Ecuador-Feburary 2009

While this trip is about learning spanish and seeing the country we are actually doing work. We have held three different clinics during the course of this trip. The first one was at CENIT which is a school for children who are behind in school. The school has a accelerated program to help the kids catch up to the grade they should be in for their age. While that this school we did well child checks. My group was lucky in that most of our children were relatively healthy. All children recieved mebendazole as prophylaxis for parasitic infections. Its not uncommon for kids to be infected with worms or other parasites, especially the kids living on the street.

The next clinic we held was at a school in the mountains. We again did mostly well child checks. My partner and I treated a child with possible rheumatic fever. She had been sick for a few days and complained of wrist pain and rash. While rheumatic fever is not something we think of much in the US, it is a very common disease in third world countries. Therefore we had to treat the child with a very high suspicion for rheumatic fever.

Our last clinic was in a smaller rural town and this one consisted of adults and children. We saw five patient total and the presenting illnesses were cataracts, allergies, post-op pain and well child checks.

These clinics help to remind me of what we have access to in the states and what people are missing. It also helps to practice sharpening our history and physical exam skills since we dont have access to all the fancy testing that we can do in the states.

The Sunday after arriving in Otavalo we were taken on a tour of the area. First we went to the matmakers house to see how reed mats are made. First the reeds are collected from the lake and laid out to dry in the sun. The only allow the reeds to dry so much so that they are still easy to bend and work with. Then a lady sits on the floor and weaves the reeds together one by one. We were told that if they work all day long they might be able to make 2-3 mats in a day. They then sell them for about 3 dollars. They are definately not that cheap in the states.

We then travelled to the rugmakers place and watched him make wool from scratch. He showed us how to work the sheeps wool with the paddles to make it soft. He then showed us how he spins it into thread and how he weaves things such as scarves, ponchos, and hats using a backstrap.

Our next stop was to a town that is known for making leather. We walked up an down streets with stores filled of leather purses, jackets, and other things.

Our last stop was up into the mountains. We walked along a trail that led us to a beautiful view of the volcano, which now just looks like a lake.

When I get a chance I will upload my pictures of our many stops.

Our week in Quito ended with us going out Friday night and getting up early Saturday morning to head to Otavalo. Otavalo is a smaller city north of Quito with a population of 31,000 people. It is very popular for its all day Saturday market. This market takes up most of downtown Otavalo. I was able to get some practice haggling prices and do think that I have gotten pretty good at it. Might be a talent I take back with me to the states. It took us about 3.5 hours to get here from Quito and once here we were taken striaght to our hostal. We are staying at Hostel Aya Huma which sits outside of Otavalo in Peguche. It is a very pretty place with many double bed rooms. It has several hammocks around the site with two that sit outside my window. If you like nature this is the place to be. The resturant is also very nice with good food.

After checking into our hostal we then travelled down to the market. The market had very nice craftswork and jewerly. It was kinda overwhelming but very interesting. You can definately haggle some good prices. My friend got a hammock for 20 dollars. Definately worth the visit to Otavalo.

We were warned when we got here that there are a lot of pickpocketers and other sketchy people around town. Well my roommate Abby and I actually got to experience and witness come of these problems.

Numero uno: The first experience occured when someone tried to rob Abby. Abby and my friend Ebony got on a bus that was packed beyond capacity. They described it as having ten bodies and sets of hands all over you. When Abby got on the bus she was carrying her bookbag and purse. She also wears an under-the-clothes pouch that we were told to get for our important documents, money, credit card, and passport. Somehow a lady on the bus recognized that Abby was wearing her pouch and attempted to cut through her skirt and the pouch itself to get to Abby´s money, credit card info, and passport. Luckily Abby felt what the lady was doing and stopped her. But Abby still had to ride a few more blocks with the lady knowing what she had attempted to do.

Lesson learned: Do not get on crowed buses on foreign countries. Americans are always targeted.

Numero dos: Our next experience occured while walking near Old Town Quito. Old town is a very large tourist attraction as well as a large shopping area for local residents. It also houses the president´s house and other important buildings. Abby and I went to Old Town to find some rubber boots for our visit to the rainforest. After shopping and buying the boots we attempted to catch a taxi back to our spanish school. Well we did not have much luck since everyone was trying to catch taxis. We decided to walk to another street to catch a taxi and while walking we witnessed a man almost get pickpocketed. I believe that both the men were locals. A darker skinned man walked up behind another taller man and appeared to be fixing in shirt. However we soon realized that was not the case when the taller man turned around to see who had attempted to pickpocker him. Abby being the kind soul she is pointed out the darker skinned man. The older man then pulls his wallet out of his front pocket to show the darker skinned man that he carries his wallet in the front. Of course watching this made Abby and I nervous, especially after Abby´s ordeal and so we got out of that area as fast as we could.

Lesson: Even lcoals get pickpocketed. No one is safe.

Numero tres: Our last night in Quito we all decided to go out and celebrate our groupmate´s birthday. Abby and I decided to take a taxi to ¨Gringo Land¨to hang out. While walking to the corner we are flashed down by a car. It is a black car with a taxi sign on the sun visor. Once we got in he flipped the sun visor back up and we were on our way. We were slightly concerened that we might not make it to ¨Gringo Land¨ but we took our chance. Not only did we make it our taxi driver was very good and took us around a different way to try to avoid traffic. He even locked our doors when we saw a guy walking a little too close to our car. So while waiting in the traffic to get to ¨Gringo Land¨we witnessed yet another robbery. This tourist was taking a picture of a mini red truck that was parked near a bar. As he is taking the picutures I watched a local walk up behind him and grab for the camera. The local didnt get it the first time, so he grabbed again and knocked it out of the guy´s hand. The local then preceded to pick up the camera and walk away. I think the tourist was going to go after the guy, but then another local (probably the first guy´s friend) said something to the tourist to stop him.

Lesson: Don´t look like a tourist in busy areas and pull out anything of value. Also, there is also a side hussle (the taxi driver).

So the last few days we have been having a few adventures. The first day we decided to visit the Cerro Panecillo which sits on a hill above Quito. The statue is beautiful and the experience was wonderful. However, we took a taxi to the top and was told that taxi´s would not come back up to get us. The guidebooks also say not to walk down the hill due to attacks on tourists. Of couse, the group of people we were with decided it would be ok to walk down the hill right through the middle of the houses. Well we were ok, but the experience could have definately turned out bad.

The next night we went to Mariscal Sucre aka ¨Gringo land¨ with a bunch of our classmates. While hanging out at the bar we experienced what appeared to be rain or mist. But in reality it was a cloud that had descended onto Quito from the mountain. We are currently about 8000 feet above sea level and that in itself is an adventure.

Today I happened to climb to the top of the Iglesia de la basilica del Voto Nacional. This was an amazing experience and we all the way to the top and sat on a ledge to look out. We were actually above the bell tower.

My experinces here are going great and I am really looking forward to paddling down the river in the rainforest in about 3 weeks.

:-)