by Juliana Hardy
I do not want to be a doctor. I am fully aware of that. I have been toying around with the idea of nursing, and going to Bolivia really helped to reinforce the possibility. My very first day, I watched a surgery while wearing full scrubs. I got nauseous and had to watch from behind a window. Helping to check in patients was much more comfortable for me, and I realized how much I liked being able to have that time to talk to the patients. They often wanted to know where I was from, and I got to share with them that I was an American and that I came to be able to work in Bolivia in a Christian hospital.
I also loved observing pediatrics. The doctor was fantastic and let me stand in the room as she saw different patients. The doctor explained why a baby was unwashed after being born, which allowed its umbilical cord to be infected. It is customary for the Indigenous people to wait seven days until they wash their babies. If I do study nursing, I want to be a Nurse Practitioner with a specialty in Pediatrics. Being able to observe in the hospital allowed me to discover what really interests and what I am passionate about.
Christmas in Bolivia was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It broke my mother’s heart to have me gone, but I know God wanted me to be there. There’s a lot to do around Christmas time, and everybody needs an extra set of hands. Christmas comes during the schoolchildren’s summer break, and so by partnering with a local church, I was able to help with a Vacation Bible School. The first day, I didn’t know how God would use me. They had other youths from the church helping out and I didn’t really understand a lot of the games they were playing. The second day, we arrived and none of the other leaders had shown up. We had to scramble to get everything ready. It was at this moment that God taught me that His church is alive everywhere. As a Christian American, I am not somehow able to profoundly change people’s lives. What I can do is reach out and give a helping hand to God’s church around the world.
In February, I abandoned my comfortable existence as a fourth year medical student in North Carolina, and traveled to Bolivia, South America for a short term mission trip.
