Our Favorite Things about Peru and Our Year Here

We are down to our last month in Cusco after an amazing sabbatical year here. We thought we would keep a running list of our favorite things about Peru over the next 30 days -- the people, the place, and the culture -- in no particular order.

30. Parades -- any time, for any reason; a great way for people to come together to celebrate.

29. The Children -- they're precious! We can't wait to welcome one or two of them into our family...SOME day!



28. Our Neighbors -- we will miss them!

(celebrating Rick's birthday with our neighbors--
they call us "Reeky", "Jainy", "Teemy" and "Bainy")

(our other, "across the passage" neighbors --

we mentioned them in a previous blog entry)

27. Jack's -- our favorite restaurant in Cusco (anywhere, for that matter)

(with several of the people who work there -- now friends!)

26. The Weather -- warm during the days, cool at night, dry (apart from the rainy season, which was more occasional storms than the regular rain that we expected).

25. Los mercados -- outdoor markets with local vendors selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.

24. City Life -- walking a lot, public transportation, and the proximity of everything.

23. English Football School -- One of the missionaries here (from England) runs a soccer program for children on Saturday mornings from 9:30am - 12:30pm. Tim has been participating for several months and loves it; Ben started playing about a month ago and has a lot of enthusiasm (smile).

(the other team LOVES when Ben decides to play goalie!)

22. Our Neighborhood Park -- we have spent a LOT of time there this year...

(Tim with his buddy whose mom owns the rides and trampoline at one end of the park)

21. The Cost of Living -- very affordable for us at 3 soles/dollar. Cusco is quite expensive for the Peruvians from and living here, though, because they don't make much money.

20. Trips to Machu Picchu-- Rick and Tim with the summer school students and Rick's brother, David, in June and July, and Jen with her parents in February.




19. "Our Comfort Zone" -- being outside of it so often, living in a different culture and with more needs surrounding us, and being pushed to think about things in different ways.

18. Promesa -- the Christian, bilingual school that the boys have attended during our time here. It is run by Ron and Regina Schultz, missionaries from the U.S. who are both incredibly warm, kind people. It has been a pleasure to be part of this community during our time here.

( Tim with his class on his last day of school at Promesa.)
(Ben with his teachers and class.)

(gathering of students and parents outside of Promesa)

(the boys in their school uniforms at our house)

17. Visits from Family and Friends -- it has been so special for us to share our "world" here with family members and friends this year. For those of you who want to come in the future, we're hoping to return every summer for Rick to teach a summer school class for 6 weeks, so don't count out the possibility!

(visit with Jen's parents in February)

(Burgesses' visit in April)

(Rick's brother, David, visited us in May)

16. Summer School -- Rick has taught his Health Care Policy and Global Health class here in Cusco to two groups of University of Richmond students in June and July. It has been a real pleasure to get to know them and introduce them to Cusco.

(most of the students from the first summer school group)

(some students from the second group at Machu Picchu)

15. Friday afternoon soccer games at El Arca Orphanage -- we have loved getting to know the children at the orphanage and playing with them each week!

(group stretching before the game)

14. Game Nights -- the missionary community here from the U.S. and Canada get together regularly to play cards or a game of some sort. They were kind to include us -- it was a lot of fun.

13. Carts -- there are vegetable and fruit carts, snack carts, ice cream carts, and even some with appliances for sale. Some are stationary and others have a bike and wheels attached and the vendor moves around with his/her microphone saying "Papayas, mangos, platanos..." We´ve told Tim if he wants to make some extra money we can make one of these carts for him to ride around the streets of Richmond...

12. The Library at Promesa -- We arrived here last October with as many children´s books as we could add to the rest of our luggage, but we VERY quickly read those books to the point at which we were all bored. This spring, we have been extremely grateful for the opportunity to use the library at the boy´s school!

11. Friends, Part I

10. Señor Carbon -- Our other favorite restaurant in town. Great salads and vegetables and all-you-can-eat meat...plus an indoor playground for the children!

9. Local Catholic Church/Priest -- This church has been a huge blessing for us over the past several months. We love it and it´s less than a two-minute walk away. The priest is evangelical and preaches the gospel!

8. Friends, II

7. Trip to Bolivia in February -- We took a family trip to Copacabana, Bolivia -- on Lake Titicaca -- to renew our passports in February (previous blog entry). It was a blast and we have a lot of fun(ny) memories.

(right after we walked across the border into Bolivia)

(Tim and Ben on the beach in Copacabana, Bolivia)

6. Violin Lessons for Tim -- Thanks to a friend here, we knew about the excellent music school here in Cusco prior to arriving, so we were able to arrange for Tim to start immediately. He has enjoyed taking lessons all year and is now playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" like a champ!

