The last day of clinic was on Thursday. Beth, Caitlin and I spent the morning watching the peds rounds (aka playing with babies) and then we watched a birth in the afternoon. That was the end of my clinical experience in Ecuador.
I think the clinic was one of the best parts of the trip. I got to see some very interesting things, especially working in maternidad. Preeclampsia is nowhere near as common in the united states, and I am pretty sure molar pregnancies are rare as well. So, having the opportunity to see these things was both interesting and unique to being in Ecuador.
That evening we all went out to dinner on CFHI's tab. Rosita (host mom/head of the program) came which was nice. Then we went off on our Chifa (party) bus adventure. The bus was not large enough to stand on so we all just sat there and listened to the music while drinking this potent alcoholic beverage that is made from a fruit. Super sugary and served hot. I only had one cup, just to try it, but it was certainly by no means my favorite. When the ride was over we were all tired so we went home and hung out before bed, instead of clubbing as planned.
The next morning we got up and headed to the Teleferico. This is a gondola that takes you near to the top of the volcano Pinchincha. The views of the city from the top were amazing. Brian and I had planned on hiking to the top (nearly five hours) but it was freezing on the top and we were not dressed properly. It was also cloudy and looked like rain so we opted to head down with the rest of the gang. Then we got lunch at Rodriguez (our fav. spot) and went to the artisan market to pick up last minute gifts and souvenirs.
Beth and Caitlin left shortly after and I went to do all of my packing. Then at 330 I woke up and headed to the airport for my 630 flight. By midnight I was back in philly. It was a long day of traveling but I survived and I am SO glad to be home.
Thoughts;
CFHI was an amazing experience. I can't say that I loved it all because that would be dishonest. I wish the doctors met us on the first day of clinic because navigating the hospitals solo was pretty overwhelming. I also was annoyed when they showed up late. HATE ecuadorian time because as an east coaster I feel that when you are five minutes early THAT is when you are on time. I liked a lot of the other students on my program and found that a lot of them were very interesting people. I don't know that I will keep in touch with many of them, but learning to live with people who are very different from me is an important part of growing up. Speaking of growing, I think this trip has changed me in a lot of ways. First, I got over my fear of birth. I learned that you can get used to anything and I am sure this is a lesson that will prove useful as I pursue a career in medicine. I also learned a great deal from Dra Guaman about what it means to be a good doctor. It isn't about the money and it is not about the symptoms and interesting cases. It is about having the ability to help people and doing your best to help an individual, regardless of their status in life. I got some good medical experience in quito and learned a great deal about general health and obstetrics. And all the while I got to explore a new country and learn a new language. So, I am very glad I went on this trip and I am grateful for all of the experiences I was able to have as a result of journeying to Ecuador.
Thats all for now. Hopefully I will head somewhere new/fun/exciting in the near future and will be able to pick up where I left off in the blog.
Thanks for reading.
xoxo,
Hope
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Mitad del Mundo
After a tough day at clinic, the gang met for lunch at Magic Bean in Plaza Foch. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed off to mitad del mundo-or the middle of the earth. The interesting thing about the monument at the equator is that it actually lies several degrees SOUTH of the actual equator. So we went and took pictures at the fake equator (But cool monument) and then walked five minutes down the road to the actual equator. It was a cool thing to see while I am here in ecuador.
Tomorrow is my last clinic. I am going to go after and tour the churches in old city. Then we have a meeting at the school to discuss the program (likes, dislikes, suggestions etc.) The whole program will be reunited tomorrow because the groups that went elsewhere for clinic will be returning to Quito. Then, we are all going on a chifa (party) bus for the evening to celebrate the end of the program.
On friday, my housemates and I are planning to take the Teleferico up to Pichincha volcano. There are amazing views of the city from where the tram takes you. But, you can also clime seven miles to the top of the mountain for an even better view. My friends said they will see what kind of state they are in after the chifa bus and determine just how athletic we want to be on Friday morning. I am fine either way. Like I said earlier, I have had pleeeenty of athletic outings on this trip. There is also a soccer game on Friday afternoon. Ecuador's national team is playing in the center of Quito so we may go to that. Then friday night Beth and Caitlin are leaving and my flight is early saturday morning so I will probably spend the night packing and makings sure I have not forgotten anything.
Because I have so little time left, I think this will be my last post while I am here. But I will write one more when I get back to philly to sum up the last few days and my thoughts on the trip/CFHI.
Can't wait to be home. Talk to you soon!
Tomorrow is my last clinic. I am going to go after and tour the churches in old city. Then we have a meeting at the school to discuss the program (likes, dislikes, suggestions etc.) The whole program will be reunited tomorrow because the groups that went elsewhere for clinic will be returning to Quito. Then, we are all going on a chifa (party) bus for the evening to celebrate the end of the program.
On friday, my housemates and I are planning to take the Teleferico up to Pichincha volcano. There are amazing views of the city from where the tram takes you. But, you can also clime seven miles to the top of the mountain for an even better view. My friends said they will see what kind of state they are in after the chifa bus and determine just how athletic we want to be on Friday morning. I am fine either way. Like I said earlier, I have had pleeeenty of athletic outings on this trip. There is also a soccer game on Friday afternoon. Ecuador's national team is playing in the center of Quito so we may go to that. Then friday night Beth and Caitlin are leaving and my flight is early saturday morning so I will probably spend the night packing and makings sure I have not forgotten anything.
Because I have so little time left, I think this will be my last post while I am here. But I will write one more when I get back to philly to sum up the last few days and my thoughts on the trip/CFHI.
Can't wait to be home. Talk to you soon!
There are just some things that you cannot get used to
I think I have grown as a person from working in maternidad. I am still surprised that I am now able to watch vaginal exams, vaginal births, episiotomies and other goings on at the hospital without feeling uncomfortable. I have come a long way since the first week. So, I am thinking that my parents were right when they said that doctors are able to get used to seeing everything (and it is normal to feel squeamish around blood at first but you get over it). But today proved that in some cases, you just can't wrap your mind around what you are seeing.
We entered the clinic as a woman was being pushed on a gurney to delivery, I could see the baby crowning as she was wheeled by. Then we entered and I noticed that it was an unusually slow day. Where there are normally 20 plus women in labor there were around 8 today. Maybe chief Webber on Grey's Anatomy was right-a calm day is a bad sign. The first four patients had preeclampsia. They were induced using a medication that is inserted into the cervix to begin dilation. When we got to the final bed, I noticed that the woman did not look very pregnant. I heard the doctors explain, in spanish, that she was 27 weeks pregnant and that they would be inducing labor in this woman (who was only 20 years old). I did the math and started to feel panicked...that is only 6 months and three weeks gestation. I don't know much about fetal development but I was pretty sure that there are serious risks to delivering a baby so early and I could not, for the life of me, figure out why they were doing a vaginal birth rather than a cesarian section in such a risky case. Then the doctor that I am shadowing, Dr. Marques, explained that the baby was dead. He didn't know why, but the fetus was no longer viable. I felt a pit in my stomach and started to tear up. This woman would be forced to endure labor and would not be rewarded with a healthy baby. It was too much and it just seemed too cruel. Whenever I see a woman in labor, she is in the worst pain she has ever experienced. There is often crying out for "mi madre" or "ay dios mio" or "yo no puede". But at the end of it all they have a child to take home and I am able to remind them of this when they are enduring contractions, cervical exams, and labor. But this woman was being forced to go through all of this and she would get nothing in the end.
Then we were led into a room that I thought was postpartum. I thought this because the women did not look pregnant. Wrong again. This room was for all of the women who were under 15 weeks gestation and did not have viable fetuses. Two had moles, which were described as abnormal growths rather than babies. I watched each of these women undergo ultrasounds. Then I watched a 13-year-old have a D&E (dilation and extraction/dilation and evacuation). This is a procedure where the cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus are scraped out. The patient is fortunately put under anesthesia for this barbaric process, but I could not stop thinking about the fact that I was watching a 13 year old on the operating table, After this, we had had enough. It was already 11:15 and we usually work until 11:30 but you can only take so much. Tomorrow we are going on a peds rotation so we can play with the babies, hopefully this will be easier than what we had to see today. As much as it was awful and emotional, I can respect that today was a very valuable learning experience.
We entered the clinic as a woman was being pushed on a gurney to delivery, I could see the baby crowning as she was wheeled by. Then we entered and I noticed that it was an unusually slow day. Where there are normally 20 plus women in labor there were around 8 today. Maybe chief Webber on Grey's Anatomy was right-a calm day is a bad sign. The first four patients had preeclampsia. They were induced using a medication that is inserted into the cervix to begin dilation. When we got to the final bed, I noticed that the woman did not look very pregnant. I heard the doctors explain, in spanish, that she was 27 weeks pregnant and that they would be inducing labor in this woman (who was only 20 years old). I did the math and started to feel panicked...that is only 6 months and three weeks gestation. I don't know much about fetal development but I was pretty sure that there are serious risks to delivering a baby so early and I could not, for the life of me, figure out why they were doing a vaginal birth rather than a cesarian section in such a risky case. Then the doctor that I am shadowing, Dr. Marques, explained that the baby was dead. He didn't know why, but the fetus was no longer viable. I felt a pit in my stomach and started to tear up. This woman would be forced to endure labor and would not be rewarded with a healthy baby. It was too much and it just seemed too cruel. Whenever I see a woman in labor, she is in the worst pain she has ever experienced. There is often crying out for "mi madre" or "ay dios mio" or "yo no puede". But at the end of it all they have a child to take home and I am able to remind them of this when they are enduring contractions, cervical exams, and labor. But this woman was being forced to go through all of this and she would get nothing in the end.
Then we were led into a room that I thought was postpartum. I thought this because the women did not look pregnant. Wrong again. This room was for all of the women who were under 15 weeks gestation and did not have viable fetuses. Two had moles, which were described as abnormal growths rather than babies. I watched each of these women undergo ultrasounds. Then I watched a 13-year-old have a D&E (dilation and extraction/dilation and evacuation). This is a procedure where the cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus are scraped out. The patient is fortunately put under anesthesia for this barbaric process, but I could not stop thinking about the fact that I was watching a 13 year old on the operating table, After this, we had had enough. It was already 11:15 and we usually work until 11:30 but you can only take so much. Tomorrow we are going on a peds rotation so we can play with the babies, hopefully this will be easier than what we had to see today. As much as it was awful and emotional, I can respect that today was a very valuable learning experience.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Maternidad take 2
This time in maternidad feels pretty different. I no longer feel light headed when I walk into a room and I feel acclimated to the sights and sounds (and smells sometimes...blech) that accompany labor. Also, this week I am working with Beth and Caitlin who are both third year nursing students. Our doctor was late today and Beth started comforting a patient and holding her hand, so I followed Beth's lead and did the same with another patient. Usually, as premed students, Robinson and I would follow the doctor as he was examining how dilated a cervix was or checking on the contraction frequency and fetal heart rate. But I sort of felt more useful in this new role. I stayed with a woman and taught her to breath slowly, in through your nose out through your mouth. When she was taken to delivery, Beth and I stayed with her and held her hand. The delivery was hard and the baby got stuck at the shoulders so the doctor had to yank it out. When the baby was taken out, I saw that the umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck and the baby's face was an ungodly shade of blue/gray. I almost cried. I followed the nurse who took the baby to the next room and watched as they gave it oxygen and cleaned it up. The doctor explained that the baby would be fine and I went back to the delivery room and told the woman she had a new daughter. I got pretty emotional, but still no tears. I am getting good at holding it together.
Once the woman delivered the placenta I went back to the labor room. I went and stood with another woman who seemed further along and held her hand and coached her through contractions. Beth and Caitlin went to watch another delivery but I decided to stay with this woman (I had seen enough births last week). This woman, I found out, was 19 and this was her first child. I held her hand for another hour and she asked me, her "amiga," to stay with her through the whole thing. I told her that I would do my best, but my shift was almost over. I stayed with her until I saw the baby crown in the delivery room and held her hand the whole time. Then it was around 11:45 and my shift had ended at 11:30 so I decided to go. Plus she was pretty focused on what she was doing so I figured she would not notice my stealth exit. I still feel guilty for leaving, but I am glad I was able to comfort her for as long as I was there.
Tomorrow the doctor said he will try to get us in to see a cesarian section. I love surgery so hopefully we are able to get in and watch.
After our shift the entire gang went out for lunch at a mexican place. Then they went to the markets that I visited over the weekend so I decided to come home and relax after such a taxing morning. We have our last meeting with Dra Alvear (head of the program) tonight. I can't believe my stay in Quito is coming to an end, but I am really excited to get home and get back into my routine. I love traveling, but I think I have been away from home for a bit longer than I would like. I think In the future I will keep my vacations to three or four weeks max.
Once the woman delivered the placenta I went back to the labor room. I went and stood with another woman who seemed further along and held her hand and coached her through contractions. Beth and Caitlin went to watch another delivery but I decided to stay with this woman (I had seen enough births last week). This woman, I found out, was 19 and this was her first child. I held her hand for another hour and she asked me, her "amiga," to stay with her through the whole thing. I told her that I would do my best, but my shift was almost over. I stayed with her until I saw the baby crown in the delivery room and held her hand the whole time. Then it was around 11:45 and my shift had ended at 11:30 so I decided to go. Plus she was pretty focused on what she was doing so I figured she would not notice my stealth exit. I still feel guilty for leaving, but I am glad I was able to comfort her for as long as I was there.
Tomorrow the doctor said he will try to get us in to see a cesarian section. I love surgery so hopefully we are able to get in and watch.
After our shift the entire gang went out for lunch at a mexican place. Then they went to the markets that I visited over the weekend so I decided to come home and relax after such a taxing morning. We have our last meeting with Dra Alvear (head of the program) tonight. I can't believe my stay in Quito is coming to an end, but I am really excited to get home and get back into my routine. I love traveling, but I think I have been away from home for a bit longer than I would like. I think In the future I will keep my vacations to three or four weeks max.
Monday, 29 August 2011
If I took a drug test today, I would fail.
Greetings all!
I have returned from 4500 meters above sea level! Alive (barely) and in one piece (again, barely). I left my house at 6 this morning to meet up with the biking tour. Due to traffic, we did not arrive at Cotopaxi until around 9. We stopped at a small hut to pay the $2 park entrance fee. They were also selling coca tea and coca candy, so I bought both because they are supposed to help with altitude sickness. I really liked the tea, it tasted like green tea. Then the guide said you can suck on the leaves-when I did that part of my mouth went numb. The dentists that were on the bike trip (they had been in Quito doing volunteer work) said that cocaine works the same as novacane. That was a fun new fact for the day. The tea had a pleasant effect in that I felt energized and was no longer feeling the altitude, so I guess it does its job well. Too bad it is illegal in the US. Then the tour guide explained the itinerary for the day and I was confused because there was no hiking on it. He explained that the climb to the base camp of cotopaxi is very difficult and takes between 1 and 1.5 hours and then you have about an hour up top and it would cut into biking. So instead, we drove up to the parking lot (4500m above sea level) and biked down the mountain. When we got to the top I was pretty glad we would not be doing any climbing. It was snowing at the top with really strong winds, so the climb would have been miserable.
I don't know what I was expecting when I signed up for a bike tour but it certainly was NOT like what I found at the mountain. The roads were all rocks with bumps that resemble the ridges on the highway that make noise so you wont swerve off the road. So I basically went down gripping the handle bars/breaks for dear life. By the time I reached the first checkpoint my hands were sore from holding on so tightly and I was developing a headache from being bumped around so much. I kept going but I need to be honest, I REALLY was not having a good time. Then we reached a flat area where the guide explained we were going to bike to see ruins. He warned us that this area was deep sand and some uphill so we would begin to feel the altitude. After about five minutes I had to get off of my bike and walk it through the sand. When I reached a point where I could get back on my head was pounding and I found it difficult to see straight. This is NOT a good sign when you are as high up as I was today. I decided to sit and take a break/get rehydrated while the group checked out the ruins. This was fine because they had to come back to where I was sitting in order to get back on the trail. When they returned, I was feeling much better. I popped a few coca candies (which help with altitude sickness) and continued on my merry way. We stopped at a restaurant on the mountain for lunch and I assumed this meant the end of the journey. WRONG. We got back on the bikes and road another two plus miles down the mountain before we could call it a day. At this point, it was four o'clock and I had been biking for nearly 6 hours.
