Eye Opener

Written by Abigail V. 

This has been a big eye opening experience these last couple of days. I had the opportunity to work in the clinic area, downstairs as the receptionist with my younger sister, and helping out with translating here and there.

On the clinic floor on day one, I was in charge of running around and helping with translation as well as helping people find glasses that work for them. There was this one little girl who came up to me and couldn't see far away. So we had to go through all the prescription glasses that could fit children. We tried so many on and when we were feeling like we were out of hope I found one more pair that might work. The girls face when she could finally see was amazing. She was so happy and her mom was too. I'm so grateful I was there to see that little girl's face.

Day 2 and day 3 I worked the reception desk. It was fun being able to meet everyone before they went up. They were all very excited to get the help they needed. I recieved many hugs and kisses as I registered them and sent them upstairs. Day 3 was interesting because in the morning we had a group of elders who could not make it up the stairs. I had to help transport them to the near by room and tell the nurses and Charley to come down and help them out.

Day 4 was probably my favorite day. When I woke up on Friday I thought I would be working the desk again or maybe at the most helping out in the pharmacy, but we hit a speed bump. When we woke up two of our physicians had the flu which meant we were very short on people. Since I have my CNA they asked if I could go help out with the nurses station so one of the nurses could go work the pharmacy. I was very nervous but excited for the new change. I was brought upstairs to the clinic where I had to take people's glucose levels and take UVAs (UTI tests and pregnancy tests). I also helped out with taking temperature and weight. I was very nervous to take glucose at first since I never had before and I had to prick their fingers manually. Helping out in the clinic was amazing!

Day 5 started with an alarm clock set to 4:30 am. The clinic was closed and we headed to the bus to go to the upper part of Peru to the ocean. When we got there (3 hours later) they asked who would want to go swimming with the turtles and my hand shot up. I was so excited. As we boarded the boat and got our life jackets on a huge sea turtle swam towards us. I could not wait to get in. The boat toured us around the water until they put the anchor down and told us to get in. There were three rules when swimming with the turtles.

1. Do not pet the turtles. This is because they have a special algae coat on their shells to help keep them protected from the ocean.

2. Do not splash in the water/ move a lot. This would scare the turtles.

3. Do not yell or scream. This again would also scare the turtles.

I swam with my sister Jordan and Miranda and Nico. This was so much fun! I had a blast trying to maneuver around the turtles and seeing them under water.

As our journey in Peru comes to a close I am very thankful for going on this trip especially with my family. This is one of my favorite mission trips I have been on. I will be so excited if I am given the opportunity to come back to Peru in the future.