The pukers have all gone home.

We shipped out the latest bunch of Villagers on Saturday and the new ones arrived on Monday. The kids were great, but good riddance! Too much puking!

I had my first 24 hours off this past weekend… awesome! Jeff hit the road early and drove up here to attend the closing ceremony with me Saturday morning. Wowee was he a sight for sore eyes! Tears were shed!

It was also my birthday on Saturday. I have decided that this will be the last birthday I will be celebrating. 45 is definitely my limit. 45?! Really?! Wasn’t I just 25 a couple of years ago?

58 new Villagers arrived in my Village on Monday. After a crazy day of checking everyone in along with their meds, it has been a very peaceful Health Center (aka Club Med). I only hope it continues!View from Paris towards Club Med

  Paris

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Sunny and 75 degrees with a slight breeze. I actually had the opportunity to enjoy the weather today! Spent some time weeding the garden that is next to Paris.  The sun was warm, Guillame was playing the piano inside Paris and the music carried outside ever so lightly, and the smell of bread baking was wafting from the kitchen. When I closed my eyes I could almost imagine myself actually in France. After lunch I even got to spend a nice two hours lying in the sun on the dock.  Heaven!

Hmmm… if only all the days as a Camp Nurse were like this one.

Bonjour. Welcome to Camp PukeALot.

Bonjour. Mon nom est Gabi. J’ai quitte la Chine en France.

Hello. My name is Gabi. I have moved from China to France.

Can you say culture shock?! I had to quickly close out two sessions in Chinese, train in the new nurse, and then race over to French to be trained in by that leaving nurse. Not to mention pack up all my stuff, move it, and then unpack.

My first meal was dinner… it included rice but not sticky rice (mi fan) and it had veggies in it. And it included fresh homemade baked baguettes and butter. I almost cried. Seriously.

The new nurse gave me a very quick short tour and introduced me to a couple of key people and then left. Estelle (my health care assistant) was instructed to finish the tour with me later. Within no more than 10 minutes after the current nurse leaving, a Villager came in and puked in our garbage can. Welcome to French Bemidji.

French Bemidji has had an interesting summer so far. The Norwalk virus went through and they had 23 puking and pooping Villagers at one time. They set up a “sick bay” in one of the activity buildings and brought in other nurses and health care assistants from other villages to help. I came in at the tail end and have had 3 pukers of my own.

The nights have been rough since everything seems to happen in the middle of my slumber. I have had one full night of sleep since getting here this past Saturday. This is the hardest part of being a Camp Nurse. Well, that and I miss my family and friends.

 

Let’s talk about my Chinese Village. The kids there were amazing… they were fun, and sweet, and quite entertaining at times. I had more free time there than here and more opportunity to get to know them. Above are my very first patients as an RN. They were very excited when I told them this later and we all took pictures. Both have been coming to the Chinese camp for several years and can speak it quite well (of course, how would I know?!). The gal wants to be a nurse when she grows up so we had lots of conversations about nursing and nursing school.

This is Da Wei my First Aider and right hand man. He’s a very talented young man and it’ll be interesting to see where life takes him. He had been at Chinese for the first half at the summer and was moving to Portuguese for the second half. I would have been lost without him there.

I haven’t taken any pictures of my Village yet…been a little busy! Watch for a new blog soon…

Playing Tourist

Had 12 hours off on Saturday so I spent the day in Bemidji  playing solo tourist. Camp was crazy that morning (I swear all the girls are menstruating at one time) and I locked myself out of the cabin so  Hua Ai wasn’t able to turn back into Evelyn until 30 minutes later than planned.

I started my day at the local Dunn Bros since I was craving a Latte (Lordy, too many days since my last Latte!).  I had planned on spending some time applying for jobs, but their internet kept cutting out and I felt like I was wasting too much of my valuable free time.  My first stop was to visit Paul Bunyan and his giant blue Ox Babe, of course.

Does anyone know why Bemidji is tied to Paul Bunyan? I checked a respectable historical resource, Walt Disney, and didn’t come up with an answer.

From the website RoadsideAmerica.com, there are the following Paul Bunyan’s in Minnesota:

Minnesota

• Akeley:Kneeling Paul Bunyan 20 feet tall (maybe the claimed 33 feet, if he was standing), across from Paul's Purple Cow Ice Cream Parlor. Akeley is "Birthplace and Home of World's Largest Paul Bunyan Statue." His cradle was here when we visited.
• Bloomington: a 19-foot Bunyan, part of the Mall of America
• Bemidji: Paul Bunyan and Babe Statues, built in the 1930's.
• Blackduck: Paul Bunyan's Duck.

• Brainerd: The 26 feet tall Talking Bunyan, long a fixture at the now defunct Paul Bunyan Amusement Center, can now be seen at This Old Farm outside of town, along with Babe the Blue Ox and Sport the Dog.

