ba bah--this is the sound of settling

it´s hard to believe, but life here has begun to settle a bit--both terrifying and exciting! here are a few highlights:

WORK
i kind of have a work schedule figured out! i will be spending monday, wednesday, and friday in the posta santa clara. this is a clinic run by the sisters of charity that is completely open to the public. they have all kinds of specialties and are constantly running ¨campañas¨, public health campaigns that cover a large variety of topics. i will be able to do a whole plethora of things, from working inside the clinic (giving injections, extracting toenails, you know, all the fun stuff!), to helping with campañas in the community, to tuberculosis therapy in homes, to ¨charlas¨or health chats in local schools. i´m really looking forward to it, and they seem excited to have us there. i know i will be learning a lot and taking on a ton of responsibilities that nurses in the u.s. would never have!

on tuesdays and thursdays i will be working in ¨la maternidad¨which is a public hospital and posta for women without health insurance. i´m hoping to spend the majority of my time in the obstetrics hospital and posta. they actually don´t have any nurses that work there--the entire staff is obstetricias, which is similar to a midwife. this means that again i will be learning a TON of skills that i would not get by working as a nurse in the u.s. after working at the clinic for a while (and with more training!) i might even get to catch babies!!! this absolutely thrills me, and is an incredible step towards...well, something. perhaps what i think i want to spend my life doing...

today at maternidad i was able to observe a full delivery. this is nothing new for me, but it was such a beautiful reminder of why i love healthcare. as i fought the tears, i kept thinking how wonderful it was to be a part of something that is completely universal, that crosses all cultures, and brings forth life. in spanish, ¨to give birth¨ is translated ¨dar la luz¨--to give light. so beautiful!

CONNECTION
confession: this has been such a struggle for me here. i thrive off of human connection and have obviously never been thrown into a situation like this! since being here, i have consistently felt like i give false first impressions of who i am, all because of lack of fluency. words are so important for me in expressing who i am (especially through humor--i´m just not as funny in spanish)...it has been challenging and especially humbling to make connections without being able to fully express myself. but as i said before, i am learning that communication goes so much beyond language...

last weekend, we went on a camping trip with about 15 people from the parrish. i can honestly say it was one of the best camping experiences i have ever had--not just because camping itself was fun and hilarious, but mostly because it was such a beautiful weekend of connecting. i already knew most of the people we were with, but for the first time, i felt like i could genuinely express myself! and i think i can finally say, i have friends. i have friends!!!!!! again, absolutely beautiful!

HOME (sometimes bitter)SWEET HOME
i can´t believe i´ve been in peru for little less than a month. it feels like so much longer. but then again, it´s still exciting that i can take a combi (public transportation in a 15-passenger van) by myself and know exactly where i am and where i´m going, that i know where to go to run errands, that there´s a coffee shop (with REAL coffee!!!!!) downtown, that i frequently run into people i know on the street--all these things make me feel more and more settled. with a deep breath, i find myself again and again returning to that peruvian saying: poco a poco...little by little...

love,
cj

(p.s. i am still working on the whole picture situation! i want to be able to share all the adventures with you, but just be patient please. poco a poco!)

thoughts on culture...

cultural moments that i´ve experienced in the last week:

• pervians love music. LOVE dancing, singing, playing instruments. the other day we had lunch with the entire hospice staff and they welcomed us so beautifully! after everyone was done eating, they pulled out an old boom box and serached for some good dancin´tunes on the radio. then everyone got up and started dancing!! can you picture this in the u.s.--after a work-sponsored luncheon, everyone gets up in their scrubs and suits and starts dancing with eachother!? the ceo and the cleaning staff kickin´up their heels together. so wonderful.
• we had our first fiesta last night! we threw a despedida for emily and nicole, the two missionaries who are headed home next week. but this was not just any party...we danced, **NONSTOP, from 9 pm to 5 am, when we finally had to turn off the music and kick the remaining partiers out! we are totally exhausted today, but some of our new friends invited us to go out to a discoteca again tonight. i swear, pervians do not need sleep! (**note: i lied, i did sneak off of the dance floor for about an hour, around 3 am. i spent my little break talking to 2 of my new friends, each in their late 50s or 60s, about peruvian politics and the role of the u.s. government in international poverty issues, making this not only one of the most fun, but also the most enlightening parties i have ever been to)
• i had a beautiful ¨this is peru at it´s finest¨ moment today. we went over to the church this afternoon to help prepare for a youth fundraiser that´s happening tomorrow. they are having a ¨cuyada¨. although most of you would consider cuy a pet, in peru it is a ceremonial treat--roasted guinea pig. words cannot even describe how wonderful this scene was, but i will try...we walked through the kitchen to a back patio. about five older pervuvian women circled around a sack of potatoes the size of a peruvian adult. they were peeling thousands of potatoes with dull butcher knives and throwing them into the largest pot i have ever seen. and hanging above them, a laundry line, with pink underwear on one end, and the on other, hundreds of skinned, gutted guinea pigs hanging out to dry!!! it was such a wonderful moment...one of those images that will remain with me forever as an image of the real peru...and i had to stop and remind myself that this is a pretty unremarkable scene to them, but to me, it was infinitely beautiful. on a slight note of irony, i ate a piece of candy today, and on the inside of the wrapper, this message: try something new tomorrow. somehow, i doubt whether the writer of that little tidbit of advice was thinking that eating guinea pig would be the adventure to try, but i will take it to heart anyway and eat it with a smile on my face!