And here's to 39

So..... I wondered what my birthday would be like here and it turns out- I had an excellent day.  It was not without some stress (we DID have surgery, after all) but it was full of friends and love and learning and great patients.   And here is my photo essay:  Nik's 39th.  Can't believe it's here already- I still feel like a kid.   I am trying to remind myself to take more pictures here and I'm glad I had my camera around for today.

So my day started off EARLY in the kitchen.  Dan and Shannon are rocking it with breakfast- I grabbed my coffee and headed out to tackle the autoclave....

But first...Joe had a sparkler for me!  It was a Dominican sparkler/blow torch, which meant that we almost burned down the kitchen- but it was AWESOME!

Diego with puppy birthday kisses!

I LOVE my friends!  Dr. Sandy and Nefthali!

In the afternoon, Jhonny and Nef and some of the others surprised me in the kitchen with FLOWERS AND A  BIRTHDAY CAKE.   I almost cried!

And then back to surgery I went...with Shawn and Dave (great surgeons- this was a hand amputation!)

I was surprised in the clinic with two WONDERFUL VISITORS!  Thanks Luigi and Nelson!

Hugs from Livida- couldn't make it through a work day without her!

After work, I got to eat some of my cake with Jhonny and Nefthali.  THANK YOU guys!  I LOVE YA!

Dr. Raya got me the flowers!  Aren't they beautiful!  

I am so blessed to work with the finest of folks and the kindest doctors EVER!

And Bob bought me some larimar jewelry for my birthday- my first larimar EVER!  It's so pretty!

After dinner, we piled in the back of the pickup.....

And went to a softball game!  

And again, wonderful friends visiting during the game!  Thanks again guys- for the huge effort I know you made to visit me!   It means so much to me!

Ahhhh- back in my room staring at my lovely flowers!  What a wonderful day!

I am overwhelmed at how loved I feel, from reading the Facebook messages..to the texts and phone calls (thanks Mom- I love getting my yearly phone call at my birth hour "39 years ago..... YOU WERE BORN!"  Thanks for bornin me!)...to the hugs and kisses and cakes and flowers and blessings that I have received all day.   The kindness of EVERYONE has reminded me of HOW I am LOVED and I FEEL it.   Again, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.    I can't believe I get to be here, to live here and experience all this.. AND have the most amazing family and friends and support system at home as well.   God is good- and I am resting in that more than ever today.  39 years- kinda flew by on me!  Seems like it should be 29 instead but I'm not sad about it.    I've earned those years- I've really LIVED those years. And I hope to really LIVE the next ones too, to be intentional about my life and how I'm sharing it and who I'm living it FOR.    I'm so glad I've got Jesus here with me, laughing at the softball game (um- we lost by about 30 runs), putting His hands on the shoulders of our patients,  welling up with tears at the sickness in front of us sometimes, and celebrating with me and my friends with some yummy birthday cake.    It's been a good day.    Estoy contenta.   

Como cielo

Today was just what I needed.   Quiet- tranki- lots of lounging, laundry, reading, internet surfing, playing with the dog (I'm dogsitting for Diego!), and snacking.  AND I may have slept like 11 hours last night which couldn't have come at a better time.

I love me some down time but around 2:30 or 3 I hung out the last of the laundry and I hit the road for P. Nuevo to visit with some of my favorite friends around.   The moto ride was stunning, as always.  I hate the cliche that life is better on the back of a bike, but seriously- it is.   It's my favorite ride so far in this country- south of town, out through El Rosario, over the hills and through the valleys and crossing the river...to arrive at the Rose of Sharon orphanage.    I love seeing the faces of the fellas- the grins, the shouting, the hugs.   And we chat and talk and sit on the fence and the little guys sit on my lap and braid my hair or pull out the gray ones and point at my arm freckles (and try to pull some of them off!  ??????) and there is a certain peace in just BEING HERE.   And I am reassured that my spanish MIGHT be getting a little bit better and they ask when I am leaving again and don't I want to be Dominican (YES!) and when is the next group coming and what do I do in the clinic and when will I return...etc etc etc.     They are growing up all around me... these guys...and they are growing up fast.   I am so proud.

And I get a ride back to the guesthouse and again, it's awesome on the back of the bike.  The sun is streaming through the mountains and I can see the river and palm trees and fields in front of them all glowing and golden.   The trees are full of white birds by the river.  Little kids are running along the road with their watchful mothers behind them.   It's breezy and my hair is gnarled from the wind (and the orphanage salon!) and I tell my friend that I'm just sure heaven is going to be like this.    And we return and chat over pasta salad and papaya and ITunes and Skype and there is a peace in having friends here, a common ground.

I feel blessed.  I feel rested.   I feel content.

Humbled

I am humbled numerous times a day here, mostly by the grace and mercy that Jesus, my colleagues, and our patients have shown me.

