Some things I learned this week-

#1- The cast cutter is cool and something I'm actually good at! (Thanks Dad for all those lessons on the dremil, the band saw, the electric grinder, the circular saw- they all have made me a better cast remover!)
#2- 40 + patients in an 8 hour shift is A LOT.
#3- I still have lots to learn. (To get an RSV sample you actually spray saline into their nose.)

I'm really starting to feel comfortable out at SW and liking this job!

Never lasts....

My contentment never lasts. For roughly a month now I've been content in my current circumstances. In retrospect though I've been "uncomfortable". I've spent many of the last weeks of summer boiling my water, hunting for fire wood, running and biking long hours and working for each meal while sleeping out in the damp with bugs and being generally uncomfortable- and happier than I am at any other time. Now as life gets comfortable again I'm not seeking my Savior's face as often and am more discontent. Beckie was talking today about Show Mercy Uganda. http://www.showmercy.org/ Rumor has it they are building a clinic and will need nurses. Maybe I'll go with Beckie when she goes the middle of next year. I can have more than enough funds raised by then and will have been at SW about a year. Maybe I should talk to God about this and get His take on it....

Work

I haven't written about this new job recently- I guess that means that I'm settling in. I'm getting more comfortable everyday. I had a few things that have made me think. We had a 14 year old- STD's. He seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing- until I asked if he wanted an HIV test. (Not really our policy to ask, or do it for that matter, but I needed something tactful to try to drive home how harming this behavior could be.) 14?!? I also told him he had to tell his partner that he had gonorrhea and chlamydia. He gave me a slightly blank look until I added that he would need to tell ALL of his partners... he nodded. 14!! Where do I even begin?!

1st annual silent retreat

We backpacked into Nordhouse dunes again. This time we had a time of silence where there was no talking allowed. It was pretty much only 6 hours but you try collecting wood, getting water, making a meal and just generally not talking for that long. We had been discussing how much noise is in our lives and how it all drowns out God's voice. I've been working lately at listening more for God's voice daily. It is hard- much easier out in the woods- no IV, no radio, no cell phone. But still I am distracted by things, like trying to communicate. Why can't I just enjoy the inflicted quiet and listen to God? Maybe if He was easier to hear...
Anyway... enough reflection. Here are some photos of the trip. Hiking in, finding a site and pitching tents in the falling dusk.