Baby Shower & Ophthalmology Campaign

My friend, Fredy, the computer technician at the Kausay Wasi Clinic, invited me to his baby shower last weekend. He and his wife are expecting a baby boy in April. They actual call the party a baby shower, but no one knows why. They were surprised to learn that it is actual an English phrase. The message on the cake read "Bienvenidos a mi Baby Shawer". I found the "Shawer" part comical. In the above picture, Fredy, is wearing a diaper and enjoying a Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru.

An ophthalmology team came to the clinic last week. The doctor examined over 100 patients, but was only able to do about 25 surgeries. He chose to operate on those with the most severe cataracts. Nearly all these patients were eldery and blind. With the help of a high powered microscope he was able to remove the patient's clouded lens and replace it with a synthetic lens. The patients returned to the clinic the next day and nearly all could see again after the doctor took off their protective eye patch. It was really exciting to see the results of the surgery because, as you can imagine, the patients were thrilled to see again.

Churocpata

The Kausay Wasi Clinic has developed a really unique way to care for some of Peru's poorest people through a program called Adopt a Family. For $200 you can provide an indigenous Peruvian family with all their health care needs for one year. I'm working with the rurul nurse at the clinic to search the remote mountain villages for the poorest families who are most in need. These villages are spectacular because they are unlike any place I've ever visited, but also terribly poor. These photos are from a village called Churocpata. We traveled in a taxi from Calca for 45 minutes to Machacancha and then walked up into the mountains for four hours. It's a small community of eight families dedicated to subsistence agriculture. The people speak almost entirely Quechua and only the few males who attended school for several years can understand Spanish. There is obviously no running water or electricity and the villagers suffer from malnutrition and the effects of the cold climate. The males spend the day tending their potato and bean plots while the females take care of the children and the home. Because of the constant rain, the people and their home are consistently dirty and covered in mud. Amilcar, the rural nurse, and I handed out vitamins and informed the people of the services available at the Kausay Wasi Clinic. Several of the families were also inscriped in the Adopt a Family program. The family pictured with me is posing with their Adopt a Family certificates. Several days after we visited they came down to the clinic and all received basic check-ups and medications free of charge.