Bolivia Journals...

This'll be long...but it's everything I managed to write:

Day 1 (arrival, trip to Cochabamba)

Here I am a continent away and so excited to be here!!. I'm actually writing this on a rather rickety van taking us the seven hours from La Paz to Cochabamba. It's been a morning/day/last several hours! God has been in this whole trip and I'm amazed at how he's orchestrated everything since the minute I left to work out perfectly. I met up with the Chinese Evangelical Church from Boston in Miami. They were supposed to be in Cochabamba yesterday but got delayed due to weather and "coincidentally" ended up booked on the same flight to La Paz as me. They've been amazing and have basically just adopted me into their group. Two of the girls, both named Stephanie, will be here the whole time I am. We got on the flight to La Paz and it was long but decent. We were supposed to buy domestic tickets to fly to Cochabamba (a 30 minute flight) but by the time we got through customs the flight had closed with no other flights going out till tomorrow night. Everyone was really positive though and we immediately decided to take a bus. This would have required getting all 15 of us and our luggage in taxis, to the bus station 45 minutes away and then onto buses all going the same direction. Fortunately, someone found a couple of vans that would take us straight to Cochabamba: a 6 hour drive, but better than sitting in La Paz for 36 hours. We've got a couple people in the group that speak decent Spanish so we managed to get everyone's luggage on the vans (albeit somewhat precariously perched on top…we're praying it's still there when we arrive) and get on the road. I can't help but think how providential it was that this group ended up with me because I can't imagine what it would have been like figuring all this out on my own. So it's about 8:40 in the morning and we have a nice long drive ahead of us but that's alright. Just a part of the adventure eh? ;-)

I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts about the little I've seen so far. When we were landing I could see a little of the city and my first thought was "wow, what a different world". The topography is awesome with mountains rivaling the Rockies for beauty. It was in the thirties when we landed and is probably around 45 or 50 degrees now. Right now we're driving through a pretty flat and dry area but there are mountains all around us. Apparently we'll be going through or very near the Andes at some point on our drive. The sun's out and it's perfectly clear…amazing weather to be honest. As pretty as it is, it's so poor and dirty. Most of the buildings are mud brick or really poorly thrown together red brick structures. There's trash everywhere and stray dogs running wherever they want. The people are beautiful..I wish I could paint some of them. They're shorter and most are pretty stocky. They're faces are really tan and weatherbeaten and they look very serious. The women wear long full skirts and sweaters and most carry stuff on their back by wrapping a brightly colored blanket around their shoulders. All of them wear these really funky hats…I hope I can send pictures at some point.

Most everyone's falling asleep on the van..it's been a long night, plus we're all adjusting to the altitude. That added to the fact that none of us have eaten since our in-flight meal last night is really not great. Right now I just want a shower and my toothbrush!

12:30pm- still on the road. We're about an hour out from Cochabamba and our backsides are very happy we're that close. We headed into the mountains fairly soon after I wrote the first part of this and it's been a pretty crazy ride. The Andes are g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! We stopped at a little village to use the public bathroom which ended up being a few holes in the ground that you had to pay to use (the price includes a few squares of the world's worst toilet paper). I was exceedingly thankful that I didn't have to go b/c my wet wipes are in my luggage on top of the van. We bought some bread from the locals, got stared at a lot (I guess a group of Chinese people and one white girl isn't a terribly common sight around here) and got back on the road. I can't believe the poverty here…My immediate reaction is to feel sorry for them but then I get thinking about how simple their lives are compared to mine…how much crap I have that I could live without. Obviously, they're still in need of basic necessities like clean water and healthcare but it really makes you think.

7:15 pm- We finally got here and got settled in. The guest house on the hospital compound is incredible. It's huge! I'll try to post pictures at some point. We discovered upon arrival that nothing is really organized and quite honestly, we're kind of on our own to find things to do. Jean's been shadowing the nurses and has gotten to see some cool stuff but other than that, there's not really much to do. We'll see where that goes..we're hoping that as the summer goes on we'll get a little more direction. It was kind of frustrating but I know the Lord has something in it. The Chinese group is only here for 2 weeks and they had already hooked up with World Vision to do 3 days of clinics in a nearby village so Jean and I are going to help with that. We'll be registering people and I'll be taking vitals. I'm getting a crash course in Spanish..Jean said we can take lessons in town for just a few dollars so I think I'm going to do that.

