A long post...

Well we have been away from an internet source for so long, we have almost forgotten how to post on our blog! But now we are able to use the internet here at the hospital, though rarely. So we will try to catch you up on our lives. There is quite a line stacking up here in the internet place as there is only one computer that has an internet connection. Combine that with the fact that there are plenty of American medical students here itching to check their email. So where to begin?

That first night when we got here, we stayed in the house of the head doctor here and his wife. He is the one that is related to our friends who recommended this place. Anyway, they have a lovely house! They have an amazing view! I (Larissa) wish we could attach some pictures but this connection is so slow, I don’t know if we will even try. Plus it would be hard to pick so few pictures. The scenery here looks kind of like Italy. It has green rolling hills but it also has very cool and very dramatic mountainy plateaus of limestone.
Hard to explain but very beautiful. All the houses are built with lots of windows to take it the lovely view. We moved into our house.
We are very happy with it. We get to live in it all by ourselves which is really nice. It has three bedrooms and is very comfy. I am sure you want to hear about other things.

Jason was immediately commissioned to start helping some other fellows build a toilet. The people who come to the emergency room have had to walk down a trail to some outhouses so this toilet was very much in need. I didn’t really have a job yet so I went to work on the tennis court. Yes there is a tennis court. And a volleyball court and a basketball court. They are all the same court but it is horribly overgrown with weeds. So I got to work with a shovel. Some little girls were playing in the courts and they got curious and came over to see what I was doing. They conferred among themselves for awhile and then one brave soul spoke up in halting English. “May we help you?” I turned around and smiled and said yes. They were so excited to get the sentence right, they giggled and laughed and ran off to help pull weeds. Actually, I thought they were just going to collect the weeds that I had already pulled up. But then they ran off and grabbed the tools I had brought up with me. This worried me because they were sharp and scary looking and I wasn’t even sure how to use them and they were swinging them around everywhere. I watched them carefully but they were fine. Jason made friends with a Sotho guy who is helping them build the toilets. His name is James. The first day they met, James told Jason he wants an American wife. He is trying to talk Jason into bringing him one. A couple days ago, Jason asked James how old he was. We weren’t sure. He could have been 18 or 25. It turned out he was 23. He asked Jason how old he was and when Jason answered “23” James laughed and laughed! He acted like he couldn’t believe it. Jason said “What, how old did you think I was?” James answered “ I thought you were like…. 22!!!!” And laughed some more. James told Jason he really liked basketball but there wasn’t a basketball around to play with. Jason told him that when he went to town, he would try to find one. Jason found one in town and James and he played a good game of basketball. Jason won but he wasn’t that proud of it since James was playing in flip-flops and then later in barefeet. He would come down on a rock and say “ow” and keep playing.
Jason is also building the toilets with a guy from CA named Hale. He used to be a Peace Corps volunteer here about 15 years ago. He is almost fluent in Sotho. The other day he took us on a hike. It was a village about an hour from here. We took a taxi most of the way there which was quite an experience in itself. We stopped in this little village and then started walking. We were waiting for the taxi that was going to the next village but it was taking so long that we decided to start walking. It was a beautiful walk.
One thing that made it so great was that we passed through little homesteads, and Hale would speak to the people for us and it was so wonderful to be able to converse just little with the people. It made everything way more interesting. Another WONDERFUL thing is that people LOVE having their picture taken. Sometimes, they will stop you ask for you to take their picture. Makes us glad that we have digital. IT is extra good because after we take the picture, we can show them their picture on the back of our camera. They see it and then they shriek with laughter! Kids, adults, everyone loves it. In fact, the kids follow you around and pose so you will take their picture.
It was hard on our hike because sometimes we wanted to take a picture of scenery without out naked children posing in the middle of it. :]

There were a couple places when we were walking on the road where we had to walk over the water. Instead of making a bridge to go over the water, the build a “bridge” that stays under the water and is very strong that way.

Anyway, there was one where we had to cross kind of a strong current. There was a huge crowd of children following us out of curiosity, like usual. Hardly anybody around here knows how to swim so when the children tried to follow us through the river, Hale yelled at them to stay back. Some tried to come anyway but Hale got a stick and told them that if they came to the other side he would beat them. Of course he wouldn’t have but they didn’t know that so they stayed on the other side. Once we crossed the river, we came across a group of musicians who were sitting on the side of a hill playing an accordion and singing.

