We arrived back in Quito yesterday and are preparing to leave for Peru tonight. This past week was great, although Maureen, Katie, and Ashleigh have all gotten sick! My immune system is standing strong against the food, and I'm praying that it stays that way for 2 more weeks =) We spent the week in 3 different places: Puerto Lopez, Montanita, and Cuenca. Puerto Lopez is a little town on the coast where we got to see hump back whales (they are HUGE and amazing!) and we toured an island off the coast, the "poor man's Galapagos Islands". Then we headed to Montanita, a total surfer town with lots of night life and a great beach. After the coast we headed to Cuenca for 2 days where we toured the city, saw some beautiful churches, and then spent a day in a nearby indigenous village. In the village, the women cooked for us (I ate Guinea Pig!!), and they played music and taught us about medicinal plants. It was very interesting.
While in Puerto Lopez we met some Ecuadorian guys that showed us around a bit. Several have done schooling in Canada, and one of them is a doctor in Ecuador. It was fun to hang out with some of the "locals". Its funny because many times we get charged "gringo prices", meaning because we aren't from Ecuador almost everything here is more expensive for us. But when we were with the guys they were always getting the bills and entrance fees discounted. "Dame una discuenta" they would say and it worked every time! Very convenient =)
Tonight Ashleigh and I head off for Peru to see the famous Machu Picchu and the Amazon. I'm really excited to see it; I'm just praying for nice weather. We will be on the Lares trail for 4 days and camping so I hope it doesn't rain. Yesterday I met a family that just returned from Machu Picchu and they said it was great. Yay! Katie left this morning for Wisconsin, and I have to admit that i'm jealous that she will be spending tonight on the terrace!
Next time I write I will probably be done with my trip. I think about all of you often and I'm praying that your summers, jobs, etc. are going well.
Take care!
Katie
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Brain surgery and travels
Hey everyone!
I can hardly believe that this is my last week in Quito. On saturday, Katie, Ashleigh, Maureen, and I are heading to Puerto Lopez, a city on the coast of Ecuador. We are planning on spending the week at various cities along the coast to sunbathe and do some whale watching and snorkeling. Then Asheigh and I head to Peru! My time in Quito has been great, and I´m going to miss it here I´m sure, but I´m excited to move on too.
This week my clinical rotation is in Emergency Surgery, and I got to see a brain surgery today! It was so cool! I took about 20 pictures I think =) This guy had a huge subdural hematoma in his right temporal lobe so that it was compressing his lateral ventricle to the point that you couldn´t even see it on the MRI. So I got to watch the surgeon literally take a drill to the skull and then saw through parts of it. It was absolutely incredible! It was so unreal.
Last weekend a bunch of us went to Otavalo, which is the largest artisan market in South American I am told. It was really cool, but of course I spent way too much money on souvenirs =) Yesterday, Katie, Ashleigh, and I cooked dinner with our host mom. She always makes such wonderful food so we wanted to learn some of her dishes. Well she decided to show us how to deep fry everything! It was hysterical, because she always cooks us really tasty healthy meals, but the deep frying was really fun. We made this batter with all of these great spices and then rolled everything from Tilapia to graded carrots in it and stuck it in the oil. Then we made crepes! It was a fun afternoon. I think I´m going to miss my host mom here the most out of everything in Quito.
I need to be off soon, sorry this is short. Like I said before, it´s hard to capture Ecuador in words and I have TONS of pictures, so when I get back I can give you a better idea of what I´ve been up to.
Michael if you read this before your big day, I want to send you a huge CONGRATULATIONS! I wish you and Katy the best! I hope your honeymoon in Argentina is great, and I´m so sorry I´m missing your wedding, but I will be thinking of you both. =)
I miss you all!
Katie
I can hardly believe that this is my last week in Quito. On saturday, Katie, Ashleigh, Maureen, and I are heading to Puerto Lopez, a city on the coast of Ecuador. We are planning on spending the week at various cities along the coast to sunbathe and do some whale watching and snorkeling. Then Asheigh and I head to Peru! My time in Quito has been great, and I´m going to miss it here I´m sure, but I´m excited to move on too.
This week my clinical rotation is in Emergency Surgery, and I got to see a brain surgery today! It was so cool! I took about 20 pictures I think =) This guy had a huge subdural hematoma in his right temporal lobe so that it was compressing his lateral ventricle to the point that you couldn´t even see it on the MRI. So I got to watch the surgeon literally take a drill to the skull and then saw through parts of it. It was absolutely incredible! It was so unreal.
