The Last Weekend

Me and Mamajuanita

This weekend was super busy!  On Friday, instead of going to the clinic, I went to Otavalo to the Huamba Juasi clinic, which performs traditional medicine.  We watched two shamans, who were both female and very different from the shamans I met in Peru.  Their rituals were very interesting.  The first thing we watched was a woman who couldn’t straighten her ring finger, we thought maybe because of a snapped tendon or something.  So the shaman massaged it back into place, pretty normal.  Then we sat in on the other shaman, who was being visted by a toddler, probably about 8 – 12 months old.  The girls who brought him were young, I’d say the one who was his mom was maybe 16.  They also brought two eggs,  one of which the shaman threw out.  Then she took the second egg and began to rub it all over the little boy, who was laying on the table.  She rubbed his belly, his legs, his head and his back for maybe 10 minutes.  Then she took olive oil and sprinkled it all over him.  She also had a handful of stones, which she doused in olive oil as well and then rubbed those on the boy too.  I think the purpose of this procedure is to rid the boy of his sickness or evil spirits, by transferring them to the egg.  It was difficult for us to understand because they were speaking quinche, which is the language of the indigenous people.

Rubbing the guinea  pig on the patient.

But the most interesting procedure of all was the use of a guinea pig as a diagnostic technique.  We saw two patients who had this performed, each complaining of pain in a different p lace.  The first lady was 56 years old and was having pain in her lower abdomen/uterus.  She came with who I assume to be her daughters and granddaughter.  Both ladies were older and had their granddaughters with them to sign the papers, I assume because they are illiterate. 

Anyways, the patient brings their own live guinea pig, which can e  purchased from a shop just down the street.  They give it to the shaman, who hold it by the neck and then rubs it all over the patient’s skin (they have taken most of their clothes off).  And I am telling you, this was a very vigorous rub that mainly concentrated on the certain area of pain.  So the first lady had the live guinea pig rubbed all over her lower abdomen, her legs, her butt but also on her chest and neck and back.  Sometimes, the shaman also grabs the guinea pig by the legs and moves it in circles, like when you twist a towel, still while rubbing it on the woman’s bare skin.  During this process, which takes 15 – 20 minutes, the guinea pig dies.  At this point, the shaman grabs a knife and cuts into its chest, pulling off its coat in the same way you would take off a jacket.  Then she cut the next layer of skin, so that all of the intestines fall out.  She examines the rest of the guinea pig corpse because they believe that whatever ailments are present in the guinea pig represent the condition that the patient has.  Then she treats the patient, seemingly by massage and then tying a white sheet very tightly around their abdomen.  Very interesting.

In case you were wondering what the inside of a guinea pig
looks like...

Cutting the guinea pig open.

On Saturday, I travelled by myself to the Bella Vista Cloud Forest, which was very beautiful.  I was worried about getting there by myself, because I had to take two buses (one of which was the same that I got robbed on) and then a taxi-truck up the mountain.  But I got lucky and ended up running into other tourists who were going the same route.  The cloud forest really is like being in a cloud, it is cool and misty and all of the plants are wet.  The sky is white, and when looking into the distance, all you can see is white, too.  The people there gave me rubber boots, a poncho and a map, and gave me directions on which trails to hike during my time there.  After I finished hiking, I ate lunch in their café, and grabbed a ride back to Quito with a few older couples.

Today, we went  on an awesome 45 km (27 mi) bikeride through the mountains.  When we started at the top of the mountain, it was super super cold and almost rainy.  I definitely did not bring enough layers!  Also, we rode on quite bumpy roads, some of which were dirt and others were paved.  Our first big stop was at the hot springs.  We went in the pools and in the river (which was NOT warm), but the pools were really nice and there were a lot of people there.  After, we had lunch in the mountains by a lake, which was really beautiful.  Then we continued our trek down the mountain, and later drove to an old train track, which now serves as a bike/ jogging trail.  The views of the mountains and the canyons and the rivers were very beautiful but also hard to look at for too long because of how bumpy the road was!

This week I am working in the maternity hospital, so this should be a really great week to see if my life plans will still be my life plans!

La Clinica de Adolescente

Listening to the heartbeat of an infant!