My palms are bruised from the handle bars, my head still aches a bit from all the bumping around and my legs are sore from the race. Needless to say, today will mark the end of my physical activities in Quito. I am happy to go back to clinic tomorrow and maybe I will walk around some of the churches/old city tomorrow or this week. I will have to see what the rest of the gang wants to do. Only 4 full days left in Quito, I can't really believe it! But I am ready to come home and I am SO excited for school (eek senior year..when did I get so old!?)
I have returned from 4500 meters above sea level! Alive (barely) and in one piece (again, barely). I left my house at 6 this morning to meet up with the biking tour. Due to traffic, we did not arrive at Cotopaxi until around 9. We stopped at a small hut to pay the $2 park entrance fee. They were also selling coca tea and coca candy, so I bought both because they are supposed to help with altitude sickness. I really liked the tea, it tasted like green tea. Then the guide said you can suck on the leaves-when I did that part of my mouth went numb. The dentists that were on the bike trip (they had been in Quito doing volunteer work) said that cocaine works the same as novacane. That was a fun new fact for the day. The tea had a pleasant effect in that I felt energized and was no longer feeling the altitude, so I guess it does its job well. Too bad it is illegal in the US. Then the tour guide explained the itinerary for the day and I was confused because there was no hiking on it. He explained that the climb to the base camp of cotopaxi is very difficult and takes between 1 and 1.5 hours and then you have about an hour up top and it would cut into biking. So instead, we drove up to the parking lot (4500m above sea level) and biked down the mountain. When we got to the top I was pretty glad we would not be doing any climbing. It was snowing at the top with really strong winds, so the climb would have been miserable.
I don't know what I was expecting when I signed up for a bike tour but it certainly was NOT like what I found at the mountain. The roads were all rocks with bumps that resemble the ridges on the highway that make noise so you wont swerve off the road. So I basically went down gripping the handle bars/breaks for dear life. By the time I reached the first checkpoint my hands were sore from holding on so tightly and I was developing a headache from being bumped around so much. I kept going but I need to be honest, I REALLY was not having a good time. Then we reached a flat area where the guide explained we were going to bike to see ruins. He warned us that this area was deep sand and some uphill so we would begin to feel the altitude. After about five minutes I had to get off of my bike and walk it through the sand. When I reached a point where I could get back on my head was pounding and I found it difficult to see straight. This is NOT a good sign when you are as high up as I was today. I decided to sit and take a break/get rehydrated while the group checked out the ruins. This was fine because they had to come back to where I was sitting in order to get back on the trail. When they returned, I was feeling much better. I popped a few coca candies (which help with altitude sickness) and continued on my merry way. We stopped at a restaurant on the mountain for lunch and I assumed this meant the end of the journey. WRONG. We got back on the bikes and road another two plus miles down the mountain before we could call it a day. At this point, it was four o'clock and I had been biking for nearly 6 hours.
My palms are bruised from the handle bars, my head still aches a bit from all the bumping around and my legs are sore from the race. Needless to say, today will mark the end of my physical activities in Quito. I am happy to go back to clinic tomorrow and maybe I will walk around some of the churches/old city tomorrow or this week. I will have to see what the rest of the gang wants to do. Only 4 full days left in Quito, I can't really believe it! But I am ready to come home and I am SO excited for school (eek senior year..when did I get so old!?)
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Official Results
I finished in 1:10:31
I finished 189/560 in my group (women ages 20-29)
aand because I would like to keep my ego intact I am not going to report what I finished overall, because that includes men so I did not do as well. Looking forward to the half in september and tufts 10k. I think everything will feel easier than this race.
Today I am taking it easy. I rented "Funny Face" on Itunes because my life was lacking Audrey Hepburn (I left my DVD boxset in philly). I am planning on going to bed very early because I have to be at the Magic Bean restaurant to meet my biking guide at 7am tomorrow. Then it is off to Cotopaxi for a one hour hike (to over 5000m) and a bike ride down the mountain. Boy this is going to be a physical week.
I also forgot to mention that yesterday morning I did some exploring in the city by myself. I heard that there is an artisan market, similar to Otavalo, and headed over there at ten in the morning. I picked up a sweater for me and a blanket for Lauren for a birthday gift. I also strolled around one of the parks, because these also have craft/art markets on the weekend. I sort of enjoy doing my own thing sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I am a social being and love having friends and companions most of the time. But sometimes, especially on vacation, it is nice to be able to go off and do what you want to do without having to wait for five other people to agree to do the same thing. I think this week I am going to go check out the churches that I passed on my race and maybe try to get to the mitad del mundo (equator monument). Hopefully the other kids on the program will join me, but if not it is nice knowing that I am ok doing things myself.
I finished 189/560 in my group (women ages 20-29)
aand because I would like to keep my ego intact I am not going to report what I finished overall, because that includes men so I did not do as well. Looking forward to the half in september and tufts 10k. I think everything will feel easier than this race.
Today I am taking it easy. I rented "Funny Face" on Itunes because my life was lacking Audrey Hepburn (I left my DVD boxset in philly). I am planning on going to bed very early because I have to be at the Magic Bean restaurant to meet my biking guide at 7am tomorrow. Then it is off to Cotopaxi for a one hour hike (to over 5000m) and a bike ride down the mountain. Boy this is going to be a physical week.
I also forgot to mention that yesterday morning I did some exploring in the city by myself. I heard that there is an artisan market, similar to Otavalo, and headed over there at ten in the morning. I picked up a sweater for me and a blanket for Lauren for a birthday gift. I also strolled around one of the parks, because these also have craft/art markets on the weekend. I sort of enjoy doing my own thing sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I am a social being and love having friends and companions most of the time. But sometimes, especially on vacation, it is nice to be able to go off and do what you want to do without having to wait for five other people to agree to do the same thing. I think this week I am going to go check out the churches that I passed on my race and maybe try to get to the mitad del mundo (equator monument). Hopefully the other kids on the program will join me, but if not it is nice knowing that I am ok doing things myself.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Ay Dios Mio-The story of the Ruta de las Iglesias
It is currently 10:30 here in Quito and I decided to write my blog now. Beware, I am physically exhausted and may go on some adrenaline/endorphine induced spiel but that is ok because my writing will reflect how I am feeling.
I left my house at 5:15 for the much anticipated Ruta de las Iglesias. This race is a 10k that takes you many of the most famous churches in Quito. Let me tell ya, there are a LOT of churches here. In the past, I have completed the tufts 10k twice and the philadelphia half marathon once. I decided to do this 10k while abroad because when I get home, I have a half marathon in September, 10k in october and (god willing) my first FULL MARATHON in november of this year. I figured with my distance running experience the 10k would be pretty easy. Boy was I wrong.
I got to the busses and sat next to a man who said (en espanol) that he is from Colombia. We talked about the race and he explained that there are four large hills within the first 5k but the second half is flat. I was grateful that I knew something about the route but as a resident of Philly I do not have so much experience with hills. The busses arrived at the starting line by 6:15 and the race was to begin at 8. I checked my bag and got into my starting place and then waited for what seemed like forever. As 8 o'clock neared, the announcer started calling out foreign countries and people cheered if they were from that area. Quite a few Colombians. A few people from Spain. And a handful of Americans. When they played the Ecuadorian national anthem, I realized just how out of place I was. Nearly everyone sang along-clearly I was the minority. In that instant I thought about something I read last night about home field advantage. The Denver broncos used to be one of the best teams in football, owing to their great success at home. Visitors noted that Mile High stadium (5,280ft) was difficult to play at because they were not used to the lack of oxygen. Keep in mind that when these players are on the bench they have access to tanks of oxygen. So during the Ecuadorian national anthem I thought about Denver and this home field advantage thing. Except all of these Ecuadorians were used to this altitude which is nearly TWICE the height of denver. If a professional NFL player is affected by altitude I figured I was screwed.
And then the gun went off..
I started at a good pace. Things seemed to be going well and then we rounded the corner. Hill number 1. I had a mental battle with myself: look up at the end and watch it get closer. no look down at the ground and pretend that you arent hiking up a mountain (if you look down it is harder to see the angle of the slope). Fine I lived, but I was already panting. This was not a good sign. Hill 2 went similarly. Hill 3 was a nightmare. It was cobblestone so the ground was not level. It was about the slope of a blue square at Loon (intermediate ski slope). And then when I thought I had reached the top I rounded the corner to see that it continued uphill for another several blocks. I needed to walk for a minute because my heart rate was through the roof and my lungs were on fire. After around twenty seconds of walking I was ready to go again.
Walking within the first 3k is never a good sign. I have never walked during a race before because I have heard that losing momentum makes it very difficult to get going. I am not entirely sure how I willed myself to continue, I think it was the fact that after each uphill there was a long downhill that helped me along my way.
With every passing kilometer marker I felt more and more exhausted. My legs were fine but my lungs felt like they were underwater. I walked a few more times during the course of the race. I wanted to quit and go home. But before I knew it we were at the 9 km marker. I kicked it into high gear and prayed that my lungs could hold out for a bit more. As I crossed the finish line at 1:12 I had to fight back tears.
This is the WORST race time I have ever received. But I didn't care. I didn't mind that I walked. I was just so proud that I finished even though everything seemed to be working against me. It was an unfamiliar race route at an ungodly altitude. I had not run once since coming to Ecuador, so I had taken three weeks off from training and had zero experience running at this height. But I finished, and I was not dead last and that, for me, was a great accomplishment.
When I got home Rosita was SO excited for me. She houses anywhere from 1-8 students per month and has done so for the past several years. I am the first who has ever run this race. So she had me take pictures and wants me to email them to her and she is going to send them to the coordinator of the program in California. It was really nice that she was so excited and I was glad that I could do something that no one had done before me.
It was a hard night but it was great. Now its bedtime. Love you all.
I left my house at 5:15 for the much anticipated Ruta de las Iglesias. This race is a 10k that takes you many of the most famous churches in Quito. Let me tell ya, there are a LOT of churches here. In the past, I have completed the tufts 10k twice and the philadelphia half marathon once. I decided to do this 10k while abroad because when I get home, I have a half marathon in September, 10k in october and (god willing) my first FULL MARATHON in november of this year. I figured with my distance running experience the 10k would be pretty easy. Boy was I wrong.
I got to the busses and sat next to a man who said (en espanol) that he is from Colombia. We talked about the race and he explained that there are four large hills within the first 5k but the second half is flat. I was grateful that I knew something about the route but as a resident of Philly I do not have so much experience with hills. The busses arrived at the starting line by 6:15 and the race was to begin at 8. I checked my bag and got into my starting place and then waited for what seemed like forever. As 8 o'clock neared, the announcer started calling out foreign countries and people cheered if they were from that area. Quite a few Colombians. A few people from Spain. And a handful of Americans. When they played the Ecuadorian national anthem, I realized just how out of place I was. Nearly everyone sang along-clearly I was the minority. In that instant I thought about something I read last night about home field advantage. The Denver broncos used to be one of the best teams in football, owing to their great success at home. Visitors noted that Mile High stadium (5,280ft) was difficult to play at because they were not used to the lack of oxygen. Keep in mind that when these players are on the bench they have access to tanks of oxygen. So during the Ecuadorian national anthem I thought about Denver and this home field advantage thing. Except all of these Ecuadorians were used to this altitude which is nearly TWICE the height of denver. If a professional NFL player is affected by altitude I figured I was screwed.
And then the gun went off..
I started at a good pace. Things seemed to be going well and then we rounded the corner. Hill number 1. I had a mental battle with myself: look up at the end and watch it get closer. no look down at the ground and pretend that you arent hiking up a mountain (if you look down it is harder to see the angle of the slope). Fine I lived, but I was already panting. This was not a good sign. Hill 2 went similarly. Hill 3 was a nightmare. It was cobblestone so the ground was not level. It was about the slope of a blue square at Loon (intermediate ski slope). And then when I thought I had reached the top I rounded the corner to see that it continued uphill for another several blocks. I needed to walk for a minute because my heart rate was through the roof and my lungs were on fire. After around twenty seconds of walking I was ready to go again.
Walking within the first 3k is never a good sign. I have never walked during a race before because I have heard that losing momentum makes it very difficult to get going. I am not entirely sure how I willed myself to continue, I think it was the fact that after each uphill there was a long downhill that helped me along my way.
With every passing kilometer marker I felt more and more exhausted. My legs were fine but my lungs felt like they were underwater. I walked a few more times during the course of the race. I wanted to quit and go home. But before I knew it we were at the 9 km marker. I kicked it into high gear and prayed that my lungs could hold out for a bit more. As I crossed the finish line at 1:12 I had to fight back tears.
This is the WORST race time I have ever received. But I didn't care. I didn't mind that I walked. I was just so proud that I finished even though everything seemed to be working against me. It was an unfamiliar race route at an ungodly altitude. I had not run once since coming to Ecuador, so I had taken three weeks off from training and had zero experience running at this height. But I finished, and I was not dead last and that, for me, was a great accomplishment.
When I got home Rosita was SO excited for me. She houses anywhere from 1-8 students per month and has done so for the past several years. I am the first who has ever run this race. So she had me take pictures and wants me to email them to her and she is going to send them to the coordinator of the program in California. It was really nice that she was so excited and I was glad that I could do something that no one had done before me.
It was a hard night but it was great. Now its bedtime. Love you all.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Last day with Dra Guaman
Today was my last day at Atucucho. Next week I am headed back to maternidad. I thought about switching to surgery but my friends have had some pretty negative experiences at that hospital. It seems that in ecuador, male doctors can be pretty sexist. I have heard that female doctors can have a hard time in the united states, but it is nothing compared to here. Two of my female friends were in a surgery rotation with a male student. The attending commented on my female friends appearance (saying something like women from whatever country her last name is from are the most beautiful in the world). He then sent the male student to surgery and made the female students accompany him on rounds. He only let the female students watch surgeries that he performed. I also felt a little weird at maternidad my first week. The doctor that I worked with always kissed me on the cheek when he saw me (a common practice here, but I noticed he did not do this with everyone). He also often entered the room when I was changing into my scrubs and would stop and watch me. This happened at least three times in the four days I worked at materidad. Lessons to take into next week: use the lock on the changing room door. I am not sure if this creepy male doctor behavior is common here, or if we are treated differently because we are american. Regardless, I figured I would mention it in the blog because it has been part of my experience here.
Anywho, back to Dra Guaman. As you can tell from my last post, I really admire this woman. Today, the catholic students that accompanied me to clinic were first years and it was their first day of clinic. To introduce them to the area, the doctor took us on a tour of Atucucho. The area is muy peligroso (dangerous) but does boast some amazing views. In one of the clinics that we stopped in (the third that I have seen Dra Guaman work at this week) I learned how to do a intramuscular shot (in the booty). You divide one cheek into four quadrants and the top outermost quadrant is the one with the fewest nerves. Then you place your index finger on the hipbone and where your thumb meets the skin is the approximate location of where you should give the vaccine (this needs to be modified if you have unusually large hands, some men do). I learned from my nursing friends that in the states we inject into the thigh instead to avoid hitting a nerve, but still learning this technique was interesting.
When we finished the tour, the bus dropped me off near Plaza Foch. This is where the travel agency is located. I went and booked my Cotopaxi tour and got the details of the excursion. The trip involves meeting at 7am at the travel agency and driving 1.5 hours to the park where we will be taken to the museum and the lake. Then we get back on the bus and drive to the parking lot which is already at 4600 m above sea level (15,901ft). From there we hike up to the base camp which is at 4800m above sea level. 200 m does not seem like such a long trek but at this altitude it will be extremely difficult. It takes approximately one hour to do this. We get to take pictures and walk around at the base camp and then it will take around 15 minutes to hike back down. Once we return to the parking lot we will be given boxed lunches, which is included in the price of the trip. Then we get on our bikes and bike the rest of the way down the mountain. I opted to do this tour because I don't think I will be up for climbing up to the top after the 10k. Also, I have zero high altitude climbing experience and I am thinking this volcano is not the place to start learning. To put in perspective just how high the parking lot of Cotopaxi is, Quito is at maximum altitude slightly under 3,000m. My friends have been taking altitude sickness meds to get through daily life here in quito. So, I will be hiking at a cool 1200m HIGHER than quito, and sans meds. It is ok though, my motto is slow and steady and I am sure it will be fine.
From there I headed to Quicentro to get running gloves and socks. I picked up some Nike running gloves and was fine paying the 20something dollars for them because I will need them back in philly (November marathon=lots of cold training days and a freezing race start at 6am). I got some kiddie hiking socks for $9 for the hike/bike ride on Monday. And now I am home relaxing and drinking some gatorades to hydrate for tomorrow. They say that high altitude causes you to become dehydrated more quickly, so I am trying to compensate for this. I am also glad I brought my water band with me because there are three water stations during the race (compared to like 6 at the tufts 10k) so I will be able to have both a water bottle and my phone with me(the band has a pocket in it).