But I cannot tell you what it means to me to see these patients come back and bring us gifts and hugs and smiles.   I have been blessed with bags of bananas, with little cough drops slid into my pocket, with invitations to folks' homes,  and yesterday with a huge (and i mean enormous) feed bag full of platanos, limes and habichuelas.   Yesterday's bag arrived on a motorcycle and two of us could barely carry it to the guesthouse.    We had amputated a dear gentleman's 4th right toe and he and his family wanted to send us food gifts.   I was BEYOND humbled.   And today another patient arrived after hours to take me to her house for habichuelas con dulce, a local specialty (WHICH ROCKS!).   So off we went via moto to her house where I feasted (and watched the movie Beethoven in spanish) and then walked to another home to visit another recent patient.  His amputation recovery is stressful for him and so we shared a few tears as well.  

I don't quite know how to describe how i felt, flying along on a moto with new friends...bugs in my teeth...dust in my hair...exhausted from this amazing week of nearly 80 ENT surgeries and yet feeling SO grateful for this time.   Grateful to meet all the neighbors, grateful to have spent today laughing with the interpreters and patients and team members, grateful for the recovery of some sick patients yesterday, grateful that my amputee friend will return to the clinic tomorrow (PRAY people PRAY), grateful for the habichuelas, grateful that it is Thursday night, just....grateful.  

And so- another team has come and will leave tomorrow and I will spend much of tomorrow preparing for the next one.    Don't want to close my eyes, don't want to fall asleep.........don't want to miss a thing.... wait, isn't that part of an Aerosmith song?

absorbing

I kinda refuse to think about the fact that I've been here 2 months tomorrow.  It's impossible.   Seems like I hopped off the plane and into the postage-stamp-sized rental car yesterday.   And I have 6-7 weeks to go.  Also impossible...and I don't like to think about leaving.     How did this happen?

The last two weeks we've had amazing surgical teams here.   It's always an adventure in the OR, especially with the lapy toys...but I continue to learn and discover new ways to do things.   I've been in the OR or in the clinic nearly 100% of the time when the teams are here.   In fact, my scary room remains scary and unorganized unfortunately.   I'm hoping for some upcoming time to bang out some of the organizing that needs to happen up there.   But OR takes precedence and I DO love watching folks experience life here for the first time.  

But I think what I love the most is building community here.   I love that I can walk to Bartolo and Angellina's house and chill out.  I love visiting my buds at the orphanage, saying hi to familiar faces at the grocery store, waving to the concho drivers that I use, chatting with our translators (the best in the WORLD),  checking in with my dear friends/family in El Cercado,  hanging out with the awesome Dominican staff at the clinic and more.   I love that I watched them "bleed" a sheep on the kitchen table in the clinic yesterday to grow some cultures.   I love driving the blue truck around town- even tho it seems to have a litany of health ailments.   I love the smell of lunch cooking from the neighbors.   I love hanging my laundry outside on the line.   I love the worship songs in the Central Mennonite Church on Sunday.   I love the mangu that I had for dinner tonight at a new friends' house.    I love that I've had visitors come to the clinic TO SEE ME.    I love that I met a woman yesterday from Hondo Valley and after I remarked that I really really want to visit her town, she handed me her name and phone number and encouraged me to find her when I can get there.  

Ahhhh this life is so absorbing here.  I feel completely plugged in here and sometimes when I catch a breather I think that I probably have no idea of what is happening in the States, no idea of what is going on in my home scene.    It's almost unreal.   It's certainly not that I don't miss my family and friends- it's that I am entrenched in the MINUTE, in the PRESENT so much that I haven't thought much outside of THIS PRESENT.   Bizarre.    I'm trying to work through this.   What does it mean to live in the minute, in this very MOMENT?  

And this week I've been working through identity.   Where exactly am I finding my identity again?  I seem to go through this routinely....struggling with finding myself only through Christ and not through other stupid things.     Trying to have WHO I AM be more about WHO HE IS instead of WHAT I WANT.   Oh gosh- and the things that I want!  Yipes- that's kinda scary.    Processing processing processing.   It's always a process with me.

Anyway- spent this weekend on the super fun front.   Was in the clinic yesterday intermittently viewing some of the nearly 176 kids that were assessed for possible tonsil/adenoid surgery beginning Monday morning.    I got to see some surgical patients with Cora to set up for possible surgery next week as well. And today I ran some errands, visited friends,  and hung out with my sweet roomie and two couples who are here early for next weeks team.    Tomorrow the madness of team arrival will begin again...and time will fly by and I will wonder HOW it is possible that I've been here 2 months.   Craziness.

Prayer prayer prayer

Hey, this post is actually not about me or what's going on in my life but I want to beg ALL OF YOU WHO PRAY to stop NOW and seek God for one of my friends.   For safety reasons I'm not giving out any names but please please please pray that TRUTH will prevail and that God will protect her in a mighty way that will reveal WHO HE IS in this broken world with broken people who have broken lives.  

