And So It Begins...

June 15, 2012

The guesthouse

Hello all! After over 36 hours of traveling I have finally arrived in Cochabamba. Despite the long travel hours, I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience this far. I landed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and as I left customs I was met by Emily and Hannah both nursing students at Ohio State. We spent the next 10 hours at the airport and passed our time jump roping, jousting with these bizarre stalks hanging from trees, sitting in the sun and drying my food (I had an explosion in my food suitcase) and taking turns making laps around the parking lot. The two of them are beyond nice and I am so grateful that I got that time to get to know them. We then took a regional plane to Cochabamba and when we arrived we were picked up by a hospital volunteer and were driven the 30 minutes to the hospital, which is in Vinto. When we got to the guesthouse, which is within the walls of the hospital, everyone was in a bible study so I got a chance to unpack. I’m staying in a room with only one other girl, which is lucky since the other two rooms each have like 8 or 9 girls in them. This is honestly the best place on earth though. There are about 30 college students staying here right now, mostly from small Christian colleges (Westmont, Wheaton, etc). I’m the only college student here without at least one other person they know but it hasn’t at all been a problem. The guesthouse is the homiest place on earth. The kitchen is packed with food and is a free for all at all times. There is a living room/ dining room that everyone just hangs out in and there is always something funny happening. I’ve never felt so at home right away. Everyone is so nice and friendly and welcoming and I am just really, really happy to be here. The guesthouse itself feels like an old cabin with everything just slightly broken but still functioning enough to use. There is barely hot water but it is lovely nonetheless.

The inside of a trufi

This morning I went with 4 other girls to a clinic in Cochabamba where we shadowed doctors all morning. To get there we had to take Trufis (Troo-fees), which are kind of a hybrid between a bus and a taxi. They pack about 15 people into these tiny vans and everyone is completely on top of each other. The streets of Cochabamba are beyond hectic. They are filled with children, dogs, vendors, cars, buses, and out of control Trufi drivers. I am absolutely in love with this place. I don’t think I’ll ever want to leave the hustle and bustle of it all. At the clinic I got to observe as a surgeon changed the dressings on a man’s hand. The man explained to me (in Spanish of course) that he had hurt it working on his farm and had neglected to take care of it and due to his diabetes, the wound was progressively getting worse. The whole back side of his hand was raw down to the bone and in a month or so he was going to receive a skin graph using skin from his stomach but he couldn’t undergo this procedure yet because the flesh was too unhealthy.

Teenagers living in the plaza

This afternoon we went to the main plaza in Cochabamba and it was an extremely moving experience. The plaza is the home of approximate 60 people who are all extremely addicted to sniffing glue, which is a cheap high. They walk around with bottles pressed to their noses at all times and often look extremely out of it as they sleep on and off throughout the day. They have formed communities mostly based on age and there is a lot of conflict between the different communities living in the plaza. They have cuts everywhere, especially self-inflicted wounds on their arms. I got the opportunity to clean and dress a few of their wounds, which was pretty cool. The highlight of the afternoon though was when I gave my first injection of my life. I gave a lady a shot of vitamin B in her bottom (which is good because it’s hard to mess up shots in the bottom). I was terrified though that I was going to mess up because I wasn’t shown an example first, I was just told what to do as I went. It was awesome hanging out with these people (most of them under the age of 25) and talking about Jesus and singing songs about Jesus in Spanish.

It has been a crazy but amazing experience already and I love each and every one of the other volunteers. It is just so incredible how the Lord has once again provided for me. I was so scared coming here alone and so unsure of how this experience would be but just like he has in every area of my life, the Lord has been nothing but faithful. I love getting to pray for the people who live in this city and I feel so blessed to be apart of this organization.