Natural Healer and orphanage!

Tuesday we had a natural Healer speak to us about all the different types of natural medicines that the Peruvians have used for thousands of years. She came with a bunch of little dishes filled of crazy looking nuts, berries and coiled-up vines! She was not a healer herself but a student of natural medicine, however, she did show us pictures and speak about natural healers and shamans. Let me just say that everything she told the group just brought back all my memories of watching the guinea pig and blahh it is still the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life! But in terms of it working, I believe that it worked. Caitlin who had the guinea pig done to her, she had blood clots in her lungs and gets her blood tested every where of being here and her blood has been getting better since she went to the healer. . .

The healer also had these red dried berries and flap silvery button seeds that both had meanings. The berries are symbols of good luck in health and the button looking seeds are for good luck in wealth. To obtain the good luck a person must give them to you has a gift, you can't just buy them at the market which is where you could buy everything she brought in. The lecture was super cool and I had been looking forward to it this whole time.

Wednesday is visiting day at the prison so we never go, instead we usually go to the orphanage! Since it was my last time going I decided to bring my camera and tell the kids it's only to look not to touch. The actually obeyed my request which was shocking because when the last volunteers brought the camera the kids took it and were taking pictures with it! But the kids not only remembered me by face they were screaming LOLA!! (my Peruvian name) The women at the prison call me Lola also! haha But I got the best pictures ever! The boys LOVED the pictures, seriously went crazy, posing every where and tackling others out so it was just a solo picture. The kids received new clothes from Papa Noel on Christmas and halfway through the day changed and were showing me and the other volunteers their new clothes! Around 11:30 they had to be round up to go on a special trip into town! The kids were PUMPED! We had to leave which was really sad because I don't know when I'll see those kiddies again.

Later on Wednesday Caitlin, Amelia and I had to go to a meeting with the Wawa Wassi (baby house in Quechuan - Native language to Peru) mama's to teach them about CPR, chocking, treating cuts, burns and concussions. These Mama's are like daycare teachers who teach in some of the worst conditions. The government set up this program and funds it so that both parents of a household are able to work. The WawaWassi soup kitchens and volunteered women who are able to take some of the food for their families as payment for cooking and distributing the food to all the various WawaWassi's. Anyway, since we're interns we had to teach these women and demonstrate what to do in an emergency situation. Many people a year die of chocking because in the poorer areas they're focused on brushing teeth and washing hands more so than CPR or heimlich. So I decide to be the dummy for the demonstration for CPR (Not really knowing where we were going to be doing the teaching) We arrive on the dirt road full of trash and feces and think 'Oh Crap, what have I gotten myself into. there is NO WAY I'm lying on the street to act as a dummy.' THANK GOD it looked like it was going to rain so Rudy (the man in charge here) asked to move it inside of the WawaWassi. The inside actually had a floor, which was nice, but the amount of flies to feed an army! So there I go on the floor, pull my rain jacket hood over my hair so I didn't catch anything and play dead! The lesson seemed to be very beneficial because we made the women actually practice after we demonstrated so they would learn. It was awesome to see that with such a small piece of knowledge from us - that we take for granted - they can now hopefully save a life and teach others so that if they were chocking or unconscious someone would help them because of us!

We got dropped off in town because almost everyone is sick in our house - including me- We needed to pick up some couch syrup, etc. But as we're walking back we see this little boy, probably 3 or 4 just pull down his pants in the middle of the sidewalk and start peeing!!! If we hadn't of stopped for a second we would have been peed on!! It was a close call. Sorry this one was so long!! There are more to come too!!
xo
Lola