Well we finished our time at the public health clinic. I got to see a bunch of IUDs put in at that clinic on Wed., it was very interesting, I learned alot (funny that, that was actually just yesterday but it seems like so much longer). The nurses there were so nice to us and seemed sad to see us leave. It was cool because on the first day they all seemed a little overwhelmed and even grumpy that they had to deal with a bunch of american student nurses that didn't speak any spanish but by the end they were wishing us all the best of luck and giving us hugs goodbye.
That night we finished our day at the Red Cross. I went on an ambulance run prepared to pick up a patient in a diabetic coma but by time we got there the family had already driven the patient to the hospital (funny how that works huh) but when I came back everyone was talking to the doctor. I was able to hop in on the conversation and share again the grace the Lord has shown in my life and the joy that brings. In between the conversation we set a shoulder and then practiced numbing eachother's arms with pressure points. It's alot harder than it looks.
Then this morning we had a recording session. We recorded some worship songs for the doctor using one of the laptops. It was alot of fun, it was also funny. It's definetly not the best recording ever but to be honest I think I was expecting worse. :) Sometimes we sing at the clinic and the doctor said he wanted a CD and well we aim to please... hahahaha so yeah we plan to give it to him tomorrow. We left the states as ordanairy nurses and we return as recording artists.
The day at the clinic was extremely busy. There was a bus accident on the freeway, 26 people were injured. We got five of those patients. My patients shoulder and hip were out of place. The doctor wanted me to put them back into place on my own. I told him I couldn't, that he would have to help me. He finally relented so we did it together. I think if I was the only person around my adrenaline would go up enough that I would be able to do but other than that, I don't know I just don't seem strong enough.
Later that night a man came it with his fingers cut off from a power saw. It was an especially sad case because another hospital had told him that they would be able to reattatch his fingers at the Red Cross, but they were lieing to him. He was so dissaointed when he got the news, it was heart breaking. When I see things like that it makes me physically ill because my mind knows that a hand isn't suppose to look like that, you know. I'm so glad that I can pray to a loving God in situations such as this.
I can't believe tomorrow will be my last day at the clinic! I makes me want to cry. I wonder if I will cry tomorrow when we leave. We're going to have a goodbye fiesta at lunch. This time Barney is our pinata. I feel kinda bad for the purple dinasour.
Saturday we're gonna finally watch Nacho Libre! I think it will probably be the best night of my life. Sunday church is going to be extra special because I guess a famous singer is going to do the service. He is a worship singer and Carrie tells me he's quite famous in Latin America. And this best part is he's staying in our hotel right next door to my professor! Me and Sarah are thinking of getting his autograph and then selling them at church on Sunday, is that bad... ;)
Monday we are going to tour a mental hospital, I am really looking forward to this because of my interset in mental health. I think it might be really hard though because from what I hear the conditions there are not the best. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
After our tour we will be heading to ACAPULCO! Isn't that wonderful. Yup we are spending our last days at the beach. I'm looking forward to a sweet tan.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bananas, pinapples, mangos and kiwis
Some time has passed since I've last written. Partly because my trip is coming to an end and I don't want to miss a minute of it and partly because well... not much has happened. We took a break over the weekend starting on Thursday because our hosts had a conference for other missionaries that they needed to be at. A pastor from California came down with his wife to help host us and a man from the church was our driver. They were all wonderful and showed us a wonderful time. We were definite tourists over the weekend. It was alot of fun and we saw some great stuff. On Saturday we went to the floating gardens. It was fun...
It was described to me like a gondalla ride but it was pretty different than that. The boat is alot bigger for one, and there is a big table in the middle of it. All 12 of us plus our driver Salvador's 3 kids all fit on one boat. The water is very let's say "murky" and there are vendors that come and sell you stuff all throughout the ride which turned out to be 3 hours long. I was expecting maybe an hour long ride at the most. 3 hours is a long time. So yeah it was fun and interesting. I did get a tan so that was nice. It was a really sunny day so a bunch of us layed out on the front of the boat to tan.
Salvador's kids were also especially cute. They wore us out but they were sure cute. They were such good sports even though I'm sure they could barely understand us with our broken spanish. The oldest one practiced her english with us too, so that was real cute. She was 5. I'll have to put some pics of them on here they are so cute. Especially the baby he is one and really tiny but has huge brown eyes. His name is Memo. So cute huh! It's a nick name for William, well William in spanish ( i can't remember what that is).
Yesterday we started working at a public health clinic in the morning and then we go to the red cross in the afternoon. They public health clinic is big and busy. I like it though. It's less trauma and more preventative care, like immunizations and screenings. I got to give some babies some shots today. Just like in Bethel, the sticker gets a smile almost everytime, I have to say almost because some kids even refuse the sticker.
Oh and yesterday my partner Kim and I were in the triage room where we took everyone vital signs before they were sent off the their appointments. Well I'm only one of 3 single girls on the trip so it's kinda a joke to get me a boyfriend/husband while we're here (well kim actually would like to set me up with someone she knows at home). Well a guy comes in to be triaged and he's cute and young and friendly and so Kim decided to be a little matchmaker, praise the Lord I was oblivious, I'm not sure how I could have been though. I heard her ask him if he had a girlfriend but then I didn't hear the rest. I guess while I was measuring him ect she went on to ask him how old he was and then to tell him since he was single I needed a boyfriend (this was all in spanish of course). I guess he turned really red. I would have turned really red too if I would have known what was going on. I couldn't believe her! It was funny though, but i'm just glad I was oblivious at the time. Oh Kim...
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Things are really good but I still really appreciate them and know that they are making an impact. Please continue to pray for strength for the team and especially our translators/hosts. Also continue to pray for our spanish and communication! And for the doctors and nurses that we are able to be in contact with that we would be a blessing to them and especially for Dr. Arenas. Also I've just been feeling so incompotant, especially today. I just really want to be helpful to the people here and it can just be so hard when I can't say what I want to say or when I don't understand what is going on. I feel like i'm forgetting my language skills and my nursing skills!
On a happier note Carlos tells me that I should come back here for a year and partner with them as a missionary. Wouldn't that be incredible. There is a nurse here that goes to his church here who runs a non-profit clinic and she said she would love to have me come back and work with her. So maybe if I can work real hard on my spanish this summer.... i can come back...
Who knows but i'll definetly pray about it.
Love you all and I'm starting to miss you guys too.... ;)
Tricked you with my title, didn't talk about fruit at all. There is a lot of fruit here though and i love it. Especially the little miniature bananas.
It was described to me like a gondalla ride but it was pretty different than that. The boat is alot bigger for one, and there is a big table in the middle of it. All 12 of us plus our driver Salvador's 3 kids all fit on one boat. The water is very let's say "murky" and there are vendors that come and sell you stuff all throughout the ride which turned out to be 3 hours long. I was expecting maybe an hour long ride at the most. 3 hours is a long time. So yeah it was fun and interesting. I did get a tan so that was nice. It was a really sunny day so a bunch of us layed out on the front of the boat to tan.
Salvador's kids were also especially cute. They wore us out but they were sure cute. They were such good sports even though I'm sure they could barely understand us with our broken spanish. The oldest one practiced her english with us too, so that was real cute. She was 5. I'll have to put some pics of them on here they are so cute. Especially the baby he is one and really tiny but has huge brown eyes. His name is Memo. So cute huh! It's a nick name for William, well William in spanish ( i can't remember what that is).