Thats all for now, I will post tomorrow night or sunday morning to let you know how the race went. Wish me luck!
Anywho, back to Dra Guaman. As you can tell from my last post, I really admire this woman. Today, the catholic students that accompanied me to clinic were first years and it was their first day of clinic. To introduce them to the area, the doctor took us on a tour of Atucucho. The area is muy peligroso (dangerous) but does boast some amazing views. In one of the clinics that we stopped in (the third that I have seen Dra Guaman work at this week) I learned how to do a intramuscular shot (in the booty). You divide one cheek into four quadrants and the top outermost quadrant is the one with the fewest nerves. Then you place your index finger on the hipbone and where your thumb meets the skin is the approximate location of where you should give the vaccine (this needs to be modified if you have unusually large hands, some men do). I learned from my nursing friends that in the states we inject into the thigh instead to avoid hitting a nerve, but still learning this technique was interesting.
When we finished the tour, the bus dropped me off near Plaza Foch. This is where the travel agency is located. I went and booked my Cotopaxi tour and got the details of the excursion. The trip involves meeting at 7am at the travel agency and driving 1.5 hours to the park where we will be taken to the museum and the lake. Then we get back on the bus and drive to the parking lot which is already at 4600 m above sea level (15,901ft). From there we hike up to the base camp which is at 4800m above sea level. 200 m does not seem like such a long trek but at this altitude it will be extremely difficult. It takes approximately one hour to do this. We get to take pictures and walk around at the base camp and then it will take around 15 minutes to hike back down. Once we return to the parking lot we will be given boxed lunches, which is included in the price of the trip. Then we get on our bikes and bike the rest of the way down the mountain. I opted to do this tour because I don't think I will be up for climbing up to the top after the 10k. Also, I have zero high altitude climbing experience and I am thinking this volcano is not the place to start learning. To put in perspective just how high the parking lot of Cotopaxi is, Quito is at maximum altitude slightly under 3,000m. My friends have been taking altitude sickness meds to get through daily life here in quito. So, I will be hiking at a cool 1200m HIGHER than quito, and sans meds. It is ok though, my motto is slow and steady and I am sure it will be fine.
From there I headed to Quicentro to get running gloves and socks. I picked up some Nike running gloves and was fine paying the 20something dollars for them because I will need them back in philly (November marathon=lots of cold training days and a freezing race start at 6am). I got some kiddie hiking socks for $9 for the hike/bike ride on Monday. And now I am home relaxing and drinking some gatorades to hydrate for tomorrow. They say that high altitude causes you to become dehydrated more quickly, so I am trying to compensate for this. I am also glad I brought my water band with me because there are three water stations during the race (compared to like 6 at the tufts 10k) so I will be able to have both a water bottle and my phone with me(the band has a pocket in it).
Thats all for now, I will post tomorrow night or sunday morning to let you know how the race went. Wish me luck!
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Super productive
I was on a mission (or several) today.
First, I had clinic from 8-12. We were back at Atucucho (a clinic that serves one of the poorest areas of Quito). I saw a little boy, who we saw on tuesday. He had a respiratory problem. His breathing was better but he has white spots on the back of his throat so the doctor needed to prescribe additional medications. There was a 19 year old who was pregnant with her second child (the first was born when she was 15). I got to count the fetal heart beats per minute and learned how the doctor measures the height (in cm) of the baby and calculates weight etc. The baby was underweight for 19 weeks so the doctor encouraged the girl to eat more, specifically every three hours. However, the girl mentioned that she only suffered morning sickness when she did not eat, so I am guessing that for financial reasons (or other reasons that I have not thought of) she does not maintain a very good diet/eat regularly. That was pretty sad, and from there it only got harder. A 15-year old came in with her mother and said she was there for a sore throat. The doctor had the mother leave the room to ask personal questions. It turned out that the girl had a hard life at home and was having other personal issues (I dont feel comfortable writing them online and I want to respect the patients privacy). I think for me what was the saddest was that the girl said she had no one to talk to about all that she was going through, so the doctor recommended psychological services.
I thought about taking tomorrow off to pick up some stuff for my hike/run (it is going to be verrry cold so i need wool socks and running gloves) but I am growing to really like Atucucho. It is really hard to see such poverty and I think it is tragic that some kids here are forced to grow up so young. But, I like that I am able to help out and I am learning a great deal. Most importantly, this really helps to put things in perspective. Yes, the premed classes are hard but at the end of the day I am going to have the ability to really help people as a doctor and this becomes very apparent at a place like Atucucho. Dr. Guaman seems to be a counselor, therapist, mother figure, doctor and has become a part of the community and I have a great deal of respect for her and the work that she does.
At 12 I headed over to Quicentro with Beth. This mall looks like the Natick collection and my friends and I often meet there for lunch. They got subway. I am sick of carbs so I went to lunch by myself to Crepes y Waffles and got a salad. Then I rejoined my friends to discuss plans for after lunch. I thought a friend was going to join me at Cotopaxi, but most have GI problems and have been feeling under the weather, so the idea of hiking to 5000 meters doesnt seem to appeal to them. But, never one to turn down a physical activity, I decided to sign up by myself.
My friends headed off to buy flashlights and bug spray for the amazon (again..not going because 1) yellow fever is a live vaccine which scares me 2) i have not taken malaria prophylaxis and 3) Ruta de las iglesias!!..not in that order) and I headed over to happy gringo travel agency. I found out that there is no trip on sunday so I decided to go on monday. I am okay with missing clinic because it is maternidad (which we all know I loooooove..not) and beth and caitlin are the students I am working with next week and they will be in the amazon until monday night. Aka we will all be skipping to pursue more adventurous activities and I will not be the only rebel.
From there I cabbed over to the TVentas center to pick up my race packet. I had to bring my passport so I used my super cool neck wallet today. I dont mind looking like a fool because three of my friends had their cell phones stolen last night and I would really rather not have to deal with losing my passport-always better safe than sorry. So I got my race shirt (arguably the best part of these events), number, chip for my shoe and storage bag for any belongings I bring to the race. Then I headed back to rositas-with my passport (those neck things really do work!).
I realized how much my spanish has improved when the cabbies not only understand my attempt at pronouncing the street addresses, but they also try to have conversation in spanish with me. Clearly I have learned something, or have just gotten good at pretending to speak spanish. Regardless, being able to tell cab drivers where I need to go is very helpful here.
Tomorrow I have clinic in the morning and then I will have to go get some things for the race. Then maybe I will hit the gym, though lately I have been so tired after clinic that it is hard to want to do anything. I also should probably start reading some articles for my thesis because I need to talk to Dave (advisor) when I get back to school. Let's hope there is enough coffee in this joint to get me through my day. Talk to you soon!
First, I had clinic from 8-12. We were back at Atucucho (a clinic that serves one of the poorest areas of Quito). I saw a little boy, who we saw on tuesday. He had a respiratory problem. His breathing was better but he has white spots on the back of his throat so the doctor needed to prescribe additional medications. There was a 19 year old who was pregnant with her second child (the first was born when she was 15). I got to count the fetal heart beats per minute and learned how the doctor measures the height (in cm) of the baby and calculates weight etc. The baby was underweight for 19 weeks so the doctor encouraged the girl to eat more, specifically every three hours. However, the girl mentioned that she only suffered morning sickness when she did not eat, so I am guessing that for financial reasons (or other reasons that I have not thought of) she does not maintain a very good diet/eat regularly. That was pretty sad, and from there it only got harder. A 15-year old came in with her mother and said she was there for a sore throat. The doctor had the mother leave the room to ask personal questions. It turned out that the girl had a hard life at home and was having other personal issues (I dont feel comfortable writing them online and I want to respect the patients privacy). I think for me what was the saddest was that the girl said she had no one to talk to about all that she was going through, so the doctor recommended psychological services.
I thought about taking tomorrow off to pick up some stuff for my hike/run (it is going to be verrry cold so i need wool socks and running gloves) but I am growing to really like Atucucho. It is really hard to see such poverty and I think it is tragic that some kids here are forced to grow up so young. But, I like that I am able to help out and I am learning a great deal. Most importantly, this really helps to put things in perspective. Yes, the premed classes are hard but at the end of the day I am going to have the ability to really help people as a doctor and this becomes very apparent at a place like Atucucho. Dr. Guaman seems to be a counselor, therapist, mother figure, doctor and has become a part of the community and I have a great deal of respect for her and the work that she does.
At 12 I headed over to Quicentro with Beth. This mall looks like the Natick collection and my friends and I often meet there for lunch. They got subway. I am sick of carbs so I went to lunch by myself to Crepes y Waffles and got a salad. Then I rejoined my friends to discuss plans for after lunch. I thought a friend was going to join me at Cotopaxi, but most have GI problems and have been feeling under the weather, so the idea of hiking to 5000 meters doesnt seem to appeal to them. But, never one to turn down a physical activity, I decided to sign up by myself.
My friends headed off to buy flashlights and bug spray for the amazon (again..not going because 1) yellow fever is a live vaccine which scares me 2) i have not taken malaria prophylaxis and 3) Ruta de las iglesias!!..not in that order) and I headed over to happy gringo travel agency. I found out that there is no trip on sunday so I decided to go on monday. I am okay with missing clinic because it is maternidad (which we all know I loooooove..not) and beth and caitlin are the students I am working with next week and they will be in the amazon until monday night. Aka we will all be skipping to pursue more adventurous activities and I will not be the only rebel.
From there I cabbed over to the TVentas center to pick up my race packet. I had to bring my passport so I used my super cool neck wallet today. I dont mind looking like a fool because three of my friends had their cell phones stolen last night and I would really rather not have to deal with losing my passport-always better safe than sorry. So I got my race shirt (arguably the best part of these events), number, chip for my shoe and storage bag for any belongings I bring to the race. Then I headed back to rositas-with my passport (those neck things really do work!).
I realized how much my spanish has improved when the cabbies not only understand my attempt at pronouncing the street addresses, but they also try to have conversation in spanish with me. Clearly I have learned something, or have just gotten good at pretending to speak spanish. Regardless, being able to tell cab drivers where I need to go is very helpful here.
Tomorrow I have clinic in the morning and then I will have to go get some things for the race. Then maybe I will hit the gym, though lately I have been so tired after clinic that it is hard to want to do anything. I also should probably start reading some articles for my thesis because I need to talk to Dave (advisor) when I get back to school. Let's hope there is enough coffee in this joint to get me through my day. Talk to you soon!
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Gooooooooooooooooal...well almost
It is pretty late so I will make this one brief.
I started in a new clinic on Tuesday. I stayed home on monday and slept because I was not feeling well and wanted to get better, plus my friend beth was home as well so we watched movies all day and slept a lot. By tuesday I was feeling great and ready to get back into the swing of things. The clinic this week is with Dra. Guaman. I have learned in the past two days that she pretty much does it all. On Tuesday i went to a clinic in Atatucho (sp?) which is the poorest neighborhood in Quito. When you picture a third world country, this is the area you would think of. Here a medical consult costs two dollars. I saw several patients who had bronchitis and pneumonia and several women who were having issues with menstruation. It was hard to understand everything because the doctor speaks zero english, so I am being given the opportunity to REALLY work on my spanish (check out the positive attitude!).
Today (Wednesday) Beth joined me in the clinic. We went to the other place where Dr. Guaman works which is a hospital, rather than a clinic. This facility is private so patients are charged $8 per visit. As a result, I noticed the doctor spends much more time with each individual and the operation seems a lot more organized. I was really pleased to find today that I can understand ALMOST everything that the doctor says. Yesterday was a bit overwhelming but I am definitely getting the hang of things. I am also learning a lot of the important medical terms that come up frequently in conversation, so that makes it easier to understand the patient interview. At today's clinic the doctor saw patients (she is a general family doctor), but she also supervised in the ER. This afforded me the opportunity to see a wide variety of cases. In the ER there was a man with a distended stomach. When the doctor palpated his abdomen he did not feel pain (when she applied pressure) but when she took her hand away he nearly vomited and cringed from the pain. I learned that this is how you diagnose appendicitis, so the man will need to be transferred to a facility where surgery can be performed. I saw a little girl (age 4) get stitches out from an appendectomy. There were several patients with headaches, so I used this opportunity to ask the doctor when a neurological exam is necessary. She explained she checks reflexes (Ex. pupil constriction when she shines a light on the eye, knee jerk etc.) and if these are normal, it is not a neurological problem. It seems, based on her recommendations to the patients, that most of the problems here are due to malnutrition (too many papas-potatoes and not enough frutas/carne/vegetables).
Tomorrow I will be back in the poorer area which I prefer to the hospital setting. Because the patients pay so little, they are more willing to allow students to examine them and I was able to do more. But, I am really enjoying working with this doctor. She is very thorough and she teaches at the Catholic medical school so she does a great job explaining what she is doing and why and she is always happy to answer preguntas (questions).
Other than clinic, not much has been going on. My friends and I went to the Quito vs Guayaquil league futbol game tonight. It was INSANE. The stadium was huge and it was packed with fans. We noticed before the game that security was pretty intense in the area There were guard dogs, a swat team and police on horseback. The spectacle made me both nervous about my safety and glad that there was such a large law enforcement presence to prevent riots. Quito's team scored first but the goal was called offsides. During the game, people launched fireworks in the stadium and threw streamers at the goalies-totally not allowed in the united states but it definitely made the game interesting. It ended 0-0 and my friends and I made it safely back to Pricilla's (host sister) car and back to the house.
After clinic tomorrow I am going to happy gringo travel agency to plan a biking trip at Cotopaxi on sunday. This is the second largest active volcano in the world. I had planned to climb to the top but due to excessive sun in the month of August, there is avalanche warnings. So mom, rest easy I will be stopping at the base camp (which is still a bit of a hike) and biking down. I also have my race on Saturday, so I have to pick up all the gear tomorrow. I am going to be alone at the house with Robinson for a bit because Noah, Beth and Caitlin are headed to the Amazon. I thought about skipping the race to go, but I choose running over spiders and snakes any day.
Thats about all for now, talk to you all soon.
Buenos Noches.
I started in a new clinic on Tuesday. I stayed home on monday and slept because I was not feeling well and wanted to get better, plus my friend beth was home as well so we watched movies all day and slept a lot. By tuesday I was feeling great and ready to get back into the swing of things. The clinic this week is with Dra. Guaman. I have learned in the past two days that she pretty much does it all. On Tuesday i went to a clinic in Atatucho (sp?) which is the poorest neighborhood in Quito. When you picture a third world country, this is the area you would think of. Here a medical consult costs two dollars. I saw several patients who had bronchitis and pneumonia and several women who were having issues with menstruation. It was hard to understand everything because the doctor speaks zero english, so I am being given the opportunity to REALLY work on my spanish (check out the positive attitude!).
Today (Wednesday) Beth joined me in the clinic. We went to the other place where Dr. Guaman works which is a hospital, rather than a clinic. This facility is private so patients are charged $8 per visit. As a result, I noticed the doctor spends much more time with each individual and the operation seems a lot more organized. I was really pleased to find today that I can understand ALMOST everything that the doctor says. Yesterday was a bit overwhelming but I am definitely getting the hang of things. I am also learning a lot of the important medical terms that come up frequently in conversation, so that makes it easier to understand the patient interview. At today's clinic the doctor saw patients (she is a general family doctor), but she also supervised in the ER. This afforded me the opportunity to see a wide variety of cases. In the ER there was a man with a distended stomach. When the doctor palpated his abdomen he did not feel pain (when she applied pressure) but when she took her hand away he nearly vomited and cringed from the pain. I learned that this is how you diagnose appendicitis, so the man will need to be transferred to a facility where surgery can be performed. I saw a little girl (age 4) get stitches out from an appendectomy. There were several patients with headaches, so I used this opportunity to ask the doctor when a neurological exam is necessary. She explained she checks reflexes (Ex. pupil constriction when she shines a light on the eye, knee jerk etc.) and if these are normal, it is not a neurological problem. It seems, based on her recommendations to the patients, that most of the problems here are due to malnutrition (too many papas-potatoes and not enough frutas/carne/vegetables).