(last day of class today, 7/22)

5. The Local Panaderia (Bakery) -- There is a wonderful bakery within a two-minute walk from our home. We have been there a lot for coffee, juices, pastries, bread, etc., and have had the chance to get to know the people who work there.

(Tim standing in front of bakery)

(Jen with the owner of the bakery, Mari)

4. Andes Mountains/Stunning Views -- Cusco is surrounded by mountains. The views are stunning in every direction, though pictures don´t do it justice.

(view from the boys school)

3. Sabbatical -- The opportunity that I, Rick, have had to finish existing research projects and start new ones. I also had the chance to start the new summer study abroad program, which would have been impossible had I not been living here.

summer school student, Giles Thompson, with children at el Arca Orphanage

2. Learning Spanish -- We do not speak perfectly, or even great for that matter, but we all have learned to understand and communicate in Spanish over the course of the year. It has been particularly fun to hear the boys become more and more confident in speaking. Rick commented that he thinks Ben can speak better Spanish than he can!

1. The Country, Culture, and People of Peru!!!!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Things we will NOT miss:

1) Peruvian driving (with all due respect to our Peruvian friends)

2) stray dogs everywhere, barking at night and pooping on the sidewalks (not sure how to phrase that differently)

3) hand-washing our laundry

4) beds that have matresses held up with boards that constantly fall out and make a lot of noise...even with lots of duck tape holding them together!

5) being so far from family and friends

6) getting out of the shower and freezing (cracks in the windows, no heat, very cold in the mornings and night)...though we really shouldn´t complain because many of the people we know don´t even have hot water!

7) exhaust from cars and trucks -- there are no regulations no car exhaust/emissions here

8) Paros ("strikes") -- these occur frequently here: roads are blocked, people protest, sometimes a little violently, and most things shut down for the day (no transportation, no school, etc.). For poor Peruvians--the majority of the population--this is the only way they can get their government in "distant Lima" to remotely pay attention to them.

9) The postal service and Peruvian bureaucracy, in general.

10) Pollution -- there is trash everywhere, in the streets and rivers because it is cultural to litter (and there aren´t many trash cans around, either!).

Micro-Credit Financing in Cusco, Peru on a Small, Personal Scale

You may be aware of micro-credit financing, a world-wide phenomenon that is a popular and effective link between the developed and developing worlds. The concept behind micro-credit financing is that those of us with resources can loan money to people without them, interest-free, to help them start their small businesses. We are able to give these people an opportunity they otherwise would not have; they pay back the loan and are on their way. Two well known models are the Grameen Bank (http://grameen-info.org/) and KIVA (http://www.kiva.org/).

We would like to try this on a small, personal scale. We personally know a lot of hard-working Peruvians who would benefit greatly from this model.

If you are interested in being part of this, we are setting up a separate blog with more information: http://cuscogracias.blogspot.com/. Obviously no pressure whatsoever to read it, much less to make a loan.

Thanks!

Rick and Jen

Riding the Leishmaniasis Van, the Burgesses and May Term

Leishmaniasis:

In the United States, one of the most prominent markers of poverty is people's teeth (see great Malcom Gladwell article on this phenomenon -- http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/hazard.pdf). Poor people in the U.S. can rarely afford optimal dental care or braces. And a positive, attractive personal appearance is important for the social demands that middle and upper-middle class existence requires. In many parts of Peru, one of the prominent markers of poverty is a disease called Leishmaniasis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leishmaniasis). It is contracted in jungle and tropical areas where poor people have to travel to find work and do not have sufficient resources and/or knowledge to sleep under tents at night and to work in areas where there are minimal mosquitoes and sandflies. Thus, they get bit by these insects and contract the parasitic disease, which leaves bloody scars and deformed faces (similar to leprosy). Someone who has contracted Leishmaniasis--and the scars that come with it--is said to have the "Mark of the Jungle."
Dr. Maria Cruz, one of our neighbors and the wife of Jose--the professor of ornithology who took Tim and me bird-watching--recently took me on a trip 2 hours east of Cusco to the town of Sicuani where she treats a large population of very poor Peruvians who have contracted Leishmaniasis during one of their work visits to the Amazon. One of the biggest problems with the disease is that most people do not know that Leishmaniasis is NOT contagious. Hence, people with the disease are often shunned and discriminated against. Fortunately, Dr. Cruz and her patients have formed an organization to change people's perceptions and to increase their knowledge of the disease. They are succeeding in many ways.
Given the negative public perception of Leishmaniasis, it is striking how starved for affection most patients with the disease are. I have rarely received so many hugs and handshakes in so short a period of time. On the ride home to Cusco, we brought 7 patients with us in our van, so that they could stay in an apartment in town and receive more aggressive therapy at the local medical school. This trip is made monthly by Dr. Cruz and is known to police officers who patrol the highway as the "Leishmaniasis Van." I was very proud and happy to have been permitted to ride in it and look forward to future trips!

