These past couple of weeks has been absolutely amazing. It is hard for me to believe that I left the US only a little over a month ago. It feels like I have been here a lifetime and I feel more and more at home here with each passing day. I have truly found my niche within the many projects that our volunteers do here. My favorite days are the ones spent in the hospitals shadowing the Obstetrician/Gynecologist in the morning and hanging out with the medical interns in the afternoon. My relationships within the hospital are growing quickly as I am becoming better and better friends with the medical interns. I have also formed a great relationship with the Gynecologist, Dr. Ricaldy, who now expects to have me observe him daily and seeks me out when I am not waiting in his office in the morning. Dr. Ricaldy is also head of the hospital so I am learning more and more the amount of work that goes into running such an organization. When I am not in the hospital I like to spend my mornings at Zapatitos loving on those sweet boys and learning innumerable lessons from them. I am learning that it takes more than a home to heal childhood wounds and hence I am learning to be patient with God and trust in his healing powers.

I feel so settled here and have already begun to dread leaving. I know that there is so much at home and school to look forward to but I feel so much of my heart settling in to stay. I am not sure when I will return here but I know that I will eventually. I have been planning to take a year off after undergrad before going beginning Medical school and I will hopefully be able to return here at the beginning of that year for at least two months and hopefully more. I just love the Bolivian lifestyle. Their relaxed time schedule, their never-ending hospitality, and their work ethic. These things bring out the best in me and I am going to be very sad to lose these influences in my life. In the meantime, I am going to try to enjoy my last week and as much as I can and to soak up as much of the Bolivian culture as I can.

PS Thank you Myvy Ngo for that last post. Miss you!

Llamas, Alpacas, and More!

Today I not only took a picture with a llama, but I also kissed one and spit on one. It was crazy but so awesome. By the way the Westmonters are so darn AWESOME!!! I'm going to go eat a llama now! Peace yo!

When Invisible Children Sing

     I would really really really really really love it if any of you have free time if you would read the book When Invisible Children Sing by Dr. Chi Huang. It is about street children in La Paz and so much of it is really on par with the things I've seen and experienced being here. It not only perfectly captures the Bolivian culture but also so accurately depicts the lives of the kids living in the orphanages that I am working in and especially the lives of the people living in the plaza. Multiple times while reading it I have been brought to tears because it so perfectly matches the things I have witnessed.
     While working at the orphanages and talking to the teenagers in the plaza I have heard some of the most heart-breaking stories. One of the little girls, Ruth, who lives at CDA 1 is there because her mother is in jail for repeatedly trying to sell her. The worst part is that when her mother finishes her 3 week stint in jail Ruth will be returned to her. One little girl is called Sustantivo meaning survivor because her parents threw her out of a window in attempt to rid themselves of her. The arms of the teenagers in the plaza are unabashedly covered in scars and their skin boasts of untreated burn marks from lighters. The boys at Zapatitos just want to be hugged and touched and loved. Upon arriving there they all climb on you and if you sit down on the ground you are ambushed by a dozen boys who want to sit in your lap or hold your hand. When one little boy got hit in the face with a ball and was crying I kissed his forehead and he instantly stopped crying in surprise. The look he gave me led me to believe that he had never experienced this type of affection before.
        I ache so deeply for these kids who grow up with such little resources yet such big hurt. As I'm sure everyone who has spent time in orphanages has experienced, I am having to learn to feel these things yet to not let them destroy me. To let myself be molded and matured yet not hardened. To continue to trust fully in the Lord while still questioning Him about the existence of this hurt in the world. And most important of all, being an avenue for God's grace so that each and every one of these kids can feel loved even if only for the four hours a day I am there. I have to trust that the Lord is using me and that I am fulfilling his purpose because otherwise it feels all too cruel to be yet another temporary presence in these kids lives and yet another person who will ultimately leave them. It is all this and more that daily runs through my head and daily I am so grateful for my faith in God because with this faith I am free. I am free to offer these hurts to Him, and to know that I could never be enough to heal the aches and pains of these children, only He is. So, with this knowledge and faith I know that my only responsibility is to daily show up and give Him my best and the more I trust in Him, the more effective I can be.

El Lago Titicaca

            This has been a crazy but amazing week. During last weekend I traveled to the tiny town of Copacabana, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca and we stayed at a really nice hotel right on the lake for the equivalent of 7 American dollars. Sunday we took a two and a half hour boat ride out to Isla del Sol and hiked from the North end to the South end, about a two-hour hike. It is so incredibly gorgeous there, the Andes sprawling right behind this giant body of water (about 8,000 square km) will take your breath away. The bus ride to Copacabana from Cochabamba took in total about 12 hours and took us straight through La Paz. La Paz was this crazy, huge, sprawling city that just emerged out of nowhere. It is the Parliamentary capital of Bolivia while Sucre is the traditional capital so it was interesting to get to see such an important Bolivian city.