Tomorrow I will be back in the poorer area which I prefer to the hospital setting. Because the patients pay so little, they are more willing to allow students to examine them and I was able to do more. But, I am really enjoying working with this doctor. She is very thorough and she teaches at the Catholic medical school so she does a great job explaining what she is doing and why and she is always happy to answer preguntas (questions).
Other than clinic, not much has been going on. My friends and I went to the Quito vs Guayaquil league futbol game tonight. It was INSANE. The stadium was huge and it was packed with fans. We noticed before the game that security was pretty intense in the area There were guard dogs, a swat team and police on horseback. The spectacle made me both nervous about my safety and glad that there was such a large law enforcement presence to prevent riots. Quito's team scored first but the goal was called offsides. During the game, people launched fireworks in the stadium and threw streamers at the goalies-totally not allowed in the united states but it definitely made the game interesting. It ended 0-0 and my friends and I made it safely back to Pricilla's (host sister) car and back to the house.
After clinic tomorrow I am going to happy gringo travel agency to plan a biking trip at Cotopaxi on sunday. This is the second largest active volcano in the world. I had planned to climb to the top but due to excessive sun in the month of August, there is avalanche warnings. So mom, rest easy I will be stopping at the base camp (which is still a bit of a hike) and biking down. I also have my race on Saturday, so I have to pick up all the gear tomorrow. I am going to be alone at the house with Robinson for a bit because Noah, Beth and Caitlin are headed to the Amazon. I thought about skipping the race to go, but I choose running over spiders and snakes any day.
Thats about all for now, talk to you all soon.
Buenos Noches.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Woops...almost forgot to mention Thursday's clinic
On Thursday in clinic I saw two more vaginal births. The second was really hard for the mother (she was in the individual room for around 40 minutes, pushing almost continuously). The others I have seen are in that room for around 10 minutes. So, yes it was difficult to watch and Robinson (boy in my program) admitted he started feeling a bit nauseous. I almost cried but I held it together. I was concerned for the woman and annoyed that the doctor who was instructing her to push kept leaving the room (To pop his head into the other room to see the other delivery which was progressing more rapidly). I didnt think I could handle more that day so, after the baby was born (a girl!) I asked the surgeon if I could see the nursery. So I spent the next half hour playing with babies...It made me feel a lot better about the world and I got to check out the newborn reflexes (rooting is my favorite). I am glad I know where this room is because it will make my next maternidad rotation a lot easier.
Mindo
Mindo, or cloud forest, was our final destination for the weekend.
On the drive over, I realized how befitting of a name "cloud forest" is for the area. We drove along mountains that were covered with trees. At one point, I looked out the window and found myself face to face with the clouds. So forest? check! clouds? check. I could wax poetic about how beautiful the clouds are when they seem to settle in the trees and you are so high up you can walk through them, but I will spare you.
Mindo is similar to Banos in that people visit in pursuit of more active adventures (rafting, canyoning, tubing, horseback riding etc). However, after the weekend we had in Banos, we were all more than happy to stick to land bound activities. So, the first order of business when we arrived was to find a hostel. The driver took us to a sketchy street and the building he led us to looked like a garage. I know we arent going to live in the lap of luxury and I don't mind roughing it but I am SO not ok with staying in a place that looks like a prop from a horror film. Fortunately, Hope to the rescue. I had done research on hostel.com and had a list of highly reviewed hostels. I promptly handed my list over to the driver (it had both names and addresses of the buildings) and I asked him to take us to the one on the top of my list. He asked around town and we were driven to a street right off of the main road, to a hostel that had cute rooms and a communal living space with a hammock and computer. Plus free wifi which is a hot commodity in south america. Not to toot my own horn but I was pretty proud that I saved us from a hellhole. Three cheers for hope! aaaaand moving along...
We went out to dinner at a place on the main street that looked pretty popular. This is how we assess restaurants here. No clients=no good food. Lots of locals=safe. The nine of us got dinner and everyone had great dishes. I got steamed tilapia, jess got a salad (she trusts the lettuce..I am not on her level) and other people got sandwiches of various varieties. I am only mentioning the food because when the bill arrived it came to a whopping $25. For nine people. Including drinks and tax. I thought it was amusing because sometimes in america I spend more than $30 on dinner just for me. It is at times like this that I am reminded that I am in a third world country.
After dinner we went back to the hostel and played cards for a bit. Then bedtime so we could be up for breakfast at 8 (which was included in our $13 hostel fee..again ten points for Hope!) We decided to do the zipline because, while our feet would not be firmly on the ground, I would not end up in a river or stuck under a boat and it seemed like a safe option. I began to rethink our plan when I was tethered to a rope 500 meters off the ground. I had been ziplining before in St. Lucia but these ropes were much longer and the last one, being 1500 feet off the ground, was by far the highest line I have ever done. I was nervous on the first line but after the first few I started to get the hang of it. The group had a great time and there were some amazing pictures (Including one of me on the line, with my legs around the guide so I could go superman style...I will post pix).
We headed back to Quito so we could be back for dinner time. My friend Beth has a fever and needed to get back her to get meds and go to bed. I lost my voice and have had a bit of a cough (no asthma symptoms though and yes I have been using my advair mommala..Just in case) so to be on the safe side I am going to take it easy tomorrow instead of going to clinic. I think I just need a day to rest.
Thats all for now, talk to you all soon. PS T-6 days until my 10k in Quito. I think I am used to the altitude (and have been biking for an hour almost daily at the gym) but I am going to try running this week. Lets hope I am feeling better and am ready for saturday!
On the drive over, I realized how befitting of a name "cloud forest" is for the area. We drove along mountains that were covered with trees. At one point, I looked out the window and found myself face to face with the clouds. So forest? check! clouds? check. I could wax poetic about how beautiful the clouds are when they seem to settle in the trees and you are so high up you can walk through them, but I will spare you.
Mindo is similar to Banos in that people visit in pursuit of more active adventures (rafting, canyoning, tubing, horseback riding etc). However, after the weekend we had in Banos, we were all more than happy to stick to land bound activities. So, the first order of business when we arrived was to find a hostel. The driver took us to a sketchy street and the building he led us to looked like a garage. I know we arent going to live in the lap of luxury and I don't mind roughing it but I am SO not ok with staying in a place that looks like a prop from a horror film. Fortunately, Hope to the rescue. I had done research on hostel.com and had a list of highly reviewed hostels. I promptly handed my list over to the driver (it had both names and addresses of the buildings) and I asked him to take us to the one on the top of my list. He asked around town and we were driven to a street right off of the main road, to a hostel that had cute rooms and a communal living space with a hammock and computer. Plus free wifi which is a hot commodity in south america. Not to toot my own horn but I was pretty proud that I saved us from a hellhole. Three cheers for hope! aaaaand moving along...
We went out to dinner at a place on the main street that looked pretty popular. This is how we assess restaurants here. No clients=no good food. Lots of locals=safe. The nine of us got dinner and everyone had great dishes. I got steamed tilapia, jess got a salad (she trusts the lettuce..I am not on her level) and other people got sandwiches of various varieties. I am only mentioning the food because when the bill arrived it came to a whopping $25. For nine people. Including drinks and tax. I thought it was amusing because sometimes in america I spend more than $30 on dinner just for me. It is at times like this that I am reminded that I am in a third world country.
After dinner we went back to the hostel and played cards for a bit. Then bedtime so we could be up for breakfast at 8 (which was included in our $13 hostel fee..again ten points for Hope!) We decided to do the zipline because, while our feet would not be firmly on the ground, I would not end up in a river or stuck under a boat and it seemed like a safe option. I began to rethink our plan when I was tethered to a rope 500 meters off the ground. I had been ziplining before in St. Lucia but these ropes were much longer and the last one, being 1500 feet off the ground, was by far the highest line I have ever done. I was nervous on the first line but after the first few I started to get the hang of it. The group had a great time and there were some amazing pictures (Including one of me on the line, with my legs around the guide so I could go superman style...I will post pix).
We headed back to Quito so we could be back for dinner time. My friend Beth has a fever and needed to get back her to get meds and go to bed. I lost my voice and have had a bit of a cough (no asthma symptoms though and yes I have been using my advair mommala..Just in case) so to be on the safe side I am going to take it easy tomorrow instead of going to clinic. I think I just need a day to rest.
Thats all for now, talk to you all soon. PS T-6 days until my 10k in Quito. I think I am used to the altitude (and have been biking for an hour almost daily at the gym) but I am going to try running this week. Lets hope I am feeling better and am ready for saturday!
PETA would not approve
As most of you know, I am a vegetarian. When I don't have access to tofu/beans/seitan (aka here in south america) I eat fish for protein and can explain to you the logic behind this if you ever want to talk about it. I say this because several animals were harmed this weekend and it makes me feel better to know that in real life I try to be good to little creatures. So without further ado...
Otavalo:
The first place on our itinerary was Otavalo. This small town is known for its massive Saturday market where natives sell their wares which range froml picture frames and jewelry to large hand woven hammocks and blankets and anywhere in between. Several of my friends and I decided to go on friday morning to clinic in Otavalo, rather than Quito. There is a facility which provides alternative medical services (ex. Shaman) and when we pulled up to Jambi Huasi clinic I will admit I had no idea what to expect. Guests/observers pay $10 to enter the building which allows the indigenous people to receive medical care for little or no cost-so this was a good donation in my book. We were led upstairs by the director of the facility and shown a movie about the various procedures performed at the clinic. There were different doctors to work with the different indigenous tribes and each tribe had different rituals and medical practices. One of my least favorite practices from the film involved a guinea pig...but I will get to that later. After the film we went downstairs and were led into an examination room. I was the brave volunteer for the first demonstration (I checked the room and did not see any guinea pigs so I figure I was in the clear). Then an elderly woman who was dressed in traditional garb (long skirt, white blouse, gold beaded necklace) entered. She explained (in spanish) that I would have my spirit cleansed and she would then diagnose me. Sure why not? She took two eggs and rubbed them all over my body and head. I assumed, given the amount of force that was applied, that they were hard boiled. After about five minutes she cracked the eggs in a bowl-wrong on the hard boiled assumption. She read the eggs and told me that I was dehydrated, then confirmed her diagnosis by looking at my dry lips. I was given a prescription for an aloe-like plant and told to drink lemonade and jugo from the tomate de arbol (tree tomatoes..a fruit that grows in ecuador). Seemed pretty do-able to me.
So, with my spirit cleansed I headed on to the next demonstration, I told my friend denise she could take this one and boy am I glad I did. My friends were all pretty freaked out before the next ritual (we had anticipated the guinea pig) but I gave a pep talk before we went in to the room. It went something like this (and I am repeating it so you can be in the right state of mind before reading this next portion). This is not our culture and is not part of western medicine, but it is important to be respectful of other cultures and we can view this as a learning experience and it will certainly be interesting from a sociology viewpoint.
The next doctor/woman, who looked like she was around 90 years old, entered the room with a red sac. And in that sac was the largest guinea pig i have ever seen. Denise stood in front of the group and the woman shook the guinea pig all over her. First she used two hands to hold the guinea pig, then she took it by the neck and flung it around (eventually snapping its neck). After this portion the dead guinea pig is skinned and its insides are examined (animal sacrifice number 1 of the weekend). The woman dug through the innards and mentioned various diagnoses. For example she took out the animal's gall bladder, showed it to the group and then popped it, explaining she had just cured denise of gall stones. Then she took out the intestines and popped them (picture bubble wrap..makes the same sound. blech) and explained that she was curing any gi problems that denise may be having. When the demonstration was over, it was time to leave for lunch. I went off with a cleansed spirit and a shopping list, denise left covered in guinea pig hair and the rest of the group left feeling slightly nauseous.
The bus driver took us on a scenic drive and we ended up in Cotacachi for lunch. This town is home to a large volcano (of the same name). At the base of the volcano is Cuicocha lake, where one can view thermal hotsprings. We got lunch in the natural park and took a boat tour of the lake/islands. When we rounded one of the islands there were dozens of sea chickens (black birds with white beaks...apparently after going to the galapagos I now feel inclined to learn all about birds. hopefully this will be a short phase). I was reminded of the geese scene in the notebook (sigh..love that movie!) Then, after lunch, we were presented with two options. 1: hike 3km to a waterfall or 2: shop for leather in Cotacachi. Normally I am all about the nature but I spent last weekend hanging to the face of five rather large waterfalls so I am pretty over that scene. Most of the group went on the hike and Jess, Beth and I headed to the shops. Everything here is hand made and reasonably priced so it was hard to refrain from purchasing entire stores (dont worry dad..I didnt spend millions). Beth bought a clutch and a gift for a friend, jess bought credit card holders for friends (she pointed out that they are practical because they fit in white coats, and as a surgeon shes going to be living in one). Jess also tried on like 50 leather jackets. Then we went into a store and I saw the one I have been looking for in the states...middle zipper, stretchy material on the bottom, hooded. I was thrilled and when I tried on the brown it looked super flattering. Jess tried on the black version of my dream jacket and compared it to a wedding dress saying "this is the one!" So we both got the same jacket, in different colors of course. What can I say, I have good taste :P (Also, leather jackets=animal sacrifices 2-?, but I dont eat cow so Im going to say this one is ok). Then we headed back to our hostel in Otavalo to go to bed early so we could be up early for the market.
At 7 our group met for breakfast. By 8 we were in the bustling streets of Otavalo. I took dozens of pictures of the market because words could not do it justice. There are hundreds of stalls where native sell their goods. My friends and I spent 6 hours wandering the streets, trying on sweaters and examining hand woven blankets. I bought Lauren (Reifsnyder) a birthday present and got myself an Ecuador soccer shirt (I will be rooting for them in the world cup in Brazil). I was tempted to get blankets or scarfs but i was running short on cash because of my jacket purchase and I figured I would not use most of the items regularly so they would not be worth it in the long run (see leens you have taught me well!). I also bought a coconut from a street vendor. The man had giant coconuts in a basket and used a machete to slice them so we could drink the milk. It was really refreshing, and safe because I watched him open it. Then at two, tired and a bit more tan than when we got there, the troops headed back to the bus for our next adventure: Mindo.
Otavalo:
The first place on our itinerary was Otavalo. This small town is known for its massive Saturday market where natives sell their wares which range froml picture frames and jewelry to large hand woven hammocks and blankets and anywhere in between. Several of my friends and I decided to go on friday morning to clinic in Otavalo, rather than Quito. There is a facility which provides alternative medical services (ex. Shaman) and when we pulled up to Jambi Huasi clinic I will admit I had no idea what to expect. Guests/observers pay $10 to enter the building which allows the indigenous people to receive medical care for little or no cost-so this was a good donation in my book. We were led upstairs by the director of the facility and shown a movie about the various procedures performed at the clinic. There were different doctors to work with the different indigenous tribes and each tribe had different rituals and medical practices. One of my least favorite practices from the film involved a guinea pig...but I will get to that later. After the film we went downstairs and were led into an examination room. I was the brave volunteer for the first demonstration (I checked the room and did not see any guinea pigs so I figure I was in the clear). Then an elderly woman who was dressed in traditional garb (long skirt, white blouse, gold beaded necklace) entered. She explained (in spanish) that I would have my spirit cleansed and she would then diagnose me. Sure why not? She took two eggs and rubbed them all over my body and head. I assumed, given the amount of force that was applied, that they were hard boiled. After about five minutes she cracked the eggs in a bowl-wrong on the hard boiled assumption. She read the eggs and told me that I was dehydrated, then confirmed her diagnosis by looking at my dry lips. I was given a prescription for an aloe-like plant and told to drink lemonade and jugo from the tomate de arbol (tree tomatoes..a fruit that grows in ecuador). Seemed pretty do-able to me.
So, with my spirit cleansed I headed on to the next demonstration, I told my friend denise she could take this one and boy am I glad I did. My friends were all pretty freaked out before the next ritual (we had anticipated the guinea pig) but I gave a pep talk before we went in to the room. It went something like this (and I am repeating it so you can be in the right state of mind before reading this next portion). This is not our culture and is not part of western medicine, but it is important to be respectful of other cultures and we can view this as a learning experience and it will certainly be interesting from a sociology viewpoint.
The next doctor/woman, who looked like she was around 90 years old, entered the room with a red sac. And in that sac was the largest guinea pig i have ever seen. Denise stood in front of the group and the woman shook the guinea pig all over her. First she used two hands to hold the guinea pig, then she took it by the neck and flung it around (eventually snapping its neck). After this portion the dead guinea pig is skinned and its insides are examined (animal sacrifice number 1 of the weekend). The woman dug through the innards and mentioned various diagnoses. For example she took out the animal's gall bladder, showed it to the group and then popped it, explaining she had just cured denise of gall stones. Then she took out the intestines and popped them (picture bubble wrap..makes the same sound. blech) and explained that she was curing any gi problems that denise may be having. When the demonstration was over, it was time to leave for lunch. I went off with a cleansed spirit and a shopping list, denise left covered in guinea pig hair and the rest of the group left feeling slightly nauseous.
