It's been a hectic week to say the least. This week was the conference that kicks off the preceptorship. So all week we've been learning about spiritual care, kingdom living, and getting to hear lots of stories from doctors and nurses who basically are doing what we want to be doing. It's been really encouraging, slightly intimidating, but mostly fun.
We went into the hospital for the first time on Tuesday. I was scared out of my mind. We were going into patient rooms and asking them questions to try to feel out where they are spiritually (coined a spiritual history) and share the gospel if we so feel led. I didn't really feel ready to talk to patients and so I decided it was best that I go second. God decided otherwise. I ended up going first… I survived, no worries. The patient I learned most from was my second patient. We walked in and I wasn't going to talk in this room. Again, jk. The patient didn't speak English and that meant they were all mine. It was a kid's room so I was actually talking to his grandmother. And I was struggling. I mean my spanish was bad. No, really. So then after about eternity it felt like his mom comes in and she speaks english. Praise the Lord! Well, she was more than willing to talk to us but whenever we brought up God she just completely ignored the question and answered whatever she felt like. So that was kind of discouraging but she let us pray for them before we left.
Later that night I was going over my patients in my head and I was just really stuck at this room. I was frustrated with myself with how bad my spanish had been. So I went through the whole spiritual history in my head in perfect spanish…then I prayed for the family again, in perfect spanish… That frustrated me even more and I was like "God, why couldn't I have done that earlier!?!?" And He told me that it was because I wasn't suppose to be talking to the grandmother but that we were suppose to be talking to the mom. I felt a lot better after that and I just found it really cool because just like God can give me the words to talk to a patient, He is just as sovereign to shut me up when I need to.
I'm learning and growing a lot even just after this week. I'll continue to share stories as the weeks go on.
Prayer requests: I've been really sick so please pray for that. Also please be praying for the patients that I will be encountering and hopefully talking to that I would just be able to tell them what they need to hear.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Reflections on Costa Rica
So it's already been 5 weeks since I left home. It doesn't seem like that long at all and yet I find myself back in the States already. I'm sitting in the lobby at the Holiday Inn because I missed the shuttle I should have been on to the airport so I thought I'd take this time to look back over the last 5 weeks…
Coast Rica was an amazing experience. It has been filled with so many more adventures than I could have imagined. I got to experience so many firsts: my first zipline, trip to the ocean, trip to the rainforest, killing cockroaches, seeing lizards, sloths and monkeys, flying by myself, staying at a hotel by myself, staying in a hostel, and the list goes on.
Costa Rica, like pretty much everything else this summer was a step of faith for me. I'm pretty shy as most of you know and don't generally like doing things without knowing at least one other person. So traveling to a foreign country by my onsie wasn't really on the agenda. But I loved every minute of it and knew before I even stepped off the plane that God was calling me there. I had the most amazing host family, Lauren who put up with me for 5 weeks and made my days interesting , and many other new friends who I will miss.
I have learned and grown so much in the last 5 weeks and am so excited for the next month in California. Don't worry I'm still blogging during Cali and Jamaica.
P.S. Here is my mailing address in Cali. I LOVE mail (no really, it's kind of an unhealthy obsession) so if you'd like to make me REALLY happy you should send me mail :)
Helena Torres
Medical Strategic Network
P.O. Box 2052
Redlands, CA 92373
Coast Rica was an amazing experience. It has been filled with so many more adventures than I could have imagined. I got to experience so many firsts: my first zipline, trip to the ocean, trip to the rainforest, killing cockroaches, seeing lizards, sloths and monkeys, flying by myself, staying at a hotel by myself, staying in a hostel, and the list goes on.
Costa Rica, like pretty much everything else this summer was a step of faith for me. I'm pretty shy as most of you know and don't generally like doing things without knowing at least one other person. So traveling to a foreign country by my onsie wasn't really on the agenda. But I loved every minute of it and knew before I even stepped off the plane that God was calling me there. I had the most amazing host family, Lauren who put up with me for 5 weeks and made my days interesting , and many other new friends who I will miss.
