Te Amo Peru

Sometimes, changes happen so gradually that one hardly notices.  Sometimes, changes happen almost instantly.  Like everything else in Peru, the changes I have recently begun to notice, have happened slowly.  After practically a year down here, I have started to take notice of how different things seem now as compared to last September.  So, in order to give you a little taste of just a handful of the things that I feel have changed over the past eleven months, I made this handy-dandy little comparison table.

Last September	Now
Joked about taking showers only once or twice a week but in reality showered a good three to four times a week.	Jokes about taking a shower once or twice a week and is actually serious (lately, its been closer to once a week…).  I’d like to see you take a ice cold shower when its 50 degrees outside!
Crossed at crosswalks, waited for the streetlight to change, waited for cars to completely pass before crossing the street.	Crosses the street like a super-human!
Got nervous about knocking on doors in Cambio Puente to gather simple census data.	Does home visits and nutritional workshops without blinking an eye.
Was just that “gringa” in Cambio Puente.	Has kids yelling “Caty!!” down the streets and even had one little cutie tell his mom that “his gringita just drove by!”.
Struggled with conversations in Spanish.	Has been asked multiple times where I am from in Peru.
Sat like a deer in the headlights when my host family made jokes.	Can hold my own and make my host family proud of what they have taught me.
Fell in love with ceviche and combinado at first bite.	Knows all of the best places to eat said ceviche and combinado.
Got woken up at 4am when the roosters crowed.	Doesn’t even use earplugs and can sleep until 9am without ever hearing the roosters (on those rare days where I actually can sleep until 9am).
Could not understand anything that was said to me (in Spanish) on the telephone.	Has entire conversations with people on the phone in Spanish.  Except my host grandma, even Peruvians can’t understand her.
Was not sure how I would survive in a city that smelled of fish for a year.	What fish smell?
Walked out of the house empty-pocketed.	Always has pockets full of toilet paper and spare change, but, like every good Peruvian, never a pen when needed.
Got laughed at by my co-workers when I tried to spell Peruvian names.	No longer even have to think about how all those crazy names are spelled.
Read English words in English.	Reads English words as if they were Spanish.
Introduced myself to Peruvians with the English pronunciation of my name.	Introduce myself to English speakers with the Spanish pronunciation of my name.
Thought there were only big bananas and small bananas.	Can tell the difference between all nine different kinds of bananas.

 

If life is about progress, then I think my life in Peru throughout this year has been pretty grand.

Goooooooool!

After almost ten months in Peru, I have finally been to a local soccer game.  It was full of crazy Peruvian fans, bands, riot police, food, and a Jose Galvez (Chimbote) win.  I am pretty sure that I am the first gringa to ever been seen at a game in that stadium based on the looks from my fellow Chimbotanos.

Throughout this past week, three noteworthy events occurred here in Chimbote.  As always, the month began with getting weights and heights for all of our kids in the project in order to track their nutritional status.  This is always a big project on its own since we are a small team and have over 300 kids, but this month, we had to draw blood samples from all our kiddos as well in order to test their hemoglobin levels after three months of iron supplements.  It was a busy week.  My favorite moment happened on Thursday afternoon when I was pricking fingers and making kids cry.  I had just finished pricking the finger of one of the girls in our project and we were waiting for her results.  Back in February when we tested her hemoglobin, she was borderline.  Her mom was great about bringing her to receive her supplements every week and participated in our nutritional workshops.  When I told her mom that she had gone from being borderline anemic (according to the ministry of health standards….see this post for my rant) to being well into the normal range, her mom got tears in her eyes because she was so happy.  It is really amazing to see results like this.  We had kids who have gone from severe anemia to borderline anemia in just a matter of months.

Not only have we had some really great success with our kids and their hemoglobin levels, but the gardens that we helped our families plant are doing great.  The families who were among the first to benefit from the gardens have been able to harvest their veggies.  The gardens look beautiful and these families now have fresh veggies to eat on a regular basis.

