Day 240 26/2/12 Well enough to shop

Sun 26th
Today Mike was fine again, happy and playing and grumpy too. Rocio took him into the city to go shopping with her and cousin Rosario. I was worried about this but it was all fine. Michael slept mostly, not in a weakened feverish was but just because he is so happy in the manta these days. Rocio came home with a baby bath for Michael and a new bizarre cushion in the shape of a heart or perhaps a poodle it’s hard to tell. Michael continues to eat well and be alert and have a lot of energy. We truly hope he stays well this time, everything is looking good so far but he has seemed well and got ill again before, so we are holding on until we see a few days of no fever or diarrhoea to be really sure he is well.



Michael has always been a clever boy and it didn’t take him long to work out that when we give him spoons full of liquid these days there’s a fair chance that it’s nasty tasting medicine. We have learnt that the best way to get round this is to mix the medicine with very liquid jelly. He loves this and eats it all as quickly as we can feed him.

Day 239 25/2/12 Kerly Birthday

Sat 25th
We woke up early again to give Michael his medicine today. He had an injection of two medicines yesterday and will have the same today. Each morning and evening he has two different drops and a powered medicine to take too. We give him medicine at 7, 8 and 9 in the morning and evening. We are making him special easy to digest food called maizena.
Today was cousin Kerly’s (Now I know how to spell it) birthday and so Bob and I went into the city to buy her presents. We wandered about the shopping centre looking for baby girl presents and eventually found a small shop with a very helpful woman who wrapped some hair bands for us and raced around the other shops finding change for our large notes. She even gave us some sweets before we went.
Michael was fine all morning but by the middle of the day was feverish and weak again. This is again really worrying for us. We called on Gloria to come round and give Michael his injection and she checked him out and checked over his medicines too. She is a trained nurse so this was really good. She found out that the doctor hadn’t given us anything to counter Michael’s fever. Something for diarrhoea and something for colic and something for sore throat and something for a bacterial infection but nothing for his fever. So she recommended that I go immediately to buy Panadol and so now Michael has another medicine in his schedule, this time he should take it every 6 hours. He’s starting to rattle.

Here´s Bob waiting to see the results



Well it must have worked because by the evening Michael was back on bouncing form and made it to Kerly’s party where he ate everything offered including his favourite jelly and he danced and smiled and had a good time.



And here is Kerly with her cake




He did get very tired though and by the time of his 9 pm medicine he was finished for the day and we took him home. He still has diarrhoea which is bad because he can’t be getting nutrition from his food but he does seem to be well otherwise. Of course we’re watching him very carefully now and really hoping for a peaceful fever free night.

Day 238 24/2/12 Private Doctor

Fri 24th
We woke up around 6 to give Michael his medicine and played around until breakfast time. Michael was still not on his best form he sleeps a lot and isn’t interested in anything. As the day went on Michael seemed ever weaker and his diarrhoea got really bad. This made us very fearful again and we decided we had to take Michael to a private doctor. The hospitals here just don’t care enough. So with the help of Rocio’s cousin Sara we found a private doctor and waited for him to finish his hospital work and to come to his private practice. He was very good to us and checked Michael thoroughly and prescribed several medicines, including injections of antibiotics. His fees were more than the normal hospital but not much more if you include all the silly extras and fees that the hospital adds on and anyway we just want our Michael well again, and soon. At the pharmacy next door I helped hold Michael down whilst he had another injection in his bum, poor thing. He cried of course but he was so weak he didn’t cry much really. We got home really tired and worried and everyone was waiting for us. Mum had prepared some special food for Michael. Made mostly of corn flour it is very easy to eat and should keep him firm if you know what I mean. Michael ate well and drank his milk and fell asleep again.

Here he is sleeping in the manta




In the evening, as Rocio and I were watching comedies on the telly Michael suddenly woke up full of life. He was alert and interested in things and playing with whatever he could get his hands on and smiling and all in all back to his normal self. It was so sudden and wonderful. As he went to bed this evening he is still a bit weak but so much better than he has been for days. Hope it stays that way.

Day 237 23/2/12 Poorly Boy

Thurs 23rd
We went to the hospital this morning to have Michael checked out again. This time it was all a little easier, perhaps because of the practice. We paid our money and got an appointment and waited for the paediatrician to arrive and start work. It was a different doctor this time and much friendlier and he bothered to look at Michael too. He more or less confirmed all that the night staff had said and reassured us that Michael had simple flu and sent us on our way. Michael was a lot perkier this morning and so we decided to go ahead with the days plans and so we found Bob and went off to Sapallanga again this time with the expectation of seeing music and dancing there. On the bus there we were all very tired I think and Rocio slept as you can see here.



We found Mum in Sapallanga on her stall with the relatives hat stalls next door. It’s always very sociable and Mum seems to always want to keep buying us nice things to eat and drink, which is great too. It did rain for a short while but most of the day was hot sunshine and I had to be careful not to get a sunburn on my scalp again. Michael seemed fine and made his rounds of the friends and relatives there, going from arms to arms.



Here´s Bob




More and more musicians and dancers arrived and started practicing around the town square. Some of the practices amounted to full performances. Videos comming soon.

