I’ve been continuing to go up to Occopata about 3-4 times per week to work with Dr. Rafael and the obstetricians at El Puesto de Salud de Occopata (the name of the clinic). The time I have spent up there has been incredibly rewarding and I enjoy being able to experience a different location, as I have spent nearly all of my time in Cusco since arriving two months ago.  When I’m not busy observing and helping the doctor, he takes time to teach me various medically related skills. For instance, he taught Michael and I yesterday how to do some surgical stitches. We used chicken legs as our ‘patients’, made cuts in the flesh, and then practiced the five different kinds of stitches that we learned.

I really appreciate his willingness to instruct as well as his enthusiasm for answering any questions I may have, especially since it takes me a little longer to understand a complicated response in Spanish. Outside of Occopata, he is always eager to help me explore Cusco, and shows me delicious “hole-in-the-wall” restaurants that I would never stumble upon on my own. I am incredibly thankful to have such a kind, generous friend in Cusco.

Today in Occopata, I did a kind of mini-medical campaign with one of the nurses. We went house to house, asking if anyone was sick and needed medication. Depending on their illness, we would distribute the appropriate medicine and then give follow-up information. Occopata has a very high number of people infected with scabies, and so most of the medicine we gave out was a topical treatment for the infection. It was really sad to see a 3-month old baby with scabies, and the mother didn’t even know what it was or that she was infected as well.

The yard of the first house we visited

Belin giving medicine to a young girl with a fever

 The second house we visited

The guinea pigs the family raises for food and money

Two women spinning sheep's wool - they only spoke Quechua

The nurse also did a salt test in each of the homes in order to determine if the salt that households were using to cook with contained enough iodine. A deficiency of iodine in the diet can cause a goiter, or swelling of the thyroid glands. The tests indicated that none of the households were using salt with sufficient iodine content.

The droplet in the middle of the salt should be completely black if enough iodine is present - as you can see, it is clear. 

Over the next few weeks, Michael and I will continue to travel to Occopata to finish up the house-to-house medical campaigns. We also plan to put together some presentations on alcoholism and family abuse (two very significant problems in Occopata) and present these to the students at the local school.