Pictures

I know it's been a while since we've last updated but I thought I'd post a few pictures of mine and Heidi's pictures so far!

Saturday Hike

The JesuChristo (biggest in the world!)

Our awesome team

Praying with patients at a clinic

Pharmacy!

Getting ready for surgery

Our house

Hey everyone! This is Heidi! ( I don't have my own computer here or blog account so I am using Stephanie's :P) Here are my journal entries from Sunday and yesterday.  I hope you get a little glimpse of what our time here has been like!

June 16 (Sunday)

This morning to go to church, the girls all dressed up in long skirts and dresses and Kirk (who is now the only boy in the house) wore a collared shirt. We drove about an hour into Cochabamba and went to a Presbyterian church that is on the second story of a tall building. The church was very small and there were about 20 locals in the service.  First, we sang several hymns in Spanish. These hymns were familiar to us in English such as Holy, Holy, Holy, and Fount of Every Blessing, however the Spanish versions were not.  I followed along the best that I could, but the pronunciation was difficult.  Next, we sang 2 modern songs that I was unfamiliar with. After the music, the pastor preached on Ephesians 2. Although I did not understand most of the Spanish, I was able to understand the gist of the sermon and Elizabeth filled me in in the details after the service.  We concluded the service with another Spanish hymn. After the service, several women set out banana bread, tuna sandwiches, and drinks for the congregation.  We did not have time to enjoy them however, because we had made reservations at a Chinese restaurant close by. 

After a 15 minute walk, we arrived at the restaurant and the food was already on the table waiting for us. We ate chow mein, fried rice, breaded chicken, and French fries which were all very good. Afterward, Necko took us to a food court in a movie theater and bought us all chocolate or white chocolate covered ice cream cones which were fabulous! 

Next, we returned back to the house and Stephanie, Elizabeth, and I moved into the room that Nicki had been staying in (because the 3 girls in that room were able to take Lydia, Anna, and Alison's room).  We are really excited about this because the four of us can finally stay together! 

Because today is Sunday, we each had to cook our own dinners so Elizabeth, Stephanie, Nicki and I made quesadillas/burritos with cheese, onion, bell peppers, and hamburger meat. After dinner, Jeniece, Stephanie, Kirk, Nicki, and I played Banana Grams and Ultimate Uno.  

June 17 (Monday)- Kirk's birthday!!

This morning, we all went to rounds but there were many fewer patients than on prior days.  Again, I did not understand much of what was going on because the interns and doctors speak Spanish very quickly and also all of the interns are from Brazil, so they pronounce words differently.  Then we went back to the house, had breakfast, and decided who was going to shadow which doctor. Stephanie and I have been really wanting to see a surgery so we signed up for surgery.  Unfortunately, when the surgeon came to his office, he said that there are no surgeries happening today but there is one tomorrow, so Stephanie and I plan to go to that one (he did not tell us what kind of surgery it will be though).  Because we could not do anything with the surgeon, Stephanie went to PT and I went to gynecology with Rachel and Elizabeth.  The doctor was very kind and allowed us to assist her with her patients by getting them set up on the table and handing her various things.  One of her patients is 23 weeks pregnant and is experiencing side pain, so the doctor explained that the pain resulted from the placenta moving around so it is nothing to worry about and the pregnancy is going well. The doctor examined her anyway just to make sure, so she used a device to check for the baby's heart beat.  For the first minute or so, I did not hear anything and I was afraid that the baby had died or something, but then we heard a very fast heartbeat (170 beats per minute).  I had never experienced that before and I was awestruck.  God has designed the human body so wonderfully, and I am constantly being reminded of that during my time here. Once this patient's  appointment had ended and the doctor had seen all of her patients, Elizabeth and I returned to the house. 

