A-Rev
has been skating a lot lately, which proves just how much of a shredder he is. He will destroy you on a mini ramp, and when he picks up the bike we still knock out every photo first try. I’m not going to show you the whole series but the Rev basically did a ton of tricks on this hip, and we ended up with a ton of photos. It was pretty fun building a jump in the morning just to shoot it in the afternoon, cuz getting s*** done always feels good! On another note, we went to the sickest skatepark in Oregon, and I would tell you what its called but I forgot. Anyways, there was a BMX track there and we saw an opportunity for a shot so we set it up and banged it out… 15 minutes of setup for one 250th of a second and we were done. There was this kid there who was TRIPPING on A-Rev’s bike and the fact that he was airing over the BMX start gate. I think he said that it was the “best day of my life”. Classic!
We were filming on this little Oregon excursion so check back for an edit soon… A-Rev is cooking it up and it should be good!
We Kick Balls
A-Rev and I got into Bend, Oregon to Goldman’s house the other day and it is sooo sick up here. Then yesterday driving through town we saw these two people on a vespa with matching outfits, right down to the helmet. Their shirts said “We Kick Balls”. Jamie’s new house is rad, so yesterday we worked on building some dirtpiles, Jamie’s truck got stuck, we floated the river, and then we played horseshoes.
We decided to shoot some photos, and Jamie threw down a ringer for the sickest Horseshoes shot ever. You should enjoy these photos while I go work on some jumps with the tractor, and hopefully don’t break anything…
Day 3 at the hospital
was a little crazier for me than I expected. I was asked to shoot a pacemaker implantation, and as it was only my second time on an Operating Room (not being operated on, that is haha), it was already intense. Then, while trying to get the patient under anesthesia we encountered some problems. He wasn’t responding to the drugs and was apparently in a lot of pain while the surgeon was trying to begin. Our theory is that due to the chewing of coco leaves, his body was more stimulated and that is why the drugs weren’t working. Whatever it was, the patient was squirming and i wend from taking pictures to holding him down in a matter of seconds… wasn’t expecting that one. Eventually he calmed down and the surgery went well, and he has a new lease on life.
Earlier in the day, I visited an orphanage in town. It was refreshing to see how excited the kids were to see us, and to see that they are living under good conditions with good people. On one side you have to feel bad that they don’t have a real family, and on the other you feel good that they probably have a better life there than they ever would’ve with their parents. Tough stuff. All of the pictures I’m going to show you today are form the orphanage, as the kids were too cute, and I don’t want to make anyone squeemish with surgery pictures. One more day at the hospital and I’m headed home… time flies….
Huanta
is a small town outside of Ayacucho that I went to today with a small group from the mission. We did a more limited variety of tests than are done at Ayacucho hospital, and there were more amazing people.. especially all the kids. It was a more subdued day medically speaking, but it was interesting none the less. I also got to kick a soccer ball around with a young lad which was pretty fun. And I made a little girl cry when I pulled out my camera… I think maybe she thought it was going to hurt her or something, but she got over it and I got her picture later in the day. Heres a few from today enjoy!
Today I saw
some amazing things. It was our first day at the hospital and the line of people seeking treatment was lonngggg. The amount of work that the people on this mission do is amazing, and we should all probably take something from them when it comes to helping others. I saw everything from burn victims, a cleft palate surgery, hand reconstructions, and everything else you could think of. One of the standouts though was an older man who had melanoma. For those of you who don’t know, Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that tends to spread rapidly and is very deadly. This man had a melanoma on his face that should have killed him a long, long time ago, but for some reason it hadn’t spread, and last I heard the surgeons were able to remove the entire thing. Amazing stories like that happen multiple times a day here and I don’t even really know what else to say about it… you kind of have to see it to understand. But thats why I’m here, so here you go… a few more images that I liked from today, including the man whom I just described.
Tomorrow morning I go to a smaller village outside of Ayacucho as we do some more outreach, and I am anticipating some good stuff to come from our mini trip…
Did you ever have a guinea pig as a kid?
Because if you lived here it would not have been your fuzzy little friend but rather a nice lunch. It crossed my mind to try one, but I decided against it. One of our friends on the mission, John, cooked his own though which is pretty sweet! So today was our last free day before we start working in the hospital, so we went back up to Quinua for some food and fun. On the way we stopped at some ruins from the Wari people, older than the Incas! At the ruins there were tons of cacti, and Dawn, while trying to explain to me about the fruit form them proceeded to get a million tiny cactus spikes all over her hand. Whoops! She did make up for it though as she met the Cardinal of Lima at dinner…
Anyways, heres a small sampling of what I got today… believe me there’s more but I don’t want to blow up our internet, because I want to keep showing you all the amazing people I’m getting to see and meet. Coming up in the next few days may be some more serious stuff, but it should be interesting so stay tuned!
Welcome To
Peru! Where your taxi driver brings his own bottle of wine. So we made it down to Peru without too much trouble. Minus the Security at SFO… it must have been everyone’s first day or something because they were blowing it! Spent last night in Lima, very cool place you should go there sometime, and get Lomo Saltado its delicious. This morning was a little bit of a fiasco though, we started off with a 3:30 am wake-up call to long airport lines to sketchy flight combo deal, and followed it up with a high altitude friend visit that left us with altitude sickness and a windy cab ride down the hill… we only got stopped by the cops twice so thats good.
The mountain adventure was worth it though, because I got to meet a friend of my cousin Dawn’s, Raquel. This woman is a saint if I have ever seen one. We also got to see Dawn’s third son, Juan Carbajal. He is an awesome kid who unfortunately was assaulted at a carnival a few years ago that left the right side of his face disfigured along with him loosing his right eye. Dawn had him come up to the states for surgery which was fairly successful, and hopefully he’ll return one day to finish the procedures…
On that note, heres some pictures! Enjoy I have a feeling that there’s going to be lots of interesting stuff to come, so If you don’t check back your blowin’ it… Have an awesome day!