Yesterday we started working at a public health clinic in the morning and then we go to the red cross in the afternoon. They public health clinic is big and busy. I like it though. It's less trauma and more preventative care, like immunizations and screenings. I got to give some babies some shots today. Just like in Bethel, the sticker gets a smile almost everytime, I have to say almost because some kids even refuse the sticker.
Oh and yesterday my partner Kim and I were in the triage room where we took everyone vital signs before they were sent off the their appointments. Well I'm only one of 3 single girls on the trip so it's kinda a joke to get me a boyfriend/husband while we're here (well kim actually would like to set me up with someone she knows at home). Well a guy comes in to be triaged and he's cute and young and friendly and so Kim decided to be a little matchmaker, praise the Lord I was oblivious, I'm not sure how I could have been though. I heard her ask him if he had a girlfriend but then I didn't hear the rest. I guess while I was measuring him ect she went on to ask him how old he was and then to tell him since he was single I needed a boyfriend (this was all in spanish of course). I guess he turned really red. I would have turned really red too if I would have known what was going on. I couldn't believe her! It was funny though, but i'm just glad I was oblivious at the time. Oh Kim...
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Things are really good but I still really appreciate them and know that they are making an impact. Please continue to pray for strength for the team and especially our translators/hosts. Also continue to pray for our spanish and communication! And for the doctors and nurses that we are able to be in contact with that we would be a blessing to them and especially for Dr. Arenas. Also I've just been feeling so incompotant, especially today. I just really want to be helpful to the people here and it can just be so hard when I can't say what I want to say or when I don't understand what is going on. I feel like i'm forgetting my language skills and my nursing skills!
On a happier note Carlos tells me that I should come back here for a year and partner with them as a missionary. Wouldn't that be incredible. There is a nurse here that goes to his church here who runs a non-profit clinic and she said she would love to have me come back and work with her. So maybe if I can work real hard on my spanish this summer.... i can come back...
Who knows but i'll definetly pray about it.
Love you all and I'm starting to miss you guys too.... ;)
Tricked you with my title, didn't talk about fruit at all. There is a lot of fruit here though and i love it. Especially the little miniature bananas.
Friday, February 16, 2007
And the Winner Is...
Isn't he handsome? He's handsome and brave. He somehow ran into a door and had to get stitches on his head. I helped tie the stitches off and held the little boy's hand while the doctor sutured. He was just so brave. Well a little scared too. He refused to talk the entire time except to give us his name. But he didn't cry once and barely flinched when he was being stiched up. I loved him. He just layed there like that the entire time until his mom came back to get him. Even when I put the medal around his neck and we cheered for him for being so brave he just stayed just like that but he had to work real hard not to smile. He was precious. When his mom came and picked him up he hugged her so big and gave her a kiss on the cheek and then as they were walking out he gave us a smile over her shoulder. The funny thing is next door a man was getting stitches and he yelled more than anyone so far.
Today we went to KFC and I ate two biscuits. One for me and one for my gram.
Just wanted you all to see that I am alive and well and as flexible as ever!
The doctor had us sing to him again and this time had the other doctor listen as well. We told him to come to church on Sunday and he would get to hear lots more singing. He is really interested in knowing more about the Lord. Thanks for your prayers everyone. Things went really well today even without our amazing interpreters. A man from the church volunteered to be our driver while Carlos and Carrie are gone and he speaks a little english so between his english and me and carrie's little spanish it went really well. There wasn't a ton of talking going on but like i said we did get to sing. I guess that translates for itself. The doctor says how peaceful it is when we sing. It's the presence of the Lord that he's feeling.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Picture Time!
Aren't they beautiful?! These were some of the wonderful kids I hung out with at the brigade. They LOVED "quack diddley oso", the little girl in the very front was especially good at it!
Sorry it is sideways, but that is me attempting to smash Dora. Isn't she cute. I could just hear everyone keep yelling "abajo"! (meaning down)
The sheep aren't they great!
Another sheep! Isn't he cute?
Making tamales with Elle. Don't I look pleased.
Mexico, very mexican. I love it, don't you?
Sara is making the things that start with Tl. Very yummy.
We went to the city square today and I loved it! This is inside of the famous cathedral that is there. Yup that's real gold. It was beautiful.
This is the outside of the beautiful cathedral.
Tonight we went to the highest building in Latin America (i think...) it's called the Latin American tower. It's an amazing view. The city stretches forever! I hear that people like to come up there for a romanitic date... i think it would be a great place to pray for the city!Wednesday, February 14, 2007
xoxoxoxo
Oh and feel free to leave comments if you'd like... I mean only if you want to... so then I'll know if you guys are reading it or not...
Happy Valentines Day!
Well first of all I'd like to let you all know that I'm feeling much better. For those of you who prayed, thank you. I'm still a little tired but much better. Quite a few people on my team are sick though with a variety of ailments. So if you would keep them in your prayers that would be great! And pray that I don't catch anything.
So Tamale making went GREAT! Elle was the lady who taught us and she was so super sweet. I have pictures that I'll have to post tomorrow. When we first got there she had tamales all ready for us to eat. They were super good and then she made us a mexican version of papusas (it started with a TL but i can't remember the full name and i certainly can't spell it). They were super good. I'm gonna be a little bit chubby when I get home I think because for one the food is so good and for two everyone wants to feed us and it's not polite to decline. :)
After eating she showed us how to make the food that we ate. We filled the corn husks and rolled them up. And then patted out the papusa like tortillas. It was great, it was kinda like we were on a cooking show. And then after wards we took a walk down the street to her house (we were cooking at her daughters house). It was really fun because on the way home there were sheep in the park by her house. I loved it. And her dog looked like a sheep, i loved that too. I learned how to say "this is the best day of my life" in spanish because i was having such a great time. "Es el mejor dia de mi vida"! I can't really explain why it was such a wonderful day but it just was. It was great making food, and eating food and getting to know Elle and her familia.
Today was another really fun day. We decided to have a Valentines Party at the clinic and it turned out really well. Me and my instructor made pink popcorn balls and "cheerio treats" (we couldn't find rice crispies) with pink marshmellows. And we shaped the cheerio treats into hearts. And then this morning me and Carlos and Angela went and got candy and a pinata. Some other girls got a happy valentines day cake with strawberries on it.
Everyone took a turn swinging at the pinata and then at the end the doctor just took his blindfold off and took Dora out. (Dora La Exploradora was our pinata) Carlos was the pinata mover, i'm not sure what else to call him, i'm sure there is a better name. He was really really good at it. He stood on the roof of the clinic pulling on the rope to make Dora dance around. Carrie is a really really good director for the person with the bat, there was probably about 20 of us who swung and she faithfully yelled out directions to us all even as some of us got a little tired of yelling.
One kinda sad thing though is that I'm not really loving suturing as much as I thought i would. Honestly it kinda makes me queasy. A guy came in with his finders almost sliced off today and as I helped the doctora prepare him for surgery i kinda thought i might be sick. I really want to be a good nurse. I want to be helpful and proficcient. Please pray that God gives me strength. I'm gonna try extra hard next week to volunteer for things and jump into help even if i feel apprehensive you know. Practice makes perfect. And I really need to remember to pray throughout the entire day, because in my weakness the Lord is strong.
Tomorrow is actually going to be a day off. Two of our team members are flying home and in the morning we're gonna go to the famous City Square. I hear it's beautiful, so i'm excited about that. And then Carlos and Carrie are going to be gone until Sunday because of some business they must attend to. That means that on Friday we won't have an interpreter. The scary thing is that I'm probably the second best spanish speaker in the group once they are gone. Very very scary, considering my spanish is virtually non existent. It's defiently gotten better since being here but still it's very very minimal. So please pray for us on Friday. We really really need to the Lord to be our strength and to grant us communication and understanding. I'm praying that the Lord will just give me the language. How awesome would that be. I show up at the clinic on Friday and i can just be the new translator! I come home and I'm just fluent. The Lord could do it!
I'll keep you updated.... ;)
So Tamale making went GREAT! Elle was the lady who taught us and she was so super sweet. I have pictures that I'll have to post tomorrow. When we first got there she had tamales all ready for us to eat. They were super good and then she made us a mexican version of papusas (it started with a TL but i can't remember the full name and i certainly can't spell it). They were super good. I'm gonna be a little bit chubby when I get home I think because for one the food is so good and for two everyone wants to feed us and it's not polite to decline. :)
After eating she showed us how to make the food that we ate. We filled the corn husks and rolled them up. And then patted out the papusa like tortillas. It was great, it was kinda like we were on a cooking show. And then after wards we took a walk down the street to her house (we were cooking at her daughters house). It was really fun because on the way home there were sheep in the park by her house. I loved it. And her dog looked like a sheep, i loved that too. I learned how to say "this is the best day of my life" in spanish because i was having such a great time. "Es el mejor dia de mi vida"! I can't really explain why it was such a wonderful day but it just was. It was great making food, and eating food and getting to know Elle and her familia.
Today was another really fun day. We decided to have a Valentines Party at the clinic and it turned out really well. Me and my instructor made pink popcorn balls and "cheerio treats" (we couldn't find rice crispies) with pink marshmellows. And we shaped the cheerio treats into hearts. And then this morning me and Carlos and Angela went and got candy and a pinata. Some other girls got a happy valentines day cake with strawberries on it.
Everyone took a turn swinging at the pinata and then at the end the doctor just took his blindfold off and took Dora out. (Dora La Exploradora was our pinata) Carlos was the pinata mover, i'm not sure what else to call him, i'm sure there is a better name. He was really really good at it. He stood on the roof of the clinic pulling on the rope to make Dora dance around. Carrie is a really really good director for the person with the bat, there was probably about 20 of us who swung and she faithfully yelled out directions to us all even as some of us got a little tired of yelling.
One kinda sad thing though is that I'm not really loving suturing as much as I thought i would. Honestly it kinda makes me queasy. A guy came in with his finders almost sliced off today and as I helped the doctora prepare him for surgery i kinda thought i might be sick. I really want to be a good nurse. I want to be helpful and proficcient. Please pray that God gives me strength. I'm gonna try extra hard next week to volunteer for things and jump into help even if i feel apprehensive you know. Practice makes perfect. And I really need to remember to pray throughout the entire day, because in my weakness the Lord is strong.
Tomorrow is actually going to be a day off. Two of our team members are flying home and in the morning we're gonna go to the famous City Square. I hear it's beautiful, so i'm excited about that. And then Carlos and Carrie are going to be gone until Sunday because of some business they must attend to. That means that on Friday we won't have an interpreter. The scary thing is that I'm probably the second best spanish speaker in the group once they are gone. Very very scary, considering my spanish is virtually non existent. It's defiently gotten better since being here but still it's very very minimal. So please pray for us on Friday. We really really need to the Lord to be our strength and to grant us communication and understanding. I'm praying that the Lord will just give me the language. How awesome would that be. I show up at the clinic on Friday and i can just be the new translator! I come home and I'm just fluent. The Lord could do it!
I'll keep you updated.... ;)
Monday, February 12, 2007
Mexico Pexico, and we're gonna learn how to make tamales tomorrow!
Well an exciting update from my last post is that while we were on our "scenic tour" Carlos was at the hotel waiting for us and while he was waiting (he was a little worried so he waited down in the lobby for like 20 min before we showed) he talked to the bellboys and two of them decided to accept Jesus as their saviour and asked for Bibles. Isn't that awesome?! When Carrie told us about it she said that is just made more sense now because she couldn't figure out why we got lost, she'd driven that way so many times and Carlos had reminded her when we left ect ect. God had great plans though, so yeah that was just really cool.Another update is that the Brigade on Saturday was incredible. There was a doctor, a dentist, two or three hairdressers and painting and games for the kids (the games were facilitated by yours truly :) ). So many people came to see the doctor and the dentist as well as to get there hair cut. There were just so many practical needs met, it was great. People came with parasites, infections, chicken pox and various other illnesses as well as pregnant women who had not had no other way to get a prenatal exam. Oh and with the dentist we were able to teach the kids how to brush their teeth, and hand out toothbrushes to everyone. I really feel like we were able to meet alot of needs in this community. And also VERY exciting is the fact that over 40 people accepted the Lord as their saviour! Amazing huh. 
In "debriefing" on the way back to the hotel and said that it was the "best day of my life"! And quite possibly it was. I got to play with the kids pretty much the entire day. They were so stinking wonderful. They didn't speak English but we loved eachother anyway and I got to teach them alot of fun games. They especially liked "Quack diddly oso". It was funny because they thought it was partially in Spanish. I guess it is, some of the words have meanings in Spanish. I want to know where that song comes from but I couldn't find anything online.
When I wasn't with the kids i helped the dentist. I held a light while he extracted a mans tooth, I also held the man's hand. The dentist was a really amazing guy. He told all his patients about the hope they can have in the Lord as he worked on their teeth.
Some more exciting news is that they really do have wrestlers here like they do in Nacho Libre! Isn't that awesome. On our way to that nice restaurant we passed a stadium that was holding one of the matches. All down the street there were stands selling the masks! Isn't that awesome. They are called "Luchedors" (i'm sure that's not the correct spelling). I also "discovered" that night that Carlos is secretly a luchedor! He denies it but that only confirms it to be true because a luchedor's identity is always secret! Whenever he mysteriously "disappears" I know where he is!
On Sunday Sarah and I had a really fun time walking around the market next to our hotel. It's huge. Sarah is hoping to find a good knockoff purse next Sunday.
The not so fun news is that on Sunday was the beginning of Montezuma's Revenge for me. It was extra horrible because it came upon me suddenly at church during worship. The bathrooms at the church do not have toilet seats or toilet paper and you have to throw the toilet paper (that you provide yourself) away in the garbage. To make it way worse is the fact that a lady decided to bring her daughter in just then to fix her hair. I was so embarrassed. Sadly it didn't end there though. Nope it just got worse. That night I had to use the bathroom probably about 7 times. Needless to say I didn't sleep too well. Praise the Lord though that I woke up to go, I had to pray about that before I went to bed, i was scared I wouldn't wake up. I'm pretty sure it was an angel who woke me up and led me to the bathroom the first time i got up. Praise the Lord I'm feeling much better today, well besides a little throwing up and alot of dry heaving at the clinictoday. I'm confident that tomorrow I will feel muchos mejor (much better). But seriously i have never had such horrible diarrhea in my life.
Alright picture time...
This is my favorite little girl, who reminds me so much of Abigail! Isn't she beautiful! She cracks me up. When she was getting her finger cleaned at first she kept saying "I don't want to see!", "I want to see!", "I don't want to see!", "I want to see!" (all in Spanish of course). She is super dramatic.
