Shannon Costello

Ok, here we go again. I know you will all think I do nothing but access the internet, but I am actually waiting for about half the team to finish what they are doing on other computers. Melanie and I are the only ones with bolivianos right now, so we need to be here.

I hadn’t thought aobut all the work it takes to set up a hospital. The hospital we are working in is a result of a last-minute switch, which is why we are in Portachuelo. The hospital is one story, partially air-conditioned. (I guess the OR has to be kept cool.) The rest of the building has windows without glass. The building is not fully finished. Today we dropped off stuff and started figuring how we are going to set things up, who is going to do what, who is going to try to translate what.

I spent a long time interpreting a rather intense conversation between a local pastor and Dave, the audiologist. It was all about theology, infant baptism, the problems of the Bolivian church here, etc. I felt a bit drained afterwards, but excited. I really am feeling comfortable with Spanish down here. In conversations I am understanding a good 90% of what I hear and I seem to be able to get my meaning across. I still can never decide if I’m thinking in Spanish or not.

We look forward to going to bed early tonight! We were going to go to church, but I think the pastor had a medical emergency and it was cancelled. Hopefully we can get to a Bolivian church next week.