Peru – We found a House!!

We have officially found the permanent site for our clinic.  The search is over!  We decided to leave our first choice (the commercial lot) behind as the owner was very hesitant to show the property to us.  He was not cooperative in the least.  It was never meant to be.  Conversely, Carlos, the owner of the green house, was extremely cooperative and eager to work out a deal with us.  I don’t know where we were led astray to consider the “commercial lot” as our first choice but we quickly realized that this “green house” was by far the best option we could possibly have dreamed of.

The house is perfect and it will make a great clinic.  A lot of its appeal has to do with Carlos’ enthusiasm for converting the house into a clinic.  He offered to paint the house inside and out.  He offered to leave behind any furniture which we could use.  This included a stove (for laboratory), refrigerator (for vaccines), bookshelves, desks, beds, a television, DVD player, couches, chairs, and dining table.  He offered to install sinks in two of the bedrooms so they could be used for exam rooms.  He offered to construct an entire addition to the house based on our design to be completed by February.  The addition is to have two exam rooms (equipped with water), a garage for the ambulance, and an open air waiting room covered by an awning.  All this is to be done at no additional charge!!  We negotiated to $400/mo.  This is a huge amount of money in San Clemente but a very reasonable rate for what we are getting.  The next day, the crew of painters were already painting and the construction workers were already beginning on the addition.  Absolutely amazing.

The house is two stories.  It is made from modern materials and it is earthquake safe.  There are a lot of big windows surrounding the house and the upstairs rooms each have balconies.  The inside of the house is actually open-air.  The kitchen (future site of laboratory) is open air and when you walk up the stairs and along the hallway, you are half outside.  It is a very cool style.  Because of the design, the central part of the house is flooded with natural light.  It has three clean modern bathrooms with showers.  It is equipped with Satellite (paid through 2008), phone, and DSL.  On the roof lives the sweetest Brazilian Mastiff who wouldn’t hurt a fly unless that fly is actually burglar trying to break into the house in the middle of the night.

The house is conveniently situated on the Pan-americana highway so it is very easily accessible by those who are sick…but not too easily accessible where a plethora of curious passer-bys could just stop in to receive free treatment.  This will help keep the crowds manageable.  If someone is sick, they will come to the clinic.  If not, they probably wont go out of their way.

Everything is coming together.  Pending any setbacks in painting, we are scheduled to have an inauguration on December 10th.  All we need to do in the next week is make a trip to Lima to buy $4000 of more equipment, double the amount of medicines in our medicine formulary, advertise the inauguration on television, extend personalized invitations to some 20 important individuals, create flyer invitations to distribute to the entire town of San Clemente, move the temporary clinic over to the new site, arrange for 500 pieces of hors deurves to be prepared between three cooks, arrange for several bottles of wine to be supplied, create an order of events and speakers, somehow find the national hymnal, create a name for the clinic…hmmmmm…now that I think of it, preparing for the inauguration is a ton of friggin work. I best get started.