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