Happy Nurses Week!

Today the General Hospital we are working with here, Luis Vernaza, had a big Nurses Week Convention thing. I had never even heard of Nurse's week or Nurse's day before I got here, but apparently it is a universal "holiday" and it is a big thing down here. Party!

It was a fun day. They had a booth for us and we taught CPR to people as they came around which was fun. Mostly it was kind of a publicity thing, but whatever. We got to be on the news and get lots of pictures taken of us.

I also got to meet some nursing students from the University of Guayaquil. It's incredible how similar we all are. Our likes, worries, stresses, everything. I especially love their nurses hats, they are super traditional and super awesome. I wanted to ask them where I could get one, but I know that they just would have given me theirs and then I would have felt bad, so I will have to work on that one later.


As part of the festivities, they also held a special mass at the cathedral there at the hospital for the nurses. I attended it with a few of the other girls. Here is the special prayer they wrote for it:

Oración por las(os) enfermeras(os)

(the only time I have ever seen (as) come before (os) Thank you female-dominated nursing profession)
Señor, hazme un reflejo de tu bondad;
que en cada prójimo vea a un hermano,
que so dolor sea el mío;
dame el don para suavizar sus penas
y compartir su Espíritu,
que yo pueda infundirle valor y esperanza,
llevándole un mensaje de amor
por la confianza en ti.
Haz que todas sus tareas
Las emprenda con decisión,
Abnegación y perseverancia.
Por Jesucristo, Nuestro Señor.
Amen.

Ugly English Translation:

Make me a reflection of your goodness
That in every person I see a brother
That their pain is mine
Give me the gift to soften their pains
And share Thy Spirit
That I can instill in them courage and hope
Bringing them a message of love
for the trust in Thee.
Make that all of Thy duties
I undertake with firmness,
Selflessness and perseverance.

I thought that it was quite pretty. As part of the mass, they offered the priest one of those awesome nursing hats and and a vial of some liquid, not really sure what, but it was pretty cool.

Yes, those are blue neon lights around the Christ figure

After nurses party, we went back to the hotel for a second and then I had volunteered with other students to go and help our professor, Debbie, teach an Advanced Life Support class to the firefighters. Let me just tell you, that if you were to collapse and almost die in Ecuador, you should do it on the street and not in the hospital. The firefighters were incredible! They knew so much! We barely even taught them anything they didn't already know. Actually, let me rephrase that, our professor barely taught them anything they didn't already know. I was definitely on the learning end of this "teaching" experience. It was cool though, and it was cool to see how many terms and words I could actually figure out that were words I had never heard before, it made me wonder how it would be going to college in Spanish. It would be difficult, but cool I think. And as far as I remember, that was pretty much my day.