Yup that's me and Napoleon in Mexico, pretty sweet huh.
Here is the doctor giving us a lesson in self-defense. That is my friend Angela who is being used for an example. When he had her demonstrate on him, she got him real good. It was quite entertaining.
This is us having breakfast and devotions with the interns at the church. Sorry my head is turned, I was practicing my spanish on my poor neighbor.
Yup, this is how we roll.
Our lovely mariachi band, pretty good pic of everyone eating too huh. :)
Friday, February 9, 2007
Muy Bonita
Tonight we went to a nice resteraunt as a treat on our day off. It was really good food and there was a Mariachi band. They came over to our table and played La Bamba and then proceeded to get us all up to dance one by one. It was fun. But that stuff makes me so embarassed, I can't dance!
Before the main course bread and chips and guacamole was brought out. It was so good! Sarah and I accidently filled up on that before our food was brought out. At the end of the meal we still had so much left on our plates. We didn't know what to do. We were wishing we could send it to Africa or something. We don't really have a good way to store food here, only one small fridge in our instructor's room. We didn't want the food to go to waste so we boxed it up anyway. We had to wait outside for our van to pick us up and while we were waiting I saw a little girl across the street going potty on the sidewalk. I then saw her little sister who was probably about 2, she being only about 4. I saw that they were begging the passerbyers on the street for money. We were out there for awhile so I kept watching to see if there was a parent near by but i didn't see any. Carrie said that sometimes the parent is close by but other times it's possible that they dropped them off and then would come back later. The girls were so cute, just hugging eachother and playing as they begged. I was praying for them and then just realized that I had the leftover food in my hand. Two boxes full and a bottle of water. I asked Carrie if she thinks that they would want the food, she said they probably would. So me and two of the other girls crossed the street and asked them if they wanted it "Quieres Comida"? They were so stinking beautiful. Big brown eyes and such pretty smiles. They smiled and the older girl said a little "si" and took the bag that was almost too big for her to carry. Our van pulled up right then and we ran to get in (traffic doesn't stop here for anything, the second it starts to slow people lean on their horns) I watched from the van as the girls ran into the subway station and brought the food to a group of people sitting on the floor, look liked maybe a mom and more kids, i was just glad they weren't alone. I was just so, so greatful to the Lord that He gave me the opportunity to give to those kids. Man I just felt so humble and greatful. Those girls, they were just beautiful, I just wanted to do more you know, to be able to say more. But God knows them, He loves them.
And then on the way home we got a "scenic tour", we were a little lost. There are so many prostitutes. They are just lined up along the buildings, every 5 feet or so. It's so sad. They just don't know their value. We see them every night as we drive home from the clinic but the ones that we passed tonight were extra scandalas, i guess you could say. Such a great need, how do you meet such great need?
Before the main course bread and chips and guacamole was brought out. It was so good! Sarah and I accidently filled up on that before our food was brought out. At the end of the meal we still had so much left on our plates. We didn't know what to do. We were wishing we could send it to Africa or something. We don't really have a good way to store food here, only one small fridge in our instructor's room. We didn't want the food to go to waste so we boxed it up anyway. We had to wait outside for our van to pick us up and while we were waiting I saw a little girl across the street going potty on the sidewalk. I then saw her little sister who was probably about 2, she being only about 4. I saw that they were begging the passerbyers on the street for money. We were out there for awhile so I kept watching to see if there was a parent near by but i didn't see any. Carrie said that sometimes the parent is close by but other times it's possible that they dropped them off and then would come back later. The girls were so cute, just hugging eachother and playing as they begged. I was praying for them and then just realized that I had the leftover food in my hand. Two boxes full and a bottle of water. I asked Carrie if she thinks that they would want the food, she said they probably would. So me and two of the other girls crossed the street and asked them if they wanted it "Quieres Comida"? They were so stinking beautiful. Big brown eyes and such pretty smiles. They smiled and the older girl said a little "si" and took the bag that was almost too big for her to carry. Our van pulled up right then and we ran to get in (traffic doesn't stop here for anything, the second it starts to slow people lean on their horns) I watched from the van as the girls ran into the subway station and brought the food to a group of people sitting on the floor, look liked maybe a mom and more kids, i was just glad they weren't alone. I was just so, so greatful to the Lord that He gave me the opportunity to give to those kids. Man I just felt so humble and greatful. Those girls, they were just beautiful, I just wanted to do more you know, to be able to say more. But God knows them, He loves them.
And then on the way home we got a "scenic tour", we were a little lost. There are so many prostitutes. They are just lined up along the buildings, every 5 feet or so. It's so sad. They just don't know their value. We see them every night as we drive home from the clinic but the ones that we passed tonight were extra scandalas, i guess you could say. Such a great need, how do you meet such great need?
Muy Buena Dia
Today we went shopping. It was pretty cool. All of the things are so fun, but they aren't neccisarly that inexpensive and the vendors here aren't really into bartering that much. I think because it's Mexico City and they get alot of tourists. It was kinda overwhelming for me though. I always feel bad for some reason. I don't know. I just like buying things from the stores in the US because I don't have to worry about who I'm buying it from. Does that make sense. I mean it doesn't matter if I buy stuff at Target or not, no one is watching me hoping I'll buy it you know?
Oh and me and Sarah took the laundry over this morning. We did end up using the suitcases to pull it over. It went pretty well the man at the laundrymat spoke a little english and I was able to use my nonexistent spanish. :) Tomorrow is our brigade so please pray!
(I actually wrote this part last night but it wouldn't post because the connection was bad)
Today was a really good day. Pretty much real slow at the clinic but good none the less. We were able to do alot of learning this morning when there weren't any patients. We learned about palpating a blood pressure when you are in a situation when you can't hear it (like I was in the ambulance yesterday). I also did some abdominal assessments and then the doctor gave us some teaching on sutures which was really helpful. We are all looking forward to being able to do sutures for real. People are sent to the Red Cross (Cruza Rojo) specifically for reconstructive surgery because the doctor that we have there is really good at those sort of things, specifically finger surgeries, so we see alot of those. The doctor kind of reminds me of House because he's really good at what he does, but he doesn't always have such a good bedside manner. He tells patients how it is, he'll tell them that they're fat, or that it is there fault for what has happened ect. Sometimes i think it's a little harsh, but alot of times it's probably good for them to hear, it's the truth at least. And really the people don't seem to mind, culturally i think they are just more blunt about things, especially weight.For lunch today we went to Carlos' parent's house and it was so great. The food was amazing. The table was just full of really good food. The soup was really interesting. It was like "canadian bacon and pineapple soup" it was like spaghetti noodles with ham and pineapple and ham. Not so bad but well not so, so, so good. Oh and Carlos' nephew was the cutest little baby boy i've ever seen. He was so stinking chubby and we loved eachother. I just couldn't stop kissing his cheeks.After lunch there was a little more action at the clinic. I got to give two injections, one of them was in the dark (well we had a lamp) because the power went out. That happens often actually. It usually doesn't stay off for too long though. There was also a guy who got cut by a power saw. He had a real big hole in his chest, so that wasn't good, but the doctor was able to stitch him up good.The little girl that I held while her finger was amputated came to the clinic today for a cleaning of her wound. Her finger looked so much better, now we just have to pray that her mom will take care of it and it will stay infection free. It's really hard when all the little kids come in for cleanings because it's so painful for them and they scream. We have to scrub the wound, including the stiches pretty vigerously and then we have to sqeeze it to see if any pus will come out. I actually haven't had to do it yet but i've watched enough and held enough screaming children to know that i don't look forward to it when it's my turn. I just hope it doesn't make me physically ill. The Lord is my strength.Oh and one of the best parts of the day was that we were able to share our faith with the doctor. It started out with us asking about a patient and then developed into us asking about his faith. We were talking about prayer and he mentioned how the group from Northwest last year prayed while he was doing surgery on a really critical patient and how he will always remember that. I told him how I had prayed during the surgery with the little girl and how it was when we sang Jesus Loves Me to her she fell asleep. He then wanted us to sing the song to him. So we did and he liked it so much that we sang some other worship songs to him. At the end of the singing he asked if we would share our testimonies with him. I was able to share mine and another girl shared hers before a drunk man came in with a very broken arm. Please pray that we will have additional opportunities to share with the doctor as well as pray for him. Oh and it's really cool because he is going to try to come to the brigade (outreach) that we are doing on Saturday. He says that he feels a certain peace with our group as he did with last years group as well. Praise God.Today was also a good day for my spanish. I was able to practice with two different people at the clinic who were both very gracious and I was able to teach them some english as well. It was super fun. I'm still praying that by the end of them month God will grant me the ability to be fluent in the language.... :)Tomorrow is our day of rest, so we all are excited about that. We'll see how much rest we get though. Sarah and I are suppose to take the laundry next door to get it done at the laundry mat (you leave your clothes and they wash them for you) but we'll see how that goes as well. Hopefully we'll figure how to say what we need and hopefully we'll find a way to get everything over there, since we're doing everyones there is ALOT to carry. Sarah suggested filling up our suitcases and pulling them over. I laughed but that might be exactly what we have to do.We'll see....
