I am sitting at the hotel at someone´s computer. No idea who he is.

I just managed to make the boys here to buy gasoline for the generator only so that i would get internet connection.
Much to bear for a Finnish, modest girl.

I was following today how the nurse i was working with pulled a horrible nail out of this old woman´s toe. And when i am worried about patients, they say "it´s normal". And my spanish is crap in the mornings, better in the afternoons.  But i did manage to understand most of the dirty talk my coworkers were explaining to each others. I did ask is there much of  depressed people in Peru; they replied in one voice "No, we have sex all the time!" :D No wonder Peruvians usually ask on our first meeting, am I married.

What else? I have a dog here who loves me. I think it´s sent by my "amigo". He followed me on my first day here for so long.like a security guard. Even though I haven´t given him anything (besides the alligator bone yesterday) he always comes to say hello to me.

This morning I drank coffee first time in 2 months. We had our last day of the strike and not much to do. Girls decided to bring a cettle of cafe con leche and we drank lots with pan. So good.

Many guys I´ve been talking to here have been asking from me, am i not scared, being a single woman here? Because they would. But i am not. Not single bit. I trust my instincts with people. And I am so damn timid in the end. Always.

People are nice and i saw lots of fruits at the market today.
Shopping soon that is!

I am a bit scared of tomorrow because the strike will be over and they will have tons of patients.

note to self: RNs here get 2100 soles per month/ medicos 3200 soles.
The family of a patient need to buy every day the medications and care equipment, without they won´t get treatment. If they do not have family, oh noes.
*Suero antibotrópico polivalente
*Rifampicina
*Pirazinamida

First proper day at the health center of Mazan.

Only couple of doctors (the ones who can say in English "i do not really speak English) knows why I am there, so my day has been mostly discovering tasks I could do and nurses I could follow. In the morning I found out that “registered nurses” here do mostly parental care, neonatal care, preventive care – much of the stuff that community health nurses do in Finland. And which I haven´t done much. Also, they really haven’t had much nurse volunteers, only medical students, and my place is not really with doctors either.  Also, they are organizing a nationwide strike for health care workers today, tomorrow and Thursday, so only the emergency works and people who are coming really far away are taken in. That means that today, I found my place from the emergency room  and worked with “technical nurses” (here they give out meds, put cannules, take blood pressures etc.). Today rest of the staff in the center was mostly meeting because of the strike. I got to work with babies, toddlers, TBS patients, wounds…  Here the nurses work for 6 hours, but even though the days is short, at least to me, today, it felt like forever, because the nurses really do not take pauses meanwhile  and working in this heat is generally quite draining. Also, when I am drained – no habla espanol bleah – and no matter how many times I repeat myself I feel like I am not being understood.

Like one might expect, all the care procedures are very different than in Finland, because here  they are always lacking equipment and hygiene is not the most important thing in this environment. Same cannules are being used many times if they aren´t inserted well, for cleaning wounds they just drop peroxide on them,  TBS patients do not have closed rooms, equipment is hardly never washed in any way when going to a different patients… “Back to basics”.

I just had my bath in the bathroom with no water. They are using, alike in other villages, a big tank on which the water will drop from the shower WHEN it is available. You also use the same water for flushing the toilet.

After work I was of course starving at 1 pm so I went to have cheap local lunch, which here always means rice, meat and potatoes (the same goes for dinner though). I managed to find bananas and tomatoes for snacks, but oh boy, I wish they would sell the same tasteful fruits in the markets that are growing in their yards…

It´s a very hot day and I am boiling. J

Mazan

Feeling like at home. En la casa.
Listening monotone English at the background - must be Canadians.
A bit drunk thanks to my new one-night translator friends.
Next day - first in the health clinic - soon to sleep.

Peru. I trust in  these people.
I trust myself?

My weekend was full of amor,
I feel like I really am guarded by natural spirits.

I am too relaxed now to be nervous about tomorrow,
I will probably experience it in the morning.

Bien pueblo.

Internet connection en las noches.

uuh, I start liking this country, maybe a litte too much? :)

lodge.

The past few days I´ve spent in area between Pacaya-Samiria national reserve and Tamshiyacu conservation area. I cannot remember the name of the river since I do not have my notes with me. The area was of Amazon Refugee Wildlife Conservation center. The area is full of birds, of which species I`ll add later on! Every place you lay your eyes on, is full of life.

