Hello everyone,
first of all, you can stop worrying. i'm not dead or dying. :) Yeah, i was feeling really really poorly for a few days there, but thanks to modern medicine (as modern as it gets in Cochabamba, Bolivia that is) and the power of prayer, i am feeling better today. here's a quick run down of what i've been going through:
Saturday: i had a sore throat, not a big deal since it's dry and dusty here all the time
Sunday: the sore throat didn't go away. asked Sandra (who runs the clinic for the boys at the BLC) for amoxicillin which i started taking.
Monday: still sore in the throat and i was starting to feel kinda weak. i assumed i was just running myself too hard.
Tuesday: woke up with a ringing in my right ear restricting my hearing a lot. I got up for the host meeting at 7 am and went back to bed at 8 am. only got out of bed to take a shower mid morning and to get some crackers and tea in the afternoon. i missed the classical concert that night. :(
Wednesday: woke up with same ringing, sore throat, muscle aches, nausea and headache as day before. decided to head into Cochabamaba (a 45 minute drive) to visit the emergency room (bolivia's version of a walk in clinic... don't worry mom!) the doctor specializing in ear nose and throat wasn't in until that evening, so arturo *an amazing bolivian by the way* walked with me to a doctor's office a block and a half away. Dra. Espinoza looked me over determined that i had a sore throat and an infected ear (i was very tempted to say DUH to that) and put me on a higher dose of amoxicillin with another stronger antibiotic mixed in. they also took blood to do tests. after i struggled to eat five crackers and a juice box, i took my first horse pill. i don't normally have issues with pills, but these i have to break in two. ugh! then we walked back to the doctora who told me that my blood test came back with almost twice as many leukocytes as i should have. that means my body made a lot of white blood cells to fight my infection (a new one... not the one causing my ear and throat issues). it was also positive for something that i didn't understand. my spanish is pretty good, but when they get into medical terms i'm lost. so arturo took me next door to the farmacia again to get the new meds. a stronger antibiotic which must be administer intramuscular (aka in the rear). i had six vials of medicine and i got a shot of two mixed together every day from wednesday until today. :( not too painful but not pleasant either. i got home from the doctor's office around 1 and slept until around nine when i had dinner. oh, by the way, i'm on a white diet (rough translation meaning i can only eat potatoes, rice, chicken and soup). so after a nice hot bowl of amazing chicken soup (not sarcastic, just bitter that i didn't get to enjoy it enough) i went back to bed.
Thursday: not much change yet. lethargic all day. arturo took me to a clinic for my dreaded shot. spent an hour or so outside while the team was at sidewalk sunday school, but wasn't really in the mood to do much. went to the pizza party at night (alas, no pizza) and went to bed at a decent hour.
Friday: woke up today feeling better. decided to go with the team into town to the Christ statue, saltenas (which i DID eat) and the market. i spent the day moving slowly and feeling pretty decent. we're now at the airport dropping off our last team for the summer and i feel pretty stinkin good.
so, that's been my week. thanks for everyone's prayers. i've definitely felt them. Xochi (a girl on this team) reminded me that with all the spiritual warfare that's been going on around here, it's not surprising that i was attacked with this. but i can't let it get me down. i truly believe that more than the antibiotics, it was the church here in cochabamba praying, my friends and family praying and the team here praying that made it possible for me to heal so quickly. it's gonna be a few days before i can have another soda or eat normal food, but i think that's a sacrifice i'm willing and ready to make. God has done amazing things this week through the team despite my sickness and i praise Him for it.
We come home in ten days, and i'm excited and sad at the same time. i have a week before school starts, and i plan to do as much as i can in that week. that includes sleeping though, so dont start booking up all my time! :)
i love you all and will talk to you soon!
adam/geuder/tio azul
18 July 2008
13 July 2008
last team
hey everyone... the last team is here in bolivia and are already doing great. they actually overlapped with the previous team for a day and it was really fun to see a group from west palm beach interacting with a group from charlotte north carolina. they got to go to the park together (Pairumani is the park we went to and i got to hike up to the waterfall for the second time this summer! yay!) this team is a good mix of people - four girls from philly, one girl from my church, and the other 19 are from christ fellowship. they range in age too from college age to middle aged professionals. it will be a great week and a fantastic way to finish out the summer.
thanks to nancy wysong, i will now update the website information for CIN. it´s www.cinonline.org not .net. oops!
we have nine boys left without sponsors and we´re hoping that by the end of the week, that number will be much smaller if not zero. :)
please keep praying for us. the summer isn´t quite over and most of the hosts are feeling kinda run down. fortunately we have a week after this team leaves to finish up our time here. it will just be the six of us with the boys and their staff. we´re really looking forward to that time where we can kind of assess our summer before heading back to the states.
thanks for your emails and encouraging words. sorry i don´t always respond as we´re usually running short on time, but i do appreciate them.
in case we don´t get to email next week as there´s no team here, thanks for your support this summer. i love you all and can´t wait to see or talk to you somewhat more normally soon. ;)
adam-geuder-tio azul
thanks to nancy wysong, i will now update the website information for CIN. it´s www.cinonline.org not .net. oops!
we have nine boys left without sponsors and we´re hoping that by the end of the week, that number will be much smaller if not zero. :)
please keep praying for us. the summer isn´t quite over and most of the hosts are feeling kinda run down. fortunately we have a week after this team leaves to finish up our time here. it will just be the six of us with the boys and their staff. we´re really looking forward to that time where we can kind of assess our summer before heading back to the states.
thanks for your emails and encouraging words. sorry i don´t always respond as we´re usually running short on time, but i do appreciate them.
