mean really drunk!  They make and drink a sugar cane alcohol and get absolutely blitzed.  Dancing, stumbling, falling…  Oh, what a sight! 

I had a few extractions in the late afternoon which wiped me out.  We closed down at about 7:30 P.M.  Again, exhausted…

Jacqui and Clark drove the one and a half hours back to Sorcco to pick up a young child in respiratory distress.  The call came over the ever-present chatting, barely audible radio.  Their driver in Sorcco was drunk, so Jacqui and Clark volunteered to go and retrieve the patient and her parents and bring them here to Nahuinlla where they can better monitor the sick child and later transport her to a hospital in a larger community or city. 

As I write these words this very moment, there is a woman giving child birth in the very next room.  Sherry and Hannah were invited in by the nurses to witness the event.  I was invited too, but declined.  The screams from the birthing mother are loud and frequent.  The screaming and the rapid noisy shuffling of the nurses’ feet upon the wooden floors are a uniquely different and interesting sound to hear from one’s bed on the floor of an examination room in a health post in the middle of the Peruvian Andes.  Oh, the baby just arrived!  Greeted by her mother with one final howl!  Now the baby is crying and that’s a welcoming sound as this woman has had five stillborns out of the eight or nine previous pregnancies. 

Clark just returned and came into the “bedroom” to tell me that he was back with the child who is suffering from a bronchial illness and that he also brought with him a woman with a hemorrhaging intestine!  Wow, what a life!  These people live and die so differently from those of other cultures and geographic locations.  They do what they gotta do…

What’s next?  Five days down, one to go of this very difficult and interesting dental experience.  I’m ready to finish this marathon…hitting the wall.  I wonder if I’ll want to run another when this is all said and done.  I really have no idea at this point in time,  But, I expect so…

Tomorrow we finish up here.  We don’t know how many patients we’ll have.  Most of the town will be seriously hung over.  At the end of the day we’ll travel back to the convent and sleep there.

Hannah just came in the room and gave me an update.  The mom and baby are fine.  The husband just carried his wife and daughter home.  It has not thirty minutes since the birth. 

Next door where we have our dental surgery set up, the young child from Sorcco who is really only a baby lies on the birthing table that I took in there an hour ago.  The baby has pneumonia and appears to be dying.  I went into the room to offer my support to the quiet young mother.  Sherry was giving her hot tea.  The baby lays not ten feet from where I write this upsetting entry. 

I then walked to the next room where a woman is laying on a floor mattress with internal bleeding.  She, too, appears to be dying.  The husband and another man think I am a newly arrived physician there to treat the dying woman.  I explain who I really am and all I can do is show my true concern and hope that miracles will save these lives.  I feel so helpless.  I have no training in either of these medical emergencies.  I pray.  I pray with all my might.  God, hear our prayers!

The nurses continue to enter into the room where I lay writing in this journal.  They are there to get more supplies for the sick patients.  They apologize for the disturbing me!!!  Oh, my God, PLEASE let me help in some way!  Never have I felt so helpless. 

Just two hours ago I was struggling with the removal of three difficult roots on the very nice and understanding Peruvian woman.  I was feeling exasperated at what I thought was a procedure beyond my limits.  I thought it impossible for me to perform.  I persisted.  I quietly prayed within.  Sherry was assisting me and giving her support and understanding to both me and the patient.  Gotta love her!!!  During this agonizing forty-five minute procedure the woman was crying and moaning and I did everything to hold myself together for her sake and mine.  I persisted.  And lo and behold, all was completed successfully and all was well.  The lady was now smiling and thanking me.  I will never discount God’s presence and works…

We five have had this week many difficult challenges with patients and procedures.  We have had countless heartfelt and heart-led discussions.  We have shared our lives.  We have shared the much needed laughter in these kinds of situations.  Now we have death knocking on the very walls where we are gathered.  And I fretted over three difficult roots…Give me a break…

Friday, July 29, 2005

Good morning.  A very good morning indeed!  The baby with pneumonia has stabilized.  Sherry has been spending much time with the mother giving her snacks and tea. The lady is most grateful. The two of them have developed a beautiful, beyond common language bond.  How sweet it is…  The woman with the internal bleeding is also doing better.  Thanks again to God…

We saw a lot of patients this last day.  Lots of extractions and a few restorations.  My last patient of the trek was a thirty-something woman who needed five difficult extractions.  She and I persisted for close to an hour and completed the treatment with success.  She too smiled at me and gave me thanks.  I said, “No.  Thank YOU”. 

We finally ended the day at about 4:30 P.M. and packed up the gear and our belongings.  We bid our farewells to the folks of Nahuinlla.  Hugs, kisses, warm feelings…  I bought celebratory beer for the five of us on our way out of town.  I called it celebratory, but I really wanted some beer!

