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