It was so cool to hear them. They got so caught up in it that they started dancing too. We had our own private musical show.

This is a typical Basotho house. They are called Rondovels (have no idea of the spelling). They are made from clay or sandstone bricks with grass roofs.

It was a beautiful day for our hike and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves except for the massive blister on my foot that kept reminding me of its existence. On the way back, we rode a taxi. The driver had the music all the way up and the African beat was blaring. Inside the minivan, all types of people going home for the night bounced their shoulders up and down and some moved their whole upper body all around. The party didn’t stop inside the van though. The taxi had to go relatively slow because of the muddy, pitted road. This gave the music plenty of time to be heard all around us. On the side of the road, there was a cluster of children that made the best of the passing party. All of them began to dance from the eldest who looked about 7 years old, to the youngest who looked all of 2. The 2 year old wore such a serious expression as she wiggled her little hips to and fro. Both Jason and I saw it and burst out laughing! I will never forget that as long as I live. It was so cute! I wish I had a video camera to capture it for everyone. Alas, we didn’t even get a picture.

The people around here wear blankets. Almost everyone does. I guess a British official gave one as a gift to an ancient Sotho ruler. It was one of his most prized possessions and soon, the British couldn’t import blankets fast enough to satisfy the appetite of the Sotho. They wear them in all kinds of weather. They wrap it around them and then fasten it with a giant safety pin. Hopefully you will get to see some pictures soon and you will see what I am talking about. The carry their babies around on their backs and the keep them there with a towel. They safety pin the towel as to hold the baby safely. I don’t know if I will ever get used to the women bending over, and slinging their 2 month old babies onto their back and the letting them lay there without supporting them while they grab the towel to fasten it. It almost gives me a heart attack every time.

I got to shadow a doctor from the Congo around the other day. He is really nice and he speaks 7 languages. His goal is to speak 10. He learned Sotho in 4 months. He asked us how to get to work in America. Many people have asked us that since we have come here. This guy at least has the qualifications. Anyway, I followed him around and at first I was helping a little bit. Well, I was almost helping. He told me I could do a blood pressure and I took his stethoscope confidently and then grabbed the cuff. That is when I began to feel uneasy. There was no way to fasten it. It was a long piece of fabric so I just wrapped it around the guys arm until it wouldn’t go anymore and then tried to take the reading. It didn’t hear ANYTHING. I tried again, still nothing. The doctor told me that you have to tie the end. So I tied the cuff on to him and tried again. This time I got a reading but just barely. It seemed like the doctor was going to let me try to draw blood but when I saw the equipment they still use I decided it might not be the best decision. They draw the blood up with a syringe and then they take it out and squirt it into a test tube. This is especially risky since you have to unscrew the needle instead of being able to just pop it off into the sharps container. A lot of people have HIV and AIDS here too so I don’t think I will take the risk.

After we looked at the blood drawing facilities, he took me to the wellness center which is where the patients with HIV/AIDS come for their specialized treatment. The second patient was a year and a half old baby. When the mother took him off her back, I almost couldn’t help gasping. It just a little skeleton baby. His cheeks were sunken in and his arms were like toothpicks. He was whimpering and crying weakly while the doctor examined him. His cries where what got to me; my eyes started to fill up with tears and I had to look away and try thinking of something else. This baby had AIDS and had even been started out on ARVs two weeks prior to his visit. Both of his parents were HIV positive but they looked healthy enough at the moment. The baby had thrush in his mouth and it was just so pitiful. I just started thinking that if the cry of a sick baby can make it so I can’t do anything with out crying, then it was hopeless to become a PA. I left that office very depressed.

There is a medical student here from Boston University and also a pediatric resident in his last year from BU. I guess Lesotho has a partnership with BU or something because all together there are about 5 people here from there. I shadowed the pediatric resident around on Sunday which is about the busiest day here. The waiting room was full of kids that day. I stood quietly while the doc saw the patients and watched. Jason shadowed the medical student around as he saw patients. As Jason mentioned to me, it was rather inspiring. So it made up for the AIDS baby experience. Of course then the resident told me that that baby that I was sad about died a couple days later.

