Jefa Spice

hey hey judies... 7 month point yep wow:). it wouldnt be so impressive if everyday weren't so intensely insane absurdly hilarious and delightfully bolivian, but hey:). so i have not many words to coherently place but a few thoughts from me to me to you:

i've mastered the difference between jungle and rain forest. my life here has been jungle (out of control growth), where as rain forest would have been a piece of yummy dulce de leche torta ( with a canopy tree covering so thick no light ever touches the ground)

i will miss Picolo (the ice cream that made me love ice cream) and Picole the best leche fruit or vanilla flavored Popsicles in all the world.. .Sold in Montero across from the plaza. Def. add to your list of To Dos before you die. You might see a sloth too and that would just be cute.

I'll never forget the position of clinic caretaker. it seems we have this person to save us from bats (this has been an added job req. of late... we are doing some construction and living with lots of holes in lots of walls) anddd to cut the lawn. again, we live in the jungle. so the lawn means out of control control. so the job consists of a good 12 hours every day maintaining a jungle that regrows as fast as it is chopped. oh yes also the tool available for jungle control is 1. machete 2. tiny tiny electrical lawnmower.. that's right.. it has an extension chord. they want me to buy a new one, but i figured this little coordinator bought a fridge and a mattress and 4 new wheels, so i might pass it on to the next lil piggy.

so it's set that i am leaving now. so besides normal clinic coordinating life and patients and life and death and stuff like that, there is an added sadness and sweetness to all my interactions.my buddies are bummed and don't really believe i am leaving or quite why. i probably feel about the same but amazingly relieved my life will have a little distance of a little of this for a while.

Our "Star patient'.. we call him this because good attitudes are good and extra great names for extra annoying people make them all that more bearable. La Strella is Don Subirana who has nothing and no one and got in a machete accident which lead to his since 3 reconstructive urethra surgeries. Anyways he tracked me down yesterday and took me aside to ask very privately... "Will you sell my kidney for me?" I said NO! and then he asked, well will you at least take it back to the States for me and try there? Oye... que tipa. He told me he had sold everything he owned, the last being house.. His doc told him his kidney esta SANITO.. super healthy... and he came to me because it's all he has left to sell.

We had another ataxia patient yesterday. This time 23 years old, with a much more debilitating presentation than the last and a family history that spells bad news. His father, bro and sis have the same disease. His sis is in a wheelchair and her mom told me, through tears, that her limbs are starting to look like sticks.

I don't think i mentioned Adam and I went on a trip!? Uh, if i mentioned, Adam was here.. 3 weeks being a Docy out at the clinic. Basically he was fab with the patients, cares a lot, looks up everything, loves to ask me to come into translate just so he can say "This is my sis. She's younger than me." Ha ha, what a cutie. Oh yeah he also treated me, 2.2 times. Anyways I don't know if he'll make it to be a doc, but he'd be a damn good one one day. He says we may work together one day... I said, belligerently, I don't want to work for you! He said.. don't worry honey, you'd probably be running the place. I know docs are cool and respectable when they are good but not anymore important than anyone else you meet on the camino. What up organizational level... props to you!

I want to say Adam and I went to Oruro. We chilled at juice bars and I fell in love with every man in a suit. They wear suits there. Every where. Everyone. They look quite smashing and I think it's quite a lovely way to be. We took a series of four pictures (currently displayed on Picassa) of school children and their teacher doing the twist and shout. THey live in the Altiplano , its freezing, they can't point to the US on a map, but man do they do a cute Topnotes dance numba. Adam reminded that in juice and suits, these people were living it up, what's not to love. Oh yeah.. and cakes. man Oruro may be one of the coolest places on earth. everyone and their mother are buying cakes and walking through really crowded really busy market streets AND carrying cakes... cakes without cake boxes. At the same time, they love to say hello. And I mean they'd pretty much fall over and break their mother's backs if they don't utter a hello. This makes for lots of "HEy friends, whats up, how do you pass, beautiful weather." Even when Adam and I were doubled over from car sickness and altitude nausea the passer bys were still saying AMIGOS... como estan?

CUte. Even when I'm throwing up I'm accustomed to have a good attitude. Oh yeah and a monkey stole my camera. Well mono probably didn't steal it just borrowed it with no chance of giving it back. I went on an fun waterfall SUV adventure.. it tooks hours and we were crazy deep in the jungle.. but in the end we found gorgeous green rock formation pools and cascades that went up and up forever. Within the adventure my camera that has been with me for so many great sights bid me adeui. I was sad but then I remembered it was 1. sweet i had a camera in the first place 2. monkeys have way better perspective points that i do 3. if some campesino fam finds that shiny gray magic maker they can hopefully pay for their sick kid's hopsital bill or maybe their oldests' university. SOooo it's all ok in the end.

Love you kids, keep on reading those rainbows

Raqui