I have learned and grown so much in the last 5 weeks and am so excited for the next month in California. Don't worry I'm still blogging during Cali and Jamaica.
P.S. Here is my mailing address in Cali. I LOVE mail (no really, it's kind of an unhealthy obsession) so if you'd like to make me REALLY happy you should send me mail :)
Helena Torres
Medical Strategic Network
P.O. Box 2052
Redlands, CA 92373
Life Lessons Part 2!
You know you love them :)
8. You can't stream anything online outside the US. Apparently the US is very posessive of it's ability to watch free television online once you leave the country. I may or may not have had a mini meltdown when I realized that I couldn't finish watching the season finale of Grey's. I eventually broke down and bought it on I-tunes. Fail.
9. Never plan to walk somewhere if you don't know how to get there or at least a general direction from where you are. Because you guessed it you will get lost and have to ask random strangers where to go and prob end up taking a taxi because you have proceeded to walk 6 blocks in the opposite direction.
10. If you thought starbucks was bad ponder this drink for a moment: Iced coffee, condensed milk, chocolate sauce in the cup, a slice of chocolate cake (nope, you wish I was kidding), and ice all blended together with a mountain of whipped cream, chocolate sauce on top. Take that weight watchers.
11. If your room floods in a hotel. Rest assured, "It happens" and that's pretty much all the sympathy you will get
12. Taking a shower in Costa Rica is like doing the hookey pookey. You get a very small stream of water that may or may not be hot and has very little pressure. You have to pretty much wet one body part at a time to get clean.
8. You can't stream anything online outside the US. Apparently the US is very posessive of it's ability to watch free television online once you leave the country. I may or may not have had a mini meltdown when I realized that I couldn't finish watching the season finale of Grey's. I eventually broke down and bought it on I-tunes. Fail.
9. Never plan to walk somewhere if you don't know how to get there or at least a general direction from where you are. Because you guessed it you will get lost and have to ask random strangers where to go and prob end up taking a taxi because you have proceeded to walk 6 blocks in the opposite direction.
10. If you thought starbucks was bad ponder this drink for a moment: Iced coffee, condensed milk, chocolate sauce in the cup, a slice of chocolate cake (nope, you wish I was kidding), and ice all blended together with a mountain of whipped cream, chocolate sauce on top. Take that weight watchers.
11. If your room floods in a hotel. Rest assured, "It happens" and that's pretty much all the sympathy you will get
12. Taking a shower in Costa Rica is like doing the hookey pookey. You get a very small stream of water that may or may not be hot and has very little pressure. You have to pretty much wet one body part at a time to get clean.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Update!
I know it's been forever since I posted more than random stories and antics that I have been up to so I thought I'd post an actual update on what I'm doing and what's going on. Shocking thought I know.
Ok so this weekend I played hookey and hit the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for an extended weekend. My cohorts and I took the public bus (aka no AC, no bathroom and holding your stuff so it doesn't get stolen) for 5 hours with 1 pit stop. A little brutal but nothing we couldn't handle. The we stayed at my first ever hostel. The first night we stayed in tents. HOT. Let me tell you. Lauren and I were so desperate for ventilation we took the rainfly off and of course we had one of the tents where the top is completely mesh without the rainfly so we got to wake up to some male spectators in the morning. Totally worth it, I think we may have suffocated otherwise. Day 3 we met up with the rest of the group and checked into our hotel. Better right? Wrong. Our room flooded and left a good majority of my stuff wet including my travel journal and my camera (which after a scare still works). Word from the manager? "It happens" Welcome to Costa Rica.
It was a good weekend though. Sushi. Crepes. 15 mile bike ride through the rainforest. Learning that I don't like the beach. Sand, lots of sand. Mosquitoes. Conversations in hammocks. Relaxing and soaking up my last week. =)
Also when we got home on Sunday we taught our host family to play Spoons. Mind you now that I had to try to explain the rules in Spanish after not having spoken much Spanish for a good 5 days...yeah... Let's just say I accidentally started off by telling them that we play with knives. It did get better though and they understood after about 1 round. Except for Zorida, our host mom. She cracked me up. It took her like 7 rounds to completely understand the rules and even then she was still cheating and picking up more than 1 card at a time but we just ignored it. She was laughing so hard by the end that she was coughing and everyone had a blast.
