Happy holidays!

The holidays here are a lot like they are at home. Lots of food, drink, and merriment. To my surprise, pavo (turkey) is as traditional here as it is in North America during the holidays. Vanessa and Carmen, two of the nurses here, prepared a turkey feast Christmas Eve for the gang. Stuffing and all, the only difference was that it was prepared with a spicy sauce made from chili peppers. And of course, Peruvian 'champagne' was served.

Vanessa and Carmen getting the turkey ready

Carmen carving the turkey

The first plate of many - at the bottom is a spicy mayo - like Quebecers, people in Peru eat mayo with everything!

After dinner it was time for the big Christmas event at the hospital. 300 children from the pueblo came up for mass, followed by special treats to be given by none other than Santa Claus himself (well, actually, it was me). Luckily it wasn't too hot that night, but that's not saying much. I was sweating bullets in that costume! I was very thankful for the cold showers when it was all over with. Handing out candy to 300 kids takes a long time!

Santa, in the flesh - what you don't see here is the large, and very hot, beard I wore for 2 hours

Christmas day was spent hanging out with the gang, cooling off from the heat with cold beer by the river. It was remarkably sunny and beautiful that day - check out the view:

Interesting medical cases this week:

This little girl was pushed from a tree onto a Chambira plant (used to make all kinds of things in this area), whose long spines pierced the skin of her back. She came in with respiratory difficulty. There was no evidence of a pneumothorax, but she had a segment of rib that moved in and out with her breath - sign of a rib fracture.

This is Karl Lewis - for 2 weeks he had been experiencing progressive swelling of his entire body. He had been admitted for almost 2 weeks a few months ago with a nephrotic syndrome (excessive loss of protein in the urine, reducing oncotic pressure in the vasculature leading to widespread edema). Unfortunately he had not come in for his follow-up appointment, and therefore did not complete his full course of oral steroid therapy. 

That's all for now. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I'll be cooking Italian for the group. I hope everyone is having a healthy and happy holiday season. Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to post more updates soon!