The first day was spent by getting to the lodge. The evening we wandered in the forest, and my guide told me about the medical plants and insects.... introduced me the penis-tree (yay) and almost said too late for me not to pick up a stick insects that was very poisonous. I fell in love with a bird called horned screamer. The next night i couldn´t brush my teeth because there was two brown, big spiders in my sink.

Next day was our first to try to look for the shaman after we had done a bird excursion by the river in the morning. That shaman-visit failed, so we kayaked to a "lake". Kayaking does no good for my instabile joints.... in the meanwhile, we stopped by one riverside and my guide went to catch me a sloth!! So cute! The sloth that is. We were walking so long in the thick forest... we also came by a sloth killed probablly by a jaguar.

When we got to the lake, we started  to set up our camp. Washed ourselves a bit, made a fire etc. Later on we net fished in the river and got couple of fishes. Most of the time I was saying to the guide "that is illegal in Finland...are you sure it`s ok?" :D Most of the time I was saying to myself "fuck this shit" because moving around in a rainforest is not too easy, and i was disappointed i paid so much money for no electricity, no shaman, no food... and because my guide was just trying to hit on me all the time.

Next morning was beautiful, wow! And my guide was sorry for his behavior.. So when we finally had kayaked back to the regfugee center, he offered me a new plan, we could try to find a shaman afer lunch from two villages. Before lunch I caught my lunch. I got at least 6 wolf fishes with a hook, but we didn´t take but the biggest one. Muy rico! Wolf fishes do not have much bones, it`s all meat.

The second village we went to look for shaman was so beautiful, it was surrounded by fruit trees, coffee bushes, corn, rice, bean fields... they had everything! They had also very old ayahuasca vine. But no shaman. Shaman was in Napo. The second village had a shaman but no Ayacuasha. The village was even more beautiful than the second one. Since we were lacking time, we decided we will stay at the village for the night and head to Napo the following day. We stayed at my guide`s friends. We got food, a place to sleep at and i got to chat with my age guy who wanted to be a nurse too, but he hadn´t had money but for one semester in Napo... he was quite blue because there´s no work in the village, and he wanted out.

The next night I didn´t sleep almost at all, because my guide insisted me to wake up at 4 am and go for a walk around "beautiful morning". I hadn´t slept, because I was laying on the floor with one sheet and to these bones that´s a tad bit too little cushions. I couldn´t think, so at 4 am I turned down my guide´s proposal and crawled in one free hammock in the room and tried to make my nest there. Slept for 2 hours until the family started to et up.

The villagers had very common "bathrooms", an elevated structure with a hole, under it all the exctrement, and very close a tank of "pure water" in the ground which was used for washing up. The home where my guide prepared our morning eggs had some parakeets as pets, so cute. Peruvian love animals, too bad usually they don´t live too long because of all the paracites.

The final day we were on our way to Napo. Stopped by on a sand island on the crossroads of three different rivers. There we had a good chat about everything with my guide. I think I also managed to let him know that his english is very bad and he has to practise more so he won´t give any false information for the tourists. :D

It´s going to be a hoooooot day again. Cusco planning.

el bosque

Buenos tardes. Antihistamines bought for the hundreds of horsefly and  mosquito bites that are burning my joints. Showered. Got clothes to the laundry. Met cool people. Had cute emails. Annoyed by the deadly slow internet. Yet happy.

Imagine.

-You are told you need to hike 9 kilometres in a burning sun to get to the boat which is supposed to take you to the forest. You haven`t had breakfast. This is all thanks to motortaxi strike.

-You find out you are supposed to be 4 days alone with a guy who is literally the sleaziest guy on earth.

-There is no electricity at the lodges because it has broken down 3 days before.

-There is one dirty towel in your bathroom and no soap

-The biggest expectation you had for the trip was to meet a shaman, and you looked from 3 different villages and no one was available

-You are left in the jungle by yourself at times since you didn`t notice which path your horny, yet quick guide did take. When you ask him what he will do if a poisonous spider bites you, he says "no problemo, me aydarte". Como??

-Your guide is supposed to know all of the forest, but he obviously speaks even worse english than you speak spanish. All he can say is "a beaaaautiful colors!" and ask about your religion, if you as liberal as he is.

