Get Ready For Long One!

3-9-10

Holy Moly it is already March! That still seems really odd to me as I couldn’t even believe that Christmas was here as well as the New Year. Time here really is an odd thing; it seems to go slowly because you know how long of a time you are going to be here for and yet at the same time it is hard to believe how fast it goes by sometimes. But I can certainly say that this little girl has manage to keep herself busy these past couple of months which has helped the time go by faster as well.

Let’s see…I know that it has been ages since my last blog and I think when I left off I was still teaching at the school as the school year wound up. Everything with the classes went off fine and the school year ended the last week of January with exams. All in all, I felt that my classes where a good start and I definitely have ideas of what I am going to try and do with them next year. It is kind of funny really, because as Youth and Family volunteers, people usually either end up loving working with the schools or hating it. Most in all honesty that I know of hate it because it is a real challenge to keep in control a classroom of Ecuadorean kids who know that you are not grading them and also know that you do not fully know the language. For myself however, I have always proved to be an odd person, and I really enjoy it. It is definitely challenging with keeping the kids in control, but I think it is “vale la pena” as they say down here. Anyways, I am pretty sure that the school will ask me back again next year and I will be teaching in Colegio (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) once a week again. School starts up again the first week in April though, so I have some more time yet to figure all of that out.

So the “summer” months came…although they still call this season winter even though I am not really sure why because school is out and these are the hotter months…but anyways, the summer months have been some busy ones for me.

For starters, I now live in my own apartment! This took a lot more effort than I thought it would. I moved into my “studio apartment” the last week in January and first part of February right when school was ending. It took me a good week to purchase my bed, a cook top, gas tank, wardrobe, and all of the other random things that you need when you first move into your own place. Not to mention, one of the first things I wanted…and for my sanity needed…to do was paint the walls. Let me tell you…painting is not an easy thing much less when the weather is in the 90s with no air conditioning. It took me more or less three full days of painting to finish it all. I decided just to wear the same clothes everyday to make less laundry and man oh man did those ever smell by the end.

I also had to make many bus trips loaded up with things from Machala to El Retiro. For the larger items though, one of my Ecuadorean friends with a truck helped me haul them from Machala to El Retiro which was a great help. Once again though, I would have to say it was all vale la pena…but oh what a pain it certainly was! Pictures are up on Facebook as well now of my finished apartment. The one thing I am still lacking is a table and chairs but I am looking to go and get those sometime next week with the help of another PCV and another Ecuadorean friend as a birthday present from my parents :).

Once I finally got settled into my apartment I was off to a close by town, Pasaje, to help an American Organization called Ecuadent with one of their missions. They are an NGO based in Maryland and they do about two medical and dental missions to Ecuador each year. The founder of the organization was born in Ecuador and then moved to the States. They had contacted us and asked for help with translating as most of the doctors, nurses, and dentists do not speak Spanish. This experienced ended up being a once in a lifetime experience in itself and I am very happy that I was able to be a part of it. The medical mission was the first week and then the dental mission was supposed to come the following week. However, as most of you might remember, this time in February was when the snow was really bad back home. Because of the snow, the dental mission actually had to be canceled because the flights just did not work out. That was unfortunate, but the medical mission was amazing nonetheless.

We were able to perform 53 surgeries and 56 procedures over the week as three were done just with local anesthetic. Now for those of you that know me and my family, my mom is a nurse…and that did not get passed on to me. But man oh man did I ever learn a lot about it all that week and it was really interesting.

The first day was triage day where they evaluated everyone who came in. There were three plastic surgeons and one intern there and they were focusing on youth with cleft lips, cleft palates, burns/scare revisions, extra toes, extra fingers, and any other deformity that they thought they could help with. The first day I worked with Doctor Mike translating for him and this was his first mission as well…and I have to say I saw things that day that before then I had only seen in photos or poster signs…but seeing them right there with living people is a completely different ball game. I saw multiple scare burns from hot water, oil, and even chemicals. Not to mention the cleft lips and palates are unbelievable in themselves.

