Wrap Up!

Hello! I am so sorry that I have not blogged in nearly two months :( Really, I am. We've been so busy the last two months, wrapping up the school, then preparing for short term teams to come down, hosting nearly a month of short term trips and living in villages around Tlaxiaco, and now graduation preparations! So, starting from the beginning...

We officially finished the school year, including the curriculum of 60 required books--averaging two per week. I feel like I have learned so much over this school year; most of which I will not fully realize until a bit of time has passed and I've had adequate time to process and think on some of this stuff. We've been challenged in our faith, and also had some intense, thought-provoking discussions on a variety of subjects relating to the books we read. The content of most of these books was so important and profound, that I am finding it hard to process 60 books of those type in such a short period of time; some of my favorites or some that were particularly challenging I will plan on reading again the future. Highlights, according to my tastes, include Eternity in Their Hearts, Ragamuffin Gospel, Foreign to Familiar, Organic Church, various writings on the Postmodern movement, Mustard Seed Versus McWorld, and This Present Darkness.

We started preparing for our short term mission teams and trips in the beginning of March.

[side note: my birthday was March 4th--I am now 23, wow--and the girls took me out into Tlaxiaco and to a Mexican birthday dinner of Tlayudas, which are HUGE tortillas with tasajo (a type of beef), beans, and quesillo (a type of cheese). They are so big that they literally do not fit on a plate. Also, I received some awesome birthday packages in the mail! Thank you so much to all of you who sent cards and/or packages :)]

So, short terms. We put together a program, for orientation and training purposes, for all those coming down on our short term trips. Lindsay H and I were in charge of the Hot/Cold Climate skits, which demonstrate the culutral differences between North America (labeled, "cold climate") and Latin America (labeled, "warm climate"), and they went over very well! Our schedule looked something like this: teams arrive Saturday from Oaxaca, and then on Sunday and Monday we have full (read: morning to night) training and programs and sessions full of information. Tuesday morning we get up early and head out into a village within about an hour's drive of Tlaxiaco. We stay with host families in the village until Friday night, when we return with the teams back to the base. We have a debreif evening session, and then the next morning (Saturday) we ship that team off to Oaxaca for flights out only to receive a new team in a few short hours. Even though it was a jam-packed, super busy schedule, the experience of running and participating in these short term trips was unforgettable. The first week of outreaches we went to a village called Tidaa, the second we went to Teposcolula and Yolomecatl, Yucoaxaco, and finally Tepos San Juan. For these trips, the medical team hosted medical clinics in the villages and also put on a 'health camp' for the local school's children, teaching them about water sanitation, dental hygiene (Mexicans drink Coke and other pops like water since it's cheaper, and they think tastes better, than potable water), germs, and the importance of hand-washing and protecting their skin from the sun. The medical clinic was where I worked for these outreaches, and it was truly an exceptional experience. I spoke and learned much more Spanish during these days, and also co-consulted with nurses and medical students. We saw 175 patients in one day, and 120 another day! But the average per day was hovering more around 40ish. Then, the last week of outreaches, the medical team stayed at our own base and did a clinic here, and then traveled to Agua Zarca (another village) for a day, and then went to the jail in Tlaxiaco. The patients (inmates) at the jail were particularly interesting to me. I wondered why they were all in there and how long their sentences were (of course I never asked, though!). It was a men's only prison, although we saw families in the common area who must have been visiting. Most of the time, when the men were waiting to be seen for medical treatment, they'd be making things--everything from baskets to handbags to hammocks to soccer balls and sweaters/scarfs--all from knitting, weaving and sewing. I was baffled that the inmates were using knives...and that we were allowed to come in and even bring medication in from the outside for our patients.

I learned so much about village life, and medical conditions common in village-type settings. We had to improvise and tweak treatment options so that they'd be sustainable for our patients, which was a great exercise in thinking outside the box. Most definitely the short term medical outreaches were my favorite part of the entire year...I am so confident of my desire to serve patients who do not have access to adequate healthcare, and I feel like I have got to experience a bit of what that might be like. These weeks have even further established my zeal for this work, and given deeper roots to related goals.