Quick Musings

Sitting on my bed while the rest of the crew does their evaluations at the hospital with Dr. Agullo. It’s hard to believe that the first half of my trip is almost over. Tomorrow is our last day at the hospital and we have seen some truly amazing things. Josh R., Nikki and I spent the majority of the morning walking around the hospital taking photos and playing with the children in the pediatrics ward. Josh R. made balloons of out gloves and we all had a great time laughing and throwing them up in the air. As much fun as it was it’s hard to fully extract oneself from the reality that most of the 40 or so children are very, very sick. I keep thinking

back to our first week in the hospital when Michelle and I observed a surgery in which Dr. Agullo removed 100 cm of necrotic intestine from an 8 year-old boy whose bowels were so full of round worms that their weight caused his intestines to wrap around themselves and cut off the blood supply. This was an extreme case but certainly not unique. Just before we went in for the procedure one of the nurses showed us a jar of 240 worms they’d pulled from the belly of a different boy the week before. That aside, it was a pleasure to play with the children out in the halls without having the cloud of disease hang over us the way it seems to do at the bedside. I’ve got to run to the hospital to meet the folks so we can head into to town and do a few things before we leave. I’ll write again soon and include a short write-up from each of the other students. Hope everyone back home is doing well.