Lost in Translation

From Ashifa Kassam, volunteer nurse from Los Angeles: The staff for Azogues is absolutely amazing and talented. We have a surgeon from Bangladesh, an anesthesiologist from Vietnam, a pediatrician from Canada and the remainder of us are from various parts of the United States. Quite an eclectic and international team.  I am learning so much from everyone.  What a great experience for personal growth. Not to mention the friendships, which are a welcomed side effect of trips like this. I have to mention something hilarious which happened on clinic day.  Our team nurses and anesthesiologists were collecting information regarding blood transfusion policies and protocols in the hospital.  Our team nurse attempts the conversation in Spanish.  The lab staff chuckled and laughed. Knowing we were missing something, we returned to the lab with our interpreter and found that the our nurse was inquiring about "sangria" and not "sangre” (Spanish for blood).The lab staff thought we wanted wine... not blood!  So funny!