To say that this week of campaign was crazy would be a definite understatement. We started seeing patients on Friday and didn’t stop until the following Friday. Around 4:00 every morning the noise would begin to increase as people crowded outside the gate of Km 8. Stands went up too, mothers selling everything from chicken to aguaje juice to lemonade to cake. Babies were crying, most were sleeping, and everyone was waiting. Not always waiting their turn, though. When the gates were opened at 8 o’clock, you pretty much had to run out of the way as to not get stampeded. Throughout the week, though, we figured out a better system of registering. Lauren would go outside at 5 or 5:30 and get all of the names written down of the first 100 or 150 people that were there. Then we would register those who were there just for dental or just for glasses on separate lists. It was still a madhouse, though. I don’t think even the highest level of organization could have prepared us for the amount of people that came through the clinic this week.

One of the biggest happenings of the week was all of the births. On Sunday night a woman came in around 8 in full contractions. Dr. Cecilia got her birthing team ready and at 11:52 a baby girl was born. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the next morning another lady came in around 7:00. It was pouring down rain when her and her husband came up – walking. They were completely soaked and she was really far along in her contractions. About 30 minutes later a baby boy was born. This baby was named Mateo after Matt, a medical student from Dr. Matson’s team who helped in the delivery room. The really cool thing about this particular birth was that the mother never stopped smiling. Throughout the whole thing, even through all of the pain, she had a huge grin on her face.

The craziest story yet happened on Thursday. Wednesday night a woman came in having contractions. She wasn’t very far along though so Dr. Cecilia sent her to walk around and gave her some medicine to induce the labor. Nothing ended up happening though. So she was sent home to walk around some more when she was farther along. About 11 o’clock in the morning, Jonathan squeals up in Dr. Matson’s car screaming and waving his arms. “She’s having the baby! She’s having the baby in the car!” What had happened was this: Jonathan was coming back from Pucallpa and he ran into the husband and pregnant woman in a motokar on their way to the clinic – “The baby’s coming,” the husband shouted to Jonathan. “Take the baby!” Jonathan, at this point in a complete panic, pleaded with the woman to get into the car for him to take her up to where the doctors were. Through all of the horrible pain, she managed to get in the car and he drove as fast as is humanly possible on that bumpy road up to the clinic. But it was too late. The moment he pulled up, the head was coming out. Cecilia barely made it in time to catch the slippery baby as it fell out. “It was the craziest experience of my life,” Jonathan said with a sigh. “I hope that never happens again.” Although it was a bit of a traumatic experience, the mother and baby were fine.

Other than the action of the births, there were also quite a bit of surgeries performed this week. There were tumors removed, warts removed, hernia repairs, cysts removed, and much more. This was also the first week that we’ve had attention for glasses. It felt really good giving people the gift of glasses. I’ve never had any problems with my vision, but I can only imagine how horrible it would be not to be able to see. There were also a lot of really interesting cases for the medical students to figure out. It was a week of learning and of growing and being really tired.

Out in the field, work was hard and hot. “I really liked seeing people’s houses. They’re all so nice and inviting even though they have so little,” Matt, a medical student from EVMS told me. Laura, another student, told me that she had never done so much walking in her life but that she was really enjoying her interactions with the people. “Most people are really cooperative,” she said. “They want to participate in our study because they want to figure out what kind of worms they have. They want to be in better health which is what we want for them too.” Many hundreds of specimens were collected and over 7,500 doses of Albednazol were given out in Portocarrero and Nueva Amazonia.