The bus driver took us on a scenic drive and we ended up in Cotacachi for lunch. This town is home to a large volcano (of the same name). At the base of the volcano is Cuicocha lake, where one can view thermal hotsprings. We got lunch in the natural park and took a boat tour of the lake/islands. When we rounded one of the islands there were dozens of sea chickens (black birds with white beaks...apparently after going to the galapagos I now feel inclined to learn all about birds. hopefully this will be a short phase). I was reminded of the geese scene in the notebook (sigh..love that movie!) Then, after lunch, we were presented with two options. 1: hike 3km to a waterfall or 2: shop for leather in Cotacachi. Normally I am all about the nature but I spent last weekend hanging to the face of five rather large waterfalls so I am pretty over that scene. Most of the group went on the hike and Jess, Beth and I headed to the shops. Everything here is hand made and reasonably priced so it was hard to refrain from purchasing entire stores (dont worry dad..I didnt spend millions). Beth bought a clutch and a gift for a friend, jess bought credit card holders for friends (she pointed out that they are practical because they fit in white coats, and as a surgeon shes going to be living in one). Jess also tried on like 50 leather jackets. Then we went into a store and I saw the one I have been looking for in the states...middle zipper, stretchy material on the bottom, hooded. I was thrilled and when I tried on the brown it looked super flattering. Jess tried on the black version of my dream jacket and compared it to a wedding dress saying "this is the one!" So we both got the same jacket, in different colors of course. What can I say, I have good taste :P (Also, leather jackets=animal sacrifices 2-?, but I dont eat cow so Im going to say this one is ok). Then we headed back to our hostel in Otavalo to go to bed early so we could be up early for the market.
At 7 our group met for breakfast. By 8 we were in the bustling streets of Otavalo. I took dozens of pictures of the market because words could not do it justice. There are hundreds of stalls where native sell their goods. My friends and I spent 6 hours wandering the streets, trying on sweaters and examining hand woven blankets. I bought Lauren (Reifsnyder) a birthday present and got myself an Ecuador soccer shirt (I will be rooting for them in the world cup in Brazil). I was tempted to get blankets or scarfs but i was running short on cash because of my jacket purchase and I figured I would not use most of the items regularly so they would not be worth it in the long run (see leens you have taught me well!). I also bought a coconut from a street vendor. The man had giant coconuts in a basket and used a machete to slice them so we could drink the milk. It was really refreshing, and safe because I watched him open it. Then at two, tired and a bit more tan than when we got there, the troops headed back to the bus for our next adventure: Mindo.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
more babies!
Seriously, it is like an epidemic here. Today the room where the women were in advanced stages of labor was divided into several group. The first third was women who were having cesarian sections. The second were normal birth and the third were women who had preeclampsia. I watched examinations for a bit and then one of the residents taught me Leopold's four maneuvers which are used to figure out the orientation of the baby. I felt awkward touching a pregnant woman's abdomen but I got over it pretty quickly. I also asked the doctor if I could watch a cesarian section (since I saw two natural births yesterday). At 2:30 one of the women who had preeclampsia was sent to surgery and the doctor let me come along. I had to change my scrubs and go up to the surgical floor where I was instructed to watch the anesthesiologist administer a spinal block (i think?..large needle in the spine but the patient remained awake. mom feel free to correct me). I was surprised that the patient was awake for the duration of the procedure. I was told these procedures usually take 30 minutes but the patient was rather large (lots of cutting required) so it took nearly two hours. I stood by the woman's feet and had an unobscured view of the entire surgery. It was not as precise as I had anticipated..there was a lot of random cauterizing and, at one point, it looked like the surgeon and the nurse were playing tug of war with the incision in order to widen it. Also at one point I think the surgeon hit something that maybe he wasn't supposed to and a fountain of fluid spurted out of the abdominal cavity. It was quickly suctioned but I was a bit frightened by the scene. Then all of a sudden I saw a baby head and the doctor tugged a bit and voila-the largest baby I have ever seen. This newborn looked like it was two months old and was more than twice the size of the babies I saw yesterday. I then stayed and watched the surgeon close (he let a resident do the last two layers of sutures) and then it was time to go.
I really like surgery and I think it is amazing that someone can live after being ripped open and sewn up. I dont like obgyn at all. Birth freaks me out, especially here. Theres a lot of screaming and ripping and c-sections don't look like a walk in the park either. This is definitely not the medical field for me. I have never missed CHOPs neuro clinic so much.
I really like surgery and I think it is amazing that someone can live after being ripped open and sewn up. I dont like obgyn at all. Birth freaks me out, especially here. Theres a lot of screaming and ripping and c-sections don't look like a walk in the park either. This is definitely not the medical field for me. I have never missed CHOPs neuro clinic so much.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Doctor Stuff
For those of you who don't like medical terms and find procedures gross this is not the blog post for you. consider yourself warned.
Hi Family and friends,
Today was my first day in clinic (Because yesterday didn't work out the way that it was supposed to). I went to my last spanish class this morning and then at 12:30 headed over to the maternidad hospital. This is a public hospital that provides ob and gyn services. I was a bit nervous because my friend from the program passed out yesterday while watching the exams (not even births) so I made sure I had a big lunch and was hydrated...and then did some praying that I could keep it together.
I went up to the second floor and changed into green scrubs, a cap and was given a face mask and booties. I noticed that there were women on gurneys lining the hallways. There must have been at least thirty women in various stages of labor all crowded into a single hospital wing. I was first shocked by the sheer number of patients. When I looked around I also noticed that the oldest patient was no older than 25. I was introduced to Dr. Medina, the doctor who I will be shadowing this week. He told me that he had been delivering babies for almost 30 years so I knew I would learn a lot. He led me into a room where there were eight women who were further along in their labor. The room was kept at over 75 degrees and the doctor warned me that people tend to faint so if I needed to sit down I should do so. I watched as he went from bed to bed and checked to see how dialated the women's cervix was and then checked the heartbeat of the mother ant the baby. The process of checking the cervix was more barbaric that I ever would have imagined and I did start to feel a bit light headed. I decided to distract myself by talking with some of the residents and interns-all of whom were very nice and more than willing to answer my questions. I grabbed some water and then returned to the room feeling much better. Just in time to watch a doctor burst a patients water. Holy bajesus they do not prepare you for that in health class. The woman's labor progressed rapidly and when the baby's head was visible they took her to an individual room where I was able to watch the birth. It was a boy. I went back to the larger room and eventually watched a second birth-felicitations a second boy, The first mother was 18 or 19 and the second was 23. Both women were so small that some cutting was required to allow the baby to pass through the opening. I couldn't believe a woman's body can endure so much. I actually use the term woman loosely here because while 18+ is a woman, I saw a 13 year old in labor today. That was pretty hard for me. I couldnt help but to think about what my life was like at 13. My biggest problem was worrying about memorizing my torah and haftorah portions for my bat mitzvah and here is this girl who is about to be a mother. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in ecuador. There is a lack of sex education in schools and the use of contraceptives is uncommon.
Some other things I noticed:
1. No men in the delivery room (or even on the hospital floor..they wait outside and women give birth alone).
2. No anesthesia. I found out this is because anesthesiologists are few and far between in ecuador (sometimes 2 for more than 40 patients) and also at these public hospitals they try to speed up the delivery process (for example by rupturing the water) and epidurals can extend the duration of a birth.
Things that I learned today:
1. You must be 10 centimeters to push. Doctors use their index and middle finger to measure
2. Women give birth twice. once to the baby and once to the placenta
3. Doctors check the placenta. It should not bleed when it is wiped off. If it bleeds it means that it has not fully detatched from the uterus and the woman is internally bleeding. I was also shown what it looks like when the placenta bleeds (the doctor stabbed it to demonstrate)
It is likely that tomorrow I will get to watch a cesarian section- I opted to watch natural births today so I could get used to the normal thing before I start seeing the different procedures. Let's hope my stomach is ready for round two.
Also- my friends have gotten to do cool things in their clinics. Noah and Beth are in surgery in the military hospital and today they got to scrub in on a spinal surgery (beth got to cut sutures and Noah got to dab blood with cotton) and a surgery to clean an infected hip surgery. They said the latter was really gross with lots of fluids and very little finesse. Oh well, orthopedics does have that reputation.
All in all it was a great day with a lot of learning and a lot of firsts. AND at the dinner table people were talking about how difficult spanish is and Rosita said "well hope is progressing very well and seems to be learning a lot". It was a really nice complement and I was appreciative that she has noticed the hard work I have been putting in to speak in spanish as often as possible.
hasta luego,
Hope (aka Esperanza...the doctors love calling me that)
Hi Family and friends,
Today was my first day in clinic (Because yesterday didn't work out the way that it was supposed to). I went to my last spanish class this morning and then at 12:30 headed over to the maternidad hospital. This is a public hospital that provides ob and gyn services. I was a bit nervous because my friend from the program passed out yesterday while watching the exams (not even births) so I made sure I had a big lunch and was hydrated...and then did some praying that I could keep it together.
I went up to the second floor and changed into green scrubs, a cap and was given a face mask and booties. I noticed that there were women on gurneys lining the hallways. There must have been at least thirty women in various stages of labor all crowded into a single hospital wing. I was first shocked by the sheer number of patients. When I looked around I also noticed that the oldest patient was no older than 25. I was introduced to Dr. Medina, the doctor who I will be shadowing this week. He told me that he had been delivering babies for almost 30 years so I knew I would learn a lot. He led me into a room where there were eight women who were further along in their labor. The room was kept at over 75 degrees and the doctor warned me that people tend to faint so if I needed to sit down I should do so. I watched as he went from bed to bed and checked to see how dialated the women's cervix was and then checked the heartbeat of the mother ant the baby. The process of checking the cervix was more barbaric that I ever would have imagined and I did start to feel a bit light headed. I decided to distract myself by talking with some of the residents and interns-all of whom were very nice and more than willing to answer my questions. I grabbed some water and then returned to the room feeling much better. Just in time to watch a doctor burst a patients water. Holy bajesus they do not prepare you for that in health class. The woman's labor progressed rapidly and when the baby's head was visible they took her to an individual room where I was able to watch the birth. It was a boy. I went back to the larger room and eventually watched a second birth-felicitations a second boy, The first mother was 18 or 19 and the second was 23. Both women were so small that some cutting was required to allow the baby to pass through the opening. I couldn't believe a woman's body can endure so much. I actually use the term woman loosely here because while 18+ is a woman, I saw a 13 year old in labor today. That was pretty hard for me. I couldnt help but to think about what my life was like at 13. My biggest problem was worrying about memorizing my torah and haftorah portions for my bat mitzvah and here is this girl who is about to be a mother. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in ecuador. There is a lack of sex education in schools and the use of contraceptives is uncommon.
Some other things I noticed:
1. No men in the delivery room (or even on the hospital floor..they wait outside and women give birth alone).
2. No anesthesia. I found out this is because anesthesiologists are few and far between in ecuador (sometimes 2 for more than 40 patients) and also at these public hospitals they try to speed up the delivery process (for example by rupturing the water) and epidurals can extend the duration of a birth.
Things that I learned today:
1. You must be 10 centimeters to push. Doctors use their index and middle finger to measure
2. Women give birth twice. once to the baby and once to the placenta
3. Doctors check the placenta. It should not bleed when it is wiped off. If it bleeds it means that it has not fully detatched from the uterus and the woman is internally bleeding. I was also shown what it looks like when the placenta bleeds (the doctor stabbed it to demonstrate)
It is likely that tomorrow I will get to watch a cesarian section- I opted to watch natural births today so I could get used to the normal thing before I start seeing the different procedures. Let's hope my stomach is ready for round two.
Also- my friends have gotten to do cool things in their clinics. Noah and Beth are in surgery in the military hospital and today they got to scrub in on a spinal surgery (beth got to cut sutures and Noah got to dab blood with cotton) and a surgery to clean an infected hip surgery. They said the latter was really gross with lots of fluids and very little finesse. Oh well, orthopedics does have that reputation.
All in all it was a great day with a lot of learning and a lot of firsts. AND at the dinner table people were talking about how difficult spanish is and Rosita said "well hope is progressing very well and seems to be learning a lot". It was a really nice complement and I was appreciative that she has noticed the hard work I have been putting in to speak in spanish as often as possible.
hasta luego,
Hope (aka Esperanza...the doctors love calling me that)
Monday, 15 August 2011
The ups and downs of international travel
Mon 8/15
So overall I have been thoroughly enjoying my time here. I really like the other students in my program and we have been having a good time exploring Quito and the surrounding areas. I love salsa dancing and the music that is popular in this area. I have also enjoyed spanish school and have become good friends with one of the teachers.
With that being said, I must admit that things can be quite difficult here. For example, today was supposed to be my first day in the clinic. Fortunately, Robinson (another student who has already spent 6 weeks here) was in the same pediatrics rotation as I am. So, we got to the area where we thought our hospital was located. We went and asked for directions from the maternity hospital (peds is supposed to be close to this) but no one had heard of the doctor we were supposed to be shadowing and no one was able to tell us where we needed to go. Robinson decided to hike around to find it, but the hospital is on a large hill in the middle of the city so I opted to call the coordinator rather than wandering aimlessly. She helped me to find the location of the pediatric clinic (all en espanol by the way) but when we got there the receptionist hadn't heard of the doctor who we were shadowing. Apparently, everyone in the medical field in ecuador is currently on vacation so most of us are assigned to replacements. So, Robinson and I called the coordinator who spoke with someone who work at the clinic. We waited around for two hours and then called our coordinator and asked to switch clinics for the remainder of the week (so we wont have to deal with this through friday). She put us in the delivery ward for tomorrow afternoon which is great. But, it also means I have to ask rosita to provide spanish classes in the morning rather than the afternoon and hope that I find a more organized arrangement tomorrow.
I am glad I came here and for the most part it has been great but there are times (aka today) that the language barrier is overwhelming and the program does not seem as well organized as I had once believed it to be.
Oh well, lets hope that tomorrow goes better. And on the bright side I get to go to the gym before class :)
So overall I have been thoroughly enjoying my time here. I really like the other students in my program and we have been having a good time exploring Quito and the surrounding areas. I love salsa dancing and the music that is popular in this area. I have also enjoyed spanish school and have become good friends with one of the teachers.
With that being said, I must admit that things can be quite difficult here. For example, today was supposed to be my first day in the clinic. Fortunately, Robinson (another student who has already spent 6 weeks here) was in the same pediatrics rotation as I am. So, we got to the area where we thought our hospital was located. We went and asked for directions from the maternity hospital (peds is supposed to be close to this) but no one had heard of the doctor we were supposed to be shadowing and no one was able to tell us where we needed to go. Robinson decided to hike around to find it, but the hospital is on a large hill in the middle of the city so I opted to call the coordinator rather than wandering aimlessly. She helped me to find the location of the pediatric clinic (all en espanol by the way) but when we got there the receptionist hadn't heard of the doctor who we were shadowing. Apparently, everyone in the medical field in ecuador is currently on vacation so most of us are assigned to replacements. So, Robinson and I called the coordinator who spoke with someone who work at the clinic. We waited around for two hours and then called our coordinator and asked to switch clinics for the remainder of the week (so we wont have to deal with this through friday). She put us in the delivery ward for tomorrow afternoon which is great. But, it also means I have to ask rosita to provide spanish classes in the morning rather than the afternoon and hope that I find a more organized arrangement tomorrow.
I am glad I came here and for the most part it has been great but there are times (aka today) that the language barrier is overwhelming and the program does not seem as well organized as I had once believed it to be.
Oh well, lets hope that tomorrow goes better. And on the bright side I get to go to the gym before class :)
The day all hope was almost lost
The title of this post serves two purposes. 1. foreshadowing and 2. I felt like using my name as a play on words because everyone I meet tends to do this (so creative people...)
This weekend the other students on the program and I ( 12 in total) traveled to Banos. Banos is known for its therapeutic hot springs and is a place where people go to hike, raft, and try other active pursuits (canyoning, bungee jumping etc.)
