good to be home

Felicia at the airport (left same day as me) enjoying her final peruvian andean panpipe rendition of "Hey Jude" (all the way in the back of the photo.) They were rockin until 2am. Add that to Not Miss on the list from the prior entry.

Was with the whole extended family for Memorial Day weekend in east marion, LI and it was fantastic, especially the above lunch that my brother dug up a few feet from the house.

Blog to be extended 6 weeks at least. Will be in London and Brighton for a month of bioethics starting june 10.

last post from peru

martin and sergio

top things I will miss and not miss about Peru

Miss: friends and co workers
Not miss: garua (fog in Lima)
Miss: salsa music on public transportation
Not miss: catcalls
Miss: native animal topiary
Not miss: the sand and dust in arequipa
Miss: lucuma
Not miss: gastrointestinal illness
Miss: flowering trees
Not Miss: text message conversations
Miss: pelicans on the malecon in Chorrillos
Not Miss: Lima traffic
Miss: 73 bus
Miss: Misti volcano

Leaving tomorrow at 8pm.
Didn't finish, but will at home.
Very nice last dinner with Bob and a the other leaving students.

Looking forward to : my dad picking me up, seeing my family and friends, salad, and east marion

T- 3

Hard to believe only 3 days left ... and that I am entering and cleaning data.... but I WILL be done before I leave.
More importantly hope to say all my goodbyes.

More health post photos

characato - possibly my favorite part of arequipa.
another church health center combo.

Health post photos

Finally back from Arequipa. Have a cold and a lot of new data.

Gerson, the MD with whom I visited the following healthposts, had rules for locating health centers. Locate the church , school, police station, or main plaza and there you have the health post. Never failed.

Health worker transferring sputum samples on motorbike and gerson's car.
The prison (see prior entry)- photo from a moving car.



following the church health post rule.

Photo from rooftop tb treatment room for the one multi-drug resistant patient. Not sure how the pepsi factors in.

Puesto de Salud Pampas de Cuzco and happy kid.

strike off

prison and strike

Arequipa continues. Visited the men´s prison today which had a very nice new lab and tb treating facility courtesy of the global fund. I didn´t see the prisoner living conditions, but the inner courtyard had a great view of the ampata volcano where the ice mummy juanita was found. Gerson, the md I´m working with here, had his arm stamped and signed. I´m not sure why I didn´t leave with the same souvenir- perhaps because there aren´t any people who look like me in the prison (females). Supposed transit strike scheduled for tomorrow. Apparently they throw rocks if you´re in a car or combi. I find that hard to believe, but apparently will see for myself. Fortunately tomorrows work is all reachable on foot. too bad no hard hat for the side walk.

the mixed up files

oie

so much dust, some people wear masks in one of the hospital´s archives.

For a country that is so resource poor, they really know how to make a wealth of paperwork. finding the thread of a patient through various establishments is some detective work. There are infinite ways and places to document the information!

Ate arequipeno style today with my arequipeno colleague at a picanteria between health center stops, two large fried cross sections of pork with fat rinds everywhere. Pieces of pork the size of a dinner plate. I think I realized I´ve liked being here Peru when I started to feel nostalgic for eating at places like this!

arequipa check in

Think i´ll be hear for a while. getting the data. trickiest round yet, I think.

Trying to recreate the stepwise timeframes from when a patient first becomes a TB suspect to when they receive their drug susceptibility profile result in their local clinic0. This consists of tracking 13 dates for 135 patients who had drug susceptibility profiles in 2005. This means running around to centers and going through piles charts and registries.

Definite help: working this time with an excellent young arequipan MD.

back to arequipa

Moon had already risen over a clear Mt. Misti at when I got in at 4pm. walking off the plane in arequipa never disappoints.
the last data run begins!

Wedding of Willy and Kelika

me and the groom, willy
Felicia, Natalie, me, the lovely bride Kelika, Bibiana , Amy, Hilary

Heading to arequipa tomorrow.

Peru's looming disaster

The NYTimes opines on the pending runoff - May 28 I think. Govt changes in July. A good summary of the situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/opinion/03wed3.html?th&emc=th

Photos Party at Bob's

Those of us who live with Bob: me, Mayuko, Gurj, Natalie.
Cesar, me and Dave.

Felicia, Hugo Garcia, Natalie, Bob, Hillary.
Me and Peruvian Fogarty Fellow, and soon to be medical intern in Detroit, Martin Tapia.

work coming along. busy to the end (May 26).