It was a very long day and a very hard day. But what made it hard was not the fact that it was long, but rather the fact that about 50% of the people that you saw you could not help for one reason or another. Some people had illnesses that the plastic surgeons could not operate on because the procedures took longer than a week or multiple surgeries to fix and others had illnesses that needed a specialist such as an orthopedic or neurological doctor to fix. This was really hard for us because the doctors would tell us they couldn’t help them and then it would be our job to explain it to the Ecuadoreans…that was hard because basically all of them could not afford to go and pay a specialist to fix their child’s problem. In other words, their children would have to continuing on living with these major disabilities.

However, after that day, we got to be the good news bringers for the most part. We had surgeries Monday to Thursday and the days were packed with backups and walk-ins for when people did not show up. Most days lasted about twelve hours. I ended up helping put in the IVs in and checking in the kids in the morning which was also an experience in itself. Kids don’t really like it when you tell them that this is going to sting like a bee…not to mention that I used to be one of those kids, so I kind of get it. We had one father who actually had to lie on his daughter, but all in all, we got them all in. And surprisingly for me, the nurses told me that in their opinion the Ecuadorean kids were easier than American kids…I guess that makes sense though as I am sure some of these Ecuadorean kids have been through a lot more than the American kids. We tended to be done checking everyone in and getting in the IVs by about eleven or noon and we would then go down to the PACU and surgery area…this is also where our lunch and the food was. The rest of the day I spent helping kids into surgery, getting their parents to the PACU after surgery, and checking in with the kids after their surgeries. Basically, I helped out where ever they needed a translator – There tended to be about three or four people translating every day.

In between all of this, we got to hang out with about 40 Americans and I think this is when I fully realized I am now socially awkward in both cultures. It took a little while to get used to being around Americans again! It also made me really realize how poor we are while we were fretting over a $1.50 drinking (because I can buy a full meal for that!) while the plastic surgeons had no problem buying us a couple. Not to mention the plastic surgeons make what we make in a year in a little less than a week.

Also, at the hospital we were able to stand in on a couple of surgeries…which would never be allowed in the States…but as one person said, the hospital we worked in here would be closed down in ten minutes if it was back in the states. But here, it will run for years yet to come. However, I decided not to watch a cleft lip or palate surgery…I opted to see a couple of scare revisions and a cyst removal from a girl that actually lives in my neighborhood. Really interesting.

I also experienced another big first for me in my life…I saw multiple people give birth…and it has affected me…for life. Ecuadoreans are good at getting pregnant and the hospital was in full function while we were there and the birth room was right by us. The first woman I saw gave birth to twins…and you try to just walk by and ignore it, but the door is wide open and the screaming you can hear everywhere! Not to mention they had a problem with the second twin that was born so they asked one of our baby doctors to help with the baby and I got called in as the translator…and I got to see it all whether I wanted to or not. I have to say…I had no idea that the placenta is basically the size of a second baby that comes out afterwards…I think my exact words might have been something along the lines of,” What the heck is that thing!”, as the placenta came out and went into the trash. All in all, it was the experience of a lifetime for sure and I know now that when I do have kids, I want drugs…lots and lots of drugs.

Although I was outside of my neighborhood for a good week working with the mission, some people in my town knew what I was doing because the mission was in the newspaper as well as on the TV News. And somehow or another, my picture was included in the newspaper article as well as on the TV program. Here is the link to the newspaper article if you care to read it translate:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.diariocorreo.com.ec/archivo/2010/02/08/hoy-inician-operaciones-gratuitas-a-ninos-pobres&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhiFidIVkP4VafdMqSgPRmWwP_16Aw


I probably could write at least another page about that mission and my experience. Instead though, I will just leave it as I feel very blessed and lucky to have been a part of it. I will forever remember my experiences from that week and the people that I met; both the Americans and the Ecuadoreans. The organization hopes to come back again around the same time next year and I hope that I can help them out once more. It really is amazing what people can do when they all come together to help one another.