Last weekend a bunch of us went to Otavalo, which is the largest artisan market in South American I am told. It was really cool, but of course I spent way too much money on souvenirs =) Yesterday, Katie, Ashleigh, and I cooked dinner with our host mom. She always makes such wonderful food so we wanted to learn some of her dishes. Well she decided to show us how to deep fry everything! It was hysterical, because she always cooks us really tasty healthy meals, but the deep frying was really fun. We made this batter with all of these great spices and then rolled everything from Tilapia to graded carrots in it and stuck it in the oil. Then we made crepes! It was a fun afternoon. I think I´m going to miss my host mom here the most out of everything in Quito.
I need to be off soon, sorry this is short. Like I said before, it´s hard to capture Ecuador in words and I have TONS of pictures, so when I get back I can give you a better idea of what I´ve been up to.
Michael if you read this before your big day, I want to send you a huge CONGRATULATIONS! I wish you and Katy the best! I hope your honeymoon in Argentina is great, and I´m so sorry I´m missing your wedding, but I will be thinking of you both. =)
I miss you all!
Katie
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Clinics and more!
Hey everyone,
Yes, I´m still here- I have been terrible at keeping up this blog! Since our program officially started last week they have kept us really busy. My free time is few and far between during the week. But things are going really well. Last week I was doing my clinical rotation in a hospital called "La Maternidad". It is the major birthing hospital in Quito and surrounding areas. It was a great experience, but it was also very hard to watch. The resources are scarce, and as such, the expecting mothers are lined up in cots along the hallways waiting to enter the "Dilation" room. In this room there are about 8 woman lined up all having contractions and dilating. There is absoultely no privacy or respect for privacy. Most of the woman are lying there uncovered and forced to use a bed pan in front of everyone. Once a woman in 10 cm dilated and ready to give birth she is wheeled into another room to deliver. This room is NOT the comfortable birthing suites we see in the States. It is cold, cement, and bare. The door is kept wide upen during delivery and the woman that are waiting in the hallway can see inside. Family is not allowed within the entire floor and most of the girls giving birth are 16, 17,18 years old. It´s just a whole different world.
This week I am in the social security hospital in Quito on the Internal Medicine floor. I really like it here. Whereas at La Maternidad I felt almost like an intrudor and very in the way, here at this hospital I feel like the doctors want me here and they love teaching. They are very good about speaking more slowly for me and making sure I understand the diagnosis. I also get to walk around with the medical students there. It´s really interesting to see how schooling is done here. I have seen a lot of cases of HIV, Tuberculosis, sepsis, infected abcysts,etc.
Outside of my experiences in clinic, I´ve been taking a lot of spanish classes and spending a lot of time with Ashleigh, Katie, and my host mom here. We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a beautiful little town 2 hours outside of Quito.There we went on a long hike through the mountains and saw 7 waterfalls. We also went to a butterfly garden. It was just absolutely beautiful there! Exactly how I imagine south america looking like. And our hostel had HOT water! This first hot shower I´ve had since being here. It was heavenly! =) This next weekend we are planning a trip to Baños.
Well I should get going to my classes for the afternoon. Tonight we are taking Salsa dance lessons! We might try and go dancing tomorrow night. I´m pretty excited. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I miss you! This blog is difficult, because I feel like I´m seeing and experiencing so much and it just can´t be put into a quick blog post. But I will be more than happy to give every detail when I return to the states!
Chao!
Katie
Yes, I´m still here- I have been terrible at keeping up this blog! Since our program officially started last week they have kept us really busy. My free time is few and far between during the week. But things are going really well. Last week I was doing my clinical rotation in a hospital called "La Maternidad". It is the major birthing hospital in Quito and surrounding areas. It was a great experience, but it was also very hard to watch. The resources are scarce, and as such, the expecting mothers are lined up in cots along the hallways waiting to enter the "Dilation" room. In this room there are about 8 woman lined up all having contractions and dilating. There is absoultely no privacy or respect for privacy. Most of the woman are lying there uncovered and forced to use a bed pan in front of everyone. Once a woman in 10 cm dilated and ready to give birth she is wheeled into another room to deliver. This room is NOT the comfortable birthing suites we see in the States. It is cold, cement, and bare. The door is kept wide upen during delivery and the woman that are waiting in the hallway can see inside. Family is not allowed within the entire floor and most of the girls giving birth are 16, 17,18 years old. It´s just a whole different world.
This week I am in the social security hospital in Quito on the Internal Medicine floor. I really like it here. Whereas at La Maternidad I felt almost like an intrudor and very in the way, here at this hospital I feel like the doctors want me here and they love teaching. They are very good about speaking more slowly for me and making sure I understand the diagnosis. I also get to walk around with the medical students there. It´s really interesting to see how schooling is done here. I have seen a lot of cases of HIV, Tuberculosis, sepsis, infected abcysts,etc.