The mountains around here are great so we'd like to get some weekend hiking trips in if we can. There's really not much sightseeing-wise around since the country's so poor and unstable. Tomorrow's a holiday ( Corpus Christi day?) so we'll be able to sleep in a little and explore the surrounding villages a bit.

Day 2 (Cochabamba, Corpus Cristi celebrations)

So I've slept my first night in Bolivia and woke up wishing I had brought about 3 quilts and a winter coat. The house has no heat and is entirely tile so it stays reeeeally cold. The days are usually nice but since the temps get down in the thirties outside at night it keeps things pretty chilly. When the Chinese people leave in 2 weeks I'll be stealing like 5 of the blankets off their beds J. This morning is gorgeous..the sun came up about 6:30 and is pouring in our windows. We have a good view of the Andes from the front porch area..I definitely can't complain!

I got up about 6:45 because we're going into town for the holiday festivities and to get some groceries from the market. After that we're going to the head of World Vision here in the area's house for a cookout. Should be cool.

Living here's definitely going to take some getting used to: we have to get filtered water from the kitchen for everything and I just know I'm going to forget and brush my teeth with the faucet water one of these days! You also can't flush any toilet paper so there's a little trash can next to the toilet for that. Gross. Eh well. There's also no hot water anywhere in the house so if you take into account the fact that it's winter, showers are just not fun. So as gross as it may seem, I probably will take very few and just wash up in the sink. There's no way I can bring myself to jump into 40 degree water every morning and there's no one here to impress here anyway ;-D.

More later…we're about to leave.

9:30pm- We went into the city to see what kind of celebration was going on for the holiday and ended up attending mass at the local cathedral. It was interesting…they had guitars and a drum set. Definitely not your typical catholic mass..not that I've been to any before. In the city square all the local schools had made these huge pictures on the ground out of dyed saw dust and flowers..it was awesome. After mass was over there was a big procession made up of the local clergy and the military with the rest of the public just following behind. I began to feel very conspicuous because everyone that walked by was staring at me. Let me tell you, being a tall blond in a city where everyone is completely dark and short with black hair is an interesting experience. I feel like a giant because the people here are all pretty much under 5'5" or 5'6". Anyway, we hung out in the square for a while taking pictures and looking very out of place. It was fun. There are tons of street vendors and my favorites are the ones with carts of oranges and juice squeezers selling fresh juice..it makes the whole square smell like citrus.

We left Cochabamba early afternoon and headed up a mountain to see the statue of Christ called Cristo de la Concordia. You've probably seen pictures of the one identical to it in Brazil..it was pretty impressive but also really sad because there were so many people walking up the million steps up the mountain praying and hoping their works were going to get them into heaven. One beautiful elderly lady stood at the base of the statue praying her rosary and looking completely hopeless. It broke my heart. I wish I knew the language so I could share the hope we have in Christ and tell these beautiful people that they can know they're going to heaven and they don't have to bloody their knees trudging up hundreds of stairs to a statue made of rock.

The view from the top was stunning and I got a lot of great pictures to post whenever I remember to bring my camera over here.

After that we went to the supermarket for groceries and then to the head of Cochabamba's World Vision for dinner. He's from a very wealthy family and has a beautiful house on a lake. We cooked out and had a great time…there were literally no lights around at all so the stars were breathtaking. I haven't seen a sky that big since I was in the desert in the western US. Incredible.

Day 3 (HOH)

Today was a great day... Jean and I went to the hospital this morning around 9 and did a little organizing and made some charts. We found out there was a surgery scheduled for 10 so we asked if we could watch and they said we could. As is typical here in Bolivia, we didn't actually scrub in until 10:30.

The patient was a 43 year old woman and they were performing a laproscopic gallbladder removal…pretty routine, easy and short. This was probably the most hilarious/shocking/fascinating thing I've ever seen to date. Obviously, in the US surgeries are done with the utmost care, sterile technique is carried out to the point of being anal etc. Imagine my surprise when they let me (and 5 other pre-med students) watch IN the operating room without having to scrub up and just wearing our scrubs, mask and hat. Completely not kosher. There were 3 doctors and a few other techs helping out so the room was packed. The anesthesiologist showed up and got the patient knocked out and then the doctors scrubbed in and prepped her. They cut 4 small entry holes to put their instruments/camera through and started the procedure. Since it was laproscopic, everything took place internally and was projected on a monitor…basically you have to have impeccable hand/eye coordination to perform this type of surgery. The whole thing took about an hour and a half or two hours. I need to do some research on the procedure b/c it looked like he was just hacking at stuff and I really couldn't figure out what we were seeing on the monitor. Anyway, the whole time they're digging around inside this woman, one of the Bolivian med students was taking pictures with his cell phone and near the end of the surgery, the anesthesiologist's phone rang and he answered it (!!!!!)! It was ridiculous but pretty funny actually. Honestly we probably do go overboard in the states with trying to stay sterile but it's still a little shocking when people are taking photos and answering phones in the middle of surgery. The Doctor finally got her gallbladder cut free and pulled it out (sorry if I'm grossing you out…I thought it was pretty awesome) and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

