Clinic Day 2nd June 2010

Up at 1 am to prepare for clinic day.
The volunteers have put in money to make packed lunches for all the people we are taking to the medical clinic (30 in all, including some family members, who will come along for support). Some of these people have never been out of Cusco before.
After a 4 hour bus trip we arrived at the clinic (run by a German charity for the poor) in the dark. The people were required to line up outside (for 1-2 hours) in the freezing cold (the nights here are very cold even though the days are quite hot). The clinic opens at 7 am and if you miss your appointment they go to the next person and you miss out.
We had all sorts of illness with us - two men with suspected TB, ovarian cancer, a pregnancy, a couple of people with brain tumors caused by eating tainted pork, lots of parasites and two children with malnutrition (the parents are alcoholics, so the older sister brought them along). When you listen to some of the cases it is very tragic.
The clinic is a wonderful place even though it is so far away. All the tests and scans etc. can be done in the one place on the same day. They charge very little, if anything, for the consultations and medications, and Peru´s Challenge tries to cover what residule costs there are. Without the clinic and Peru´s Challenge these people would have a very poor outcome.

We were there to make sure that everyone got to their appointments, heard their names when they were called (they are not used to the routine), to assist with collecting and paying for the medications needed and moral support.

When everyone had been seen, Peru´s Challenge treated them to a cooked meal nearby before we made the long return journey arriving home at 8 pm. It was very exhausting. Lucky tomorrow is a free day while we wait for the new volunteers to arrive.