daines'n around

Being around hospital patients has finally caught up to me. And what’s worse? Someone asked me to teach them how to count to ten in Portuguese, and it is so similar to Spanish that i had to say it out loud two or three times before i remembered. Yes, my language skills are improving.
Sitting in our make shift pharmacy on Wednesday one of the nurses came in very frantic saying she needed a translator immediately. I reluctantly said that I could fake it. So off i went to the pediatrics ward to cover for the translator who had to leave. 6 hours have never passed that fast net on the mission.

It is amazing that i am able to understand about 80 percent of the conversation in normal everyday life. I know that by me not being too shy to ask what a word is, or ask others to correct me helps me learn. I figure i am learning about 30 new vocabulary words a day.

Kathy, a friend who is here as a nurse, said that it was amazing that I could speak another language. She doesn't speak another language and said that i can understand everyone and carry entertaining conversations with more depth than "where is the bathroom" or "how much does this cost."

It was funny when I walked into a store on Saturday to see if they had a Peru soccer jersey, for the national team and they didn't have it. I laughed and asked why not, we were after all in Peru. They said that no one buys the jersey there. Two other stores reported the same thing, so i guess I'll have to wait until I can get to a tourist trap to find one.

Things went so well in pediatrics, the doctors asked the coordinator that I finish out the week with them as a translator. The most common complaint Peruvians parents have from their children is a lack of appetite, or they “don’t eat enough”. But them seem very relieved when we prescribe vitamins and provide them with a month’s supply.

This isn't to say that the children we are saying need not see a doctor. Many of these children are seeing doctors for the first time ever, and traveling from very far distances.

One little three year old girl, Kelley, came in on Thursday with a tumor on her right thigh. The doctors examined her, and luckily on that Friday we still had our volunteer pediatric surgeon in the hospital. She was admitted and the tumor was removed, and I even have pictures documenting before, during, and after surgery.

The week ended very fast and most of the volunteers who only stayed the first week went home Friday night and Saturday morning. Another group of second-week volunteers arrived this morning but we have yet to meet them.

Thursday we also had the opportunity to go the local orphanage run by the convent of nuns. Seeing all two hundred of the children swarming around the 25 or-so doctors, nurses, and volunteers was refreshing and at the same time somewhat sad. I could only imagine how much happier they would be having families and people besides nuns and other orphans to create loving bonds with.

The kids liked to use me as a jungle gym and we took about an hour and i entertained a group of about 25 kids who were all amazed at my weird Spanish accent that didn't sound like the typical united states volunteer. Luckily, i am able to make fun of myself and tease in Spanish so i think i have a few more friends, and some great smiling faces in pictures.

Being around the pediatrics ward, and the orphanage seem to have caught up with me. I had a mild fever Friday night, and my energy was about zero all day Saturday. Some soup and a little bit of sleep seems to have helped out, and hopefully by the end of Sunday i will be ready for another week of work at the hospital.

Other than a little lack of energy, things are going great and I am looking forward to starting another new week here in Ayacucho, Peru.