The roosters of which I spoke in a prior blog made clear they were not taking a vacation today, and so I was awakened at 4:30 am on our getaway day.  The air was cool and the sky still dark.  I went out to the common area and did a little cleanup.  Once done, since I was completely packed, I figured this was a perfect opportunity to take a walk about the village in the peaceful quiet of the morning, a luxury I had not had since we arrived with the busy training schedule.

I put on my hiking shoes, shorts, and shirt, and proceeded to coat myself in what I believed was the appropriate amount of bug spray.  Some stars were still visible while the sun began to break through clouds.  There were already villagers up and about.  Some were carrying tools, some had bags with food items, and others were simply empty-handed as was I.

While roaming, I came upon many chickens and roosters, in addition to the occasional villager, who would typically smile and usually greet me with a friendly “buenos dias”.  The only words I learned in the local language (Quechua) were those giving a morning greeting.  So as people approached, I would say “A-jee POON-cha.”  Only later did I find its true spelling (“alli puncha”), but you can see the phonetic pronunciation.  I think the fact that an obvious outsider was making the effort to converse in their regional dialect was met with a bit of surprise and always a more vigorous responsive greeting of “A-jee POON-cha” in return. 

As it turns out, the town had held a meeting the day before.  To pass any local rules, they require 100% agreement of all townspeople present.  Apparently, MIMAs’ VSI project was the topic of many discussions within the meeting.  Their consensus seemingly was that MIMAs’ initiative would be good for Angoteros and bring better medical outcomes for patients.  I am not completely sure, but I think the warm greetings and smiles by many were more demonstrative of appreciation for us being there. 

As I continued my stroll, I passed over a little rivulet where a woman was hunched over washing her pots and pans.  I looked up into the forest a little beyond and could spot a group of people washing off in the water.  Clearly something few of us ever see.  I walked on for about a mile and a half.  I have no idea how long the sidewalk, which serves as a “street” for the village, extends – but I did not have time to follow it to its end.  I wanted to be sure to return with enough time to avoid missing our transportation back to Santa Clotilde. 

When I returned to the maternity house, Brian and Leslie were still packing.  We took one last trip over to the clinic, while Leslie took care of last-minute logistics.  I headed back to Geordano and Lizabetta’s house for our last breakfast, thanking them both for their familial hospitality.  Brian joined me shortly thereafter and wolfed down an egg before hurrying back down to the clinic.  We took some last-minute pictures with the group we had trained and headed down to river.

Turns out we had no need to hurry, as our boat did not dock for another half hour.  The return trip had the feel of a school-bus run – stopping at many locations along the river, including 30 minutes for people to get off and eat at a local restaurant.  We were content enough for the first five hours.  After that we became more anxious and eager to arrive.  We expected that the trip down-river would be a little shorter than up-river, against the current – but with so many stops and starts, it turned into an eight-hour journey.  I kept telling Leslie that I heard the trip would be another 4 hours – she just rolled her eyes. The man sitting behind her laughed, as he knew I was joking.  However, I was not far from the truth.  

We arrived back in Santa Clotilde a little after 5:30 pm, and there was some food waiting for us in the guest kitchen.  We ate quickly and headed up to our rooms.  The plan was for me to go setup the capture system in the ultrasound lab while Brian trained Dr. Norberto Aramburu, the gynecologist from Spain who has been working locally in Santa Clotilde for at least a few years, on how to read the Volume Sweep Images.  Again, the internet was not working well, which led to problems downloading the cases.  I worked with Jens in the lab to get the equipment set up and had him run the protocol as a test.  All worked well so we said goodbye and headed back up to get some sleep and have everything ready for our early departure to Iquitos in the morning. 

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)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 8)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 9)
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 10)

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.