• Brainerd: In 2005, a seated Paul Bunyan was erected outside a new welcome center 5 miles south of town.
• Chisholm: "There is a statue of Paul Bunyan inside one of the buildings at the Minnesota Museum of Mining. I know of this statue because it scared the living s**t out of my when I was a little kid in the '60's. I believe it's at the main curve of highway 169 in Chisholm...last visited in 1992." [Jon A. Egger, 3/24/97]
• Hackensack: Statue of Paul Bunyan's Sweetheart, Lucette Diana Kensack, 17 feet tall, on the east shore of Birch Lake.
• Kelliher: Paul Bunyan's Grave, in Paul Bunyan Memorial Park.
• Ortonville: Paul Bunyan's Anchor, weighs 225,000 lbs., and is mounted on four granite pillars. Looks like a big rectangular piece of rock with a chunk of metal chain sticking out of the top. At an overlook above Big Stone Lake.

My favorite, and one I must see is Paul Bunyan’s duck in Blackduck, Mn!

Inside the Visitor Center is this fireplace – The Fireplace of States. It was built in 1934. The mason wrote hundreds of letters to all the state governors, governors of Canada, the US President, and all the County Directors of MN, as well as all the National Parks and Monuments asking for stones for the fireplace. Some senders placed inscriptions on the stones.

Bemidji also has several statues of Native Americans, including Chief Bemidji.

The Beltrami County Historical Museum is also in Bemidji and is housed in the last depot built by James J. Hill.  Their current display is on the history of healthcare in Beltrami County – fascinating!

Here’s something common to most of Minnesota, except the North Shore – not a whole lot of grain being grown up there!. When I see one of these it always makes me think of Henning, the town where my grandparents lived when they retired.

 

 

 

Drove a few miles over to see the County Courthouse and discovered a beautiful little park area just outside of it. It’s one of the prettiest courthouses I have seen.

 

 

Remember the Snoopy statues that were all over St Paul several years ago? Well, Bemidji did the Beaver.

I also took a drive down the “Gold Coast",” which is Bemidji’s version of St. Paul’s Summit Avenue.

It was hot and humid on Saturday, so after hours of sightseeing I decided to head to the theatre and sit in air conditioning for awhile. Not really knowing what movies were out there, I picked Grown Ups since it had SNL comedians in it and I was in the mood for something funny. Boy, did I choose wrong. I won’t spend much time on details, but I will say this: Don’t waste your money or time, Sandler is just out to make some dough the lazy way.

I went out to dinner at the Green Mill which is one of the most beautiful Green Mills I have ever been to.  Right on Lake Bemidji and with a very nice patio area. I wanted something far far from Chinese… decided on a deep dish Canadian Bacon and Pineapple pizza. And lots of Diet Coke.  Nummy.

Got back to camp, and every meal since Saturday has had rice in it. Every meal. I am not exaggerating. For breakfast it’s either Soupy Rice, or Rice Krispies. No joke.

My first days as Camp Nurse at Sen Lin Hu

My name is Hua Ai and I am the Hu Shi at Sen Lin Hu. Nihao.
There are currently 73 Villagers, about 20 Counselors, and about 10 other staff (kitchen, office, maintenance) here at the Chinese Village. Many of the counselors are from China and speak very little or no English. The Villagers are from about 8 years old to 18 and are here for 2 or 4 weeks. I am the only RN on staff; I have an assistant who has been trained in First Aid etc and is very fluent in Chinese who helps me when he can.  He is also a head counselor and “go to” guy for many things.
I felt very overwhelmed when I first arrived… new nurse, new place, new people, new foods, new culture, new language.  A lot of newness in one big dose. My clinic was not organized and so I spent Sunday, my day off, cleaning, organizing, and checking expiration dates.  After this, I felt much better about my job and responsibilities.
This is the nurse’s clinic. It has my office, waiting area, bathroom and shower, my sleeping quarters, and a sick room for Villagers/Staff who need to spend the night because of illness. So far I have not had any overnight guests!
The Concordia Language Villages teaches by immersion – it truly feels like I am in China! All the meals are Chinese (and not American Chinese, I might add) – rice has been served at 98% of the meals.  The meals are generally very healthy – lots of fruits and veggies… no bread and butter… I miss the bread and butter. English is really only suppose to be spoken with the Nurse, and the kids are rewarded each day they accomplish this.
So far I have had quite a few skinned knees and elbows, bug bites, tummy aches, and sore throats. Hopefully this trend will continue! I have also helped rescue a bird from a cabin, find the home of a lost dog scared by the fireworks, and helped feed a baby bird (who later died).

Each day is different as the Hu Shi at Sen Lin Hu!

To see more of Sen Lin Hu, please visit: http://senlinhu.villagepages.org/