We stayed at a “hostel” that is run by a friend of my host mother’s (Rosita). It was actually a very nice compound with several cabins. Five of my closest friends and I were in a single cabin that had a kitchen and living room, so that was a lot of fun. We arrived on the first day after seven so the family prepared a small dinner for us and then drove us into the center of banos to do some grocery shopping and check out the town. We were all so tired from the trip that we opted to sleep rather than go out to las discotecas.
The travel agent (associated with the hostel) arrived at 7am to present us with our options for the day. He only spoke in Spanish but I was able to pick up on several words here and there to piece together what was being explained. Option 1: 9am tour, 2pm canyoning and day 2 rafting. Option 2: sleep in and go on a tour at 12. My friends and I opted for option 1.
The six of us (me, Jess, Caitlin, Beth, Noah and Brian) hopped onto the tour bus at 8 and were greeted by the sounds of popular reggaeton songs. Not the most soothing thing in the morning but it definitely got us moving. The first stop on the tour was at a gondola that travels across a ravine. The gondola is basically a cage suspended by a string and the ground is several hundred feet below. It was a bit scary but we got some great pictures. Other highlights of the tour included waterfalls, a hike and lots of beautiful mountainous landscapes. When the tour was over we were dropped off in the center of the town where we grabbed a quick lunch (sarcasm...it took two hours. It seems that South Americans work according to their own schedules). But the food was great and we were close to the canyoning meeting place so that was convenient.
At two we set off for the waterfalls. There was a 30 minute drive followed by a 20 minute hike up to the starting point. The trip involved climbing down the face of five waterfalls that ranged from 20m to >30 m. For those of you who have never seen or heard of canyoning it is sort of like belaying down a rock wall but instead of someone else holding your safety line and lowering you to the ground, you use both hands to control the speed of your own descent. The technique is also a bit different because the wall is slippery, uneaven and you are occasionally getting blasted by a waterfall. So basically you spread your legs, try to lower your booty as much as possible and attempt to form a right angle. It was pretty physically demanding and we were freezing by the time we got to the bottom but overall it was a fun and exhilarating experience. After we got back to the center of town, we found that the tour bus that was supposed to drive us back to our hostel was nowhere to be found. So, we grabbed dinner and decided to find the banos (for which the town is name). We found one that was open at 9pm and went in only to find that all of Ecuador had the same plan. The pools were packed and there is something that just seems unsanitary to me about standing shoulder to shoulder in a hot tub with one hundred, rather large, mimally clothed South Americans. So Caitlin, Noah and Brian braved the banos while Beth, Jess and I opted to cab back to the hostel and shower instead. We were all pretty tired after all the hiking and canyoning so we were asleep by 10.
At 8 the next day we were awoken for breakfast and the rafting tour. We drove even further out of banos (45 minutes) and when we arrived at the starting point we divided into two boats (six students in each). I stuck with the four people I live with plus Brian (basically our adopted brother at this point). We were instructed on where to put our feet in the raft and the different directions we would be given-forward, backward, inside and stop. Once we felt comfortable with the procedures we headed off into the river. I knew it would be pretty rough because it was advertised as class 3 and 4 out of 5 but I was not prepared for what we encountered. The guide of our boat was 22 years old and seemed more concerned with chatting with his friends on the other boats than paying attention to the river. After the first set of rapids he had us paddle backwards so that the boat would lift to nearly 180 degrees. My friend Noah said that his guide had done the same thing on the Colorado river in the US so I figured it was the guides way of having fun. But things only got worse from there. The guide was not paying attention and while the other two boats went left we headed toward the center of the river where two streams formed a Y shape. One river (the one on the right) was moving faster, so when our boat hit the intersection the raft was flipped. Because of the difference in pace of the two streams there was an undertow that pulled all of us to the bottom of the river the minute we fell out of the boat. I was underwater for more than 20 seconds. When I tried to come to the surface the first time my head hit the bottom of the boat. I couldn’t figure out why there was no air pocket because I had previously (at Camp Pembroke) been instructed to go under the boat for air if it is flipped. When I finally managed to slide out from under the boat I saw that the guide was standing on it to see if my group had successfully surfaced. I called over to see if everyone was ok and was told that everyone else was accounted for. This was not the case. About ten seconds later Jess popped up behind me and sometime later, Beth popped up fifteen feet from the boat. Everyone was visibly distressed and we were still in a rapid area of the river so we put our feet facing down river and moved with the current (feet downriver so if there are rocks you can push off of them and avoid hitting them with a more sensitive part of your body). The guide turned the boat right side up and proceeded to pull us all back into the raft. I felt pretty sick from ingesting so much water but we had to continue down the river. We eventually made it to the end of the trail and when I got off of the raft I threw up some of the water I had swallowed. I think that had it not been for the near-drowning incident we would have all enjoyed the rafting experience but the guide’s negligence coupled with the level of difficulty of the river made it more frightening than enjoyable. Regardless, everyone is ok and I have learned to be more cautious when choosing my activities here.
After rafting we got lunch and got on the bus back to Quito. There was traffic so we didn’t get back until 8:30pm but Rosita was nice enough to leave us some veggies and pasta for dinner. I went to bed shortly thereafter because clinic started today. Which brings me to my next post…..
This weekend the other students on the program and I ( 12 in total) traveled to Banos. Banos is known for its therapeutic hot springs and is a place where people go to hike, raft, and try other active pursuits (canyoning, bungee jumping etc.)
We stayed at a “hostel” that is run by a friend of my host mother’s (Rosita). It was actually a very nice compound with several cabins. Five of my closest friends and I were in a single cabin that had a kitchen and living room, so that was a lot of fun. We arrived on the first day after seven so the family prepared a small dinner for us and then drove us into the center of banos to do some grocery shopping and check out the town. We were all so tired from the trip that we opted to sleep rather than go out to las discotecas.
The travel agent (associated with the hostel) arrived at 7am to present us with our options for the day. He only spoke in Spanish but I was able to pick up on several words here and there to piece together what was being explained. Option 1: 9am tour, 2pm canyoning and day 2 rafting. Option 2: sleep in and go on a tour at 12. My friends and I opted for option 1.
The six of us (me, Jess, Caitlin, Beth, Noah and Brian) hopped onto the tour bus at 8 and were greeted by the sounds of popular reggaeton songs. Not the most soothing thing in the morning but it definitely got us moving. The first stop on the tour was at a gondola that travels across a ravine. The gondola is basically a cage suspended by a string and the ground is several hundred feet below. It was a bit scary but we got some great pictures. Other highlights of the tour included waterfalls, a hike and lots of beautiful mountainous landscapes. When the tour was over we were dropped off in the center of the town where we grabbed a quick lunch (sarcasm...it took two hours. It seems that South Americans work according to their own schedules). But the food was great and we were close to the canyoning meeting place so that was convenient.
At two we set off for the waterfalls. There was a 30 minute drive followed by a 20 minute hike up to the starting point. The trip involved climbing down the face of five waterfalls that ranged from 20m to >30 m. For those of you who have never seen or heard of canyoning it is sort of like belaying down a rock wall but instead of someone else holding your safety line and lowering you to the ground, you use both hands to control the speed of your own descent. The technique is also a bit different because the wall is slippery, uneaven and you are occasionally getting blasted by a waterfall. So basically you spread your legs, try to lower your booty as much as possible and attempt to form a right angle. It was pretty physically demanding and we were freezing by the time we got to the bottom but overall it was a fun and exhilarating experience. After we got back to the center of town, we found that the tour bus that was supposed to drive us back to our hostel was nowhere to be found. So, we grabbed dinner and decided to find the banos (for which the town is name). We found one that was open at 9pm and went in only to find that all of Ecuador had the same plan. The pools were packed and there is something that just seems unsanitary to me about standing shoulder to shoulder in a hot tub with one hundred, rather large, mimally clothed South Americans. So Caitlin, Noah and Brian braved the banos while Beth, Jess and I opted to cab back to the hostel and shower instead. We were all pretty tired after all the hiking and canyoning so we were asleep by 10.
At 8 the next day we were awoken for breakfast and the rafting tour. We drove even further out of banos (45 minutes) and when we arrived at the starting point we divided into two boats (six students in each). I stuck with the four people I live with plus Brian (basically our adopted brother at this point). We were instructed on where to put our feet in the raft and the different directions we would be given-forward, backward, inside and stop. Once we felt comfortable with the procedures we headed off into the river. I knew it would be pretty rough because it was advertised as class 3 and 4 out of 5 but I was not prepared for what we encountered. The guide of our boat was 22 years old and seemed more concerned with chatting with his friends on the other boats than paying attention to the river. After the first set of rapids he had us paddle backwards so that the boat would lift to nearly 180 degrees. My friend Noah said that his guide had done the same thing on the Colorado river in the US so I figured it was the guides way of having fun. But things only got worse from there. The guide was not paying attention and while the other two boats went left we headed toward the center of the river where two streams formed a Y shape. One river (the one on the right) was moving faster, so when our boat hit the intersection the raft was flipped. Because of the difference in pace of the two streams there was an undertow that pulled all of us to the bottom of the river the minute we fell out of the boat. I was underwater for more than 20 seconds. When I tried to come to the surface the first time my head hit the bottom of the boat. I couldn’t figure out why there was no air pocket because I had previously (at Camp Pembroke) been instructed to go under the boat for air if it is flipped. When I finally managed to slide out from under the boat I saw that the guide was standing on it to see if my group had successfully surfaced. I called over to see if everyone was ok and was told that everyone else was accounted for. This was not the case. About ten seconds later Jess popped up behind me and sometime later, Beth popped up fifteen feet from the boat. Everyone was visibly distressed and we were still in a rapid area of the river so we put our feet facing down river and moved with the current (feet downriver so if there are rocks you can push off of them and avoid hitting them with a more sensitive part of your body). The guide turned the boat right side up and proceeded to pull us all back into the raft. I felt pretty sick from ingesting so much water but we had to continue down the river. We eventually made it to the end of the trail and when I got off of the raft I threw up some of the water I had swallowed. I think that had it not been for the near-drowning incident we would have all enjoyed the rafting experience but the guide’s negligence coupled with the level of difficulty of the river made it more frightening than enjoyable. Regardless, everyone is ok and I have learned to be more cautious when choosing my activities here.
After rafting we got lunch and got on the bus back to Quito. There was traffic so we didn’t get back until 8:30pm but Rosita was nice enough to leave us some veggies and pasta for dinner. I went to bed shortly thereafter because clinic started today. Which brings me to my next post…..
Friday, 12 August 2011
Hasta lunes
Last night we were out until 12:30 trying to work on our salsa skills. People here are really talented and my friends and I are only beginning but I am confident we will be qualified to be in the new dirty dancing by the time we leave. In fact, we asked rosita to arrange for us to go to 2 classes per week and her response was that we would be better at salsa than speaking spanish when we leave. I can live with that.
Im off to Banos for the weekend so mom- don't worry when you don't hear from me. I will call sunday night or monday (depending on when I get back).
Im off to Banos for the weekend so mom- don't worry when you don't hear from me. I will call sunday night or monday (depending on when I get back).
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Quito facts and figures
I wanted to address some questions that I have been getting from people regarding the city of Quito. First and foremost, I have internet in my home so clearly I am not living in a hut in the middle of the amazon. In fact, I live in a very nice gated community in new town (one of the nicest areas of the city). Yes, quito does have its problems. According to Wikipedia (no this is not a formal paper so I am choosing to accept this site as fact) between 35 and 45% of the population is living below the poverty line with 12.8% living on less than $2 per day. It is apparent that wealth distribution is uneaven in this community. I live in an area with malls that look like those in the United States and the city is home to many beautiful churches and some impressive hospital facilities. However, if you walk a few blocks in any direction you see rundown buildings and people selling fruit on the street. My housemate bought 20 bananas for $1 and riding public transportation costs .25.
A second problem in this country is teen pregnancy. if you are a woman under the age of 18 there is a 30% chance that you have a child. One in four women in this country is pregnant. It seems that the failing economy coupled with the rapidly increasing population is seriously damaging the quality of life of people in this country.
This is what I have learned so far here about the state of things in Ecuador. Hopefully when I am done with spanish classes I will have more time to travel around the city a bit and learn more.
Also: took salsa classes last night with eight of my friends. It was an hour of some of the most intense cardio I have ever done. The steps were fast and pretty complicated for a beginner class but it was a lot of fun and we are planning on going again next week. I knew I had a big booty for a reason!
A second problem in this country is teen pregnancy. if you are a woman under the age of 18 there is a 30% chance that you have a child. One in four women in this country is pregnant. It seems that the failing economy coupled with the rapidly increasing population is seriously damaging the quality of life of people in this country.
This is what I have learned so far here about the state of things in Ecuador. Hopefully when I am done with spanish classes I will have more time to travel around the city a bit and learn more.
Also: took salsa classes last night with eight of my friends. It was an hour of some of the most intense cardio I have ever done. The steps were fast and pretty complicated for a beginner class but it was a lot of fun and we are planning on going again next week. I knew I had a big booty for a reason!
lets see you flex those spanish muscles
Greetings! Feliz Jueves.
In honor of my last full day of Spanish classes I figured I would put up some speaking exercises for you to try at home. These have been some of my favorites and I am now able to roll my r’s which is great. The reason learning to do this was difficult is because it is a phoneme that does not exist in English and language acquisition involves losing the ability to produce sounds that are not required in your language. But my rrrrr is back.
“r” con “r” carro
“r” con “r” cigarro
“r” con “r” ferrocarril
rapido ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril y el carro
(how to do this one: roll those r’s!)
for the proper tr sound:
tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en tres tristes platos de trigo
a fun tongue twister (that corresponds to eenie meenie miney mo in English):
de tin marin de do pingue, cucara, macara, titere fue, you no fue, fue tete, pegale pegale que ella fue. (the que and ella are combined to make qu’ella)
Have fun sounding silly in the comfort of your own home!
In honor of my last full day of Spanish classes I figured I would put up some speaking exercises for you to try at home. These have been some of my favorites and I am now able to roll my r’s which is great. The reason learning to do this was difficult is because it is a phoneme that does not exist in English and language acquisition involves losing the ability to produce sounds that are not required in your language. But my rrrrr is back.
“r” con “r” carro
“r” con “r” cigarro
“r” con “r” ferrocarril
rapido ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril y el carro
(how to do this one: roll those r’s!)
for the proper tr sound:
tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en tres tristes platos de trigo
a fun tongue twister (that corresponds to eenie meenie miney mo in English):
de tin marin de do pingue, cucara, macara, titere fue, you no fue, fue tete, pegale pegale que ella fue. (the que and ella are combined to make qu’ella)
Have fun sounding silly in the comfort of your own home!
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
so much spanish school
August 10, 2011
Buenas Tardes!
Sorry for the lack of blogging but not much has been going on so I didn’t want to bore you. Since arriving in Quito, I have been spending most of my time getting to know the other students on my program. Its really nice living in a house with so many other students because I always have someone with whom I can salir (go out/leave the house). My days have been filled with seven hours of Spanish classes per day, a schedule that will continue through Thursday. It is very helpful but also very tiring. I am not used to spending so many hours in class (at Penn I have a maximum of 3 hours a day and only one day is three consecutive hours) so it sort of feels like being in elementary school again. By the time I get home at 4:45 I am in need of a nap before dinner and I have zero desire to go out at night.
My typical day here is to get up at 6/615 and eat breakfast (usually fruit with bread) and then go to the gym for an hour. I finally felt acclimated to the altitude on Monday so I started working out yesterday. The gym is only two blocks from my house and has three elliptical machines, three bikes and a few weight machines/free weights. The only negative is that the treadmills are not electronic meaning to run on the treadmill you hold on and use your feet to move the belt…I am not a fan so I have been sticking to the bike. When I get to know the city better I may start running outside but for now the gym is sufficient. After the gym I come home and shower quickly and then have class from 8-430 with a 1.5 hour lunch break in the middle. Because the dinners are huge and Rosita encourages me to eat mucho (and we have to finish what is on our plate) I have been having a luna bar for lunch so I don’t come home weighing more than I did when I got here.
This evening the school offers salsa classes from 5-7 so my friends and I might go. I don’t know how much public humiliation I am up for but I think I should go because salsa is a large part of Ecuadorian culture so it will be a good learning experience. No, I will not be taking pictures/videos…what happens in Quito stays in Quito.
Tonight, and every Wednesday, the movies here are two people per one ticket which means it will cost $2.25 to go to the movies. My housemates and I are planning on going after dinner though we have not chosen a movie yet.
