Getting Ready to Head North

So we’re down to our last day in the heat of Guayaquil. We’re a little sad to leave, but we have adventures ahead of us in Quito. Hopefully rain and altitude sickness are not involved.

This week has been another busy one. It’s our last one in Guayaquil (as mentioned), so we’ve had a lot of work to get done with the schools. I spent a couple days out in the community screening kids, and two days in the hospital. The schools were pretty much the usual. Roasting hot, packed with kids, and lots of fun! A few of the kids were terrified of lancets (as always), and I had one who bit me! Twice actually. Haha, he was pretty beside himself about getting poked and we rather merciless.

Me checking a kids teeth

My time in the hospital was mostly uneventful. I spent one day in “reanimacion”, which is basically where they send people who are about to die, so they can get life saving procedures when necessary. One woman came in after getting hit by a car. They suspected internal bleeding because her blood pressure was extremely low. She got hooked up to several pressurized IV bags to get fluids into her ASAP. Being hit by a car is not improbable here in Ecuador. When crossing the street it doesn’t matter if there is a “walk” sign, because no cars stop for pedestrians. It’s a little nerve racking.

My second day in the hospital I was in the burn unit. It was very interesting to watch in the procedure room. One patient was in for skin grafts, so the doctors harvest skin from the thigh and then use it on the burn. It’s way cool how the skin reattaches to the new place over the burn. Another patient just came in for burn cleaning. He had an electric burn that entered through his hand and exited through his foot. They had too cut off all the dead tissue. It was kinda gross, but cool.

There was a nurse in the burn unit that I and another student had a great time with. Her name was Beatrice and she was a former burn victim. When she saw us foreign students she got really excited. She insisted on taking pictures of us with other staff members, and then she practically forced us to serenade her (and her ever present video camera) with a rendition of “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams. She was the sweetest and happiest person. We had a lot of fun with her.

On Tuesday night we had another health fair. I took blood pressures and blood glucoses.

Wednesday evening we went to the temple here for the last time.

Yesterday after clinical we were invited to the University of Guyaquil’s college of nursing. It was mostly rather boring, but the students were really nice and I got to practice my Spanish with them.

Last night we were invited to sing at a missionary/investigator fireside. Our group sang two songs. I was elected to sing the first verse of one song as a solo and I survived it. It was a good night.

This morning we met with Hogar de Cristo for the last time to wrap up and submit all our data from the schools. It was long and hot.

Afterwards, we met with the Junta for lunch. They took us to a nice restaurant where I had fabulous filet mignon. Don’t worry, it only cost $8 in Ecuador.

Now we’re debating what to do for our last night. We’re considering Fragola’s ice cream. I may miss that place.

Here's our finished house from last week

We always bring our books to keep us occupied while we wait... as we always do!
Their portion sizes here are a little big!