Lucre

It has been raining here. A LOT. Cusco was actually declared in a state of emergency this last week due to heavy rains and flooding. You might have heard or read about 2000 tourist being evacuated from Machu Picchu by helicopter this week. You may have heard of the 7 deaths caused by this flooding, including one Argentine tourist. You may have even heard about the huge amount damage that has been done to people's homes and crops in the area. However, you probably didn't hear about the towns of Haurcupay or Lucre. These are two of the many villages in the outskirts of Cusco that have endured great damage and devistation over the past week. The village of Haurcupay was almost completely destroyed. Lucre also endured great flooding with damage to many homes, roads, and bridges.

Most of the structures in these communities are made of adobe, which you can see is no match for rushing water. The rocky area you can see in the above picture used to be a nice sidewalk; the rocks were brought in by the overflowing river (which is normally just a quiet stream to the right of the picture). Many people spoke of the hearing this usually tranquil stream sound like a freight train as it overflowed its banks.

In response to the devistation and in an effort to give the community some relief, the team at La Fuente went out to Lucre to do an all day clinic on Thursday. We were able to drive to the "plaza" of the village and then hike about 20 or 30 minutes to a more remote area that had not recieved medical assistance. Three doctors and four nurses saw and cared for over 100 patients, setting up a clinic in a community building and offering free medical care and medications to many people from the town.

hiking in

"the pharmacy"

Dr. Bill Allen seeing a pediatric patient

This is actually one of the chronic patients that I treat in the clinic. He is cared for by one of our nurses (Margarita) who lives in this village (actually, next door to the community center where we worked). I am sure it was nice for him to have us make the ~1 hour journey to see him for a change!

While the scope of this tragedy in reality pales in comparison to what has been dominating the news lately, namely Haiti, seeing the devistation and the lives that it has effected first hand was an incredibly sad, moving, and humbling experience. At one point in our day, there was a riot within the community center as people fought (not physically, but loudly nontheless!) over a few blankets and clothes that had been donated. What little these people had has been taken from them and they are very scared.

I pray for the people of these villages...that God would help them restore what has been lost, that He would give them health, safety, and a place to rest their heads. But perhaps more, I pray that He would use this tragedy to help them (and us!) learn to "store up...treasures in heaven, where moth and rust [and water] do not destroy..."

posted by Greg