Things I am looking forward to this/next week: Tomorrow night my housemates and I are revisiting la plaza foch where we will break out our newly acquired (hopefully) salsa skills. Luuk and his friends may also come so it will be fun to get to know some more people in the city. Friday is a national holiday so everyone has the day off (NO CLASS!) so we are getting a tour of the city and then taking a bus to banos for the weekend. I want to try white water rafting and paragliding so hopefully my housemates and I will be able to organize those trips before we go. Normally it would be fine to just show up but this weekend everyone is traveling because of the holiday so banos will be pretty crowded with touristas. Next week I start in the clinic. I am doing Peds first, General medicine second and delivering babies the last week. I may switch week 2 for surgery, depending what my friends say about their clinics the first week.
Funny stories about Spanish mishaps: When we got to Quito, Rosita told us a few gems about peoples attempts (failures) to speak Spanish properly. She had one student come up to her and say: Yo tengo mucho mierda. Rositas response: Que?! The student repeated the phrase (which means I have a lot of shit) several times. What he was trying to say is “yo tengo miedo” which means “I have fear” or I am concerned about something. I thought that was pretty funny.
Another time a man asked Rosito “Tu tienes un bano por los caballos” (do you have a bathroom for the horses. Rosita didn’t know how to respond. I have a bathroom yes but not por los caballos. What he meant to say: Tu tienes un bano por los caballeros (do you have a bathroom for gentlemen/a men’s room).
What she wanted us to take away from this was that people make mistakes and it is ok you learn and it is a funny story. What I took away from this is that these poor guys needed a better Spanish dictionary, and now I know the spanish word for shit.
Buenas Tardes!
Sorry for the lack of blogging but not much has been going on so I didn’t want to bore you. Since arriving in Quito, I have been spending most of my time getting to know the other students on my program. Its really nice living in a house with so many other students because I always have someone with whom I can salir (go out/leave the house). My days have been filled with seven hours of Spanish classes per day, a schedule that will continue through Thursday. It is very helpful but also very tiring. I am not used to spending so many hours in class (at Penn I have a maximum of 3 hours a day and only one day is three consecutive hours) so it sort of feels like being in elementary school again. By the time I get home at 4:45 I am in need of a nap before dinner and I have zero desire to go out at night.
My typical day here is to get up at 6/615 and eat breakfast (usually fruit with bread) and then go to the gym for an hour. I finally felt acclimated to the altitude on Monday so I started working out yesterday. The gym is only two blocks from my house and has three elliptical machines, three bikes and a few weight machines/free weights. The only negative is that the treadmills are not electronic meaning to run on the treadmill you hold on and use your feet to move the belt…I am not a fan so I have been sticking to the bike. When I get to know the city better I may start running outside but for now the gym is sufficient. After the gym I come home and shower quickly and then have class from 8-430 with a 1.5 hour lunch break in the middle. Because the dinners are huge and Rosita encourages me to eat mucho (and we have to finish what is on our plate) I have been having a luna bar for lunch so I don’t come home weighing more than I did when I got here.
This evening the school offers salsa classes from 5-7 so my friends and I might go. I don’t know how much public humiliation I am up for but I think I should go because salsa is a large part of Ecuadorian culture so it will be a good learning experience. No, I will not be taking pictures/videos…what happens in Quito stays in Quito.
Tonight, and every Wednesday, the movies here are two people per one ticket which means it will cost $2.25 to go to the movies. My housemates and I are planning on going after dinner though we have not chosen a movie yet.
Things I am looking forward to this/next week: Tomorrow night my housemates and I are revisiting la plaza foch where we will break out our newly acquired (hopefully) salsa skills. Luuk and his friends may also come so it will be fun to get to know some more people in the city. Friday is a national holiday so everyone has the day off (NO CLASS!) so we are getting a tour of the city and then taking a bus to banos for the weekend. I want to try white water rafting and paragliding so hopefully my housemates and I will be able to organize those trips before we go. Normally it would be fine to just show up but this weekend everyone is traveling because of the holiday so banos will be pretty crowded with touristas. Next week I start in the clinic. I am doing Peds first, General medicine second and delivering babies the last week. I may switch week 2 for surgery, depending what my friends say about their clinics the first week.
Funny stories about Spanish mishaps: When we got to Quito, Rosita told us a few gems about peoples attempts (failures) to speak Spanish properly. She had one student come up to her and say: Yo tengo mucho mierda. Rositas response: Que?! The student repeated the phrase (which means I have a lot of shit) several times. What he was trying to say is “yo tengo miedo” which means “I have fear” or I am concerned about something. I thought that was pretty funny.
Another time a man asked Rosito “Tu tienes un bano por los caballos” (do you have a bathroom for the horses. Rosita didn’t know how to respond. I have a bathroom yes but not por los caballos. What he meant to say: Tu tienes un bano por los caballeros (do you have a bathroom for gentlemen/a men’s room).
What she wanted us to take away from this was that people make mistakes and it is ok you learn and it is a funny story. What I took away from this is that these poor guys needed a better Spanish dictionary, and now I know the spanish word for shit.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Arrival in Quito
Sunday 8/7
I made it to my host family’s home yesterday at around 11:30. The house is on a private street with a guard station so it took the cab driver more time than anticipated to find it (and he had to pull over four times to ask for directions). Honestly, I started to feel a bit concerned that we would never find the house and I would be left wandering the streets of Quito alone and with all of my baggage. Such a drama queen I know. The house is really nice. I was pleasantly surprised that I have my own room with a window that has a view of the mountains. I spoke to Rosita for a bit and she seems very nice. We speak a Spanglish mix back and forth (she usually speaks to us in Spanish...but slowly so I can understand). I also met her 25-year-old daughter Priscilla. The final resident of our home when I arrived was the family dog named Winnie (as in Winnie the pooh). He is too cute. I think he is a Maltese or some sort of poodle but regardless he loves me. He sat on my bed yesterday while I unpacked and then we rented source code on itunes and watched together.
Rosita was a bit surprised that I didn’t want to stroll around by myself but with my directional abilities (I have no sense of direction) combined with the language barrier plus the fact that Quito is a bit sketchy in some areas, I figured the best option was to wait for other students to arrive. In the meantime I took Winnie for a walk at the park across the street.
Two girls from Canada (Beth and Caitlin) got to the house at around 4 but needed to unpack and sleep for a bit. They are just coming off a ten day trip through Peru so they were pretty tired. We decided to go out for dinner because Rosita cleans the house on Saturday so she doesn’t cook…aka dinner out was our only option. I thought it might be fun to try a nice seafood place but Caitlin is allergic. Plan b was a trip to Plaza Foch which is a big club/bar/tourist friendly restaurants area. We ended up eating at some irish pub (very cultural experience..not) because it was the first reasonable establishment we found. We then decided to walk around a bit and grab a drink. We found this cool asian fusion(ish) restaurant and went there for drinks and dessert. We stayed until around 930 and then cabbed home. When we arrived there was a new student at the house, Noah from LA. I think there will be six students staying here by the end of the weekend but I am not entirely sure.
I made it to my host family’s home yesterday at around 11:30. The house is on a private street with a guard station so it took the cab driver more time than anticipated to find it (and he had to pull over four times to ask for directions). Honestly, I started to feel a bit concerned that we would never find the house and I would be left wandering the streets of Quito alone and with all of my baggage. Such a drama queen I know. The house is really nice. I was pleasantly surprised that I have my own room with a window that has a view of the mountains. I spoke to Rosita for a bit and she seems very nice. We speak a Spanglish mix back and forth (she usually speaks to us in Spanish...but slowly so I can understand). I also met her 25-year-old daughter Priscilla. The final resident of our home when I arrived was the family dog named Winnie (as in Winnie the pooh). He is too cute. I think he is a Maltese or some sort of poodle but regardless he loves me. He sat on my bed yesterday while I unpacked and then we rented source code on itunes and watched together.
Rosita was a bit surprised that I didn’t want to stroll around by myself but with my directional abilities (I have no sense of direction) combined with the language barrier plus the fact that Quito is a bit sketchy in some areas, I figured the best option was to wait for other students to arrive. In the meantime I took Winnie for a walk at the park across the street.
Two girls from Canada (Beth and Caitlin) got to the house at around 4 but needed to unpack and sleep for a bit. They are just coming off a ten day trip through Peru so they were pretty tired. We decided to go out for dinner because Rosita cleans the house on Saturday so she doesn’t cook…aka dinner out was our only option. I thought it might be fun to try a nice seafood place but Caitlin is allergic. Plan b was a trip to Plaza Foch which is a big club/bar/tourist friendly restaurants area. We ended up eating at some irish pub (very cultural experience..not) because it was the first reasonable establishment we found. We then decided to walk around a bit and grab a drink. We found this cool asian fusion(ish) restaurant and went there for drinks and dessert. We stayed until around 930 and then cabbed home. When we arrived there was a new student at the house, Noah from LA. I think there will be six students staying here by the end of the weekend but I am not entirely sure.
Friday, 5 August 2011
Galapagos
Fri 7/29
Santa Cruz Island
Our flight arrived at the Galapagos airport around noon. Dad and I were going on about four hours of sleep, and I assumed that we would be heading straight to the boat and given time to relax. Instead, we took a bus, a ferry and then another bus to the center of santa cruz island for a hike around a pit crater. The giant (200 feet deep) crated was a sinkhole, caused when the movement of magma left a pocket of empty ground so the soil above caved in. We also got to see several of the many finch species that Darwin made famous in his work. The ground finches eat seeds and have disproportionately large beaks (relative to body size) for cracking nuts while the tree finches eat insects and have pointy beaks. Then we headed to a restaurant for lunch-everyone ordered the fish and it was delish.
Our next stop was a turtle reserve to see lonesome george, the most famous turtle in the world (don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him…I hadn’t either). George is so well known because he is the last of his species. He is a saddle tortoise (named for the shape of their shell) and there have been attempts to get him to mate with several similar types of turtle, in order to replenish the species. Unfortunately, George doesn’t seem too interested in the ladies. In his last attempt to mate, george fell asleep while on top of his female counterpart. He is currently between 92 and 95 years old, so can you really blame him?
While at the reserve, we also got to see dozens of baby turtles and watched a female turtle lay her eggs.
Then we walked back to the boat we saw hundreds of lizards, a GIANT spider (I ran away and daddy laughed at me), sea iguanas and tons of birds.
At six o’clock we finally headed to the boat for dinner. Everyone was exhausted so we all headed to bed right after.
So far our boat is home to 11 people (plus the crew). There is a couple from Connecticut (Don and Eileen), two women from London (Sarah and Suzy) and a family from Spain (Elena and Luis (the parents) Pedro (10), Guillermo (8), Luis (7). The boys are adorable, so well behaved and they LOVE the lizards so they point out each one they see.
Saturday 7/30
Breakfast was served at 7 but dad woke me up at 6 (he wanted to go get coffee and read upstairs) so I decided to shower. Today’s destination is Floreana Island, which is known for the flamingoes and turtles.
Our dingy took us to a beach and we were greeted by four sea lions. The baby sea lions are too cute (cue the Varuca Salt “daddy I want one NOW!”-Willy Wonka incase you didn’t get the reference). I came to the conclusion that in my next life I would like to be a sea lion because all they do is sleep on the beach and swim when they get hot or need to find lunch. We went on a short hike to see the flamingos but there were none to be found. Then we headed a bit further and came out by the ocean. Words cannot describe how beautiful the beach was...Picture paradise in your mind and you’ll get close. The sand was soft, the water was at least ten shades of blue, and we were the only people around. There were hundreds of huge crabs running along the beach and hiding in the rocks. Daddy even spotted a turtle in the ocean.
Next we returned to the boat to put on our snorkeling gear. I started my prayers that went something like this: Dear god, no sharks PLEASE (repeated as many times as a repenting catholic would say their hail mary’s). My fear is not unrealistic...Last night when we were taking the dingy to the boat the driver pointed out a shark swimming next to us. Luckily, I saw no sharks. I did see three large sea turtles and one came and swam along side me for a bit. It even surfaced when it was close enough to touch (not permitted so I didn’t) but it was truly an amazing spectacle. When we got back to the boat Eileen said that she did see a shark that looked to be about three feet. She said it was swimming right below daddy but he didn’t seem to worry so she stayed calm (note: daddy wasn’t being brave, he simply didn’t see the shark because he was distracted by the sea lion that kept swimming back and forth in front of him).
Now everyone is taking siesta or lounging on the deck (daddy is snoring). This afternoon we are going to look at the lava tubes and hopefully after we see them I can better explain what they are. There will also be the opportunity to swim but I have already showered twice today so I think I will sit this one out.
p.s. there have been several blue footed boobie sightings. Clearly not noteworthy enough to even make it into the body of this blog (like seriously they look like seagulls with blue feet…what is the big deal?). I would also like to apologize for the hundreds of photos we will make you look at when we get back, most of which will be of small seemingly insignificant birds. Whatever.
During the afternoon we visited the lava tube. I learned that this is an underground cave that is caused by the movement of lava. It was pitch black but daddy, who I have learned is very skilled at packing, brought awesome headlamps. While this gadget made me look like a fool it was very helpful when I was trying to climb down a nearly vertical wall in the dark. When we got to the large cavern at the end of the path, Juan (tourguide) had us turn off our headlamps so that we could experience silence (obviously I had the simon and Garfunkel song going through my head… “hello darkness my old friend”). After we emerged from the lava tube there was time to swim. I opted to make an sand structure with Guillermo and Luis instead because I had already showered. We made lonesome george and later changed it to georgina and gave her a hole with eggs. Everyone on the trip was amused by our creation. Then we headed back to the boat for dinner and everyone went to bed immediately after. This seems to be the routine, everyone is tired by 9 because the days are so packed.
Dinner was slightly eventful because Luis, the bartender on the boat (confusing I know because there are three) gave me his card and his number in front of everyone at dinner. He speaks English about as well as I speak Spanish so our conversations have been brief. He is 33 and I appreciate his bartending skills but this language thing is sort of a minor (ok major) deal breaker. Between the card exchange and my plans to meet up with Luuk (boy from Holland I met on the plane) I think daddy is ready to stay the full time with me down here.
Sunday 7/31
This morning Dad and I got up at 645 (I have explained to him that if he continues getting up at 6 I will force him to sleep on the deck). After breakfast we took the Panga (dingy) to Isabela island. This is the largest island of the Galapagos and we will be spending tomorrow there as well. Once on land, we took the boat to a tortoise reserve. En route we had to stop the bus and wait for a giant tortoise to cross the road. It took about ten minutes because they take one step, pause for a minute and then continue in the same laborious manor until they have reached their destination. I learned that while the Spanish have one word for all turtle/tortoises, Tortuga, the English words have different meanings. Turtles can swim and have flippers while tortoises are land bound and have claws. After seeing the turtle reserve (which included some mating scenes and a turtle that had flipped himself on to his back) we headed to the location of the penal colony. The prisoners were forced to carry heavy rocks and built a massive wall that had no purpose except to serve as a form of punishment. We walked around a bit and then headed to the beach for an hour. Dad wandered off to find an internet café. Guillermo Luis and I made a sea lion and a dolphin (we are getting quite good at this sand art! They want to make a penguin and lizard next time..they are really testing my abilities). Then I explored the beach for a bit. It is still amazing to me that there are places here where I can be the only person on a quarter mile stretch of beach. We then returned to the bus (dad was five minutes late…I am contemplating purchasing a tracking device) and went back to the boat for lunch. On the way back we stopped to see flamingos (dad’s favorite). He pointed out that the flamingos in curacao eat by kicking up the food (the dance we recorded) while here the flamingos make their beaks vibrate to churn up the water. Then it was nap/lunchtime.
After lunch we went on a long bus ride to the summit of an active volcano. We climbed up a muddy slope for around 45 minutes. Several people slipped and everyone got very muddy. Unfortunately, when we reached the top it was cloudy so we couldn’t see down into the caldera so there was not much of a view. Then everyone started climbing down but the boys and I got bored so we raced to the bottom. We passed three wild horses near the bottom and then had to wait almost 15 minutes for the rest of the group to get back. Then we all went back to the boat for some downtime before dinner. Five people joined the ship today, a Chinese family of four and Andy, a lawyer from nyc (he has been practicing for 3 years so I am guessing he is in his late 20s, early 30s). It will be interesting to see if the group dynamic changes at all with these new additions.
