The Homeless Pigeons

In the front of our land we have a house that was built in the 1980's from the first group that was here. Since the 80's six pigeons had moved into the roof where there was space in the attic area. Our job was to clean up there 2o sum year old mess. Yuck. I personally don't like attics to begin with because they are filled with spiders, ants and other surprising creatures. We climbed up in the attic and the first thing i did was step through the roof. That was rather exciting and a good lesson not to step on the roof. Across the whole roof there was anywhere from 1/2 inch to 4 inches of pigeon poop, nests, eggs (which our dog loved), dirt, and random nests of ants which was always a thrill. Within two days we got it all swept out. We threw the sacks down to the first floor and all four bags burst open all over. It was rather funny. It was Friday and the upstairs was clean so we left the downstairs mess for Sunday. Sunday we cleaned out the whole house, pigeon poop and all, and the boys put up wiring around the roof so the pigeons cant get back in. Everyday i see the pigeons sitting on the roof cooing pitifully at me because i took away their home and eggs. I almost feel a little sorry for them.

.....Bees.....

“I’m going out to the bees, does anyone want to go?” As Thomas asked I figured that I would wait until someone would speak up and the spots were filled. There are only three bee suits. One for him and two other people. David said he would go and no one else spoke up. I decided to take a plunge and face the bees even though I am not to fond of bees and especially their stings. I figured it would be an interesting experience to get an up close view of such intricate little insects. I got all suited up and off we went. We visited the first hive which hasn’t been moved yet and it was a little nerve racking. It took me a little while to get used to the thought that the bees couldn’t actually sting me through the suit. They kept hitting the netting around my face and stinging my gloves. I was a little flustered at first but then I remembered that the more you move and get scared, the more they like to sting you. That was a calming thought and I pretty much stood there still and motionless hoping that they would go bother the boys instead of me. Thomas finished up with the first hive, checking their progress, making sure they are going in a positive direction and we moved onto the hives further back in the jungle. There were about twenty hives and Thomas went from one to one looking for queens and checking the honey progress. He showed us a new hatching bee, pollen in the little holes, bad hives that still need work, and the good hives that are on their way to a successful future. It was truly an amazing experience and not only did I become more comfortable with the bees (in the bee suit), I had fun getting up close shots of the bees and Thomas at work. It reminded me a lot of my grandfathers old hives and it was amazing to see such talent that goes into working with bees.

The Angry Bull

People were running trampling others as they push themselves into our clinic rooms. I had no idea what was going on. I heard the people talking very rapidly saying somethin, somethin, somethin, toro. Then it hit me what they were saying. I hopped up on a seat and there it was. A huge bull that was not looking like it was having the happiest day. It was striking the ground and if smoke could come out of its ears it would have. It was directly in front of the school where I clinic site was and looked like it was getting ready to charge, hence, the swamp of people that piled into our rooms. A truck rounded the corner with a guy in the back and they were getting ready to rope the bull. This did not seem like a very bright idea because how well can a guy in a truck hold back a fierce bull? He went on doing the cowboy over the head swing as the bull was running towards the truck and just before it hit it viered of and ran down the road. The man with the rope misses, thank goodness, and our clinic went on. There was talk about the bull in the field below but it never bothered us again. This was an exciting and rememberable clinic experience.

The clinic that we did this week was always within aroun 20 minutes of km.38 so we stayed at home and headed out to our clinic every morning. After loading our pharmacy, glasses, and dental equipment, we were pretty full. Our bigest number was eleven and we all managed to fit. Don't worry we went moderatly slow.


On one of our slower days when we had a little extra time, tara and i started to learn how to give an IV. We went through all the steps of safety and putting it all together then it came down to practicing. Jenni lended me her hand which i stuck three times and then Dr came up with a bright idea to connect an IV tube to her arm and then we could poke that and get the feel of it. I will still be practicing more within these upcoming weeks before i poke a patient.

This was a really cute kid that was hanging around for three days. He would let me pick him up, turn him upside down, put his hat funny ways and pretty much have fun. He was so cute and always put a smile on my face.

More Pictures from the Trip

Night time in Cusco.

Matchu Picchu


We camped out on the top of Isla del Sol in Bolivia. There was water on both side of us with the sunrise on one side and the sunset on the other. It was really cold so me made a fire out of the Eucaliptis branches and leaves that surrounded us.

Random shots throughout our tirp.

This was on Isla de Taquile. A pretty little island two hours from the floating islands or 2 and a half hours from Puno.

Christmas in Puno

Christmas in Puno was a little different than traditional. We had been out on the floating islands all day and came back to our little hostel changed and went out for an expensive meal of 10 soles. We went to a cute little stone oven baked pizza place and ordered pizza and a lemonade. We were so excited to get our lemonade. A lady from behind us turned around and asked us what we were drinking. Thinking that she didn't know what the Spanish names for everything on the menu politely told her,"It's lemonade. They make it out of these cute little small lemons so it tastes sweet." She then goes on and asks if it has alcohol. She said that we were acting to happy that it had to have something in it. We said to and went on with our meal. You don't need alcohol to appreciate and love the little things in life. We ate our amazing pizza then sang hymn in our little hostel room. And that was our Christmas day.

Up Up and Up

This was how it felt the first day. We just kept on going up. We started out on our hike to Matchu Picchu from Santa Maria. It was a nice dirt road that had a good incline. Then we broke off into the trail. From there on out I and the rest of the gang was tierd. We walked up a mountain rising a few thousand feet and the went down the mountain. We had decided that we didn't need a guide so doing it by ourselves was an adventure. Thankfully we were inbetween two tours so if we were to get lost there would atleast be people around us. The hike up was tiering but once we got to the top it was amazing. You could see the vally and the tracks that we had come from just a few hours ago at the bottom of the valley. It was truly amazing. We were surrounded by rivers and mountains that were covered with pluch green trees. As we were hiking down we had the cliff on one side of us and the mountain right by our arm. It was a thrilling experience to be surrounded by so beautiful tracks and to have such a derastic incline. The day after we finished our hike to aguas caliente on which is the base of Matchu Picchu. We were excited to finally stay in a hostel after not showering or sleeping in a bed for the last two nights. The next morning we hiked up to Matchu Picchu. It rained all the way up and as we got to the top it stoped raining. We went in without a guide and followed the signs to Matchu Picchu Mountain and hoped that we were going in the right direction. We hiked again. Up up and up. We saw people that tured around because they said the trail went no where. We decided that it was a trial and that it had to go somewhere. We kept on going up the trail into the fog. The fog cleared and we saw that the trail went along the mountain for miles. We sat down on a rock hoping that the fog would clear and that we could see our surroundings. As we started having our morning worship together and started singing, the fog cleared and we could see what was before us. Matchu Picchu. The ruins and the Mt. that we thought we were climging was right below us. The sight was amazing. We were surrounded by three mountains and the fourth one that usually was surrounding us we were on. We hiked down after taking many pictures and enjoying the view. We walked around the ruins then headed down the mountain and it started raining again. Ha. Funny. Although the hike was exausting and sometimes we wanted to stop, we were all to stubborn to quit and kept on going. We made it to Matchu Picchu and now have amazing new memories and pictures of our treck.