For two students of medicine, it’s hard to imagine a better setting than the Aldaves family home in Villa Rica located in the Central Selva in the region of Pasco.

Tyler, who plans to become a doctor, and Michelle, a nurse, sleep and take their meals, along with Jose (or Pepe) and Ingrid and their daughters, on the second floor of the family home. Much of their day, however, is spent on the first floor, a complex of examination rooms, diagnostic tech labs, and pharmaceutical supplies.

They never know when a call will come from their host father and supervisor, Dr. Jose Aldaves, downstairs. “Tyler! Michelle! Come!” He has a patient that he wants to show them. Or he’ll call them over to the hospital, several blocks away, where he oversees a team of about 10 doctors.

Once they saw a boy whose ribs were showing through the skin on his chest, as though he were malnourished. Tests revealed that he was heavily beset with parasites. With another patient, Jose asked them to guess the youngster’s age. Michelle said 8; Tyler, 10. The patient turned out to be 16. He had been in an accident and could no longer produce human growth hormone. They saw a woman, struck by a family member, who suffered a burst eardrum and had a number of other health problems, for which she couldn’t afford treatment.

Another time, a woman and her children, including a baby, had traveled from far in the jungle to see the doctor. They hadn’t eaten that day. The family invited them upstairs for a meal, and Michelle and Tyler talked with the mother while she ate.

Then there was the C-section at the hospital. Having scrubbed, Michelle and Tyler entered the room. They watched as the doctors pulled back the sections of skin. They saw the baby emerge, and observed the cutting of the cord, and the first independent breaths. As the mother was being sewn up, Michelle said she suddenly imagined herself in that mother’s place. She got warm. She headed for the door, and found herself coming to, surrounded by Tyler and several medical staff. Her first thoughts were in Spanish – a positive indicator. Later, a doctor told her that he had fainted twice in medical school – on the same day.

All this happened during the first three weeks.

During our visit, Jose was away at a medical conference. Ingrid gave us a tour of the on-site medical facilities and introduced us to their daughters, Lady, 13, and Mariell, 8, and the family’s cook and maid, Nati. She also served us a wonderful pachamanca meal, that she and her parents, who live nearby, had prepared in a large pot in the kitchen. The herb-flavored chicken and pork with potatoes, banana, and haba beans, were as good as any cooked by the more traditional method, by hot rocks in a covered hole in the ground.

In the backyard, we met the family’s two dogs, Ruso, the big one, and Josito, the little one; a parakeet named Polli; two rabbits without names; and about 50 cuy. (Note: One little cuy almost served as dinner when a leg slipped through a crack in the boards and Josito got hold of it. A quick scolding from either Michelle or Tyler saved the cuy’s life). Though we didn’t have a chance to see them, we also heard about Jose’s collection of poisonous jungle snakes in jars, including one that lived in a jar for a month without food.

There’s a basketball hoop in the backyard, the kind of simple backboard and hoop that call to mind the movie “Hoosiers.” Jose and Tyler have been known to get into such concentrated games that they had to be reminded that a patient was waiting (in fairness to medical practitioners in Villa Rica, it should be noted that this kind of delay also takes place in Goshen).

Michelle and Tyler said that their day often begins around 8 with breakfast, which always includes bread and jam and lots of coffee. And the day sometimes ends with more of the locally grown coffee, which is just fine with Tyler, especially.

If the coffee doesn’t bring them back to Villa Rica, a word from Dr. Jose Aldaves might. “He has invited us to come back after we’re done with school,” Michelle said.