So yesterday and today were very interesting for me. I'll start by telling everyone about yesterday. I actually didn't spend anytime in the hospital yesterday, because all of the volunteers went to two different orphanages, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The first orphanage was called Casa de Alegria(house of happiness/joy) and was an orphanage just for teenage girls. All of the girl volunteers were very excited about this opportunity and even planned a couple of crafts to do with the girls. I, on the other hand, was slightly nervous. I am completely comfortable when it comes to working in a hospital or with young children, but I wasn't sure that I would be able to relate well to teenage girls, and I thought that they might have an attitude problem as well(I was thinking from a U.S perspective, big mistake in Bolivia).
To my surprise, the girls were actually quite pleasant. I, along with Anna, was paired up with a 16 year old girl named Andrea. I saw this as a great opportunity to practice my Spanish, and Andrea was very understanding when I made mistakes in my communication. Through our conversation, I discovered that her favorite color is red, her favorite movie is transformers, her favorite actress is Megan Fox, her favorite subject in school is Psicologia(Psychology), and she study at a University after high school to become a high school Psychology teacher. I enjoyed my conversation with Andrea very much and knew that she must be smiling inside due to my silly, broken Spanish. After helping her make a couple crafts, I made Andrea a card with a Bible verse on it. As a group, we finished our time at Case De Alegria by taking a group picture with the girls and heading out. I learned from this experience that God always equips us when we are unsure of ourselves, and he likes to surprise us. What I thought would be a slightly boring experience for me ended up being a very positive experience.
After leaving Casa De Alegria, we got lunch and went to another orphanage in the afternoon, Casa De Amor(house of love). I really enjoy children, but this was a very specific type of children; all of the children in Casa De Amor were babies. Now, before I continue you must understand something. I am the youngest child of three. Therefore, I do not have much experience with holding and caring for babies, because: a. I am male and do not babysit and, b. I never had younger siblings to care for, because I was the youngest sibling. Needless to say, I was not very confident. However, God surprised me yet again, and I actually ended up having a very positive experience. Since I don't have much experience with babies and there were many female volunteers, I decided to take this as an opportunity to learn and gain new experiences, and I knew I could fall back on the girls if anything went wrong. So, I fed a baby for the first time, held a baby for an extended period of time, and walked around with a baby for the first time(I know, shocking, right?) Ultimately, I knew after leaving that the best thing I could do for the children at Casa De Amor was to pray for them, but I sure did savor the opportunity to love orphans just as Christ said we should.
Now that we have recapped yesterday, let's move forward to today. Today I had to wake up really early to go to a clinic in the city of Cochabamba called Clinica Boliviana America. In Bolivia, there is a type of public transportation called trufis. Trufis are littles vans that can carry about 12 people, and they only travel fairly short distances between towns(about a half hour or so). Therefore, we had to take a trufi to the town of Quillacollo and then a bus to Cochabamba. Anyway, when we arrived at the clinic we met a medical student from the University of South Carolina named Hunter, and he spoke English! I have found that now when people speak in English I do a quick "double-take" because it surprises me so much. He was very kind and seemed to be very interested in us. Perhaps he was longing for some familiarity and found that in other people from the U.S. After meeting Hunter we met a man named Tim(I'm not giving his last name to protect his identity later). Tim was a man from California, and he started the Clinica Bolivian America. He led us to the Physical Therpist of the clinic, and we shadowed her for about an hour. The Physical Therapist spoke very good Enlgish and actually lived in Los Estados Unidos for awhile. It was very interesting to hear her story and practice physical therapy excercises on "hippity-hop balls"(I don't know what they're actually called, but you know what I mean).
After shadowing the Physical Therapist, Tim came back, got us, and led us to a small room where he just talked to us for an hour. He was very kind and open about his life. He gave us several pieces of advice for entering the medical field and cautioned us to the difficulties of the field. It turns out that he couldn't get into a med school in the U.S, so he went to med school in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he met his wife. The two married and started the clinic in Cochabamba. The clinic grew over time, and Tim's responsibilities within the clinic changed as well. He is currently the "go to guy" for ultrasounds at the clinic, and he let us shadow him for four ultrasounds. I had never seen an ultrasound before in person and found it very difficult to pick out all the details in the images. Nevertheless, it was awesome to see the way he interacted with his patients even though the majority of his job was based around operating machinery.
In the end, I was very glad to have a new experience and glad to receive some advice from a man who had been in the field of Medicine for over 25 years. After the ultrasounds, we asked Tim about his children, and like almost any parent, he was very happy to tell us about his kids. His daughter and youngest son are in good shape, but he told us most about his oldest son, who is severely addicted to Marijuana, among other drugs. Because of his son's condition, he and his wife started a drug rehab center in the city of Tiquipaya just north of Cochabamba. As he told us about the difficulties he had experienced with his oldest son he became slightly verklempt, and I appreciated his honesty.
At the end of the day, I was very glad for the new experiences that I had acquired and people I had met. I appreciated Tim's story and his authenticity, especially when speaking of his family. I felt inspired by the love that he displayed for his son even though his son had brought him through such pain and difficulty. Even now I don't know how this will factor into all that I have learned in Bolivia, but I know that it will stay with me for a long time.
Just so you all know, I am going to visit two of the most visited tourist locations in all of Bolivia in the next few days; one tomorrow and one on Sunday. Be sure to check back here next Wednesday or Thursday as I will try to update around then.
Kevin Quinby
A new experience.
A new experience.
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