Oh and me and Sarah took the laundry over this morning. We did end up using the suitcases to pull it over. It went pretty well the man at the laundrymat spoke a little english and I was able to use my nonexistent spanish. :) Tomorrow is our brigade so please pray!
(I actually wrote this part last night but it wouldn't post because the connection was bad)
Today was a really good day. Pretty much real slow at the clinic but good none the less. We were able to do alot of learning this morning when there weren't any patients. We learned about palpating a blood pressure when you are in a situation when you can't hear it (like I was in the ambulance yesterday). I also did some abdominal assessments and then the doctor gave us some teaching on sutures which was really helpful. We are all looking forward to being able to do sutures for real. People are sent to the Red Cross (Cruza Rojo) specifically for reconstructive surgery because the doctor that we have there is really good at those sort of things, specifically finger surgeries, so we see alot of those. The doctor kind of reminds me of House because he's really good at what he does, but he doesn't always have such a good bedside manner. He tells patients how it is, he'll tell them that they're fat, or that it is there fault for what has happened ect. Sometimes i think it's a little harsh, but alot of times it's probably good for them to hear, it's the truth at least. And really the people don't seem to mind, culturally i think they are just more blunt about things, especially weight.For lunch today we went to Carlos' parent's house and it was so great. The food was amazing. The table was just full of really good food. The soup was really interesting. It was like "canadian bacon and pineapple soup" it was like spaghetti noodles with ham and pineapple and ham. Not so bad but well not so, so, so good. Oh and Carlos' nephew was the cutest little baby boy i've ever seen. He was so stinking chubby and we loved eachother. I just couldn't stop kissing his cheeks.After lunch there was a little more action at the clinic. I got to give two injections, one of them was in the dark (well we had a lamp) because the power went out. That happens often actually. It usually doesn't stay off for too long though. There was also a guy who got cut by a power saw. He had a real big hole in his chest, so that wasn't good, but the doctor was able to stitch him up good.The little girl that I held while her finger was amputated came to the clinic today for a cleaning of her wound. Her finger looked so much better, now we just have to pray that her mom will take care of it and it will stay infection free. It's really hard when all the little kids come in for cleanings because it's so painful for them and they scream. We have to scrub the wound, including the stiches pretty vigerously and then we have to sqeeze it to see if any pus will come out. I actually haven't had to do it yet but i've watched enough and held enough screaming children to know that i don't look forward to it when it's my turn. I just hope it doesn't make me physically ill. The Lord is my strength.Oh and one of the best parts of the day was that we were able to share our faith with the doctor. It started out with us asking about a patient and then developed into us asking about his faith. We were talking about prayer and he mentioned how the group from Northwest last year prayed while he was doing surgery on a really critical patient and how he will always remember that. I told him how I had prayed during the surgery with the little girl and how it was when we sang Jesus Loves Me to her she fell asleep. He then wanted us to sing the song to him. So we did and he liked it so much that we sang some other worship songs to him. At the end of the singing he asked if we would share our testimonies with him. I was able to share mine and another girl shared hers before a drunk man came in with a very broken arm. Please pray that we will have additional opportunities to share with the doctor as well as pray for him. Oh and it's really cool because he is going to try to come to the brigade (outreach) that we are doing on Saturday. He says that he feels a certain peace with our group as he did with last years group as well. Praise God.Today was also a good day for my spanish. I was able to practice with two different people at the clinic who were both very gracious and I was able to teach them some english as well. It was super fun. I'm still praying that by the end of them month God will grant me the ability to be fluent in the language.... :)Tomorrow is our day of rest, so we all are excited about that. We'll see how much rest we get though. Sarah and I are suppose to take the laundry next door to get it done at the laundry mat (you leave your clothes and they wash them for you) but we'll see how that goes as well. Hopefully we'll figure how to say what we need and hopefully we'll find a way to get everything over there, since we're doing everyones there is ALOT to carry. Sarah suggested filling up our suitcases and pulling them over. I laughed but that might be exactly what we have to do.We'll see....
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Cristo Me Ama
Cristo me ama
me ama a mi
su palabras dice asi
ninos pueden ir a el
quein es nuestro amigo fiel
si Cristo me ama
si Cristo me ama
si Cristo me ama
La Biblia dice asi
That is Jesus Loves Me in espanol (sorry it's not totally correct because I can't make the accent marks or anything) I'm so very very happy that I can now sing that from memory. I feel like i can't say anything really of much meaning of importance but now at least I can let the kids know that Jesus loves them, what is more important than that right?
Thanks so much for all of you that have left me comments, it really is encouraging. Please continue to pray, it's just so hard not being able to communicate. I was just thinking today how much I take it for granted in the states, the ability to communicate that is. I love being able to talk to people. Thank you for your prayers.
Today I got to ride in an ambulance. We went to go pick up someone who had fallen from the first story of a building, but when we got there another ambulance was already there to pick them up. That's how it is there, a call goes out and whichever ambulance gets there first gets to take the patient. There ended up being another patient that was less serious at the scene as well and we transported him. It's real hard to take vital signs in an ambulance that is going over speedbumps and swerving around cars.
Oh and today I was also able to find out some blood types. I found out that my roomates Sarah's blood type is B+
Also this morning was good, it was fun to have breakfast with the interns, but the best part was worshiping with them. We sang two songs in spanish and one in english, i loved it so much, i think it was my favorite part of the day. Ooo and we got to have fresh tamales for breakfast, so BOMB! ;)
Sarah needs to the computer so i have to go but i'll write more tomorrow and hopefully post some more pictures.
