Pediatric Hospital, Jesus Statue and the Market

Friday:

In the morning I volunteered with the physical therapist. She gives massages and helps the long-term patients regain strength. Rachel and Allison also volunteered with me. Rachel taught me a lot about IV solutions, nursing terms (I know what NPO means!) and the different tubes nurses put into patients. I am even more excited for nursing school after learning about all of the different things nurses get to learn how to do. Allison is fluent in Spanish so she was able to translate for us. One of the patients had a herniated disk, the other needed respiration therapy.

In the afternoon, 6 of the volunteers went to a big hospital in downtown Cochabamba. It was huge compared to Hospitals of Hope! HOH has a connection with an organization that houses parents of the sick kids, kind of like the Ronald McDonald house. They make bread to raise money for the families. After that we got to visit with the sick kids. This might have been my favorite part of the trip. These kids had different types of diseases, but you could see how much it meant for them to have us come and read and play with them. The minute I walked into the pediatric floor, I felt this excitement and peace that is hard to describe. It was as if God was telling me that this was my calling. My heart breaks for sick kids. I can’t wait to be able to minister to sick kids through nursing. Even though it was for a short amount of time, today I got a taste of my future in pediatric nursing.

One of the girls, Juana, broke her arm. She had an IV so I think she might have injured another part of her body. Anyway, she is 11 and wants to be a teacher. We read some books together and talked about her interests. She is a Christian and goes to a large house church in the city. I also got to read books to a patient who was severally handicapped (couldn’t talk) and another who had some sort of head injury. Kids are the best. They were gracious with my limited Spanish and were thankful for the little time I spent with them.

In the evening, we played Anomia and Uno with the volunteers. Anomia has been quite popular in Bolivia—thanks mom. J Wheaton and two of the independents went on a 5-day vacation to the salt flats, so we only have 10 volunteers now. It was nice to have a smaller group, but we miss them! 

Saturday:

I was incredibly touristy today. In the morning we went to a nice restaurant that had Beyonce music playing. It felt like the U.S! Then, we walked to the statue of Jesus in Cochabamba. He is literally and figuratively looking over this beautiful city. We took a gondola up to the statue. We took lots of pictures and admired the huge statue. A Bolivian approached me (totally stranger) and asked if I could take a picture with her mom. They just wanted a picture with a white person! It was so funny and weird! For us, it seems strange, but white people are so rare in Cochabamba I suppose my presence was monumental.

Lydia and I

The whole group!

Whole group, again

Neco and Rose

This Bolivian family wanted to take a picture of me because I am white and blonde and that is very rare in Bolivia. So thankful Allison stood behind them and took this picture. 

While walking to the market with Rose and Neco, we stumbled on this water feature. They nonchalantly mentioned that this was the middle of South America. So folks, I have been at the center of South America. Pretty cool!

Center of South America

We then went to the market where I scurried around and tried to get gifts for everyone. Some of my purchases include a llama sweater, llama socks and a scarf. I also got some illegal DVD’s. In South America, it is legal to sell pirated movies. So there are millions of movies on sale, a lot of them aren’t even out on DVD in America. They are also incredibly cheap. I bought 11 DVD’s for the equivalent of $4 U.S. Pretty crazy! Watch out family, we now have all three Toy Stories. J

Today was incredible! The more time I spend in Cochabamba, the more I love it. The people and country is beautiful. God has been teaching me so much. I can’t wait to write more about what I am learning.

Hasta luego!  

Burn Clinics, Jesus Statue, and the Market

Friday:

In the morning I volunteered with the physical therapist. She gives massages and helps the long-term patients regain strength. Rachel and Allison also volunteered with me. Rachel taught me a lot about IV solutions, nursing terms (I know what NPO means!) and the different tubes nurses put into patients. I am even more excited for nursing school after learning about all of the different things nurses get to learn how to do. Allison is fluent in Spanish so she was able to translate for us. One of the patients had a herniated disk, the other needed respiration therapy.

In the afternoon, 6 of the volunteers went to a big hospital in downtown Cochabamba. It was huge compared to Hospitals of Hope! HOH has a connection with an organization that houses parents of the sick kids, kind of like the Ronald McDonald house. They make bread to raise money for the families. After that we got to visit with the sick kids. This might have been my favorite part of the trip. These kids had different types of diseases, but you could see how much it meant for them to have us come and read and play with them. The minute I walked into the pediatric floor, I felt this excitement and peace that is hard to describe. It was as if God was telling me that this was my calling. My heart breaks for sick kids. I can’t wait to be able to minister to sick kids through nursing. Even though it was for a short amount of time, today I got a taste of my future in pediatric nursing.

One of the girls, Juana, broke her arm. She had an IV so I think she might have injured another part of her body. Anyway, she is 11 and wants to be a teacher. We read some books together and talked about her interests. She is a Christian and goes to a large house church in the city. I also got to read books to a patient who was severally handicapped (couldn’t talk) and another who had some sort of head injury. Kids are the best. They were gracious with my limited Spanish and were thankful for the little time I spent with them.

In the evening, we played Anomia and Uno with the volunteers. Anomia has been quite popular in Bolivia—thanks mom. J Wheaton and two of the independents went on a 5-day vacation to the salt flats, so we only have 10 volunteers now. It was nice to have a smaller group, but we miss them! 

