Myself and 2 other resident physicians will be traveling to rural Pucallpa, Peru to provide medical care in partnership with our missionaries in Pucallpa as well as the local Health Department. During our time we will serve in rural field clinics accessed via riverboat, indigenous day clinics, as well as working under the guidance of Dr. Martín Paredes Pérez, serving in the local hospital and clinics.
Peruvian's in small and difficult to access communities as well as those in the greater Pucallpa area
We will be the first of hopefully many resident teams to work with this organization and continue to increase the consistency of medical care in rural areas and with indigenous populations
My time working in Pucallpa, Peru was a wonderful experience both personally and professionally. The missionary teams and church we partnered with were hospitable and eager to teach, and I was welcomed into the hospitals and people’s homes and small groups readily after my arrival. The first week we partnered with a CMDA team to do field clinics in rural villages, which allowed us to work with many indigenous people groups as well as supervise medical students at various stages in their training. One day we got to go on a river boat on the Ucayali river to a community of Shipibo people and provide school physicals and parasite medications to children in a rural village. Visits were conducted in Spanish which allowed me to grow in my medical Spanish knowledge as well, and interpreters were available to ensure patients were still cared for well during our time. The remainder of our time in Peru was spent between public hospitals in Pucallpa working with a local internal medicine doctor and Peruvian medical students on hospital rounds. We had multiple “lecture” type lessons after rounds were over, and got to take part in hospital admissions and ER workups as well. The patient-provider relationship we experienced during our time was much different than what I have experienced in much of Alabama, and I was grateful for the opportunity to grow in my leadership and expertise with that change. I was able to attend a local Peruvian Baptist church with many local missionaries and had multiple opportunities to evaluate what life could look like if I were to pursue full time missions in South America! It was a great few weeks engaging with a new culture and making new friends, and it was so encouraging to be part of a team in the field prayerfully trying to make a difference.