Oh wait one last thing. There is a doctor at the clinic, he's very talanted but he believes alot in chinese medincine. He assessed me today, as an example for the group. And he determined that I was nervous alot and defensive. haha Oh and he said that I was missing someone at home. He determined all this through feeling my muscles and observing me. He told me to relax and how one of the girls supporting me from the front and then all of the sudden he pushed me really hard on my shoulder, like where i'm really tense. I was so super surprised. But it did help my shoulders relax actually. He's quite a character. I look forward to telling you all more about him when I get home. We call him Dr. Suave. Oh yeah and then after that he showed up some self-defense techniques in case some mexican men try to come up and grab our "behinds".
me ama a mi
su palabras dice asi
ninos pueden ir a el
quein es nuestro amigo fiel
si Cristo me ama
si Cristo me ama
si Cristo me ama
La Biblia dice asi
That is Jesus Loves Me in espanol (sorry it's not totally correct because I can't make the accent marks or anything) I'm so very very happy that I can now sing that from memory. I feel like i can't say anything really of much meaning of importance but now at least I can let the kids know that Jesus loves them, what is more important than that right?
Thanks so much for all of you that have left me comments, it really is encouraging. Please continue to pray, it's just so hard not being able to communicate. I was just thinking today how much I take it for granted in the states, the ability to communicate that is. I love being able to talk to people. Thank you for your prayers.
Today I got to ride in an ambulance. We went to go pick up someone who had fallen from the first story of a building, but when we got there another ambulance was already there to pick them up. That's how it is there, a call goes out and whichever ambulance gets there first gets to take the patient. There ended up being another patient that was less serious at the scene as well and we transported him. It's real hard to take vital signs in an ambulance that is going over speedbumps and swerving around cars.
Oh and today I was also able to find out some blood types. I found out that my roomates Sarah's blood type is B+
Also this morning was good, it was fun to have breakfast with the interns, but the best part was worshiping with them. We sang two songs in spanish and one in english, i loved it so much, i think it was my favorite part of the day. Ooo and we got to have fresh tamales for breakfast, so BOMB! ;)
Sarah needs to the computer so i have to go but i'll write more tomorrow and hopefully post some more pictures.
Oh wait one last thing. There is a doctor at the clinic, he's very talanted but he believes alot in chinese medincine. He assessed me today, as an example for the group. And he determined that I was nervous alot and defensive. haha Oh and he said that I was missing someone at home. He determined all this through feeling my muscles and observing me. He told me to relax and how one of the girls supporting me from the front and then all of the sudden he pushed me really hard on my shoulder, like where i'm really tense. I was so super surprised. But it did help my shoulders relax actually. He's quite a character. I look forward to telling you all more about him when I get home. We call him Dr. Suave. Oh yeah and then after that he showed up some self-defense techniques in case some mexican men try to come up and grab our "behinds".
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
A Very Intense Day
It's funny because I never know when my blog site is going to be in English or Spanish, today it's in english. It's also funny that because I'm always trying so hard to speak Spanish I feel like I can't speak English anymore either!
So the clinic that we are working at is a Red Cross Clinic. It's reletively small, with only one or two doctors working at a time. Yesterday wasn't really only our first day there was it? Wow, so crazy, I feel like we've been working there for like a week. The days are long but are so filled that they go by really fast. We get there around 11am and leave for our hotel at 8pm. When we get back from the clinic we eat dinner but today no one was really hungry.
Like I said today was an intense day for alot of us. The morning was really slow so we used the time for practicing emergency transers on the backboard. I was the first "patient" and had to pretend to throw up like 5 times to simulate an actual situation, luckily I learned really well from my cousin Christine how to fake throw up. :)
After lunch all the action began. I don't have time to tell you guys everthing, but I'll tell you what I did for 4 hours after lunch. I got to take care of a little four year old girl who had gotten her finger smashed four days agol She had come in and recieved stiches in hopes to save the finger but she came back and it was nessasary to amputate the top half of the finger. She was the cutest little girl. She reminded me SO much of my cousin Abigail, their voices were just alike. I got to color with her and give her stickers and play with flashlights. And then it was time to have the surgery and I was the one that held her on my lap while they amputated. We were on one side of the curtain and the doctor and nurses were on the other. I held her hand through the curtain. It was super intense, especially because the little girl was screaming. They don't have the resources to give anasthesia so they could only numb her hand with lidocaine. The Lord was definetly with us because I was able to hold her without fatigue or much anxiety and after prayer and singing her some songs (twinkle twinkle in english, nighty night in english and Jesus Loves me in spanish) she fell asleep, praise the Lord!
One of the hardest parts was that I didn't really know the words to comfort her. My spanish is so lacking. Please pray it improves greatly. I praise the Lord for what I do know though.
I really want to be able to suture ect. but it's so hard when it causes the patients so much pain. It's best for them though, if they don't get it fixed it will get infected and they could potentially die. Please pray that God will give me strength. I'll let you know how it all goes.
I'm so thankful for my opportunities here even though they are somewhat overwhelming at times. Like I said I can't believe it's only been two days, we have so much more to learn. The doctor here is really really good about teaching us. On monday we saw some amazing things such as bones being set, ears being stitched, fingers with cellulitis being cleaned. Oh and we all are going to get a chance to go on an ambulance run too. The crazy thing here about the ambulance is that cars don't really get out of the way for it. Like even though the lights are on, no one moves to the right. Needless to say it can take awhile for the ambulance to arrive.
Tomorrow morning we are going to eat breakfast with the interns at our host's church. That should be fun. It should be a good opportunity to impove on our spanish. I better go to bed. Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow.
Buenas Noches.
So the clinic that we are working at is a Red Cross Clinic. It's reletively small, with only one or two doctors working at a time. Yesterday wasn't really only our first day there was it? Wow, so crazy, I feel like we've been working there for like a week. The days are long but are so filled that they go by really fast. We get there around 11am and leave for our hotel at 8pm. When we get back from the clinic we eat dinner but today no one was really hungry.
Like I said today was an intense day for alot of us. The morning was really slow so we used the time for practicing emergency transers on the backboard. I was the first "patient" and had to pretend to throw up like 5 times to simulate an actual situation, luckily I learned really well from my cousin Christine how to fake throw up. :)
After lunch all the action began. I don't have time to tell you guys everthing, but I'll tell you what I did for 4 hours after lunch. I got to take care of a little four year old girl who had gotten her finger smashed four days agol She had come in and recieved stiches in hopes to save the finger but she came back and it was nessasary to amputate the top half of the finger. She was the cutest little girl. She reminded me SO much of my cousin Abigail, their voices were just alike. I got to color with her and give her stickers and play with flashlights. And then it was time to have the surgery and I was the one that held her on my lap while they amputated. We were on one side of the curtain and the doctor and nurses were on the other. I held her hand through the curtain. It was super intense, especially because the little girl was screaming. They don't have the resources to give anasthesia so they could only numb her hand with lidocaine. The Lord was definetly with us because I was able to hold her without fatigue or much anxiety and after prayer and singing her some songs (twinkle twinkle in english, nighty night in english and Jesus Loves me in spanish) she fell asleep, praise the Lord!
One of the hardest parts was that I didn't really know the words to comfort her. My spanish is so lacking. Please pray it improves greatly. I praise the Lord for what I do know though.
I really want to be able to suture ect. but it's so hard when it causes the patients so much pain. It's best for them though, if they don't get it fixed it will get infected and they could potentially die. Please pray that God will give me strength. I'll let you know how it all goes.