in case we don´t get to email next week as there´s no team here, thanks for your support this summer. i love you all and can´t wait to see or talk to you somewhat more normally soon. ;)
adam-geuder-tio azul
06 July 2008
week five underway
Hey everyone,
last week´s team left on Thursday morning (normally they leave friday nights) which gave us a free day. Despite most of us being very tired and weary from all the work we´d been doing, we played with the boys all morning (well, we watched a movie with them... the Incredibles) and then took the afternoon to recuperate. I am reading the autobiography of Julie Andrews and I must have read about 150 pages on Thursday alone! by the way, the book is really good if you like Julie Andrews... i grew up with the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins so i really enjoyed it. It´s called HOME.
but enough of the advertisement. The team from last week had 19 people and only two had never been here before. This team is from the same church (Lake Forest Church in Charlotte, NC) and all but three of their group are new to Bolivia! Lake Forest sends two teams and one is returners and one is new. It´s pretty cool that way because the new people aren´t dealing with all the preconceptions from other team members. Other than the leaders on this team, they are all coming in fresh with open minds. It´s awesome!
We just took the kids to ice cream again (they have now had ice cream twice this year!). I´ve been connecting with a lot of the boys this week that i didn´t have as close of a relationship with in the past. Please pray that i have the opportunity to minister to these new boys :).
I know that i mentioned that Victor´s cousin Josue is here at the life center with him now. Every time victor gives me a card or a note he writes victor, adan (or azul) and Josue. It´s like i´ve been inducted into his family and now we´re all related. The other day victor told me he was worried about his cousin. I asked him why... he´s safe here and has so many friends. Victor said, no. not that one. Apparently, josue has a little brother, fabrizio, who is living in cochabamba by himself. he was worried about what might happen to him with no one to take care of him. the next day, i helped anna put the pequenos (the youngest boys of which victor is a part) to bed. we had tickle time with the team, then when they left, we let them watch milo and otis in spanish while some of them finished getting ready for bed. victor was laying in his bed weeping. i climbed up into the top bunk with him and just let him cry for about twenty minutes. when he stopped for a few minutes, i asked him if he was sad. no. if he was hurt. no. if he was scared. yes. i asked why... he said he was scared of what might be happening to fabrizio. it broke my heart. i wish nine year old boys didn´t have to worry about whether their younger cousins will survive the night on the streets or if they will be able to find money or food to survive on without having to find a pimp to work for.
please continue to pray as the boys here are constantly dealing with memories like these. this one hits home for me of course, but there are 79 more boys here with similar stories. please keep them in prayer.
an update on sponsorships, we only have 12 boys left without sponsors. we started the summer close to 30 so that´s such a blessing! please pray for open hearts as this team and the next team are all we have left this summer. we have a couple families who are considering it this week. to specifically pray for the boys who need sponsors, you can go to the website and see their pictures. www.cinonline.net
thanks for all your prayers so far. w e´re over halfway. happy and sad. also, thanks for the encouraging emails... yes, i do get them. sorry i don´t always get around to responding! we´re limited on time here! :)
love to all.
geuder-adam-azul
last week´s team left on Thursday morning (normally they leave friday nights) which gave us a free day. Despite most of us being very tired and weary from all the work we´d been doing, we played with the boys all morning (well, we watched a movie with them... the Incredibles) and then took the afternoon to recuperate. I am reading the autobiography of Julie Andrews and I must have read about 150 pages on Thursday alone! by the way, the book is really good if you like Julie Andrews... i grew up with the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins so i really enjoyed it. It´s called HOME.
but enough of the advertisement. The team from last week had 19 people and only two had never been here before. This team is from the same church (Lake Forest Church in Charlotte, NC) and all but three of their group are new to Bolivia! Lake Forest sends two teams and one is returners and one is new. It´s pretty cool that way because the new people aren´t dealing with all the preconceptions from other team members. Other than the leaders on this team, they are all coming in fresh with open minds. It´s awesome!
We just took the kids to ice cream again (they have now had ice cream twice this year!). I´ve been connecting with a lot of the boys this week that i didn´t have as close of a relationship with in the past. Please pray that i have the opportunity to minister to these new boys :).
I know that i mentioned that Victor´s cousin Josue is here at the life center with him now. Every time victor gives me a card or a note he writes victor, adan (or azul) and Josue. It´s like i´ve been inducted into his family and now we´re all related. The other day victor told me he was worried about his cousin. I asked him why... he´s safe here and has so many friends. Victor said, no. not that one. Apparently, josue has a little brother, fabrizio, who is living in cochabamba by himself. he was worried about what might happen to him with no one to take care of him. the next day, i helped anna put the pequenos (the youngest boys of which victor is a part) to bed. we had tickle time with the team, then when they left, we let them watch milo and otis in spanish while some of them finished getting ready for bed. victor was laying in his bed weeping. i climbed up into the top bunk with him and just let him cry for about twenty minutes. when he stopped for a few minutes, i asked him if he was sad. no. if he was hurt. no. if he was scared. yes. i asked why... he said he was scared of what might be happening to fabrizio. it broke my heart. i wish nine year old boys didn´t have to worry about whether their younger cousins will survive the night on the streets or if they will be able to find money or food to survive on without having to find a pimp to work for.
please continue to pray as the boys here are constantly dealing with memories like these. this one hits home for me of course, but there are 79 more boys here with similar stories. please keep them in prayer.
an update on sponsorships, we only have 12 boys left without sponsors. we started the summer close to 30 so that´s such a blessing! please pray for open hearts as this team and the next team are all we have left this summer. we have a couple families who are considering it this week. to specifically pray for the boys who need sponsors, you can go to the website and see their pictures. www.cinonline.net
thanks for all your prayers so far. w e´re over halfway. happy and sad. also, thanks for the encouraging emails... yes, i do get them. sorry i don´t always get around to responding! we´re limited on time here! :)
love to all.
geuder-adam-azul
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