Finally, yesterday we had a workshop with our community agents that focused on self-esteem.  Peru is a very machismo culture and you can tell that many women do not think very highly of themselves because of the culture and attitudes by which they are surrounded.  Our community agents are some of the most amazing women I have met down here.  They do really great things for their community without hope of compensation or acknowledgment.  They are smart, active, caring leaders in their community.  This is the way I see these women.  I am proud to work with them and blessed to have met them.  Because of the great things they are able to do in their community and the respect they have gained from their neighbors, I assumed they saw themselves the same way.  The workshop yesterday was really eye-opening for me.  One of the activities was to think of some of your strengths and weaknesses.  A number of the women could not think of a single strength which simply blew me away.  I could not help but wonder, “If these women have done this much without thinking they have any strengths, what could they do if they really knew how amazing they are?”.  The afternoon was spent on self-assessments and recognition.  While talking about milestones throughout their lives, many of the women talked about their involvement in the project.  This was the first time that I really realized that not only do we have the opportunity to change the lives of the children in the project, but we also have an opportunity to give something to these women that they have never had before.

This week I am thankful for skype which gives me the chance to see my goddaughter even from half a world away.  I am also thankful for my amazing parents who are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary tomorrow.  It has been great to grow up and see them not only as my parents but as two best friends who are still very much in love.  I count myself very blessed to not only have them as parents, but to also have them as friends.  Happy Anniversary and here’s hoping for 30 more years!

Magic Baby

I have spent the past nine months being humbled.  To not feel so, would be next to impossible.  However, some things are definitely more humbling than others.  One of the strangest things is to realize that life really does go on without you.  People move, get new jobs, get married, etc.  But one of the biggest things that really makes me realize that everything continues as normal at home is the arrival of a brand new family member.  Ann Marie Chappell was born this morning to my sister and her husband.  I like to think of her as a magic baby.  When I left, my sister was not pregnant, she was just my sister.  When I come back, she will not be pregnant, but, she’ll have this new little person.  This is one of those events in life that I always thought I would be there to watch.  To watch her belly grow and then get to meet my little niece right when she was born.  Its humbling (and a little sad) to realize that things go on as normal, even when I’m half a world away.

Is it possible to miss someone you have never met?  Because I miss my goddaughter like crazy.

Lessons Learned in Huaraz

In Peru, as in other developing countries, about half of childhood deaths are caused by pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, malaria and measles.  The prevalence of malnutrition in these countries makes the children even more susceptible to these preventable diseases.  In Peru, 25% of children are classified as being chronically malnourished, in rural areas like Cambio Puente, this statistic rises to 36.1%.  Chronic malnutrition is seen in the height of children.  If not given enough protein, children do not grow.  This is why, if you look across a room full of Peruvians, the majority are almost exactly the same height.  Chile, on the other hand, has a childhood chronic malnutrition rate of only 2%.  To put this into perspective, in the United States, fewer than 1% of children have chronic malnutrition.  Chile has done a fantastic job trying to reduce the incidence of chronic malnutrition which helps protect children from other childhood diseases.  Peru is trying to do the same.  That is what this past week was all about for me.

