Day Six A tale of two cities (worlds)

Before I start my post today I want to take time out to mention my wife Maureen. Although this is my blog, I want to comment on the work she's been doing in the pharmacy. All week she's been working in the pharmacy helping to count and sort pills for the prescriptions that the doctors are writing. It's probably the busiest place in our clinic. And the last to finish at the end of the day. She never stops. When we get back and others are relaxing, she helps to sort the drugs for the nexts days work.

Yesterday four of us, Mike, Milly, Brother Lupe and I split off from the rest of the group to head into downtown Lima. We got up at 4:30 to leave early to make the 7:30 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lima Sunrise. With traffic, it takes about an hour and a half to get there.

When we got to downtown Lima I was a little shocked by what I saw. I had been use to seeing rural areas and a lot of poverty. Downtown Lima is a typical large city with tall office buildings, clean sidewalks and many cafes and restaurants. It seems like a very nice city, but worlds away from the conditions we've been experiencing all week. I commented to Mike that even the buses are different. In the area we've been, people are crammed like sardines with people trying to get somewhere to work. Perhaps in a restaurant or on a construction site. In Lima, buses were half empty, people sitting down sipping a cup of coffee listening to music on their I phones.

We got a little lost finding our way to the Phoenix club where the Rotary club meets. We made it on time though. The Phoenix club founded in 1876, looks to be very exclusive. We rang the doorbell and a man in uniform greeted us. He directed us to a set of couches to wait. Shortly Hans, president of the Rotary club came out to greet us. He showed us to a back dining room. What a difference between where we've been use to eating! They had a nice buffet with eggs, sausage, melon toast and great coffee (I'd been missing that all week). This Rotary club is the only English speaking club in Lima ( thank God I didn't have to test my shaky Spanish). Their club is only 10 members, smaller than mine. There were only two of the members present as most of the others were travelling.

We had a nice breakfast and talked about common challenges in trying to get our respective projects funded. I told them that we are trying to partner with a local club to help coordinate our missions to Lima better. They seemed receptive. After thanking them for breakfast, we headed off to our days work at the Casa de Hogar senior center. Here again another contrast. Unlike the dirt and cement sites we've been working in, this was a large clean building with a professional staff. We hurried to setup and get started. I was located in a nice private quiet office. They lined the people outside in chairs and gave them each a number to wait their turn. A manager had to continually keep people from cutting the line. Finally, I was able to do the work I came down here to do! The people were great. They had to wait a long time to see me. I'm use to my automated audiometer in my office. I was tedious manually inputing data into the computer to program the aids. I tested nineteen people and fit twelve hearing aids. Everyone was grateful to be able to hear again. It was a long day. We closed the place down at seven. I couldn't get to everyone. I'm  hoping to go back on Saturday. It's our day off but I still have people to see and hearing aids to fit. We arrived back at our house at 9:00 tired but satisfied with what we accomplished.

Today we break camp here and head into Lima after working at the clinic that the sisters have built in Chosica.

And so it

goes