-You don`t get enough food. 

-You are literally eaten alive by the horseflies and mosquitos even though you don`t stop spraying 100 % DEET all over you,
-Daily, you kayak for hours in the sun beecause the company has no but one boat with a motor.

-And you PAID lots of this?! 

Imagine.

+The first guide who take you to the boat was the cutest and most intellligent ever, and you got the most special breakfast at the jungle. Ice cream tree-fruits and a meal at the local`s house because you gave the mother of the family some painkillers and Voltaren.

+Amazingly magical and beautiful nature. 

+Healthy food, often prepared by your sleazy guide. Freshly caught piranhas and spagetti in the middle of Amazon. 

+Since your horny guide was sorry for the way he didn`t stop begging for sex while you were supposed to sleep with him under the same mosquito net in the middle of the Amazon ("is it possible? me in the jungle for 10 days without a woman? please? Si? No? is it possible? si?), he offered to find you a shaman no matter what.

+You didn`t find a shaman but you found good time with the local people at a very nice village and felt very welcomed and pampered.
+You got your arm muscles better because of all that kayaking.

+You got to teach your "english speaking guide" English for 3 hours in your boat way back to Nauta.

+Your Spanish got way better because you were literally forced to use it.
+You learned from the Peruvian culture so much more when you were sitting on a beach with your guide, talking about relationships.

We are amigos now, I bought him a beer and we shared a huge cup of ice cream, soon going to the cine since it`s only 4 soles por las Jueves. 

I hope I soon can write a bit more precise blog, when I get a connection which doesn`t break in every 5 minutes. :)

con mucha verdura, por favor!

Manatees today.

Maybe volunteering on later this week.

My friend has been studying the manatees for his thesis, 

and now I`m in love with those vacas marinas as well.

I managed to find moderately satisfying meal of vegetables today. 

Era muy difícil encontrarle.

Y muy caro.

Me encanta la comer de Finlandia ahora.

or something.

I ate suri yesterday. Tasted like chicken. 

What else?

Oh, back to the bosque tomorrow for 4 days.

Writer`s block.

Alejandro... 

12/9/2012

The birthday of two of most important people in my life.

We just left the village I absolutely loved.
It was on a side river of Napo.
Last village we set our clinic up.
Pienso que mi español es muy mal todavia.
I hate spoken languages, why everything cannot just be written on notes, why there`s no mind reading machines..

Sidenote: It was interesting to notice at the football match yesterday that when Peru had a goal, the people got crazily happy, but when Argentina made a goal, I almost saw no reaction whatsoever. Like, when there`s good happening, it`s a reason to celebrate, but on misfortune there is no need to dwell on more.

I like that.

(lol, the boat just got stuck on the ground of Napo and all the plates fell on the floor!)

.....

13/09/2012

The last night on the boat.

I have been feeling absolutely lonely today.

I drew a card for the staff and we bought a box of choloates for them.

Left it at the boat`s fridge for them to find in the morning.

There was an italian guy at the riverside.

Building up the bonfire our staff had set up.

Luis thought he was very unpolite because he hardly answered to his questions.

He thought all italians must be like that.

Girls tries to explain him that he was "a loner".

Few minutes later I was playing the maracas`with the italiano, and calling the spirits.

Rest of the group were dancing to Abba beside the bonfire.

I felt once again at home in myself.

He helped me to gain my own power.

It`s hard when no one asks "how are you" since they have gotten used to your silence. 

=======

That`s about of the boat excursion.

Now I`m listening an american playing beautiful songs with his guitar on the inner yard and waiting to see my new biologist friend who will teach me spanish.

Bueno.

Today.

Now, I like to be in contact with the rest of the world, but it seems like an endless current of new and new and new things to look for online. Email there, message there, look for that number, wait for this reply, durr.. at this moment I`d like to be back in the Amazon middle of nowhere.

I have much to plan.
I am going to spend 24.9.-8.10. in the Mazan village,
otherwise all is open.

I was wandering around Belèn market this morning.
That was quite something.
The smells of the fishes, dead tortoises, boiled eggs, tobacco leaves..
I found a breakfast stop just after the market place.
I saw lots of veggies but got into my plate only rice, spaghetti and potatoes. And a chicken leg.
The local style for triplecarbohydrates is interesting.

On the way back, I bumped into a familiar face, Jimmy.
He`s a tourist guide who knows Luis (Luis says he`s a big liar)
and all of the people in this city I had to face him again. Hahah.
"Essi! Don`t you remember my name?"

I had so much fun yesterday.
We were having farewell party at Musmuqui and Noa Disco.
Musmuqui is this bar crowded by students and you can get the strangest of drinks there.
I also met there a guy, who is from Iquitos. He had a crush on me.. he`s over 190 cm tall, called Palo.
Of all people there, he`s the last one you could imagine to be a Peruvian.

I had crazy dancing at Noa and felt like a trophy wife.

Now. Planning!!! :)

9/9/2012

Estoy cansada. Quizás tengo hambre.
We were just fishing for piranhas for three hours.
I don`t like the local style of keeping the fish alive untile cooking them; slow, choking death.
And those damn fishes had so hard skin I couldn`t do a scratch on them.

I has a headache. I got two piranhas. Only two! Baby ones!

This villages` kids love us.
Essi! Alice! Farhan! Pobre Sahmaian!
Naomi, one of the british girls, is requesting my drawings.
That feels quite weird to me.

The clinic was fun today. Though I was almost made to diagnose things all the time and I don`t do that.
Me`s no doctor dammit.

Yesterday we didn`t do much.
It was sunday so we just swam a bit, ate a lot.
Also, this town called "Atuncocha" was having a football match for 4 different villages
Women had their own teams and men their own.
Mixed teams from same age groups played against each others. Friendly matches.
The winner got 40 soles and pride.
It was fun to watch.
Lots of flying ants though.

The villagers were playing music so late though that we thought most of them would have been at the clinic today complaining headaches :)

Only martes and miercoles of the boat still, then the villagers have to be without until December. :(

...

10/9/2012

Hubesperanza. That`s the village we`re at now. 

It`s very cute. 

Very calm. 

Only silent children and loud birds.

I just washed lots of clothes in the river, having the washing done on the speedboat. This morning we were at a village called Huanana. I gave at least 70 patients their anti-parasite pills and measured their weights, heights, and "cinturas". 

This little village even smells good. 

As I was finishing the washing of my boots,

a little girl from the village cam on the boat and started to follow me around.

Her dog`s name is Princesa.

I keep on asking questions from her. Luis was sitting next to me a moment ago and he repeated my questions, to me the girl just smiled but to Luis she also responded. Normal here.

This village has some inspiring qualities.

I just drew an elephant for Naomi and started fishing catfish from the boat with our dentist.

Two of the things I have enjoyed doing when I was younger, but which were killed by the "adult life".

The village is preparing to see the Peru - Argentina match today. 

I am excited tough it`s the only night we`re supposed to go to bed early. 

...

Just got back from the football match.

It`s half time, time to go to sleep.

In the flood rotten school

in the middle of sweaty Peruvians

Kids watching in the front

sitting on the floor

Older in the back

Everyone staring at this little box with bad quality image, next to it this huge subwoofer to get the best volume out of the match.

Moths were intrigued by the light of the TV.

Every once in a while

a bat flied in from the ceiling and got a bit lost.

When we came back on the deck of the boat

beautiful milkyway in the sky.

8/9/2012

Oh we were hiking in the amazonian forest last night!
My stomach hated the stumbling in the jungle, but my mind loved it.
But I was surprised how few things we saw since I am so accustomed to see so many creatures in Finland, yet here everything seemed to be hiding.
Saw few spiders, a swamp snake that can kill you in 24-hours, and quite a few different species of tree frogs and few stick insects.

We heard that the locals get 10 soles for one killed alligator at the Belen market, and the fish we eat like daily at the boat, is so rare in U.S. that people pay thousands of dollars to have it! Funny little world.

Oh the dentist, Adam, said to me(in spanish of course)
that I need to follow my heart and to decide if I want to be a nurse or a biologist.
Huh, so hard!!
Animal rescue?

...

Crazy! It`s quarter to 12 in the night.

We just finished an evening of dancing around a bonfire the guys set up on the riverside of Napo. I keep on having these very old, deep buried feelings of being an outkast, when watching happy and funny and talkative girls singing songs aloud, since we`re lacking music. Since I am not able to be alike, I ust concentrate on watching the stars, fishes jumping at the dark river, and dancing. 