The Burgess Family:
Last week we had the distinct pleasure of hosting the Burgess family (Andy, Brenda, Rachel and Nathan) from Richmond who are very close friends of ours. We have partnered with them for years with the college ministry at Third Presbyterian Church. And when we need a home to crash at during our homeless layovers in Richmond, they have always graciously allowed us to stay with them. Our beloved 1997, duct-taped Volvo station wagon is currently residing in their driveway. During their visit here, we took them to the local orphanage, El Arca, where we work, to church at our boys' elementary school, and to the local village of Pisac. They traveled on their own to Machu Picchu and Lima. Their visit was a joy for us. They also brought brown-sugar, new Legos for the kids, and books and documentaries!
May (and June) Terms:

Next week 11 University of Richmond students arrive in Cusco for a 1-month summer study abroad program on "Global health, Pediatrics and Human Rights" with me. Jen and I are very excited to host them and initiate this new summer program at UR. The students will take Spanish lessons in the morning, volunteer at the orphanage, elementary school and anyplace else they like in the early afternoon, and then take the global health class with me in the late afternoon. We will make trips to Quillabamba, Machu Picchu, and other destinations in the area. They will be staying at a hotel in the nearby farming village of San Jeronimo (near the school and orphanage). When they depart in mid-June, a new group of 12 UR students will arrive for a June Term of the same program.

Adoption, Cuy and Bird Watching

Adoption:

We are coming to grips with the fact that we may not be returning to the States this summer with another child or two in our family. As with many adoptions, ours is taking longer than expected. That being said, living here and becoming part of this culture, we are all the more excited and eager to welcome a Peruvian child or sibling pair into our family...at some point. We figure another trip back during the coming year is not a bad thing! Plus, Rick will be teaching a study abroad program here in Cusco for University of Richmond students this May through July, and we hope to make this an annual trip for our family.

What saddens us the most, as we await word regarding the adoption, is that there are so many children here without homes and families. The system only allows those children who have been formally abandoned to be adopted. Many parents put their children in orphanages for various reasons -- usually financial -- and then continue to visit them occasionally. So, given that we have been fairly specific in our request (a little girl or sibling pair 6 years-old or younger) means that we may have to wait a while. We'll see... We are certainly learning patience.

When in Rome...

One of my (Jen) best friends here is the 80+ year old woman who lives across the way/sidewalk from us with her 98 year-old husband. We are constantly exchanging food and gifts, and I have recently been attending the local Catholic church with her. Well, on Easter she brought over a plate of food for us that was difficult for me/us to look at, let alone eat. It was "Cuy", which is a local delicacy here: cooked guinea pig. I am attaching a picture. You may be able to see the little arms and paws sticking out. Thankfully she didn't give us the whole body (including head/face), which is how they usually serve it here. Had we been invited to their house, I would have done my best to clean my plate! I'm not sure how the boys would have done, though...
Bird Watching:

Tim and Rick had the opportunity to go bird watching with our neighbor who is a professor in Ornithology at the nearby University. Tim loved it. We're all going to go again soon.

