Today was my 3rd day at HOH. In the afternoon on Monday, we went to an orphanage called Fundacion Esperanza to play with the kids for a couple of hours - there were surprisingly well behaved! We ended up reading to them and giving them piggy back rides for a long time. They were easily pleased so that was fairly easy, but rather exhausting.
Yesterday we went to the hospital, and Christina and I shadowed the internal med doc again. We saw a lady (Quechua) come in who came from an area that commonly saw the parasite that causes Chagas disease - one of the later manifestations is heart enlargement, so they did an EKG on her, which turned out normal. We also talked with Josemar, another one of the brazilian med interns, for a while who is hoping to do another BBQ at his house soon. I think there is a big ministry opportunity to be a light to the interns - I don't think many of them know Jesus, and they seem very open to us and willing to talk.
Yesterday after the hospital we came home and had something called silpancho - a Bolivian meal - so freakin' good! It's just rice, fried potato slices, fried beef, a fried egg, and tomato, but for some reason its ridiculously delicious. I napped for a while after Sam and I spend some time in the sun on mattresses we pulled onto the lawn in the courtyard. We also ended up going to a bible study at 3 American's apartment in Cochabamba - 2 girls who worked as nurses at HOH for a year as their first job out of nursing school, then began teaching a bible school here, created their own radio show that plays every day at 1, and are going to start a prison ministry (one of them, Shelley, is actually from Colorado Springs ironically) - They were BA! It made me wonder how my life could be different if i did something like that after nursing school.
Today at the hospital, Christina and I walked around and talked to a guy with a broken arm (brought him some reading materials because the hospital here can be super lonely and boring, and most family members live far away and can't come to visit often). We also talked with a lady who spoke a little Spanish, but mostly Quechua. I told her I wanted to learn, but I think she misunderstood and thought I knew it - woops! haha. She taught me "Ayatamani", which means goodbye. I hope to be able to bring one of my Quechua dictionaries and try to talk to her again tomorrow.
We went to Fundacion Esperanza again tonight and I did some more reading and twirled some of the girls around for a while. They are adorable, haha. I told one of the little girls, Juliana, that I had a secret for her "Jesus te ama!", and she looks around and says "Donde?" (Where?). haha! I told her he lived in heaven, but was also always with her and lived in her heart too. Maybe it meant nothing to her, but maybe it was a seed. Sometimes I wonder how much of a difference I am going to make as a foreigner here and for the short amount of time that I am here. But I was talking to Kelli last night about how short term missions have seemed to become kind of like a "trend" or the cool thing to do for Christians rather than truly caring about the people and how sad that is. We both agreed that there is still a place for short term missions, but that sometimes we miss our call to be a light to our own communities - they need Jesus just as much as anyone. I don't know... sometimes I think of how much I love speaking Spanish and traveling, but am I just denying my own home community in my efforts to show people thousands of miles away Jesus? I guess the rock I have to rest on is that whatever I do, if anything good, I do it all by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he will guide me. Father, give me courage and boldness to seek out the path you hold for me. Help me to constantly pursue you with a desperate heart, knowing You love and respond to the lowly of heart, the hungry, the sojourner.
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