Our Last Adventure

This weekend was absolutely incredible! We definitely played the roles of tourists!  We saw so many beautiful things that if I were to describe each of them, it would take an hour or more to read the blog.  Lucky for you, I have a few pictures instead :) 

Friday Dr. Cristian let us have the day off so we could explore the capital of Ecuador, Quito.  We started our weekend at the artisan market and finished up our souvenir shopping.  Unfortunately this left me with a lot of things to carry.  After seeing every single booth at the artisan market we walked a few blocks to the beautiful El Ejido park.  We walked around for awhile and then caught a cab to the hostal.  We enjoyed an absolutely beautiful view at dinner at Vista Hermosa.  We sat on the roof and had a view of the Virgin of Quito, the Basilica and several other beautiful churches and buildings of Quito.  Although I was freezing, it was definitely worth the incredible night sky.

The Basilica is the church with two clock towers in the center of Stella's picture, and the Virgin of Quito is the little bitty grey thing on the top of the mountain behind me below, also in the center of the picture.

Saturday we were major tourists and viewed the beautiful, incredibly large city of Quito via a double decker tour bus.  There were a total of 12 "stops", but there was not enough time to get off and actually visit each site like we wanted to, so we only chose a few.  The first stop was the Panecillo, the location of the Virgin of Quito.  The view from here was also spectacular.  We didn't think the view was going to get much better...until we went to our last stop.

 

 

 

The next destination for us was the Botanical Garden.  It was actually a little disappointing, until we got to the rose garden and the orchid greenhouses.  The roses were absolutely beautiful!  Just as spectacular, if not more spectacular, than the Arboretum in Lexington.  Did you know that roses in Ecuador grow straight up?

I think this one is in the Amazonian garden, but I'm not 100% sure.

The beautiful roses

Some of the funny shaped orchids.

One of the two Orchid Gardens

Pretty Orchids

A giant plant that is similar to Aloe

Extremely tall cacti

 

We stopped at the Basilica next and went up into the clock towers and across the top of the church (on the inside, above the rafters) to the steeple where we climbed some "extremely safe" stairs to the top of the steeple.  It was a little nerve racking to say the least, but it was beautiful!!  The inside of the church is full of vibrant stain glass windows of every color of the rainbow. 

The Basilica

Some of the stained glass windows

The view of the steeple from the clock tower

Inside the clock tower

The wooden plank we walked across to get to the steeple from the clock towers

View from the steeple looking back towards the clock towers.  The Virgin of Quito is in between the two towers on the mountain.

Some more beautiful stained glass

The next church we toured was actually a museum of the Cathedral.  It was also very beautiful with many elegant alters and beautiful artwork.  There was incredible artwork in every church we went in.  This church was unique in some of the things that were donated to the church from various places.  For example, they had bones of some of the Christian babies that were persecuted by the Romans as well as the body of an 8 year old that never decomposed because it was covered in a wax during the persecution.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this place because they were not allowed.

 

The final stop was a trip on the Teleferico, or cable car.  It went up to an elevation of 4000+ meters and gave us a view of what we estimate to be 80-90% of Quito.  It was breathtaking (because of the view and because it was really cold!).  After we took several pictures of the view, we had a cup of mocha coffee before returning back down Pichincha (the name of the volcanoes/mountains that we were on).  On the way up, there was still sunlight so we were able to get beautiful pictures of the mountains and city; on the way back down it was dusk so we took some great pictures of the nightlife of Quito.

Going up!

The backwards view.  The white building is where we got on the cable car.

The forwards view.  This isn't quite half-way up the mountain.

The view of just a portion of Quito.

Another view of Quito from the other side of the mountain.

Warming up with our mochas!!  Look at our view!

Cloud covered mountains...my favorite!

Going back down.

 

The nightlife.

 





After we ate supper in La Ronda, we stopped to watch a theatrical dance performance of many different tribes.  It was a very interesting production with a lot of colors, stomping and music.  Again, pictures were not allowed, so you will have to come see it for yourself, except for these few that were snapped before we knew any better ;)

 

Sunday we went to Mitad del Mundo a.k.a. The Middle of the World, or belly button of the Earth as my brother called it (it's an iny in case you were wondering).  There is a beautiful statue/museum at the center of the Earth that has a lot of information about the cultures that surround the area of 0,0.  After calling our family from the center we walked around the shops and enjoyed the scenery.  As you can imagine, tons of pictures were taken from all four sides of the center! 
 

