Bolivia 2005, Volume 3

Sorry these emails are so long. There is just so much going on that I don't want to forget! If you are totally uninterested in this all, just delete these. However, some of you are giving me such great feedback, I can't help but want to share more.

Today was pretty normal. There was a little frustration at the beginning of the day as we were trying to discharge patients and do all the pre-op people with no translators, but we got that situation resolved and have some lined up for the first 1-2 hours for the rest of the week, so that is good. Yesterday the clinic saw 50 people, and today they got over 60 through. Yay for answered prayer! You wouldn't have even known there was a transportation strike from our standpoint. There are no cars on the street and all the roads are blocked by stones and people standing around, but our patients were still able to make it. We also found a working anesthesia machine this morning which we were able to use for two of our cases today. We had a total of five surgeries. The first one was the removal of an ovarian cyst which I wanted to see, but there was so much to do for pre-op, by the time I ran in there, they were just closing her up. The other four were hernias. I kind of came and went as I could. We had some trouble waking one of the guys up from surgery, so my job for about twenty minutes this afternoon was to sit in his room and yell "Antonio, resperafundo!" Ok, I'm sure that's not how you spell it, but that's how I was pronouncing it. The poor guy in the other bed was looking kind of scared. I felt bad for him....if I was getting ready for surgery, the last thing I would want to hear is "Breathe! Breathe!" being yelled at the guy who went before me!

Daddy Long Legs, also known as Bill the Ginormous Doctor, got a chance to go out with some YWAM people last night and give care and meds to some street kids. He had some stories to tell today about that. One lady he talked to was 7 months pregnant and sniffing glue while she was talking to him. He told her she should take some Tylenol for whatever her deal was, and she told him she couldn't take any medicine because she was pregnant and didn't want to harm her baby.

Today was much more humid. It had rained all day yesterday, so that relieved some of the heat, but it was much warmer today. The food continues to be amazing. I forgot how much I loved the meals down here. We have hot milk over granola every morning for breakfast with some amazingly strong coffee, delicious soup at every meal, and always fruit for dessert. YUM!! We are sleeping well. They warned us that the roosters might start crowing at 4:00 in the morning, but they don't. They start at 2:30. No lie. But I am tired enough to fall right back asleep, so it really hasn't bothered me.

I had a really long conversation today with a girl who graduated from college this last spring and is down here for the year with a friend of hers volunteering and doing some missions work. She had a lot of good information about organizing everything. I'm so interested in doing that for an extended period of time, maybe not in Bolivia (I'd like to be closer to the ocean and mountains), but somewhere.

My mind has been going a mile a minute since I've been down here (that one's for you MB:) ) I was thinking last night about what good reasons I had for doing this kind of work permenantly, but then I got to thinking, and I realized...maybe I should be approaching it differently and asking if there were any reasons I SHOULDN'T be doing it? I couldn't really come up with any. At the same time, I feel so incapable in so many ways, not neccessarily regarding where I am in my education, but in figureing out how to live in a foreign country. I was also having a bit of a career crisis again this afternoon, wondering if I don't want to med school after all or how far I want/need to go in the nursing stuff. Basically, it all boils down to me having no idea where my life is going. I know everything I am doing is leading up to something, I just wish I had the smallest idea what exactly that may be. I usually stay pretty at peace with where I am at in my not knowing, but it has really been a struggle for me these last few days. There is so much more to say about that, but it is better done in person. Please continue to pray that I would be able to discern God's voice and be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.

I should maybe be a little careful what I write...I know Mom has probably been printing these off and taking them to coffee to read. It's a proven fact that after something is said at coffee, it takes between 7-9 minutes for the whole town to know. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. It's true.

Seriously, though, I know that so many of you are praying for my team and me, and I apprecaite that very much. We are seeing so many prayers answered. Eveyrone is healthy and things at the hospital are running very smoothly. Please remain faithful in that while we are down here.

On a lighter note, I just figured out this morning how to lock people into the showers and I was wishing some of my friends were down here with me. I could have a lot of fun with that.

Ha, let's see, at home right now, Alexandra is probably just showing up for the Amazing Race party with the Brandes' which I have not yet gotten to take part in. Bummer. Eric would also be text messaging me funny messages about the show. Ang, tape it for me please.

Adios for now.
Much love,
Eva Joy :)