We were rejected. Again.
Late last evening the obstetra from Curahuasi called and said she couldn’t give the documents after all because we live in a different jurisdiction. She said they would help us in Izcuchaca.
So back to the Centro de Salud in Izcuchaca. Rafael was along again. I lost track of how many people we talked to there. They also called people in Cusco, Curahuasi, and Compone. No help.
They said we must come to the hospital within the first week. That’s good to know for the future, but what about now? As the one lady so aptly put it, “Ese no es mi problema. Es suyo.”
That’s not my problem. It’s yours.
Thankfully, Rafael was along and talked them down to giving us a solution. After many phone calls, it was decided that we must get letters of testimony from our neighbors that Steph was pregnant, is pregnant no more, and had a baby at our house. Those letters must be signed by the president of the community.
Then and only then will they give us the documents.
So I set about gathering the documents. Beulah was a big help tracking down the president of the community. We now know his name and the name of the place where he lives. But we don’t have a number, and no one knows how to get to his house. Talk about security.
Steph and Jolynn went to visit Alicia. I went along to get a testigo from Alicia. Upon arriving, we found out that Alicia’s cow was in labor and had been for awhile. She wanted me to look at it.
Turns out the calf was a large bull calf that was breach. The cow was tired from pushing so long. So I set to work pulling the calf. Jolynn pitched in and was a great help.
The cow was trying to push a large sack of fluid out that kept getting in the way. I discovered it was a twin that had died early on, but the fluid had built up anyway. That huge sack of fluid blocked the other calf from getting out.
Despite our valiant efforts, the calf died. It tried to live, but it had breathed too much fluid and drowned. Still, Alicia was grateful we had saved her cow. She gave us the calf as a gift. With her help, we bagged it up in a sack, hailed a combi, and took it home to butcher.
I had to carry the thing on my back in from the road through the fields–the cost of not having our own vehicle. A hundred pounds is heavy anytime, but after hauling it on your back for half a kilometer, it’s HEAVY.
Jolynn needed to make supper for guests coming later, so Steph and I butchered the thing ourselves while watching as many children as we could. We weren’t done at dark, so Steph went in to help with supper, while I finished in the dark and the cold alone.
Rafael called in the meantime and said the obstetra from Curahuasi called again and said she has our paperwork finished. What about the letters from the neighbors and the president? Oh, she says she didn’t really need them.
Supposedly, I can go pick up the paperwork tomorrow. My head and back and heart hurt enough right now that I’m not going to get excited about tomorrow until it’s over.
Juan David 