Don't you worry about Blog, let me worry about blog.

I have since given up my post at Centro Medico. Entonces: here is my new blog: www.therealityinstitute.net

mike!

Blogs? Blogs! You're not looking at the big picture!

Hola, soy Veronica Ribera. Este es el primer Blog que yo hice y, boy, estoy divertiendome! No sabia que tan bueno eran los Blogs. Mike me dijo muchas veces pero no lo crei! Ahora yo se y nunca voy a ignorar lo que dice otra vez.

Soy del pueblo donde queda la clinica, se llama Palacios. Palacios es un pueblo pequeningo que tiene 70 familias (incluyo la mia). Mucho del resto de mi familia todavia vive alla, como mi mama que es la alcalde del pueblo y cocina en la clinic para los trabajadores. Ahora yo vivo aqui no mas en Santa Cruz en la casa Molitch-Hou. Voy a la Universidad Gabriel Rene Moreno y estudio bioquimica.

Anyways, es bueno. Yo salgo con Mike que es muy guapo. toca la guitarra muy bien, y que baila como un rockstar. Tambien, voy a muchos conciertos de rock que es differente del rock de Estados Unidos porque aqui es mas duro como un rock. Por eso se llama rock. Tambien yo miro television y hang out con mi hermano Xavier y mis amigas Zoila y Ibana. Oh, also, juego con DJ, el perro de la casa.

Ahora, voy a hablar en ingles. Hi my name is Veronica Ribera. If it weren't for Blogs, I couldn't express myself in all of the ways that I would want to to all of the people I want to. Mike's parents are paying for me to go to school in Santa Cruz and they're not even making me convert religions to do so (which is good because the conversion rate is like so bad right now). My English is getting better every day and so is my Blogging. Of course, it helps to have Mike reading over my shoulder and telling me what to write (he's so good at Blogs! he makes sure I capitalize Blog every time I Blog!).

Eso es todo.

Blog!

Vero

Don't you worry about Blog. Let me worry about Blog.

Well, faithful Bloggers and Bloggees, I've resigned from my post as clinic coordinator once again. You're probably asking yourself, "But, Mike! What are you going to do now?" Then, you're probably thinking, "Oh, well, it's probably not really any of my business. Look at me! I'm being as nosy as a Nosy Sarah." It's only natural to have feelings of nosiness from time to time. As growing boys and girls, nosiness can creep up on you without any warning. You might even find yourself with a case of nosiness in the most awkward of places, such as a classroom or church meeting. Whenever I feel a bit nosy, I just look myself in the mirror or in the reflection of someone's sunglasses and say, "Mike, now is not the time."

But, as for the clinic, I realized that I've left you hanging on a few stories. For example, the woman, Aidee, who we sent for a cardiac catheterization had one done and the doctors found nothing, so her heart appeared to be fine. Then, she and her husband, Celso, the caretakers of the clinic, up and left with only about a day's notice for a different job. We were all taken by surprise and all pretty beat up about the whole thing. So, we all went out for milkshakes and talked about it and, by the end, we all felt a lot better. Except me, I was still a little peeved because Celso said he wanted my biscotti and I told him he could have a piece and then he ate the whole thing. He said I could use a diet. Can you believe that! But then he called "caballero" because he knows how much I like it when he calls me that and I couldn't stay mad.

Dr. Duke also came and did a surgery on a prolapsed bladder. I always wondered what a bladder was. My dad thinks its one of the more extinct dinosaurs, but I thought it was still alive. Then it turned out to be part of the female anatomy. I always wondered what the female anatomy was. My dad thinks its the study of the stars in the sky and I agreed. It turns out to be the same thing as male anatomy but for ladies. Anyways, Duke did the surgery and it all went great. The lady who's bladder was falling through her vagina now feels a lot more comfortable. And we can do more small surgeries at this hospital in the future, such as: hernia repair, gall bladder surgeries, hysterectomy, appendectomy, the works! I'm not sure what kind of surgery the works is, but it sounds fun!

The man we sent into Santa Cruz recently for a heart check up was a bit non compliant, going to Santa Cruz, getting an EKG done and then refusing to do more tests and going back to Palacios. We sent him back to Santa Cruz a bit worried that he'd need a pace maker for his low heart rate, as is often the case with people with Chagas disease, but it turned out that he just had a virus that caused a low heart rate and now he's all better and still has Chagas. Chagas is a life long disease for the most part. It causes problems with the heart and abdomen and things like that, but you can't really do anything about it until these big problems present themselves. Just about everyone I know from Palacios has Chagas. It comes from a big bug that lives in thatched roofs that comes out at night, bites your skin and then poops into your bloodstream. I'm not sure if I have all of those details right. I could look it up to double check, but there's no time. I'm blogging!

Rachel does not have anymore Dengues as far as I'm aware of. So she's returned to her post as coordinator. She said, "Thanks, Mike. I couldn't have done it without you. Here's a lollipop."

As for the blogs. Blogs are a beautiful thing because you can do them anywhere. On a bus. On a train. Under a bridge. In a drain. Just remember, don't you all blog too much. Long term blogging affects the brain.

MIKE

Take me where the Blog Blogs and all the Blogs are Blogs

Well, it´s been a long time since we´ve last Blogged. In fact, since I´ve even been coordinator of Centro Medico, but just like love, Dengue Fever does crazy things to this world.

I remember it like it was this past weekend... The new coordinator, Rachel Trotta, fell ill in our house in Santa Cruz. Says she´s got a bad fever and the only cure is Mike. Calls me up on the phone, she does, and says, ¨Hey, Mike, I think you´re gonna need to come back to Bolivia. I got it real bad, Mike. Real bad.¨

Luckily, I was already in Bolivia. I took some time off up in Chicago, the Silly City, with my friends and to ¨sort some things out¨ (I am legally forbidden to discuss what took place). I came back to Santa Cruz, Bolivia for the love of a lifetime, but got a lot more.

Now, Rachel is in bed in the big city with Dengue and counting platelets and I´m in Palacios Blogging Blogs. Things aren´t that much different. We still have medcial people and non medical people and patients and not patients. We just recently sent a man to the city to see a cardiologist about his low heart rate (due to that Chagas disease). When he got there, the cardiologist sent him for some more tests and instead the guy said,¨ Ï don´t want more tests, I want to go back to Palacios¨. Which he did. We told him to go back to Santa Cruz so he did. He´s there right now so we´ll see how that goes.

What have I been doing when I´m not helping with the clinic, you ask yourselves in your darkest hours? Well, I´ve got a plan, see. I´m going to write me a book, start me a magazine, make me a CD, and paint me some 12 odd paintings. By the end of next year, I hope to have me a publishing company a love stroner than the bars of a prison train. We´ll see how that goes.

I take myself where the wild wind blows, the women are fine, and where there are Blogs as far as the Blogs can Blog, that´s where I go.

Mike Out!