First Day at Work

Hola amigos!

First order of business, a funny story: I met a guy who will be in France studying at the same school I will be studying at in the fall! What a small world!

Today was my first real day at work. Like I said, I had to do the public transit thing on my own this time. It turned out not to be a problem at all. The only problems I had were that I thought I'd passed the health clinic and that I was going to have to do the entire route and circle to get back to the clinic (but I didn't). I also practiced saying "I'm getting off here!" in spanish the entire time, and when it came time for me to say that (as we zipped past the clinic), I froze for a second. Don't worry though, I recovered quickly and was only a block past the clinic. I also grossly overestimated the time it would take to get there and was over 15 minutes early. Let me tell you- it is very cold at 7:45 in the morning in Bolivia in the middle of winter. Not to mention I got up an hour before that. I'm not complaining though, it is nothing compared to Chicago at that time in the middle of winter. It's just weird to pull on jeans and a fleece (and to be cursing myself that I haven't bought a winter hat here yet) when all I want to wear at noon is shorts and a sports bra. But I'm getting off topic.

First I did some patient entry into the computers. There was a girl who was getting checked in who was probably 13 and when the employee asked her if she was a student, she said no, she was employed. I learned that every child under 5 receives free health care in Bolivia. I also learned that the dental exams for anyone over 5 cost 86 (U.S.) cents. At 9:15 the director called me into his office. I seriously thought I'd been fired already. They gave me a sprite and I thought, "oh no here it comes, they are softening the blow." As it turns out he just wanted me to learn how to sign myself in. I was moved to work with the nurses, which I liked a lot more. While I was observing in the nurses room, the dirtiest and cutest street dog I've ever seen walked in and sniffed a little boy about to be examined, and then laid down under the nurses desk. I pointed this out to a nurse and she acted like I'd just told her 2 + 2 is 4. A different nurse halfway shooed the dog out once it started to get close to the scale and the beds. The little kids are so cute. The traditional women carry their babies on their backs in a colorful blanket looking thing that they tie in front of their chests. (It has a name in Kechua but I don't remember it).

I've mentioned this with my room before, but the buildings here are impervious to the heat. This afternoon at the clinic it was probably 80 degrees outside but we were all shivering inside the clinic (and there is no A/C). While we stood outside to soak up a bit of sun, this 3 year old girl walked up to me and tried to give me her squeeky toy duck. I proceeded to play with this girl for the next half an hour, it was awesome. Before I left the director of the clinic showed me a video clip of a music video and a video clip from Lord of the Dance. I didn't understand why but my guess is maybe he knew the girl in the video? He also seems to really likes Irish Dance. He also told me he'd love the dvd or cd from Lord of the Dance, so I might see what I can do about that :-)

I left work and got lunch at a restaurant. I pointed to a picture that looked good on the menu and I believe he called it pollo retornable. I don't know but it was pulled chicken, peas (which I actually didn't mind!), chopped peppers, potatoes, and jalapenos all mixed together. It was delicious, but I tipped too much. I gave a normal American tip because I figured it was better than leaving too little- I intend to return there. I asked someone here and apparently if you tip at all, you don't leave more than 10%. Oops!

Hasta Luego!

Hillary