Saturday:

I was incredibly touristy today. In the morning we went to a nice restaurant that had Beyonce music playing. It felt like the U.S! Then, we walked to the statue of Jesus in Cochabamba. He is literally and figuratively looking over this beautiful city. We took a gondola up to the statue. We took lots of pictures and admired the huge statue. A Bolivian approached me (totally stranger) and asked if I could take a picture with her mom. They just wanted a picture with a white person! It was so funny and weird! For us, it seems strange, but white people are so rare in Cochabamba I suppose my presence was monumental.

While walking to the market with Rose and Neco, we stumbled on this water feature. They nonchalantly mentioned that this was the middle of South America. So folks, I have been at the center of South America. Pretty cool!

We then went to the market where I scurried around and tried to get gifts for everyone. Some of my purchases include a llama sweater, llama socks and a scarf. I also got some illegal DVD’s. In South America, it is legal to sell pirated movies. So there are millions of movies on sale, a lot of them aren’t even out on DVD in America. They are also incredibly cheap. I bought 11 DVD’s for the equivalent of $4 U.S. Pretty crazy! Watch out family, we now have all three Toy Stories. J

Today was incredible! The more time I spend in Cochabamba, the more I love it. The people and country is beautiful. God has been teaching me so much. I can’t wait to write more about what I am learning.

Hasta luego!  

Finding God in Sickness

**For any concerned readers, I am 100% healed today. I just had some food poisoning, as my stomach is used to American food- not delicious Bolivian food. It could have been a lot worse and everyone here took great care of me. Thank you for your concerns. :)

My time in Bolivia has been incredibly humbling for me. God has been teaching and revealing so much during the past week. Through my ‘heart leakage’ God has shown me the areas that need strengthening in my life. He has showed me that He is the only healer. Nothing I ever do will be able to fix a person, it is all God.

Part of the humbling process I have experienced in Bolivia has been through sickness. Last night I woke up with an awful stomach ache. It was just a case of food poisoning, but God taught me some valuable lessons. 

Laying here, I feel more useless than I have ever felt before. Then, I am reminded that I am always sick.  If it isn’t my body, my soul and spirit are weak. I turn away from God constantly. He is my Pepto-Bismol that I frequently forget to take. His Word is the fluid that I need to drink, even though I am normally dehydrated.  Even though I forget these things, He keeps pursuing me.

“I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 1:6

Spiritually speaking, I have the stomach flu. My soul should be feverish and dead.  Yet, God allows us to be a part of his story.  God fills in the gaps and I am so thankful for that.

I am reading a book called Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul. This quote from the book really hit me.

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov. 21:1). It is only God who moves my heart. He chases me down and lures me back to him; while I am running to everyone else, he runs after me.

God keeps running after me, even when I am sick. He loves me, even though I am sick. And he keeps changing me, even though I am sick. I am so thankful that I worship a God who is the ultimate healer. 

Blood, Organizing and New Volunteers!

Monday:

Today will go down in Bethany Smith history… I got to draw blood for the first time! Phoebe, Kayla and I volunteered in the lab today. We got to see different blood and urine samples. Dr. Daniel, the doctor in charge of the lab, tests different samples for diseases and viruses. I saw urine with too much sperm, macrophages and bacteria all in one day! I am sorry if you don’t find that interesting—I am a full on nursing nerd. J Dr. Daniel let me draw his blood-- he deserves an award for the most trusting doctor.  His veins were great and so I got blood within one try! I was also able to test my own blood after Phoebe drew my blood. I am O- (a universal donor). Afterwards we talked about biochemistry because he also teaches biochemistry at a local school. I told him that I just learned about Krebs’s Cycle and metabolism. His eyes lit up when I told him that I just completed a poster on the metabolism of a turkey wrap. He asked me if I had it with me. I told him that, unfortunately it wouldn’t have fit in my luggage. J

In the afternoon, Hannah, Josh, Rachel and I organized the medicine closet. Hannah and Rachel are two new nursing volunteers from Alabama. They are almost done with nursing school and have been teaching me a ton about nursing. The closet was incredibly disorganized. It was as if a pharmacy blew up! We were able to organize all of the donated medicine so that the volunteers can easily find medicine for clinics and donations.

Tuesday:

We took a break from the hospital today. Instead, we went to a boy’s orphanage that was 30 minutes away from the hospital. We painted and cleaned for the boys. The boys were adorable and we enjoyed giggling and playing with them. The walls were in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint. Dirt and dust covered the blue walls. I got to mop one of the rooms that was covered in dirt. It felt so good to be able to make their living space a little more like home.

In the afternoon, we went to a baby orphanage. Which—of course—involved lots of pictures and baby holding. We fed them and then played with the kids outside. A lot of the babies were sick—imagine living with ten other toddlers!

If you could remember to pray for the orphans, that would be wonderful. They need safe homes and loving families. The babies and boys are taken care of, but they don’t get the attention or love that every child deserves. Pray for protection and families that are willing to adopt a child.

The orphanage

Lydia and Jose

COWS!

Baby Orphanage

Wednesday and Thursday:

I got sick Wednesday morning with some type of food poisoning. I didn’t get all that sick but spent Wednesday and Thursday recovering from a weak stomach. I watched Oz and 007 Skyfall as well as Sparkle. Rose and the other girls took great care of me. I ate lots of soup and slept a lot.