MDR-TB, Tropical Medicine and Soccer Jerseys

I (Rick) just returned from a trip to the high jungle town of Quillabamba with Dr. Bill Allen, his adopted son Vladi, and one of his clinic's nurses, Jasmine. The village is only 75 miles northwest of Cusco, but it took 6 hours of driving over snow-capped mountains and then down to the edge of the Amazon jungle along the Urabamba river. Bill has been approached by senior health officials in the Cusco region and Partners in Health to help them with the growing number of patients with TB and some with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). This increase in TB and MDR-TB cases is very worrying to public health officials because it is a respiratory disease. You can catch it simply by breathing the exhaled breath of someone who has the disease next to you in the market, on a bus, in your home, etc.
The very fact that the disease is even in the Quillabamba region is something of a mystery (and scary), because TB and MDR-TB exist primarily in densely populated urban areas like Lima and prisons. The two patients we met with who are receiving treatment and are recovering from MDR-TB have probably not been beyond Cusco or even Quillabamba (pictured below).
Therefore, Bill wants to figure out how these individuals got MDR-TB and whom else might have been exposed. He also wants to find ways to more reliably diagnose patients with TB and increase the likelihood that patients will receive proper and thorough treatment. It is excruciatingly hard. Appropriate treatment for TB consists of directly observed therapy (drugs taken orally) for six months, otherwise known as DOTS. MDR-TB treatment requires injections for 6 months and then 1.5 years of follow-up drug therapy. Currently, it cannot be delivered in places like Quillabamba. Patients are supposed to come to cities like Cusco and Lima to receive treatment, but that is almost impossible and extremely impractical for people with TB, because they tend to be poor and reliant on daily labor for their existence. Traveling to Cusco, much less Lima, for 6 months for treatment takes them away from their crops, families and/or daily work on which they depend. Bill's hope is to bring state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment to them in their remote communities in order to help them survive and to halt the spread of the disease.
The clinicians with whom we met in Quillabamba were especially appreciative of Bill's efforts to collaborate and partner with them. They said that in the past some NGOs would come to the village to provide some type of medical care, but they would do so in isolation from the existing hospital and public health services. Consequently, their lack of coordination and communication led them to seeing far fewer patients, accomplishing little and eventually leaving town altogether. Bill's ambitions are to work closely with the local medical providers and complement the great work they are already doing and the extensive knowledge they have of the area. Why reinvent the wheel?
This trip allowed me to see my first ever patients with tropical, infectious diseases like TB and malaria. As one would expect, it is very different from reading books and articles or watching documentaries about them. It is much more emotional and personal to interact with a fellow human being who is suffering from a disease like Yellow Fever (for which I am very grateful to have been vaccinated). It is especially sad and painful when they are children.
On a lighter note, Jen and I have been enjoying our soccer games at El Arca Orphanage even more recently since we got all the kids red and white soccer jerseys. It is much easier to known who is on your team and whom to pass the ball to when everyone is wearing the same colors!

p.s. - Tim kicked his way to a yellow belt in Taekwondo, so watch out evil-doers! His reward was to be able to march in a parade in the Plaza de Armas in the center of Cusco with the board he kicked in two (video of dangerous kicking below).

Adventures in Bolivia, Bud Lenz, and a Visit from Jen's Parents

(our bus broke down on our way to Bolivia, so this was Tim and Ben's chance to pick flowers)

Adventures in Bolivia

We just returned from a few days in Bolivia, where we traveled briefly to have our passports/visas re-stamped for another 183 days in Peru (the maximum a tourist can stay). The trip went relatively smoothly until we arrived at the Bolivian border. The driver of the bus stopped at the military checkpoint and began speaking about "muchas problemas." We were so distracted by getting our boys through the passport/visa stations that we we didn't focus on why these "problemas" might be important to us. We soon found out. As it happened, local Bolivian elementary teachers had recently rioted about something. Part of their rioting included blocking the only road into Bolivia with large enough rocks and tree branches that all local transportation ground to a halt. Later on someone explained to us that this kind of rioting is the most common and effective form of getting the attention of local authorities. Why? It keeps the tourists and their valuable foreign currency from entering the country. It certainly got our attention, because we had to exit the bus, get all of our luggage, and start walking the last 8 kilometers to Copacabana. We were rescued by a passing van from one of the local hotels who took pity on us with young children. He was bribing his way through each rock point trying to pick up the hotel's customers.


Copacabana is a small fishing village on the southern tip of Lake Titicaca. They boys were bound and determined to do some swimming, although the locals thought they were crazy (the water temperature is somewhere in the 50s to low 60s and nobody in the area seems to do this sort of thing). The boys look especially comical next to the local women doing their laundry in the lake!

Bud Lenz

Bud Lenz is the "father" of the 35+ orphans at La Arca orphanage where we visit and volunteer regularly and are getting to know the children. I (Rick) was supposed to travel with a pastor to the town of Porto Maldonado, in the Amazon, this week to visit Bud and help him as he is building a new facility to accommodate their growing family. Upon our return from Bolivia, we received word that the trip was canceled because Bud had a heart attack and had been flown back to Cusco! Obviously, this is a huge blow to this (extended) family and the community. Please pray for Bud (and his wife, Laura) and for their children. Here are some pictures from the orphanage:

Jen's Parents' Recent Visit

We had a great time in early February when Jen's parents visited us. They were our first visitors and it was special for us to share "our world" here in Cusco with them. Jen took them to Machu Picchu for two days in addition to our activities around here. Below are some pictures from their trip: