May 25, 2011

Buenas Amigos y Familia! 

Your letters and emails in response to the blogs are fabulous - and giving me motivation to keep writing and keep sharing.  I am delighted to see that they are somewhat entertaining enough to keep your attention.  Thanks for all the support.  For all those buried in a snowdrift right now, I am hesitant to report that it is about 85 degrees in Monte Sinai today (according to my trusty internal thermometer)...  The rains have started.  Night times are loud with the rain pounding on our metal roof.  I wake me up a couple times a night from the pounding.  This is surprising, considering the honks of the water trucks don´t even make me flinch in my sleep.

The last part of January, into March has been absolutely overwhelming for me.  The first month in Ecuador was a Honeymoon period - everything was new and exciting.  From there I moved into a period of frustration with the language and my job...maybe a bit of homesickness. The Holidays kept me busy as I started to get accustomed to life here and finding my niche in the community.  I was starting to find my feet, feeling a part of Monte Sinai and feeling like I knew tiny bit of what was going on around me.  Right now, the harsh realities are poverty are hitting me hard as Monte Sinai and my job are undergoing a few changes.

The day after New Years, my housemates and I woke up to some very active streets outside of our house.  There were in the streets loaded with house-building materials.  The stores were nearly cleaned out of food, no bread left in the bakeries, and people upon people walking in the streets.

We soon learned from Bolivar (local store owner) that president Correa had denounced Marco Solis and all the "owners" of the invasion communities in Guayaquil.  They had been trafficking land, or selling government land to private owners without permission from the government.  Correa put a large price tag on the heads of all the land traffickers, who fled the scene overnight.  Rumor has it they are hiding in Germany...  Anyone who had bought land from Marco Solis could keep their land and their house.  All other land went to the government.  Naturally, the news spread like wildfire, and people started rushing to Mount Sinai to claim all the unclaimed land, throw up a house real quickly, and claim that they had bought the land from Marco Solis.  People started "squatting" on land plots (guarding it so others could not take it over), others stole already-standing houses.  The rest built flimsy cane and tarp structures to claim the land when the military came to take a census.  Today, a month later, people are still building.  The streets have quieted down considerably, and we are still waiting for the military census.  In some areas, the government is knocking down cane structures, claiming the territory back for the government.  There are occasional tire-burning protests in the surrounding communities as the government moves in.  Marco Solis and his comrades are nowhere to be seen.

My housemates and I have had considerable conversations about this transition to government control.  We are experiencing this transition from Western, developed country ideals and by no means understand the situation around us.  But from our conversations with neighbors about invasion neighborhood history, this transition had to happen sometime.  In many ways, this is a good transition for the community.  The government now has to recognize Monte Sinai as part of the city and provide the basic public services.  (Electricity, water, security force, and trash removal).  But with massive amounts of people, comes crime, drugs, gangs, and violence.  Don´t worry parents - this comes a few years down the road.  But for our neighbors, it is a great concern.

Without a basic infrastructure - schools, libraries, soccer fields, kids are left to walk the streets and find other activities to occupy their time.

Right now, it seems to be a race against the clock...  If the neighborhoods don´t form strong communities, security systems, and alternative options for their kids, the streets could become very dangerous very quickly.

With the turn of the new year, my job changed considerably.  They revised the health program at Hogar de Cristo and decided that we have too many eggs in one basket - that is too many small projects running and not enough hands to keep track of them all.  I agree 100%...but unfortunately it is the projects of the volunteer that get cut first.  So yes, the HIV talks are no more.  Verónica is very disappointed.  I had put a ton of time and effort into developing that program and learning the HIV-Spanish lingo.  We had finally gotten to the point of having measurable results and educating a good handful of people.  I ended up with a lot of time at the beginning of January to figure out where I want to focus my efforts for the rest of the year.  This gave me quite a bit of time in the neighborhood, and I rather fell in to the position of social worker in Monte Sinai.  Veronica is delighted - this is a great opportunity for us to develop some sort of protocol and list of contacts for families in dire situations.  I am also delighted, yet emotionally drained after my first 2 months of attempting to fulfill this position.  I have had the privilege to working with two cases during these months- both of which have profoundly affected my experience here in Ecuador.

Celinda is a 25 year old neighbor of Consuelo who lives with a mental disability (undiagnosed) in the midst of an extremely alcoholic and abusive household.  She lives with her single mother, younger brother (23 yrs) and 2 nieces in a chain house, barely elevated from the mud puddles underneath.

Her sister (Mariana) lives two houses down with 5 kids and dysfunctional husband.  The sister is an alcoholic as well and extremely abusive to her five kids.  Jenn has been working with this family to get the kids into the shelter - as they are left to the street, without school and many times without food.  On a couple of occasions, I have walked into Consuelo's house to find the five kids and the mother seated silently at the table with plates of chicken and rice sitting in front of them.  Consuelo and her kids are quick to sit me in a chair and serve me the same.  All the while, Consuelo does not have funds to send her kids to school.

At the beginning of January, Consuelo and a couple neighbor ladies began to notice that Celinda could be pregnant.  A visit to the hospital soon after showed 32 weeks of pregnancy and that Celinda would need a caesarian section.  Breaking this news to a family that already goes at least one day a week without eating was extremely hard.  A pregnancy means another mouth to feed, several trips to the doctor, and medical expenses.

We continued with minimal prenatal care throughout January, until Celinda gave birth to a baby girl on February 1st, 6 to 8 weeks premature.  (Each doctor came to a different conclusion as to how far along Celinda was with each ultrasound).  The baby was born extremely malnourished and rushed to the incubator soon after birth.  Celinda was diagnosed with active Tuberculosis in the hospital along with a heart murmur.  Despite her sickness, they sent Celinda home to recover

3 days after her caesarian section, keeping the baby for another 10 days.

Celinda and baby have now been home together for 3 weeks.  We found funds from Hogar de Cristo to buy milk, diapers, and vitamins for the baby.  I took my boss from Hogar de Cristo to visit her last week, and we found the baby extremely weak and malnourished still.  It turns out Celinda has been caring for the baby with the help of Jaqueline, a

12 year-old niece.  The grandma leaves the house everyday for work, unable to oversee the care of this child.  Concerned for the health of Celinda and baby, I took them by bus (yes, a 2-kilogram baby on a public bus...) to one of the Hogar de Cristo sub-centers.  The doctor told us that Celinda needs to be admitted to the infectious disease hospital for her respiratory infection and heart condition.  I took Celinda back home and broke the news to her mother.  Sending Celinda to the hospital is not an option for them.  There would be no one to care for the baby, the house, or the kids.

For a week, Veronica and I have been bustling around Hogar de Cristo trying to figure out options for this family.  The situation is nearly impossible.  The women (mother and sister of Celinda) are the only ones who work in this household.  They both travel 1.5 hours into the city every day to clean houses, making just enough money for transportation and to feed 7 kids, plus Celinda, the baby, and themselves.  Sometimes various men will show up, eat the food, drink away the money, and then leave for long periods of time.  Celinda has undertaken the role of house-sitter and care-taker of the 7 grandchildren than hang around the house.  Without her, the women cannot work, and the family does not eat.  Poverty hurts.

We have found a few resources that could save the situation.  Hogar de Cristo partners with a church in New Jersey who provides funds for people in need.  They have offered a monthly $200 to buy milk and diapers.  We also found a foundation in Guayaquil for malnourished kids.  They could take the baby for 3 weeks and nurse her back to health - if the family will let us take the baby.  The Hogar volunteers have been incredibly supportive in offering a hand with this case.  We may form a rotating schedule to have people stay with Celinda in the hospital for her treatment.  The only thing missing is the trust and support of the grandmother.  If we can get all these working parts together, we may be able to move forward with treatment.

It is difficult for me to write about the second case, as I know I cannot explain everything.  Juan Carlos was our neighbor, living across the street from San Felipe in a cane house from Hogar de Cristo.  Juan lived alone with a mental disability, depending heavily on his neighbors for care.  He wandered the streets daily, collecting plastic bottles for recycling, kicking around the soccer ball with the kids, and grabbing a bite to eat here and there from the local store owners.  Although he was 35 years old, Juan had the spirit of a five-year-old -always coming up to me to shake my hand with a smile and to ask me where I was going.  If I was going to mass, he would come with.  He loved to be a part of the crowd, participating in the songs and never failing to smile the entire way through.

At the beginning of January, Juan was found in the street with convulsions.  A couple of neighbors rushed him to the Hospital del Guayaquil where they admitted him to the neurology unit.  Here he stayed for over a month.  My housemates and I found him in the hospital five days after being admitted.  He had not been bathed, did not have clean diapers, and had not received any diagnostic tests to progress with a diagnosis.  They had stopped the seizures, but since he did not have a family member with him they just let him lay there.

This was a hard lesson for my housemates and I to learn – medicine in Ecuador is a completely different ballgame than the system in the US.

The hospital provides only basic medical care.  The doctors rotate through the patient rooms in the morning, write out all the prescriptions for medication, write a small update in the patient records, and order tests.  It is then up to the family member to buy the medication, buy supplies for the tests, wheel the patient in their bed to and from the tests, remind the nurses to give the pills, bathe the patient, and feed the patient.  The following day, a different doctor will rotate through and read the small update from the day before and make his/her own assessments.  If the tests from the day before were not carried out, they order it again and move on.

With no luck in finding Juan´s family, my housemates and I "adopted"

him.  It was truly a pleasure to visit Juan every day in the hospital.

 We all learned the in´s and out´s of the hospital quickly.  When not chasing down doctors and nurses for tests, we tried to keep a smile on Juan´s face with coloring books and singing.  Maria Juana, Madre Nuri, and Fr. John joined us on several different occasions to pass time with Juan.

Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, we finally ran into Juan's sister, Fanny.  Juan was absolutely delighted to see her.  She helped us piece together Juan's story.  Had had been lost from his family for almost two years.  Juan had an adventurous spirit and often wandered out of the house, jumped on the bus, and went where ever the bus took him.  This was not the first time that Juan was lost from his

family for an extended period of time.   The longest period of time

was four years, lost from age 10 to age 14.  No one knows where he was, who took care of him, or what experiences he had during this time.  We did, however, put on our detective hats to figure out bits and pieces about his last two years.  Through talking to neighbors and friends, it seems Juan lived with an extremely abusive man outside of Mt. Sinai for several months before his neighbors rescued him and gave him a home in Mt. Sinai.  A little over a year, he livd alone in Mt.

Sinai.  Juan was extremely blessed to end up in the community that he did.  Maria Juana and Martha fed him, Danny and his kids walked with him in the street, the kids played soccer with him.  The nuns at San Felipe organized a bingo for Juan to pay for medications - we raised $130, which covered expenses for about 10 days.

After Juan's sister came, his health worsened considerably.  His HIV tests came back positive.  We suspected he had a serious case of AIDS as he suffered from several severe secondary infections.  These infections soon took over Juan's system, and after 6 weeks in the hospital he passed away.  It was time for him to pass onto the next world and rest.  He had suffered in many facets in his life from physical, mental, and most likely sexual abuse.  After being so sick and scared during his time in the hospital, passing from this world must have been an incredible relief for him.

Juan´s presence in Mount Sinai is greatly missed.  He was always a friendly face in the street open for a visit.  The community formed around him when he got sick. Everyone asked about him, many donated money for medication, and offered to visit him in the hospital.  Fr.

John said a mass in Juan´s name to celebrate his life, followed by a reception with cola and crackers where the family members could meet the community who had taken care of him.  It was a beautiful reunion between the two sides of Juan´s life who unfortunately never came together until he passed away.  My only hope is that he knew how much his community and his family loved him.  He greatly impacted many lives, including my own.

Well, it is now May 7.  Four months after I started this blog...  So much more has happened - I will have to turn around a start a whole new blog to give updates!  My work with Celinda continues (The baby weighs 5.2 Kg!!!).  She gets stronger every day.  We are still in contact with Fanny and Juan´s family who are looking into moving Juan´s house to a new location.

I heard that spring has hatched in the States.  I hope all is well where you are. And as my Grandpa always tells me, keep your plow in the ground and hand on the throttle.

Happy New Year!

January 3, 2011

Hola Todos! 

It has not hit me yet that we are in a new year – people here say “Feliz año viejo” (trsn. Happy

Old Year) half the time and “Feliz año nuevo” (trns. Happy New Year”) the other half of the time.  I am still trying to figure out which one I am supposed to be happy about.  The past year was probably the most challenging, yet adventurous and fulfilling year of my life so far.  I have a feeling this next year will be similar.  

Considering that I have not updated my blog since before Thanksgiving, here are a few highlights from the past few months… 

In the middle of November, Carlos and Alexis (supervisors of the community organizing office at Hogar de Cristo) asked me for help with a medical brigade.  We had 8 days to pull together a location for 500 patients, 21 doctors and 15 dentists.  Veronica (my boss) wanted nothing to do with the brigade, considering the disorganization and short notice.  I figured that if the doctors were willing to come, we might as well piece some sort of brigade together.  Maybe a few people would get to visit a doctor that normally would not have the opportunity.  Two days before the scheduled date, we finally found a location for the brigade (up until this time, I was convinced it was not going to happen).  It was amazing to see the community members pull together and take time out to clean the school, rearrange desks to form small exam rooms, hang sheets for curtains, squeeze 300 oranges for refreshments, and form a ticket system to organize the  500 patients expected to attend. 

From my North American perspective, the brigade was a train wreck.  Every detail that we had forgotten became blatantly obvious in the first 15 minutes of the event.  Our ticket system turned into a mass of demanding mothers pushing their children at the doctors (which turned out to be medical students).  The doctor´s didn´t have pens to write prescriptions, and dental patients had nowhere to spit, but on the classroom floors.  Details aside, I was taken back by how little the doctors actually did.  Of course, everyone wants the quick fix to their running nose and cough, so the doctors literally sat at the tables, handing out antibiotics for every sniffle and complaint.  I did not see one physical exam – not even eye contact between the doctors and the patients.  The dentists pulled teeth from patients sitting in plastic chairs, with pools of spit and blood on the classroom floors.  For lack of finding a place to make myself useful during this mess, I resorted to visiting with the patients (many of which I knew), holding babies, and handing out orange juice.  By 2 in the afternoon, the doctors had handed out all the antibiotics, packed up and took off. 

 I left the brigade with a huge rock in my stomach – wondering if we had done more harm than good.  Alexis and Carlos, on the other hand, left that day delighted at the work they had done.  They had successfully arranged for the doctors and patients to be in the same spot at the same time.  That was their job – and according to them, it went well….but I still left the brigade wondering if we did more harm than good.  People here are desperate for health care.  In desperate situations, anything goes.  Sanitation, regulations, and quality of care are the first to go.  We are feeding the mentality that antibiotics and medication are the quick fix to illness.  There are no records from that day, no referrals for the more serious cases, and no education for prevention for the patients.  What a missed opportunity! 

The beginning of December was soaked up by preparations for La Tercera Casa Abierta – Promoción de Salud.  Every December, Hogar has an open house, in honor of AIDS awareness month.  We invited Fundación Vihda and REDIMA (to large HIV organizations) to offer presentations and free HIV testing for anyone interested.  We invited over 600 people (including 3 high schools, residents of Mt. Sinai, and all the women enrolled in the micro loan program from Hogar).  Unfortunately, the principal of our biggest high school (300 students) let the kids out of class 2 hours early, but forgot to tell the kids to come to the talk … Later in the day, about 400 people came to the talk, so it was not a lost cause.  But, a huge missed opportunity for these kids and another example of the disorganization within these institutions. 

In Monte Sinai, December was a busy month for us.  Marita and Jeff decided to have a Christmas choir at Santa Teresa (one of our three churches), and I helped Marita organize a Christmas play.  The time spent practicing for these performances, along with singing Christmas carols with the kids at the San Felipe school, and participating in a Latin American Christmas tradition called Las Posadas made my advent season incredibly special this year.  We had three masses in Monte Sinai for Christmas.  At San Felipe, our six-member children´s choir performed the Christmas songs - complete with actions that they choreographed themselves.  For the Christmas play, we wrapped them in sheets, put angel wings on some and crowns on others.  They performed a captivating rendition of Jesus´ birth.  At San Felipe, several Josephs’ and Marys’ made an appearance, who also sat in the life-size manger during mass.  After each mass, we celebrated with food (rice and chicken) and of course cola, and moved on to the next mass. 

It was really good for me to celebrate Christmas without snow, Christmas lights, hot chocolate, and vast amounts of Christmas cookies.   I have spent my last four years of Advent cramming for finals in the library, relying on these material goods for my warm, fuzzy Christmas feeling. This year, there was almost nothing about my environment to get me into the Christmas mood.  That’s not exactly true… I did listen to the “Christmas Doo-Wop Party” while transplanting the watermelons in the garden (in shorts and a t-shirt) to get into the mood.  And, we did hang garland on our empty curtain hangers…  But needless to say, these preparations were nothing compared to my usual.  (My family can attest to my love for Christmas cookies and decorations).  The simplicity allowed me the time and space to focus hard on what Advent means to me – and how special Christmas can be without the fluff. 

The poverty in our community was not covered up by Christmas lights and caroling.  If anything, it became more apparent to me during the holidays.  It was well known which families may not have Christmas dinner or be able travel to see their families during this special time.  I was blown away by the concern people showed for others – the nuns, and a couple of our closest friends put a huge amount of time and thought into making the holiday special for those who would go without a Christmas dinner, or a special treat for the kids.  A couple of mom’s put on a neighborhood celebration for the kids on the 23^rd – with food, games, candy, clowns, and all.  Sylvia, from Santa Teresa, put tireless hours into decorating the church, preparing a meal for after Christmas mass, and organizing the kids for our performances.  Seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces during Christmas mass made my season complete. 

For the 25th, all the volunteers met at Sister Annie´s house (the director of Damien House - one of the Duran work sites).  Sister Annie prepared a huge Italian meal, complete with Eggplant Parmesan and Spaghetti.  From here, we all slept in Duran and took off early the next morning for vacation in the southern Sierra mountain range of Ecuador.  I am not sure how I got selected as the trip-organizer... I tend to travel without a plan.  My travel-buddies realized this soon after we got off the bus in Loja - after an hour walk trying to find our hostel.  It was only $4 dollars a night! - Complete with warm water and heavy blankets for sleeping.  After a long night in saggy beds, we woke up the next morning and jumped into a taxi to take us to the nearby Podocarpus National Park.  This park is famous for its cloud forest, which harbors the most ecosystems in one small area in the world.  Some friendly Germans picked us up at the entrance of the park and took us to the trail head, from where you can hike through various types of cloud forest.  The map advertised a 3 hour hike, looking relatively flat and easy to follow.  Three hours later, we were still hiking straight up a mountain peering over a canopy of forests and a vast landscape of mountains.  The entire loop took 5 hours to complete.  With our eyes full and stomachs beyond empty, we returned to Loja and caught our bus to Vilcabamba.

Vilcabamba is advertised as a quiet hippie town, full of foreigners (mostly Europeans) and tons of hiking, biking, and horseback riding opportunities.  Aaron, Kipp, Brenden, and I took advantage of all the mountaineering sports, starting our first day with a hike to a huge waterfall, nestled in the mountains.  Our second day, we rented bikes from "El Chino", and biked up the river with our lunches.  We spent quite a bit of time walking up the river, climbing rocks, drinking the water, and taking pictures.  The water in Vilcabamba is all fresh spring water - those who drink it are said to have longer lives. Our last day in Vilcabamba was the highlight for us all.  We scheduled a 4 hour trail ride with Holger Horses - a carefree mountain man from just outside of town.  Holger had a wild pack of horses.  We jumped on with little instruction and climbed the mountains once again, up to Holger´s farm which is situated on the side of a mountain.  Their farm was completely sustainable, with over 300 chickens, 4 cows, and a donkey for hauling water from the valley below.  His family fed us home-grown bananas and coffee and walked us up to the peak of the mountain to see all of Vilcabamba.  Mom- if I don´t come home next year, you will probably find me at Holger´s house giving trail rides and eating bananas...

With plans to catch a night bus back to Guayaquil from Loja, we decided to grab something to eat at the only place that sells cuy (the traditional coastal cuisine of roasted guinea pig) in Vilcabamba.  It was an interesting restaurant experience to say the least.  They serve the cuy oven-roasted sprawled out on a platter, all body parts intact.   To wash the cuy down, the owner of the restaurant treated us to his specialty drink, called snake juice. 

**Grandma, you may want to stop reading here... 

Snake juice is a cane liquor, in which one puts a large yellow and black coral snake in a large jar that sits by the cash register.  After 8-24 days of soaking, the alcohol is ready to serve - with a lot lime and salt.  Needless to say, we were lucky we could see straight enough to catch our buses to Loja and Guayaquil after filling ourselves with guinea pig and snake juice.  ‘Ya only live once,’ right?

**Grandma, start again here.

We returned to Mt. Sinai just in time to bring in the New Year.  Arriving home at 8:30 in the morning, the five of us took a quick nap and baked a huge batch of banana bread to distribute to our neighbors for the holidays.  We had a blast stopping by everyone´s house, drinking some cola at each, eating a mango here and some pan de pasqua (Christmas bread) there.  To the Spanish speakers out there, do not be confused.  Yes, Pascua does mean Easter, but pan de pascua is only eaten at Christmas.  Nobody seems to have an explanation for this tradition.  We ate turkey with avocado and custard at Consuelo´s house and ended at Marianna´s house for the midnight celebrations. 

Ecuadorians do not take the New Year lightly.  Each family buys a monegote (Piñata-like figure stuffed with fireworks) and lights it on fire at midnight.  We could hear explosions all over Mt. Sinai, as the streets were lined with bonfires.  Marianna treated us to chicken, rice, and hot chocolate at one in the morning for our first meal of the New Year.  We spent the next hour learning about the Ecuadorian customs for the New Year.  Here are a few that I found especially entertaining...  Ecuadorians pick 12 New Year´s resolutions.  If you want to keep these resolutions for the entire year, you need to eat a grape for each one, while wearing yellow underwear.  (I guess you need to plan ahead so they are clean for the New Year).  If you are planning to leave the country in the next year, you have to pack your suitcase on the night of the 31st and as the clock strikes midnight, sprint around the block.  This will give you safe travels on your journey outside the country.  Finally, if you are planning on traveling inside the country, the same exercise around the kitchen table will suffice.  I suppose wearing yellow underwear would not hurt if you so desired.  Stuffed full of holiday food, we left Marianna´s at 2 AM, played Foosball for an hour in the street, and crashed into bed at three in the morning.  The rest is history. 

So, here we are in 2011.  I am forever grateful for the opportunities that passed in 2010 - especially for my family and friends that have supported me all along the way.  If this New Year is anything like the past year, we are in for yet another adventure.  Who knows where this year will take us!?

November 2, 2010

I am sitting on a couch in AJS (Duran house) right now, sipping on a cup of steaming Don Cafe (the best of instant coffee), eating a banana, and waiting for the cyber to open.  Ecuadorians take All Saints Day seriously - we don´t have work until Thursday, so are trying to make the most of our 5 days off!  

I woke up with two ghosts in my room at 12:01 AM Halloween morning.  It brought my holiday in with a real fright - or as frightening as Jeff and Kipp underneath bed sheets can get.  Our group of 16 had a relaxing 3 day retreat in Playas (a beach town two hours from Guayaquil).  This was time to think about life, speak some English, jump some waves, and play "camping trip".  Unfortunately, our campfire plans did not work out...but we managed without.  Ethan flew from Seattle, Washington to lead the retreat and filled us in with the latest from the states.  It sounds like the campaign trail has started up again.  Politics is one thing we stay out of down here.  Ecuador recently had an attempted coop to sack Raphael Correa - Ecuador´s standing president.  Correa has been extremely vocal for the lower class - installing programs for free university education, and cutting wages to fund other projects.  I really don´t know enough to talk about it intelligently, but I do know that without a police force, the streets in Ecuador are crazy.  In the beginning of October, the police went on strike in response to a pay cut, leaving the rest of Ecuador to scurry to their houses, lock the doors, and stay out of the mayhem.  Fortunately, Monte Sinai was calm - Marco Solis hires a private police force to drive the streets...  Also, because Monte Sinai is underdeveloped, the most anyone could steal from the main street is a couple hundred pieces of bread, and maybe a few tomatoes.  Needless to say, we were completely safe. In Casa Tomas, we used our time in lockdown to make coop-kies and have some community bonding.  Aaron and I also made giant strides with the garden progress.  Aaron can give you an entertaining tour of our garden on You Tube (if you type in casa tomas 2010 Monte Sinai).  You may also find a tour of our house and maybe a song or two performed by the Sinai 5 LIVE!  

Anyway, back to the retreat.   I can honestly say that I had goose bumps for 3 days straight during the retreat -- not what I was expecting when going to a beach in Ecuador.  Nobody in our group planned for cool weather, which lead to a massive shortage in clothing.  It made me miss fall in the Midwest, hot apple cider, and colorful leaves.  We heard the Midwest had its first dusting of snow!  Tracy and Molly, you better be running in the cool weather...  Aaron and I went running on the beach during some free time.  It has been three months since I have had any form of extended physical activity.  Needless to say, my calves are on fire.  It feels fabulous.  

Speaking of Aaron... the one who decided it would be a good idea to use some strange leaves a toilet paper…..and Yes! Celso sped us to the ER in the gray van as Aaron puffed up like a roasted marshmallow in the back seat.  Aaron stayed remarkably calm...and found some comfort in explaining to me how to do a tracheotomy (hole in the throat for emergency breathing) with a ball point pen on our way to the hospital.  I had the ballpoint pen ready in one hand just to make him feel better, but don´t worry Mr. and Mrs. Pierre -- the ‘trach’ was completely unnecessary.  With a few shots and a bit of deflation time, Aaron was back on track.  We are now well stocked with toilet paper.  

We are actually having a hard time keeping Aaron away from the clinic.  A week ago, Aaron left a good centimeter of his pointer finger on the end of a machete as we rushed the rest of him to Sonrisa Naranja clinic for stitches.  Marita and I had a great time watching as they stitched the end of his pointer finger up like a drawstring bag.  The doctor thought it would be a good experience for me to give him his tetanus shot...in the butt.  Talk about community bonding.   I have been practicing drawing blood for HIV testing, so this was a piece of cake (or "es pan comido" as they say in Ecuador) for me.  Not so much for Aaron - apparently next time I need to be a bit quicker.  

The HIV/AIDS training has finally come to an end!  We had our first HIV charla last Tuesday for 73 socias (women who are enrolled in the microfinance program at Hogar).  As with most things at Hogar, gathering the final details together was a bit of a struggle.  But, the session went on, Daniel and Michelle from Fundación Vihda shared the 90 minute talk with me, and 37 women ended up getting tested!  Apparently these are really good odds for HIV talks.  I was really glad Daniel (a native speaker) was there to field questions.  These women were pretty fiery - a couple got on their high-horses, blaming men for the HIV epidemic.  That is not where we were hoping to go with this talk, but at least they are interested and thinking.  We are trying to clear the misconceptions that HIV is primarily carried by homosexuals and sex-traffickers.  Actually, in Ecuador, the highest instances of HIV are in the "Amas de las casas" (women of the house).  

I have also spent quite a bit of time at the Hogar health clinic in Segio Torral (30 minute bus ride from Monte Sinai).  The clinic just added a gynecologist, pediatrician, dentist, and pharmacist in addition to the lab tech and general medicine doctor that were already there.  The clinic looks like an old school house - one room for each doctor, a bench and a swing set outside for the waiting room.  The staff are great - the pediatrician took me under her wing to teach me a few things about medicine, and all of the doctors offered their arms for me to practice drawing blood.  (Don´t worry Mom, I am not drawing much blood -- but needed to know how just in case).  It is intimidating learning to draw blood on a doctor.  But I only failed miserably once...on the dentist.  His low pain tolerance, coupled with the fact that I could not find the blood in his arm was a bad combination.  Oh well.  I figure it was good for him to know how his patients feel.  

Otherwise, work is going well.  I have not blown up any computers lately and have succeeded in communicating with my boss a little better.  I have decided that she is not going to give me much direction -- and I just need to take initiative and get the jobs done.  So far, this attitude is working.  I am giving the "deer in headlights" look much less frequently and have made friends with the other Hogar volunteers.  Fabiola and Felix came to Casa Tomas for lunch the other day.  Felix is from Spain and Fabiola from Chile.  I took advantage of this opportunity to make them chili (haha) and breakfast cherry bars (which I believe was Eric´s first 4-H special foods presentation).  After lunch, I took them to Consuelo´s house for a visit -- who served us shots of homemade whiskey mixed with milk and raw eggs.  Usually I don´t know what I am being served - and try not to find out until I have finished it.  The alcohol was a bit of a surprise at 2pm in the afternoon.  

Our house has started to experiment a bit with meat!  I went with Madre Lucelli to the store the other day to buy ‘safe’ meat and cooked up a recipe of pollo con cola (chicken with cola) from our neighbor Aura.  This recipe consists of orange juice, cumin, garlic, onion, pepper, soy sauce, and cola.  I was not kidding when I said that cola is a big deal down here!  

I assisted Marita with her first Ecua-driving lesson the other day!  I think I am going to tape labels on each pedal before the second driving lesson.  A really big label for the brake would have been nice for the first time around as we tried to navigate the potholes...and a possum as it so happened.  But we are all alive (including the possum), and we successfully retrieved Jeff from his guitar lesson.  A couple more weeks/months of practice and Marita will be ready for the road. 

Monte Sinai had a rodeo to celebrate the independence of Guayaquil the other day.  They kicked off a weekend of festivities with a parade of horses through Monte Sinai.  Aaron and I paid a $3 admission to see the rodeo clowns tell jokes for a couple of hours (Ecuadorian humor is painfully not funny), followed by bronc riding.  They had 3 horses, 3 bulls, and one shoot.  Ecuadorian bronc riding is simple.  The cowboy jumps on the beast (with no halter, no saddle, and often times no shoes) they open the shoot, give the animal a hardy slap on the rump and see what happens.  Often times the horse just runs around the arena throwing a buck here and there.  When the cowboy falls off, everyone runs out there and chases the animal back in the shoot for the next rider.  Apparently audience members can ride too!  Thanks to Aaron´s large mouth, part of the crowd caught wind that the "gringa" rides horses.  Of course, they started chanting my name to go for a ride.  I must admit, I was tempted.  But yes, Dad, my common sense did kick in, and I respectfully declined the offer.  Aaron was also offered a ride...  what a great story that would have been to say we rode in an Ecuadorian rodeo!...  Maybe next time. 

As far as neighbor news goes, Luzmilah had her baby!  She left her house for the first time last weekend and brought her tiny little boy to church.  I am going to start visiting her again, now that she is feeling better.  She has now given birth to 5 kids in her house, with the help of her husband and sisters.  This is the family that is taking care of an 11 year old orphan without papers and without a family.  This little girl does not speak Spanish and can´t go to school without a birth certificate.  The lawyer at Hogar quit the day I planned to make an appointment for her.  We have been looking for a lawyer for the last 2 months with no luck.  That is how the system works down here.  Slow, frustrating, and dysfunctional.  

I have started teaching English on a regular basis to Miguel, Jose, and Maria (Consuelo´s kids).  They have recently stopped going to school because they cannot pay admission.  It is 10 dollars a month per child for high school.  I receive 40 dollars per month in stipend money (Extra money for transportation, shampoo, etc.).  It is all I can do not to hand over my stipend to get these kids an education.  Often times, handing over money does much more harm than good - I understand why we can´t do so.  But after being in this position, education has taken on a whole new meaning to me.  These kids want to learn so badly.  I am honored to spend a couple of hours with them each week.  

On a lighter note, Mariuxi and Cesar have started planning for my visit every Monday afternoon and cooking me lunch.  Jonathon (6 years old) is sitting by the door waiting every time I walk up.  Cesar always has list of challenging questions for me, and Mariuxi keeps asking when my family is coming to visit.  I told her about the Christmas present that Grandma sent with me in August - Which I can´t open until December 25.  She made me promise to open it in her house.  Mom and Dad, I hope you are ready to meet a mountain of neighbors when you come.  They can´t wait.  Oh yes, and I taught Luisana´s kids how to play spoons.  It was messy at first, and we have tears when not everyone gets a spoon.  But I think they have a new favorite game.  

That is the update for now.  Thanks for the letters and emails!  I am thinking of you all and am extremely jealous of your first snow.  Until next time, cuidate!

Becky

October 5, 2010

This week was bound to come sometime -- the one where absolutely everything that could have gone wrong went horribly array.  It was ironic that the previous weekend we (my house mates and I) had a lengthy discussion of how inadequate we feel in every facet of life right now.  I don´t think any of us feel qualified to be here.   I have certainly not completed any task set before me with any sort of grace or tact.  I just returned home from 90 minutes of catechism with 20 nine and ten year-olds.  Of course, the teacher didn´t show up.  Once again I fumbled through class, completely unprepared (and calling on Aaron to save me once again).  Every time I walk down the street, someone stops me for a friendly conversation.  Every time I leave the conversation, maybe I understand half of what they said and maybe only 75% of what I said!  I can´t even buy groceries without having to point at the carrots, saying "una libra de esos por favor,"…. I’m completely frustrated that after 7 weeks as I still cannot remember the dang word for carrot.  Our work sites are just at daunting - we made a community (house mates) decision to remind each other that we are volunteers.  Whatever we do here is something that would be lacking if we were not here.  As long as we don´t make things worse (stay out of the red) we are doing our job.  Unrealistic expectations will only weigh us down.

Ironically, I went to work Monday morning after these fabulous realizations to find that I was “in the red.”  I thought I was saving electricity when I turned off the little black box beside my computer last Friday.  When my computer didn´t light up as I pushed the power button and I caught a whiff of burnt wires, it clicked.  Yup, I turned off the surge protector.  In my efforts to save the planet, I successfully fried my computer.   All the work I have done the last two months was gone.  Nuts.

The rest of the week followed suit as my luck continued to flounder.  Tuesday morning, my bus was 45 minutes late - just enough time to miss the HIV talk (which I am supposed to be giving in a few weeks).  Wednesday, all of Monte Sinai was supposed to come to a meeting about the upcoming health brigade, and collect their tickets for the event.  Unfortunately, my boss forgot to tell me that the tickets were my responsibility.  I have never felt so helpless as a herd of desperate mothers lined up at my table demanding a guaranteed visit with the pediatrician, gynecologist, etc.  I am not quite sure how we got out of that pickle. 

On Thursday and Friday, I spent my days trying to find all the houses that Carlos and I had visited previously, to deliver tickets for the brigade.    People are starting to recognize me in the streets – and they still think I am a doctor.  That said, word spreads like wildfire that the ”doctor” is outside.  The locals think that they might as well grab their X-rays and cat-scans and chase me down for a diagnoses!  Needless to say, I had spent more time listening to extensive medical histories in the street than actually delivering tickets for the brigade.  Carlos and Alexis think it´s funny to see the panicked look on my face when another person emerges from their house yelling my name...  it actually is humorous - just because it is so ridiculous. 

Saturday we had the health brigade.  I had prepared myself by expecting the absolute worst possible situation.  To my surprise, everything ran unusually smoothly!  I cannot express the relief I felt when the doctors who we had recruited for the Saturday health clinic actually showed up.  The cardiologist was the only no-show, so of course I became the stand-in cardiologist for the day.  I even had a little waiting area of plastic chairs and a nurse (Carlos), ha-ha.  We had a whopping 14 patients for EKGs, and I think they were all pretty satisfied with their care.  I gave myself a gold star for that one (only gold star of the week)....  :)

So, what did I learn from a crazy and frustrating week?  I learned that it pays to let go.  It may be impossible to stay out of¨ "the red" while I am here.  I can´t really blame myself for the computer incident if nobody told me what the little black box was for.  If I depend on public transportation (like the majority of people in Ecuador and ALL the people in Monte Sinai), I have to accept that I am rarely (if ever) going to be on time.  I can worry about all the ways that I could have prepared better from the health brigade, but it saves a tremendous amount of anxiety accepting that I am not going to walk into my job and do everything perfectly.  Here in Ecuador, the language barrier, the culture, and the system have made it literally impossible to function up to the standards that I want to set for myself.  I have accepted this and I am moving on.  I may not feel qualified, and I may have failed more that I like to admit, but I am trying!  That is all anyone ever asked of me. 

Hola familia and friends! (Sept 15)

I just got my mail from the last two weeks.  The letters were fabulous, but I must say that Mom wins the prize this time.  She sent a huge envelop complete with every spice in the book.  I do not think any of us have much of an idea of how to use caraway and anise, but we are going to have fun experimenting.  It will be an interesting week in the kitchen...  Actually, we have been experimenting in the kitchen quite a bit. Aaron found the ‘ganas’ to make orange rice the other day.  It was nothing a little cumin and onion couldn’t fix.  Actually we may be working orange rice into our food repertoire.  Marita has mastered an Ecuador favorite called Manestra (lentils), and Jenn makes a mean pasta sauce.  Jeff’s night to cook seemingly always coincides with community cook night.  (I think he enjoys a bit of direction in the kitchen).

A couple of weeks have passed since the last update...  Somehow my personal journaling has taken a backseat to life and sleeping, so it might be a stretch to recall some of the details.  I am still figuring out a schedule...  I guess I was secretly hoping that my constant problem with a shortage of hours in the day would be cured when I crossed the Ecuador border.  Not the case.

Marita and I ventured out to Felix and Auras house the other day and learned how to make Flan de Zapillo (Squash flan).  Grandma, you would really like this.  It is similar to your custard, but made with squash.  We added cinnamon and cloves, so it really tasted like Christmas in your mouth.  We decided that when we are homesick over Christmas, we will have to whip up some Flan de Zapillo.  Aura’s daughter, Tanya, is a nurse in the center of the city.  She is the first professional health care worker I have encountered in Monte Sinai!  I am going to be visiting her more often to practice my medical vocabulary.  She is super helpful and knows a lot about the Ecuadorian health care system. 

Hector (aka Big Blue because of his blue eyes) owns a bakery down the street and gifted us some yeast the other day!  We made a fabulous pizza, I must say. Dad, you would be super proud of our pizza crust. Word got out in the town that we make pizza, Mariuxi begged us to come over and teach her.  I did not realize teaching meant cooking for her entire family plus the in-laws.  Unfortunately, our pizza did not work out the second time.  Big Blues yeast whimped out on us, and the oven died.  The in-laws graciously choked down doughy, dense pizza...unfortunately we had really talked it up before hand.  I tried not to notice Mariuxi starting a big pot of rice on the stove when we left.  We are going to have to redeem ourselves with a different very American recipe that is hard to screw up.  Any ideas?

We are slowly but surely building a presence in Monte Sinai.  The store owners are loosening up and asking us what in the world we are doing here.  Apparently Jenn, Marita, and I look exactly alike, so I never return home without receiving a couple hugs in the street from Maritas students.  It is the kids that never let go of your legs that are the problem.  I am going to have to chat with Marita about this...  The nuns are rapidly claiming every bit of our free time.  Last weekend, San Felipe Escuela had the Olympics’, which is apparently a tradition in elementary schools in Ecuador.  It is really more like a beauty pageant than anything.  My job was to keep 20 first graders who were caked in glitter and makeup in line while they waited to march onto the soccer field and perform a dance routine.  Lucky Aaron got to be on the panel of judges.  Marita had spent the two weeks prior choreographing and taught her second graders how to dance.  After the dances, they had soccer games for teams of parents.  Yes, parents are just as competitive (or possibly more competitive) here than in the States.  I played with the 1st grade moms and Marita played for the second grade Moms.  We had no idea we were getting into such a competitive mess - fingernails and all.  But we survived.  And I must say that my team won the championships!  

The community garden in San Felipe is starting this week!  We had our first meeting this Wednesday with Roberto who works in various communities teaching people how to raise sustainable gardens.  Roberto is a difficult gentleman to work with-- Aaron and I have taken to calling him Roberto Huerto (huerto means garden). After church on Sunday, we are going to start cleaning the area and fixing up the beds.  I started attending Catechism classes last week with the 9-11 year-olds.  Unfortunately, the teacher decided to take a 30 minute phone call during class.  Yes, I had my turn improvising in front of 20 restless kids in Spanish.  They really like to play the game 50 questions about the US.  Aaron did come and save me in the middle of my improv session, which I will forever be grateful for...  It could be an interesting year in Catechism to say the least.  On our way home from church, a neighbor gifted us three plantain trees!  Aaron and I planted them along the fence in the yard.  We asked for planting advice from several friendly faces on our way home and got many different suggestions for the type of dirt we should be using.  We ended up planting them in a couple different types of dirt that we found in piles in the empty lot beside us.  It is  little experiment to see which neighbor really knows what they are talking about.  

Our compost pile is thriving!  This tropical heat breaks down the food super quickly.  We are going to have organic fertilizer in no time.  Most of our neighbors have compost as well.  Candessa (the guard dog)  is doing a great job guarding our pile, so we have not had a problem with rodents yet!  We are keeping our fingers crossed.  

Work is crazy as usual.  Every day I learn a few more things about my job - many of which would have been nice to know in the beginning.  The health brigade is coming up in a week and half.  We are going to have 250 school kids coming to visit the pediatrician and get their teeth cleaned.  We are also going to have a cardiologist, gynecologist, optometrist, psychologist, and general practitioner for the people in Monte Sinai.  I believe I am supposed to be coordinating this.  Every Thursday, I go to Monte Sinai with Carlos and Alexis for more home visits.  These visits are going much better!  I can do the majority of it on my own, but when the patients give me every detail of their medical history, I get lost quickly.  I have been typing reports in Spanish for each case and presenting them to my supervisor.  She tells me what medical specialist they need to see and if we can offer any other services.  I love it, but it takes a good 45 minutes to type each report.  I visited 6 houses last Thursday...  That is a lot of reporting...  

I have also ventured to the center of the city for HIV-AIDS training.  Once I am comfortable with the vocab, I am going to be holding charlas (educational sessions) for women at Hogar de Cristo.  We are offering free testing after the charlas.  That means I need to practice breaking the news to people that they could have HIV - in Spanish.  Delicate subject.  It is going to be a few weeks before I am ready for this.  

That’s all I have time for now.  I have typed this blog 3 different times, 3 different days, and 3 different locations...  Unfortunately I have stumbled upon some bad luck in the technology world.  All the computers have viruses here (to be expected when using public equipment).  I have another blog waiting in my journal, which I will attempt to type up tomorrow!  

I think about you all very often.  Much love, and keep fighting the good fight!  

September 7,2010

I cannot believe it. Week two of work has come to an end, and I have not been fired yet. Celso kindly traveled from Duran today to visit my worksite and see how I am getting along. I took advantage of his visit (he is fluent in Spanish and English) - he translated two weeks from my supervisor and clarified a few things that have gone completely over my head. He also helped write the reports from my last few house visits. Now I just have to figure out what to do with them after I write the report.


The EKG clinic is going well. I am wearing the stethoscope correctly nowadays. AND not only can I tactfully ask the patients to take their shirts off to do the test, but also to put it back on when we are done. Small, yet crucial detail. :)

Tonight, Wellington brought us a hammock that Elise had made for the new house in Mt. Sinai. I tested the hammock out and had a long Spanish lesson with Wellington. Past tense is coming slowly but surely!

Our community of 5 is thriving as well. Jenn set up a cooking-cleaning schedule for us. As we befriend our neighbors, we are slowly collecting Ecuadorian recipes. Our newest neighbor-friend is Consuelo and her family of 6. She has an incredible organic garden, and continues to gift us with plants for our yard and veggies! She gave us a zapillo (squash) the size of a pumpkin on Monday, along with the recipe for squash soup. Needless to say, we will be eating squash soup for a couple of weeks. She has also sent us home with many different seeds. Yes Grandma, the garden plans are falling together slowly but surely. Our yard is rocky sand at the moment - hard to plant a garden in rocks. However, our neighbors recently dug a hole for septic drainage. Aaron and I are currently building up our courage to ask for some of that nice black dirt that is now piled in the middle of the road. What can I say; dirt is always nicer on the other side of the fence!

We are learning how to approach the markets with a bit more tact. Our first days, the five of us trucked into the small tiendas, picked up a head of broccoli, couple of tomatoes, and onions, and handed them to the cashier. This is not the way Ecua´s shop. Monica saw us doing this and quickly put it to a stop. Apparently you are supposed to ask for 20 cents of broccoli (or however much you want to spend) and the store owner chops off that portion of broccoli for you. The same goes for watermelon, cabbage, etc. Tomatoes, onions, carrots, etc are sold by the pound. We are still figuring out how much each item costs. We pay 5 cents per banana and 10 cents per tomato. Ecuadorians apparently pay 3 cents per banana and a couple of cents per tomato. We are willing to pay the "gringo" price. But there is a fine line between the gringo price and being taken advantage of. We are still finding that line.

A few more updates around the house:

- We had a brush fire to the east of us the other day. If we had built a cane house, we would be toast right now.

- Aaron and I discovered a stream behind our house the other day! It is not for swimming (due to pollution), but it does attract a wide variety of wildlife. About 8 cranes fluttered out of the trees when we approached the water. They were beautiful -- a stark contrast from the brown dirt and dirty water below.

- We continue to plan for our garden. Finding dirt is the latest challenge. Dirt is often the subject around the dinner table.

On Thursday, I accompanied Carlos and Alexis on house visits in Monte Sinai. They are working to map out Monte Sinai, hoping to install a water system/septic system for the community someday. They spend their days walking through the neighborhoods visiting houses to see what the families need and educating them about Hogar de Cristo (public services). If the family has a medical problem, I accompany them. We visited four houses on Thursday, all with a wide variety of problems. One home had a two day old baby - mom with severe anemia, weak spells, and malnutrition. A neighbor has a son with Down syndrome. The mom is single with no job. Health care is out of the picture for many of these families who are struggling to put food on the table. I have yet to figure out how Hogar will be assisting these families. I hope to meet with my supervisor about this soon!

Thank you again for reading. AND thank you for the letters and cards! I am currently in first place for the number of letters received in my house.

My thoughts are with you all. Un abrazo,

Becky

Trembling out of Bed

I experienced my first earthquake this morning!  That goodness Jenn and Marita woke me up, or I would have snored straight through it.  We must be pretty far from the epicenter because it was just a minute of minor shaking.  What a way to start the day!  Aaron and Jeff made us girls (who tend to take advantage of every moment of shut-eye) eggs and toast this morning.  We are enjoying our first day off today - the Duran volunteers are discerning their job placements as a group today.  We Monte Sinai volunteers got to listen in on the discernment process last night.  They have to work out as a group of 11 who will work at each site for the mornings, then divide into three afterschool programs, designating the directors and logistics coordinators.  Diffucult task.  Needless to say, I am delighted to be sitting in the Cyber right now. 

The last few days, we have been exploring the different work sites.  My lucky housemates got to accompany me (aka translate for me) two 3 hour long orientations for Hogar de Cristo.  Needless to say, we now know a lot about this organization.  It looks like I am going to be running the EKG clinic for the time being.  (Not nearly as grandiose as it sounds).  I had one 5 minute run-through on how to run a test on a machine with make-shift suction cups that are haphazardly taped on.  My ´clinic´ is in the back of a classroom, behind an office divider.  What have I gotten myself into this time...haha.  I am also in charge of organizing a variety of ¨projects¨ throughout the year.  The education department sends representatives to schools to identify families and kids who are struggling.  If there are medical issues at home, I get to join the team to visit the home and develop a case, explaining the situation, and present it to Hogar de Cristo in hopes of getting free health care in the area, food baskets, etc.  This will definitely be the hardest, but BEST part of my job.  Most kids who perform poorly in school or stop attending school do so in order to work (often selling water, candy, or newspapers in the streets).  Women are often left home to raise kids, while men are either working or out of the picture.  Even if the man is working, the money often times does not come home.  The situations get even tougher when there are developmental disabilities, infectious and cronic diseases, etc.  Lack of sanitation, dirty water, and low nutrition cause many of these problems.  The new clinic at my work place will hopefully be finished in two months.  (In Ecua time, it could be another 6 months).  However, they are interviewing doctors next week - so the situation looks promising!  The will have ginecology, emergency room, minor surgury, dentistry, and general medicine services.  My supervisor (Veronica) wants to train me in some surrounding clinincs to get a feel for the environment before our clinic starts up.  Veronic and Dolores are in charge of me for the year.  They are incredibly warm and friendly and super patient with my Spanish.  It is going to be a phenomenal experience, no matter what I end up doing.

My four housemmates have sweet placements as well.  I think I mentioned that Marita with be working with the San Felipe school right down the street from us.  Jenn will be working with the Casa Don Bosco -- a street kids program in Guayquil.  She will be organizing after school programs, doing some social work, and possbily teaching a few classes.  Jeff will also be working with street kids, similar to Jenn´s placement.  He is a phenomenal guitar player, so has much to offer in those respects.  Aaron is working at a small medical clinic called Sonrisa Naranja (Orange smiles).  Two Dutch doctors started this clinic two years ago.  As they bring stories home from their placements, I will be sure to share them with you!

We only have four days left of orientation.  Two days ago, we had the big bus quiz.  It was a 10 hour scavenger hunt through Guayaquil and Duran.  Megan (our in-country coordinator) was waiting in the middle with pizza and cake (Tres Leches!!).  We ended at Las Peñas, a lighthouse downtown, which looks over the entire city.  The day wore all of us out.  But gave us a much needed tour of the city. 

This was a short update, but I will have more coming soon.

Thanks for reading!