Last night around 9:30 Sandro came barreling into my room and frantically told me…well, he frantically told me a bunch of stuff, most of which I didn’t actually understand. But I got the gist that something had happened to David’s head. That seemed important enough for us to hop in the truck and go to the bus stop where he was waiting for us. As we drove, I got a bit more information. It seemed that someone had attacked David as he was walking to catch his bus after school (he studies at night).

When we got to the corner where David was waiting, I saw him holding his jersey (his favourite Bolivia futbol jersey sad to say) to his head and it was covered in blood. We took off for the hospital, which fortunately wasn’t too far away. I was able to go into the emergency room with David and watch while the doctors examined his head. The cut wasn’t that wide, but I was surprised by how deep it was. I was sad for David, but I kind of enjoyed watching the whole examine the cut thing. Later I wanted to watch them suture him up, but sadly they kicked me out.

Anyhow, I was given the list of medicine and whatnots that the doctor needed, and Sandro and I were off to the pharmacy to buy everything. Hospitals here don’t have much in the way of medicine or bandages…that’s the responsibility of the family or friends of the victim to buy. So if you ever need to go to the hospital, it’s important to have someone with you who can run and get whatever you need. It took us three tries at three different pharmacies to find everything. The last pharmacy was a pretty good distance away and we were hoofin’ it pretty fast. Poor Sandro…he’s the shortest of the bunch, and his legs had were working double time to keep up. I’ve got these big, long gringo legs and can move fairly quickly when the urge hits me. I’m sure we were pretty entertaining to anyone watching.

Back at the hospital, I handed over our bad of medicine and bandages, and things started getting more complicated. Poor David was laying there with his head partially shaved as the doctores cleaned the cut. I felt pretty bad for him…which really wasn’t necessary as it turns out. He was so drugged up that he didn’t feel a thing. He was happy as anything laying there.

I, on the other hand, was not so happy. I was given a lengthy lecture of what I was supposed to do now…only about half of which I actually understood (I’m not exactly up on my medical/hospital terminology in Spanish). But I got enough of it to understand where I was supposed to go. So I went there and hoped they knew what I was supposed to do next. Those people told me a bunch of other things and sent me on my way again. That was pretty much how the rest of the night went.

As it turned out, I had to arrange for x-rays and pay for things and talk to the police and give David’s medical history (and explain each time that yes, I am his father more or less and no he doesn’t have any other family and yes, it is interesting that I’m a white guy and I’m taking care of him…) and then go pay for more things. I just kind of stumbled from place to place in a bit of a daze hoping that the next person I talked to would know what I was supposed to be doing. It worked.

While we waited for the x-ray guy to finish with another family, I got the whole story from David. While he was walking to where he catches the bus, talking on his cell phone, two guys hopped out of a car and tried to steal his phone and backpack. He pushed the guy who was in front of him and started to run away. When he took off, the other guy managed to crack him over the back of his head with the butt of his pistol. But David kept running, and managed to get away (and also held onto his phone and backpack, which he was proud of. I told him he was my hero and that made him laugh). 

This could have been so much worse. Obviously we’re very thankful for God’s protection. This just shows once again, the importance of prayer. So thank you for praying for us! David’s pretty sore, but he’s doing well. He’s enjoying sitting in front of the TV this morning and being lazy. He get’s to do whatever he wants…at least for today. He probably won’t be as happy when we have to shave the rest of his head to match the hole he’s got right now. We have his head x-rays propped up where we can all see them. I told him that I’ve had my doubts in the past, but now he’s got actual proof that he does, in fact, have a brain. Oh, come on…that’s funny. We all laughed (including David). =)

Thanks again for praying! The last picture is of David with the knife that he says he’s going to carry from now on… =)