Blog

Monkey Island, on our way from Santa Clotilde, was the first stop on our transition to tourism.  It was a lot of fun; just 20… Read More »Transitioning to tourist

The “Quinto A” class at Lugape had nice little despedida for Declan.  With Declan’s help, they cut out the letters to spell “See you in the future… Read More »Saying goodbye

Camilo was a patient sent down from Angoteros in a coma. He never woke up. We brought him up from the dock on the orange… Read More »Problem-solving in a two week absence of cell service

Last week, Declan led his class in singing the Peruvian national anthem in Kichwa. I told him that his college admissions application is now complete:… Read More »singing the Peruvian national anthem in Kichwa

Tomorrow morning, Elita will be dressed in my clothes when she takes the body of her dead baby back to Puerto Alegre. Claudia, one of… Read More »Dressed in my clothes

Two of our patients with HIV died in the past week.  “Iquitos is the cradle of HIV in Peru”, one of the doctors told me.… Read More »HIV + snake bites + reflections on aging

Yesterday, I walked down all those stairs to the dock with a dying patient and his family.  I carried the patient’s bag of overnight things;… Read More »Privacy + worms

So I was expecting exotic diseases, and looking forward to living, for a little while, in a different culture, but I was not prepared for… Read More »violencia familiar

Leynis is one of our técnicas.  I think the term would be equivalent to “medical assistant”, but these técnicas have so much knowledge and experience.  Last week,… Read More »boa constrictor

So there is this whole referral process that I am just starting to understand.  I was worried, when I was planning to come here, that… Read More »Referencias