Shannon Costello

We saw the monkey this morning while walking to the hospital.  The hospital is about 6 or 7 blocks from where we are staying.  The people here are very nice about offering rides.  They showed up the first couple of days to drive us in, but have been willing to accomodate our desire to walk.  So there really is a monkey living on the plaza, a cute little monkey, with orangey fur.  I did not actually take a picture, since there was no point in taking a picture of a smudge of fur way up among the leaves.  I have taken about 40 pictures so far, I think.  I think my numbers may be somewhere in between CJ and his sister Kelly.  But they are both artists, and I am merely documenting.

Today on our post-lunch walk through town we saw the sloth.  Once I knew what to look for I found a couple more.  They are about the size of a medium-sized dog, gray and white, and very slothful.  The pastor, Carlos, told me that sometimes people outside of town catch them and sell them for pets, but that they die quickly in captivity.  There are a lot of geckos around our hotel as well, which one can catch and hold until they are relatively calm.

Have I mentioned that the motorcycles that constantly pass by are taxis?  I have seen four people on one at once, but I hear the record is five.  Hopefully I didn´t already say that.  I find I´m still reeling a little bit…I feel like I don´t quite know what I have written and that I will be very glad to be able to look back at it and figure out what I was thinking.  I remember telling a couple of teachers at school (my partners in writing) that I felt it took me about ten years to process Mexico.

I do keep comparing our (CJ and I) trip to Spain-  I really didn´t talk to people there (not that they wanted to; it was a city).  This kind of trip is much cooler.  We were invited to a soccer game last night, but it didn´t start until ten.  One of the surgeries did not finish until after 8 or 9pm last night.  Talk about being tired (for them, I mean).  They have been completing about 3-4 surgeries today.  Some of them are very small, but the one last night (a hernia) was quite complicated.

Today we fitted 3 hearing aids and saw 8 more patients.  Tomorrow we are scheduled to fit 5 more hearing aids, but we will do it in a group format.  That is easier because people get to see each other struggling with the same things they are struggling with.  It is harder than you might think to learn how to put a hearing aid on and how to take care of it.  It is supposed to take about a week to get comfortable with it.  That includes getting used to hearing again…and your family has to get used to talking more softly.  I am slowly learning that some of the communication problems have to do with the fact that, while the patients are not hearing me properly, they have developed the ability to act like they hear.  So I get confused when I ask a patient which ear they hear better from and they start telling me about their husband’s car accident.  There are other complicated things.  Because they have trouble hearing I sit directly in front of them and speak loudly and clearly.  But if I point to my right ear when I am referring to their right ear, they often think I am referring to their left ear.  I have learned that I should just point to their ear.

There is something a little heart-wrenching about seeing how nervous people are even for a hearing exam…though I am the same way for most doctor´s exams.  I am working at saying things to ease them.  I see the importance of touch here as well.  That nervousness is worse in a little kid when the doctor is talking about taking out his tonsils.

I have befriended a little girl (7 years) whose mother cleans in the hospital.  She sometimes appears at the examining room window or door, and she usually finds me anytime I leave the room.  She was in the group I played frisbee with yesterday.  I don´t know if I said that I got some of them to sing me the Bolivian national anthem…I can´t remember.  Since school is out, I think she is pretty bored.  I asked her to bring some books tomorrow and she can teach me to read.  She is a bit more direct about how I talk funny.  I get to practice using ´vos´ with her instead of ´tú´.

Another sort of wrenching line that runs through my head is that of the 17-year-old boy I met who had spent a few years in the US.  I asked him what country he preferred and he didn´t know, but then he said he would do anything to get back to the US.  I just keep hearing him saying that.

I got the contact information of a young woman whose son has a hernia (he´s about four).  She is studying to be a school teacher- math, no less.  I have enjoyed all the chances I have had to talk to teachers and students.

I made sure I looked up how to say ´tissue´(as in scar tissue) last night.  There was one moment yesterday when not knowing that sort of froze me.  ´Switch´has been one of the most useful words I have learned so far- ´palenquita´.

Did I mention that the power went off yesterday morning?  I suggested that our morning song ought to be ´We are walking in the Light of God´, which I was able to teach in English and Spanish.  It´s a very easy chorus.  Funny how this is supposed to be an alone sort of activity, writing like this, but I´m sitting here in this noisy cafe….this is a different one from the usual- right across the street from our hotel.

Besides the surgeries and hearing consultations, we have seen well over a hundred patients so far…I don´t include today´s statistics, which I haven´t finished collecting yet.

I´m still too hyper to stop talking.  I talk all day, half the night…but I was feeling a little fuzzy today.  Perhaps a little more sleep is in order.  I haven´t gone running yet, I think I´ll wait until after dinner.  Noone else wants to go, and it´s getting dark right now, but it will be- just kidding, mom!

What else should I say?  Meat markets are wild…I saw the biggest squash I have ever seen today…a motorcycle just went by, followed by a horse, followed by a car.  Typical.

I think I´m ready to end here.  Despite some of the little kids who were running around with jackets on (they are used to hotter weather?), it is pretty hot and sweaty sitting here.  And I should see what everyone else is up to.  They did make a deal they wouldn´t start any surgeries after 3 today.  Oh, and we had salteñas for lunch today.  They are so, so good…