Home Health

We now have Internet in the house so naturally I am writing less. Go figure. It is distracting but allows us to work on various projects, look up recipes and communicate on Skype with family and friends in the late hours. Right now I am writing while streaming classical 101.1 from Dallas. It’s kind of cool to hear the DJ give the weather report. A little piece of home.

Next week the home health for the chronically ill goes live so there have been many meetings and preparations. Peruvian meetings take patience because conversations are more indirect and in the form of “spiral logic” as opposed to linear logic that is more goal oriented. It takes time and several meetings to achieve the final product. Efficiency is not the main objective.

We have to make our own supplies which kind of has an arts and craft feel to it. Wednesday we turned the dining room table into a workshop. I learned how to take a roll of gauze, cut it and fold it into 4X4’s, wrap it in brown packaging paper, tape it closed and it is then ready for the autoclave to be “sterilized.” Still no controls, indicators or print out to prove this and if you can imagine cutting gauze, strings are flying everywhere. Making our sterile supplies is time consuming. For gloves, we pull a pair from a latex glove box, fold the cuffs over and wrap them as well in the brown paper to be sterilized for dressing changes. Someone donated equipment for suture removal and to take vitals. Syringes were also donated. I have no idea how sustainable some of these practices are but I am sure we will find out.

Traditional medicine still has its place in Peruvian culture. I have heard of people using urophagia (which is one you will have to look up on your own.) Many will still turn to a curandero (healer) if they have an unexplained illness. People swear by it. The curandero will use a guinea pig to diagnose the problem in the same way western medicine might refer to a CAT scan. The guinea pig is boxed in with the bed ridden patient overnight and somehow by spending time with the patient, running over the body the guinea pig absorbs the ailment. The guinea pig is then killed and dissected. The problem organ is suppose to be evident upon autopsy of the guinea pig. Black guinea pigs are used to remove bad luck.

I have also seen a small amount of traditional medicine as well in hospice. Families will sometimes use a salve of their choice on an open wound. So far I have been asked to apply some kind of liquid plant extract and I have poured a special honey into an open bed sore. The tissue that is using the honey looks healthy.

For the past two weeks, we have been celebrating 800 years of Franciscan charism and the 20 year anniversary of the parish in Chimbote. There have been many food fund raisers and performances which some of the missionaries have participated in. Jennifer is in the liturgical theater group and Courtney sings in a music group called Exodo. All of the musicians play by ear and pick up the tunes from the radio. Music stands are almost nonexistent.