Lima Day II: Clinica Divino Nino de Jesus & Opalos

November 19, 2010

I have just found my seat on the plane to Arequipa, the altitude is higher – the taxis driver to the airport from my Hotel in Miraflores told me to make sure I chew on some coca leaves as soon as I arrive otherwise I will get a headache. He said they sell the coca leaves in any ‘Botica’ (small 7-Eleven type shops). We’ll see..

My second day in Lima was a bit more disorganized. I spoke to my contact in Arequipa about 7:00 am – his wife recommended that I try and find the opals (opalo) in Lima – she thought the price would be better. I had a few meeting to attend and I wanted to make a visit to the ‘Clinica Divino Niño de Jesus.’ It is on the grounds of the Children City (Cuidad del Niños); the Clinic is on a large parcel of land shared with an orphanage and home for unwed mothers and victims of domestic violence. The land and orphanage is owned by the Catholic Church while the Clinic rents space on the land – it reality, the Clinic is part and parcel of the Church- most of the support come from the congregations in Lima – technically it is an independent entity but the Founder and President of the Clinic is very committed to the Church – I am now the proud own of a stature of El Divino Niño de Jesus’ – not to mention a extensive assortment of holy cards and Catholic brochures. I joke but this woman is very impressive – she is in her mid sixties, her husband is an ophthalmologist in private practice. She decided to start an eye clinic for ‘los pobres.’ In four years she has raised the money to support 4 ophthalmologist, surgical suites, optical shop, pharmacy, and cafeteria, not to mention exam rooms, special testing, and electronic medical records – they do perform over 6 thousand surgeries a year and are growing rapidly.

This is where I come in, they need cheap consumables; a friend is putting together a consortium of VOSH (optometrist charity & Rotovision (Rotary Club Eye Charity) to make the donation – it’s my job to get the consumables and equipment and get it to the Clinic.

Well, enough of that, after I visited the Clinic I meet with a doctor I know that lives in Lima – she is a pediatric ophthalmologist; works for free – and has for many years – how she does it I haven’t a clue – she is not wealthy. Anyways, she offered to help take me to a place that I could find opals – it was a very large Indian Market – literally hundreds of stalls – and yes I did get lost.

I spend about 2 hours trying to get the best deals on a string of opals for Marilyn. As it turns out opals come in many shapes, color – it is all dependent on the location in Peru from where they are mined. Finally, I picked a type that I thought mom would like, and began the negotiation process between two vendors – I got them down about 30 USD, but not quite where I thought I could get; but they would go not further.

After a few more trips between the stalls, an older woman in the second stall told me in Spanish that they would go no lower and didn’t I realize that the same people owned both stalls. To make the situation all the more humiliating it was the same string of opals, as we were negotiating they were moving the string of opals from one stall to the other. In my defense they did have different business cards for each stall – they were different colors. What can I say; I bought the opals and left with my tail between my legs.

All is well that ends well; Marilyn liked the opals and enjoyed the story of my all too clever negotiations to get them for her.

Lima - Day 1

November 18, 2010

It’s 6:00 am and I’ve been in Peru for about 32 hours. I made a big mistake talking to you about the ‘hand carry’ practice; I cursed myself – I got caught on my entry into Peru. I was carrying about 6,000 USD of equipment and either by pure chance, my suspicious mug (I cut my hair down to about a quarter of an inch – I now match some profile), or x-ray screening they pulled me over upon arrival to do a hand inspection of my bags – one bag actually. They found the big item I was carrying; they retrieved the paperwork I signed declaring that I had nothing to declare and marched me off to the security area – I guess the whole area is a security area.

After immigration, you claim your bags and then you go to the declaration station; they collect your declaration forms and then you go through a portal and press a green button – if it lights green you move forward, if red you get inspected.

Before I left I asked my contact about the customs situation – his response, ‘press the green button with confidence.’ It did not work. I do not think they actually have the detection technology built into these portals; rather, I think they follow the thinking of the traffic police that set-up blow up cops in patrol cars on the side of the road to make you think they are checking for speeding – bottom line I think it is random. Without getting into too much detail, after opening the bag and discovering the big item they did not look any further and moved on to the interrogation phase – no hot lights or rubber hoses. They were actually pretty polite. All the time I trying to decide the best mixture and truth and lies to use that would be most effect in getting me out of this mess as cheaply as possible.

After two hours of selective lying and the luck that they couldn’t find a value of the instrument online they accepted the value I gave them added a few hundred dollars and told me I would have to pay taxes on that amount, I should not forget the stern lecture on respecting the laws of Peru. I did not get fined or ‘frog walked’ out of the terminal – it cost me a little over a hundred dollars – in cash, no credit cards accepted, I was freed and nothing was confiscated.

It’s been six years that I’ve been doing the ‘hand carry’ thing and the first time I’ve been caught with the exception of the incident at US customs in Miami.

So far, the trip has been productive, the highlight has been we had a meeting with the COO of the Clinton Initiative in a Ramada at the airport – money let’s them do things that we couldn’t even consider – they rented a conference room for the meeting – we’d have just pushed a couple of chairs together in the lobby. The meeting went well enough that John and I were invited for a visit to their headquarters in Harlem for follow-up discussions. I doubt if we will get any direct funding but they have developed IT and patient outreach tools that could be very useful. Their goal in Peru is to sponsor 50,000 cataract surgeries in 4 years.

