So are the days of our Peruvian Adventure

(by Kit) (I started writing this in Peru but we are home now. Woohoo! more on that later. By the way, all these pictures are from different days and are not in chronological order so don't get confused. This is just a sampling of our time.) So by now you have heard about some of our weekend trips and a bit about the clinic but you may still be wondering about the rest of our time here. How do we pass the days between the Saturdays? Well, I'm about to tell you, starting with Sundays. I mentioned before that there is a ward in Urubamba. We have been able to walk there every Sunday. They have a nice building with one hall lined with classrooms ending in a small chapel. They also have a fulbito court (a basketball court with soccer goals at the end where Basil relived some of his Peru soccer memories). It is all surrounded by a large fence. The bishop is also the Sunday school teacher. He is a young guy who is also very nice. The members loved Rhoda and loved passing her around (especially the little girls).

Rhoda and I spend about half of our time at the clinic with Basil and half of the time at the hotel. The days at the hotel get very long as I am nervous about going in to town on our own. We have taken a few walks, but mostly we stay on the hotel grounds. One of Rhoda's favorite things is to watch the animals from our balcony. If you look carefully, you can see chickens and a very prideful turkey in this next picture.

Here is Rhoda playing on the balcony. I wanted to check and make sure that her head couldn't fit through the bars. Unfortunately it barely did and then Rhoda wanted to try it over and over again. I couldn't let her back on to the balcony by herself after that.

The plants around the hotel are beautiful. These vines have curly little tendrils that Rhoda loves to pull and then watch them spring back.

Here is Rhoda looking down at the farm. You can see she has on lots of layers. There is a huge difference in temperatures between the shade and the sun. The hotel room is always cold regardless of the temperature outside.

Rhoda's favorite animals on the farm are the lambs and the cows (I think it is because they make the most noise). There was one cow in particular that made a very loud groaning noise. This shot is looking down on the sheep from our balcony.

Rhoda's favorite animal by far is 'Matilde' the dog. They have a love/hate relationship in that they hated when I interferred with their love.

Rhoda was cautious about Matilde at first, but eventually she would run right up to Matilde and try to sit on her or next to her (we were never sure which since Matilde would usually get up and move).

The hotel also had beehives and there was always fresh honey for breakfast.

Here is a picture of the farm behind the hotel.

Below you can see Basil playing a game with Sofia (Edwin's daughter).

Rhoda would spend a long time climbing on and off of the stone benches in front of the hotel.

One of Rhoda's favorite things about the trip is getting so much attention from all of the people in the group. Here she is getting snuggles from Satoko.

We made a bed for Rhoda inside the closet so that she couldn't see or hear us as well at night. She has still ended up waking up a lot more frequently than usual.

There have been a few times when we got bored enough that we just had to go out for a walk. On one of our walks, we found some horses and donkeys.

The plaza de armas (or central square) of Urubamba is so pretty and always busy.

This is one of the main streets with a canal running down the middle with beautiful flowers next to it.

Basil and the other docs work full time at the clinic. On the days come along, Rhoda is adored by all, but it was always hard to keep her out of trouble. Below you can see her 'delivering' a prescription.

We loved to spend time with Maureen in the eye room and Rhoda even learned to administer an eye exam to herself. She loves to wear glasses.

You saw before how much Rhoda loved all the little babies. She is just as loved by the abuelas who come in to the clinic.

The glasses were all donated so we had some pretty rockin styles. Here we are modeling some for you. You can't really tell, but Basil's actually folded in half.

Rhoda loves to share her snacks and belongings with everyone that comes in (as long as they don't keep them too long).

Jackie is so good with Rhoda and will often chase her around to give mommy a break.

Rhoda learned so much and she'll soon be off to medical school (with Jackie's help).

This little girl came in to the clinic often and would ask for Rhoda first thing. By the end, she was calling her 'cua cua' which is the Peruvian sound for a duck.

We made friends with an amazing woman named Lucia. She made lunch for us at her home a few times and it was the highlight of my week. She is the best cook in Peru! Here is a picture of the group in her courtyard before eating lunch.

You can climb to the roof of her house and get an excellent view of Lamay. All the staircases are outside and she often has to warn her husband not to go down them drunk.

I hope this post explained a bit about an average day for us in Peru. If not, feel free to ask any questions you might have. P.S. dad, at first we got to the clinic by a taxi the hotel arranged but it was so unreliable that we ended up walking to the bus station and taking the bus. It was 2 soles, or about 65 cents for a one hour trip as opposed to 40 soles plus tip for the taxi.

Below is a group picture during the second week of our trip.