Christmas in Lima

Now that the Christmas madness has settled down, wanted to just write a quick blurb about Christmas eve in Lima. It's just such a different experience from Chicago. So, first it's the beginning of summer, so it's fairly warm and then at midnight there is a full on fireworks show. Our whole neighborhood was lit up -from small to huge, it was like the fourth of July, but it was Christmas. Anyway, I think everyone should experience Christmas eve in Lima at least once.

Thoughts on Lima

So our protest was at least semi-successful...the president said they won't sell it and will convert some of the area into a park, but they also might build a convention center...so, guess we'll see. But at least it won't be condos.

There was an article in the paper that the government hopes to give everyone in Peru health coverage by 2011. They're planning on making it a law and then put in reforms slowly to get everyone covered - some kind of mix between the Mexican and Chilean system. Right now about 40% of the population has access to health care. Anyway, pretty cool...hope it happens.

• I pretty regularly feel like I'm going to die in the Taxis here, they're nuts.
• I've eaten more potatoes than can possibly be good for you.
• The mosquitos are doing a serious job on me...and I'm in Lima, don't even want to think what will happen to me in Iquitos.
• And it's starting to look like Christmas here...the houses have lights and all kinds of decorations, but I can't help but miss Chicago during the holidays a little.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

El Pueblo No Se Vende

Tonight I participated in my first Peruvian protest. I've seen a lot of protests here through the years, but this is the first one in which I participated. There is a park that surrounds a military office, the Pentagonito (the little pentagon), in the community of San Borja. And the military is now trying to sell the space to developers. I've been going there most mornings to go for runs. It's one of the few "green" spaces in this part of Lima. It's packed in the morning with joggers, walkers, bikers, and there is one corner that has free outdoor exercise equipment and in another corner they have aerobics classes. There is also an open park area. On Sundays they close of some of the streets surrounding the parks so families can come and ride their bikes in a safe environment. It's kind of like the bike/running path along Lake Shore Drive, minus the lake. If you've been to Lima, you know how rare this area is and what a shame it would be for it to become another bunch of condos or strip mall. There are so many cars here and pedestrians do not have the right of way, so it's nice to have a safe place to run. And it's great to see people out exercising. Anyway, people have been signing petitions all week and they decided to have a vigil tonight, which was more like a rally and I went to support the cause. It was a good turn out...some congressmen, the local mayor, an army group opposed to the sale, lots of community members, and even Santa. Now we'll just have to see how effective we were.

Mineros Artesanles de Cuatro Horas

I had a meeting this morning with a group of directors from the mining community of Cuatro Horas. Mineros artesanles are miners that don't work for a mining company, they work on their own. This community mines gold, they have organized themselves to be the owners of their mine and to try and provide services for their community.

There are approximately 800 families in the community. They have a grade school, but no high school. They have built their own medical clinic, but their doctor just left b/c he was not making enough money. So they currently have a fill in doctor while they are trying to find a permanent replacement. They are about an hour away from a health center and about a 6 hour drive from a hospital. They have no potable water and apparently one phone in the whole community. They are really, really, interested in improving the education and health of their community. Their needs are big...they have no real access to occupational health professionals and they work under less than ideal conditions and they are interested in learning about nutrition and women's health issues. My heart actually hurt after talking to them. They would love for us to come and work with them...just not sure we're the right group for them. Anyway, think I'm going to try and make it out to visit them during the later part of my stay.

Los Julcaneros

I had my first work meeting yesterday. It was with the jefe of the Red Julcan...so that's the chief of the Julcan health network, Dr. Henry Guanillo Che and also the president of the Comite Local de Administracion de Salud (CLAS), Sr. Julio Ramirez Mendez. The CLAS is a community run organization that makes administrative decisions about health services in Julcan. They are part of an effort by the Peruvian government to decentralize the administration of health services. The CLAS is in charge of making decisions about health at the primary care level - which are their health posts and health centers. It removes some of the bureaucracy from the health care system, b/c if the CLAS wants to hire a new doctor or start a new program they can. The CLAS does not have that same control over hospitals, which seems to be something Julcan is struggling with b/c their health center may soon b/c a level 1 one hospital.

Julcan is a district that has about 30,000 people. The Red de Julcan currently is made up of one health center and 16 health posts. They refer more complicated cases to Otuzco which is about an hour away. Their current health care concerns are:
1. dealing with the lack of access to clean water - most people do not have potable water.
2. child malnutrition
3. preventing maternal morbidity and mortality

Dr.Henry said there focus is on prevention of illness. They are very interested in trying to figure out the reasons that people don't access health care - they tend to have difficulty getting women to prenatal care, routine child exams/immunizations, and they want to find interventions that work and are sustainable. They are happy to have students come and work with them...they have lots of health care surveys/data they'd like to collect. I'm planning to go to Julcan in February for about 6 weeks, so I'll see what it's really like.

First week in Peru

I've been in Peru for exactly one week now. I arrived in Lima after flying for 24 hours, the price you pay for getting your ticket with frequent flier miles. Lima is this bustling city that I consistently find overwhelming at first - the traffic, the noise, the smell of gasoline. There are 12 million people packed into this city.

On my first day, I made it a priority to eat ceviche. Ceviche is a dish made from raw fish and seafood that is cooked in lime juice. I'm not unbiased, but I think Peruvians have the best ceviche. Peruvians pride themselves on the quality of their food and expect to here more about food in the weeks and months to come.

I spent this first weekend in Cajamarca. It's in the northern highlands of Peru. It is mostly known for being the city where the Inca Atahualpa was captured by the Spaniards and offered to fill a room with gold & silver in exchange for his release. He filled the room, but they killed him anyway. It's the only Inca ruin that's left in the city.

Cajamarca is also as an agricultural center of Peru - so they have great cheese and manjar blanco. A sweet similar to dulce de leche, but not exactly the same. We spent our weekend visiting Cumbe Mayo - these awesome rock formations that are carved with pre- Incan petroglyphs (pictures that people have no idea what they mean). Our next day was spent seeing the city - and my favorite part of the city was the Hospital de Hombres and Mujeres which were built in the 1600's and our now a museum. That was followed by a trip to a cooperative farm - in which we basically visited a Peruvian farm, little wacky, but I got to feed a monkey, see a jaguar, and the crazy ugly hairless Peruvian dog, so no complaints. On our last day we went to the Ventanillas de Comoboyo - basically ancient burial grounds. They are these super cool to openings in the side of the mountain.

Probably my favorite part of Cajamarca were the local people wearing their straw hats. Seeing people at the market gives you a tiny glimpse into peoples lives. The last thing I wanted to mention was the Yanacocha mining company that is the largest gold mine in Peru and is in Cajamarca. The mining industry comes up all the time in Peru, b/c it's one of the reasons for Peru's economic boom, but there are many conflicting opinions about their contributions to the local communities and the impact they are having on the environment.