Fun in the Sun!

Yesterday was a fun day for me because a few of us traveled to a different clinic in downtown Cochabamba for some more shawdowing.  I ended up watching a breast implantation surgery which was pretty cool to see.  The patient was awake the whole time with only local anastetic to the breast tissue.  That freaked me out the most to know that she was awake for the whole thing!  They also did some sort of belly button reconstruction, but I'm not sure because I don't speak much Spanish and they doctor only spoke it. 

After that our whole group went to an orphanage we had gone to previously.  This one had 12 kids ages 3-7 and the last time we went there it was CRAZY!  This time it was better, the kids seemed more mellow and we took them to a local park where they played and also colored.  That evening we were on our own for dinner, so we decided to make breakfast burritos with pico de giao.  I chopped the tomatoes and the celantro for the pico, and we added fresh orange juice because we didn't have lemon or lime.  We just kind of made due with what we had and it turned out pretty good. 

This morning we got up and went to a "resort" with a nice warm swimming pool and beautiful grounds!  I was so happy when I found out we were going swimming because I LOVE IT and I haven't gone it so long.  It was a little chilly when we first got there, but the warm water was so nice I didn't want to get out.  I stayed in the water for about two hours before getting out and sunbathing to dry off.  Then we wandered around the grounds, found a suspension bridge that scared me to death and a zip line that I did not try.  It was a wonderful relaxing morning!

This afternoon we washed street children again, then gave them clothes and food.  I was in the clothing tent which was stressful because all of the children's mothers were trying to grab as many clothes as they could.  I couln't understant them because they were either speaking spanish or another tribal dialect that no one knows.  But we dressed them and finished that adventure.

Tomorrow Anna, Kevin, Marcia, Heidi and I are all taking a little "field trip" to the salt flat which are about 10 hours from here by bus.  We will be gone Sunday, Monday and hopefully return by Tuesday.  This is a commom thing for people to do while volunteering here at Hospitals of Hope and I am looking forward to the trip.  Marcia and Heidi are more or less experts at Spanish so I'm not worried about getting around and talking to the locals.  Please pray for safe travels as we go and have a bit of fun.  I will continue my blog when we return because there will be no internet access and I don't want to lug my laptop around.  Thank you so much for your support and prayers!  God Bless!

Sarah