Week at-a-glance Part 1

  Saturday (28th): Annie, Danielle, and I decided to try and shoe-shop in Lima Centro.  This was a bad idea.  There is a large mall there with cheap things but we did not find it.  Instead, we wandered around for 9 hours.  Lima Centro (outside of the main plaza) is really dirty and polluted, slightly skeezy, and overwhelmingly unpleasant.  I'm glad we spent time there to see a part of Lima that wasn't intended for tourists, but I think viewing it in smaller doses would have been a better idea.  One fun place we ended up though was the Palacio de las Novias (palace of brides-to-be).  We were intrigued by the dress in the window made entirely of daisies (we never found it) and found everything you could ever want to have at a wedding: shoes, dresses, salons, pastery shops, lingerie stores.  We didn't find anything especially fetching, but it was interesting to see a mall dedicated just to brides.  We eventually ventured back to Miraflores and were pleasantly surprised to be stopped on the bus for Peru's 7th annual gay-pride parade.  I had read that LGBT issues are often ignored and disfavored by Peruvians, so it was really surprising to see such a large parade dedicated to it.  While we were enjoying the content (nothing extraordinary for those who have visited Gay 90s) the other patrons of the bus (with the exception of a few) were either staring and frowning or obviously ignoring it all.  I don't know to any depth how acceptance of LGBT people really is in the community, but it felt like we were witnessing a significant event.
  Monday (30th): The psychologist was out in meetings for the day, so I spent the morning with a nurse who was giving Hepatitis B vaccines.  There weren’t any patients for an hour (a frequent problem at the hospital) so I learned how to hand-roll cotton balls.  Annie claims that they are autoclaved after, but we used ours immediately on the patients.  And no gloves.  I think the nursing department has a communal couple pairs of gloves and only the gynecologist and Annie really use them.  Initially too I thought that specula were only bathed in bleach water and then rinsed but Annie also assured me that they are in fact autoclaved along with the dental equipment :/  Anyways, once there were patients, I took down their address (which took a while to learn how to do, they have about 3-4 different parts to their location) and other information. 
  Tuesday (1st):  I saw one patient and then Carmen (the psychologist from a neighboring hospital) took me back to her hospital and introduced me to everyone.  I talked for a while with the other social workers and the dentist showed me all 415 pictures from her camera.  They really wanted me to stay and even though I did absolutely nothing productive there, it was nice to have people acting enthusiastic about my presence.  They also said that I could do a number of other jobs in the hospital, which is more flexible than at Tupac.  At Tupac, they seem to think that I am a psychologist (not a student) and that is my only interest, when in fact I would much prefer to work with the nurses or in the lab.  I might work a day or two per week at Delicias (the other hospital) and hopefully I can compensate for my uselessness by being helpful there.
  Wednesday (2nd):  There were a lot of patients at the clinic.  I could follow a couple of the conversations, but two of the women spoke so quietly I had no clue what the issue was.  It seems that most of the patients don’t intend to see the psychologist but are pregnant and therefore supposed to.  Usually they end up realizing some pressure in their marriages, homes, or finances and end up talking about it.  I said this before, but I really think it’s great that so many of the patients are supposed to see the psychologist regardless of their medical issue.  The community is poor and I don’t think have many resources for dealing with a lot of the incredible stress that comes along with not having substantial finances.  In the evening I met up with Annie for dessert and to chat.  We had Lúcuma cake (made from the Lúcuma fruit) and Hindu cake (with caramel, pecans, coconut) which were too sweet but fun to try.  The cake I had at Jenny’s school party was also really sweet, but I’d be interested to see how standards from home compare (there’s a lot of pecan pie here, yum!)
  Thursday (3rd):  Rosario took me with her to the local school to screen the students of one of the classes for depression.  I actually got to do it too!  I felt great being able to talk to the kids and hear about what was going on in their lives.  The students were 15-17, but already some had tried to commit suicide or were experiencing abuse in their homes.  I was surprised how honest they were about their problems, but it’s great so that now they can be given the right resources to help!