This week I have been spending the mornings in la clinica de adolescente, which is a clinic for girls ages 12 - 19 who have had babies.  I am shadowing Dra. Dora Carrera, who has been working at the clinic for 12 years.  The clinic is a 20 minute bus ride from "la Y," which is the stop closest to our home stay.  I leave the house around 7:15 and get to the clinic at 8 am.  I was super nervous on Monday to go  because I am the only student going to this particular clinic this week so I have to travel alone.  Over the weekend, we went to Otavallo, which we heard was the biggest market in South America.  We took three different buses to get there and somewhere along the way someone stole $50 right out of my pocket.  The buses are super crowded and everybody pushes everybody, so I didn't even feel it.  But I've gotten more street smart and this week I haven't carried more then $2 with me.

Me and Dr. Carrera in her office!

When I first get to the clinic, I go to Dra. Carrera's office and put my white lab coat on.  She meets with girls who bring in their babies for checkups.  The babies are usually a couple of months old and Dra. Carerra lets me listen to their hearts with the stethescope.  Sometimes the girls come in with the baby's father or their moms, but other times they come alone.  As one girl was walking in, I thought that she had just come with a friend.  It turned out that the woman was actually her mother, but she looked young to me.  When Dra. Carrera asked questions, it was always the mom who answered, which was unusual because whoever comes with the girl typically stays quiet while she answers questions.  I noticed that the girl seemed pleasantly disconnected and wondered if she was deaf and/ or mute.  The check up was fine but after they left, Dra. Carrera told me that the girl was mentally retarded and she had been raped. It made me so sad.

Listening to the heart of a newborn!  Today, one baby's heart
was beating very fast and it had a murmur, which I could
actually hear!

After the morning patients, we go to a different section of the clinic to check the babies that have just been delivered.  They have three rooms that each hold about 8 girls and their newborns.  The beds are lined up along each wall and we go to each of them, one at a time.  The youngest baby that I have seen so far was only 14 hours old!  What incredibly interesting creatures young babies are.  There are completely helpless beings; it is amazing that we all started in this exact same way.  Dra. Carrera checks their heads, and she sometimes lets me touch them too.  It is really cool to feel where the bones in the cranium haven’t fused together yet!  She also presses on their skin to see if they have jaundice.  She listens to their hearts, checks their privies and moves their legs in circles and then presses their knees to either side in order to make sure that they to not have hip dysplasia.  Sometimes, she also has to draw their blood.

Today I stayed later and sat with the girls as another doctor
explained to them how to clean around the umbilical cord,
wash their babies, breast feed and store breast milk.

Me and Andres, who is almost finished medical school!

I really wish that I knew more Spanish so I could talk to the girls.  Some of them seem happy and express love towards their newborns, others look exhausted and a few might be depressed.  I want to hear their stories and offer some words of encouragement but I am afraid to talk too much.  (The other night at dinner, I was trying to say “she is afraid” and I ended up saying a curse word).  Dra. Carrera has an intern named Andres who speaks a little bit of English, so he talks to me n English and I try to respond in Spanish but I understand him a lot better than he understands me.  I think that in the States, we are a lot more tolerant of accents and mispronunciations than are people who speak Spanish.  Spanish is much more specific about enunciation.  For example, the word carne, with emphasis on the a, means meat.  But the word carné, with emphasis on the e, means card.  So things can get confusing real fast.

I am still taking Spanish classes in the afternoons, but tomorrow is my last one.  Today was also the first day of the semester at school, so now I will have to start reading my textbooks in the afternoons!

Last Day of School and the Middle of the World

My class!

 Yesterday was my last day at the school, and I was so sad to leave the kids.  We went to music class and sang and danced.  It was mostly a regular school day, but I taught the kids an English lesson!  We went over hello, how are you, colors, animals and days of the week. The kids all kept giving me hugs because they were sad too that I was leaving.  At the end of the day, the kids lined up to each give me a hug and a kiss and it was just so sweet I almost cried.  My teacher, Juanita, told me too that she wishes I could stay.  She told me that I remind her of her son, who is a doctor and a professor at a university.  She told me to keep in touch and come back soon.

Dancing in music class

Las ninas 

Mi amiga Valentina and me in the courtyard

My teacher, Juanita

Teaching English

Playing on the playground

That afternoon, we went to the middle of the world, which is where the equator and the prime meridian intersect.  There is a big statue with North, South, East and West labeled on each side and the world sitting on top.  There were playgrounds, shops and restaurants, a museum, and a 

planetarium but we mostly just walked around and 

took pictures.

