{"id":2582,"date":"2023-06-05T19:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T00:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2023-08-15T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T18:09:16","slug":"bringing-vsi-imaging-to-the-amazon-of-peru-chapter-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/06\/05\/bringing-vsi-imaging-to-the-amazon-of-peru-chapter-6\/","title":{"rendered":"BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 6)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>My first night in Santa Clotilde<\/a>, fighting a fever while acclimating to 90\u00ba F climate and 90% humidity, was restless.\u00a0 However, I felt infinitely better the next morning \u2013 so I took that as a win.\u00a0 Our hosts had prepared breakfast especially for us \u2013 although, apologizing profusely, I opted not eat as I was still not feeling that great.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Thereafter, we headed down to the dock. I have included a few pictures to show the local character of construction. Santa Clotilde<\/a> is a very small community, with a population slightly above 1,800, while the village of Angoteros<\/a>, our destination, has less than 800 people.\u00a0 At the river\u2019s edge, we loaded into a \u201cchalupa.\u201d\u00a0 Now I know most of you are used to hearing chalupa as a food you eat and from the Taco Bell commercial about \u201cdropping the chalupa\u201d<\/a> \u2013 but this chalupa is a narrow boat used for transportation.\u00a0 The boat was purchased by the Diocese<\/a> for transporting patients and personnel between the clinics and el Centro de Salud Santa Clotilde (CSSC)<\/a>.\u00a0 This represented a much better means of transportation than yesterday.\u00a0 I was relieved to see that my seat was anchored to the boat this time.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Besides Brian<\/a>, Leslie<\/a>, and myself, joining us were Jens (pronounced similar to James), Bryan, and Frank.\u00a0 At first you would have to think that they were joking when they said their names \u2013 thinking perhaps they were just repeating ours.\u00a0 As it turns out, we had two Brian\u2019s (spelled differently but pronounced the same) and two Frank\u2019s in the boat.\u00a0 The ride was uneventful, but very long.\u00a0 I took out my laptop and rigged up my small suitcase into a desk on which to write.\u00a0 Gabriela, and Leslie<\/a> also worked on their laptops, while Brian<\/a> completed a CME activity<\/a> on paper.\u00a0 During the trip, Gabriela<\/a>, Jens, and Bryan took advantage of the extra space to spread out and take short naps. What was truly amazing is that we only passed one other boat the entire time and saw only a handful of people over the 7 hour journey.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Angoteros<\/a>, we walked over to the parish house<\/a>.\u00a0 From the main sidewalk (there are no streets here) we took a branching pathway up to a long set of stairs, then down another set of wooden stairs toward the direction of the river.\u00a0 When we reached the house, there was the coolest set of stairs I\u2019ve ever seen \u2013 hewn from a single log.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

The parish house<\/a> is run by Dommi (short for Dominique, I believe).\u00a0 Dommi, like Gabriela<\/a>, is a missionary lay person from Poland<\/a>.\u00a0 Remarkably, she has been in Peru for over forty years.\u00a0 She was effusive in her greeting \u2013 with a bubbly personality.\u00a0 Simply meeting her made it immediately evident that she is happy in her life and at peace in every moment.\u00a0 I am so impressed with people who can devote their entire lives to work improving the lives of others \u2013 truly inspirational.<\/p>\n

Staying with her for a short period is young man named Baptiste (pronounce with a silent \u201cp\u201d and silent final \u201ce\u201d) from Belgium.\u00a0 He is volunteering for missionary work, as he put it, \u201cas an obligation for everyone in his family once they finish college.\u201d\u00a0 Baptiste is very loquacious so I had to laugh when he said he spent three months within an order of monks who practice silence.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Baptiste roasted chicken over an open fire pit in the house.\u00a0 This is an extravagant meal for this part of the jungle \u2013 and clearly was intended as welcoming hospitality for us after a long journey.\u00a0 Along with the roasted chicken, we had white rice and soda.\u00a0 At the end of our meal, Dommi announced that she had made a chocolate cake from cacao and introduced it to the table with great fanfare.\u00a0 She asked whose birthday was closest and then immediately broke into singing a version of \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d of which I caught only the second verse on video.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Gabriela<\/a> brought us to the maternity house where we would be staying and performing the training.\u00a0 On the way over I looked to the distance and saw a rainbow \u2013 perhaps this is a sign for us. At the very least is was a reward for braving the humidity.<\/p>\n

The Maternity house is built as a birthing center which allows a place to stay during the process for mothers and family.\u00a0 There are three bedrooms and a \u201cdelivery room\u201d.\u00a0 Each room has a bathroom and shower \u2013 so this solves the issue of where we could stay, given that hotels do not exist in this rural community.\u00a0 I have included a picture of my room \u2013 with the only windows pointing into a courtyard part of the building.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

About 8:00 PM, Gabriela<\/a> called us over to the health clinic to meet with staff.\u00a0 We met too many people to recall all the names \u2013 but it was amazing to see the dedication of their team, willing to attend so late at night after beginning work at 7:00 AM.\u00a0 Gabriela, said farewell as early in the morning she was traveling further north up the Rio Napo<\/a> to visit other clinics.\u00a0 She will ultimately be only an hour or so, by river, from the Ecuadorian border.<\/p>\n

The power will soon be going out (only runs from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm).\u00a0 So time to get things in order and ready for bed.\u00a0 More to come.\u00a0 Thanks, as always, for sharing my journey.<\/p>\n

Below are hyperlinks to the prior blogs on Bringing VSI Imaging to the Amazon of Peru:<\/p>\n


BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Intro\/Chapter 1)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 2)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 3)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 4)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
BRINGING VSI IMAGING to the AMAZON of PERU (Chapter 5)<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
<\/u><\/p>\n

Frank Miele, MSEE , President of Pegasus Lectures, Inc.<\/a> Frank graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College<\/a> 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<\/a>. As a designer of ultrasound, he has lectured across the country to sonographers, physicians, engineers and students on myriad topics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first night in Santa Clotilde, fighting a fever while acclimating to 90\u00ba F climate and 90% humidity, was restless.\u00a0 However, I felt infinitely better the next morning \u2013 so I took that as a win.\u00a0 Our hosts had prepared … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2729,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pegasuslectures.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}