Dr.Carter (the resident), had a translator for a nurse and it was quite an interesting experience. We had one nurse at first and she was translating. A mother came in with a baby that had inflamed eyes and a cold. Dr.Carter heard the symptoms and realized that it was a viral infection. So he told the mother breastfeed her baby a lot and come back in two days so he could check that the eyes were getting better. When the translator heard that, she didn’t tell the mother what he said but asked Dr. Carter, “That’s it? You aren’t going to give her anything?” Dr. Carter told her that it was a viral infection so antibiotics would help it all. The translator asked him if he wanted a second opinion. He said no, that he was sure about his diagnosis but if she wanted a second opinion, she was welcome to get one. She was worried because they have to pay to see a doctor and to just send them away without any medicine seemed like it was a waste of money. Dr.Carter compromised and sent the mother and baby to the ophthalmologist down the hall. I thought it was silly because they would have had to pay for medicine as well so I am sure they would prefer just the doctor’s visit cost. The nurse was nice about it but it was interesting.

We got a different translator for the next couple patients, who was also nurse. She was not a happy person. We thought she was just mad at us but then it became apparent she wasn’t being very nice to the patients either. She just glared off to the side and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. She wouldn’t translate until Dr.Carter prodded her and then she gave a big sigh. It got especially bad with one patient. A baby was very sick and the doc wanted to admit him into the hospital. He gave the parents lots of instructions about where to go for some lab tests, what he thought was wrong with the baby and what to expect when the baby was being admitted. When the nurse went to translate it sounded something like this, “blah blah blah blah blah”. There was a long silence while we waited for her to finish but that was all she said. Finally Dr.Carter asked, “Did you tell them all that?” She said yes and he said “You told them all that in the five words you just said?” She said she had so he looked her in the eye and said, “Ok, I want you to tell the parents to tell me back everything that I just explained to them. I want to make sure they understand.” She passed along the message and you could tell the parents were upset. They spoke rapid fire for a bit and then she said with a disdainfully straight face, “They are very frustrated because you are asking them all these questions but you never told them any information. You haven’t explained anything for them to explain back.” Dr.Carter got a little red in the face, but soon the conflict was dealt with. Sheesh. I would have lost my patience so much sooner. Anyway, Jason and I were very inspired after watching the doctors’ work and I felt much better about becoming a PA.

I have been typing a lot and Jason has gotten very good at the construction work that he is helping with. In fact, he has gotten so good at it that everyone just stands around and watches him work now. Not quite, but his is doing a lot more than everyone else and he does a very good job. He has been going up there at 7am and coming back at 5:30pm.

Neo is doing well. I saw him today. The last couple times I have gone to see him, he has been sleeping. So today I saw him and he was in such a good mood. Cooing and making all sorts of cute little noises. He likes to imitate things now. I made a kissing noise the other day and he made a smacking noise back. Then I blew air through loose lips and make a plblblblblblbb noise and he tried to do it too but he couldn’t quite get it. I whistled and he laughed SO loud! Of course, I couldn’t whistle anymore because I was smiling but oh well. If Jason and I were older and more settled, it would be hard not to take him home. But che sara sara.

On Sabbath we went on another hike. Here are some flowers that covered the valley as we were hiking. They are called Cosmos:

There is a big beautiful hill that is just perfectly shaped to climb. They call it the mole hill.
I guess it is kind of shaped like one. Anyway, there aren’t really any fences here so when you want to hike, you just set out on one of the many trails winding around. This place is very wide and open

I am pretty proud of myself. I am going to brag a little. I have gotten Jason to like a lot of food since we started dating. Here is a list: avocados, tomatoes (almost), artichokes, and mangoes. This trip has been mostly useful for him to start liking mangoes. I got a case of 6 big beautiful ones at the supermarket for 2 dollars (we also bought a whole bunch of Passion fruit too which cost like only 75 cents for 4). It seems that Jason has gotten addicted to having them on his cereal. In fact, the other day when we were out of mangoes, he almost made me go out in a huge thunderstorm to buy some more mangoes. I refused and he was quite crestfallen. He loves mangoes now. But he refuses to learn how to cut them (he doesn’t like getting juice all over his hands) so I have get up at 6:30 with him to cut the mangoes for cereal. Hah!

We are leaving for Cape Town, South Africa on Friday evening. We are taking another bus. I can’t believe that our adventure here is almost done. We have had really good time. I hope that once we get to Europe, we will have more reliable internet service. I really like being able to write everyday so I can get everything off my chest and share it with you guys. Much love and see you all soon!