Kid washing and Salar de Uyuni

I bet you are wondering what "kid washing" is right? I was too! It has to be one of the most interesting experiences I have ever had, but bigger than that, it was really humbling as well. Every Saturday there is a ministry group that bathes street childrene in Cochabamba and we had the honor of helping them out a few times. We set up tents, have hot water, and children line up from ages 7 weeks to about 4 years old for about a 2 minute bath on the Plaza. It is an hour of chaos...little naked children running around (that are more than ready for a bath), people shouting for more water, and looking for childrens' parents (most of them who only speak Quechuan so we can't communicate).  We are given a small bathtub about two feet long and one foot wide, a bucket of water and some soap. There is only a limited amount of water, so by the time you are done with one bath there is only about 1/2 inch of brown water at the bottom of the tub. Some kids splash in the water, some just sit there, some cry :( especially the littlest ones. It is so nice to see little dirty black feet and messy faces get clean, but it is hard to know that they go right back to living on the street as we go back to our comfortable beds and hot showers. I just hope that they know that even though were are there for just a few hours, that they know that they are loved and they have a hope in Christ Jesus.

On another note...

Sunday afternoon a few of us took of on an adventure to Salar de Uyuni. Basically, it used to be a lake that evaporated and left a huge "lake" of salt for miles and miles. It is so cool. Supposedly, you can see it from the moon....at least that is what someone told us....i have yet to check it out on google maps. It was such a strange experience....miles and miles of white (kinda like snow) but it really messed with your depth perception (which made for some awesome photos). We hired a guide company that drove us around to some islands, a hotel made of salt, and a train cemetary. Look for pics (maybe on some of the linked blogs)

 48 hours of traveling, same clothes, no shower, little sleep :) We are all feeling great!

I was supposed to leave tonight for La Paz, stay there until Thursday and then catch my flight to Mexico....but I just cant bring myself to get on another bus today....I will just travel in the morning. Pray for safety traveling to Mexico. My flight leaves Thursday afternoon and I hope to be at CVE by Friday afternoon. Lord willing I will be seeing many of you on Saturday!!!

Blogs

Here are some blogs of some of the volunteers I am with and we have had simialar experiences...Marcia has been here for a while so I guess Anna's blog is more relevant.... but they do a way better job and have pictures :)

http://squeekypig94.blogspot.com/

http://chickadee125.blogspot.com/

The Unexpected

I have been at Hospitals of Hope for just over a week now and I can truly say that this has been quite a different experience then I ever expected. Honestly, I didn’t know exactly what I was walking into with this organization, but from reading about it on the internet I figured that 2 weeks anywhere couldn’t be that tough. Prior to arriving here, I had my stethoscope, my medical book (actually an app I downloaded onto my phone) and my scrubs all lined up for some hard work at the hospital….however…..that isn’t really what we are doing here. The hospital is actually very well staffed, so the volunteers play a different role. I would say that the medical students benefit from this the most, it is very learning centered and a lot of time is spent watching surgeries and working in the clinic with the doctors. After a few days of that, I prefer to stay with the nurses or sit and talk with patients. However, we aren’t even in the hospital that much. A typical day starts with hospital rounds at 8 then we stay at the hospital for only a few hours. Other times we help out or attend other random functions at the hospital during the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen some pretty cool things, brain surgery….a chest tube put in (with a glass bottle reservoir for the drainage)….facial burns….broken everything….. The most interesting times are when large car accidents happen (which in one week I have already seen about 3) and several people are in the ER and doctors and nurses just move from patient to patient. This is when I help out a bit and things can be fun.
The biggest blessing this trip has been the events outside of the actual hospital. Yesterday we spent the morning at an orphanage for girls 12-18. I was a little intimidated because I remember what I was like at that age J One of the other volunteers planned for a project and lesson based around butterflies….It was really cool and sent a deeper message to the girls about a being born again and life with Jesus. The surprising thing was that they loved it! They were totally into the project and seemed to enjoy being with us. We joked, talked about movies they liked, things they liked to do for fun…they really seemed to appreciate the morning…and, of course, we loved it as well. Last evening we went to a different orphanage in the evening. It was called Casa de Amor and seems to be run really well. Many of the kids actually end up getting adoped, which is a really hard thing to do in Bolivia…years of paperwork. The children were from 7 weeks old (my favorite) to 3 and it was awesome spending time with them. I don’t know how the long term workers at these places do it! There were so many horror stories about the kids who ended up there. It was heartbreaking in a way, but also wonderful to see that they were in a “safe” place.