We left while the doctor was stitching her up because we were all starving. I ended up getting caught by Paul, the hospital administrator, who is from Detroit and sat in his office talking for about an hour. Apparently his 15 year old son is an amazing artist so he wants me to come over to their house to take a look at his stuff. I got my official Hospitales de Esperanza nametag and finally headed back to the guest house for lunch. I ended up having to scarf it down b/c we were leaving like 5 minutes after I got back.

I think I mentioned the head of World Vision in our area…his name is Barnaby. Barnaby is quite possibly one of the coolest people I've met so far. He's probably about 50 and is one of the most generous and kind people. He came and picked us up in his pickup truck. Yes. 16 people in one pickup truck. We had 6 in the cab plus Barnaby and 10 in the bed. I rode outside most of the time because it was so freaking fun. Barnaby took us to the World Vision headquarters where we had a prayer meeting and met the rest of the WV staff. They were wonderful and gave us snacks before we left. From there we went to the three villages that we'll be holding clinics in next week to scope out the areas we'll be setting up. They were all extremely rural and primitive but the countryside was absolutely gorgeous. Standing in the back of a truck bed while driving on bumpy unpaved dirt roads back in the Bolivian countryside is definitely an experience everyone should have. We waved to everyone we passed and the people were so friendly. The women wore very traditional dress and were really tan…they obviously work outside most of the time. It took a few hours to hit all three places and we left the last one around sundown. I think we've got a general idea of how things are going to go next week but we're going to have to play a lot of it by ear and be reeeeally flexible.

Once the sun goes down here, the temperature drops FAST. Very noticeable especially when riding outside J. We got back and had dinner and then had a great time of worship and sharing. I'm sitting here on my bed writing you now. My two roommates are already asleep but I wanted to write before I sacked out for the night.

Tomorrow's another packed day. Since it's Saturday we won't do anything at the hospital but we'll be leaving the compound around 11 for a full afternoon and evening: first stop is at the local market for some souvenir shopping and culture..and hopefully not in the sense of getting robbed, as the Concha is notorious for that sort of thing. Next we're visiting some orphanages and then after that we'll be helping with a local ministry that teaches hygiene to children and gives them baths. After that we should be heading home for the evening.

After the big group leaves, those of us that are left are going to use our weekends for sightseeing around Bolivia and we're looking into taking a 3 day weekend or so to Peru so we can hike up to Machu Picchu. It's about 20 hours away by bus and then train but transportation is cheap and I can't imagine being on the same continent as Machu Picchu and not seeing it. So we'll see..

The last few days have been very very eye opening for me. It's funny…the more I'm here, the more I'm pretty sure I wouldn't ever want to live in a country like this. I think the short term thing is definitely more what I want to do. It's so sad to see the squalor that most of the country lives in and I just want to help but am so limited. Even huge organizations like World Vision and Compassion are only hitting a very tiny portion of the population. It's heartwrenching. I think nursing long term in a country like this would be frustrating and is better left to nationals: the cultural differences are huge and for the patient's sake as well as the rest of the staff, it seems better to have native doctors and nurses. Procedures are SOOO different than how we learn them and though one can adapt, it would be really hard. We have so many precautions and are so safety/privacy oriented in the states and it's totally different here. I am learning a lot about life here and am learning a lot about myself. I believe God will have changed me a lot for the better by the time I come home…I hope I am much more patient and caring and loving as a result. When you see how 99% of the population lives here, it's like a mirror with a glaring image of your own selfishness and materialism. I think it will make me a better nurse and a better person in general.

