Blessed

I bought a guitar today! Julie sold some of my uniforms for me in Arizona and I used that money plus a little extra to buy the above guitar and the slightly-cushioned case -- 10 pesos cheaper for the snazzy red color! They threw in the two picks you see. It is even made in Argentina! I'm so excited for this, I've been wanting to get a guitar ever since I got here and finally got some good music store advice from my friend and colleague, Monica. I'm not a great guitar-player, I just play some chords, but I've been missing making music, and also found that I really missed the guitar in my personal worship time. And yes, you can find pitches to tune with on the internet!

This week I took a ferry to Uruguay to renew my tourist visa. It was a wonderful day -- cool and stormy-looking but with no rain. I had lunch with a tour group and sat with a Colombian woman. Interesting weather perspective: she told me that her home city, Bogata, is always cold and without seasons. When asked how cold, she said, "Well, nowhere near as cold as this!" Dear reader, it was in the high-50s.

So, here I am with our first sight of Uruguay in the background. When this picture was taken I wasn't aware that it is of the historic part of town. After my city tour I sat right on the edge of the peninsula you see in this photo.

Above and below are pictures of where I sat along the water at the tip of the peninsula. It's funny: I've lived alone for 11 years now. I've really noticed the alone-ness here in Argentina since I still don't know very many people and sometimes spend several days in a row at home. When I was on the ferry and the city tour I was thinking that I find traveling tiring. When I've visited places with friends I much prefer finding a coffee shop and sitting there for hours and talking. The ferry also made me think back to being on the MERCY ship in the Philippines, which was a blast primarily because I was living in community, working and eating and living with other people. Then I had lunch with Laura, the woman from Colombia, and she couldn't believe I live alone (she lives with her parents). So, I was thinking that I'm just kind of crazy, and of course I'm having a hard time being alone because it's not natural.

And then I found this spot. I sat here and listened to music on my I-Pod and heard the waves and prayed and read Scripture and felt incredibly alive and full of the presence of God and not alone at all.

Below is the flag of Uruguay as seen by night on the ferry:
Fun fact: people here don't seem quite as caffeine-conscious as we are in the States. Three of their principle hot beverages, mate, mate cocido, and coffee, are all high in caffeine, yet most people can drink them into the evening. I can't sleep if I do that, so I've taken to traveling with herbal tea sachets in my purse since it can make people uncomfortable if I'm not drinking. Once after I had said no to coffee at 8 pm and casually mentioned I couldn't sleep if I had it that late, someone at our meeting said, "I know you're a doctor, but I mean, have you ever asked a doctor if that happens? If drinking coffee late at night can really keep you awake?"

Not a quick fix

September 12, 2007

Above is a photo of me taking Doña Marta's blood pressure. She and I hardly spoke before the above picture was taken -- her husband, Don Donato, (the cacique, or leader of the Wichi village) said that he wanted me to evaluate her medically and that he would interpret for me since she spoke limited Spanish. I don't know if you can appreciate it in the photo, but I was rather irritated. You see, in a village like this -- dangerous open cooking fires, little food, and lots of social and political problems (for example, the majority of the Wichi land was recently made into a federal park and they are not allowed to harvest wood on the national park land) -- there was a lot more involved with this woman's health than I could solve in one visit, yet so many hopes (her husband's and those who came with us to the village) seemed to be pinned on it. Secondly, 90% of the primary care physician's diagnosis comes from the history, and I didn't know how to get an accurate history. Instead of interpreting, Don Donato answered most of the questions I asked without any input from her, and added a lot about his own symptoms as well. I've seen people "diagnose" from one or two questions before -- this happened daily in the Philippines during the military's humanitarian mission where I saw people given Advil to "cure" their chest pain. To me, that way of doing medicine is disrespectful, not least because it raises false hopes.

I mentioned to Don Donato that from what I could tell, some labs tests would be helpful. We then started talking, and he brought up the fact that people came to them and gave them pills or wrote prescriptions, but that his people just got sick again later. I asked him if he would like the villagers to be trained so that they would know a lot about their own medical problems and would be able to prevent many of them. We discussed a screening that would help determine what issues were in the village (parasites, malnutrition) and then offering training to his people. He said that he would like that, since "it's not just medicine that is needed." Please pray that the people of his village, Ebenezer, will indeed receive that screening (we talked about it happening some time in February) and that it will be a catalyst for them to learn how to help their village.

Later on Doña Marta and I spoke some as we walked around her land. She showed me how she harvested fibers from a plant to make the beautiful weaving we had admired. We shared some laughs as I tried to pronounce some names in Wichi, including the word "Wichi" itself. I was glad to connect with her, even if only in a small way.

Heavens and Earth

Today, as usual, I had 30,000 things to do when I got home from work to get ready for my next "career" in Argentina. I have been telling people that I want to learn (again) how to live in the moment and enjoy this process, but I've not been doing so well. I love to brag about how many things I have to do, hoping that people will feel sorry for me and also think I'm a hard worker. Well, two things have happened. One, people have been offering to help me, which means that I need to start taking them up on their offers. Two, I was taking a walk today (trying to trust God that the 20 minutes away from "doing" wouldn't lead to a catastrophe), and I saw the beautiful sky. As I started praising God for being the creator of the heavens and earth, I realized in a new way how utterly ridiculous it is for me to worry about my to-do lists and piles. I mean, the creator of the heavens and the earth is in charge of my life and is guiding and directing this process. It was that same all-powerful being's idea in the first place for me to go to Argentina, after all.

I started thinking about the way that God has brought all of this about in my life: a desire to be a physician as a child, then coming to peace in God, learning to love and serve God and other people, working with emotional and spiritual healing, learning about development through programs at a homeless shelter, a call to medical school, contacts with missionaries , work with immigrants to keep my desire for international work alive. And now an opportunity to work in a holistic ministry, helping people become whole physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially and vocationally. Wow. And I focus on my to-do list?

P.S. The picture above was taken by my friend Mike. It's one of the many gorgeous photos he took of the sunset while we were deployed on a humanitarian mission in the Philippines last June.