Walking the equatorial line.

The top of the statue/museum.

The view from the top.

We've got the whole world in our hands!

The statue/museum

We also went back to Quito and toured the most spectacular church of all, especially on the inside, the Company of Jesus Christ.  The church was covered in Baroque architecture, gold, incredible paintings, and amazing detail.  This is a must see for anyone in Ecuador.  There are no pictures allowed once you pass the front table so these few don't do this incredible church justice.

Just inside the front doors.

Some of the beautiful atars.

More of the incredible church covered in gold.

Sorry for the white out faces, but this was a last second chance at a picture inside.

This was the only room we were allowed to take pictures in.  The bells behind us are not the originals of the church, but are still very old.  The originals were melted down and used in a war (I believe it was their independence war, but I am not sure).

I know this was incredibly long, but I hope you have enjoyed the pictures.  There are so many more stories and pictures that go with each location we visited, but there isn't a blog big enough to support the wonderful weekend we had full of unforgettable memories!

Stella and I are Separated :(

This past weekend after the beach, Stella and I went to Mindo, the city known for it's cloud forest and chocolate factory.  Stella posted a blog a few days ago that describes the trip perfectly.  No other words can add to the hype of our weekend.  Please view her blog for the hilarious adventures.

 

No making fun of our "beautiful" looks in these pictures.  We were in the middle of and just finished hiking 1 1/2 hours.  It was very uphill and very hot!  We loved celebrating with chocolate!!!



 

At the beginning of this week, Stella and I had to separate at the clinic.  After getting over the small panic of how to function without each other ;) everything went pretty well.  I spent the first day with Dr. Cristian and she went with Mercedes to the community.  It was a pretty calm day with the exception of the child that had a gash in his bottom lip that went all the way through.  Dr. Cristian sutured it up like it was an everyday thing and the kid took it like a champ! After lunch we were reunited and joined a class/support group that Maggie and Mercedes started for women with diabetes or hypertension.  It was only the second class so they goal was to get the women's' ideas on their disease state and what they needed to do to treat it.  It was very interesting to hear some of their ideas.  (Disclaimer: I am not saying this in a joking manner, nor am I making fun of their thoughts.  The understanding this culture has of diseases and their treatments is very interesting to me.  I am just trying to give you the best examples of their true beliefs.)For example, one lady decided not to take any of her medications because she would become addicted to them and would never get better.  Another drank from some fruit in the forest and it "cured her".    Maggie explained that the purpose of this group is for the women to gain a better understanding of their disease state as well as develop relationships with other women to support them.  After the meeting, we were visited by the lovely Craig Borie and we went with him to a orphanage for boys.  I was extremely impressed with the shape that the campus was in.  The boys all had certain responsibilities (somewhat based on age) and also went to school.  I was also moved by the number of volunteers from the community that came to the orphanage.  Many students helped the boys with homework and others coached them in soccer or came to play soccer with them.  My heart broke a little when a child around 14 years old walked in to the orphanage by himself and stated that he lived in the streets and would like to join the organization.  It was an incredible experience.

 

Today I was with Mercedes in the community.  The first patient we visited was involved in an accident that broke 3 of his vertebrae.  He also had an ulcer on his rear that we had to clean and bandage.  It was definitely a first for me, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It was interesting to watch Mercedes work with such empathy.  We also saw a patient with schizophrenia, another first.  He kept brushing "things" off of his clothing and was rambling with his words.  It was difficult to see someone struggling so much.  Hopefully we will be able to convince his mother that his anti-psychotic medication is extremely important, and he shouldn't just stop taking it like he has in the past.

 

This weekend is our last weekend for exploring :(  We are going to go to Quito and Mital del Mundo.  We are excited about touring the capital of Ecuador, however we are very sad that this is the last big adventure for these two chicas.  Hopefully the next blog will be accompanied with some beautiful pictures!

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