Last Sunday, with fanny-pack snugly aorund my waist, we ran a few miles from our neighborhood to the Inca Market in Miraflores to look for tapestries and other decorations. Met a delightfully spunky, and loquacious, older Venezuelan woman who almost charmed us into buying a whole lotta patterned cloth (in the end, we decided to be patient and look around some more). She spoke quickly and in bursts, but she just happened to be one of those people who for whatever reason I don’t have much trouble understanding. My comprehension can be pretty hit-or-miss depending on the person. She entertained us with stories of the origin of her indigenous name, and about the disapproving looks she gets from Peruvians when she does her thing on the dance floor (apparently older Peruvians dance more conservatively than other South Americans). We then made our way to a nearby food market where there are a few cheap ‘menu’ restaurants in an alleyway. For 3 bucks, we got huge plates holding mountains of food along with a generous side of ceviche (raw fish cooked in lime juice served with roasted corn kernels and spicy sauce). We treated ourselves to ceviche again on Tuesday when one of Hansel’s friends, who will soon be ordained as a Catholic priest, came by the hospital to say hi. We will likely eat a lot ceviche this year :)
After the mega meal, we cruised down to the grungy hipster neighborhood of Barranco. It’s a fun place to be out and about enjoying street performers and wall art. There were a few bands that we were really impressed by, like this hippy foursome sitting on a bench playing bluegrass renditions of jazz standards. The sun was shining, and looking down the cobblestone walkway I could clearly see the Pacific. The ocean is a beautiful thing :) We stopped by a brewery so that Jeff could have a not-pilsner beer, which was pricey but delicious, and then ubered home.
As we frequently do, once back in our nest we settled in for an episode of the show we’ve been enjoying called Casa de Papel. It’s from Spain and tells the story of a heist, with lots and lots of fun twists. A good portion of the Hipólito crew is currently watching, and for Halloween Hansel wants to dress up in the Salvador Dali masks that the bank robbers use in the show :p
At work this week we continued on our patient follow-up/adherence project and then presented our system to the office and field workers. Hansel said that he was so proud of us that he almost cried (!). It was satisfying to share about what’s been keeping us busy, because otherwise we haven’t had too many opportunities to interact with our colleagues whilst at work. Now that we’ve mostly wrapped up this first small project, I’m thinking our next step will be to accompany field workers to the community health centers to observe TB treatment, which should get us speaking more Spanish and maybe generate some more ideas about what kinds of survey-type studies we could carry out this year.
As alluded in the title of this post, I wanted to acknowledge the crazy level of artistic talent evidenced at the San Fernando (a med school) Noche Artística. Our friend Anthony, who did a couple rotations in Rochester, invited us to this evening that is part of a week long competition between the 7 classes of the medical school. Each class has 150-200ish students and they put together performances in three categories: music, dance, and theater. Jeff and I had been hedging on whether or not to go, and I immediately suspected that I might regret my decision to attend when the year 1 band started playing. The singers weren’t great, the keyboards were too loud, and the drummer was painfully off-beat. As it turned out, however, this turned out to be somewhat of a fluke. Because as the following classes came on stage, the music got better and better, and it became clear that they had come to win. Anthony told us the students had been practicing their performances since March, easily. After each class finished, one section of the class would erupt in loud cheers in support of their year. “Dos mil quince! Dos mil quince!” Or “Dieciseis! Dieciseis!” Anthony, from the class that started in 2013, said that as long as 2014 didn’t win, he would be happy. Apparently they have a particularly fierce rivalry.
While I really enjoyed the professional-caliber afro-Peruvian songs complete with full horn and percussion sections, fog machines and light shows, my favorite part of the night was the dancing. I was blown away by the intricate, colorful traditional costumes and stage sets the students had made. Their feet stomped powerfully and their voices bellowed in unison. It was incredible to see such a variety of traditional dances representing different peoples of Peru, mostly agrarian mountain folk. It gave me a deeper appreciation of the cultural diversity in Peru, and I felt very lucky to be here.
After the mega meal, we cruised down to the grungy hipster neighborhood of Barranco. It’s a fun place to be out and about enjoying street performers and wall art. There were a few bands that we were really impressed by, like this hippy foursome sitting on a bench playing bluegrass renditions of jazz standards. The sun was shining, and looking down the cobblestone walkway I could clearly see the Pacific. The ocean is a beautiful thing :) We stopped by a brewery so that Jeff could have a not-pilsner beer, which was pricey but delicious, and then ubered home.
As we frequently do, once back in our nest we settled in for an episode of the show we’ve been enjoying called Casa de Papel. It’s from Spain and tells the story of a heist, with lots and lots of fun twists. A good portion of the Hipólito crew is currently watching, and for Halloween Hansel wants to dress up in the Salvador Dali masks that the bank robbers use in the show :p
At work this week we continued on our patient follow-up/adherence project and then presented our system to the office and field workers. Hansel said that he was so proud of us that he almost cried (!). It was satisfying to share about what’s been keeping us busy, because otherwise we haven’t had too many opportunities to interact with our colleagues whilst at work. Now that we’ve mostly wrapped up this first small project, I’m thinking our next step will be to accompany field workers to the community health centers to observe TB treatment, which should get us speaking more Spanish and maybe generate some more ideas about what kinds of survey-type studies we could carry out this year.
As alluded in the title of this post, I wanted to acknowledge the crazy level of artistic talent evidenced at the San Fernando (a med school) Noche Artística. Our friend Anthony, who did a couple rotations in Rochester, invited us to this evening that is part of a week long competition between the 7 classes of the medical school. Each class has 150-200ish students and they put together performances in three categories: music, dance, and theater. Jeff and I had been hedging on whether or not to go, and I immediately suspected that I might regret my decision to attend when the year 1 band started playing. The singers weren’t great, the keyboards were too loud, and the drummer was painfully off-beat. As it turned out, however, this turned out to be somewhat of a fluke. Because as the following classes came on stage, the music got better and better, and it became clear that they had come to win. Anthony told us the students had been practicing their performances since March, easily. After each class finished, one section of the class would erupt in loud cheers in support of their year. “Dos mil quince! Dos mil quince!” Or “Dieciseis! Dieciseis!” Anthony, from the class that started in 2013, said that as long as 2014 didn’t win, he would be happy. Apparently they have a particularly fierce rivalry.
While I really enjoyed the professional-caliber afro-Peruvian songs complete with full horn and percussion sections, fog machines and light shows, my favorite part of the night was the dancing. I was blown away by the intricate, colorful traditional costumes and stage sets the students had made. Their feet stomped powerfully and their voices bellowed in unison. It was incredible to see such a variety of traditional dances representing different peoples of Peru, mostly agrarian mountain folk. It gave me a deeper appreciation of the cultural diversity in Peru, and I felt very lucky to be here.
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