Gosh I love dancing. I have been sitting still for almost three  days doing nothing and almost slit my wrists open already. Idle is deadly. But I did do a drawing though. Idle is also creative.

I was working today though, yay! And because of that, I got fever a bit in the afternoon again, terrible stomach ache and diarrea. But after dinner the girls`Ciprocin had started to work and my stomach didn`t scream in pain when I noticed food around. Ah, food. 

At the moment, 6 weeks seems to be a long, long time. I apparently do not like the boat life, maybe that`s it. I heard from Emerson that Mazan is a good town. 

Tomorrow is sunday. Day off. Fishing. Orlando? Late breakfast.

Buenas noches.

Ahora es el dia de tormenta

It`s 42+ degrees in the sun.
We are literally melting away.
None of us either could sleep last night, because of a thunder storm that had winds so fast it`s hard to even imagine.
We were anchored for the night next to a sand island in the middle of Amazon.
When the storm started and you looked outside,
you saw a desert of soft sand, thunder clouds touching the ground, and a rain so heavy it got through easily by our boat`s ceiling.

I mostly feel like vomiting and having diarrea. Nauseous. But nothing comes out.
I also have massive headache which won`t go away.
The nausea has ups and downs.
It started in the night.
I had also little bit of fever this morning so I couldn`t do much when we stopped at the first village.
Now we just got to the second one.

..apparently this village didn`t need other help but an asthmapipe which was made up by the doctor and the staff member. Of a water bottle and tape. Now this kind of medicine I like!

I was so hungry, I ate, had diarrea and now the fever is rising again.

Buenas noches.

....

7/9/2012

Listening Blood Brothers by Iron Maiden and watching the girls chat about the books they`re reading.

This sounds so good.

I was playing with Canada`s (the village we`re at now) little dog a moment ago

and putting a baby tree boa to a tree when a flock of children were following me.

Every each of them so cute.

I was so very sick this morning.

Had fever of almost 39 degrees.

But fortunately I am surrounded by soon-to-be-doctors and I feel so much better now.

Though I was feeling unnecessarily guilty this morning when I was laying at the deck in the hammoc, feeling like shit.

Because the staff on the boat didn`t seem to understand why I wasn`t working in the deadly heat like the others.

But in the afternoon after lunch I was feeling much better and got to check in few patients still. 

...

4/9/2012

Peruvian beer at 6.30 pm after I got rid of this 5 days of tormenting constipation. yes I said it! We`re sitting in the boat and listening "one way ticket" from Luis`music player. He dreams about living in Europe.

This was the first day of work.
Enjoyed.
Felt really useless and frustrated sometimes, but at least it was only me, not the patients.

There was crazy lot of ill children and we were about to get craxy with the endless amount of families bursting into the school we were having the clinic at. I got to give a lecture for the young guys, whom tooth were being pulled out by our dentist (who was having his "office" at the sunny terrace of the school). Muy joven!

Now we`re just hanging out and waiting the dinner so we can do a bit of a night excursion on the River.

I like peruvian mint beer. Strange.
Well they don`t have ciders. I suggested importing them to Luis, who hates beer as much as I do.

...

5/9/2012 `You might as well deal with it`

Luis likes Justin Bieber. Fun.

We had UNBELIEVABLE time yesterday at the river at night.
Milkyway.
Thousands of sounds.
Bats, frogs, huge moths and few birds.
We were embraced by the environment.
We drove the little boat up the river Napo quite a while and drifted back.
Then we were driven in the middle of Amazon,.
Saw a huge, naranja moon rising behind the palm trees.
Sunsets and -rises, and moon sets and rises happen here in minutes, almost in seconds, so we were lucky.
And the warm breeze.
<3

When we drove back to the boat, the girls noticed something on Naomis back.
It was huge spider. They almost jumped from the speedboat! It was probably in the boat in the first place, though Luis says it probably dropped from the trees when we pulled to the riverside to see a frog. Huge, poisonous spider. You could imagine none of us fell asleep too easily.

....

Today, village called Siete de Julio.

El viernes

Strange to be back in the city.
City!
No wonder my professors love this place, this must feel like home when you`ve been weeks in the middle of the forest, doing research in the middle of countless insects, in old moldy clothes with sweat dripping off from your neck, and fresh water is a stuff of dreams..