Being in Bolivia even furthers my love of traveling. I can’t imagine a life that didn’t involve seeing the world. Every time I get a taste I just want more and more. I love the people that I meet when I travel and I love hearing their stories and their lives. Just today I spent two hours talking with a medical intern from Brazil and hearing about a life so different from mine absolutely fascinates me. We had to speak in Spanish the whole time because his English phrases were limited to “Hi my name is” and “How are you?” and my Portuguese is limited to none at all (although he did teach me how to say Christmas, which seems like an odd word to have learned in the middle of July). But I just love learning about other ways of life and traditions. Whenever I’m in another country I begin to worry that there won’t be enough time in life to see everything I want and in fact, I want to see absolutely everything so it is pretty safe to say that I won’t be able to accomplish that in one lifetime. I wish I could spend a year in the Altiplano of Bolivia on a llama farm, I want to live in a city in Brazil, I dream of skiing in Chili, and I would love to taste coffee in Columbia. I want to know every part of South America by heart and even then I would want to see and know more and that’s only one continent. Having come here completely alone and having everything work out so perfectly has given me so much confidence and I feel as though there is no part of the world that isn’t manageable. I just have to have faith in the fact that the Lord will give me the time and the resources to keep doing trips like this for the rest of my life.

The rest of the week has flown by in a blur. On the 4^th we celebrated with a barbecue, smores, and fireworks and listened to the most American-loving country music possible. Yesterday I went to a children’s hospital in Cochabamba and spent all afternoon hanging out with a little boy and two young girls who were long-term patients. Today I had the opportunity to shadow the Gynecologist at the hospital, which was actually surprisingly interesting and then this evening a group of us went to see Spiderman with a couple of Bolivian girls that we have become friends with. I have just continued to love every minute of being here and am already dreading returning home in two and a half weeks.

I just feel so passionate about medicine and the path that I am taking and I am so glad that I have gotten to be here and work so closely with the doctors. I am unsure at this point what type of medicine I want to do but I am confident that I am on the right track. I really am just excited to see where it all takes me and am so excited for the experiences that haven’t happened yet in my life.

"For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful I know that full well"

-Psalm 139:13-14

La Paz

My Most Exciting Day So Far

            Wednesday has by far been my most exciting day since arriving here. In the morning I was lucky enough to return to Zapatitos and play with the little boys. They are fascinated with English and made Mali, Kyle, and I write out list after list of words for them. One little boy made Mali write out every single number up to 100 in English for him. Part of what I love most about Mali is how happy she is to do anything asked of her. In true Mali form she wrote out every single number with a smile on her face just so happy to be contributing to this little boy’s day. I admire her so much for her constant optimism and constant willingness to serve.

That afternoon I went into Cochabamba to CBA (Clinica Bolivia Americana) and had the opportunity to observe two different surgeries. The first one was on a man who nine days previously had been hit by a car and had severe injuries. The surgery being performed on him that day was on his tibia (one of his shin bones), which had been completely broken in half. He needed a metal rod inserted to allow stability in his shin. When we entered the operating room his shin had a slit almost a foot long running along the top of it. There, in plain sight was the entirety of the anatomy of his lower leg. I could see muscles, tendons, and of course, the completely severed tibia. They allowed us to observe the whole surgery only a mere foot from the patient. In order to secure the metal rod the surgeons had to drill holes in his bone before screwing the rod in place. I was incredibly nervous for this part because I was sure the sound of metal being drilled into bone would be too much for me to handle but it actually didn’t bother me in the slightest. The rod was successfully inserted and screwed into place and the slit was sewed back together as if none of it had ever taken place. It is just fascinating to me how one second everything is a bloody mess with bone chips everywhere and the next it is only a neat row of stitches.

The second surgery I observed was a planned Cesarean Section. Cesarean Sections are very common here and it had been my goal for the trip to observe at least one take place so I was thrilled when I was given the chance to do so. It was honestly life changing; watching a life come into the world turned my world upside down. The initial prep of placing the epidural and creating the incision in both the epidermis and the uterus is extremely calm and methodical. Once the incision has been made in the uterus however, there is a rush of movement and out of the blood and layers of skin a head becomes obvious. Then, in the blink of an eye, a baby is pulled from the incision and there, in front of your eyes, is a new, perfect, life. The baby I watched being born was a tiny little girl and to see the look on her father’s face as she was being born and the way he stood over her with such a look of fascination was the most amazing thing.

Thursday morning one of the volunteers, Jeff, who is a trained paramedic held a training course for the Paramedics employed by the hospital. I was able to sit in on this training course and afterwards Jeff taught us how to perform intubation and place IVs and I got to practice doing both of these on training dummies. It was the most practical medical procedure I’ve ever been taught and it made me extremely excited to take an EMT class somewhere down the road.

This weekend I am traveling to Lake Titicaca with some of the other volunteers. It will be a three-day round trip with a ton of bus time, which is too bad, but hopefully it will be worth it. Please pray for safe travels!

Charque, Pirumani, and Zapatitos

This past Saturday was another Bolivian holiday as it is traditionally considered to be the coldest day of the year. The Bolivians use this holiday to burn their fields so keeping with Bolivian culture we did the same. It was by far the most intense manual labor I’ve ever done. We were actually in the flames trying to keep them from getting too high so that they didn’t reach the house or melt the casing off of the electrical wires. By the end of the morning we were all covered in soot and my arms ached from machete-ing the bushes and batting down the flames. Saturday afternoon a few of us returned to La Cancha, the outdoor market, and did some shopping for souvenirs. That evening we went out to dinner and I tried two of the traditional Bolivian dishes, Pique and Charque. Pique is beef and potatoes with vegetables, and Charque is dehydrated llama with hominy. I loved the Pique however the texture of the Charque was a little too much of a stretch for me. It was drier than beef jerky and kind of crumbled in your mouth but the taste was similar to that of beef. 

On the hike to Pirumani

Sunday Kyle, Andrew, Brittany, and I hiked Pirumani, which leads to a waterfall in the middle of a canyon. It is only a short trufi ride to the trailhead from the guesthouse but we ended up walking the 3 or so miles up the road because we couldn’t find a trufi. The hike itself wasn’t too difficult and was breathtakingly beautiful.

Monday I spent the morning at CDA 1 with the babies and I am quickly falling more and more in love with them. That afternoon I slept for a few hours as I seem to have come down with a case of Bronchitis or something along those lines and have been feverish and achy on and off with an awful sore throat.

Tuesday morning I went to Zapatitos an all boys orphanage that houses 35 boys ranging from elementary school age to college students. Playing with all the little boys was my favorite thing in the entire world. If I could I would move into Zapatitos and spend the rest of my life teasing those sweet, sweet little boys. My favorite, a little boy named Christian, melted my heart, as he and I became friends sitting under a table in the dining room. We spent the first half of our time there doing a clinic for the kids, which involved taking height and weight and inspecting their teeth. We then did a short presentation on dental hygiene and nutrition. The rest of the afternoon was spent spinning, tickling, and racing the little boys (which did wonders for my Bronchitis as you can imagine). These little boys are just so full of a contagious vigor for life and I know I have so much to learn from them. They are all so brave and so willing to fight against the adversity that they have already faced in their lives. That afternoon Hannah and I cleaned an old Ambulance that they plan to begin using again. We tried really hard to convince ourselves that the dark reddish/brown splattering everywhere was not blood but anything else.

Llamas

My relationships with the other volunteers have just continued to grow and I feel so close to so many of them. It is such a great experience to meet and truly get to know so many people from such different backgrounds. Brittany, one of the Westmont girls from San Diego, moved into my room this past weekend and I am happy to have company because it was getting quite lonely by myself. She is extremely similar to myself in a lot of ways but also very different and I have loved getting to know her. I think our instant bond can be contributed to our many similar food allergies and due to these allergies we have spent many hours in the kitchen cooking together while we blast country music... Specifically Wanted, our favorite song.

Walking down our street, Anacarare

I am really hoping to get healthy soon because I am already tired of feeling so awful. I spent all afternoon sleeping again and it is just a bummer to be missing out on so much and to not be contributing as much as I was before. I trust that the Lord is using me even in idleness but I am still impatient to be back to my normal self so that I can more fully serve the people here.

More pictures from our hike (click on them to make them bigger)

 

The Westmont Team plus the two Messiah Boys

    

Things I Love About Being Here

The hot days and freezing nights

Wearing full scrubs all, day everyday

Speaking to the Bolivians

Trufi rides

Quiet time with God

Bolivian children

The look on a man’s face when the Xray shows that he doesn’t have lung cancer like he had thought but merely a broken rib

Family dinners

Learning about medicine

The way the Quechuan women dress

Paying in Bolivianos

Llama socks and sweaters

The never ending hospitality of the Bolivians

Wally

Living on Bolivian time (which happens to be very similar to Anna time)

God’s grace

How everything in the guesthouse is just slightly broken but not broken enough to replace

The buzzing of instruments in the Emergency Room

The hectic, craziness of the Bolivian streets

Only showering twice a week

Speaking Castilliano

Freedom to explore and live life on your own time

Washing my face in ice cold water each morning and night because hot water heaters don’t exist in Bolivia

Weekends off

Three hour church services

Learning to live in another culture

Fellowship

Bonfires and worship songs

How willing to teach the Bolivian doctors are

God’s little surprises

Country music and dishes

Running in the countryside

The other volunteers

Learning to be selfless (even though I have a long ways to go)

The spotty Internet because it forces me to be present to the people here

Trying Bolivian foods (including llama)

The babies at the orphanages