Yesterday we went to the herbarium, a library of plants. They currently have over 100,000 physical specimens in their library, and they want to digitalize them all – the advantage to doing this is that it makes the info available to everyone, no matter where they are. Also, about 3 weeks ago, a herbarium in Quito burned down. It had specimens dating as far back as 1600, and now everything is lost. There are currently 5 grad students working on scanning the mounted specimens in at a rate of about 250 a week. (this is with one scanner, they have a second on the way so that number should double but it’s still slow going) The big problem however, is that only 30,000 specimens are mounted and ready to be scanned in. The rest are still in boxes from when they were collected (some more than 50 years ago, pictures on facebook) meaning the pace will slow waaaaay down when they get there.
Next we went to the Belen market – I have a TON of pictures from there that I put on facebook. It was amazing, an endless sea of venders. It’s broken up into sections based on merchandise, such as clothing, fruit, meat, etc… My favorite part was the herb alley, or the Peruvian equivalent of a pharmacy. We had a woman with us translating that is the granddaughter of an herbalista, so she could tell us what everything was and what it was used for. Most of the herbs aren’t meant to be eaten plain, so they are either made into a tea or put in cane alcohol to make extracts that can be drunk. The venders gave us a bunch of samples as we made our way down – I think I had 8 or so. They don’t taste fantastic, but it’s not really something you can say no to. Besides, it is interesting to taste the different types of herbs and barks.
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant (in peru.. go figure…) and it was delicious, tasted just like home. I guess American Chinese isn’t a correct term… it’s more like non-Chinese Chinese. Then in the afternoon we had an appointment with an curadera (healer) She walked us through traditional things she uses (this included several more extracts and by this point I was getting rather tipsy…. No good when it’s 100+ degrees out) and then did a short session with each of us. She used a lot of tobacco smoke, blowing it on us to clear away the negative energy. A lot of mediums that healers deal with are seen as sponges that suck away the negative or bad things that make you sick or unhappy. The mediums are then destroyed (candles are burned) or dissipate (like the smoke) along with the negative energy.
Today we went to a clinic near where we are staying to help out. All of us have the same blue scrubs, so into consulting rooms with the doctors. We saw patients with them and got to see how the medical system works. There are a lot of similarities and some shocking difference. First, each room had two chairs and a desk. The doctor sat on one side, and the patient on the others, there were very few examination beds. Second, there are no appointments, people just show up and wait their turn. This doesn’t sound like it would work, but the records are all paper (faster than electronic) and while each patient gets the doctor’s full attention, there is no waiting in between patients, one leaves and the next enters. The other major difference is that there seems to be little knowledge of sanitation. Doctors don’t wash their hands between patients, the rooms aren’t the cleanest in the world, and nurses even touched needles before giving a child a vaccine. They do very well with their limited resources, but if anything a lesson in basic sanitation would help. Another thing we noticed is that doctors here are not as likely to prescribe antibiotics. In the US, people often demand them, and doctors give in even if they will have no benefit. Here, the people trust the doctor’s judgment and are more willing to leave without medicine. I’m glad we went today because it allowed us to see exactly what people have for healthcare here. Also, we had a chance to give them basic information to make their daily lives better. (such as how much water they need to drink in order to avoid UTIs)
Oh, btw… 5 people were sick Sunday night, 4 didn’t come on Monday, 3 were still sick today. They were/are all puking their guts out. We have no idea what they have; we all eat the same food. All that matters is that I didn’t get it. :)
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