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

Strong US Immune System DOES NOT Equal Strong Ecuadorian Immune System

So the last blog there are BEAUTIFUL pictures of Otavalo...unfortunately cold weather and susceptibility to Ecuadorian viruses came with the majestic mountains.  This week, Stella and I have felt (and still feel) horrible.  It has made it very difficult to concentrate at the clinic and difficult to sleep at night.  The sweet doctor that we are renting from did bring us some cough drops and loratidine though.  She made me feel like I was at home for a little while :) 


So far at the clinic this week it has mostly been "gripe" (pronounced gr-ee-pay not gr-eye-p).  Since it's winter season here, it is also cold and flu season.  Today, as soon as we walked in the clinic, we were told to get masks because there were two sisters that possibly had H1N1 flu.  We also saw a couple of kids with a heart murmur.  The last couple days have also been filled with a few more interesting things, like observing a vaginal exam, suspected tuberculosis patient, and a baby with a horrible bacterial skin and soft tissue infection around his neck.  Dr. Carrion is still a joy to work with; even though I don't understand everything, I still learn something interesting from him each day.

Yesterday we began a new adventure...washing all of our clothes by hand!  I know this sounds super exciting, but let me tell you from first hand experience...it is NOT!  It took 2 1/2 hours to wash and rinse about 1/2 of my clothes.  Lesson learned: wash clothes several times throughout the week, not a full weeks worth of clothes in 2 days time.  Another lesson learned: be very careful not to drop the clothes while trying to hang them, you just have to wash them all over again.  We also had a "technology scare".  The light for the screen on my iPhone just decided not to work (according to my husband's research, this is called the "black screen of death").  Fortunately, today it started to work again!!  I'm so glad Stella can actually see her family now :).  And just FYI...Ecuador's spaghetti sauce in a jar is not as good as Prego or Ragu. 

Otavalo...A Little Piece of Heaven

This past weekend, Stella and I took our first mini vacation to Otavalo, Ecuador.   We stayed in a hostal called Rose Cottage, which I highly recommend!!  The food wasn't the best that we've had, but the view was worth the trade off in freezing rooms and bad food.  We left Santo Domingo on Friday for Quito, where we stayed at the same hostel that we stayed at our first night in South America.  Megan recommended that we go to La Ronda while we were in Quito for supper, and I am so glad that she did.  This was the first location in Ecuador that we felt safe staying out after dark.  We ate at a wonderful restaurant called La Primera Casa and then walked up and down La Ronda, stopping in the different shops.  And did I mention there were tons of places to get dessert...You better believe these "chicas dulces" (as they call us at the clinic) had some delicious Ecuadorian desserts!  We also had a fantastic taxi driver that took us to La Ronda and offered to pick us up when we were ready to go back to the hostal in Quito.  Not only did he take us to and fro, but he acted as a tour guide as we passed by buildings and different regions of Quito.  On the way back, he even went out of the way to stop at the Basilica (a beautiful cathedral) and took a picture for us. 

Saturday we took a bus to Otavalo and went to Rose Cottage.  When we hiked up the driveway, we were absolutely speechless at how beautiful the view was.  We were completely surrounded by the Andes.  It was so majestic, one of the most beautiful pieces of art God painted.  After we finally got over the shock of beauty and checked in to Rose Cottage, we went to the market in Plaza de los Ponchos.  We were there for several hours, and still did not see all of it.  Everything was so, so, so beautiful and cheap!  We felt guilty bartering with some of the people because we knew how much time and effort was put in to each piece, but it was definitely customary to haggle.  Sunday morning, we decided to take it easy and just hang out in the hammocks that were all around the grounds at Rose Cottage.  We talked with out families on Skype and did some much needed leisurely reading before we headed back to Santo Domingo.

Possibly the best part of this vacation was the 5-6 hour bus ride from Otavalo to Santo Domingo.  Because the bus was full, we got to sit right beside the bus driver on a huge padded area that covered the motor.  Not only did this allow us to spread our things out without the worry of someone stealing it, but we were able to take phenomenal pictures of the mountains.  I literally ran down both batteries for my camera in one weekend (one of which was used completely on the bus ride).  Unfortunately, I cannot explain in words how amazing the scenery is on the road from Otavalo to Santo Domingo (which includes Quito), and the pictures will never come close to showing the Andes incredible beauty.  I hope you enjoy these couple of photos of the view at Rose Cottage.  There will be more pictures to follow at some point...I have several to sift through ;) !