Heading to "El Campo"

The gynecologist and me in the room where she saw patients. It was HOT and humid!

This weekend I went along with physicians and volunteers from the CAS Clinic on a "medical caravan" trip to a small town an hour away. A general medicine physician, pediatrician, dentist, and gynecologist saw about 150 patients. I helped assist the gynecologist. Very eye-opening difference between the culture of a small town only an hour away from Portoviejo. It seems that women generally have many children, marry very young, and often are illiterate. The community that received us was very kind--cooking huge pots of rice, soup, and chicken.

Hills around Caña--covered mostly by farms filled with bananas, yuca, cacao, zapote, oranges, corn, and avacado.

Aftershock Quake in Portoviejo, Ecuador

A bit before 5:30 this morning there was a brief earthquake here--10 miles East of Portoviejo, Ecuador. According to the US Geological Service(USGS), it was 5.3 on the Richter Scale. While here, I have felt minor tremors for a matter of one or two seconds, yet this about four second shaking woke up the house and we stood near the front doorway for a few minutes afterwards.

This aftershock was one of 90 such aftershock earthquakes in South America following the recent devastating earthquake in Chile of 8.8 on the Richter Scale. This has been the only such aftershock quake in Ecuador. Yesterday, swimming was banned on nearby Ecuadorian beaches due to stronger than normal waves.

Here is a pretty cool website by USGS, showing The Location of Aftermath Earthquake, as well as all recent seismic activity.

10 Pineapples for 5 Dollars!

Can you believe that? Pineapple up in Minnesota is a bit of a luxury fruit. This morning I went to El Mercado with my host mom here. The market she regularly frequents is not the normal farmers market, rather it is the market that vendors and restaurants visit to buy in bulk. So, it is cheaper. I think we were the only non-vendors buying there. Other buyers were men trucking off on tricycle carts piled with mountains of fruit.

Host mom's style of shopping is not to be messed with--10 pineapples, 5 pounds of strawberries, three watermelon, about 100 oranges, and a few pounds of carrots and fruits I don't recognize, alongside a half pound of garlic. This is serious shopping.

The fruits and veggies at the market are thrown on the concrete under a huge open air roof. Mountains of pineapple, truckloads of watermelon----mmm time for breakfast.

Do you want potatoes with your rice and plantains?

This week, a forty-something neighbor of my host family came in to drop off two big water jugs. A family member told him it looked like he had lost weight. His response:

"Well, I did lose weight in my limbs, but this belly is still here. *patting huge stomach* I do tell my wife that I eat sufficient amounts of food to maintain this large figure, out of a deep love for her. You know, if I didn't maintain this belly, I would be attracting unwanted attention from women left and right. *Jolly laugh*"

Hm, quite an interesting argument for staying fat. I always thought the USA greedily held onto the obesity epidemic, but it is easy to see that the epidemic is growing. I was quite surprised upon arriving to the coast to learn that there is a significant portion of the population that suffers from azucar (literally "sugar," signifying diabetes at a doctor's office) and obesity. It is not hard to see why this is the case. While there is amazingly delicious and fresh fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates are aplenty and on every street corner.

A meal without rice is barely a meal. I haven't gone two days without eating some form of bananas-plantains. (Which I don't complain, they are tasty :-) Pasta is served alongside rice and potatoes. Did I mention the starchy yuca root?

Older Ecuadorians have noted that there didn't used to be all this street food. Sure, in a non-metropolis like Portoviejo, Wendy's and McDonald's aren't really to be seen. Still, KFC is huge here! (I never ate KFC before Ecuador). Hotdogs abound. Empanadas rain from the sky. Fried versions of dough dot the streets.

At least there are still tricyclists pushing about fruit stands and that man screaming like a dead cat, "Guineos! (Bananas!)" in the street.

PS I really do love food here. (Read: Seafood and Fruit, okay and ice cream too). This is just a note on the cornicopia of carbs.

PPS. It is totally cool, and sometimes "loving" to call overweight friends/family "gordo, gordita" (fatty, fat)---as in, "Venga Gordita." (Come here fatty). or "Te quiero gordo." I don't suggest trying this in the States.

Papallacta-Night Swimming in Hot Springs

We arrived at dusk to Papallacta and went on a short little jaunt through the countryside. Cows grazed nearby and roosters crowed, trying to trick us into thinking the day had just begun. We couldn't be fooled, we knew it was time for night swimming (I guess I mean soaking) in the hot spring pools. Fed with hot water from the nearby volcanoes, steam rose from the pools, partially disguising the faces of bathers. Luckily, a cold mountain creek nearby provided a quick (I could only stay in ten seconds) relief from the heat. Tingly hot-cold--almost like walking in Minnesota snow before getting in a hot tub.

Mechanics of A Clinic

Last week I served as an assistant-translator for a gentleman visiting from the U.S. on behalf of Children’s Medical Missions. While normally I am in the clinic, my work this week highlighted the importance of patient advocacy. With local volunteers, we visited the poverty-stricken home of a twenty-one-year old woman's family. Since birth, she has been severely mentally disabled and bed-ridden. The purpose of our visit was not to suggest new clinical treatments or an operation, for nothing of this kind would be of help. Rather, we spoke with the mother about fitting her daughter for a specialty wheelchair and dropped off medical supplies. Other work throughout the week included helping a young paraplegic man repair his electric wheelchair and installing an electric generator for the new clinic. It was quite humbling.

Moreover, not being extremely knowledgeable in the world of machines, generators, and wheelchair mechanics, I learned some basics and quickly picked up some Spanish words for mechanics:

Learn 5 words now:
Tools- las herramientas
Screw- el tornillo
Washer- la arandela
screwdriver- el destornillador
hammer- el martillo

Between the Pages: El Alquimista by Paulo Coelho

Second venture reading in Spanish. I'll admit, perhaps it wasn't the best choice, not because I don't throughly enjoy this novel. Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian novelist and writes in Portuguese. Thus, I was reading a translated version. Also, I cheated a bit, I have read this in English. Nevertheless, I do love this tale about following your dreams in life and carpe diem. Some favorite quotes:

"El alma del mundo es alimentada por la felicidad de las personas. O por la infelicidad, la envidia, los celos. Cumplir su historia personal es la única obligación de los hombres."

"Se ama porque se ama. No hay ninguna razón para amar."
"One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving."

"Es precisamente la posibilidad de realizar un sueño lo que hace la vida interesante."

"Siempre existe en el mundo una persona que espera a otra, ya sea en medio del desierto o en medio de las grandes ciudades. Y cuando estas personas se cruzan y sus ojos se encuentran, el pasado y el futuro pierden toda importancia, y solamente existe aquel momento."

"And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have on meaning."

"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them."

Hiking around Cotopaxi

More update later...but this is hiking with friends around the volcano Cotopaxi. The Peak is at 5,897 m (19,347 ft). There was actually a glacial icepack just south of the Equator. It was a bit tricky to keep breathing up this high--about 5,000 meters!