Days 2 and 3

Days 2 and 3:



Note: Yesterday's blog post didn't happen due to a small problem with our wifi here at home base. #thirdworldprobs

I didn't sleep well the first night, mostly due to drinking an energy drink at the airport, and partially due to my lumpy pillow. Last night, however, I fell asleep at 9pm and slept a solid ten hours. I had my first Guatemalan shower experience - They are electric showers, where you control the heat of the water directly at the showerhead. Basically, there's a heating element that heats the water as it flows through the showerhead. The more water pressure, the colder it gets. So I took a 5 minute shower in trickling warm water, that eventually turned to scalding hot water, and back to luke warm all in a matter of 5 seconds. That was a nice little experience.

Yesterday, Brittany (a fellow volunteer) and I went to a festival down the street. We people watched, ate some churros, drank some orange soda and took a few pictures. In Guatemala, they celebrate the Catholic holiday of the Assumption of Mary. The actual holiday is on August 15th, but they prepare for it a few days before and it lasts one week. There's music, good food, and carnival rides for the kiddos.

Today was our first day of volunteering! Two words: CULTURE. SHOCK. I was surrounded by patients, enfermeras (nurses) and doctors. Only one person, a doctor, spoke english. I was immediately separated from my partner, Karyn, and taken a few blocks away to a small dialysis clinic to help repare patients for treatment. It was easily the hardest thing i've done. The healthcare system is SO different, I can't even begin to explain! People wait for hours and hours just to talk to a nurse for 2 minutes. I saw people re-using needles, not wearing gloves, or washing their hands after treatments... definitely something you'd never see in U.S. hospitals. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, it's more that I just felt a little stupid that I didn't know more spanish and wasn't more helpful. Oh well, tomorrow's another day! 

 After volunteering, we took a city tour on a bus. It wasn't your typical tour where you're usually taken to historical sites, it was a tour of the slums, the city dump, and a national cemetery. The dump was insane... TONS of people digging through trash, others going through things to recycle. It resembled an ant hole because of how many people were down there! It's crazy to think that people live this way and it really makes you realize how lucky we are.

On that note, i'm tired and need my sleep! Buenas noches!