Halfway...

So, halfway through my Bolivia trip... here´s some updates...

*Bolivia is beautiful. The hosptial is right in the Andes mountians, I see the mountians all day.
*The first week was mildy frustrating because they don´t have PA´s here so the doctors don´t know what I can and can not do. So... all I was doing were the same things Michael, the 19 year old pre-med student was doing. The second week they started to figure it out, so things are much better now.
*Twice we´ve helped another ministry with kid-washing. They bring water out to a community without running water, bathe the small children, and give then a new pair of clothes every thursday. Also, on Saturdays they do it for the street children in Cochabamba. It´s very rewarding even though the kids hate baths and scream the whole time.
*The hospital is still getting up and running, more new things being purchased all the time. Especially the last week because Mike, the founder of Hospitals of Hope, is down here with more funds. So, I´ve also been the manual labor, helping build desk chairs, move book shelves, organize medical textbooks into a library... and other things.
*The puppies I told you about last time... Four of them are thriving and getting fatter every day, they started opening their eyes this weekend. The one we worried about died the next day.
*There are a lot of stray, angry, hungry dogs on the streets here in Bolivia. I think there´s as many stray dogs here as there are squirrels in Minnesota. Anyway... Friday morning I was doing a 12 hours shift covering the few inpatients (I think 3 that day) and the ER with one of the doctors... A 10 year old boy came and an had been attacked by 3 dogs. One of his legs had gashes all over. I got to help take care of him, he was very brave though, barely cried at all. I´ve noticed that here. Bolivians are much tougher when it comes to pain than Americans. It´s interesing how much they can tolerate.
*Tuberculosis is also a big problem here, I´ve seen 2 guys my age with severe TB. One had a big pleural effusion (there´s a layer called pleura surrounding the lungs, a pleural effusion is when fluid gets in that sack around the lungs and takes over the room the lungs should have to expand)- anyway, I got to help drain that. I had helped with a pleural effusion once in the US, but not one due to TB.
*Bolivian people are very resourceful. Even when they don´t have to be. For example - there´s an EKG machine at the hospital, and there´s the little EKG electrodes that are like little stickers you sick in certian places to read the heart´s activity. They´re supposed to be used once ´cuz they won´t stick much more than that. Well, the doctors use them over and over and tape them down. At first I thought, what a good idea, they´re working with it even though they don´t have enough resources. Then I went in central supply a couple days later. There´s litterally thousands of EKG pads in there. Tomorrow I´m putting out new ones.
*I´ve been doing some 12 hour shifts in the hospital side, and I only have an interpreter for a few hours of those 12. The doctors here are awesome, they work so hard to be understood. One night it was slow and Dra. Santa Cruz and I sat there for 2 hours with my Spanish-English dictionary. Her teaching me Spanish. Me teaching her English. When I´m over there and it´s slow, so many of the Bolivian staff come to me and ask me how to say certian phrases in English. It´s interesing teaching English, espeicially when they´re so willing to learn.
*Where the clinic and hospital are... it´s countryside, about a half hour outside a city. But next week, Monday and Tuesday we´re going out to "the campo" which means way out in the countryside up in the mountians for 2 days to do medical work there. That should be really interesting.
*There´s so much more to talk about but for now I will leave you with that.
*Pray for me and the other voulunteers here that we can be as effective as possible in our ministry and be good examples of followers of Christ. Pray for the people we come in contact with that they would be open to hearing the gospel. Pray for me that I can keep up my energy and excitement for what I´m doing even though there´s long days.
*Well, now I´m off to go see a professional Bolivian Soccer/Futball game on our day off. Should be fun!