General update

Things have been going really well at NPH. I've been getting into some kind of routine in the clinic which is cool. I graduated high school juuuust as Power Point was getting popular so I managed to avoid ever having to use it before. My main job responsibility here is to give workshops to the kids and staff, so this week has been dedicated to learning how to use it. I'm doing pretty good so far. I'm sure my Spanish is atrocious in the slides but I'm planning on having Martin and Estella edit it with me before I show it to the doctor :P My Spanish continues to get better, in a few more weeks I'll be ready to post a video of me talking to wow all you folks at home! I'm also getting to know the nursing staff better. Today one of the nurses actually sat down at my table to talk to me! I hope that doesn't make the nurses sound like snobs, its just that they're usually really busy and our conversation never gets further than, "Hi, how was your night? That's nice." I've been making more of an effort to make conversation with them and get to know them a bit better. They seem really great. Tia Rosa and I have been bonding too. She keeps nagging me about eating more, she says she doesn't want my mom to think that she isn't taking good care of me here. I keep telling her that I'm trying to lose weight but she ignores me. Or maybe I'm saying it wrong. Maybe I'm accidentally saying, "You're right, please feed me more." That would explain a lot... Today Tia Rosa asked one of the nurses to teach me how to pass meds which was a HUGE step. I've been pretty hands off up until now so maybe this means she's ready for me to be more of a help around the office. I hope I can do meds for them, I want to feel like my degree is going towards something here. I've been giving shots pretty regularly which has been fun. For the most part the kids are really good with getting immunizations. Of course there are a few who I need a little physical support, but thankfully Willowglen prepared me nicely for that ;)

I started giving my English lessons! I met with my old Spanish teacher and talked with her for two hours over lunch. Her English was actually really good, she just needs some practice with conversation. I also met with Juan Carlos, the guy from the eyeglass store. Did I tell this story already? I forget. I don't think so. Well, a few weeks ago I went to Chimaltenango (a neighboring town) to pay for some eyeglasses that we ordered for the kids. The man who makes the glasses and I struck up a conversation and he asked me to help him out by making a phone call to the United States. He was interested in buying a machine from ebay that's used to cut lenses, he just wanted me to call the company that makes the machines to see if they sell spare parts in case he needs them. Apparently he wanted me well prepared for the phone call because he had me watch youtube videos about how the machine functions and read websites about it. I made the call for him and he bought me a soda, all was good. I went back to there the following week to bring kids for their appointment. This man (Juan Carlos) approached me and asked me if I could give him two hours of English lessons a week. I agreed to do this past weekend as a trial, so we met up at the McDonalds in Antigua. (Side note: Um, crazy beautiful McDonalds. Check this place out!)

So I get there a little before we're supposed to meet, he calls and says he'll be 15 min late. I buy a value meal and am just finishing eating when he walks in. He comes over and is like, "I'm so sorry that I'm late, let me buy you lunch." I say, "Thank you but I just ate, I'm fine." He says, "Absolutely not, I insist." Me: "Thanks, but I'm seriously not hungry. Next time." "Him: "No, no, I'm buying you food." I realize he's not going to take no for an answer, so I say, "Okay, you can buy me lunch but let's wait an hour for my stomach to settle." Him: "No, no! I'm buying you lunch now." So he walks away and comes back with the exact same thing I just ate. I had to sit there and eat a SECOND value meal. Dear lord. It was horrible and hilarious at the same time. The lesson with him went really well though. I had warned him ahead of time that I'm not an English teacher, I could just help him practice his conversation. That worked well for him since his English is actually pretty good. I agreed to meet him every Saturday for lunch and practice. He's going to pay me 50Q (not much, but I felt bad taking ANY money from him and he insisted. It's enough to buy fresh vegetables and fruits for the week :) He's also going to buy me lunch AND he's going to give me a free eye exam and make me glasses!! Woohoo!! Having an extra pair of glasses is a luxury I've never known. Now I can change them with my outfits, how fashionable!

After my lunch with Juan Carlos I met up with Tia Rosa and her friend Ezekial. They both want to learn English and are at a beginners level. I wasn't really prepared to TEACH an actual class, I had warned her that I could only practice conversation but I was able to wing it pretty well. We went over colors, numbers and months and I taught them the verbs "have" and "am". It was probably way too much to go over for our first class, but hopefully they remember something from it. Hopefully I didnt scare them away completely. I'm going to go to the English office at the school tomorrow and see if they have some material that I can borrow. Apparently Stephanie and Charlotte are teaching some of the older kids English in the evenings too, I might try to help them with that to see if i can get some ideas for my classes too. It's totally cool, I'm actually really excited about this! I hope I can help them out, especially Tia Rosa who has helped me a lot already.

Okay, random picture time! Estella has discovered the Camera+ app on my phone and has been having fun. Here's me working.

Jordy's been visiting often. He associates me with my music so now whenever he sees me he says "Hakuna Matata!!" It's his favorite song on my comp. I really need to download some Spanish kids songs, my English ones do nothing for the kids here.

Speaking of music, I really want a copy of the Adele album. I need to start bugging the other volunteers for music.