Outside of my experiences in clinic, I´ve been taking a lot of spanish classes and spending a lot of time with Ashleigh, Katie, and my host mom here. We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a beautiful little town 2 hours outside of Quito.There we went on a long hike through the mountains and saw 7 waterfalls. We also went to a butterfly garden. It was just absolutely beautiful there! Exactly how I imagine south america looking like. And our hostel had HOT water! This first hot shower I´ve had since being here. It was heavenly! =) This next weekend we are planning a trip to Baños.
Well I should get going to my classes for the afternoon. Tonight we are taking Salsa dance lessons! We might try and go dancing tomorrow night. I´m pretty excited. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I miss you! This blog is difficult, because I feel like I´m seeing and experiencing so much and it just can´t be put into a quick blog post. But I will be more than happy to give every detail when I return to the states!
Chao!
Katie
Saturday, May 31, 2008
One week in!
So I've been in Quito for a week now and I feel like I'm starting to understand the city a lot better. The street names, restaurants, and neighborhoods are becoming somewhat familiar. Ashleigh and I have had some adventures this past week! Including my having to use an epi-pen when Ashleigh had an allergic reaction to peanuts that were mysteriously hidden in her soup! Apparently a lot of Ecuadorian dishes have "mani"" (peanuts) ground up in creamy liquids. We are going to be much more careful from now on.
Yesterday Ashleigh and I went up the mountains in Quito on this gandala. It was gorgeous! You could see for miles and miles. Then we did some hiking around the top of the mountains. We were 4000 meters above sea level (Quito itself is 3000 meters above sea level) and we could definitely feel the altitude effects. We would climb just a little way and have to stop to catch our breath. But it was such a beautiful and tranquil place. Such a change from the hustle and bustle of Quito. I can't even begin to describe the sites, and pictures don't capture it, but take my word for it. It was gorgeous!
We have both purchased some "lovely" Ecuadorian sweaters from a local market! We officially fit in now =) It's been so cold here that we just needed some more warm clothes. And the shower situation is still really cold! I'm starting to get used to it though. I feel like every shower I've had is a little bit better. I'm absolutely loving the food that Francia (our host mom) is serving us. She is a fabulous cook! Every night we have a different variety of soup, some fresh vegetables, and then a great main dish of some sort. She is from Chile and cooks a lot of traditiona chilean dishes.
Katie Steingraeber arrived late last night, so now there are three of us! We went to "mitad del mundo" today which literally means "middle of the world". It is city outside of Quito where you can actually straddle the equator. It's a pretty tacky tourist spot; sort of reminded me of a wierd sort of Disney world! But there were a lot of cute cafes and restaurants. Then we went on a tour of a nearby active volcano and crater. The indigenous people actually live inside this crater surrounding the volcano. It was beautiful! But it's amazing to witness the way they live. There is really no transportation in or out of it, except for this winding path that climbs the walls of the crater. I can't imagine walking up it!
We have the orientation to our program tomorrow. I'm so excited to get working in the clinics. We took about 15 hours of Spanish lessons this past week and will continue with about 30 more for the next for weeks. I definitely feel like my Spanish is improving, but I still speak very brokenly! I'm anxious to meet the other students in our program tomorrow.
That's all for now. We are off to buy some bananas and show Katie the Quito equivalent of Central Park- El Parque Carolina. It's a great park with a lot of joggers and tons of soccer games being played. (I love that soccer is such a huge deal down here!)
Chao Chao!!
Yesterday Ashleigh and I went up the mountains in Quito on this gandala. It was gorgeous! You could see for miles and miles. Then we did some hiking around the top of the mountains. We were 4000 meters above sea level (Quito itself is 3000 meters above sea level) and we could definitely feel the altitude effects. We would climb just a little way and have to stop to catch our breath. But it was such a beautiful and tranquil place. Such a change from the hustle and bustle of Quito. I can't even begin to describe the sites, and pictures don't capture it, but take my word for it. It was gorgeous!
We have both purchased some "lovely" Ecuadorian sweaters from a local market! We officially fit in now =) It's been so cold here that we just needed some more warm clothes. And the shower situation is still really cold! I'm starting to get used to it though. I feel like every shower I've had is a little bit better. I'm absolutely loving the food that Francia (our host mom) is serving us. She is a fabulous cook! Every night we have a different variety of soup, some fresh vegetables, and then a great main dish of some sort. She is from Chile and cooks a lot of traditiona chilean dishes.
