Yesterday (6/29) Lauryn & I were on home visits. We went to the village of San Jacinto (on our typical back of the truck ride) to check up on some patients. The parish nurses make regular home visits to approximately 200 people in the Piura area! A young nurse named Jackie accompanied us on our visits, she is so sweet and helpful. A huge percent of the population have hypertension, so we did a lot of blood pressure screenings & checking on if patients are taking their meds. Arthritis is also very common here, sometimes the nurses give out pain medication on home visits. Everyone that we saw was so grateful for
Usual activities on home visits:
-Take vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, respirations)
-General assessment
-Wash hands & feet & do nail care (very dirty! huge infection risk as many go barefoot)
-Talk about medications they may be taking
-Assess environment/home
Two of our patients, married for many years :)
If I said we spent today doing something productive & beneficial to the community I would be lying... we went to a beach in Colan from 11 AM-sundown. It was a great day of relaxing, the weather was beautiful. For lunch, we tried some Peruvian food and drinks. We left browner/redder than we came. It was awesome to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
We have officially been assigned/picked our projects. For my teaching project, I will be talking about violence against women (a huuuge problem in this area). I'll be doing my aggregate project on Casa Maria, a shelter for abused women. I'll share any interesting research or interviews that I come across in the process!
Sadly, our family here (MU nurses support a Peruvian family) was robbed today. They have three young kids and struggle financially. They could really use your prayers!
Tomorrow 50 missionaries from the U.S. are coming to stay at the parish. We were told they are mostly high schoolers, so I may have limited internet access for a little bit!
Besos y abrazos,
Esperanza
P.S. Today is my mom's birthday! Be sure to give her a bday hug from me :)
No comments:
Post a Comment