By now everyone is back home from our incredible adventure in Peru. The only team member I have not verified is Nicole, and she was scheduled to do a lot of travelling after the mission.
There is a link to my photos, which I have combined with some from the January Scout Mission. The first 70 or so photos are from January, the rest of the 210 are from October. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed being there to take them.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Pooka711/20101110?authkey=Gv1sRgCIP2--23yNrZCA#
The mission was a great success, in spite of the changes of schedule for the two weeks we were there. The workload increased dramatically over what we expected. The members of the team took the extra load in stride and performed extraordinarily well. Instead of the three villages originally planned, we visited eight rural river villages and also worked two full days at Juanjui Institute where we saw 350 patients in two days. We saw a total of over 850 patients during the two weeks. Many just wanted to talk about their daily back and leg pains and other minor ailments.
Many others had significant health problems and were referred to specialists or hospitals or treated on the spot. Many will never followup because of the difficulty of transportation and the expense. However, a few could possibly be seen by surgeons travelling to Peru in January or with our medical team next Spring.
We found many problems that The Luz Fund will seek to address in future visits. One is water quality and the presence of parasites in the population. First Aid, CPR, and other education forums were held in each village we visited. Participation of the villagers gave us hope that the information will be retained.
There are many people and organizations to thank for our success. Of particular note is the Catholic Medical Mission Board in New York City, and Brother's Brother Foundation in Pittsburg, PA. Although hard pressed because of so many crises around the world this year, both combined with enough meds and supplies, carried in by our team members, to restock many shelves in the clinics with anti-biotics and other needed meds. For this we are truly thankful to both organizations.
Enjoy the photos. Signup for the next mission, hopefully in Spring, is already underway.
