Getting to Know Trinidad

I usually love traveling for work or pleasure, but this week traveling meant leaving my little Ange for the first time overnight, and on Día del Niño at that! But, other than getting a little sick, probably from lack of rest due to the school-night sleepover, she did well, and I had a great trip too. A little absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Coalson Lacey is a Texan vet with thoughts of serving with VetRed here in Bolivia longterm, specifically in the small city of Trinidad. Trinidad is the capital of Bolivia's department the Beni, an 8 hour-ish car ride, or 1 hour flight, Northwest of Santa Cruz. So, to help him solidify his ideas about God's plans for his life, Coalson's been visiting us here in Bolivia for about 10 days, very generously doing whatever's been requested of him by us, the veterinary school in Santa Cruz, or the university in Trinidad.

Requests as wide ranging as couriering down a portable isoflurane machine from the US, giving a lecture on shock to hundreds of students and professors at a veterinary conference, training the Trinidad students in small animal surgery, training the veterinarians in treating an equine foot abscess, giving a semi-spontaneous sermon at a church service, and castrating whatever large or small animals the Trinidad professors could wrangle up. Much of this while being recorded for the local university cable channel and closed-circuit TV for the students who wouldn't fit into the surgical suite.

He's held up amazingly well under the pressure of the film crew, large audiences, and the language barrier, even when he had to improvise on the spot or reach back 4-5 years in his memory for the last time he'd thought about the procedure asked of him. The cool thing about Coalson seems to be that he can do all these things not because of his own skill or expertise, but out of his reliance on God. As you might hear him say if you ask him to do something seemingly crazy or at least outside his comfort zone, "Nothing is impossible with God." An attitude I hope rubs off on me more when Coalson comes to join our team serving in a similarly hot, sticky, mosquito-filled tropical region of Bolivia. Don't worry Coalson, even surviving Dengue Fever is possible through Christ who strengthens us.

(I also want to recognize the sacrifice my co-workers Bill and David have made to leave their families for a week and show Coalson the beauty of Bolivia. Bill is now stuck in Trinidad indefinitely because of blockades preventing him from driving his car back home to SC. I'm sure he would appreciate your prayers.)

Día del Niño (isn't every day?)

Today's the Day of the Kid, and it's kind of a big deal. This is clearly my first of such holidays where I'm in charge of spoiling one of these aforementioned kids, but from what I can tell it's on a scale with Christmas and birthdays. We could maybe say it's a joint birthday party for every kid in Bolivia, replete with soda, cake, piñata, and sugar coma.

Sunday, to kick off the country wide celebration of youth, we joined a little rural church plant for a neighborhood party.

The meeting place was under a big tree, the stage - a flatbed truck, the publicity - speakers from said flatbed truck.

A hilarious clown attracted the children from the neighborhood. Then there were songs, a story about Zacchaeus, with an adorable craft, face painting, empanadas, and to top it all off of course, balloon animals!

To spare the children and faint of heart, I won't post a picture of the clown face I was decorated with, let's just say it was described as "intense". But it wasn't enough to scare away these kiddos, in some semblance of a line, eager for their balloons!

At the end of a great afternoon, I think this little 4-family church that meets in a house was quite happy with their party, and I know the kids were ecstatic.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." -Mark 10:14-16

I love how this verse in Spanish says Jesus hugged the kiddos.

Now, I'm leaving my Angel for the first night ever for a little work trip, better go get my hugs before the sugar coma sets in.

Buena Vista

Last Friday, special visitor in tow, I went to pick up Ange after school with plans to hit one of our favorite hotspots for out-of-town guests, the sand dunes. When her teacher handed me something I'd really not prepared for at all, her first report card. It was a bit of a tense moment as Angie, Jon, and her teacher all watched me scan the results and digest the fact that Ange is basically failing English class. Her teacher comforted me that it's only the first of three reports for the semester, and told me that the biggest problem is that she's talking to her friends and not paying attention in class. (Strangely, she got great marks in the "Respects Teacher" category.)

So, we talked once again about how we're gonna speak more English at home, we discussed how she's not gonna talk to anyone during class, and we clarified that our fun trip to play at the sand dunes was not a reward for those grades. Then we scheduled her appointment to get her eyes checked something I'd been meaning to do for a couple months.

She whined and complained and threatened not to get out of the car on the way to the optometrist. She tried her best to read those little letters on the eye test, and she sulked a bit during the picking out frames phase. But I think it helped that I was so jealous that she gets to wear them and I don't, and it definitely didn't hurt that we ended up with the cutest little glasses in the world, and of course she's no less beautiful than ever wearing them. And then ironically, she whined and complained because I didn't get a chance to pick them up the very next day. I can't win!

Yesterday, she tried them out for the first time at school. Of course there was one little boy who made fun of her. Yet again my ignorance of Spanish saved me, as I wanted to say "who is he? I'll beat him up!" but didn't know how to translate that. So instead we talked about how much Jesus got made fun of, and how he loved his enemies anyway. A lesson that's easier to explain than do because loving the enemies of your child is a whole 'nother level of agape!

Back to Work

So, I really haven't been away from work, the new semester's been up and running at the university for a month now, but it's back to work for you guys since you haven't heard about anything but Ange for months!

The campus ministry's going strong. The university itself is having its share of struggles between marches, strikes, and rising unrest in the students and faculty who are fighting to keep their autonomy as the government threatens to seize it. In the midst of cancelled classes and constant uncertainty we just put on a very successful conference called "How to Get Good Grades and Have Fun," we have a growing new Bible study, a steady stream of new students in the English classes, and an increasing interest in the surgical training I offer weekly.

This week I had a guest in town who accompanied me on my afternoon of surgeries with the students. In attempts to prevent passing out at the sight of the needles, he concentrated on staying upright by snapping some pictures.