Because lunch was not going to be ready for another half hour, Phoebe, Elizabeth, Rachel, Hannah, Allie, and Gina and I took a short walk to another mansion built by the tin miner, Mr. Patino.  Right when we got back to the house, Rose rang the bell signaling that lunch was ready.  Today she made us a potato, quinoa, fava bean, and pea soup.  Earlier this morning, she and her mother, Alba, had been frying puff pastries and dusting them with powdered sugar to serve at the cafe in the hospital.  When I asked Rose what they were, she said that they would make some to give to us later.  Sure enough, after lunch, Alba served them to us.  They were delicious!! Then, Nicki, Stephanie, and I took showers which felt heavenly.  The girls only shower every other day or once every three days to save water (the boys all take long showers every day though :P ) and I had not figured out how to make the water warm until today, so showering felt especially good!

At 2:30, we all piled into our driver, Manuel's, troophe and drove to La Concha which is a huge market place to buy souvenirs.  We were all super excited to shop for various things and we spent the whole time in one aisle of the market that was filled with sweaters, blankets, wall hangings, trinkets, etc.  We spent an hour and a half shopping and I bought an alpaca sweater, a patch, postcards, and a backpack.  Others bought blankets, scarves, movies, mandolins, pencil pouches and other things.  

When we finally got back at 6:00, Stephanie and I cooked dinner for everyone because it is our scheduled day.  We made pasta with sausage, garlic, onion, bell pepper, and tomato for 14 people.  The process was very time consuming, especially because the water took about 25 minutes to boil due to the altitude and we had to make gluten free pasta and vegetarian toppings separate.  After dinner, Rose and Necko served Kirk his chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting (all made from scratch!) and we sang happy birthday and prayed for him.  The cake was fabulous! 

After dinner, Kirk learned how to play his new mandolin with Necko.  Then, Kirk, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Nicki, David, and I played Apples to Apples for 2 hours and we had so much fun laughing the whole time. Kirk said that it was a great way to end his birthday :)

Heidi 

los quemaditos

This is an entry from my personal journal a couple days ago. It’s not the most cheery of posts, but hopefully it gives you and idea of my reactions to some of the more serious situations we’ve encountered.

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After our time in the hospital, we, along with the rest of the volunteers at Hospitals of Hope, visit various orphanages and other hospitals throughout the city. On Thursday we drove downtown and visited the main hospital in Cochabamba. With books, toys, necklaces and coloring pages, our purpose there was to play with the kids. While some stayed in the main pediatric unit, I along with four other girls went to the children’s burn unit in another part of the building. 

The ward was small - there was one long hallway with three or four large rooms with glass windows on the left side. When we entered we had to put on another smock (on top of our scrubs and volunteer vests) and brought a few children’s books in Spanish with us. There were about four beds in each room, and some kids were lying in gurneys in the hallway too. 

My heart broke. Many of them looked to be in bad shape - many of their faces were bright red or purple with layers of dead skin or black scarring all over their eyes, nose and cheeks. Their hands and feet were wrapped in many layers of white bandages and then strapped to the sides of the beds to keep them from moving in bed. Their small bodies looked tiny in the adult beds they occupied, and they had multiple IVs running under their bandages at their extremities.

I walked into one room with four beds, but only one was occupied by a small child who couldn’t have been older than two. Both her arms were so completely wrapped in gauze you couldn’t find her elbows, and her entire left leg was completely bandaged as well. Only her right leg seemed unharmed, but even that was strapped to a block that was tied to one end of the bed. She was dressed in a faded Micky Mouse onesie, but with the bottom completely open and a diaper, now sodden with pee, had been placed right underneath her. Her face was completely red, her cheeks were covered with a shriveling layer of dead skin on each side and there were black scorch marks all the way up to the crown of her head. Her hairline was barely visible, and her eyebrows were almost indistinguishable from the blotchy complexion across her forehead. 

