Office Space

Well,
The past week was a much slower one. We spent the week working at the office. Normally this is somewhat of a boring time for us. Luckily, I had a little task of making a presentation about nutrition, diabetes, and hypertension to help explain and hopefully prevent some of the health problems which are becoming very rampant. Stephanie, a nurse from Whitworth who is also an intern here, helped me make a nice little slideshow, which of course had plenty of Spanish grammatical errors which Tito pointed out. We also alphebetized the whole pharmacy and separated the antibiotics into families which was good for me to learn.

Unfortunately, since I spent most of the week in the office, there aren't many interesting stories to tell you. However, on Saturday I helped Brenda (Tito's wife) cook two dinners for the team that just arrived from Houston. During this process I had quite the humbling, yet hilarious mistranslation experience.

I was talking to Brenda and I TRIED to ask, "Cuando vamos a hervir los fideos" which means "when are we going to boil the noodles." However, instead of fideos I said fondeos and Brenda just busted up laughing as soon as I said it. She was like doubled over for 10 minutes and told their nanny Amelia about it and she just died. Finally, Tito came home and Brenda told him. He obviously cracked up too. Apparently instead of asking when the noodles would be boiled, I asked, "When are we going to boil the butt cracks?" Wow. Talk about a misunderstanding.

No, my Spanish foibles don't stop there. Only two days later, Brenda was showing us pictures that her kids had drawn. They were precious pictures of the kids with Tito and nice little cards about how much they appreciated him as their dad. We were looking at these altogether and I tried to say to Brenda, "Those are treasures." Unfortunately, my faulty Spanish struck again, and struck hard. Instead of saying "those are treasures," I said the word troseros. Brenda looked at me with this shocked expression and started pounding her fist in her hand and jokingly said, "I should slap you for that." Tito laughed and informed me of the obvious fact that I did not say, "Those are treasures." Instead I again said, "Those are butt cracks."

Needless to say, that's not the most flattering thing to say about someone else's kids' works of art. Luckily, I have known the Palacios for long enough that I wasn't thrown out on MY butt crack and we could just chock it up as another funny mistake by a silly gringo.

Anyways, this week we are working in Palencia doing clinics and doing a VBS in the afternoon with kids. It is really fun to get a chance to play with the kids. They are so happy to play and are learning more about God.

I am definitely getting pretty homesick now, and I miss my friends and family and the States in general quite a bit. We really don't appreciate the freedoms we have in the States (especially if you have a car). Anyways, thanks again for all your prayers.

Please also pray for my family right now. One of my uncles is in the last stages of liver failure and my parents are with him now trying to make his departure to see God as comfortable as possible. Luckily, he is a strong believer and he knows what joys await him. Anyways, gotta take a shower and hit the hay.

Tenga cuidado con los fondios, (You guys can figure that one out by now... :)

Justin