Funny article

This is a blog post about being single.... pretty hilarious. Ok, today is biochemistry. Yuck!

Day 35

Wednesday

Time to head home! It was a hard day for me, for sure. Got up early to go to the CDIs with everyone so that we could go straight to the airport from there. It was nice to get to say goodbye to all of them... although I forgot to say goodbye one last time to the Wisconsin group who stayed back and went to the hospital. But, they got set up and then I said my goodbyes to everyone at the CDI. Then Iris & Ester came to see me off at the airport. Tomas had called to explain to me that my flight in Santa Cruz went to a different airport, but he would meet us at the airport. I was surprised that he was coming, but excited to get to say goodbye to them!

On the drive to the airport, Iris told me that they had a surprise for me. But then she stopped and said she wouldn't tell me anymore. I definitely fought tears on the ride there and tried to avoid thinking about leaving so we could have some good pictures. :-) We got there and had over an hour to spare, so we wandered around a bit after I got my ticket. We went over to the gift shop and I got a couple things to snack on and some gum for Ester. Tomas called and was unable to get a taxi--it never came. So Iris told me that they had gotten some of my pictures (I left some on their computer for them) and put them in some sort of collage or something for me, as a gift. Just knowing that they had been so thoughtful was so meaningful to me!

When we realized that I needed to go through security to make sure I was ready in time, we took a picture together. I gave them both hugs and Iris sent me off with a Bible verse, which I confess, I only understood half of because I was so distracted by the fact that I was leaving and I would miss their family so very much. I gave Ester a hug and told her I would miss her a lot and she responded "Me too." (in her adorable 4 year old Spanish, of course).

I made it through security and as I stood in line waiting to have my ticket checked and heading onto the plane to find my seat, the tears came little by little...one by one. They continued streaming down and I gave up fighting it. They came pretty uncontrollably anyway. I'm pretty sure the little girl next to me wondered what the heck was wrong with the white girl who kept crying. haha I decided to sleep on the flight so I didn't have to think about how much I would miss their family. Even as I write this, it brings tears to my eyes. That was a really hard day.

I feel like everything that I did that day after that flight deserves a separate post because it is entirely different. So this is the end...for now.

Day 34

Tuesday

Tuesday was my last day in the hospital! We tried to get everyone arranged and situated. Linda helped get some of that organized. I followed the pediatrician again, who also was a wonderful person to learn from. She was good at explaining things so that I understood, so I actually didn't have a translator that day. There weren't very many patients, so we went through a book and she was teaching me about Upper Respiratory Tract Infections. It was pretty cool.

I needed to fill out an evaluation but Linda had forgotten them, so we started doing it verbally. But there was a lot going on, so I ended up just getting paper from her and heading back to the guesthouse to pack. It was rather depressing and one of my hardest things to do while I was there. It seemed like I had just arrived and made the bed... and now I had to get it ready to leave for someone else. It's amazing how 5 weeks flew by!

I got enough stuff together after lunch that I decided to go one last time to the baby orphanage! I got to go there 4 or 5 times while I was there and it was hard to see them all again, knowing it was the last time. This one little girl looks like Dora the Explorer incarnate, so I have no idea what her name is but I call her Dora. Rudy wasn't very happy while I was there, but he's still one of my favorites. And of course, we all loved taking care of the little babies! They are just precious!

We headed back and had devotions, once again, around the campfire. We did praise & worship, had a little presentation from Jeff & Matt about Spiritual Health and how to address it with our patients, and then we had s'mores. We sang a little more and then headed back inside. It was a lovely night and didn't last too late since we had to get up early the next morning.

Day 33

Monday

Because it was my last week in Bolivia, I was to be in the hospital. I gave the new volunteers the grand tour of the hospital, and then we tried to figure out where everyone could go to observe patients. Unfortunately, the power was out in the hospital, so we had to wait around a little bit. It did come back on, and I was able to go into the ophthamologist's office again. He is excellent at teaching and I really enjoyed my time with him. He had me check blood pressure for one guy who had diabetes & high blood pressure. I was actually able to communicate with the physicians better than in an average conversation in Spanish, because I am familiar with the medical terms and they are basically the same in Spanish. So, that was an advantage to experiencing that.

Came back for lunch after the morning at the hospital. In the afternoon, we played Wallyball one more time, and my last time. When we got back, the rest of the group had a meeting about going to Tunari... the mountain nearby that can be climbed. Everyone was really excited about it and they went on the Friday after I left. I was sad to have missed it! The rest of the night was pretty relaxing.

Day 32

Sunday

Sunday morning we went to church as usual. Then we went to lunch at Sole mio, an Italian place that I had been told was good by Emily and Tim. Tim & his parents came along with us for lunch too! It was delicious! Ava & I split a big veggie pizza that had peppers, asparagus, eggplant, mushrooms and tomato. Mmmmmmmm. Then since we split the food, we had enough for dessert. We each got one, so I got chocolate pudding and she got tiramisu. They were both absolutely amazing. We were so content after eating there. It was a cute little place and fun!

After lunch we crossed the street to go shopping at the supermarket. We were invited to go back to the youth group again, and I thought I would since it was my last time there. A few others went too... the rest decided to work on the CDI stuff for Monday. So they finished shopping and went back to the house, as we left and went to drop of Ester, pick up Misael (spelling?) and head to the church. There weren't nearly as many kids at youth group this time. But we had so much fun! We played a ton of games that were all really fun and nothing I ever played when I was in youth group. The funniest game was definitely the one called "Kiss the doll" and we had to kiss this baby doll and pass the doll to the next person in the circle. We had to remember where we kissed it. Then once we finished doing that. We were told we had to kiss the person next to us in the place where we kissed the baby. All of us who are Americans were in shock, and couldn't believe this was a real youth group game! You could never do that in the States! But it was pretty funny.

After youth group, Matt, Abby & I talked to Raul, the missionary who helps run the youth group with Tomas & Iris. He has an amazing heart for missions and it was very inspiring to listen to him share what he has learned in the past year. He will be moving his family to Panama next year, God willing. It was wonderful to be challenged in such a way. The more he talked about it, the more I could see myself pursuing missions long-term once I am older. Only God knows!

I also got some pictures with some of the people from youth group who I got to know pretty well while I was there. After cleaning things up a bit we headed home.

Day 31

Saturday

So Saturday was a day of getting up early and uncertain expectations. We got up and left about 7:30 to ride to where the buses would take us. Rode the buses and arrived at the location of the conference... I'm not even sure exactly what it was. Our bus got there after everyone else's so we rushed out onto the basketball court where we were introduced as the American citizens (and Canadians, and I think one Australian too) to everyone. Raul, a missionary who attends Tomas & Iris's church had organized the whole thing and so he was the emcee for all the games and such in the morning.

We were asked to introduce ourselves and then tell them if we were married or single. We all found that pretty funny. Then we went around and had to meet 10 new people. There was another group there from the States and they were the leader of each team. There were 4 teams. We got separated into each team, so we could be evenly distributed and help them with English. The first thing we had to do was come up with a team name, a team cheer, and one of the people in the group had to give a speech to get the team excited. It was hilarious, because out of 4 teams, 3 of us used Queen's hit "We are the Champions", which apparently everyone in Bolivia knows. We then did some other relay races, including a potato sack type race, in which I fell on the cement basketball court. Those war wounds are still healing. :-) The last game was the best, and it was volleyball of sorts. The teams had to use their towels and in pairs, we used a water balloon and had to catch & throw the balloon in the towels. It was really fun! It felt very much like summer camp, but we all had a great time! I have a picture of most of my group.

After the games were over, we had lunch. It was tasty and fun to talk to some people. They were at different levels of English. Some had no problem speaking and some had only been learning for a month or two. Still, when I think back to when I started learning Spanish, I could have maybe been able to say "I'm going to the beach" or "I have a pen" but not much else. So they did a pretty good job and understood quite a bit. After lunch, they announced the winners and passed out gold coin chocolates to everyone. Then some of the kids from the youth group, Tomas & Iris did a drama performance. It was really good. Raul did a gospel presentation as well, to open it up to anyone who was interested. We also did this a bit during our breaks to speak English between the games. It was definitely challenging, because as we shared testimonies, it was hard to know if they really understood or if they just wanted us to believe that they did. This is why when they had the drama that was acted out to music, I thought it was good. Music & drama can be universally understood, which is why I love it.

Once all of that was done, we were able to have some free time and swim in the pool, play outside, or go in the sauna. Many of the people who came forgot to bring a swimsuit, so not too many swam. Iris planned on being in the sauna and so I joined her for most of the afternoon. I talked to a few of the other people there, trying to help them with their English and myself, working a bit on Spanish. I tried taking Ester to the pool but she was too cold to get in. The sauna was unbearably hot for me at times, so I had to walk outside and take a break. I wanted to swim but no one I knew was in yet. Ester wanted to ask about getting a toy or something for the pool, and as I carried her outside to ask, I fell again! With her in my arms! She was fine, but my poor knees barely survived. We sat outside a bit and practiced English parts of the body as a couple other people sat outside and watched to help. I was teaching her the song "Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes" to help her learn. It was really fun!

It was a pretty long day, and after feeling completely infused with Eucalyptus from the sauna and overall content from helping others work on their English and getting to know a lot more of the local youth, around 5 it was over and it was time to go home. We piled back onto the buses and rode back to where we were picked up in the morning. That same day, the group from Wisconsin had returned, and 2 new volunteers arrived as well. We were to meet them at the plaza for the Kid Washing one last time (for me). We got there when it was nearly over though, so I walked around with some of the newer volunteers who hadn't been there before. We scoped out the people selling earrings and I found a few more that I loved. For about $1 they had little 4 wheelers for kids and Ester rode one around the plaza and I followed her. It was entertaining except when she hit one lady's basket of baked goods that she was selling. We hung out a bit waiting for the others to arrive and then we went to a restaurant.

Here we had two local dishes, called Silpancho and Pique macho. Both were really good. Then, on the way out, I got some Blackberry ice cream in a cone (for about 80 cents) and it was amazing! It was my favorite purchase of the day. :-) After all of that, we were exhausted and headed home, only to have another pretty full day.

Home!

So, I'm not done updating on the last 5 or so days of my trip yet, but I just wanted to say that I safely made it hoooooooooooooooooooooome!