The Georges in Peru

Today I dropped off Mia at the church where we are packing bags of food for Venezuelan refugees and poor Peruvians and headed to Economax for what was supposed to be a quick trip to get a few things.  Four blocks from my destination I thought, "There are police near the entry of Economax.  Where is my permission to be out during lockdown to show them."  I glanced toward the passenger seat where I thought it was and it wasn't there. BAM!  I hit the car in front of me!  He had slowed down for the really big speed bumps on the avenue and I hit him in the moment I had looked for my permit.  Ugh!  Thankfully, the driver was super nice and didn't start yelling at me.  And thankfully, he wasn't hurt!  I called my insurance agent who sent a claims person who arrived on a motorcycle 30 minutes later.  By then, the other driver and I decided it would be easiest for me to just give him $200 (he only asked for $170) and go on our ways and not spend the day filling out forms in the police station.  

This is a picture of the car I hit.  Give thanks that no one was hurt.  Our SUV has a barely crooked front bumper now.

For over a month, Peru has shut down all but essential businesses to try to contain the corona virus.  If you have money saved up you can survive easily enough.  You can order food delivered to your door and go to the banks and pharmacies still.  But if you are a refugee from Venezuela (there are an estimated 800,000 in Peru alone), life is much harder.  You probably don't have any money saved up.  Your job as a waitress in a restaurant is gone.  You probably don't have a home and the landlord of the tiny apartment you are living in is probably threatening to kick you out for not paying your rent.  Even begging on the street is hard as few people are out and foreigners (even us from North America) are held somewhat suspect during crises like this.

Because of this, SIM Peru has been delivering bags of food to Venezuelan refugees here. Today Mia, Mary Beth and I helped prepare 289 bags of rice, potatoes, spaghetti, tuna, evaporated milk, lentils, sugar, beans and a Gospel tract that others will take out to people on Friday and Saturday.

People have been asking how we are doing, so I thought I better write an update.  I don't have any pictures.  I guess I could show streets without cars taken from our rooftop.  We can't drive our SUV under threat of having my license taken away and the SUV impounded.  We actually aren't supposed to leave the house except for Wednesdays and Saturdays to buy food.  We had 10 kg of potatoes delivered to our house this morning.  There is plenty of food for sale in our neighborhood store.  One can't buy alcohol which makes me wonder about alcoholics going into withdrawal and no hospital willing to treat them.  Coronavirus cases might be dropping in Peru; we'll find out in a few more days.  This morning, we had church via internet, watching Christ Community Church's service (cccomaha.org) at 9 and then the Blumenort Community Church's service at 10:30.  Since we can't run outdoors, I've been doing sit-ups and pushups and going up and down the stairs of our 3-story home.  I've been losing weight despite not running.  All my patients are virtual now.  They either message me or call.  Mary Beth is happy to finally relax after the camp season.  Paul is bored and improving his juggling skills.  I've taken up guitar.  Mary Beth and the kids are playing piano.  I hope to get a lot of continuing medical education done too.  Mia is still doing classes online from Azusa Pacific U.  We're playing lots of board games and skyping often.  Most of my meetings are being held on Skype or Zoom.  I'm finding plenty to do!  

“For some of us, quitting work and quarantining ourselves for fear of Corona Virus is not an option.  If we don’t work, we don’t eat and we die either way,” our taxi driver (an ex-vice president of a large beer factory in Venezuela) told us last night.  We were talking about all the schools shutting down in Peru and how it seems like the economy will probably grind to a halt here during the next few weeks.  He said the Corona Virus would be extremely devastating in Venezuela if it becomes an issue there, though pretty much the only border movement is with Colombia at the moment.

Makro, the Peruvian equivalent to Costco, has been inundated with shoppers preparing for the 'siege'.  Things that Peruvians buy are toilet paper and cleaning supplies as well as food essentials such as rice, eggs and sugar.

This morning I had a two-month-old with an extra toe on his right foot.  Polydactyly, as it is called, is fairly common.  They say it happens every 500 births.  (wouldn't it be cool if 1 in 500 people were born with tails?)  If you are thinking, 'It can't be that common, I've never seen it,' it's because most parents have them removed from their babies shortly after birth.  I've seen polydactyly several times in my career. 

I saw this patient at our Dorcas Project a month ago and since this particular toe didn't have any bony or cartilaginous attachments (it did have a toe nail, which isn't visible in the picture), I told his mother we could easily take it off at our house where I have my minor surgery equipment.  One important piece of equipment I didn't have was a papoose board.  It is basically a way to restrain a baby so that one can do surgery or dental work.  So 30 minutes before the patient arrived I was drilling holes and cutting slits with a jig-saw into leftovers from last year's kitchen remodeling project. 

It worked great.  The baby has 10 toes now and was as cool as a cucumber as I cut off his extra toe!