Tuesday in Piura

Hi all! I apologize that this post is a day late! The wifi is still pretty spotty.

On Monday, our group was able to tour all of the facilities we’ll be working with. I was stuck at the church due to a little GI upset but all is well today! After the rest of our group got back from touring, we went to mass at the church with dinner following. We were able to meet the family Marquette hosts at church. Erika, the mother, and her children, Christian, Kiara, and Jessica try to come to mass every night, especially when Marquette students are there. The daughters have huge personalities and I’m sure they’ll be a ton of fun to be around. Erika’s birthday is coming up so we’ll be throwing a little something together to make her day special.

We get our assignments for the upcoming day the night before. Erin and I were sent to the nursing home in the area today. We had two direct entry students with us. As it’s their last week here, they’re tying up loose ends and showing us the ropes. It was really helpful to have them with us for this week because they know what works and how it does. The nursing home is run by nuns and the one I worked with became a nun at 16! She’s currently in her early 20’s. Can you believe it? I got to work with the women today while Erin worked with the men. Erin’s job consisted of proper nail care. This means she would cut the nails of the men and groom them. She also took vitals on certain patients. On the other hand, in the women’s department, I helped with the showering process. The nun who was with me would shower them and then I, along with the direct entry student, would lotion, powder, comb, and dress them. We started with patients who needed more direct care and then towards the end, we had more independent patients. Many of the patients have lively personalities and I’m looking forward to working with them in the future.

My Spanish started to come back a little today but I’m still in need of a lot of help. I’ve found that using basic Spanish has been somewhat helpful when I don’t know certain words. I can understand a lot more than I can speak but I’m getting there! It can be somewhat frustrating to me as well as the patient when there’s a language barrier but we’re finding ways to work around it. Many of the patients do not believe I’m not Peruvian which also doesn’t help with my lack of Spanish vocabulary because they think I’m joking around with them!
After finishing up the showers, I painted and filed a few nails and then brought the patients up to their dining room. After this, we headed back for lunch. Usually, we’ll head back to a clinical site after our siesta which ends around 1500 but we’re watching the direct entry students present their aggregate projects today instead.