MS4BCI

This past Saturday was a national Bolivian holiday called San Juan and it is celebrated on July 23, the coldest day of the year.  In an attempt to chase away the cold, the Cochabambinos light massive bon fires all over the town, which, like so many aspects of life here, are poorly regulated and often get out of control.  Today’s first operation was an unfortunate victim of the holiday who was burned when an adult threw a bottle of alcohol into a fire, causing a small explosion.  No one here at the burn center (or all of Cochabamba for that matter) seems surprised by this outcome, as children are very commonly the victims of too much independence.  Many of them are growing up without a childhood and so many of these also grow up without parents.  There is a contingent of children who live on the streets and spend their entire day sniffing glue while begging for scraps from sidewalk restaurants.  Though there are droves homeless in the United States, we rarely, if ever, come across homeless children because there are orphanages and government programs in place to help them.  Here, it is every man and child for himself and because these children live on their own from such an early age, so many of them end up in operating rooms and hospitals.  Our exposure to children who endure so much has truly been the hardest aspect of our experience thus far.