Cochabamba,
Bolivia
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The first day back in my home city of Cochabamba (the best weather in Bolivia) a friend here invited me to go meet a girl in an organization that works in the hospital called movement smiles. I wasnt planning to start volunteering until my spanish was a little better, but I thought it couldnt hurt to go and see what it was about. Its pretty simple, the goal is to make the kids smile, playing games, painting etc. with the kids that are able to. This is the large public hospital in the city and I am qualified to say it is nicer than the hospital I work at. Newer, cleaner, the whole bit. i didnt know what to think of the bolivian hospitals but I must say I was impressed. Granted, there were nurses walking in the hallway with trays carrying things I have only seen in museums, but overall, it was really nice. In a large pediatric ward, there were no kids crying, and the one that did was picked up in a matter of seconds. It was easier than I thought to play with kids with my limited spanish, harder to talk to their parents. The second time I went to the kids burn unit, its much harder to play with kids that cant move. A very sad grave place. Many kids are burned in gas fires and open fires that are out in the rural areas. I have a lot of respect for the nurses working there. I am sure you get a certain amount of tolerance for it, you have to, but its the worst thing I have seen here in Bolivia so far.
Other than this, its back to the spanish classes for me. Rules, grammer, and more irregular verbs.