I'm so thankful for my opportunities here even though they are somewhat overwhelming at times. Like I said I can't believe it's only been two days, we have so much more to learn. The doctor here is really really good about teaching us. On monday we saw some amazing things such as bones being set, ears being stitched, fingers with cellulitis being cleaned. Oh and we all are going to get a chance to go on an ambulance run too. The crazy thing here about the ambulance is that cars don't really get out of the way for it. Like even though the lights are on, no one moves to the right. Needless to say it can take awhile for the ambulance to arrive.
Tomorrow morning we are going to eat breakfast with the interns at our host's church. That should be fun. It should be a good opportunity to impove on our spanish. I better go to bed. Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow.
Buenas Noches.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Pictures as Promised
These are our hosts Carlos and Carrie, they are seriously amazing and I would be so so so sad without them. They are amazing translators.
We get to eat lots of fruits and vegetables which is amazing, i wasn't expecting that. We just wash them really well and peel everything. It's so good. All of this was only like $6!
Ok now I have saved the best for last. This is me stitching up my instructor! She cut herself while cutting avacados and the doctor (the man in the back) at the clinic convinced her to let us give her stiches. I was pretty much the only one that wanted to try it, to be the first one, and on our instructor none the less. It was harder than I thought it would be. The doctor did most of it, and guided my hands.
Much more to tell, but I have to wake up for clinicals tomorrow, so i have to get my sleep. I'll try to write more tomorrow. God is so, so, so good! No sickness for anyone! We're beginning to pick up on the language and we're all getting awesome opportunities and great food!
We get to eat lots of fruits and vegetables which is amazing, i wasn't expecting that. We just wash them really well and peel everything. It's so good. All of this was only like $6!This is me at the pyramids! And yes I did go all the way to the top! I went up two of them actually! I wasn't even sore the next day.
My roomate with one of the fountains behind her. Fountains line the street in front of our hotel. It's so fun.
Ok now I have saved the best for last. This is me stitching up my instructor! She cut herself while cutting avacados and the doctor (the man in the back) at the clinic convinced her to let us give her stiches. I was pretty much the only one that wanted to try it, to be the first one, and on our instructor none the less. It was harder than I thought it would be. The doctor did most of it, and guided my hands.This is when my instructor almost passed out and had to lay down. I was finishing up, tieing off the stitches. It was great, I'm excited to do it again but this time all by myself, hopefully! I love Mexico!
Much more to tell, but I have to wake up for clinicals tomorrow, so i have to get my sleep. I'll try to write more tomorrow. God is so, so, so good! No sickness for anyone! We're beginning to pick up on the language and we're all getting awesome opportunities and great food!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Ok last thing I promise
I just wanted you all to know that my blog page is in spanish when I read it, i don't know how to change the settings so it's hard to know what i'm doing on here. :) Also I can't believe I wrote so much and I'll try to post pics tomorrow.
I love Mexico City
I love Mexico City! I'm having such an amazing time already and it's only been what... two days. We should have been here for three days already but our planes were mucho delayed. We met at the airport at 4am (yes I did make it on time) for our 6am flight but that plane was delayed until 8am. Next thing we know the flight is cancelled because of electrical problems and we have been reassigned to a 2:30pm flight. By this time I was literally exhausted (i had not slept the night before thinking I would sleep on my 6am flight) and was feeling more than a little irritable. While the rest of the team went to SouthCenter for shopping and lunch my friend (and now wonderful hotel roomate) Sarah and I stayed at the airport and slept. It was actually really nice. I had my travel blankie with me, my pillow and my sleep mask. I felt a little silly with all that gear on in the middle of the airport but exhaution won out. Sarah and I woke up about once every hour to find the other passengers "observing us", but again exhaustion won out and we ignored the curious onlookers. We both felt much revived when we awoke. Our flight to Dallas didn't end up leaving until around 4pm and our flight to Mexico was half an hour delayed. So all that to say we had somewhat of a rough taveling experience. But God is so good and we arrived at 1am safe and ready for bed.
Oh and before I tell you about my arrival in Mexico let me tell you about the plane ride. Sarah and I were cracking up because of the relaxed attitude everyone had on the flight from Dallas to Mexico. In fact it was somewhat of a culture shock to us. You know how on flights in the US you have to have your seatbelt on when taking off and landing and you must have your chair in an upright position with the tray tables up? Well they told us all of those things on this flight but most people payed no attention and the stewardesses didn't seem to notice/care. When we were taking off there was more than one person walking around acting as if they were searching for something, looking under different seats ect. (it was a pretty empty plane which was really nice) Then when we were landing a man got up and took his baggage from the overhead compartment, the stewardesses never picked up our trash or came to make sure we had our seatbelts on and me and Sarah's personal favorite was the lady across the aisle from us who was laying across all three seats in her row with her feet up in the air against the window. We just couldn't believe it. I'm hoping to take that postion next time i fly.
Prior to landing we were instructed to fill out some forms for visiting the country, forms in which we would need to give to customs. I was feeling very stressed about these forms because no one knew how to fill them out correctly and no one seemed to care but me. Then we went through customs and I swear they didn't even look at them except to type my name in the computer. I was worried about nothing. They when we arrive at the baggage claim to get our luggage it has already been taken off the conveyor belt and is all in a pile. We have to point it out the agents who then verify that it is ours and then put it on a cart for us, for a tip. :) I was feeling very confused and helpless at this point and really regretting not working harder on my spanish (i'm still feeling that way, but have hope that God is going to bless me with the knowledge before i leave :) ) One of the few things that I did understand was when the man looked at my passport and said "Estas muy bonita" (you are very pretty). So that was a nice greeting.
By the time we got through customs I was so relieved and happy to see our hosts, Carlos and Carrie. They are a young couple (only married 3 years) who regularily host teams from the states on various mission trips. The wife is American, from Chicago and her husband is Mexican. They met when she moved here to be a teacher (reminds me of another happy couple I know) :) They are so cute that I am considering finding a husband here... hahaha
I have defiently not been disapointed in our hosts, my first feeling of relief and happiness continue each time I seem them. :) I am just so glad that they are hosting us. This would be a crazy trip without them. I feel so safe knowing they are in charge. They know what we can eat, where we can go, what we can do and they are trying to help us with our language skills. They have already provided us with great opportunities.
Our first morning we had a wodnerful late breakfast (the norm here is to stay up late and wake up late, so i fit in really well here... Hannah always says my concept of time means I should be a missionary... hahaha) and then went to a clinic here and helped to organize the medical donations that they revieved and passed out fliers to the neighborhood advertising the new location of the clinic. It was amazing how receptive the people were to getting the fliers. In the US people would have either ignored us or tossed it they first chance the got. But the people here actually asked us for it if they didn't get one. It was fun. But we had to be careful to not make eye contact with the men or pet the street dogs (these were Carrie's, instructions) neither have been super hard to follow, most men seem to know the "rule" of not making eye contact too and well the dogs are super dirty, i do feel bad for them though. We've considered bringing some of the dogs home so if any of you are interested let me know... ;) After helping at the clinic we went to the market and bought fruit and vegetables and sandwich material. The sandwiches we had were amazing. The bread was so good, like a crunchy hoggie role. And then we put avacado and cucumbers (some people put tomatoes, yuk) on the sandwich with meat and blanco queso (white cheese). We also made limade. And I'm glad to report that no one has gotten sick at all. God is good.