Students from any semester are welcome to attend, so we have a variable level of expertise, but proper restraint is an area they can always use more work in. As is injection location and technique.

Placing IV catheters is a simple procedure, but not such a common one here. Using only injectable anesthesia for the spays and neuters makes IV access ideal, but I also have the added incentive to demonstrate and let the students, and sometimes professors, practice.

I'm willing to be flexible and surgerize the way the Bolivians do in some aspects, such as using IV Halatal as my induction, a drug I'm not sure I'd even heard of in the past, but one standard I don't let slide is sterility. After a year of somewhat weekly surgeries, I think even the new students come in knowing my reputation. The surgeon and assistants always wear sterile gloves, we shave the surgical site and clean it 3 times with iodine alternating with alcohol, we use a drape and sterilized instruments (I'm pretty sure we're the only ones in the entire hospital that use the autoclave), we open things sterilely, and only the people gloved in touch anything in the surgical site.

Since we're on our own, I also get to quickly train them to be anesthesia experts minus ECG, pulse ox, doppler, etc. We've always got the good old fashioned stethoscope and the tongue pulse.

And when we nick the spleen (whoops) we're glad we have that IV access to give a little fluid boost while the body is doing its clotting miracle.

Surgery instruction is just one more thing we offer to build relationships with the students and show them Christ's love in a tangible way.

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." -1 Peter 4:10

For those of you who were here looking for your fix of Angelica thanks for bearing with us, check out the 20-something new photos I just added to Facebook. ;)

Happy Father’s Day to Me (and Jesus)

Today is Bolivian Father’s Day, which means this week has pretty much been Fathers' Week at school. It started when Angelica had to take a picture with her papá to school. Then in music class they drew a picture of their dads. In language class they talked about their fathers. And for homework she had to write a card to her daddy. Oh my!

In our 2.5 months together I’ve often thought of myself as a better dad than mom. Having a high pain tolerance does not make for a super compassionate mommy, nor does being really cheap help me empathize when she wants multiple band-aids a day. Having never gone to the nurse’s office in all of my years of education, nor taken a single sick day that I can remember, makes it difficult to understand why she’s already been to the nurse’s office twice in her first month of school. Fortunately, I don’t really know how to call her a “wimp” or tell her to “man up” in Spanish, so I just tell her she’s “very sensitive” which is probably more PC anyway.

However, as tough and scrappy as I may be, I know I can’t really be her dad. But there’s someone in Ange’s life who can. And when it came time to write that card to her papí, she knew just who to write it to; the Father to the fatherless. I’ve corrected spelling and added punctuation for you but here's what she said about Him:

“Mi papá es increible, es bueno, cariñoso. Es bonito hablar con Dios. Muy amable es el Todopoderoso.” (Translation: "My dad is incredible, he's good, he's caring. It's beautiful to talk with God. The Almighty is very nice.")

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy.” -Psalm 68:5

(Pictured are the crafts she made in school this week for her Daddy--me!)

Manis and Pedis

On May 30th, 2008 I met this beautiful young lady.

On December 24th, 2009 God brought this little angel into my life.

On April 19th, 2010 I couldn't choose between them and therefore started sponsoring them both at Talita Cumi.

Now, nearly a year later, Ange and I are taking advantage of every opportunity to be with our dear friend, Jenny.

Last week we had her over for dinner and games. Today, we visited the salon where she works to get our nails done. Maybe next week we'll need some highlights...

Angie's first professional manicure <$3, a pedi for me <$3, a lovely visit with a dear friend = priceless!

First Slumber Party, Thousandth Cultural Faux Pas

So Carnaval here is kind of a big deal. The whole city shuts down for four days. It remains questionable whether the whole city needs to shut down or everyone just uses the "bedlam" as an excuse to retreat into their houses for a long weekend of solitude. Our church decreed it too risky to get close to the potential danger, or more accurately shooting paint, and cancelled service for Sunday and prayer group for Monday. As I knew Ange would want nothing but to shoot me with water guns, spray foam, and water balloons all weekend, I thought maybe it'd be a good idea to bring in reinforcements.

So, on our way to small group last Thursday I mentioned to Angie's little friend Carla, that maybe she could come over sometime to play, maybe even a sleepover. When I turned to ask her mom's opinion of the idea, I learned I was once again unintentionally gringofying Bolivia. Turns out not only has almost 9 year-old Carla never spent the night away from her parents, but also that Bolivians don't have slumber parties, well except the "ricos." Ugh, I'd just classified myself with the rich people. But after the great success of Ange and Carla's first pajama party I think this phenomenon's gonna catch on, for better or worse. I'm really not trying to impose North American culture.

Did you ever have trouble at sleepovers? I remember really enjoying them until the morning when I would wake up before 8am, and stare at the ceiling for hours until the other girls finally got up around noon (at least being a morning person is beneficial in almost every other situation.) And I remember that whenever my sister spent the night out she would be randomly and rapidly hit with a stomach bug, and not just in her head or as an excuse, there were real symptoms if you know what I mean.

Angelica and Carla did great overall, but there was a bit of an awkward low point when, during our showing of How to Train Your Dragon, Ange started sobbing UNCONTROLLABLY in fear that they were gonna hurt Toothless. Oh my, the child has a heart for animals just liker her momma, and she's no less compassionate towards the imaginary variety. After previewing the last half hour I was able to assure the girls the next morning that everything was gonna be just fine and we were all able to finish the movie without any more tears. Now it's time to get back to work and school and fighting to the death with the little munchkin to get moving in the morning. But it sure has been a great four days of water, relaxation, spray foam, visiting with friends, more water, cleaning everything we could find, and lots and lots of playing.