Day 4 (Saturday)
(saturday)

Today was packed but out of this world. I hope I can remember everything..we just got home. We got to sleep in quite a bit and I came over to the hospital to check e mail and just be alone for a little while. The guest house is across a small field from the hospital and the walk over this morning was beautiful. Imagine a mix between colorado and the california coastline right after the sun comes up on a clear, crisp morning. Pretty incredible. The silence was nice and I got a bunch of photos uploaded that I hope you´ve been able to see by now. The computer here is slow so it takes forever to get anything up. I headed back to the house and taught the premed students how to take blood pressure..we had a good time with that. They´re crazy. We left the house about 11 for the Concha, the outdoor market.

We spent about 1.5 hours there shopping for souvenirs and I found some pretty awesome stuff. A few scarves and some jewelry. I didn´t get much since I´m going to be here for a while and have plenty of time to shop. Jean and I are going to go back at some point to see what else we can find.

After that we split up and went to a couple of orphanages and I promptly fell in love. several times. these kids were precious. I wanted them all. We brought them toys and as soon as we pulled our cameras out, they wanted to play with them. Mine fell into the hands of a boy named David who quickly learned how to take video and thought it was the greatest thing. I figured the camera was just a thing and if it got broken bringing joy to an orphan, then so be it..so I didn´t see it again till we left. Ironically, I got some of the best pictures and video..better than I could´ve taken, from the hands of a child. I was watching some of the videos and they took some of themselves singing....priceless. We played with them for about an hour and then had to leave. The orphanage is about an hour walk from the hospital so Jean and I will most likely go back at least weekly. It´s back in the country and is very rural.

After that, we headed back into Cochabamba to the city square where a local charity bathes children every Saturday evening. They set up a tent and a business across the street provides warm water that they switch out after every child. Basically, they literally wash the children right there in the tent, then they get dressed and get sent outside to have their hair combed. I spent the evening sitting on the ground combing tangles out of gorgeous black hair belonging to todders. I got so many hugs it was ridiculous. I wanted to keep them all! After most of the hair had been combed we just played with the kids. I´ll probably come home with lice and TB but it´ll be worth it. I´m pretty concerned about this one girl that I carried around for most of the evening because she had this really bad productive cough. She was so sweet though..she kept wanting me to spin her around and she wouldn´t let go of me. We met a group from the Northern US who were also helping out and we´re probably going to church with them in the morning. Jean and I also hooked up with 5 girls from England and Northern Ireland who are here for 4 months so we´ll probably try to get together with them again and maybe work in the slums with them.

It got dark and cold fast so we headed to the grocery store to get food. We arrived home to no water anywhere on the compound..apparently the pump on the water tower isn´t working and the tank is empty. Fortunately we have enough filtered water to drink but basically all we can do is pee since we can´t flush the toilet. sucks. but then we are in a 3rd world country so que sera sera. It´s an adventure and it´s all pretty fun. I really could use a shower tonight though because after being crawled on by 8 million orphans and dirty children, I smell awful. My jeans are so dirty and I feel gross but the day was worth it.

We ate chicken and didn´t wash our dishes and I headed across the field for some more silence and email time in the library...I relish these times of quiet..

Monday (first day of clinics, Valoma)

I would give anything for rain right now...this area hasn´t had it for 4 months and it´s soooo dry. and dusty. I feel like my whole head is packed with dust.