The name plaque next to her bed said her name was Esmerelda. Holding a Magic School Bus book in Spanish in my hand, I sat down beside her with no words. For her condition, she was surprisingly calm, and her eyes followed me as I walked into the room. Her eyes - her big, deep brown eyes had thankfully not been harmed by her accident. The whites were made whiter by the rest of her face being so red and scarred. They were beautiful. While her face didn’t move much, Esmerelda looked at me with an expression that told me she was very much alive, despite everything that had happened to her. As I looked at her, all I could feel was helplessness. I realize the irony in that sentiment, but the moment I saw her I knew there was nothing I could do to make her better. I couldn’t cradle her head, I couldn’t hold her hands or let her suck on my fingers. I couldn’t hold her in my arms like any other child her age. I could only stare at her and say her name. 

I was soon joined by Leah, another girl from Wheaton, who seemed to be in the same state of mind as I was. So we prayed. We grasped for words to capture our emotions towards Esmerelda, but the most we could produce were broken phrases of hope and desire for quick healing and that the Lord comfort her in ways only he can. I trust the Holy Spirit spoke more than we did, for there was very little for us to say in those moments.

Trusting that our prayers were heard, we decided to read to her. I read Dora the Explorer to Esmerelda, who’s brown eyes were following the pages. She sometimes spoke in Spanish baby babble, always the same phrase, but I couldn’t make out what she was trying to say. I was relieved that she seemed to be enjoying the story, and I liked reading the Spanish words to her slowly, knowing she wasn’t judging me if I pronounced them wrong. When we finished we started reading the Magic School Bus, but I quit halfway through because she didn’t seem interested. She kept glancing out the window into the outer hallway, saying something that ended in “mama”. Leah and I started to rub her toes and feet, and sometimes her toes seemed to try to grasp our fingers. I liked to think she would appreciate the gentle human touch. Soon though, she began to repeat “mama” over and over again, and her face started to distort itself into a cry. All Leah and I could do was look at her and touch her feet. I tried to coo to her but it didn’t calm her down, I was a poor substitute for who she really wanted. A nurse came in and swept past Leah and me to feed her something through a straw and her crying ceased. Feeling defeated, I asked the nurse what happened to Esmerelda. Hot water, said the nurse. Her skin had been burned by hot water. 

I later learned that most of the burn injuries these children suffer are due to accidents involving exploding propane tanks or boiling water. In Bolivia, hot water from the tap is rare and it must be heated on the stove. Many kids will unintentionally pull the boiling pots of water off the burners and onto themselves if unsupervised. 

I left the burn unit in a solemn state. The ride back I didn’t talk much, I just sat behind our driver and watched the city pass us by. The air was cool and crisp and I found the variety of shops, foot traffic and graffiti to be soothing as we drove back to the hospital. Far off on the horizon were the biggest mountains I’d ever seen in my life - jagged pyramids thrusting heavenward with the clouds hanging just above them. The bigness of it all made me feel tiny, like a small child cradled in the palm of our great God. Praise Him that He heals and protects us, because I most certainly cannot. 

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If you made it to the end of this post, please pray for the healing of Esmerelda and that she can return to her family soon. Sometimes it’s difficult to pray for someone you don’t know, but thankfully the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and God knows how to care for his children better than anyone else. 

elizabeth

De que mundo son?

After arriving on Tuesday night, we have been able to shadow doctors at Hospitals of Hope the rest of the days this week.  Already, our team has gotten to experience the exciting atmosphere of life at the Hospital.  Trauma, Internal medicine, pediatrics, genecology, gastro intestinal, and surgery are some of the medical ‘fields’ that we have the opportunity to shadow while we are here.

Today Heidi and I shadowed the Dentist, Dr. Kayla.  She was so friendly and eager to talk to us even as we answered slowly.  There were not many patients today since Friday’s are usually slower and many of the local children are in school.  However, we did get to see three patients: seven-year-old Pamela, seven-year-old Esperanza, and Esperanza’s mother.  We were able to see cavities filled and teeth pulled in the few hours we were there. 

          Heidi and I watched as Dr. Kayla worked on the patients.  When Pamela was lying down, she looked up at us and asked “De que mundo son?” (what world are you from).  We couldn’t help laughing at this sweet little girl’s choice in words.  What she meant to say was “De que pais son?” (what country are you from), but the symbolism of her words stuck with me.  The place we come from can seem like a different "world" from Pamela’s.  Our appearance, our words, our actions must have seemed very foreign to her. 

