Day 2

Oh, what a difference a day makes. I woke up early and headed to the hospital for morning worship service. I thought Belize was an hour ahead of my time, so I set my clock an hour later. All the research I had done said it was central time, but I guess they don’t do daylight savings, so basically I was an hour off and arrived to worship an hour early. Not a great way to start the day, but no big deal. They do a worship service everyday here before the day begins, being 7th day Adventists. I figured it would be fun so I attended and it was great. There were lots of prayers, singing, and bearing of testimony. I was surprised at a lot of similarities to LDS like how they pray in the name of the Father and close in Jesus’ name.
The day was fine. I was with Dr. Lazo, the OB/Gyn and medical director and just followed him around and got used to things. I wish I could have done more, but it was a pretty good day. We saw a number of issues, mainly gyn issues, and Dr. Lazo is a pretty good doctor. He was trained in Guatemala and seems to really know what he is doing so I’m excited to learn from him. There are three other doctors here; another OB/Gyn, a pediatrician, and a general practitioner. I’ll be rotating with each of them throughout my 4 weeks so it should be a great experience.
After last night I was determined to try and get the other living quarters. Even if it was as bad as the other place at least it had a TV. Ardis was fine with letting me move. She gave me the keys later that day and after the day was done I went to check out the other place. When I opened the door my jaw about dropped. In front of me, I saw a fully furnished apartment with a brand spankin’ new tiled floor. There was a TV and fairly new looking arm chairs and couch. It had a large dining room table, a nice refrigerator, and a full kitchen. Upstairs there was a fairly nice bedroom with a few dressers, double sized bed, and a mosquito net. The bathroom actually looked clean and compared to the other place I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was pretty excited. Granted, compared to what I’m used to in the US it’s below par, but compared to the other place, holy smokes! It’s like going from a -5 star to 1 or 2 star. I was pretty excited, and while I was determined I was going to “rough it” on this trip, I have to say I’m happy for the change. As I’m writing this, there are still spiders running across the floor (a pretty big one too, like an inch), the funny noises are still coming through the windows, and I just saw a gecko running across my wall, but I have to be grateful for what I have. Today, I’ve been thinking about how there are people out there that live their whole lives in the conditions of my last place and much worse. I only had to spend one night there, what about years and years? We have such amazing blessings in the US, especially in Utah where the standard of living is so high. We really have so so much to be grateful for. I can’t believe how much I have to be grateful for. What about places with no running water, no sewage system, no electricity?! I’ve seen bad living conditions before, but it’s really easy to forget so this experience is already opening my eyes and I’m sure it will continue to do so. Funny thing is I know there are places much, much worse than this and I haven’t even scratched the surface, so all I can do is be grateful for what I have. The hospital food is delicious, the people are exceptionally nice, the landscape is beautiful, and my new living quarters are looking pretty great. I’m pretty lucky and thinking Belize is going to be a great experience that I’ll never forget.
Some pictures of new place: