Friday--June 15th
Today concludes the end of an incredibly full exciting week! Even in the down times I have been learning about Spanish/English regular and medical dictionary apps for my phone. ConjuVerb is excellent app for looking up verbs and conjugations, and I have been trying to study and re-learn all those verb conjugations and irregular verbs I once knew in high school. Thank you Mr. R and Mrs. F! I am very thankful for all the Spanish study in high school and wishing Spanish classes had made their way into my college coursework. Also, in the technology front, figuring how to call home and videochat people in the US for free (just in time for Father's Day!) was definitely a highlight.
Looking forward to Sabbath rest, as being at a Seventh Day Adventist hospital, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday is "Sabbath" and our day off for church and everything. As such, the hospital begins to slow down on Friday afternoon, so in the afternoon B and I set out to explore the our little town. We discovered it was larger than expected, there were lots of cool shops, other (rather unfriendly) tourists, a large number of stray dogs to add to the collection of horses tied along the side of the road. Thus the pics from the last post.
Later in the evening we were clustered around the internet zone couches wondering what to do w/ our evening when Dr. M and Mrs. M came and started asking about hymns we knew. I missed the first part of the conversation, so I was thinking they were leading some sort of Friday singing/worship group. Only far later in the conversation, I realized that we were the group, and we were going to sing hymns to the patients, at which point I got really excited. Discovering and downloading yet another app (hymns in Spanish), we were ready to sing. It was a moving experience. The patients were incredibly grateful for the singing and prayer for them that followed. It seems in general, patients here are really open to prayer. Numerous times in clinic both Dr. L and Dr. M have prayed for patients, including some who have seemed to anticipate it. Dr. M also let us know that we were invited for lunch on Saturday at the L's house...something else to look forward to!
Saturday morning, we woke to people singing songs, (basically right outside our door in our little yard which was a little weird). I was feeling ambitious in friendliness and making new friends, so I was trying to formulate the proper way to ask, "Can I join you?" until I realized there were just two people and they were playing the same song over and over again...and it was probably some sort of special music practice.
Time to leave for church...We were greeted with hugs by two ladies outside the church, and walked in to realize a unique model for Sabbath school. Instead of the separate classrooms we use in the US, there were clusters of small groups in pews of the main church building, and the 8 or so leaders were standing up in front of a small group talking and involving people in discussion. After 20 minutes of trying to hear (in the midst of multiple lively discussions), sort out the actual Spanish words our group leader was saying, and then formulate some comprehension fairly unsuccessfully, Dr. L came to our rescue and asked if we wanted to go to church with the youth, which we decided to do and tried to inconspicuously (virtually impossible for 3 foreigners in a not-so-large room) sneak into the youth service. Comprehension of the youth service was much more successful thanks to the powerpoint. I learned a few new words like "luchar" which means "to fight," "to struggle," or "to wrestle" and contemplated the theological implications of the relationship between "espera" "wait" (which is a very useful word for telling patients to wait for the doctor after we have interviewed them), and "Esperanza" the name of a friend of mine meaning "hope." Then later I learned esperar is both "to wait" and "to hope."
There was a break in the service, and a very nice young lady approached and welcomed us, and we exchanged greetings. A few minutes later we were supposed to break into groups to do a group activity, and the same young lady ushered the reluctant three foreigners to join their group. We ended up talking, as details for the project were being discussed among other group members, and found out that the young lady was actually, M, the dietitian whom we had been told had just arrived from Argentina to volunteer in the hospital for a year, whom we were supposed to meet a couple days ago. Delighted to make a new friend, shortly thereafter Dr. L's daughter came to get us for an equally delightful lunch.
Today concludes the end of an incredibly full exciting week! Even in the down times I have been learning about Spanish/English regular and medical dictionary apps for my phone. ConjuVerb is excellent app for looking up verbs and conjugations, and I have been trying to study and re-learn all those verb conjugations and irregular verbs I once knew in high school. Thank you Mr. R and Mrs. F! I am very thankful for all the Spanish study in high school and wishing Spanish classes had made their way into my college coursework. Also, in the technology front, figuring how to call home and videochat people in the US for free (just in time for Father's Day!) was definitely a highlight.
Looking forward to Sabbath rest, as being at a Seventh Day Adventist hospital, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday is "Sabbath" and our day off for church and everything. As such, the hospital begins to slow down on Friday afternoon, so in the afternoon B and I set out to explore the our little town. We discovered it was larger than expected, there were lots of cool shops, other (rather unfriendly) tourists, a large number of stray dogs to add to the collection of horses tied along the side of the road. Thus the pics from the last post.
Later in the evening we were clustered around the internet zone couches wondering what to do w/ our evening when Dr. M and Mrs. M came and started asking about hymns we knew. I missed the first part of the conversation, so I was thinking they were leading some sort of Friday singing/worship group. Only far later in the conversation, I realized that we were the group, and we were going to sing hymns to the patients, at which point I got really excited. Discovering and downloading yet another app (hymns in Spanish), we were ready to sing. It was a moving experience. The patients were incredibly grateful for the singing and prayer for them that followed. It seems in general, patients here are really open to prayer. Numerous times in clinic both Dr. L and Dr. M have prayed for patients, including some who have seemed to anticipate it. Dr. M also let us know that we were invited for lunch on Saturday at the L's house...something else to look forward to!
Saturday morning, we woke to people singing songs, (basically right outside our door in our little yard which was a little weird). I was feeling ambitious in friendliness and making new friends, so I was trying to formulate the proper way to ask, "Can I join you?" until I realized there were just two people and they were playing the same song over and over again...and it was probably some sort of special music practice.
Time to leave for church...We were greeted with hugs by two ladies outside the church, and walked in to realize a unique model for Sabbath school. Instead of the separate classrooms we use in the US, there were clusters of small groups in pews of the main church building, and the 8 or so leaders were standing up in front of a small group talking and involving people in discussion. After 20 minutes of trying to hear (in the midst of multiple lively discussions), sort out the actual Spanish words our group leader was saying, and then formulate some comprehension fairly unsuccessfully, Dr. L came to our rescue and asked if we wanted to go to church with the youth, which we decided to do and tried to inconspicuously (virtually impossible for 3 foreigners in a not-so-large room) sneak into the youth service. Comprehension of the youth service was much more successful thanks to the powerpoint. I learned a few new words like "luchar" which means "to fight," "to struggle," or "to wrestle" and contemplated the theological implications of the relationship between "espera" "wait" (which is a very useful word for telling patients to wait for the doctor after we have interviewed them), and "Esperanza" the name of a friend of mine meaning "hope." Then later I learned esperar is both "to wait" and "to hope."
There was a break in the service, and a very nice young lady approached and welcomed us, and we exchanged greetings. A few minutes later we were supposed to break into groups to do a group activity, and the same young lady ushered the reluctant three foreigners to join their group. We ended up talking, as details for the project were being discussed among other group members, and found out that the young lady was actually, M, the dietitian whom we had been told had just arrived from Argentina to volunteer in the hospital for a year, whom we were supposed to meet a couple days ago. Delighted to make a new friend, shortly thereafter Dr. L's daughter came to get us for an equally delightful lunch.
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