Our trip started with a magnicifcent bus ride from our hotel in Miraflores (a tourist community in Lima) to the high Andes and the town of Yungay. Once we arrived in Yungay, after almost 11-hours on the bus, we had to unload all of our bags and supplies and drive the 5+ kilometers to Camp Kusi. Central to this first group experience was the fact that it was pouring down rain; and, the fact that we had to all cram into little passenger vans for the bumpy ride up to the camp.
What impressed me most in the first few hours of our team trip was the fact that not one person complained or expressed words of protest or discontent. Actually, quite the opposite - everyone chipped in and helped to move the bags, carry the supplies and organize themselves. This, in spite of the fact that we had been sitting on a bus for over 10 hours, we were all really tired and we were getting drenched in the rain. I knew at that moment that this was going to be a GREAT GROUP!
We awoke on Sunday to a magnificent view of Huascaran and the lower peaks of one of the most amazing mountains in the Western Hemisphere. The sky was clear and the temperature was a marvelous 15 degrees (centrigrade). This was to be our last morning of clear skys for the remainder of our time in Kusi we had cloudy skies and "on and off" rain. None the less, our first day started with a great blessing.
After orienting the team to our plans for the week, we took a sight-seeing (we can't always be about work) tour of the Lago de Llanganuco (the Lake of Llanganuco) and the Huascarán National Park (a UNESCO world Heritage Site). This is such an enchanting place to visit with the turquoise waters and the amazing array of Other-worldly" trees that circumnavigate the lake. We took a group hike that day that included about 5 kilometers of trail running along a beautiful river. Talk about a great way to start our trip.
The real work started later that day when we began in earnest to plan for the campaign. We had a more extended orientation session for the team that involved briefing the specifics for the the survey portion of the trip; and Dr. Bob Gehringer (HBI Project Director and Campaign Medical Director) worked with the medical and dental group to further orient them to the clinic portion of our week. Most of the rest of the first day was spent in preparation mode.
I should stop my chronological recap of the week right here to tell you something very important and critical to our week. We were staying at Union Biblica's Camp Kusi - and, Camp Kusi is a home for abandon and formerly homeless street boys. I make special mention to this fact because it was the "real gift" that the team experience all week. We spent a lot of time with the 40 boys - eating our meals together, playing games or singing and dancing together at night, and attending to them in the clinic. And one thing that was mentioned over and over again throughout the week by our trip participants was how much of an impact this close proximity to the boys had on each one of them. To the person, everyone on the campaign was touched by the lives of these amazing children.
Our first day in clinic started a bit slow. This was really short lived, and by the end of the week we had attended to over 550 medical and dental patients. In addition, we administered our joint HBI-University of North Carolina-Wilmington research survey to over 150 participants. In the end, our work touched the lives of over 700 people. We were able to provide direct medical, dental and mental health care to patients who have little to no access to care delivery. We were able to administer a survey study into a very poorly studied community to gain valuable data to develop more appropriate and effective care delivery services. And, most of all, we were all very genuinely touched by the lives of the boys living in the Casa Girasoles (Sunflower Home) at Camp Kusi.
We arrived back in Lima last night (after another long bus ride) and at this point our team is starting to part ways. Some of the team members will be headed back to the States tonight, and some of the team will be staying an extra day in Lima to help with our outreach clinic in Ventanilla (a sprawling peri-urban slum north of Lima). We will be collaborating with the Anglican Church of Peru in our clinic and will be supporting their on-going work to deliver medical, dental and social services to the people of this very impoverished community.
I will be posting more updates about our work in the days to come, including extensive pictures and stories about the wonderful people who volunteer their time and professional skills and talents to the on-going work of HBI. For now, a very special thank you must go out to our Team Peru Kusi group:
Dr. Michelle (a real gifted healer, thinker and kind soul), Dr. Azalea (a vivacious emergency medicine physician with a heart of solid gold), Dr. Augusto (an amazing Peruvian physician from Arequipa), Dr. Erik (our marvelous Peruvian dentist), Student Dr. Craig (a fantastic medical student who is going to be an AMAZING physician very soon), Cathy (from our partner organization MMI; Cathy is so special that her smile is infectious), Theresa (a Peruvian nurse who has volunteered for our work in Kusi on two separate occasions; she comes to us from the Alto Cayma Mission Clinic and is always a true delight to work with), Tracy (a person who I hope will continue to be involved in HBI; Tracy is an amazingly hard worker and a real genuine person), Sandy (a blessed healer who helped to bring a real grounding to our work with the street boys at Kusi), Christina (our volunteer Peruvian interpreter who came to the Kusi team at the very last minute and was a real blessing to the team), Billy (Union Biblica's project coordinator and one of the most amazing young men I have ever met), and Katherine (Union Biblica's amazing volunteer teacher in Kusi who dropped everything she was doing to help interpret for our team all week; Go Scots!).
Finally, the work of HBI is only possible because of our dedicated and passionate staff - thank you Karen, Bob, Ben and Daniel. I am humbled by you every day.
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