So my last week in Julcan was pretty good. I had 3 medical students from Loyola come up for their spring break. They received funding through the global health program at Loyola. They came to get a first hand view of my experience and learn what they could about health care in rural Peru.
Overall, it was a really good week. They came in on Sunday and we did a quick little tour around Trujillo. We saw the beach, ate ceviche, and went to the Huaca del Sol y Luna. Monday we headed to Julcan and basically just got settled and took them on a tour of the health center. Plus they got introduced to the super room in the "hotel".
Tuesday morning we did home visits on pregnant women. We reviewed warning signs and started explaining how to make suero casero. The students were excellent...Beau and Dina took turns explaining the warning signs and Mark entertained many of the children with his camera. In the afternoon we took an hour walk to the caserio of Oromalqui with Rebecca, Christopher, Marianela, and Juner to see their talk on Microbios and do home visits of families identified as at risk by their community.
Wednesday we sat through a semi-painful sesion demostrativa. It was so long and complicated and the women really didn't participate. The practice session was so much better. We got to present our suero casero...so that was pretty good and it's so simple: water, salt and sugar.
Thursday morning the students rotated through the different services in the health center so they could get a sense of what a day in the health center was like - so this included medicine, family planning/OB, nursing/well child checks. Oh and that afternoon we took a walk to El Rosal to go check out an Incan mummy that is just hanging out in a lawn chair in this guys house. Crazy, but cool. Then we had a very wet walk all the way home.
Friday we went to another caserio, Santa Rosa, where Christopher checked out the water system which is completely non-functional. Beau and I presented the suero casero again and did home visits. These home visits gave you a better sense of people how in the communities further away, actually live. They definitely aren't eating the portions of milk, veggies, and meats they're being told to eat. Friday night was capped off with a pretty rocking party.
Our weekend began with a tour of the state medical school in Trujillo and one of the big public hospitals...El Belen. It was good to see the hospital where patients get referred. While there we learned that the patients who get pap smears in Julcan, not only have to wait three months to get there results, but SIS doesn't cover a colposcopy...so not sure how you actually do a diagnostic test if you have an abnormal pap? Ah, got to love SIS.
The rest of the weekend was spent in Huanchaco enjoying the sun, beach, food, and hot showers!
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