mi gusta ecuador 11/21/2009
 
11/19  This is as good as it gets.  I woke this morning to the sound of roasters, and dogs in my bamboo room under my pink mosquito net and rushed to eat my breakfast of rice, eggs and instant coffee. I ran out the door to the bus stop but jump into the next pickup truck that comes along with 7 others. I feel the wind on my face and for once it is not raining. I am running late, for work but that is ok here, and i´ll still probably be one of the first to arrive.  

 

I arrive at the salud central in Salango. The waiting area filled with patients and children and one dog that I shoe out. I say hello to the other nurse who is there, and make my way back to the ´med room¨ were the computer I got for the hospital is now located.  I start entering hand written information into excel files and I think to my self how ironic that of all people I should be helping  put technology into use at a hospital. I hate documentation. I am bad with computers, but I know the importance of both. My idea to get the files backed up in a computer, printed, and to get internet access for the hospital, ( that might be a little bit more tricky, as of now the town does not have internet but I heard it could. Even obtaining this computer was a difficult task) A set back to my plan, the electricity goes out, it will be out now for a couple hours.

 

 I grab my bag and head out to the town with the doctor to take a senses of the residence. I take a black marker and write numbers on the houses. Address don’t exists here,  and its fascinating to see that they are staring to now for health promotion.  We interview all the residents and I do a basic assessment.  The doctor and I walk back and I point out things in English to him and he points them out in Spanish.

 

I leave work early and eat fast a lunch of rice and some undetermined type of meat.  Heading to the beach I meet my friend Diane and 20 children for a planned beach cleanup. I buy them soda,  2 3 liter bottles for 3 dollars. Diane brings cookies all of this a very special treat. The children collect sacks of garbage off the beach. Their reward Diane and I have negotiated with the local vacation resort that if we clean the beach the children can swim in the pool, swimming and snacks can make lots of smiles.

 

I head back to my house and grab a surf board that a friend left for me to use before leaving to go work on a shrimp farm, in a town without electricity 2 hours north of paradise. Jobs are hard to come by here.  I run down the road with multiple dogs at heel, and jump on a bus going past. (Buses are the arteries of Ecuador )

 

The waves are big the water is warm. I surf only for a short time, I need to get back to my village so I can take peoples blood pressures and blood sugars. Yesterday I spent 6 hours on a bus threw deserts and rainforest, along twisty steep roads on crowded hot buses to reach a town were I could obtain a glucometer for an unreasonable price, but to me it’s a necessity.  I am using it to check the sugar of known diabetics in my town.  Next week after I finish a presentation about diabetes and how to use the glucometer for the nurses and doctor I work with I am donating it to the hospital I volunteer at. I do all this with out speaking the language and every advance feels like a mile stone for me. Hours are spent on simple translations so I can educate and also so I can learn.

 

I can’t rightfully describe my experience here or try to explain what living in a shanty town is like. Sometimes I feel like I am in the twilight zone, I try to make sense of what I see. The fridge plugged in but door ajar rotten food surrounded by flies. The patients house I enter has nothing but a hammock and TV blaring the same cheesy soap operas in Spanish that everyone seems to watch. chickens on kitchen counters , high heeled shoes in mud.   I do not judge and I try not to enter my own values. I can only be here to help as help is wanted for now.  Maybe the two tasks of diabetes education and computerized technology doesn’t seem like enough or the right type of help but for now its what I have to offer. I am learning the culture I am befriending the people.  I have to wake up early to take fasting blood sugars around town, so I will start to end this…

 

I can only say this is an amazing experience, the beginning of the week I did pap smears, the end of the week house visits.  My plans of traveling to the Amazon and rafting, seeing Galapagos, or traveling the U.S on my return are rapidly changing. Its hard to rationalize spending money on simple pleasures when a little here can go a long way. I do miss my family a lot.  And a part of my misses hot showers and security.  But I have found my place, this is what I love this is where I belong right now.  
 


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