Like I said this is my last week here. My plane leaves on Friday and I will be moving me and my heavy suitcases to California for METS. I'm sad and excited all at the same time. Oh Dr. Pepper, how I miss you and welcome your return to mi vida...
Ok so this weekend I played hookey and hit the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for an extended weekend. My cohorts and I took the public bus (aka no AC, no bathroom and holding your stuff so it doesn't get stolen) for 5 hours with 1 pit stop. A little brutal but nothing we couldn't handle. The we stayed at my first ever hostel. The first night we stayed in tents. HOT. Let me tell you. Lauren and I were so desperate for ventilation we took the rainfly off and of course we had one of the tents where the top is completely mesh without the rainfly so we got to wake up to some male spectators in the morning. Totally worth it, I think we may have suffocated otherwise. Day 3 we met up with the rest of the group and checked into our hotel. Better right? Wrong. Our room flooded and left a good majority of my stuff wet including my travel journal and my camera (which after a scare still works). Word from the manager? "It happens" Welcome to Costa Rica.
It was a good weekend though. Sushi. Crepes. 15 mile bike ride through the rainforest. Learning that I don't like the beach. Sand, lots of sand. Mosquitoes. Conversations in hammocks. Relaxing and soaking up my last week. =)
Also when we got home on Sunday we taught our host family to play Spoons. Mind you now that I had to try to explain the rules in Spanish after not having spoken much Spanish for a good 5 days...yeah... Let's just say I accidentally started off by telling them that we play with knives. It did get better though and they understood after about 1 round. Except for Zorida, our host mom. She cracked me up. It took her like 7 rounds to completely understand the rules and even then she was still cheating and picking up more than 1 card at a time but we just ignored it. She was laughing so hard by the end that she was coughing and everyone had a blast.
Like I said this is my last week here. My plane leaves on Friday and I will be moving me and my heavy suitcases to California for METS. I'm sad and excited all at the same time. Oh Dr. Pepper, how I miss you and welcome your return to mi vida...
Monday, June 8, 2009
Monkey Business
Sooo...remember when a monkey tried to steal my backpack this weekend? Yeah, it happened. They had told us before that we were going to a rainforest that is right on the Pacific coast so we could have some beach time. We also got the customery warning about not leaving stuff unattended because someone could steal it. Oh yeah and watch out for theiving monkeys and raccoons. What!?!
So of course of the whole group I'd be the one to experience this right? Right. Most of the people had gone to another beach and I'm just hanging out in the ocean enjoying the waves when I see the small group of people that are left have congragated about 20 ft from my stuff and there is a monkey standing at my backpack! So what do I do? I yell of course. So I start screaming "That's my bag! Somebody get the monkey!!!!" Lol, luckily a combination of my screaming and the other people turning around diverted the little thief. That's when I decided my time at the beach was over.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Oh there is more...of course there more
Ok so this is part 2 (WATCH THE OTHER ONE FIRST) This is what happened after my host mom came in after all the screaming and laughing. Sorry if you don't know spanish. Basically she is telling us that there aren't usually cockroaches in the house. Meanwhile I am laughing so hard that all I can manage to respond is "well today there is" and "huh?"
Notice her soccer skills as she kicks it out the door. I think she could have played professionally in her younger days :) I think by this point she knows we're insane. Especially since Lauren didn't even come see what the bug was, the first thing she did was run for her camera.
La cucaraaaacha, La cucaraaaaacha, la la la la la la la la la
Video 1= me killing the giant cockroach in my room. I seriously think this is way more epic than the spider video. My stomach hurts so much from watching it already. I'm sure there will be more bugs as they seem to like my room and I was informed yesterday that there is most likely a lizard living outside my window as well. AWESOME.
P.S. why do I seem to just end up an awkward mess of laughter on the floor after bug killing/ anything epic. Mess.
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