Como le va todos? (How's it going all) Week 2 here in Tucumán went really well for me! This week we had sun all week long and during the day the temps got up to 75 degrees, which is the perfect temp for spending a lot of time outdoors! Luckily, I got off of work at the hospital early a couple of day this week also. Sometimes we just can't control who is giving birth and when so I got to leave work early to spend sometime outdoors exploring downtown San Miguel de Tucuman. Some of the new pictures I added are the pics I took while I was exploring. I just did a quick tour through the city to get to know it a little bit better but I'll probably go back a couple of times to actually tour some of the buildings and churches. And spend more time at the feria de artisanos (outdoor handmake craft fair) which of course was one of my favorite places I discovered! :)

When I do spend my time working at the hospital I am still learning and seeing so much. Much of what I'm seeing with premature babies and malformations is really sad, but also really interesting and I get to watch doctors help with births and save babies every day. I watched them perform small procedures on little babies and it's sad to see a baby be intubated with a breathing tube but when they are born at 30 weeks or with the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck it is needed to save their lives. Also learning about the different culture and politics with the people I work with at the hospital is really interesting. I spent some time entering information about patients we have already worked with online and I was struggling to find a patient that was actually older than I was. Little did I know that 4 hours later I would be watching a girl younger than Mollie (15 years old) give birth to a 32 week old baby. Working in a large public hospital with a poor population is very different than anything I've seen in the US. Most of the women that come in their only job is to have kids so that the government will give them money to help support them. Marriage is very uncommon and most the time the best we can hope for is that they are at least in a stable relationship and the father shows to up see the birth. There are still times I want to steal a perfectly healthy baby away from a mother who doesn't want the baby (and who doesn't even know how to write well enough to sign her own name) and give it to a family who lost a child or had something wrong with their baby. I've spoken with doctors on their view of abortion being illegal here and they have told me the horror stories of many women coming in with illnesses from their illegal procedures. However, I don't think legalized abortion would slow down some of the women who have 7 kids by the age of 26.

Anyway onto more fun and happier topics, if you check out the new pics I uploaded I accompanied my host mother and sister to the tennis tournament they played in at their club here in the mountains. They are both really good and it was fun to watch them play on the clay courts. Also afterwards I went for a run up the mountains and it was beautiful! I thought of all my fav running buddies and wished you could have been there with me on this gorgeous 75 degree fall day. My host sister and I went back and drove to the top of the mountains later that day (no I didn't run all the way to the top) and we drank Mate (their traditional drink similar to tea) with her cousin. It was gorgeous! Check out the pics! Oh and the pics of the parapente are not of me parasailing but maybe next weekend they will be! ;)

After spending all of Saturday outdoors we went to the club downtown for dinner, drinks, and dancing. We went to the Stone (the bar that Nic's dad owns a part of) and I got to meet Nic's uncle, cousins, and some other American girls teaching English down here. It was a fun night where I got to try Argentine beer, food, and dancing. Which turned out to be another good night because we managed to stay until bar close at 4 am. Then I spent the day today enjoying another beautiful day outside, playing with the grandkids, sun tanning a bit (so I'm not completely white next to all of you enjoying summer back home) and taking a siesta in the hammock in our garden. So life here is good with time already running short to do all the things I know I will want to do!

Love and miss you all!

Chau!