The hotel we are staying at is a modest one, more than adequate, clean and with free wireless internet – the only other luxury I could wish for would be a coffee pot in the room. When I first arrived and they took me to my room we got off the elevator and everything was dark – they have motion sensors on the lights and the hall lights come on as you walk down the hall and turn off as you pass. A few years ago I would have thought of this was typical developing world energy conservation, now I think of it in terms of things to come in the US.

Today is fairly light, I have to attend a few meetings this morning, and a dinner this evening but otherwise I am free – I have general maintenance work to do on my Program but nothing critical – catch up work. Marilyn, for the first time, asked me to bring her something back from Peru – she wanted me to find her some opals. This is significant since she never asks for anything, so maybe today I will go on an opal search. I would feel extremely bad if unsuccessful, not because she would be upset if I failed but because in all the years we have been married she has asked for so little – nothing really; the things I have gotten her have generally been too lame to mention.

Tomorrow I am off to Arequipa, the Hospital I am visiting has set up a welcoming reception for Friday night or Saturday It is it a Social Clinic – not sure what the next few days hold for me; I do not have a formal schedule.

To be continued....

Traveling to Peru

November 16, 2010

Well, I am finally on my way to Peru. In fact, I’m writing on the plane. I am on the first leg of the trip – Miami and then on to Lima from there. I am staying in the Miraflores neighborhood.

This trip should be more interesting; more relaxed than the trip to Australia or Chicago – both of which were bears – very productive bears but too busy to be anything other than work.

I am spending 2 full days in Lima; not much pressure of this part of the trip – mostly meet and greet, show the flag and make sure that as many people remember us as possible. I do have a dinner meeting on Thursday night with the Clinton Foundation representatives for Peru. It should be interesting they are dedicating big money to Peru and rumor has it that they are frustrated with the lack of progress – loads of dedicated money not being spent – everything too slow. I can help them spent the money.

After Lima I’m off to Arequipa, Arequipa is the main event of the trip. I am giving a lecture on technological procurement to health ministry officials, local ophthalmologist and the heads of a couple of Hospitals. I have known the main players in Arequipa the longest; some of them have become friends. It was the group from/Arequipa that were behind making me an honorary member of the Peruvian Ophthalmology Society.

I am hand carrying about 6 thousand dollars in technology for the Arequipa group. Hand carrying is a NGO (Non Government Organization) way of saying smuggling. The duties are so onerous in the developing world that you practically have no choice; unless you are either willing to pay a bribe or get a Certificate of Donation processed. These countries are trying to protect the local business men; the problem is their mark-up can easily double the price and that is after customs are paid. The most notorious country is Egypt – they require the NGOs to purchase all items from in-country vendors regardless of where it is manufacture red – it’s outrageous – this is free equipment, paid for by the NGO. So we use the euphemism ‘hand carry’ to cover suitcase technology. It has never been a problem; US customs once in Miami gave me a lecture 3 or 4 years ago, but that has been the only time it was ever an issue.

After Arequipa I go to Piura for a couple of days – it is in the far north, desert country. It is so far north that the inhabitants refer to themselves as Piurians not Peruvians. Finally back to Lima and then home. I will miss Thanksgiving by a day.

Andrew is having one of the Mike’s over for dinner and Rob and Vickie are coming, so the house will still be full. I am sure it is not decided yet and won’t be until the day before Thanksgiving but Marilyn and Andrew are playing with the idea of not having turkey and the usual fixing. I can’t say I blame her – it is a ton of work; but for me it just would not be Thanksgiving without the usual traditions. Mind you the usual traditions usually do not involve much on my part – Marilyn would say that I have a tradition of not doing any work that day so my opinion is not relevant.

On the way to the Metro (Metro sucks by the way – the last Metro scandal involves the escalators – it seems they bought the model that has the worse service record – are you surprised?) this morning

Miami to Lima - Several hours later

I just finished dinner; it’s a good thing I’m from Pittsburgh and don’t have a discriminating palette, despite the questionable cuisine, I like dining on a plane; I eat slowly (no where to go) and listen to music and every once in a while I have a glass of wine to smooth out the trip.

The trip from Miami to Lima is a little over 5 hours – not so bad. I have music and the Kindle to keep me busy. The one thing about these trips that burn my ass is putting the seat back. Most airlines make people bring the seat back to the upright position at least for meals – not the case tonight. The only saving grace is aisle seats; I’d have a hard time if I was locked into one of those casket-like middle or window seats.

In some ways I am a little glad not to be home for Thanksgiving – I always fixed Mike (my dog – passed a couple months ago) a plate, I’ll miss that, it was special for him. Of course, that was before he took over the kitchen with rotating chefs – now if you want to talk about a discriminating palette. Mike in his old age acted like a diva New York food critic, and your Marilyn made it a daily act of mercy to read his mind and prepare just the right meal to satisfy Mike ‘The Dog.’ This bizarre behavior must have something to do with latent Catholicism.

I just flew over Panama - another trip across the equator. I’m getting a little tired of typing on a ‘V’ shaped computer screen and keyboards – the seat in front of me is reclined. One last thing before I leave for the evening – I finally got a blackberry smart phone. The advantage is that it has international ‘push’ email and international chat; also international calling, but too expensive to answer except in an emergency.

More later.