Mooo

Well, we are in day 2 of surgeries for this week, and so far so good! This group is a lot different than the last surgical group that came in, but I guess every group takes on its own personality because of the people that come. I think for the last trip, the majority of the doctors/nurses were middle-aged to twenty year olds, but now I'm pretty sure I am the youngest nurse here. We have 3 teenagers who came with their moms, but other than that there are 4 other 20-somethings out of the 50 people that came and the rest are grandparents. My roommate is a grandma to 5, sweet as can be, and just so nervous about all this new stuff in Guatemala. So very cute. I am thankful she brought her Breathe Right Strips.

The patients are mostly GYN and hernia patients like last time. We did have a thyroid removal last night and will probably have a couple gall-bladder removals too. I have a sweet patient named Lilly who was just enthrawled when I told her that her name is an Easter Flower. I felt so special that she remembered my name.....even if it was when she was yelling for me to tell me she was about to throw up everywhere. Poor thing! She is feeling much better today, and was so proud to tell me that she got up and walked this morning with the morning nurses. I am working mostly the 3p-11p shift again. They had to divide out the spanish speaking nurses, so I'm the one for this shift- what a compliment! Talk about pain, nausea, and needing to pee, and I'm your go to girl, but talk about a whole lot beyond that and I need help! I think that when I get home I'm going to need to buy Rosetta stone or something so that when I come back again I'll get all the rules and vocabulary down that I'm lacking.

Now for some Guatemalan stories? Ok, so on Friday night, we ate these things called like Chervichis. I'm not really spell them. But basically, its like a gumbo made of onions, various sauces, cilantro, tomato, and shrimp. But, the meat can be substituted for other things if you like. Well, at church on Friday night (remember they go to church every night....) we had a special service, more community oriented and had Chervichis afterwards. But.....Mario, one of the my friend here who speaks english, started laughing when he heard what it was made with. So, finally he told me it was made of cow stomach! I'm not even kidding. I ate like 3/4 of it, but then I saw the little boy from my house eating only the stomach out of it, I thought I would be generous and donate my meat to him! It was so weird people. It was like meshy and you could see like the acid pumps as like these tentacle parts.

On Saturday, I got to go to Mazate (the "big" city near my village) for the day via public transport. It was really fun. We went to the mall and ate Pizza Hut. Mmmm. On the way there, we rode in like a 15 passanger bus where we each had our own seat. But....on the way back to Chicacao, we had to pack into what they call the "chicken bus" which is an old american school bus. We had to sit 3 to a seat with the aisle packed too. It was like playing twister in a bus! I am pretty sure I had someone's hand on my butt, my shoulder in someone's back, a foot in my face, and some random child trying to breast feed off me. Ok, I made up the breast feeding part, but that would have made the experience complete. It was a fun ride back....you can't say you have fully experienced Guatemala until you ride the chicken bus.

The other big happening was that I got into an ant pile yesterday. I should have known better. After church, I stepped into the grass to talk to somebody and all of a sudden had an incredible burning pain in my feet. I looked down and was covered! After running like a mad woman (in a skirt) across the grass, it took 3 doctors to help me get the ants off my feet. But, thankfully, I got back and coated my feet in benadryl cream, and I can't even feel the itch anymore. I'm glad it happened to me instead of one of the new comers because I blame myself....I know better than to get in the grass here. Don't drink the water, don't get in the grass, and don't eat cow stomach.

But all is well here. I'm going to go back to my room and rest before lunch so that I'm ready for my shift in a bit. Hope everyone is doing well. Be home in less than 2 weeks now.