Thursday, June 24, 2010

sooo...its kind of embarrassing that I haven't posted anything on my blog since November of last year! I guess you could say that I was kind of a failure at the whole blogging concept, but I am going to continue to work on this :). The first step to fixing a problem is recognizing their is a problem, right?! This year has been such an amazing experience, and I could not have done it without the support, love and prayers of all of my friends and family. I had the opportunity to travel almost all of Central America, work with some wonderful organizations and really grow immensly as a nurse and a person. Even though I started off in Nicaragua, I finally settled in Guatemala, where I spent the majority of this past year. Primarily, I worked as a Lab tech, spotting parasites in the poop of malnourished kids. Sounds fun, huh?! I also worked with traditional Mayan birth attendents, understanding the customs of their ancient practice. I visited a total of 6 organizations during the year, and documented everything through photography. In March, of this year, I put up a photography exhibit, showcasing all of my pictures and it was a great success!
Right now I am working as an ER nurse at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital- this is turning out to be an amazing experience- its not great that accidents happen, but I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing group of medical providers. I hope that God gives me the strength to be able to work hard there. Also, I am working continuously on my photography- if you are interested in checking out that project, just go to http://daraluzfotos.blogspot.com/ or if you are in Xela, Guatemala, just go grab some coffee or a mojito at EL CUARTITO (next to the dispensa) and you can see my art on display. I am headed back to school as well, to try and wrap up my last year of Nurse Practitioner school at Vanderbilt University. This is exciting stuff! Thanks again for all the thoughts, prayers, well-wishes and encouragement. I appreciate ALL!