Amazonas Clinics- April 2010

Overall, we saw about 200 patients a day between the 4 of us. We'd go to two villages a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, scavenging both the Solimoes and Rio Negro for patients who could use our help or just wanted to talk. We mainly saw worms and hypertension. Hopefully some our education both individually and in our planned sessions will leave a longer lasting impact. The trip was a good opportunity to reflect on my future plans and to really help, I'd need to have a longer presence, gain the trust of the locals, and more importantly get local time and talent investment to make a sustainable impact. We saw some cool stuff though, including this guy who got attacked by a caiman 20 years ago. Wow. Maybe shouldn't have been playing with one the night before.

Education at San Francisco Village- April 21, 2010

We spent the full day in San Francisco village today. In the morning, we gave an educational session to health workers and interested villagers on topics ranging from triaging adult problems to breast feeding. In the afternoon, we ran our more typical clinic in the school.

Caiman wrestling- April 20, 2010

So caimans are related to alligators. As in they eat fish and potentially people. So when we decided to go on Bagoge's boat in the starlit night trying to find a caiman, I was really excited. I thought we'd just shine a light at it and take pictures like on my previous Amazon trip, but in fact Milton freaked us all out diving into the water after a caiman which luckily scittered away before Tiago caught one which managed to bite him before getting reeled into the boat.

First day of clinics: Pacamundo and Vinado Januaca - April 20, 2010

Our first day of clinic was long and hot. We woke with the sunrise at 0600 and worked well beyond sunset, the oppressive heat and humidity not diminishing much with the sun. While exhausting, we saw over 200 pts b/n the 5 of us for the day between the 2 village clinics. Lots of worms and tinea. Pretty good day.

The Amazon: Sleeping in a Hammock- April 19, 2010

The gentle rocking, sounds of the jungle, and waking up to a gorgeous sunrise over the wide Amazon is pretty nice.

The Discovery and the Amazon- April 20, 2010

Our first day on the boat, The Discovery, was certainly a day of discovery. We cruised past the Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro and the Solomois run side-by-side for a mile before finally mixing (amazing), saw our first boa constrictor, and had our first of many delicious meals on the boat.

Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil- April 17-19, 2010

Our first couple days in Manaus, we really just had to acclimate to the humidity and heat. It´s the port city for the Amazon and not much more, but it has air conditioning and was a good place for us to get our supplies in order, buy our hammocks, and get used to drinking tons of water. It might have been more fun if we had our luggage and weren´t subjecting the Brazilians to our same grungy clothes and shampoo-less selves the whole time. The Opera House his amazing as our some of the other older buildings which are relics of the rubber-boom times. The market was also a ton of fun- bustling vendors rhythmically throwing banana bunches and chopping up giant fish.