Monday is a big day- we need lots of prayer for Monday.   Pray specifically that she will be surrounded by folks who will know the truth and be able to pour into her life.  Pray that she will be brave enough to continue to tell her story.    Pray that she won't feel alone but know that Jesus is right beside her holding her.

Thanks guys!   Here's some Jesus Calling good stuff from Feb 11.

"My peace is like a shaft of golden Light shining on you continuously.  During days of bright sunshine, it may blend in with your surroundings.  On darker days, My Peace stands out in sharp contrast to your circumstances.  See times of darkness as opportunities for my Light to shine in transcendent splendor.  I am training you to practice Peace that overpowers darkness.  Collaborate with Me in this training.   DO NOT GROW WEARY AND LOSE HEART. "

Walking around in circles

I went with Dr. Canario to a patient's home today to bring the patient back to the clinic for a prothesis fitting.   This patient had been fitted a year ago and did not have a way to get to the clinic for his new leg so we drove about 20-25 minutes to get him.    It was neat to see him quickly searching around his home for TWO shoes to bring for his return trip.

I don't know how long this man has been an amputee but I can't tell you how I felt watching him WALK circles around the clinic room with his new thigh-high prothesis.    I thought about how he has been waiting for a YEAR for this leg and didn't even have a way to pick it up and how Dr. Canario spoke so kindly to him the entire way back to the clinic.    I wonder if he knew when he threw his crutches in the back of our truck that he wasn't going to need them anymore.   I hugged and kissed his wife when we left for the clinic.   I wonder if they will just stare at that new leg all night tonight and invite all the neighbors over to see it.

I wish I had a picture to post here of him.  I've been fairly awful about taking pictures this time around but it is cemented in my mind- the jubilance on his face.   Oh man- weren't we created to share in days like these?

beautiful minutes

I love the patients here.   I don't do a lot of patient care but I love to fuss over the little people and check on them in the OR and then reassure their parents while they are waiting.   And today several folks slid me some cough drops (it's considered candy here and given as gifts) or little treats or kisses or "Dio te Bendigas" or hugs.  It's cool to see people come back for their check ups at the clinic with beaming faces, showing off their scars and thanking us.  

I'm tired now.  Bone tired.  Sorta exhausted, actually.  13 hours kinda kicked my butt.  But I'm feeling today like this team did some excellent work and made a big difference to a lot of folks.    Feeling like today really MATTERED, like God was showering kindness on me and folks around me.  It's funny that a few times this week I've really NEEDED to find something that was rather "unfindable" and after breathing some of those prayers that basically are just "help me help me help me", the items rather miraculously were found.   I know it's a Jesus thing- I just know it.

Beautiful days.  Glorious.   And I climbed a mountain in El Cercado over the weekend and I am speechless.  What. A. View.   Why is it more and more beautiful?  Why is the world spinning faster and faster and I feel like the days blow by in seconds?  

Game on.  I want to live it.  I'm gonna try to keep up.  

Barahona and Beyond

I am always surprised when I check out my posts and realize I haven't written in a week.  How does that happen!

Last Saturday I went to Barahona with 4 friends and spent some time checking out the Larimar Mines...via a terrifying 30 minute back-of-the-pickup-90-degree-ascent ride.   When we arrived on the top of the mountain to view the mines it almost felt like a Oliver Stone movie.   I went about 10 feet into the mine and backed right on out.   No way.   Hot, muggy, dark, weird air.  Just strange.   I don't know how those guys do it.   We were also swarmed by folks who brought up jars or bags of the pretty blue stone or the rocks with larimar in them.  

After the mines we headed to the beach where we ate fantastic fish, moro de guandules, and tostones.  SOOO good, all while enjoying the spectacular view of the surf at Barahona and then swimming in the fresh water river pools that dump into the ocean.   SOOOO fun.

Headed back to San Juan where Northwoods 2 team arrived later on Saturday evening.   What a great week spent with them!   I was in the clinic Monday-Thursday with the general surgeon as he did hernias, lipomas, a lap chole and other various general surgery stuff.   So awesome to see and I feel like I'm learning more and more every week.   It's always great to be with docs who enjoy teaching.    We also had a barrio team that was able to see over 300 patients.

My new roomie and I walked to the town center yesterday and climbed up the spiral staircase to the Dome of the beautiful Catholic church.  We could see out over all of San Juan.   It was neat to think of this as MY home here...the stunning mountains, the palm trees. the fields, the dogs, burros, trash burning, music blasting, horns honking, motos revving.    But it's the folks here who make it what it is to me.   And I'm sooo looking forward to going to El Cercado today and catching up with some more people that I adore.     I'm taking Morgan to El Cercado to hang for a couple days.   I will spent the night and then I'll head back to San Juan tomorrow morning to prepare for the next group who will arrive around lunchtime.  And the next week of surgery will begin on Monday.   And so it goes....and time is flying by and I wish I was better at journaling this time.    But I'm not.   I feel like I'm IN this time than than ever- more minute by minute, and appreciating it more than I ever have.  

Happy days friends.    Happy days.   Enjoy your week-
nik