Along with other nurses and a couple doctors from Chimbote, Nuevo Chimbote and Cambio Puente, I headed up to the city of Huaraz to participate in a training workshop.  This weeklong workshop—“Curso Clinico de Atencion Integrada a las Enfermedades Prevalentes de la Infancia con Enfoque de Derechos (AIEPI)” or “Clinical Course on the Integrated Attention of the Prevalent Childhood Diseases with a focus on Human Rights”—helped train us on how to recognize and treat the major childhood diseases seen in Peru.  Many of the nurses that attended the workshop work in clinics without a doctor, which made this training even more important.  I would say that about 90% of the material presented to me this week was brand new because most of the diseases discussed are ones that we simply do not have to worry about much in the US anymore.  New information all in Spanish made for a stressful, albeit interesting, week.  It was great to be back in a hospital setting and really interesting to see the vast differences between hospitals in the states and here in Peru.  One of the things I found most interesting in this course was the focus on basic human rights; mainly that every human (even the tiniest of us) has the right to to quality healthcare.  I love that this was so strongly emphasized as this is a culture where children often get overlooked.  There is a practice that the best food is saved for the adults, when in fact, we should be giving the most nutrient rich food to the kids that are still growing.  A couple months ago I saw a poster in Cambio Puente encouraging parents to give their child a name.  This seems so silly to those of us from the US.  My (very pregnant) sister and brother-in-law had a name picked out for their soon to be born child months ago.  It is not uncommon for children here to not have a name until they are a couple months old.  This means they do not have the equivalent of a social security number which prevents them from receiving their vaccines and eventually going to school.  This week really showed me that there is some exciting stuff going on down here that can have a huge impact.  All the people in attendance are required to hold a similar workshop for all of their co-workers as part of their evaluation.  Not only did this workshop show me the things we can do with a little bit of education, but it also opened the door for me to possibly get some more experience in a clinic in Chimbote.  If things ever slow down with the project, I have been invited over to the clinic Magdalena Nueva to work with the pediatric population.

Now, one cannot go to Huaraz without experiencing the Cordillera Blanca.  The Seattleite in me was seriously missing the mountains and a week in Huaraz was the perfect cure.  I went on a great hike with some friends, spent a couple wonderfully relaxing days in a mountain town that taught me a few, very important, lessons.

1. At altitude, I have the lung capacity of a mouse.
2. Nine months of a carbohydrate-rich Peruvian diet DOES NOT mean that you have carbo-loaded for a 18km hike.
3. While my parents taught me what to do if you encounter a bear or a mountain lion on a hike, they never told me what to do when you encounter an angry bull.  Spending 20 minutes on the side of a hill after being chased by said bull is pretty laughable once you know you will not get gored by one of his horns.
4. Two days of playing in the mountains is not nearly enough.  I cannot wait until September.
5. Peru does have good beer.  It is all in Huaraz. (It also has decent Mexican and Thai food.)

A very happy (early) Father’s day to the Grand Poobah himself, my pops, from whom I inherited my love for the mountains, beer and corny jokes.  Happy Father’s Day to Grandpa Lars, Grandpa Daly and my brother-in-law/soon to be poppa, too.  I feel pretty darn blessed to have all of you in my life.

Peruvian Dreams

When I was sixteen, I was confirmed.  My patron saint was St. Rose of Lima.  I think part of the reason I chose her was due to the fact that my family always jokes about how I was supposed to be named Rose, but when I was born my mom said I just did not look like a Rose.  I have never fully recovered.  I can give you the full sob-story later.  The main reason I chose St. Rose was her love for the poor and her humility.  Last summer, before I knew my placement for this year, my mom had a dream that I would be going to Peru.  I kind of laughed it off and thought, “Yeah, I’d be okay with that” and then moved on without giving it a second thought.  Now, I do not know if I really believe in fate or destiny, but I do know that I am (obviously) in Peru right now.  I also know that over these past eight months I have had a lot of déjà vu.  I take all these things to mean that this is exactly where I am supposed to be.  Why I am supposed to be here, is a question that may never be answered.  So on those days (which have been happening more frequently these past couple weeks) when I realize that I kill an average of eight bugs in my bedroom alone in one day and when the smell of fishmeal wafts into my bedroom from the factories, I start to wonder if it really just was coincidence that I picked St. Rose and that of all the countries in the world, my mom dreamed of Peru. 

Anyone who tells you that volunteer work is not stressful has obviously never worked in Peru.  Throughout the past couple weeks, it has not been uncommon to work five 12 hour days in a row, followed by a Saturday in order to catch up on everything that was not finished throughout the week.  I’m not complaining (ok, maybe a smidge), the project is cool and when I actually take a second while I’m walking around Cambio Puente it really hits me all the great things you can do with public health.  These realizations have not only made me thankful for this opportunity down here, but have also made me thankful that there are people who love public health as much as I love the idea of public health, because I could not do this forever.  With the start of our nutritional workshops about six weeks ago, everyone has been a little stressed out and a little more on edge.  Thankfully, we seem to have finally settled into our schedule and the end of the workshops in July no longer seems so far away.