Mon 8/1
Today was a 645 wake up. After breakfast we went out to explore ______ island. On this trek we were able to see hardened lava (the last eruption was more than a year ago). There are two types of lava formations, one that looks like a rope and is smooth and the other that looks like a bed of nails. The Hawaiians named the latter “ah ah” lava because when you step on it with bare feet or sandals it is quite painful. I made one careless step and ended up cutting my knee and hands on ah ah lava, though Ill admit my response was to say “oh shit” not “ah ah”…good thing they didn’t ask me to name it. There were also several bays that were connected to the ocean and we saw several large fish, some flamingos, and a four-foot white fin shark (cue the jaws music). It made me want to never get in the water again but alas we had a snorkeling session scheduled for after lunch.
Then we went back to the beluga to change into snorkeling gear. I went in for a bit and saw a turtle, a giant yellow starfish (called chocolate chip starfish because it has black spots) and hundreds of fish. Then my knee started hurting and it was pretty cold so I decided to head back to the dingy and wait for everyone else. Luis, Guillermo and Pedro got cold too so we spent the time looking at the marine iguanas (around 2 feet in length!).
We just had lunch and after, we will head out on a two-hour boat tour of a breeding area. I was told there will be sharks, turtles and maybe penguins. I am not so worried about the sharks as long as I am not in the water with them so this is not a huge issue.
Wednesday 8/3
So the blog started getting long and I decided it might be better to be succinct (plus Dr. Israel was right, after several days of lots of turtles and blue footed boobies these animals become less exciting).
Yesterday we went on a panga (small boat) ride to explore a cove. We saw a group (5 or 6) stingrays and dozens of turtles. We also went on a hike to an area that Darwin explored.
Today (8/3) We explored an island where the marine iguanas are found in groups of greater than fifty (just a guess). It was amazing how many there were and they blend into the rocks so I nearly stepped on one. These animals look like mini dinosaurs. They also have this gross habit of shooting salt out of their noses-I learned in biology this is how they control the ion concentration in their bodies…I’m still not a fan.
My favorite part of this island was the baby sea lions. One couldn’t find its mother and was crying so I tried to convince daddy that we were morally obliged to take it home with us-he didn’t go for it. Then we went snorkeling. I was enjoying the view of a large school of fish when dad nudged me and pointed to my right. There was a six-foot manta ray approaching me with its mouth opened. Dad was excited. I was terrified, and pissed at dad for calling my attention to the animal. I prefer to be blissfully ignorant. Hopefully, if we are joined by a group of sharks tomorrow, he won’t tell me about it.
8/4
Happy birthday mom! Sorry we weren’t there to celebrate, but I am sure dad will take you out to a nice dinner when he returns.
This morning we went on a short hike and then snorkeling. We saw some beautiful fish (dad got pictures). Then I rounded the corner and ended up in some deeper water where I found a SHARK! It was a white finned shark, less than four feet in length. I watched it for a bit and then started getting a foot cramp so I got out. The rest of the group saw a few other sharks and a giant sting (manta?) ray. Then this afternoon we climbed up a volcano to take some scenic pictures of the island. I figured out how to take panoramic photos so I am hoping some of those came out well (they looked alright on my computer).
We had a feast for dinner and then I was put in charge of cutting the farewell cake. Everyone was impressed with the job I did and I was asked if I wanted to change careers. I told dad maybe I’ll do surgery (kidding!)
Tomorrow we have to be off the boat and head to the airport by 8 so we are getting up early for a 6 o clock landing. The goal of this walk is to see the inflated sacks on the male warbler. These black birds have a giant red pouch below their beak that they inflate to attract a mate-should be amusing. Then dad and I are off to Quito!
Closing thoughts:
The Galapagos was most accurately described by early travelers as “las ilas encantadas” or the enchanted islands. The variety of animals that you can find on this island as well as the diverse landscapes that are found in such close proximity to one another is truly unlike any other place that I have seen. I think that the people of the Galapagos have done an amazing job favoring preservation over profit from tourism. Most of the islands are uninhabited by humans. There are strict rules about what islands can be visited on tours and which harbors can be used for snorkeling and other recreational activities. All of these efforts have allowed the wildlife to flourish here. Where else in the world can you see sea lions, giant sea turtles, marine iguanas, hundreds of species of birds, sharks, rays, penguins and more all in a single day or even on a single beach. It is unreal. While I appreciate what the Galapagos has done by preserving the natural environment, it makes me wonder what places like Hawaii could be like if they hadn’t been overrun by tourists.
Thanks dad for an amazing time. To my beluga family- you are all great and I will miss you dearly. Mom- thanks for letting me borrow daddy for the week and I am sorry we missed your birthday, I hope it was fun anyway.
Santa Cruz Island
Our flight arrived at the Galapagos airport around noon. Dad and I were going on about four hours of sleep, and I assumed that we would be heading straight to the boat and given time to relax. Instead, we took a bus, a ferry and then another bus to the center of santa cruz island for a hike around a pit crater. The giant (200 feet deep) crated was a sinkhole, caused when the movement of magma left a pocket of empty ground so the soil above caved in. We also got to see several of the many finch species that Darwin made famous in his work. The ground finches eat seeds and have disproportionately large beaks (relative to body size) for cracking nuts while the tree finches eat insects and have pointy beaks. Then we headed to a restaurant for lunch-everyone ordered the fish and it was delish.
Our next stop was a turtle reserve to see lonesome george, the most famous turtle in the world (don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him…I hadn’t either). George is so well known because he is the last of his species. He is a saddle tortoise (named for the shape of their shell) and there have been attempts to get him to mate with several similar types of turtle, in order to replenish the species. Unfortunately, George doesn’t seem too interested in the ladies. In his last attempt to mate, george fell asleep while on top of his female counterpart. He is currently between 92 and 95 years old, so can you really blame him?
While at the reserve, we also got to see dozens of baby turtles and watched a female turtle lay her eggs.
Then we walked back to the boat we saw hundreds of lizards, a GIANT spider (I ran away and daddy laughed at me), sea iguanas and tons of birds.
At six o’clock we finally headed to the boat for dinner. Everyone was exhausted so we all headed to bed right after.
So far our boat is home to 11 people (plus the crew). There is a couple from Connecticut (Don and Eileen), two women from London (Sarah and Suzy) and a family from Spain (Elena and Luis (the parents) Pedro (10), Guillermo (8), Luis (7). The boys are adorable, so well behaved and they LOVE the lizards so they point out each one they see.
Saturday 7/30
Breakfast was served at 7 but dad woke me up at 6 (he wanted to go get coffee and read upstairs) so I decided to shower. Today’s destination is Floreana Island, which is known for the flamingoes and turtles.
Our dingy took us to a beach and we were greeted by four sea lions. The baby sea lions are too cute (cue the Varuca Salt “daddy I want one NOW!”-Willy Wonka incase you didn’t get the reference). I came to the conclusion that in my next life I would like to be a sea lion because all they do is sleep on the beach and swim when they get hot or need to find lunch. We went on a short hike to see the flamingos but there were none to be found. Then we headed a bit further and came out by the ocean. Words cannot describe how beautiful the beach was...Picture paradise in your mind and you’ll get close. The sand was soft, the water was at least ten shades of blue, and we were the only people around. There were hundreds of huge crabs running along the beach and hiding in the rocks. Daddy even spotted a turtle in the ocean.
Next we returned to the boat to put on our snorkeling gear. I started my prayers that went something like this: Dear god, no sharks PLEASE (repeated as many times as a repenting catholic would say their hail mary’s). My fear is not unrealistic...Last night when we were taking the dingy to the boat the driver pointed out a shark swimming next to us. Luckily, I saw no sharks. I did see three large sea turtles and one came and swam along side me for a bit. It even surfaced when it was close enough to touch (not permitted so I didn’t) but it was truly an amazing spectacle. When we got back to the boat Eileen said that she did see a shark that looked to be about three feet. She said it was swimming right below daddy but he didn’t seem to worry so she stayed calm (note: daddy wasn’t being brave, he simply didn’t see the shark because he was distracted by the sea lion that kept swimming back and forth in front of him).
Now everyone is taking siesta or lounging on the deck (daddy is snoring). This afternoon we are going to look at the lava tubes and hopefully after we see them I can better explain what they are. There will also be the opportunity to swim but I have already showered twice today so I think I will sit this one out.
p.s. there have been several blue footed boobie sightings. Clearly not noteworthy enough to even make it into the body of this blog (like seriously they look like seagulls with blue feet…what is the big deal?). I would also like to apologize for the hundreds of photos we will make you look at when we get back, most of which will be of small seemingly insignificant birds. Whatever.
During the afternoon we visited the lava tube. I learned that this is an underground cave that is caused by the movement of lava. It was pitch black but daddy, who I have learned is very skilled at packing, brought awesome headlamps. While this gadget made me look like a fool it was very helpful when I was trying to climb down a nearly vertical wall in the dark. When we got to the large cavern at the end of the path, Juan (tourguide) had us turn off our headlamps so that we could experience silence (obviously I had the simon and Garfunkel song going through my head… “hello darkness my old friend”). After we emerged from the lava tube there was time to swim. I opted to make an sand structure with Guillermo and Luis instead because I had already showered. We made lonesome george and later changed it to georgina and gave her a hole with eggs. Everyone on the trip was amused by our creation. Then we headed back to the boat for dinner and everyone went to bed immediately after. This seems to be the routine, everyone is tired by 9 because the days are so packed.
Dinner was slightly eventful because Luis, the bartender on the boat (confusing I know because there are three) gave me his card and his number in front of everyone at dinner. He speaks English about as well as I speak Spanish so our conversations have been brief. He is 33 and I appreciate his bartending skills but this language thing is sort of a minor (ok major) deal breaker. Between the card exchange and my plans to meet up with Luuk (boy from Holland I met on the plane) I think daddy is ready to stay the full time with me down here.
Sunday 7/31
This morning Dad and I got up at 645 (I have explained to him that if he continues getting up at 6 I will force him to sleep on the deck). After breakfast we took the Panga (dingy) to Isabela island. This is the largest island of the Galapagos and we will be spending tomorrow there as well. Once on land, we took the boat to a tortoise reserve. En route we had to stop the bus and wait for a giant tortoise to cross the road. It took about ten minutes because they take one step, pause for a minute and then continue in the same laborious manor until they have reached their destination. I learned that while the Spanish have one word for all turtle/tortoises, Tortuga, the English words have different meanings. Turtles can swim and have flippers while tortoises are land bound and have claws. After seeing the turtle reserve (which included some mating scenes and a turtle that had flipped himself on to his back) we headed to the location of the penal colony. The prisoners were forced to carry heavy rocks and built a massive wall that had no purpose except to serve as a form of punishment. We walked around a bit and then headed to the beach for an hour. Dad wandered off to find an internet café. Guillermo Luis and I made a sea lion and a dolphin (we are getting quite good at this sand art! They want to make a penguin and lizard next time..they are really testing my abilities). Then I explored the beach for a bit. It is still amazing to me that there are places here where I can be the only person on a quarter mile stretch of beach. We then returned to the bus (dad was five minutes late…I am contemplating purchasing a tracking device) and went back to the boat for lunch. On the way back we stopped to see flamingos (dad’s favorite). He pointed out that the flamingos in curacao eat by kicking up the food (the dance we recorded) while here the flamingos make their beaks vibrate to churn up the water. Then it was nap/lunchtime.
After lunch we went on a long bus ride to the summit of an active volcano. We climbed up a muddy slope for around 45 minutes. Several people slipped and everyone got very muddy. Unfortunately, when we reached the top it was cloudy so we couldn’t see down into the caldera so there was not much of a view. Then everyone started climbing down but the boys and I got bored so we raced to the bottom. We passed three wild horses near the bottom and then had to wait almost 15 minutes for the rest of the group to get back. Then we all went back to the boat for some downtime before dinner. Five people joined the ship today, a Chinese family of four and Andy, a lawyer from nyc (he has been practicing for 3 years so I am guessing he is in his late 20s, early 30s). It will be interesting to see if the group dynamic changes at all with these new additions.
Mon 8/1
Today was a 645 wake up. After breakfast we went out to explore ______ island. On this trek we were able to see hardened lava (the last eruption was more than a year ago). There are two types of lava formations, one that looks like a rope and is smooth and the other that looks like a bed of nails. The Hawaiians named the latter “ah ah” lava because when you step on it with bare feet or sandals it is quite painful. I made one careless step and ended up cutting my knee and hands on ah ah lava, though Ill admit my response was to say “oh shit” not “ah ah”…good thing they didn’t ask me to name it. There were also several bays that were connected to the ocean and we saw several large fish, some flamingos, and a four-foot white fin shark (cue the jaws music). It made me want to never get in the water again but alas we had a snorkeling session scheduled for after lunch.
Then we went back to the beluga to change into snorkeling gear. I went in for a bit and saw a turtle, a giant yellow starfish (called chocolate chip starfish because it has black spots) and hundreds of fish. Then my knee started hurting and it was pretty cold so I decided to head back to the dingy and wait for everyone else. Luis, Guillermo and Pedro got cold too so we spent the time looking at the marine iguanas (around 2 feet in length!).
We just had lunch and after, we will head out on a two-hour boat tour of a breeding area. I was told there will be sharks, turtles and maybe penguins. I am not so worried about the sharks as long as I am not in the water with them so this is not a huge issue.
Wednesday 8/3
So the blog started getting long and I decided it might be better to be succinct (plus Dr. Israel was right, after several days of lots of turtles and blue footed boobies these animals become less exciting).
Yesterday we went on a panga (small boat) ride to explore a cove. We saw a group (5 or 6) stingrays and dozens of turtles. We also went on a hike to an area that Darwin explored.
Today (8/3) We explored an island where the marine iguanas are found in groups of greater than fifty (just a guess). It was amazing how many there were and they blend into the rocks so I nearly stepped on one. These animals look like mini dinosaurs. They also have this gross habit of shooting salt out of their noses-I learned in biology this is how they control the ion concentration in their bodies…I’m still not a fan.
My favorite part of this island was the baby sea lions. One couldn’t find its mother and was crying so I tried to convince daddy that we were morally obliged to take it home with us-he didn’t go for it. Then we went snorkeling. I was enjoying the view of a large school of fish when dad nudged me and pointed to my right. There was a six-foot manta ray approaching me with its mouth opened. Dad was excited. I was terrified, and pissed at dad for calling my attention to the animal. I prefer to be blissfully ignorant. Hopefully, if we are joined by a group of sharks tomorrow, he won’t tell me about it.
8/4
Happy birthday mom! Sorry we weren’t there to celebrate, but I am sure dad will take you out to a nice dinner when he returns.
This morning we went on a short hike and then snorkeling. We saw some beautiful fish (dad got pictures). Then I rounded the corner and ended up in some deeper water where I found a SHARK! It was a white finned shark, less than four feet in length. I watched it for a bit and then started getting a foot cramp so I got out. The rest of the group saw a few other sharks and a giant sting (manta?) ray. Then this afternoon we climbed up a volcano to take some scenic pictures of the island. I figured out how to take panoramic photos so I am hoping some of those came out well (they looked alright on my computer).
We had a feast for dinner and then I was put in charge of cutting the farewell cake. Everyone was impressed with the job I did and I was asked if I wanted to change careers. I told dad maybe I’ll do surgery (kidding!)
Tomorrow we have to be off the boat and head to the airport by 8 so we are getting up early for a 6 o clock landing. The goal of this walk is to see the inflated sacks on the male warbler. These black birds have a giant red pouch below their beak that they inflate to attract a mate-should be amusing. Then dad and I are off to Quito!
Closing thoughts:
The Galapagos was most accurately described by early travelers as “las ilas encantadas” or the enchanted islands. The variety of animals that you can find on this island as well as the diverse landscapes that are found in such close proximity to one another is truly unlike any other place that I have seen. I think that the people of the Galapagos have done an amazing job favoring preservation over profit from tourism. Most of the islands are uninhabited by humans. There are strict rules about what islands can be visited on tours and which harbors can be used for snorkeling and other recreational activities. All of these efforts have allowed the wildlife to flourish here. Where else in the world can you see sea lions, giant sea turtles, marine iguanas, hundreds of species of birds, sharks, rays, penguins and more all in a single day or even on a single beach. It is unreal. While I appreciate what the Galapagos has done by preserving the natural environment, it makes me wonder what places like Hawaii could be like if they hadn’t been overrun by tourists.
Thanks dad for an amazing time. To my beluga family- you are all great and I will miss you dearly. Mom- thanks for letting me borrow daddy for the week and I am sorry we missed your birthday, I hope it was fun anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)