Last night was interesting. As evening fell, we had noticed intermittent flashes in the distant sky, although we heard no thunder. Maybe this was heat lightening or a far-off, passing storm. We found out at 10:53pm – or at least that’s when I became aware. As mentioned previously, here in Angoteros the power goes out routinely at 10:00pm, leaving you two options. Trying to function in complete darkness, or going to sleep. I chose the latter, but could not get to sleep initially as the air was thick and clammy. You could almost feel its weight as it enters your lungs. I may have fallen asleep around 10:30 pm, but at 10:53 pm I awakened to a tremendous raging noise. It sounded almost like an angry ocean. Torrents of rain hammered down on our metal roof and those of our neighbors. After about 15 minutes, I realized I could not sleep through such furious and relentless percussion, so I pulled out my trusty green foam noise-reducing ear plugs. Once again I was very pleased I’d brought those along. Eventually I fell asleep. I am not sure why I woke again at 2:21 am, but I am very glad I did. Outside my window, there were countless fireflies darting about – well worth losing a little sleep for such a beautiful sight
In the morning I awoke before the others and decided to get in a workout in my makeshift gym. I am feeling mostly recovered from my fever the other day, and even a little exercise goes a long way to making me feel better.
As Brian, Leslie and I walked down to breakfast, we discussed our training plans for the day. The next picture show the steps leading up into our “meal house”, where shoes are left at the door. And another picture shows Leslie at the top of the steps, inside – what a different world.
We had started to realize that our hosts were being overly generous with our meal portions, and decided to politely let them know. While understanding their hospitable intentions, it is clearly over and above what their average meal would be. So, after Leslie talked with Lizabetta, Geordano’s wife (see last week’s blog) the next two meals were smaller and more in line with our normal diet. In this picture you see the breakfast plate is still large in front of Leslie – while Jens looks on. You have to love the “picture window” which is simply an opening to the outside air.
The training today began with a hands-on session. That morning we had only four students, the four who will be responsible for performing the VSI scans locally. I took two students and Brian took two. Leslie served as a floater to translate when our mixed version of communication was not working. In my training group, I had Bryan and Jens. When I was unable to communicate well in Spanish, I would typically default to Italian words, and then if that was unsuccessful, English. As a last resort, I would use hand motions. Jens said that most of the time he could understand my “Italia-Spanglish”. I was glad – I was not always certain that I understood what I was saying myself.
In the morning we trained the students on the right upper quadrant VSI protocol, and in the afternoon, we switched to the obstetrics protocol. Franciet, the doctor who will be leaving in a few months, the town’s dentist, and a few other technical people came to participate as well. For this training session, two pregnant women volunteered to be scanned. As with the morning session, we used only the transducers unattached to ultrasound systems to train everyone in the sweeps required in the protocol. At this point, our mission is to develop their consistency in the scanning motions. The next day, our plan is to connect the transducers to the ultrasound system, and the ultrasound system to the “medical box” designed by Medical Innovation Technologies…to put all of the pieces together.
My group had some characters in it, so we laughed a fair amount throughout the day. It was nice to see that they could still have fun while working hard. The training ended around 6:00 pm, and we each proceeded to our rooms to catch up on our “real world” obligations and answer the many accumulating emails. It turns out there is no internet coverage in my room – but one room over, Brian and Leslie have fairly good coverage, albeit slow. I bring my computer and/or phone over when I need to be connected online.
While walking back to the clinic after lunch, we discovered another tiendita in “town.” It shows that as the saying goes “Marketing is everything, and everything is marketing.”…even in the jungle. I think you may notice that the inside of the store looks nothing like the advertisements.
Now, here are a few pics that may not be for the faint of heart. Bugs grow enormously large in the tropics. Inevitably, their life cycle ends, and the floors are littered with many carcasses. Here are a few pics showing some of the floor mortuary exhibits – often with my finger next to the victim as a size reference. This moth is the largest I have ever seen in my life by easily a factor of four.
To change pace and get you to stop thinking of oversized vermin – here is a picture of a banana tree just outside the maternity house.
As the day winded down, we went for a quick dinner of hard-boiled eggs and a boiled plantain. The plantain prepared this way is not sweet and tastes more like a relatively bland potato.
We got back to our rooms around 8:45 pm, working hectically on our laptops during the last seventy-five minutes of electricity and internet for the day. Of course, the time is coming quickly when they’ll pull the plug on us – and our day will literally run out of power and light.
Below are hyperlinks to the prior blogs on Bringing VSI Imaging to the Amazon of Peru:
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Intro/Chapter 1)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 2)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 3)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 4)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 5)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 6)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 7)
Frank Miele, MSEE , President of Pegasus Lectures, Inc. Frank graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and engineering. While at Dartmouth, he was a Proctor Scholar and received citations for academic excellence in comparative literature, atomic physics and quantum mechanics, and real analysis. Frank was a research and design engineer and project leader, designing ultrasound equipment and electronics for more than ten years at Hewlett Packard Company. As a designer of ultrasound, he has lectured across the country to sonographers, physicians, engineers and students on myriad topics.