Here is an orchestra practicing



and some girls buying mum´s hats for their costume



We went home as the market closed, actually before the main performance events took place but I was very happy with what we did see. We came home in a taxi which ran out of fuel on the way and spent the evening with the t.v.
We slept fine with Michael though he was always a bit hot.

Day 236 22/2/12 Hospital

Wed 22nd

Sorry no picture today for reasons that I think you´ll understand

We took Michael to the hospital this morning as soon as it opened. I was so happy that Rocio has her Peruvian right to preferential treatment as we jumped all the queues and got ourselves an early appointment with the Paediatrician. Registering for the for time t the hospital was made complicated by Michael not yet having his National ID card. The woman entering his details kept reading from Rocio’s ID and putting her info in. Also she could not accept that Michael’s first sir name is Jenkins and she spelt it wrongly even after several repetitions of how it goes. When we got through to see the Doctor he was a terrible rude and ignorant man, who hardly looked in Michael’s direction at all and sent us to get an analysis of Michael’s nappy contents. This all turned out to be another encounter with rude arrogant officious staff who wouldn’t accept nappy contents from a nappy and wanted us to go buy a small plastic container and wait until Michael somehow chose to fill it for us. We went and hid and gave them the nappy contents we already had from an earlier change and they analysed this for us. It proved to be an all clear and after another visit to Doctor Ego we went home. We spent all day looking after Michael and he seemed to be doing well and we went to bed happy that he was getting better but in the night we noticed that he was really hot and weak and just not as responsive as he normally is. He was breathing fast and I listened to his chest and his poor heart was racing away. This really really frightened Rocio and I and we got up and rushed out to the emergency hospital. We didn’t really know what to do and decided to go straight to a private hospital by taxi only to be turned away as they don’t have a paediatric section. The next hospital happened to be the one we had gone to earlier and was just up the road so Rocio and I jogged up there only to find it all closed and locked up. We ran around and banged on all the doors to no effect. We were desperate by this time but no one seemed to be in. I noticed a security guard in a doorway across the road was watching us, though not saying anything and we went over to him to ask if he knew where the emergency room was. It turned out that he was in the door of the emergency room and had watched us searching with desperation without saying anything. So we were led in and from then on we met nothing but kind caring efficient hospital staff. Michael was taken and examined weighed and temperature taken, breathing and heart checked. At every stage that they could they returned Michel to Rocio for some comfort feeding and love. I thought this was very wise and caring of them. The very worst of it all for Michel was that they decided that he couldn’t breathe properly though his nose and I helped hold him down whilst they unblocked it for him. Michael never likes even having his nose wiped for him and having cotton buds poked up his nose made him scream and scream. We were sent home with Ibuprfen liquid to give him for his temperature and instructions to go back to the hospital again in the morning for the paediatrician to check him over again.
When we got home we found we were locked out as neither of us had the keys and we had to wake Paolita us next door by phoning her mobile and get her to jump the garden wall and open he street door for us. We had about two hours sleep before going back to the hospital again.

Day 235 21/2/12 Granny and Michael

Tues 21nd



This morning Rocio’s granny came to visit. She was very worried about Michael. She had been told somehow that Michael was ill and had been in hospital. She rushed round to see how he was and we reassured her that Michael is fine. She sat with us in the garden for a long time and ate lunch with us too. On a tangent I learnt today that Granny is 95 years old and had 12 children in her life. Granny went away happy that Michael is well.



Here he is posing as Andy Hamilton



We decided later to go to Granny’s house to visit the family there and watch a video of Santiago traditional dancing from 1995. This had so many relatives in looking younger and even video of Rocio’s granddad dancing Santiago a short while before he died. We had a great time and ate a lot of popcorn and had a surprisingly acceptable cup of barley “coffee”.
During the night Michael got more and more hot and we had a terribly worrying night with him.
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Day 234 20/2/12 Immigrations

Mon 20th
Michael woke up full of fun today and bothered Rocio and I until we woke up to play with him.



We went to immigrations today to start the process of my residency in Peru and to renew Rocio’s Peruvian passport. This didn’t work out so well as they have recently moved to a new office and haven’t got their computer system working yet so they couldn’t help Rocio and anyway I can only apply for my residency in the capital Lima. It’s ridiculous how centralised Peru is. Basically nothing happens officially outside Lima. The TV news is just as bad never anything to say about life outside Lima.
Sonia made a special meal today, Cerviche, a real Peruvian classic. Bob payed for the fish and Sonia and her girls worked hard for a long time it seemed to prepare it. Obviously Rocio, Mike and I didn’t try it ‘cos we don’t eat fish but Bob seemed to enjoy it. We are gradually getting Bob to try all the local and national specialities. We have yet to get him to try picaronnes (like doughnuts) or Chuno (like slimy potatoes, not my favourite) but there’s time yet.
I got the first of the two violins back from Uncle Adam. It’s looking great now and as far as I know plays really well too. It only remains for me to learn how to play it.
Here are a couple of views from the steps up the outside of the house. First the roofs of the city and the beautiful hills which surround Huancayo. I well remember the time I climbed the hill in the middle of the picture.



And secondly of the neighbours’ houses, just to show the normal adobe which is used to build houses here.



And here’s Bob on the same steps posing with his cousin Mike.