Translating etc.

About a week into Naomi's stay here in La Quinta, Colón, Honduras, Norma approached me and asked me if I might be interested in translating for a visiting doctor for whom no translator had hitherto been procured. And thus it was that two weeks ago, I wandered into the hospital labyrinth to seek out Dr. Hans de Bruyn from Calgary, Canada. Several of the missionary families and docs are in the States for the summer, so Hans came down to help for three weeks since we were down to only two docs for most of the summer.
I have REALLY enjoyed translating! I certainly lacked (and still lack) many words and phrases in my standard classroom knowledge, like the word for "hemorrhoids", "lymph nodes", and "you have a chronic condition of such and such a type of arthritis, as well as leftover tissue from having part of your varicose vein removed, as well as parasite, as well as stress problems." Hard to translate that lot. But I also discovered after the first day on the job that even when I look up the real translations at night and try to communicate with the patients, most of them lack the education to understand those words, anyway. So I communicate in simple word pictures and analogies based on the patient's description of his or her environment and social interactions.
So when a patient came in with terrible loss of cartilage in one of her knees and was complaining due to the pain, she didn't understand the word for cartilage, so I thought for a moment, and God sort of nudged me to use "almohada" instead. Her face brightened as I told her that her pain was due to the fact that the "pillow" in between her leg bones was gone and so they were grinding together. Hardly solved the problem, but she was much less stressed just to KNOW what the problem was.
I was thinking about my acquired interests and skills over the years, and at first was thinking that I hadn't ever intended to become so diverse in my abilities/travels/studies/jobs/etc. But then I remembered studying about becoming a "Renaissance woman" in Ginny Emery's, (then Thrash), core group my freshman year. We intentionally sought to learn about different people, different fields of study, different hobbies, etc., with the intent of learning how to bridge to people. And God has certainly opened many diverse opportunities for me to do so!
Now I am able to connect with these people and help to educate them (in a language they understand) how to care for their injuries or to prevent/treat certain future ailments. The not knowing and feeling pain really aggravates their stress and symptoms.
Aren't our lives a bit like that? We feel the pain, dissatisfaction, or emptiness, and we try to treat the symptoms with all these ineffective home remedies--money, fame, relationships, drugs, work--without addressing the actual sickness. We are all broken and fallen creatures. And our cure is already paid for. But we have to go to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription:
"Comatose
I'll never wake up without an overdose of you
I don't wanna live
I don't wanna breathe
'les I feel you next to me
you take the pain I feel
waking up to you never felt so real
I don't wanna sleep
I don't wanna dream
'cause my dreams don't comfort me
The way you make me feel
Waking up to you never felt so real" (Skillet "Comatose").


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