The Hospital of Adventure

The lush area outside the hospital guesthouse.
Notice the flowering bushes on left!

We’ve been reading a children’s book series with adventure in the title of each one, so it seemed fitting for our recent trip to the mission hospital a few hours from us to have a few unexpected turns. The part that was straightforward was that our son’s surgery went well and he recovered very well with minimal pain and not much time laid-out resting either. I was impressed with the surgeon’s careful work. The experience of being at the hospital was more shocking. La Maestra took him into the ward for his surgery and waited for him, and experienced extreme smells and cries from the people packed into even this orderly facility, compared to the government options. We hoped walking through the ward wouldn’t be too scary for Zig-zag as there were lots of people with parts of limbs missing or most of their body burned that were even laying on stretchers in the hallway. But the operating rooms were much more controlled environments and he has mostly positive memories. La Maestra was also able to spread some joy in the ward as she waited by talking to people in the “Casa” language, which was a wonder and pleasant distraction for them.

A pile of earwigs after one of our three
times a day sweeping.

We also had some nice adventures on the hospital compound’s playground, complete with fort, fire-pole, swings, and merry-go-round. Additionally, we got to watch a small plane take off the dirt runway and just enjoy all the trees and vegetation on the compound. The negative part of the adventure was an invasion of earwigs that I can only compare to what happened every seven years with cicadas in my Cincinnati days. Apparently it was just the right week of the year when they come out of the fields in search of water or food maybe, and we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The guesthouse of the hospital is the first building on the compound in the direction of the surrounding fields, so it got the worst of the bugs pouring into whatever opening they could find. There were swarms on the floor, many falling from the ceiling, and they would crawl up your legs if you stayed in one place for less than a minute. It was frustrating to get anything done because you’d be constantly swatting them off your legs or shoulders and occasionally get pinched. We swept several times a day, but still couldn’t keep up with them for the 2-3 days they were like this. Fortunately, they couldn’t get through the mosquito nets when we were sleeping, although we had to make sure to clean them out before we went to bed. It gave us a little more understanding of what a real plague of insects can be like. But overall, not a fun stressor to add to an already stressful time!

-- El Padre