This morning we prepared for an education session we are going to run in the older girl's orphanage. We have been given the opportunity to talk to the girls ranging in ages 8-18 about nutrition and sexual development. The bolivian people have very poor nutrition at both extremes. High fat foods are dietary staples here and obesity is an increasing issue. Lack of nutrient foods and the number of intestinal worms and parasite infestations leads to many presentations of malnutrition. We hoped that we could present some information about eating healthy in a fun, interactive way.
Additionally, many of the girls are teenagers and haven't had a mum around for a long time to have "that talk" with about growing up. They asked if we could give the girls some basic information. We had to be very sensitive about how we presented this topic as many of the girls are from abusive backgrounds.
We had lunch with some of the young doctors from the hospital. These two doctors are the guys who do clinics with us. When we first met them we thought they were very serious and disapproving of us. With time they have relaxed. I think that they felt really honoured to be invited to have lunch with us. They were surprised by how much effort Leta had gone to with the meal. It was difficult talking with them because everything had to be translated. It is really difficult to get to know someone like this. I often think that I can speak to them in spanish but I just lack the confidence to go ahead and do it. They were eager to talk to us about all the foods we hadn't tried yet and even offered to bring some to the hospital for us to try.
After lunch we headed to Casa de Amor II to conduct a clinic. Casa de Amor II is an orphanage with the cutest kids ranging from 3-8 years of age. There are only 12 kids. This was fortunate for us because the place was a mad house! The kids were so excited to have visitors that any promise of an orderly quiet clinic went out the window. They were crawling all over us, pulling at our hair and stealing our stethoscopes. They kept dragging us into cubby houses and begging with us to play with them. Even though it was a short clinic it was exhausting! We all had so much fun though and didn't want to leave these cuties. We collapsed into the Trufi after finally prying the small children off us and sneaking out the door. These kids were so beautiful, so intelligent and so sweet. It is amazing to think that they have a parent somewhere that doesn't want them.
That evening Tiffany and I did our best to muster up all the latin american we have inside of us and bust out the brazilian samba. My my those girls can move their hips! When we realised that the samba might be a little advanced for us hip-swinging beginners we defered to the salsa. We worked up a sweat and came to the conclusion that we were going to need a heck of a lot of practice before we could hold our own in this continent.
Helen from the hospital was conducting another surprise visit to the hospital staff and ambulance station in the early hours of the morning and was staying with us. She was appalled by our dancing efforts and showed us how to really "move the hips". Lesson learned! She assured us that with all the practice we "needed" we would develop the perfect abs...she suggested that when we arrive home in Australia we show off our Samba sculpted body and dance off the plane...ummm maybe i will think about it! lol
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