Ayacucho Mission: Stories from the Field: A Circus, a Loudspeaker and El Gobernador: Our First Day in Quinua

Our first day found us in Quinua, Peru--an important historic and cultural site famous for its ceramic figurines, battle site memorial and rich Quechua heritage. At nearly 11,000 feet above sea level, the city and its surrounding communities have very limited health infrastructure for its 6,000 residents. It was a perfect place to start.

Working closely with the Quinua-based community health center, Asociacion VIDAS, our small mobile team treated nearly 100 medical and dental patients, and identified a number of surgical cases to bring to Ayacucho Regional Hospital to treat the following week.

Realizing that the patients requiring orthopedic surgery may not be able to travel to the clinic, we turned to Braulio Huaman, the town's Gobernador for ideas to reach the people. He offered to drive around town in a mototaxi (imagine a rickshaw fused with a scooter) inviting individuals with fractures and other injuries to contact our group through the loudspeaker attached to the roof. We loved the plan, but were disappointed to find out the town's loudspeaker was broken. Never discouraged, the Gobernador came up with his second great idea: Let's walk across the way to the traveling circus that had just come to town and ask to borrow theirs.

To our pleasant surprise, not only were the circus folk (a very nice family) happy to carry their speaker down from the big top and mount it to a mototaxi, but we found our first orthopedic surgery case--a trapeeze artist who had broken her leg in a recent show. In no time, the Gobernador was rolling through town, getting the word out about the available services. It never fails to amaze how many new ways we learn to work together.