Amazon jungle and yucca beer. 35 patients an hour. 11 hour days. Welcome to Huampami

Taiwan Root was welcomed to Huampami with a meal of boiled yucca and plantain, and a chunk of wild pig. A traditional welcome ceremony of the Aguaruna, the meat of the wild pig is offered to all guests and is considered a specialty. The pig was killed shortly before the doctors’ arrival, and was so fresh that shotgun pellets could still be found in some servings. After the ceremony the Root met with local leaders and then headed back to the village’s giant tool shop to set up what would be their home for the next five days. The ‘kitchen’ was outside and the portable stove that was purchased in Bagua during a brief stopover was immediately fired up. A team of kitchen volunteers set out into town, buying five chickens, some yucca, two dozen eggs, and vegetables. The rest went to check out the local hospital.
A Peruvian doctor and nurse who choose to move from the more developed parts of Peru to the Amazon staffed the “Centro de Salud – Huampami”. They had only the barest of medical supplies and were both trained as general practitioners, specialty care does not exist in Huampami. The Root was going to swamped with patients. After a few days wait the medicine arrived from Lima and the 32, 70lb crates were unloaded and carried through the mud to the “Centro de Salud”. Within a couple hours Taiwan Root created their own makeshift hospital. Triage was near the door. After waiting for their number to be called, patients told the Spanish-Chinese translators their ailments, names, age, sex, marital status, and number of children. Weight, temperature, and blood pressure were then taken and based on their medical needs were taken to different rooms. Dentistry, gynecology, internal medicine, external medicine, and pediatrics were all represented. A fully stocked pharmacy was set up near the window so patients could easily pick up their prescriptions. A two-way radio in the Centro de salud was the only means of communication with world outside of the village. In order for the Root doctors to coordinate the delivery of extra medical supplies from Lima, they first had to use the small short wave radio to contact the authorities down river in Imaza, who then made the call to Lima. Coordination in the Amazon takes a little finesse.