First Day at Loayza

So on Monday when I met with "La Presidenta" of the volunteer association, she had talked about me possibly being with a volunteer in the Emergency Room, which I was looking forward to. I think, from what I gathered, she was not there that day, so I ended up helping with the snack cart.

If you're raising an eyebrow let me explain. The hospital is OLD! Unlike most American hospitals, it doesn't have a cafeteria. Remember when I was saying the street outside the hospital was crowded with food vendors? Gabi was telling me later it's because people come from so far to get healthcare there, they have nothing to eat. It's not just for patients, but also for doctors and nurses.

All the volunteers wear these white little dresses that look like nurses, but they're not. This snack cart they sell coffee, tea, hot chocolate, sandwiches, empanadas, and pieces of cake. One of the volunteers goes to a bakery and picks it all up and brings it.

First you need to know, all these volunteers are little old ladies EASILY over the age of 50, if not 60. The morning started with filling up thermos bottles with hot water and coffee, and loading up the cart downstairs. The volunteers, or Damas as they are called, were pleased to find out I understood Spanish. If only you could have heard them. About every 5 minutes, "Raquelita! Mas cucharitas! Raquelita! Mas agua caliente! Raquelita! Mas vasos!"

Of course all of the supplies were upstairs. I got my fair share of exercise that day as I lost count of how many times I ran upstairs to get more hot water, napkins, coffee, etc. They saw though that I caught on quickly and was willing to do what they said. As always, I explained to them why I wanted to be a volunteer.

About halfway through the morning, one of the volunteers looked at me and said, "Why are you hanging around the snack cart! You need to be in the hospital with the nurses learning the medical vocab." So she grabbed me and took me to the building next door to talk with a staff member. She went to this woman and said, "Who do I need to talk to about her working with the nurses?" The woman gave the name of someone who sounded like the head of nursing for the entire hospital.

So then this volunteer marches me down to that building and asks to speak to the head of nursing. She was busy, but her assistant was there. So they get into this conversation where she basically asks the woman why can't I work with the nurses? The woman thought I actually wanted to work and went off on what a responsibility it was, etc. And the volunteer said, "No, she doesn't want to do nursing work, she needs to be around the nurses and hear what they are saying."

Friends, this is when it comes to a point I say I don't understand the system, I just accept it as it is. This is what she said needed to happen. The president of the volunteer association would need to present to the head of nursing of me being able to be with the nurses.

So the volunteer marched me back to the volunteer building and spoke to "La Presidenta," Nelvita (the one who looks like mother Teresa). Nelvita smiled, said, "Sure" and put it on her to do list for next week. Even then, that doesn't guarantee it will happen.

After all the goodies on the snack cart were gone and we were closing up shop (about 1 pm) one of the volunteers pulled me upstairs. I needed to fill out a volunteer application. Theses ladies basically sat me down and told me what to write. It was stuff like, "Why do you want to be a volunteer," "What qualities do you have to offer?" and at the end it asked, "Who referred you." At that point the ladies were a little concerned about trying to come up with who referred me. They needed SOMEONE to say they had vouched for my character. I was confused at this point and the ladies explained something to me.

See here is why volunteering is so complicated in Peru. First off, say you had some medications you ended up not using. You can donate them to the hospital and give them to people that don't have money. Who runs this quasi pharmacy? The volunteers. Yup. My mother was floored when she found that out. These people are not nurses, pharmacy, techs, nothing.

And it's true. All three Peruvian hospitals I've visited (not private clinics which are like American hospitals) there was a ton of drugs in the volunteer department.

So you can't just have anybody be a volunteer. When I asked one of the damas why I needed a referral she said there have been volunteers that want to do bad things. I can see why now. Who knows the street value you could get off of some of those drugs. I wanted to ask if they dealt with narcotics, but my language skills weren't up to par for that. I can see now Nelvita was taking a risk on me.

I was telling Gabi about it later and she said it's true. Her mom was a volunteer once and I guess the organization was having a fundraiser. Another volunteer took 10 raffle tickets for herself and claimed she had "lost" them. So sad. Goes with what I'm learning here. Peruvians will trust a foreigner more than another Peruvian.

Oh well. Inside or outside the hospital I enjoyed myself and will be back next week. On my way out as I left one of the guards at the gate saw me and said, "You're one of the volunteers aren't you?" This is at a gate where hundreds and hundreds of people come in and out all day.

Guess I keep forgetting I'm a foreigner. That, or just a memorable person.