A Roller Coaster of Emotions

Me and one sassy India girl who's name I can't pronounce

Oh what a day! So we woke up and got ready, had our cereal with warm milk, went to the bathroom in the squatters and were ready to go all bright eyed and peppy. My group was assigned to doing skin checks for all of the girls in the school. This meant that we had to check their hair and bodies for anything suspicious including, but not limited to impetigo, scabies, ringworm, etc. I don't think I was emotionally or mentally ready for this job. The first group of girls were 5-7 year olds and were sooo cute. They came in with their medical charts aka paper notebooks and we asked them to take off their school uniforms so we could check their skin. The younger girls were alright with this, but as they progressively got older they were more and more uncomfortable standing in their panties in front of us and rightfully so. If I was in jr high or high school, I wouldn't want to stand in my underwear in front of random foreign college students. But it became quite a challenge convincing them to do the skin checks. It was a reminder that I am not cut out to be a pediatric nurse. I am just not good at having to think of fun ways to convince them to do things. I like adult patients cause you tell them something and they do it, you can rationalize with them. I'm a little worried about when I have children.

The low point of the day was when I was checking a girl and we discovered she had scabies right after she had hugged me and I had completely examined her. Being the germaphobe that I am, I was grossed out. I immediately washed my arms up to my elbows and then the doctor said that we should probably change our clothes as well. So Whitney and I made the trek back to the volunteer hostel tired, worried, and emotional. We got talking about how we wondered if we had chosen the right Global Health and Human Diversity site (NURS 401 & 402). The other sites had done a lot of playing and what seemed like very little actual nursing activities. We started wondering why we had paid so much to come so far and be without toilets and showers and be out in the miserable heat all day. We ended up stripping down into our underwear and giving ourselves a good scrub before putting on clean clothes. In that moment we both looked at each other and realized we had reached a new low. On our walk back to the children's hostel we tried our best to have a good attitude. We pushed through and finished our skin exams and it was pretty draining by the end. I was ready for a break by the end. A break from the kids, from the heat, from the lack of normal amenities, I could go on and on. But we had to go out to play with the kids by 4:30 and I must admit, I wasn't excited.

Sanjay at bat

We walked over there and immediately I started talking to the kids and threw myself into playing with them. I got involved in a game of cricket with one of my new favorite friends, Sanjay. He is absolutely adorable and he has a twin named something that sounds like Jenna to me. The kids names are so hard to remember cause I can never understand them when they tell them to me, so I just make up a name for them that sounds close enough and they seem to be satisfied with that so far. We played cricket for a while and them I walked around and met more of the kids including Steven who is HILARIOUS. Such a lady's man. He said that when he comes to America with all of the money he has in the bank, that he is going to visit me. Steven taught me how to play a few games, including one called Donkey where you hold the other persons hands and push them alternatively toward the other and whoever is pushing the hardest after spelling out the word is a donkey. Sanjay and I must have played the game for 10 minutes straight. I loved every second of playing with the kids. I needed that time desperately. It reminded me that these kids aren't just patients that we have to practice our nursing skills on but children of God who loves them dearly. They all have such unique personalities and are so much fun to watch interact with each other.

After dinner we went back over to the children's hostels and applied lice shampoo to every last one of their heads. It was quite the experience. We just jumped right in bare handed. The kids here call us Auntie and a few of the boys kept saying, "Auntie, Auntie, will you massage my head again?" It was pretty humorous. I am trying to just accept the idea that most of the things that they've got are all treatable, so if I contract something while I'm here, it isn't the end of the world. It is going to take some time to accept that though, cause nursing classes have made me a total germaphobe that is an antibacterial and rubber glove addict, but I'm just trying to go with the flow cause like they say, "That is India!"

I gave the devotional tonight and found the spiritual thought in Stand A Little Taller by Gordon B. Hinckley. Today's thought was exactly what I needed to hear. President Hinckley said, "One of the greatest challenges we face in our hurried, self-centered lives is to follow the counsel of the Master "to do it unto one of the least of these my brethren." Take the time today to reach out, to helm someone less fortunate, to strengthen and lift a brother or sister." This helped me put things in perspective and realize how lucky I am to be able to devote these three weeks of my life to serve other people and think less about myself. I feel as if all of the comforts of home I take for granted have been taken away to help me gain perspective about how truly blessed I am to have been born into the gospel and to live in America. I think the natural man wants to keep our focus inward on our own comfort and situation, but we need to remember that "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matt 25:40).