Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

It is my last week in Ecuador and I am having some mixed emotions. I have had the most wonderful summer of my life, mostly thanks to the wonderful people I was blessed with. I learned so much about myself throughout this journey, things that I think will change my life forever. I am so grateful that I got to share this experience with Ariel Johnson and Amanda Luna. They made the whole "living in a developing country" thing not only bearable, but enjoyable. There are many things I won't miss about Ecuador. The list includes the following: 1) Cat calls every 2 seconds by creepy men 2) Pollution 3) Prepaid cell phones 4) Rice and potatoes at every meal 5) Cold showers 6) Being stared at. Even though there a lot a things I won't miss about Ecuador, there are a lot more things I will miss. My host family was amazing and treated me as their second daughter. I'll miss the beauty of the Andes mountains, but luckily I DO get to go home to some fabulous mountains. I'll miss my frequent trips to the beach. More specifically I'll miss the person that I spent so much time at the beach with. I was so lucky to meet a man that taught me that not all men treat girls like shit. I'm not sure what is going to happen from here, but I can only try to be grateful for the great times we had.

On a happier note, my parents are coming tomorrow!! We are heading to the Galapagos Islands for 5 days and will then return to Quito for 4 days. I'm not sure exactly how we will spend 4 whole days in this city, but I am excited to see my parents and show them where I have spent the last 9 weeks of my life. We head back to the EEUU on August 28th. I can't say I'm stoked to have to go back and try to find employment, but such is life. I will look back on my times in Ecuador and smile.

Hope you all are well. Miss you and love you all!

-KNel

Things I ate this week...

So, I have finished my internship at the hospital(a little early--I was supposed to be there till Thursday). In typical Ecuadorian style, things began to go to shit quickly. After an interesting first week, I had an equally interesting weekend with my host family. My host dad(the mayor) is part indigenous, meaning that they through fun parties and wear different clothes, among other things. On Saturday, his brother turned 50, so of course there was a giant party in his honor. That afternoon, we drove a little ways to the neighboring town of Cotacachi, where we were greeted with mounds of food--three different kinds of meat, potatoes, salad, guacamole, etc. We danced and played games, including a pinata smashing in which I got to represent our little family of 6. Also, the picture above is me and my host brother Amauri passing an egg. We did not win. Once again, it was proven to me that the indigenous now how to have a frickin' fiesta. On Sunday, my friends Ariel and Amanda came for a little visit and we went to El Mercado Artesenal(Artisan Market) and picked up some souvenirs. After a great weekend, I was less than thrilled to teleport back in time to the 1960's for my internship at the hospital. Monday was more of the same--colds, urinary tract infections, some throat infections, and a case of appendicitis. On Tuesday, I was informed that the doctor I was following(and the only attending doctor in the ER) was leaving on vacation. Only in Ecuador can you send both attending doctors on vacation at the same time. This left me without a doctor to follow and the ER without a doctor to attend to patients. Some random residents and doctors filtered in throughout the day to see patients, but there was no consistency. Also, my awesome back and knees began to hurt badly, so I requested to be sent back to Quito, and here I am. Don't get me wrong. I had a good time in Otavalo and learning about medicine, but I was just kind of fed up with things not functioning in an orderly or reasonable fashion.
On the topic of the title of this post, I will elaborate on the more interesting part of my trip--things I ate this week. My host family thought it was funny to give me food, make me try it, and THEN tell me what lovely things were in it. It worked, though, because had they not taken this approach I would have vomited all over the table. The first "interesting" thing I ate was a soup that contained tripe, other unidentified animal organs, and cow's blood. It wasn't entirely bad, but the thought of ingesting cow intestine and blood grossed me out after the fact. My second food adventure was eating cuy, or, for those who don't know, guinea pig. It was actually quite "rico" and tasted like chicken. If you don't remember what rico means, see my previous blog post. Third interesting thing I ate: cow placenta. Yep. I was told to try the small, chewy, mushroom-like meat with no reservations. It was fine, but I will not be eating that again. In summary, my week was filled with eating new things seeing approximately 1000 infections of various sorts. Hope all is well with you all...I'll be home soon!
Mil besos,
KNel

Doctorita Kristin

So, I know it has been a litttttle too long since I have blogged--my bad. I had a busy few weeks with school and more beach vacations! I went back to Salinas for the weekend and had a fricking awesome time thanks to our friend Jack. I am constantly amazed by how I manage to find the most amazing people in the world. Anyway, after an amazing weekend, I was sent out to my new home for 2 weeks--Otavalo. Otavalo is a small city in the mountains that is populated with many indigenous folk, many of whom are artesians who sell their stuff in a giant market called Plaza del Ponchos. Right now, I am fortunate enough to be living with the mayor of the town and working in the hospital here. The mayor of the town and his family have been wonderful and they live in a beautiful home in the countryside. I am currently at an internet cafe just around the corner from the house, and there is a cow in the street just hanging out. Pretty funny, in my opinion.

My work in the hospital has been ummmmm...interesting to say the least. I have been following a doctor in the emergency room, which is literally a big room. There are no seperate rooms for patients and no privacy. On the first day, I got to see a necrotizing finger(it was completely black), as well as a plethra of urinary tract infections, stomach illnesses, and throat infections. It is completely amazing how this healthcare system functions(in a bad way). The doctor I follow is wonderful and talented, but he is given more work than he can handle. Here in Ecuador, there are subcentros de salud(neighborhood clinics) that are responsible for the care of their substituents. However, these subcentros often will not attend to patients and send them to the hospital ER. Consequently, the doctor(who has been the only doctor there all week), has more than 40 patients daily, often without any sort of urgent emergency. The patients must also purchase any and all injections, pills, IV fluids, urine containters(for tests) BEFORE they can be cared for. Before one man could go into surgery, the surgeon gave him a grocery list of crap to buy from the pharmacy before the surgery. Such a different system than I am accustomed to. Additionally, patients bug the doctor no matter what he is doing. If the doctor is doing an exam on a patient, other people just walk right in and ask him questions, ask him to sign things, ask him to look at X rays. Which brings me to another point. This hospital cannot currently issue xrays because their radiologist is on vacay. Ever heard of back-up. Oy vey.
So enough ranting about their healthcare system...I have gotten to see and do some cool stuff. For example, I have gotten to see sutures sewn(I get to do the next ones!!), and today I got to remove dead skin off of a burn victim. This may sound absolutely vile, and it was, but it was also very cool to help him. This man arrived at 8 am with about 40 percent of his body severely burned by a gas fire. He had decided to burn some trash with gas and it exploded all over his body. This man was indigenous, so he had dark skin. When we removed the dead skin(all over his face, neck, and arms), he looked like a white man. I have never smelled burning flesh before and it almost made me vomit. But after the initial disgust passed, I was able to help this man by peeling off his sheets of dead skin so that we could apply gauze. It turned out that he had to be sent to Quito for further treatment, but it was sure awesome to be a part of his treatment.

Well, I hope I provided you with a through dose of disgust and intrigue with my latest update. Hope you are all well! Hasta luego, mis amores!