Amigos del hospital!

This is Manuel. He lived in Miami for a few years, where the rest of his family still lives. He gets to talk with them sometimes and they come to visit every now and then, but he had a drunk driving accident and was deported. He is super friendly and loves to show off the few English words he speaks. He is the singer of the hospital and croons in the guys' room and out in the halls. He was really pumped to get to sing some English songs with us, he loves some Lionel Ritchie, Chicago, and Journey. He is diabetic and has a pretty bad infection in his foot. He has been at the hospital for about a month now, and will probably/hopefully leave soon.

Fast Times at the Japanese Hospital

A large chunk of our time here in Granada is spent at the Japanese hospital. This is the large public hospital on the outskirts of town. It gets its name, not because it serves only specific asian tourists, but because it was built about 10 years ago with Japanese support.

We spend two mornings a week visiting with patients and helping nurses. We have taken vital signs, organized a mess of old x-rays, and set up a much needed system for incoming patients' paperwork. However we spend most of our time getting to know long term patients and their families. We talk with them (julie has had the spanish words 'infection', 'cleaning', 'antibiotic', and "getting better little by little" pounded into her head, pray with them, and even sing with them (we don't know too awful many well known spanish language songs, so "la bamba" was busted out quickly).

We spend our time in the surgery inpatient and infection ward. Patients are stuck in these rooms with 8 beds anywhere from 2 days to 3 months and counting. It's a pretty tough place to be for the patients and has absolutely shocked us from our standard view of hospitals in the USA. Everything is free for the patients, which is nice, however some days they do not have medicine, some days they do. The doctors (as in the entire hospital's legion of doctors) take vacation days very often. They will schedule a surgery for a date two weeks away, only to change it at the last minute for no reason, then change it again because there is not enough blood for the surgery. Many of the patients are there with a fairly simple infection, just waiting with no exact end date, just trying to keep up hope. The open-air rooms also hover at 80-90 degrees throughout the day and night. Despite the dismal description, there are many amazing people there and the relationships we have formed and the opportunities we've had have taught us invaluable lessons about our God,the Healer, spreading joy, and true patience.

Im afraid this blog would be entirely too long if I tried to go into details about all the folks we've met, and the experiences. Instead, we will post pictures and introduce you to a few of the pacientes.

Love yall!
Jose y Julia

Natalie

Here is our sweet Natalie. Her mom just cut her hair and we hardly recognized her yesterday but she's still adorable and comes for a glass of water. We bought her a pair of flip flops and they fit perfect! She was wearing them proudly today! Thanks for all of your prayers!

The belltower

Another cathedral in town
At the top of the cathedral overlooking the city

A wealthy neighborhood

Again at the top of the cathedral overlooking the convent

Pics from around Granada

Church in Granada
Means of transportation for many people here

Other mean of transportation for the whole family

More pictures from the dump

3 Brothers and sisters from a family of 8. These kids don't go to school and never have shoes on. These kids are extremely shy and will hardly look at us but have started coming around the last couple of weeks. The girl jumped on my back this week wanting to play and have let the other girls hold them and smile at them.
He's one of my favs! He doesn't really know how to wash his hands and just puts his hands together with the soap and water but doesn't rub them together. It makes me smile every week and we teach him how to rub his hands together to make them clean. He just looks up at us with his precious big brown eyes.

Our team singing and praying with the workers before serving the meal.

Ezekiel (Nica guy) who comes with us a lot on Tuesdays, Ruth, Annie, Jesylan (the AIM girls), Joe, Osiris (our musician), and 2 visitors from Virginia this week Joe and Ben King.

We had to pull them away this week to come and eat. They kept saying we need just 5 more minutes to work.

Tortilla, Tortilla, Tortilla!!!

We hear these words literally about 10 times a day from ladies in the street walking around the city selling tortillas door-to-door. The sound is extremely nasally and high pitched and we often mimic them. Since moving into our new house (the 4th house!), there has been a new little voice outside our door selling tortillas. Her name is Natalie and she's around 7 years old. She comes by everyday to ask if we need more tortillas and usually every other day she will ask for a glass of water. She's ADORABLE! Yesterday she had her little sister with her and I asked them where their shoes were. Natalie looked at me like I was crazy and told me she didn't have any shoes. Joe and I were discussing her future and the fact that all she will ever know or do most likely is sell tortillas. No school, no education, no dreaming of being a nurse, or a lawyer, etc...simply sell tortillas! This also brought up the point of Joe and I not being passionate about our careers and the want to go back to school and change professions-which is very doable for most Americans. If we are not happy, we change it and we educate ourselves and we enable ourselves in the situation. We have so many resources at our fingertips for our disposal and we have the attitude that if we don't like doing a particular something, we can use our resources and change our future. We are blessed (and spoiled)! But what about Natalie? She is probably perfectly content selling tortillas without shoes day in and day out. She has no resources literally! But she ALWAYS has a smile on her face. Maybe as Americans, we have too many choices and "ways out" that will are always going to think "the grass is greener on the other side" and we need more education, money, power, etc. What makes Natalie seem so content to me? Her lack of materials and naive spirit? I am still pondering this question and the issue that we probably have TOO many options in our lives to make us discontent. Anyways, as I search the problem deeper please join me in praying for Natalie and her family and the thousands of kids here without shoes, food, and our definition of a "future" outside of selling tortillas. I am exactly sure what I would ask for you to pray specifically for because she's not sad nor angry or ashamed, just living in extreme poverty. Possibly, the best thing is to ask God to just pour out His love on Natalie and her family and to give them the understanding that things on Earth are not a measure of our standing in His sight. And please pray for us to realize her simplicity is such a beautiful thing.

Matthew 19:20-24
"I have kept all these," the young man told Him. "What do I still lack?" "If you want to be perfect," Jesus said to him, "go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me." When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

I will post a picture of Natalie soon so you can have a sweet memory of this little girl! Thanks so much for your prayers!
Julie and Joe