            Speaking Spanish has also been quite an adventure while here in Cochabamba.  Only a few doctors understand English and fewer can speak it.  The key to conversing with the people is to not be afraid to mess up or use wrong grammar.  I already feel as if I’ve learned so much in the few days I’ve been here!

Hasta luego!

Stephanie

            

Día uno

"Alpacas for Days," our new team name (as I, Kirk, have christened it) has arrived in Bolivia. After a long night sleep, we were up and rearing to go for rounds at 7:30 am. Although they weren't really interesting and the interns who run them are Brazilian, understanding their accented Spanish was a little difficult.

However, that didn't stop us from eating breakfast and heading back into the hospital for more. Four of us, excluding Elizabeth, went to "fisioterapia," with the PT Sulma. She was a wonderful soul, willing to work with our limited Spanish. She even gave Nicki a full on massage! We had one patient all day, an old lady with a fractured radius. She had a small granddaughter about 9 years old who, after a couple minutes, started asking us all about English! We taught her probably 20 words, most of which she mastered after a couple minutes practicing. 

After a nice 1.5 hour siesta, we headed to an all boy's orphanage and painted, cleaned, and entertained the boys. Despite their snotty noses, the boys were all very willing to play with the jump ropes and spinning tops that we brought to them. They were all so adorable and wanted to be spun around so much that we might have fallen over if it happened any more. 

That details a rather normal day here at Hospitals of Hope. Most of the other days to follow will be very similar in layout. Rounds, breakfast, shadowing, siesta/lunch, orphanage, dinner. The pace of life in Bolivia is ssssllllooooooowwww, so we have plenty of time to hang out and nap, which us jet lagged people love.

¡Dios les bendiga amigos!
Kirkie

The adventure begins!

Bienvenidos a Bolivia!

As Elizabeth said, we’ve finally made it to Bolivia!!  After a full two days of travel we are safe and sound at the Hospitals of Hope guest house in Cochabamba.  After our midnight travel from Miami to Santa Cruz, we had a long layover until the extremely quick afternoon flight to Cochabamba where Neco Polo, our host and volunteer director for Hospitals of Hope, greeted us.  We all piled into the big white van awaiting us and sped off downtown to pick up the other volunteers who were just finishing visiting a Children’s Hospital.  Heidi, Kirk, Nicki, Elizabeth and I all marveled over the beautiful landscape of Cochabamba; a dense city full of old buildings dated back to the Spanish reign, all encircled by the breathtaking Bolivian mountains and rolling clouds.  Despite our fatigue, we were soon greeted by 11 of the smiling volunteers who we will be living with for the next month (give or take a few groups that will come and go as we are here).  Friendly welcomes and introductions were made and the van took off to pick up dinner and head back to the Hospital.  I feel as if I have already made new friends with these people who we will be living and serving alongside.  They are all so kind and friendly and it helps me remember the kind of character it will take to truly have a servant’s heart here in Cochabamba.  All of the volunteers are from the United States and most are college students interested in a career of medicine and health. 

            Our host family, Neco and Rosemary Polo and their two young sons are amazing people.  They live here and serve the Hospital as volunteer coordinators, which means they plan out all our activities and make sure we are fed and taken care of. 

            I still cannot believe we are in South America; it’s my first time and I am blown away by the richness of the culture and the beauty of the landscape.   But what little I marvel in now is nothing compared to the journey to come.

¡Estamos Aqui!

Attention world!

Our team is safe and sound with Neco and Rosemary in Cochabamba, Bolivia. After a long, loooong day of travel, we are ready to hit the hay and catch up on all the sleep we didn't get on the airplane. Save one suitcase left in Santa Cruz, our travels were pleasantly uneventful. Thank you God for your provision - keep praying people!

pictures will come soon, I promise.

Alas, adventure (and a warm bed) awaits - goodnight!

Elizabeth