Oh and after lunch we got to go up on top to the roof of the house, it was such a great view, i'll try to include a picture. I loved being able to be on the roof. All the houses here are like that. So on the top of their roof we could see everyone elses with the laundry strung up, and the dogs on top. :) I want a house with an accessable roof to lounge on. Oh and it's fun because all the houses here have courtyards. I like that too.
Today we went to the pyramids which were built by an ancient civilazation. I thought it was the Aztecs but Sarah informed me that the Aztecs overtook them but they didn't build them. It was really really cool. Again you'll have to see the pics. It was an amazing workout. Sarah and I and then another girl April were the only ones to go all the way up both pyramids. We were pretty proud of ourselves. We were also proud of ourselves for being able to "no gracias" to all the vendors and not get followed around or swindled into buying someone we didn't want. I did buy a really pretty bracelet though for only $6, me and Sarah were able to talk him down to almost half the original price (i still kinda think we got a little ripped of though... :) ) It was a great day.
Oh one more thing. I know this is so long, but you guys know, once I get started I just can't stop. You can always take a break from reading if you need to. So before we left we were under the impression that we were going to have to travel in a group of "ten" because of how dangerous the city was ect. but actually because of Carlos and Carries wonderful wisdom we've been able to have alot more freedom. After the pyramids Sarah and I were able to take a walk down the block to the little market. It was so great. Again you'll have to see the pics. We just have to be careful crossing the streets because pedestrians defiently do not have the right of way.
Ok well I better go because we have to wake up early for church tomorrow. Which i'm really excited about by the way, church not waking up early. :) I will try to write an entry about how it goes. And then after church we're gonna have a superbowl party! I told everyone it was tradition in my family to bet on the game...
Love you all so much.
Please pray for my spanish to dramatically improve and for clinicals which we start on Monday. We'll be at the RedCross, we are all pretty aprehensive but we know that our trust and provision is in the Lord!
Oh and the very last thing I'd like to let you all know is that I have now been to a Mexican Walmart.
Oh and before I tell you about my arrival in Mexico let me tell you about the plane ride. Sarah and I were cracking up because of the relaxed attitude everyone had on the flight from Dallas to Mexico. In fact it was somewhat of a culture shock to us. You know how on flights in the US you have to have your seatbelt on when taking off and landing and you must have your chair in an upright position with the tray tables up? Well they told us all of those things on this flight but most people payed no attention and the stewardesses didn't seem to notice/care. When we were taking off there was more than one person walking around acting as if they were searching for something, looking under different seats ect. (it was a pretty empty plane which was really nice) Then when we were landing a man got up and took his baggage from the overhead compartment, the stewardesses never picked up our trash or came to make sure we had our seatbelts on and me and Sarah's personal favorite was the lady across the aisle from us who was laying across all three seats in her row with her feet up in the air against the window. We just couldn't believe it. I'm hoping to take that postion next time i fly.
Prior to landing we were instructed to fill out some forms for visiting the country, forms in which we would need to give to customs. I was feeling very stressed about these forms because no one knew how to fill them out correctly and no one seemed to care but me. Then we went through customs and I swear they didn't even look at them except to type my name in the computer. I was worried about nothing. They when we arrive at the baggage claim to get our luggage it has already been taken off the conveyor belt and is all in a pile. We have to point it out the agents who then verify that it is ours and then put it on a cart for us, for a tip. :) I was feeling very confused and helpless at this point and really regretting not working harder on my spanish (i'm still feeling that way, but have hope that God is going to bless me with the knowledge before i leave :) ) One of the few things that I did understand was when the man looked at my passport and said "Estas muy bonita" (you are very pretty). So that was a nice greeting.
By the time we got through customs I was so relieved and happy to see our hosts, Carlos and Carrie. They are a young couple (only married 3 years) who regularily host teams from the states on various mission trips. The wife is American, from Chicago and her husband is Mexican. They met when she moved here to be a teacher (reminds me of another happy couple I know) :) They are so cute that I am considering finding a husband here... hahaha
I have defiently not been disapointed in our hosts, my first feeling of relief and happiness continue each time I seem them. :) I am just so glad that they are hosting us. This would be a crazy trip without them. I feel so safe knowing they are in charge. They know what we can eat, where we can go, what we can do and they are trying to help us with our language skills. They have already provided us with great opportunities.
Our first morning we had a wodnerful late breakfast (the norm here is to stay up late and wake up late, so i fit in really well here... Hannah always says my concept of time means I should be a missionary... hahaha) and then went to a clinic here and helped to organize the medical donations that they revieved and passed out fliers to the neighborhood advertising the new location of the clinic. It was amazing how receptive the people were to getting the fliers. In the US people would have either ignored us or tossed it they first chance the got. But the people here actually asked us for it if they didn't get one. It was fun. But we had to be careful to not make eye contact with the men or pet the street dogs (these were Carrie's, instructions) neither have been super hard to follow, most men seem to know the "rule" of not making eye contact too and well the dogs are super dirty, i do feel bad for them though. We've considered bringing some of the dogs home so if any of you are interested let me know... ;) After helping at the clinic we went to the market and bought fruit and vegetables and sandwich material. The sandwiches we had were amazing. The bread was so good, like a crunchy hoggie role. And then we put avacado and cucumbers (some people put tomatoes, yuk) on the sandwich with meat and blanco queso (white cheese). We also made limade. And I'm glad to report that no one has gotten sick at all. God is good.
Oh and after lunch we got to go up on top to the roof of the house, it was such a great view, i'll try to include a picture. I loved being able to be on the roof. All the houses here are like that. So on the top of their roof we could see everyone elses with the laundry strung up, and the dogs on top. :) I want a house with an accessable roof to lounge on. Oh and it's fun because all the houses here have courtyards. I like that too.
Today we went to the pyramids which were built by an ancient civilazation. I thought it was the Aztecs but Sarah informed me that the Aztecs overtook them but they didn't build them. It was really really cool. Again you'll have to see the pics. It was an amazing workout. Sarah and I and then another girl April were the only ones to go all the way up both pyramids. We were pretty proud of ourselves. We were also proud of ourselves for being able to "no gracias" to all the vendors and not get followed around or swindled into buying someone we didn't want. I did buy a really pretty bracelet though for only $6, me and Sarah were able to talk him down to almost half the original price (i still kinda think we got a little ripped of though... :) ) It was a great day.
Oh one more thing. I know this is so long, but you guys know, once I get started I just can't stop. You can always take a break from reading if you need to. So before we left we were under the impression that we were going to have to travel in a group of "ten" because of how dangerous the city was ect. but actually because of Carlos and Carries wonderful wisdom we've been able to have alot more freedom. After the pyramids Sarah and I were able to take a walk down the block to the little market. It was so great. Again you'll have to see the pics. We just have to be careful crossing the streets because pedestrians defiently do not have the right of way.
Ok well I better go because we have to wake up early for church tomorrow. Which i'm really excited about by the way, church not waking up early. :) I will try to write an entry about how it goes. And then after church we're gonna have a superbowl party! I told everyone it was tradition in my family to bet on the game...
Love you all so much.
Please pray for my spanish to dramatically improve and for clinicals which we start on Monday. We'll be at the RedCross, we are all pretty aprehensive but we know that our trust and provision is in the Lord!
Oh and the very last thing I'd like to let you all know is that I have now been to a Mexican Walmart.
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