This week was a nice work break for me.  Early Monday morning, a couple co-workers and I headed up north to Trujillo to help out with their project.  For all my complaining about having too much to do with our project, I am thankful that there are three of us to spread out the workload; the Wiñay project in Trujillo has only two and I admire their work ethic and spirit.  Its amazing how doing something we do every month (weights and heights) can be so different in another environment.  We were able to learn a lot from the Wiñay project and share some of the ideas that have been successful with our project.  On Wednesday, my fellow CMMB volunteer, Amber, came down to Chimbote with a couple of her friends who are also PTs.  We were able to do some home visits with some families in Cambio Puente as well as hold a workshop for teachers about identifying disabilities in children.  In the evening, we had a workshop for the staff at the clinic about proper body mechanics to prevent back injuries.  The whole day was a nice change of pace.

This week I am thankful for fresh bananas straight from the tree in our tree, big, sweet mangos and a host family that (vainly) keeps trying to convince me to stay for just one year longer.

 

Feliz Dia Mama!

A very Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in my life! Especially, Grandma Daly, Grandma Marilyn, and my Peruvian mom America. An extra special ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ to the strongest, most beautiful woman I know, my mom. You are amazing!

Chancho Marino

This story really starts on Saturday, although, I did not realize it at the time.  Please don’t judge me too much for what you are about to read.  I wouldn’t say it exactly has a happy ending, but here goes….

Saturday morning, I walked into the kitchen to find a big market bag full of bloody meat.  In my house, this really is not all that uncommon; we fairly often have freshly killed chickens in our sink, just waiting to be plucked and cleaned.  This market bag was left by my host dad who has been working out on a fishing boat since February.  Every couple weeks he stops by (usually in the middle of the night) when the ship is in port, to drop off some fish and say ‘hi’ to the family.  The bag of meat in the kitchen was his gift to the family for this trip.  The meat was eventually rinsed off and put in the refrigerator.

Yesterday, I got home for lunch and saw a heaping plate of meat waiting at my place at the table.  I thought to myself, “Beef!  We haven’t had beef in a long time!” and sat down to dig in.  Before asking what it was, my host mom told me I was being served the former contents of the bloody market bag, chancho marino.  I looked at her and said, “Is it a fish?”.  She said that yes, it was fish, so I took a couple more bites.  Up until this point, I have liked everything I have been served in Peru.  This was the first dish of which I was not fond.  After seeing me struggle through a couple more bites, my host mom told me that I did not have to eat it if I did not like it, phew!

That afternoon, I went into the clinic and told my co-workers that my host family finally found something I don’t like.  I told them what it was and then innocently asked, “What is chancho marino?”  My co-worker replied that it may be better not to know.  That comment always troubles me.  After a little more nudging, she pulled some pictures up on Google and said, “Well, at least you didn’t like it!”.  The pictures she pulled up were of large marine mammals.

I went home last night for dinner and saw Johannes (the German volunteer) sitting at the table with my host sister, Milagros, eating chancho marino.  Milagros made a comment about how much Johannes liked it and I asked if he knew what it was.  The following conversations still makes me scratch my head:

Johannes: Well, it’s fish, right?

Milagros: It lives in the ocean, yes.

Cathleen: But it isn’t really fish, is it?

Milagros: Well, I guess not technically, no.  But it does live in the ocean, so kind of.

Johannes: Well then, what is it?

Cathleen: My co-worker told me it was related to sea lion, is that right, Milagros?

Milagros: Some people say it is related to dolphin.

Johannes: …………

Cathleen: So, it isn’t fish, then….

Johannes happily finished his plate of porpoise and I dug into my bowl of cereal.  Trust me, I feel terrible enough as it is about this situation, so no guilt trips please.