Today was exhausting but soo amazing. We went to a little village and set up a clinic at the village school. I was in charge of vital signs and had John and Ian, two of the premed students, working under me. They did well...I taught them the other night how to take blood pressure and they really learned fast and did a great job today. I would´ve been overwhelmed if they hadn´t known how to do it because we had huge lines of people. I now know how to say ¨i´m going to take you´re blood pressure¨, Ï´m going to take your pulse¨ and ¨stand here¨ in spanish. Things got a little complicated when we started getting patients from the outlying areas that spoke quetchua (sp) instead of spanish...so we had quetchua-spanish speakers translating into spanish to our spanish-english speakers so they could tell us in english what the person was saying. Pretty crazy. Despite the language barrier and the fact that we really had no idea what to expect, things went very well. It was just awesome to see people come out of the clinic with supplies and meds that they needed and have them thank us like we were angels. (little do they know). I guess you don´t really feel like you´re doing much when all you give them is a toothbrush, paste and floss but to them it´s a treasure. Amazing how much we take for granted. Some of these people walked miles to see the doctor and it felt really good to be a part of helping them. I wish I could share Christ but the language barrier prevents me...the spanish speakers in the group did a phenomenal job of sharing the gospel though and I just prayed when I had a break.
When they finally shut the registration line down and we finished taking vitals, i just sat and prayed a while. It´s kind of nice being in a place where things are somewhat slower and you can just be still for a few minutes and pray. I know I should do that more in the states..
I´m still trying to process everything I saw today because it´s so heartwrenching. You realize these babies and children are just going to grow up in the same poverty they´ve been born into and someday they´ll be bringing their own children to clinics for parasites and broken bones that have been that way for over a month and burns and everything else. I saw a 22 year old woman today with 3 kids..she looked about 40. These people are so aged and hardened. I listened to the heartbeats of hundreds of people today whose hearts need God and I couldn´t help but think that with every pulse I took.
The children are what kill me the most...they´re so beautiful and so full of potential..they´re actually really brilliant and you wonder what they could do with good education and money to go to college. How many engineers and doctors and scientists and businessmen could be playing in the Bolivian dirt right now?? One little boy, maybe 5 years old kept hanging around me and resting his head on my lap while I took blood pressure so when I had a break, I let him listen to his heart with my stethoscope. Gosh I wish you could´ve seen his face! It was like you´d given him the world...the hugest smile I´ve seen. It made my day..I wish I had pictures of half this stuff but some of these moments are impossible to capture.
We got home about half an hour ago and we´re dirty and tired but fulfilled.
I walked over the hospital to use the internet and we have a policeman sitting in the lobby for the 3rd day in a row..apparently a criminal was admitted over the weekend. I saw a patient in the ER saturday night either having a stab wound cleaned or a bullet removed from his back so it´s probably him. Weekends are busy in the ER with stabbings and other violent crime related injuries.
I´m gonna head back to the house now to get cleaned up and help with dinner.

At this point I started getting really sick and didn't write much. This was from the day after our second clinic day and was about all I wrote for the rest of the trip:

i´m sitting here at a net cafe on the streets of vinto.
i feel like crap. think i ate something bad b-c i can´t keep food in. i probably shouldn´t have walked up here but i was bored and needed to get caught up on my email. i paid like 20 cents for an hour..not bad :).
we had our second clinic day yesterday and it was looooong. our dentist got tools to do extractions and i got to help with that...pretty gross. we ended up with so many people that he was pulling teeth by flashlight when the sun went down..there was no electricity in the school room we were in so that was an experience. we were able to help a LOT of people which was awesome.
***

So that was Bolivia. After this, my health began going downhill fast, I lost almost 20 lbs between Wednesday and when I left on Saturday and began having asthma attacks late Wednesday night (the main reason I came home). I had an absolutely amazing time in Bolivia and wouldn't trade the two weeks I had for anything. I got to do stuff I never would have dreamed of being able to do and I will have those memories with me for the rest of my life.
I'll end this book with the blog I wrote on facebook after I'd been home for a few days:

I'm not sure it will ever be possible to put into words the disappointment I'm currently feeling. I don't even know how to begin this post.

I'm back home in the states just two short weeks after beginning what was supposed to be the most life changing two months of my life. Two months that took the better part of a year's planning, prayers and anticipation. Two months supported by some of the most generous people I know who gave so freely and willingly. And for whatever reason, God chose to bring me to my knees, lay me low and reveal in glaring detail an idol I have clung to all my life but never acknowledged.

The short, tangible story as to why I'm suddenly home is this: shortly after arriving in Bolivia, I got a stomach bug that left me attached to the bathroom for roughly three days. This would have been very much survivable and livable (however uncomfortable it was) but I soon caught a slight cold as well. This too should have been nothing but when added to the extreme cold at night, extreme dust round the clock, smoke from the neighboring bonfires and freezing cold showers, it became a pretty deadly thing. I started having asthma attacks during the night and could barely breathe without the help of an inhaler. I constantly felt like I had a house sitting on my chest and it showed no signs of improving, worsening instead. I talked to a few locals who said that once a person gets down with something like that in that climate at that time of year in Bolivia, it's really hard to get well. I made the not so happy decision to come home with the team I flew down there with and thus abruptly ended my long awaited two month stint in Bolivia.

