And so I update...

So, another week has passed, and I'm back to update. This last week, Explore went on a 5-day backpack trip while Discover did Basic Missionary Medicine and Wilderness First Aid. The medicine skill week was fun, for sure. The first two days we covered the different philosophies of medicine, the christian view of medicine, and how medical missions worked practically. Then we started WFA.

Wilderness First Aid, or WFA, or, as we pronounced it, "wuhfa," was a ton of fun! Even though I was sick for most all of it, I still enjoyed the learning and experience. We learned about perfusion pressure, ischemia, infarction, and anaphylaxis, to name a few. After each teaching section, we got to practice what we learned on "patients"... half the group were patients and half were rescuers. We "saved" countless people from hypothermia, anaphylaxis, seizure, bruises, broken bones, and spinal injuries. Of course, one of the first things we learned was how to take a pulse...

The head teacher for the course has been a medic at base camp, ski patrol in Colorado, medic for a British news team in the Sahara desert, and numerous other exciting jobs. She was amazing to listen to. After giving little bits of information here and there, it was fun to see her help us piece together the dots and show us what we knew, that we didn't know we knew!

One day during the week, I think it was Sunday, I went with some of the girls to the river. Kaitlyn brought Kayleen's guitar, and we sang a little, some of the girls swam, and mostly just visited or looked at the pretty view.

After class was over Friday, I had a nice relaxing afternoon. I played the piano here for awhile-- it's a really annoying one-- really out of tune, and several glitches. At least it plays "music". ~shrug~ Beggars can't be choosers, huh? Some of the others went down to the shooting range with Darron and I joined them. That was a blast. Between a guy who's in the NRA and the Canadian guys who hadn't shot before, it was an intercultural experience!!!

Later, I went to the river with some of the girls and swam a little. The air was warm, but the water cold, so it was really refreshing and pleasant. I'm definitely looking forward to being on the water next week!

As I mentioned briefly before, I've been sick this week. It's been manageable, but slightly miserable too. Hopefully I didn't pass it on to too many people. =(

Today Discover spent an hour or two getting stuff ready for the raft trip next week. Explore started trickling in at 9 AM, one team at a time, until all were back by lunch. They seem to have enjoyed their trek, hiking the state line trail between Montana and Idaho. It was amazing how quickly they got changed and took showers... one might even think that they hadn't showered for five days! =) I read a book, played with a frisbee, took a nap, played the piano, and visited with Explore friends. 'Twas nice. A few things are different though, now that Explore is back: the internet is slower, the food line is longer, and the lodge is noisier! Not that I mind, they're nice people, after all.

A few details on the raft trip we're taking:

-We'll be traveling 5 1/2 hours to the start point in Idaho.
-The route is around 50 miles on the Salmon River, then 25 on the Snake
-We'll leave Monday morning at 9
-We'll return Friday evening, sometime
-The Discover Director's wife (who is also a Discover Director) will not be coming with us, because she is PREGNANT!!!
-Mauricio, our field coordinator for Guatemala (who lives in Guatemala) is flying in tonight and will be coming on the trip with us.
-We'll be taking class 1-4 rapids.
-It will be fun.

~smile~ Did you know that? Oh, right, of course it will be fun... 'cause everything I do is fun, huh? =) =) =)

Anyway, that's my update. Sorry I can't give you any pictures in this post, the internet keeps cutting out, and uploading pictures just doesn't work right now. Hopefully tomorrow?