Note: Barbara Plaugher provided the following column about her recent VOSH-Ohio Mission to Peru.
Here I sit in the Peruvian jungle drenched from the seasonal rains that has even curled my passport. We just completed our annual VOSH-Ohio mission into Iquitos, Peru, a land-locked city in the jungle.
This has been one of the most strenuous VOSH trips in a remote area.
From Lima, Peru we flew 600 miles over the Andes to Iquitos and met with the local 22-member Lions club. The club house contained an immense room that was wonderful to work in and provide our 5 days of clinic.
The people of Iquitos are warm and friendly and quite poor. We have received more hugs and kisses to last a lifetime, as they were so appreciative of the eye care offered.
We provided care for 2, 809 patients and had to send hundreds away. Due to the bright sun, many people had eye damage, and 300 patients were referred for further surgical care that will be provided by a surgical team in early spring. From our local hostel we boarded motorcars for an exciting ride to Club de Leones.
The motorcar is a three-wheel motorcycle with a rickshaw attached. I have never had such a "wild" ride with motorcars competing to arrive at their destination by quickly switching lanes, passing and driving anyway in order to get to another set of paying passengers.
At the clinic we needed to pass through hundreds of patients to enter until they could finally line up, in a somewhat organized fashion.
Our 10 optometrists and other volunteers totaling 26 worked throughout the day in sweltering 90+ degrees of heat. Occasionally a shower of rain would provide temporary relief. The sun is bright and hot as we are close to the equator. Dengue fever is making headlines in the local newspapers as some deaths have occurred locally.
After clinic on Friday we attended a local market, known to be quite noted for thievery. We were instructed to remove our watches, rings and even ear rings if we didn't want to donate these items to Iquitos.
As we entered, six local police noticed our arrival and accompanied our group. I have been in local markets in many third-world countries; however, this one had many different items of interest which ranged from hand rolled tobacco, coca leaves, jungle hog, fish from the Amazon, various "live" grubs and worms that are eaten, dressed chickens laying in the sun the entire day, along with small bananas, yellow potatoes, etc.
With being the rainy season and high humidity and mud, it proved to be a unique experience. We then boarded dugout boats and rode on the river seeing stilt and floating houses. Some of our patients had come from this poor, poor area.
These houses reminded me of the photos seen in National Geographic. People living along the river bathe, wash, have outdoor toilets beside their house, using all the same water.
Our guide instructed us not to put our hands in the water either because of the pollution or the piranhas, he didn't explain the reason.We were able to visit a local village as we traveled the Amazon, the longest river in the world, to our overnight in a jungle lodge. Here the local villagers showed us the talking drums and did their native dance.
The women were bare-breasted and wore bark skirts, same as the men. A fantastic dance was performed dedicated to the anaconda snake. I did not want to see one of these in the jungle as we walked about a half of a mile in the rain from our boat to the village.
During the day at the jungle lodge we were able to catch and eat the piranha fish, walk through the jungle seeing the medicinal plants (boots were provided by the lodge for all with the exception of one optometrist who wears size 14), take a boat out after dark and listen to the birds/animals.
We viewed the locals feeding the monkeys outside their kitchen, Pedro the parrot was entertainment, and occasionally you would see a tarantula cross your path.Back again in Lima we traveled by Peruvian airlines along with cages of roosters.
What a surprise in baggage claim to hear roosters crowing. We decided that instead of riding on a chicken bus, as we have in the past, we now have flown on a chicken airplane!
Some of the team members traveled to Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. We stayed in Lima visiting the capital city, a city of 9 million people.
The Plaza Major has the presidential palace where changing of the guard happens daily at noon with much pomp and circumstance. Local crafts are plentiful everywhere much different than Lima, Ohio where I attempted to buy a souvenir as a gift for my hosts in Lima, Peru.
Occasionally you may see an artesian Inca native selling her wares, consisting of alpaca. The San Francisco monastery contains catacombs and is a marvelous historical building.
We were hosted by the Iquitos Lions during clinic days and also the Lima Lions welcomed the team, as we were staying in Lima for a few days. If you are a Lion, you are welcome all over the world by another Lion.
What wonderful receptions and welcoming we all received.
Sitting in the Houston airport after a night flight, I think of the busy Lima, Peru airport where flights depart for all over the world. Now in Houston we are almost alone as all flights have been cancelled due to the airport being iced in.
I reflect on some of our adventure. We stayed in a rather bare hotel in Iquitos; however, the owners of the hotel accommodated us to the best of their ability and when we departed the cooks, the maids and busboys stood at the windows and door and waved good-bye to the team.
Where else does this happen? How we had no toilet seats on the toilets in the clinic and so we purchased seats and they were not stolen during the week we were there. Due to gastric disturbances with some team members these seats were appreciated.
We usually bring a clothesline to do some laundry, but back in Lima we could not find any place to attach the line, so we sent clothes out to the laundry.
We could see a man washing the clothes on the roof outside our hotel window and hanging the clothes on the line, as no drier is available. When they came back our underclothes were ironed. We marveled at the fact that our outer clothes were all wrinkled due to being in a suitcase for two weeks, but our underclothes were pressed.
So many little incidents like some of these make VOSH missions so memorable and the team members become close-knit members of the family.
VOSH team members from Bluffton were Don Hostetler, Arliss Plaugher and Barbara Plaugher.
