The DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health R56 trip to Lima, Peru

On March 31st, 2022, I flew on a redeye flight to Lima, Peru. This was my first time going to South America and I was very excited to be going to a new continent! My Spanish language skills were and still are severely lacking, so I made sure to download google translate onto my phone. It was a life saver while I was there! On April 1st, I arrived in the capital of Peru in the evening. As the driver took me through the capital, I was incredibly struck by the busyness of the city. The driver told me that it would take about an hour to get to the hotel from the airport because of all the traffic. Lima is a very big city having nearly 10 million inhabitants! As we started to get closer to Barranco, the borough of Lima we I was staying, we drove past the Pacific Ocean. Even after sunset the ocean was breathtaking and so many people were still catching the last bit of sunshine and surfing on the waves! I love the ocean and enjoyed being so close to it while in Lima!

UW DeRouen Team and part of the Yale Team

Over the 15 days I was there, the DeRouen team was hard at work holding working meetings at the two partner sites, Centro de Investigaciones Tecnológicas Biomédicas y Medioambientales (CITBM) and Asociación Civil Impacta Salud Y Educación (IMPACTA). We also met with our colleagues and partners on this project from Yale University and ate at a great restaurant called La Rosa Náutica. We enjoyed Pisco Sours and ceviche dishes. We also worked with some amazing field workers from CITBM and IMPACTA and learned about the amazing work that is being done in Peru with HIV. This team was instrumental in setting up the surveys to be distributed to study participants. Both CITBM and IMPACTA know their communities well and made our jobs very easy. We are lucky to have worked with them on this R56 preliminary project and look forward to seeing what comes from the results!

Between meetings and working, I was able to get away to see the beautiful places and history of Lima. I visited the Catacombs at the Catedral de Lima and went to Pachacamac to look at ancient civilizations that are dated before the Inca’s. The history was incredible, and the ocean was a site to see from the ruins. It certainly took me back in time! It was great to not only learn from the Peruvian communities but also about the vast history in Lima and in Peru. I look forward to returning in the future!