Adventurous or Crazy

 

Today is the first day that we have been able to get on Wi-Fi for about 2 days!  This wouldn't be a big problem, but I also ran out of minutes on my phone a lot sooner than I should have too.  I know its pitiful, but it is much more difficult to be in a foreign country without being able to talk to my husband.  So needles to say, as much as I loved the beach on Friday, I am very glad to be at a location with functioning internet!  Getting to this location however, was quite an adventure...

This morning we left Coijmies Beach around 9:30 and went to Santa Rosa for lunch before catching a bus to Mindo.  According to the hand-dandy guide book, the bus from Santo Domingo to Mindo was supposed to take about 2 hours and only cost $2.50.  Four and a half hours and $4.20 later, we arrived in Mindo.  At some point on the very crowded, full of rude people, bus ride I began to wonder what we were thinking.  Two twenty-some year olds on a public bus, in a foreign country, with no idea of exactly where we are going. 

The second shock of the trip was when we got off of the bus and didn't see a taxi anywhere!  We are so used to being able to catch a taxi just about anywhere that we definitely got a little nervous about walking around in a town that we knew nothing about and had no idea where our hostal was located.  After asking 3-4 people we finally found the hostal we called and made a reservation with yesterday morning.  When we got there, they apologized and said they had already given away our room.  So we walk back a few blocks to another hostal that was recommended by the guide book and it was also completely full.  So we walk back to a hostal that was across the street from the first hostal and finally get a room.  Then we walked back to the second hostal for supper and their world famous hot chocolate.  Since it was almost dark, we were walking very, very quickly this entire time.  I was exhausted when we finally sat down to eat...and very hot.  Thank goodness I cooled down by the time we got to dessert.  We had hot chocolate and split some banana cake and a brownie.  It was the first dessert we had from a restaurant in Ecuador in 3 weeks....we are very satisfied!!

Tomorrow the plan is to visit a chocolate factor (my sweet teeth are very happy!) and go hiking in the cloud forest.  I am very excited about our second adventure in Ecuador!

P.S. On Thursday when we arrived at the beach, I was handing my camera to Stella to take a picture of me in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and I dropped it in the sand.  So now there is little bitty pieces of sand all in my camera which no longer turns on and the lens no longer moves in/out.  If anyone has any suggestions of how to fix this or where to go to fix it, they would all be greatly appreciated!!!

Brigade Pictures

Pharmacy Day 1

Registration Day 1

Pharmacy Day 2

Beautiful Compounding Area

Counseling

Counseling some more

Tsachila Music

Tsachila Painting

 

Our Rings for Safe Travels

Pharmacy Day 3

Using our Resources - Splitting Pills with a Pocket Knife

Do the Best with what You Have

The last two days we have been working with the brigade.  It has been a very eye opening experience in many aspects.  Yesterday we were at a Tsachila village called Los Naranjos.  Our pharmacy was set up on a couple of benches in someone’s porch, and our compounding/label preparation area was on an old pool table.  It wasn’t exactly a clean, four-walled pharmacy; but Monday, it was a pharmacy (a well-functioning one I might add).  Today was much easier to set up because we were in the nursing area at Centro Medico Hombro a Hombo.  So we had a table and countertops. It was much more like a normal pharmacy ;) 

I have really enjoyed setting up the pharmacy each day.  The first couple of days it took a few minutes for us to decide how we wanted to set up the pharmacy, but we seem to be thinking along the same lines and getting things done faster each day.  It’s a lot of fun seeing us come together as a team.  Without any one leader, we all took initiation and all worked very hard each day setting up, dispensing medications, counseling patients and packing things up.  Today definitely challenged our flexibility and our team working skills.  We had about 45 patients the first 5-6 hours, and then the tidal wave hit.  We had about the same amount of patients or more in the last hour.  We definitely felt swamped at certain points during this, but the four of us, Stella, Laura, Jesse, and myself, handled everything very well.  Our flow together has been really great!

I am very impressed by the flexibility of everyone involved in the clinic.  Many times there isn’t anything “ideal” available for particular needs, but there is always something that we can make work in its place.  Today there were several different types of tables used for exams by physicians, toothpaste as a vehicle for topical lidocaine, using pocket knives for pill spliters, and many more I’m sure I’m not aware of.  I believe this is a great opportunity because it is forcing all of us to think outside the box and use our best creativity for whatever obstacle gets in our way.

On the upside, I counseled a lot of patients in Spanish today; and apparently I have been using Stella as a crutch and I do a lot better when she isn’t around for me to ask for help…this is good and bad.  Something tells me she might be a little harder on me, but at least I will be learning J 

On an even better upside…After the rush of patients this afternoon, Stella and I felt like we deserved some ice cream to celebrate our success with the monsoon of patients.  Unfortunately the store near Santa Rosa that sells desserts was closed, so we didn’t get any sweets.  Needless to say, we were a little disappointed.  However, Dr. Carrion went out of his way and stopped by Santa Rosa to drop off some ice cream that he had bought without us knowing!  It was even our favorite flavor…Mora!!!  He is such a kind man!

Tomorrow is the last day of the health part of the brigade and then Thursday we will be doing some sort of community service activity.  We are planning another highly eventful weekend so I am sure there will be much to tell about it!

The Gringos are Coming! The Gringos are Coming!

Since the last post, about 60 more "gringos" have joined Stella and I here in Santo Domingo.  The people at the clinic spent all day Friday preparing the grounds for the Shoulder to Shoulder brigade.  We were also served a big lunch of chicken with rice (of course) for helping out.  Saturday we FINALLY got to sleep in!!  We met up with the brigade Saturday at Santa Rosa (the place the volunteers are staying) and went with them to visit the community around Centro Medico.  It was really great to get to see everyone; I felt like I was surrounded by English again ;)  It was also a little strange being considered one of the "experienced" ones, even though I've only been here 2 weeks. 

Today was the first day of the actual brigade and everyone was in the same location at a local church and school.  It was fascinating to be working so closely with several different professions.  It is very interesting to actually see the other disciplines interact with patients and know exactly why we are dispensing the medications to patients.  Even though the brigade is a nice change of pace with a lot more pharmacy activity compared to the clinic, brigade days sure do make for very long days.  We get to Santa Rosa at 7 am and so far have not left before 9pm.  Tomorrow, half of the volunteers, including Stella and myself, will be going to a Stachilla village and the other half to Centro Medico.  I'm looking forward to the different cultural experience we will have in Los Naranjos