Katie Steingraeber arrived late last night, so now there are three of us! We went to "mitad del mundo" today which literally means "middle of the world". It is city outside of Quito where you can actually straddle the equator. It's a pretty tacky tourist spot; sort of reminded me of a wierd sort of Disney world! But there were a lot of cute cafes and restaurants. Then we went on a tour of a nearby active volcano and crater. The indigenous people actually live inside this crater surrounding the volcano. It was beautiful! But it's amazing to witness the way they live. There is really no transportation in or out of it, except for this winding path that climbs the walls of the crater. I can't imagine walking up it!
We have the orientation to our program tomorrow. I'm so excited to get working in the clinics. We took about 15 hours of Spanish lessons this past week and will continue with about 30 more for the next for weeks. I definitely feel like my Spanish is improving, but I still speak very brokenly! I'm anxious to meet the other students in our program tomorrow.
That's all for now. We are off to buy some bananas and show Katie the Quito equivalent of Central Park- El Parque Carolina. It's a great park with a lot of joggers and tons of soccer games being played. (I love that soccer is such a huge deal down here!)
Chao Chao!!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
We arrived!
Ashleigh and I arrived safely! We left Chicago and 3:00 am yesterday morning (which seems like days ago!) and arrived in Quito at 1:30 pm yesterday afternoon. We were taken to our new residence for the next 6 weeks and met out host mom. Her name is Francia. She is really sweet! She is an older woman and her kids are all grown up. She doesn't speak much English, which I suppose is good because it is forcing me to use my terrible Spanish! Hopefully I learn quickly.
Today I had to take the worst shower of my life! The water was freezing cold!! I couldn´t breathe. I´m really hoping there was just something wrong with the so called ¨hot¨ water this morning, but I have a bad feeling that I might have to get used to some shocking morning wake ups in the shower.
Ashleigh and I spent this morning touring the Old City. It´s beautiful! I think I like it better than the New City. There are a lot of old churches and cathedrals. We climbed the towers of the basilica and could see the entire city. But I think we got ripped off because some guy told us we had to buy tickets to climb the towers, but then no one collected the tickets.... well live and learn I guess. We are having fun so far. It´s so wierd being in a place where I stick out like a sore thumb- I´m white, tall, and obviously do not know where I am going. Tomorrow we start our language classes and will meet our program director. I´m excited to meet the other students next week.
That´s all for now!
Today I had to take the worst shower of my life! The water was freezing cold!! I couldn´t breathe. I´m really hoping there was just something wrong with the so called ¨hot¨ water this morning, but I have a bad feeling that I might have to get used to some shocking morning wake ups in the shower.
Ashleigh and I spent this morning touring the Old City. It´s beautiful! I think I like it better than the New City. There are a lot of old churches and cathedrals. We climbed the towers of the basilica and could see the entire city. But I think we got ripped off because some guy told us we had to buy tickets to climb the towers, but then no one collected the tickets.... well live and learn I guess. We are having fun so far. It´s so wierd being in a place where I stick out like a sore thumb- I´m white, tall, and obviously do not know where I am going. Tomorrow we start our language classes and will meet our program director. I´m excited to meet the other students next week.
That´s all for now!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Hello everyone!
This is more of my practice blog =) I haven't done anything exciting yet, but I leave tomorrow night and I'm very excited! Let's hope that I packed well. I am actually able to fit all of my clothes in one suitcase! For those of you who know how terribly I pack- this is an impressive feat for 2 months of packing!
Just to fill everyone in on what I will be doing: I am traveling to Ecuador with Child Family Health International. For the first 5 weeks in Quito I will be taking Spanish classes, living with a host family, and rotating through a couple of different medical clinics throughout Quito. After my program is done, I am going to travel a little more in Ecuador and then go to Peru to climb Machu Picchu and go into the Amazon.
Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and prayer. I will try to update my blog as much as possible to keep you posted on my travels. I'm sure that Ashleigh, Katie, and I will have many adventures.
This is more of my practice blog =) I haven't done anything exciting yet, but I leave tomorrow night and I'm very excited! Let's hope that I packed well. I am actually able to fit all of my clothes in one suitcase! For those of you who know how terribly I pack- this is an impressive feat for 2 months of packing!
Just to fill everyone in on what I will be doing: I am traveling to Ecuador with Child Family Health International. For the first 5 weeks in Quito I will be taking Spanish classes, living with a host family, and rotating through a couple of different medical clinics throughout Quito. After my program is done, I am going to travel a little more in Ecuador and then go to Peru to climb Machu Picchu and go into the Amazon.
Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and prayer. I will try to update my blog as much as possible to keep you posted on my travels. I'm sure that Ashleigh, Katie, and I will have many adventures.
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