Final catch-up post for Sunday

Today was a lazy day and tomorrow it is back to work. We left at about 10 to head out to the beach. It was a beautiful sunny and hot (mid 90s)day and we were on the Pacific Coast. It was a black (volcanic) sand beach with lots of shells and water that was just the right temperature--pretty warm, but just cool enough to be refreshing. We went swimming, ate a big lunch (fish, chicken, or steak) followed by Tres Leches cake, lounged about in the sun, and just relaxed and talked. My favorite thing to do at the beach is to go walking and looking for shells, but they told me it wasn't safe because of robbers. However, I finally found a small group willing to go, so we went for a long walk along the beach and I found some really cool shells.

While at the beach, Mark, our anesthesiology team leader, called me over. He had been talking to one of the waitress and she had asked about our group. He told her that we were with Operation Smile and what we did. When he mentioned that there was a speech pathologist in the group she told him that her 3 y/o son didn't talk. He wanted me to talk to her about it. With Mark (biligual American) and our Nicaraguan plastic surgeon translating for me I was able to talk with her. It sounds like her son has a pretty significant phonological disorder that won't likely resolve without intervention. However, speech therapy is pretty non-existent in Nicaragua, so there is no place for her to go. She's going to come to the hospital tomorrow or Tuesday and bring her son so I can evaluate him and teach her how to work with him at home. The plastic surgeon gave her his cell phone number so she can call and they can track me down if she can't find me at the hospital. I so badly would love for a few Nicaraguans to come to the states for training as SLPs. The need is so great. The speech/language and ministry opportunities in Nicaragua are both so great and Robert and I have such a love for the Nicaraguan people that the possibility of us retiring in Nicaragua has been tossed around. At any rate, I do hope she comes to see me and brings her son.

Another interesting sidenote...Mark, the anesth. mentioned previously, and I were talking. He used to be a PT and then he went back to school to go to med school. I asked where he went to school and he told me in Kirksville, MO. I commented that he must be an osteopath since I knew there was a D.O. school there and I told him I had never heard of osteopaths until I lived in MO. Long story, short, turns out that he lived in Carthage, MO (where we used to live and where Noah was born)!! He was a PT at McCune-Brooks Hospital and asked if the Precious Moments Museum was still there. Yet another small world experience! Mark is originally from NE and now lives in VA Beach.

Back to the story...
It was time to leave the beach and we loaded onto two busses headed for the different hotels. One bus had music blaring out. Turns out that it was our bus, henceforth dubbed the party bus. Everyone who boarded the bus had to dance down the aisles while everyone cheered. It was pretty hilarious and our bus was rocking. We really have such a great team here. Everyone gets along so well and really likes each other. It's amazing how well we work together, having been strangers before. My roommates and I were laughing about how when we first came here we all stayed in our little respective corners of the room, closed the door in the bathroom, etc. However, 3 days in and there were 3 of us in the bathroom at the same time, doing all of the different things that people do in the bathroom. I'll just leave it at that. :-). It has turned into a big dorm room now.

We lazed about the hotel for a couple of hours and I swam 10 laps in the pool. Between walking the beach and swimming, I feel like I finally got some much needed exercise, esp. considering how much I've been eating. We got to watch up until about 5 minutes into the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl and then we had our big team meeting. The meeting took a couple of hours and we didn't see the Super Bowl again until right at the end. I had on Noah's Saints jersey and almost everyone here was pulling for the Saints. My roommate was mouthing the score to me across the room at the meeting because she was getting ESPN updates on her blackberry. We had really great pizza at the meeting tonight and then met in small groups afterward. It's now 11 pm and we get a 5:30 wake-up call tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day of surgery, so it will be a very busy day! I'm off to put my very sunburned body into bed...