Saving Mothers and Newborns, the Peruvian Winter, and Ancient Artifacts at the Larco Museum

2 July 2017

Helping Mothers and Newborns Survive

Many poor regions of Peru experience high numbers of newborn and maternal deaths after delivery. However, simple techniques, with proper training, can make a huge difference in survival rates.

We just started work planning two courses ("Helping Babies Breathe" and "Helping Mothers Survive") to turn around this sad situation in regions with lots of these deaths. About 10 percent of newborns worldwide cannot breathe when they are born. Without intervention, they die. Also, hemorrhaging after giving birth kills many women in remote areas. These training courses teach techniques that can be used anywhere to save lives.

LDS Charities sponsors training courses in targeted regions with high mortality rates. We also provide the funding for materials and doctors to teach the courses. A team of US doctors will be coming to Peru to present both courses in two different cities up north. Peruvian doctors will assist, and we get to help carry out the courses.

Course participants practice techniques on mannequins with ventilators for the "Helping Babies Breathe" course. They then take these materials with them to train others in helping newborns to survive.

We started planning with the doctors this week. We will serve as in-country support to coordinate transportation & lodging, shipping the course materials, setting up the buildings for the courses (typically our church houses), and other logistical details during the courses.

Teleconference planning session with the Peruvian physicians (left, Dr. Alvarado and Dr. Paredes), the US team (Dr. Zollinger and his wife), and us.

This course will be presented to 50 doctors, nurses, and midwives in each of the two cities (Trujillo and Cajamarca). These cities are capitals of the regions that have seen the highest newborn and maternal death rates this year. The participants take what they learn in the courses and then teach others in their hospitals and clinics when they return home. 

At the teleconference to plan the courses for 'Helping Babies Breathe" and "Helping Mothers Survive":
Sandy, Dr. Alvarado and Dr. Paredes

These course have been presented several times over the years in other areas of Peru and have improved survival rates for both mothers and their newborns in these poor regions.

Now that we have completed this initial session, we have a few months to take care of the course details and make sure the training takes place without a hitch.

Here is a link to a short video testimonial about the "Helping Babies Breathe" portion of the course.
 

     https://www.ldscharities.org/videos/susan-niermeyerhelping-babies-breathe-testimonial

Winter in Lima

We are now in the middle of winter in South America. You would think temperatures here are unbearably cold, given the number of people on the streets wearing parkas and neck scarves. However, temperatures are in the 60s night and day - it is just cold for the locals who grew up with the hot and steamy Lima summers.

Fog hangs in the air almost every day now - it is rare to see the sun. When things clear up, it is usually quite hazy, like living in a cloud. We aren't complaining. This is a real relief from how hot things were just a few months back.

Lima in the winter - the fog lifted on the coast this weekend, but it remains very hazy at best. 

The cooler temperatures have made the plants here in Lima happy. Everything seems to be in bloom now that it is winter.

Everything is in bloom now that we have cool winter weather.

Plants in bloom at the Larco Museum.

What's for Dinner?

A favorite food in the Peruvian Andes is cuy (or 'guinea pig' in English). Cuy have been raised for millennia in the Andes as a staple food and is prepared on special occasions like Christmas.

The Peruvians we talk to think it is funny that Americans keep guinea pigs as pets - they are never pets down here. Rather, they are raised at home as a good source of protein.

In markets you often find cuy for sale to take home and eat. Here is a shot in a Lima market this week of a bunch of guinea pigs for sale right next to a cage full of live chickens.

Guinea pigs for sale as food, not pets, in Lima

They call them cuy because that is the sound they make: cuy, cuy, cuy, cuy!

Restaurants in the Andes Mountains serve cuy as a menu item (although we haven't found them on the menu yet here in Lima).

I took this shot in Ecuador a few years back of roasted cuy at a street-market as a take-home item.

Cuy (guinea pig) on the grill

We ate cuy a few years ago when we were here in Peru on vacation.  I don't think I will ever eat rodent again. It was just too sad to be eating the thing while it stared at me with its little eyes, as though it were saying "Why would you eat me?"

Journey to the Larco Museum

On Saturday, our day off, we took the cross-town bus to visit the Larco Museum, a fabulous museum containing the largest collection of pre-Columbian artifacts in Peru.

The Larco Museum is housed in a mansion built for a Spanish viceroy in the 1700s.

The Larco Museum contains 45,000 relics! Most of these were gathered by grave-robbers who sold them to collectors in the days before strict laws slowed down the black market in antiquities. Most of the Larco collection was put together in the 1920s when there were no official museums in the country, only private collectors who bought everything that the grave-robbers could gather.

Gold and silver head dresses, collars, earrings and jewels fill an entire section at the Larco Museum.

Golden head dress and collar worn by a king of the Mochi culture.

Gold crowns recovered from burials in northern Peru.

Ceramics make up the vast amount of items at the Larco Museum. They come in all shapes and sizes. Most were vessels and were buried along with the dead.

Life-like Mochi ceramic vessel.

Ceramics from many northern cultures, pre-dating the Inca by more than a thousand years.

Ceremonial vessel - looks like a party!

Huari, Mochi, Nasca, and many other cultures made ceramics in a host of styles. Most of the artifacts were made between 400 to 1500 AD.

Ceramics in every color of the rainbow.

Image of a person playing the 'Quena' flute, an instrument still played throughout the Andes.

Ceramic heads so realistic they almost looked alive.

The museum included some mummies. This one is a mummy bundle wrapping up a child. 

Mummy bundle with gold mask wrapping up the remains of a child.

Only 5 percent of the artifacts are on display inside the museum proper - the rest of the 45,000 artifacts are in storage vaults. The Larco Museum allows guests to actually view the tens of thousands of artifacts in the vaults.

Storage vaults filled with thousands of ceramic artifacts.

More relics and artifacts than the mind can absorb - a collection gone mad! 

Grave-robbers plundered all of the main sights in Peru to sell these items to willing collectors. Rafael Larco Hoyle and his father started this collection by purchasing other large collections over the years until they had amassed the numbers of relics they have today. 

Orb, half gold and half silver, symbolizing the sun and the moon.

Biking around Lima

Our offices were closed for the St. Peter and St. Paul Day national holiday, so we made the best of the day off by renting bikes.

Cool temperatures and a free day are a perfect excuse to bike around Lima.

A guy named Beto owns a bike shop in the Miraflores district. He knows we are humanitarian missionaries, so he always gives us a good deal on rentals. He rented us the bikes this week for $8 total ($4 each). We tell him we don't want to steal from him, but he just laughs.

Beto and his bike shop. He gives us a break on rentals because we do humanitarian work.

Lima has bike lanes down the middle of tree-lined streets and along the coast. We usually end up biking about 10 miles whenever we get the chance. Unfortunately, from where we live on the other side of Lima, biking is out of the question due to lack of safe places to ride.

Tree-line bike path in Lima - down the middle of busy city streets.

And so the adventures continue as we return to our offices tomorrow to coordinate the many projects we currently have in work. We love the variety of things we get to do on this humanitarian mission, and we count ourselves fortunate to be here doing what we are doing.