Today, we slept in (for the first time) and then walked the city of Quito.  We went in the San Fransisco church, which took 170 years to finish.  It was the most beautifully intricate church that I have ever seen.  Quito is actually a very nice city because they have a lot of parks that are super green and almost seem like they are straight out of a movie because people are actually jogging on the pathways and playing soccer and on the playground.  We also passed by a volleyball tournament that was kind of weird because they played with a soccerball and never spiked it. 

I also got to see how to get to the hospital that I am working at next week because I will be travelling there alone on the trolle bus, which gets very crowded.  Tomorrow we are going to the biggest market in South America to shop!

The Second Week

I spent this week volunteering in the school in the mornings and taking classes in the afternoon.  We have moved through all of the basics and are working on irregular past participles and the imperative.  It really is a lot to learn, especially since we don’t have too much free time until after dinner, which can last for an hour or more.  Recently, we have each been required to prepare a presentation for the dinner table to help us practice speaking.  We can talk about whatever we want, so I wrote about visiting Peru and working as a lifeguard in the summers.

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with Dr. Alvear, who is the coordinator for the local hospitals and clinics that we will be working in.  We are going to meet every Tuesday and each time, two of us are going to present on something about Ecuador.  Colleen talked about teenage pregnancy and Alyson gave a brief history of the country.  It was actually named for the Equator, which runs through the country.  We are actually planning to visit “the middle of the world” tomorrow, which should be pretty cool. 

During the meeting, we also talked about the government, because Ecuador is having their presidential election next month.  Dr. Alvear told us that the government controls everything, even though they say that the people are “free” and Ecuadorians have to file tax reports every month.  There are also restrictions on how many hours per week people can work, so if you need some extra money and want to work overtime, you can’t.  There is a huge division between upper class and lower class; the later accounts for 50% of the population.  She said that in poor families, the boys are sent to school and the girls stay home, which contributes to the lack of family planning and high teenage pregnancy rates.  Many of the people are Catholic, which also dissuades young girls from using contraception.  The society is also machismo, so girls and women have to ask their husbands/ boyfriends to go to the clinic to receive contraception, which is another major deterrent.  Abortions are illegal, but often a woman who does not want to be pregnant will get an almost-abortion and then go to the hospital and have a stillbirth.  Alyson and Erin have been at the maternidad hospital this week and they say that there is a large room full of women who have spontaneously lost their babies.

Dr. Alvear explained to us about how the government takes advantage of the  people in poverty to get reelected.  Every Saturday, the president comes on the radio and talks about all of the great things that he is doing.  For example, the government spent $1 million to build a school in one indigenous village.  It is complete with state-of-the-art computers and the latest technology.  So the people who hear that the president did this think “oh wow, that was so nice… the government must really care… etc etc.”  The problem, she said, was that the poor population is illiterate and lack critical thinking skills.   This propaganda is the onl information they receive because they can’t read a newspaper or anything else.  They also fail to realize that while that one school is helping that one area, there are more efficient ways of spending that money. 

It seems that one of the main goals of this government is health care for the poor population.  I think that if a teenage girl gets pregnant, she receives $30/ month from the government (I think it’s something like that).  There is also something similar to welfare for low-income families.  And Dr. Alvear said that it’s nice that they have something to live on but it also allows the cycle to continue.  She said that what the government really needs to do is create jobs for these people to work.  Sound familiar?

Today, we did not have class in the afternoon, but went on a short tour of Quito.  We drove to the top of a big hill to see the city from up high.  We took a few pictures and then drove over to El panecillo, which is a statue of the virgin Mary that overlooks the city.  Then, we went to see a church and while I was going to take a picture of it, I ended up talking to some guy from Italy who spoke Spanish.  And I had a whole conversation in Spanish!!  I felt so proud because when I came ehrej less than two weeks ago, my vocabulary consisted of hola, buenos diaz, and como esta.  Then today, I had about an hour long conversation!  It wasn’t fluent but we did talk about what I was doing in Quito and how having conversations with people is a better way to learn a language than in classroom.  He said that English is the number one language to know, and Spanish is number two.  He was there with his niece, who he wants to learn English.  I traded email addresses with her so that we can both practice our respective languages.

Tomorrow is my last day in the school and I am very sad to leave my children.  My teacher told them today that it would be last day tomorrow and they were all so sad, saying “noooo, Brooke, you should just live here!” 

Well, that’s a thought.