So after that, I was beat and I got sick. Nothing really bad though thankfully, just a cold that didn’t want to leave. So I spent the following week after the mission mainly in bed trying to get better. I also got caught up on about three weeks of way overdue laundry…you have to remember this is all by hand…and things that I needed to do around and with my apartment. And of course, more PCV paperwork that was due…love the government paperwork!

Towards the end of February the easy way to describe what I did is to say one word; paint. We had two different projects that we did both that took a week respectfully. The first one was a fight against trash project where we tried to clean up some of the trash, which is everywhere in general, and put up signs and trash cans in the neighborhood. The signs the kids all painted and I painted the trash cans. All of this had messages like, don’t throw trash, or, take care of your neighborhood. Then on Friday we went out and put all of these signs up in the streets as well as the trash cans. This project proved to be very frustrating for me because I quickly realized that throwing trash on the ground or wherever for them is not only normal and accepted but a custom. To change this is going to take a very long time with many failures before having full success.

The second paint project was to draw and paint a map of the world. Sounds easy…but after putting at least 25 to 30 hours of physical labor into it, you will think differently. I can definitely say that I put blood, sweat, and tears into this project once it was all said and done. Mainly because the little kids of 6 to 10 just want to paint anything and everything and I was not having that by the end of the week on my nicely drawn map. All in all though, it turned out pretty well and I have heard a couple of people with positive responses on the map and the mural that we painted next to it. It was also really cool to see once the little kids realized, wow, Ecuador really is very, very tiny compared to the world. So once again, this project became a pain in my side and back…my whole body really…literally…but it was worth it in the end. I will put up some pictures of both the trash signs and the world map and mural on Facebook once I have the time as well so you all can see them.

I am also helping out with a summer camp that the school is putting on with kids ages 6 to 12 or so with English classes as well as another little project that I am going to have them do called “Mi Propio Album”. I have classes with them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about two hours doing this. Overall, the camp started towards the end of February and will end the last week of March…about a month and a half in total. The kids do really enjoy it though which makes it worth the while.

I also made another classic mistake that I like to make repeatedly for some reason…I went to the beach in Ecuador. You think that I would have learned by now that with the English influence and red head gene in my family that I shouldn’t try to sunbath. But I just couldn’t help myself! And now I am paying the price as my legs are completely fried and I can barely walk…not to mention I do not think I could put on pants right now even if you paid me. So with this being my third really bad burn in my eight months of living in Ecuador, I hope that I have learned so that this can be my last.

This week, I plan on heading up to Quito to a BBQ with the new kids of Agriculture and Natural Resources Omnibus 103…that is right…it is time for a new group of PCVs here in Ecuador! It is kind of funny, but as my one fellow PCV 102er here said, it is kind of like we are going to be sophomores now. I never really thought I would be back to being a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior…but if you think about it; it really is kind of true here in PC Ecuador! And I have to admit, it feels good to know that you are moving along and up the ladder of Peace Corps getting out of that lovely freshman stage.

It is also a really surreal feeling at times too…I have been living in Ecuador now for eight months. Sometimes that still makes my head spin with all that I have done and all that I have learned. Not to mention that is the longest I have been out of the States for. The funny thing is I still have eighteen more to go with many more memories yet to make and milestones of the PCV experience to go through. It really is so true what they say about this experience; it is an experience that is one of a kind that will push you mentally, physically, and emotionally in ways that you never even thought of or thought would be possible. Not even to mention it will completely change the way you look at the world as everything in your daily life will change. I think the most surprising thing for me is how what you think you can handle and deal with changes along the way…some things are easier to handle then what you thought they would be while others are harder. Either way, you know deep down inside yourself if you will be determined enough, hardcore enough, weird enough, or in my case, stubborn enough to make it to the end.