The day of love/ Student day/ Doctors day & the first day of Spring

Day 8 a day to celebrate

As mentioned above Bolivia celebrates many things on the 21st of September. We spent our morning in the hospital where we attended an orthopedic surgery of man who had severely broke his leg in a motorbike accident. We were surprised by how old their equipment was and lack of disposable sterile instruments. We were again frustrated by our lack of Spanish speaking skills.

At noon all the Doctors sat and ate lunch together to celebrate the day of the student and the day of the doctor. We sat with some of the Bolivian ambulance guys. They were eager to chat with us gringas. We were encouraged because we could understand much of their conversation with Leta and Leticia.
One of the boys proceded to ask Letitia all about herself, her future and then what she would like in a man...! Forward much?! Letitia innocently answered all their questions but was horrifed when asked "Would you consider marrying a Bolivian?" Suddenly she realised they had been speed-dating!
He then asked "What if he wanted to marry you only for your money?"- Green card anyone? The conversation became even more amusing when his embarrassed friend remarked " It is his dream to marry an American woman."

The cultural and communication barriers further added humour to the conversation:

1. The boys asked us if we could cook, sew and make dolls...?
2. When asked how we would defend ourselves from trouble here in Bolivia, Letiticia interpreting incorrectly replied confidently "Dance!"

We met a doctor today who spoke english. Luckily he is eager to teach. After we introduced ourselves he exclaimed "Elle...ah like Elle MacPherson!". Apparently she is renowned even in Bolivia which is interesting because the americans we are staying with didnt know who she was.

A friendly intern was most amused with our aussie accents. She giggled at the way we said everything and how slow we spoke compared to the americans. She tried to imitate the way we said "banana"- apparently we sound like a man with a brain injury :(!