Nursing and Cooking

Four of the boys from Los Liones (PC: Treson)

“So, how much do you weigh?” I was eating at the Liones’ house with the family of 13 and Hermano Juan had just asked me the question from the other end of the long dinner table. I looked up in surprise, wondering if with my limited Spanish I had misunderstood the question. Lisiane, the student missionary across the table from me who speaks Spanish fluently, gave me a look, verifying that I had understood the question correctly. “Well,” I said, “I’m usually around 122…” I could see Hermano Juan calculating the number to kilograms in his head. He looked at me in shock. “You are so skinny!” His wife answered him across the table, pointing to my plate that I was eating from. “It’s because she eats so little, she needs to eat more!” I just laughed and shook my head. Dinner conversations are so different here!

The week started off last Thursday night with a little boy moving into the clinic with a double ear infection and high fever. I took care of him until he fell asleep and then caught 3 hours of sleep myself before he needed medicine. Friday dawned with him still being miserable, so I took him with me to the Gringos’ house (the house of the male student missionaries and the location of our only kitchen) while I cooked breakfast for the sm’s and cleaned up afterward. He was a very cute little companion as I charted and organized for the rest of the day.

My view from the kitchen window each morning

One of the huge challenges here has been understanding all the medications. They’re called by different names, some of them aren’t used in the United States so I’m not familiar with them, and the many that need to be rehydrated from powder come with confusing instructions. I was so overwhelmed trying to figure one medication out on Friday afternoon that I took it over to the guys’ house, sat down, and plopped it down on the table where Zoro could translate the instructions. He and Treson chatted and helped me figure out what to do. They made the process a lot less stressful, and I am so grateful for the many times that they have done just that!

Vespers on Friday night

The little boy slept a second night in the clinic, and around 4 am I heard a little tiny voice in my room calling “Teacher Sierra? Teacher Sierra?” I asked what happened and he said, “I’m scared.” So, we walked back to the clinic and sat down on the edge of the bed. He stared up at me with very wide-awake eyes. Finally after a few minutes I said, “You’re not sleepy, are you?” He shook his head vigorously. I went in search of my pillow and soon returned and curled up in the clinic with it and a sheet. When he realized I’d be close by, he immediately turned over and fell asleep.

The student missionaries have been assigned the job of cooking for the biggest house on campus each Sabbath, which is about 30 people. Elizabeth, Zoro, and I got up early Sabbath morning to make biscuits with veggie patties. Elizabeth made delicious biscuits while Zoro and I made veggie patties. As you can see in the picture below though, Zoro had his hands full most of the time!

Zoro, Jose, and Abby

After the previous two nights, I was exhausted. After church, I climbed in bed and slept through lunch and a portion of the afternoon. The rest of Sabbath was spent with the other student missionaries, talking and hanging out with the kids. In the evening, we had a fundraising meeting with the director, Melissa, and I took over the roll as fundraising/finance/project coordinator for Familia Feliz. It was a very exciting meeting and made we wonder how we’re going to get everything done in the next few months! We most likely won’t, but hopefully we’ll be able to lay a good foundation for the work to continue. I know God has exciting plans for this place!

Carlo and I headed over to the Liones’ house first thing Sunday morning. We had made a rough schedule for the day and went in with a plan. Creating more of a routine was a lot of work, especially for Carlo since he led out in chores while I cooked, but the kids responded well! I made pancakes with banana sauce for breakfast, we both made lentil patties and mashed potatoes for lunch, and pasta with homemade sauce for dinner.

Lunch

I also run the visitation time on most Sundays, so during the game time in the afternoon for all houses, I spent several hours guarding the gate of the compound as family members of some of the kids came and went. As I walked back to my house in the evening, a little boy came running with his thumb torn open. I will spare you the details of how it looked, but I could tell it was deep and painful and very full of river water. He and I walked to the clinic and got it all cleaned up. I was pretty sure steri-strips would fix it sufficiently, and thankfully, they did.

The kids at afternoon game time (PC: Treson)

We finished the day with tucking all the little boys in bed. Lots of hugs, kisses, and prayers later, they were sound asleep and our day was done.

Monday involved a normal morning and then an afternoon in town with all the other student missionaries where we held a 4-hour long finance/fundraising committee. It was the first time we had all been together for that amount of time since we got here to Familia Feliz! The time was very productive but also very fun.

Work time with the SM's

Tuesday was a happy day. The boy whose head I had to put stitches in a week and a half ago came back to the clinic to get them removed. It went well and his head is healing so nicely! I also got my second-to-last rabies shot and managed to go all by myself to the hospital, which means my Spanish is getting better! Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever learn to speak fluently, but I’m making little steps of progress, which is encouraging.

One of the things I miss about being in Tennessee/Virginia is fall. When we were heading home on Monday, I found a pumpkin in the store! Subsequently, I spent a few hours of Tuesday roasting the pumpkin, pureeing it by hand, grinding cloves with a hammer and ladle, shredding a nutmeg seed with a pocketknife, and eventually making pumpkin coffee cake. It was so exciting when the four cakes came out of the oven!

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Along with my regular little patients, I also had an adult patient with chest pain Tuesday afternoon. My mind whirled as I was quickly having to shift my mind from pediatrics to adult health care. After assessing him, I monitored him as I cooked. Thankfully it ended up not being serious.

The pumpkin coffee cake served as our breakfast along with mashed potato patties Wednesday morning. It was delicious and added some fun variety to our breakfast menu. If anyone else has breakfast recipes they’d like to share, please do so! One of my favorite jobs is getting to cook for my fellow student missionaries and I’d love to try some more new recipes.

The rest of the day flew by so fast as I charted, made a fundraising priority list, assigned projects to staff, took inventory of the food storage room, collected food requests from the houses, made one giant shopping list, and then later distributed the groceries. In the evening, I walked through a growing thunderstorm to the various houses, giving the kids their evening medicines and bandaging up injuries from the day.

This morning dawned with several minor earaches and some irritated eyes. I think germs may know when my day off is! We have a small river running through the property that serves as a welcome respite from the heat of the day. However, it is also home to a significant number of bacteria that frequently causes ailments such as these. After I wrote out instructions, Elizabeth and Maddy kindly agreed to take care of everyone till tonight.

I told Treson earlier this week that I feel like a different nursing textbook is thrown at me each day. There is so much variety to the cases that I diagnose and treat, from a little baby with a rash all over his head, to injured knees, to wounds in need of stitches, to adults with chest pain. I’m so grateful for the careful training that Southern gave me and the help of my mom and many other people who have taught me so much. And I can’t be grateful enough for the peace and guidance God has given me as I’ve navigated these situations. I’m looking forward to seeing what this next week has in store!