We came back from the river in the morning, in a nice homely weather, about +28 degrees, rainy and a bit windy (quite chilly that is!). So strange to be back, like home, browsing internet, buying water from a store, sleeping in not smelly sheets... and when your legs tickle, it IS your imagination and not one of the hundreds of inscets.. strange. And the water that comes from the shower is actually not that sticky one straight from the Amazon. Luxury.

I have written diary every day, but I do not know how to start.
Maybe with the first day.
At the moment I am a bit ignorant of the rest of my visit.
Devon, where are you...

---------------------------

2/9/2012

Sitting on the deck of our boat.

First morning in the Amazon, it`s 7 am.

Woke up to the yell of a cuckoo in the 5 am.

We`re staying at the moment in Yanamoto, Luis`(our spanish translator) aunts frontier.

We came here yesterday at 6 pm, to taste and buy liquer they make of a lian (firewater). I really do not know why we aren`t yet moving to Napo.

Here`s only 4 personnel at the moment.  Soon a doctor will reach us with a speed boat from Iquitos. Until then, here`s a six of us "students", the dentist who apparently likes to clean up too (Jose Adam), a guy who fixes and knows everything (Emerson), the cook (Danillo) and the captain (Eugenio).

Some kind of  black bird is making the loudest and weirdest sounds at the tree next to the boat.

Yesterday we mostly sat around, ate and panicked with learning medical spanish. I still have no clue what we actually will do at the clinics, time will tell.

... 

3/9/2012

Work is finally starting. 

I hope I won`t get used to this culture

because I am afraid I won`t get anything done anymore then.

We waited for  the doctor yesterday until 5 pm. She was supposed to come at 9 am.

It`s the culture differences which create a little bit frustration (already).

You are asking so many  times per day

what we`re doing tomorrow

and you getalways ì do not know`or `do not worry about tomorrow, why are you worried by that?`

Then, when tomorrow comes,

you very suddenly get commands about things you are supposed to do right away.

Being a person who likes to use her time efficiently, that`s a bit too little perpaparation time for the future.

Now it`s 7.30 am and appaently we are leaving from the village of cute kids of none of which we helped in any way yesterday. Here the daily rhythm goes by the sun. Because the doctor came after 5 pm, to them there was no point of doing any clinic stuff anymore (the sun sets at 6 pm).

Yesterday we just sorted out a crazy pile of medicines to boxes, of most the staff members have messed up alread, while looking for something specific they need to know if the doctor needs.

Hurray for structure.. 

con helado

Stuffed with overly huge and way overly sweet pancake.
It's fun to be in a totally different culture because the only thing you can expect is to have something not expected.
No means yes, left means right.

We had crazy evening yesterday.
I quite didn't wait to get new facebook friends with my first night in the town.
It was so beautiful... the riverside was full of people,dancing capoeira, having plays, festival food, noise, music, happy faces, kids all over the place. The birds were singing, the full moon was shining brightly over Amazon.

I slept so well.

There's a march of hundreds of army men at the Plaza at this moment.
Wondering if it's a habit for los domingos or are we just lucky.

People are muy agradable.

The nature keeps on overwhelming me constantly.
So much, so much everything.
Even the indoor garden in the hotel is full of so many different species.
And I wonder how many different insects were bothering us last night.

Now I'm just getting anxious again,
work work work. :)

I have no clue when I'll get to the internets again,
so hasta la pròxima vez!

Surrealista

Here I am.
Sitting in front of a computer
the same Matti Salo& Ilari Saaksjarvi have used many times
the motorbikes running on the street
wandering soon to the city with a Londoner called Elizabeth,
a medical student who apparently knows even less spanish than I do.

Landed on the airport of Iquitos
about an hour ago
almost hyperventilated or cried, cannot be sure which one more
when I saw the never ending rainforest for the first time
and the uncomprehensible heat just swallowed me into its' caress
and I saw huge, colourful butterflies gathering on trees of dirty streets.

3+4+4+12+4+1,5 hours
that's how long it took me to sit me on this chair,
and that's how many thoughts it created in my mind.

I was so nervous,
but when I landed to Lima
all seemed so right!

Tomorrow,
we leave at 10 am to our quest...
Until then, this unbelievable town will have to tell us what is it about.