Roger is typically a macho guy that doesn't show pain, fear, or fatigue, but I couldn't help to note a specific look in his eyes (similar to when I once tried to catch a football right after it hit an active bee hive) when he came into the house with a bloody rag wrapped around his leg to report that he was going to the health post.
Anyway he returned later that morning with 4 stitches and a notable limp. Since my host-family doesn't make much money, they have state paid health insurance, but the nurse told Dina that if roger continues to work on the island (see below), they won't continue to qualify for insurance. Dina was greatly distraught about this, but Roger said that it would be fine, and he'd just pack his wound with leaves and wrap it tight with a rag**
*Roger has returned home from working two and half months in Ica, a department/state to the south of Lima (home to the Nasca lines), where he worked 7 days a week 4:00am to 2:00pm picking up bird droppings (to be sold as fertilizer) on an island off the coast. The main motivation for him to leave and do this was to make money. Working the restaurant in Yuracoto he makes S/.600 a month (if the owner has money to pay him), but on the island he makes nearly S/.1200 a month. Unfortunately, the island jobs is fairly dangerous, and requires him to leave Dina and the boys for long periods of time.
** Roger is campo, born and raised high in the Sierras, and according to the doctor that used to work at the special education school, there are some very interesting (and probably medically unsound) cures that originate from the the alto campo. One of the more interesting stories she told me, was of a broken arm that was wrapped in leaves and then supplied with a healthy amount of urine (baby's urine, if that makes it any better).
