Amanda & Adam: Day 3- Calca & Cuzco

The roads here are not fantastic & when I am riding in the back of a van with 12 people on a bumpy road I learned I get really car sick. So my new best friend has been Zofran, which helps nausea. The altitude is still giving me grief. I have had a killer head ache all day today, but we did go up to 12,000 feet and that is most likely why. I am hoping tomorrow I will be more used to it. I have never felt so out of shape than I have being here! I can be SITTING down and chatting with my friends and I start to get short of breath. Walking up stairs kind of makes me feel like I am dying.

Once again I am amazed by the beauty of this country. We had our first campaign today. A campaign is when we go out to the villages and do cervical cancer screenings, blood pressure screenings, and glucose screenings. The drive out there was just... wow. The Andes mountains are gorgeous. They don't even look real to me and I am in them!

It is such a humbling experience to be here and see how other parts of the world live. We did the campaign in one of the hospitals in Calca and also in the middle of the village where the markets are. The people who went to the markets set up a tent and did the screenings right in the square. The hospitals here are nothing like what we have in the US. First of all, they open all of the windows [& the windows have no screens], they have no fancy medical equipment, AND there was definitely a little dog roaming around the first floor. Dogs are plentiful here. On any given street you can go out and find at least 5-10 dogs roaming. It is crazy. It is kind of hard being in a country where I don't speak the language.. what so ever. I am catching on to some things, but when the women try and speak to me I really have no clue what they are saying. I can always tell how grateful they are for what we are doing for them. I just love the people here so much. They are absolutely beautiful inside and out. I met another sweet little boy outside of the hospital. He really loved getting his picture taken then seeing the picture on the screen afterwards.

the hospital we did the campaign at

little stray dog in the hospital

After we were done with the campaign we were walking around and exploring a bit and waiting for the others & I saw some missionaries down the road! I was SO excited! Tya, Christine, and I went and talked to them. Between the 3 of us and what little Spanish we know and the two missionaries and the little English they knew we were able to communicate! So neat. That is one of the things I love about my church is how no matter where you go in the world you can always find members.

When we got back from the campaign Christine, Tya, and I went and watched some locals play soccer [or futball as they call it here]. It was really fun! We cheered for both teams & had a blast!

Later in the evening we went to plaza de armas and ate dinner, which was amazing. The food here is SO good. We walked around the square for a little while and decided we were going to come back before we leave. It was beautiful. The cathedral there was just amazing. We also met a local artist & he showed us some of his paintings and Natalie, Christine, Leigh Anne & I all ended up buying them because they were so beautiful & they really captured the feel of Cuzco.