It wasn't until I was home Sunday and helping my mom put dishes away after we had lunch that I completely broke down and just started sobbing and asking my parents why in the world God would allow something like this to happen. I was inconsolable. Why would God take away something that took so much planning and prayer and money and wasn't even a bad thing to pursue?? My mom very gently made a statement that I can't remember verbatim but that stuck in my mind and suddenly became a sort of mirror in which I saw things about myself that I'd never really wanted to notice. More of an idol than things per se. All of a sudden I realized that my obsession for who knows how long has been wanderlust.

While I did have good intentions for this trip, it also pandered to the very heart of Gwen: the obsession with seeing the world and traveling (in itself, not a bad thing, but in the excessive sense that it had become in me, a very bad thing). I have spent my life always planning the next big thing, always loving the next move or the next trip and thriving off of new experiences. My biggest joys have been crossing the newest state off the map or getting another stamp in my passport. If I wasn't planning some sort of adventure, I became restless and would begin researching a trip here or there, even if it was just a day trip to Charleston. Anything to satisfy my wanderlust.

What my mom gently suggested in the kitchen Sunday was that maybe God had to let me get through months of planning, excitement and a few weeks of euphoria and then break me to get me to realize that life wasn't about all this. I took that thought and began mulling it over and the more I did, the more apparent it became that this was probably God's intention. Had I gotten through two amazing months of doing wild and crazy National Geographic type things, it would have been like throwing 5 gallons of gas on the already burning desire within me to go go go. Instead, the whole thing was brought to a screeching halt and I was forced to face the realities of life: I'm not invincible, life is not about getting stamps in one's passport, one of these days I'm going to have to grow up and settle down to a job and possibly a family and I can't keep being restless like I always have been, and life on the field is not always as "Indiana Jones" as it seems. Which brings me to my next revelation:

I have always been extremely idealistic and until this trip have had no real reason not to be where travel was concerned. Whether domestic or international, my travel experiences have always, without fail been amazing. I've always had great food, I've tried new things, I've slept well and I've never been sick. This sort of experience tends to give a false sense of security to any new experiences and I guess I went to Bolivia thinking I was going to save the world. A sort of female Indy with a stethescope and scrubs instead of a whip and fedora. The food was going to be great, I was going to rough it and come home and sleep like a rock and then go do it all again the next day. Reality hit the first night the temps in the house plunged to nearly 40 and there was no hot water to be found in the house and then there was no water at all to be found in the house. And then Montezuma wreaked his vengeance on me and everyone else in the house for at least 3 days. And then we ended up working horribly long hours in putrid smelling dusty air helping people who didn't necessarily always thank us for bringing our medical help from the west and trying to save the world. To be quite honest, it sucked at times. (Please understand I got worlds of blessing out of my two weeks in Bolivia..I'm just trying to paint the realistic picture of how things were at this point). As if all this wasn't enough, God chose to allow me to get sicker than I've ever been and the only way to get better was to come home to reality and give up the two month plan.

Let me reiterate that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a love for adventure and travel. I doubt that part of me will ever go away, but I came home Sunday with my eyes wide open to the realities of life on the mission/relief field. I never would have gotten that had God let me just go on my merry way without experiencing the health problems that I did. I also realized that I have been placing such a huge priority on my desire to always be on the go that I have no idea how to just be still. I was stuck at the guest house by myself sick for two days solid in Bolivia and when that happens and the wireless isn't working and there's no one there but you and God and the cow mooing in the field across the mud wall next to you, you suddenly get a glimpse of what you're supposed to be doing all the time: being still and spending time with God. It took God forcing me into a corner for me to get that.

I think this is one of the biggest things that has ever been taken away from me and though it's been one of the most devestating happenings in my lifetime (aside from deaths of course), I'm glad it happened. I needed to become a little more of a realist and I needed to reset my priorities.

On a side note, it was actually kind of a blessing in disguise because my health insurance company basically decided to drop me b/c of that whole heart indident a few months back. The world's best cardiologist could try to tell them that my condition is completely benign but apparently even that won't convince them that I'm a risk. So as of the end of the month when my policy runs out, I'm stuck because they won't let me renew. Had this happened while I was gone, I would have also lost my travel insurance because I have to have some sort of regular medical to even qualify for the travel policy. And without the travel policy I would not have been allowed to stay with HOH as it is an absolute requirement. Interesting how God works.

So back to life as I knew it. Applying for jobs, working on school and seeing what in the world God's going to do next. HOH will hold the rest of my support so I can take another trip whenever I get a chance. I'll probably be able to stay around three weeks or so which would be awesome.

Posted by Gwendolyn at June 24, 2007 04:49 PM