We drove the three hours to Cotabamba and dined in the same café as last time having the same rice, fried eggs and fries as before.  And beer!  Then off to bed at the convent.  We  all slept hard.  None of us arose before 9:00 A.M.  Wow, we were tired…

Saturday, July 30, 2005

We made the six hour drive back to Cusco.  Wonderful warm day through the beautiful Peruvian countryside.  The dirt roads are long, steep and winding with many tight switchbacks.  At one point Clark slammed on the brakes of the truck and we skidded to a dusty halt with our front bumper just four feet  from the bumper of a skid-stopped commuter bus.  Whew! 

Finally back in our hotel in Cusco we showered and crashed.  Oh, what a wonderful feeling!  Later Jacqui, Clark, Hannah, Sherry and I met for dinner in downtown Cusco where we enjoyed an interesting atmosphere, great food, service and companionship.  Back to our hotel for yet another hard night’s sleep.

Sunday, July 31, 2005 - August 13, 2005

After the amazing dental trek, Sherry and I spent time in the wonderful city of Cusco, spent four days and three nights trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and a four day, three night white water raft trip down the beautiful and exciting Apurimac River.  Both were remarkable and amazing adventures, too.  We flew from Cusco to Lima on August 13^th , then on to Denver that night arriving the morning of August 14^th.  Then the seven hour drive to our home near Durango, Colorado.  Home, sweet home…

WOW, what an amazing experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reflections

I’ve come to call our visit to Peru the Tritrekalon:  Dentistry, Inca Trail, Apurimac River.

Wow, what huge experiences we so enjoyed and will remember and reflect upon for all time…

The toughest of the three legs was definitely the Dental Project Peru trek.  But, it was also without a doubt the most rewarding and eye-opening eight days of my life! 

The people are so very poor!  Yet they are rich in their traditions and communal ways.  Relieving their oral pain and infection was challenging but rewarding.  They were appreciative and grateful.  There was “Legless”, “Six Toes” and the gentleman who endured a more than an hour extraction starting with Hannah, then Jacqui, then me.  Once we finally had the huge first molar out, he asked if I would extract another tooth that was bothering him!  Thankfully, it went rather quickly and without incident.  And, so many others…  Kids of all ages, women, pregnant women, men…  They all had problems with their teeth and we gave them relief. 

There were times to enjoy between treating patients, too.  The bull fights; the dancing drunks; the Independence Day Festival; the march where we were invited dignitaries; the orphanage/convent with warm beds and the tour of their commune with a dozen or so girls who showed Sherry and I the animals, the playground, the vegetable gardens; washing dishes with three giggling orphans; the café in Cotabamba  with the delicious eggs, rice and fries; the huge statute of the condor (Incas) attacking the bull (the Spanish) in the plaza of Cotabamba…

But, mostly it was exhausting dentistry in cramped quarters using rudimentary equipment, chairs, and loads of fuzzy cotton balls!  Oh, my aching back…  We slept usually on mats on the floor in birthing rooms or makeshift dental clinics in the health posts.  We cooked our meals over a backpacking stove and washed our own dishes.  We slept hard!  We awakened to patients waiting for us. 

The three pueblos we visited were situated high in the majestic Andes.  High in the sky!  13,000 - 14,000 feet above sea level.  The countryside was spacious, endless and awesome.  Farmers growing and harvesting and mashing the potatoes with there feet in a sort of a dance with their hands clasped behind their backs.  Horses, cows, sheep, llamas, pigs, guineas, alpacas and more.  The people in their traditional, colorful clothing all wearing hats which look like they wear for life; and they are very  possessive and proud of their headwear.  Women openly breastfeeding their babies and then carrying them on their backs wrapped in blankets tied around their shoulders.  Adobe houses and dirt foot trails throughout the villages.  Rubber sandals.  Bare feet.  Black feet.  Poor hygiene.  Large smiles.  Warm greetings.  Shy, curious children wanting our attention.  An occasional condor sailing overhead.  The Quechua/Inca language with its short syllables and clicking sounds.  So much.  So much to take in…  So much more…

The closeness that developed between the five trekkers  (Jacqui, Clark, Hannah, Sherry and myself) grew into a beautiful working and loving relationship.  Mutual respect with a common goal to help our fellow human beings.  Lots of tales.  Lots of laughs.

This writing helps me to understand the experience and myself. 

Words to describe my feelings in Peru:  Amazing, Incredible, Awesome, Exhausting, Fun, Happy, Healthy, Beautiful, Kind, Friendly, Compassionate, Sad, Lonely, Intense, Appreciative, Thankful, Grateful, Soul-searching…

I loved it all!!!  Yes, I’d do it again…

Thank you Jacqui, Clark, Hannah, Sherry and all the good people of Peru!