Bewildering

Friday- I'm not sure if it's because I don't feel like I've slept in a hundred years or if time really IS blowing by me....but I think maybe the last 2 weeks have been a blur.  A wonderful awesome fantastic blur of surgery and kicking' teams.    

I'm trying hard to breathe between one team leaving yesterday (Friday) and another arriving today (Saturday). Uffffff.  Breathe.    Dios is IN control.   :)

A highlight was having my friend Cathy here with me the week before last.    She's a rocking PACU nurse and then treated me to a weekend at the beach in Juan Dolio.  It was soooo fun to have her.   I learned a lot watching her in PACU too.  That's one of the cool things about this gig- I'm always learning.   ANNNNDDD how cool IS it to share a place that I LOVE with a dear friend.  I love seeing it through other folks' eyes.

The last two weeks have rocked with General Surgeons and Ortho docs and a Gyn from Spartanburg and Roanoke.  Some new faces, some old faces- all in all just buckets of fun.   Hernias, hydroceles, circs, arms, hands, all kinds of surgery.   And we throw in some softball on Monday nights, dinner at Bienvenida's Restaurant on Wednesdays, AMAZING sponsor/student reunions on Thursday nights...and it's all around BUSY.  Plus Market runs, the flag raising at a local school...and all the rest that encompasses a week at Solid Rock Guesthouse.    Dan and Kari and I (and Laura when she is in town!) are having a blast.   I think I actually got to SEE Kari on Friday when we sat for 3 hours waiting for a pedicure downtown.   Sometimes the 3 of us pass like ships in the night- craziness.   We laughed in the grocery story buying extra forks which were plucked out of a cardboard box crammed with random silverware on the floor.   We snorted giggles plucking oatmeal from the shelve that HAD NOT been nibbled on by critters.   We stared in awe at the stunningly beautiful Dominican girls getting all kinds of gorgeous at the salon.  One lady actually grabbed my hair in her hand and made this painful grimace like "oh why....what a pity!".    I was actually proud that I had WASHED my hair today but of course unless it's streaming perfectly straight down my back..it's not "done" like it should be.  Sigh.   I am a fail at Dominican hair.

I've again, as always, met the most amazing patients.   Hugs, kisses, love and adoration.  One of our barrio teams was in Baby Nicole's town last Monday and they came back to report that her mama brought her to the team and recounted with great pride the day of her birth.   Oh my heart.   How full.   It's almost been a year.   She'll be one on in less than 2 weeks.   A year.  Baby girl.   Best.  Day.  Ever.    The team thought she was adorable too!   And the handing off of the black plastic bags full of potatoes or oranges or beans continues.    It's sacred, really, the giving here.   I feel so full.   So tired, so overwhelmed, so loved.    I love cruising through the streets and KNOWING folks that I see.   I spent a good hour today (Friday) with Bartolo the Concho Driver looking for a guy that needs some paperwork that I have.   After scouring 3 baseball fields, his home and local neighborhood, we returned home unsuccessful.   However- everyone has been alerted that we have what he needs and I fully expect him to show up any minute now.  It's kinda how things work here sometimes.   (Saturday- PS- he showed at 9 last night.  YAYYYYYY)

There's some tough stuff too.   One of the kids in the Nutrition program is STRUGGLING.  And it's more than malnutrition now.  He's sick.  Really sick.   And he was here and stayed 10 days in the clinic and it's hard to see.   And another patient didn't show up for surgery so I went to pick her up and it turned out that after we waited a long time for her to get ready and get everything set for surgery...that she was denied the surgery and hadn't wanted it in the first place.  It was my pushy american nature of going to find her that forced her into my truck and back to the clinic.    Humbling.    I felt terrible.  I still do.   Sometimes I feel like I get the teeniest grasp on the culture here and then the other shoe falls off and I realize that although I LOVE it here so much, I'm always the outsider.   I wasn't BORN here.   I don't get the inside jokes.   I still struggle with the language and sometimes what I think I SHOULD do.   But there are moments.   Moments when stuff clicks and I DO get it.  Moments when I throw out some spanish street words and they make sense to more than just me.   Moments when I slice up the garlic and onion and cilantro and oil and toss it in the black metal pot and it smells JUST like it's supposed to for the rice.   Moments on the back of the moto cruising through neighborhoods and ballfields searching for my friend and laughing when everyone points us somewhere else.    I AM an outsider....but I'm so glad I'm here!  

And the big 4-0 arrives on Tuesday.   I feel fine.  I'm not scared.  I'm looking forward to next weekend when we celebrate.   YAYYYYYYYYYYYY.  Here's to another year of living la vida locaaaaaa.    Tan buenaaaaa eso.