Final Days in Mongolia

To finish off my time here I opted to go on one more ger to ger trip, this time to Terelj
National Park on a Nomadic Lifestyles 6 day journey. My trip started with a two and a
half hour bus ride out of UB to the north. Once I arrived, with two other ladies from
London, we were picked up by ox cart, crossed the Terelj river, then headed to my first
host family. I transferred to a second ox-cart half way, and finally arrived at my families
ger near a lazy bend in the river. Lunch followed soon after, accompanied by other
guests, vodka, and singing. It is tradition here to sing a song when you accept the
vodka, and guests are not exempt. I sang, nervously at first, then with more conviction
as my hosts and the other guest tried to sing along. After everyone had departed I
helped with the dished, hauled water from the river, helped with the cow milking by
holding the calfs and spoke with one of the daughters who had picked up an incredible
amount of english just from speaking with other travelers. As she nursed her 8 month
old daughter we talked about traditions and her life studying traditional medicine in UB
during the year and spending her summers with her family at the gers. I finally curled
up in the guest ger to sleep.

In the morning I helped once again with dishes after breakfast, then went on a ride with
an 18 year old guide. He would sing quietly as we rode and after a while, and me
singing as well, he became comfortable enough to sing in ernest. It started to rain so
we cantered across a field to some cattle shelters and waited out the rain by sharing
names of tack and exchanging braiding and ceremonial preparations for the horses.
Finally the rain lessened and we headed back the way we had come, opting to cross the
river, feet tucked up high on the saddle, rather than negotiate the narrow rocky path
above the water once more. When we returned to my host family I was told to canter
around the field as much as I wanted and was able to observe the preparations of a
Shamanic ceremony. The family brought long branched and set them up in a teepee
like pattern to light as a bonfire. After I had settled my mare I watched and listened as
the drumming began the the ceremony proceeded slowly up a nearby hill. Two other
girls arrived for the beginning of their 8 days of horses and exploring and I spoke with
them then we all helped clean up after lunch, me washing the dishes, them hauling
more water from the river. We helped with the cows once more, trying to befriend the
very independent toddler, then finally headed to bed after a light dinner. Not long after
going to bed I began to feel very sick and so began my 36hour fun with food poisoning.
I spent much of the night outside in the rain letting my body rid itself of everything. The
girls gave me TLC, and in the morning I was finally able to keep down some gatorade
that one of the girls had in powder form. The family, once alerted to my situation took
amazing care of me, sending my guide from the day before into town to get me some
sparkling water, preparing sushi with carrot and rice for me to nibble on at lunch,
providing me with some traditional remedies for fever and stomach unease, then giving
me a shot glass of warm vodka with salt, something they assured me was good for
upset stomaches. That night one of the girls began the same cycle as I had just gone
through and the next day decided to stay an extra night as I had rather than go on to the
next ger.

In the morning I was feeling better so after helping with the laundry and exchanging
music with my host sister, I headed to my next family, my pack on the ox cart and me on
horse back. The ride took two and a half hours, and was beautiful, first winding through
forest beside a creek then across open step covered in a blanket of yellow, white and
purple flowers. When I arrived at my next family I was taken to my ger and encouraged
to rest. My fist host mother arrived shortly there after with some others, we all went into
the main ger for tea and a snack, then she departed and I got to learn how to milk a
cow, dress up in some traditional garb, and experiment with Mongolian archery. The
bow is drawn in a pinch grip here, between a curled index finger and the thumb. After
many tries I managed to hit my target (I had left my glasses inside so seeing it was a bit
challenging). My hostesses niece helped me and we celebrated my success together.
Finally it was time for a trip to the latrine and bed.

In the morning we hitched up the ox cart and headed to my final family back the way I
had come the day before. We helped a few locals cross the Terelj then began the last
leg of our journey passing some mother and baby yaks on the way. My final hostess
greeted me warmly when I arrived, gave me some milk tea and food, and we spoke
briefly about shamanism as she was a shaman. I spent my afternoon in my ger reading
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, one of my touchstone readings, then joined
my hostess for some dinner. With the last light of the day I played with my macro lens
and some flowers then headed to bed.

In the morning I woke early, packed, and then hopped on a motorbike behind my host
who took me to another family nearby that were preparing their ox-cart to go into town.
Once again my first host mother was present and joined us on our way. At the bus stop
I found the second girl from my first family. Turns out she had gotten sicker than either
myself or the other traveller, and had decided to head back to UB. We hopped on the
bus when it arrived, and I savored the views of the two hour ride back. With only one
more day to do my last minute shopping and sightseeing, I knew that I wanted every
moment to count.

Mongolia was an amazing experience, not what I had expected, and wonderful because
of it. I canʼt wait to return someday!

Naadam

I ended up spending my Naadam here in Ulaanbaatar and opted into a tour run by my hostel at the last minute since I was finally able to get money out of the bank.  We started off at the parade in front of the government building then headed to the stadium for the opening ceremonies and wrestling.  We the did two quick stops at the archery range and the anklebone shooting but happened to go to both at the same time as the president so couldn’t see much through the crowds.  From there we headed back to the van for a quick lunch of the Mongolian version of a pupusa (mutton in a dough deep fried) with coleslaw then headed out of the city to the horse racing.  We arrived an hour and a half before the racers reached the finish line and were able to take in the stunt riders, English show jumpers, and cavalry performers before the first horse reached the horizon.  The winner had a fair distance between him and second place and roughly the top 30 were all bareback and helmet-less.  Pert way through a horse and rider collapsed in front of us.  The horse had literally run his heart out for his ~6 year old rider and 150m from the finish he could go no further.  It was a shocking and sad turn of events, but an interesting lesson for everyone watching.  We also saw several horses run by riderless, having lost their jockeys somewhere along the way.  Finally it was time for some dinner then a bus ride back to the hostel.

Mutton, mare’s milk, and a splash of vodka

So Friday turned out to be an interesting day. I couldn’t stay another night at my hostel so I moved my stuff out of my room, left it at the office then began the hunt for a way out of UB and a place to sleep.  I found Ger to Ger, and organization that arranges for tours to gers in the country side, booked a tour, had one hell of a time with my bank, found a place to sleep last minute, and found myself at 6:30am on Saturday with all my gear catching a cab with a couple other girls to the bus station.  Our 8:30am bus departed at 8:15 and I was finally leaving the city.  The country here is beautiful beyond words.  I can’t express enough how in awe I was with the green rolling steppe.  We arrived a few hours later in Sansar where we separated and I was driven to my first host family.  Their 10 year old son greeted me warmly, and promptly I found myself sitting on the floor of the guest ger burning holes in the carpet with an old pair of glasses.  An unfortunate ant met a sorry end as well followed by a card.  Soon we turned to lighting matches with the sun, then a candle.

He taught me how to flick cards at someone (my head being a great practice target for him) then we began the martial arts fun.  I taught him a jump kick and we worked together on some fun stunts that involved him jumping on various parts of me.  His sister was in and out a couple times with tea and lunch and we chatted in broken English and Mongolian for the rest of the afternoon.  Mid afternoon their older brother led me by camel to a spiritual site on the mountain near by and on the way back we steered some wayward goats and sheep back to the herd then found a young mother cow with her hour old calf and followed them back to the ger.  I helped re-position the satellite dish for the tv, ate dinner, then had the chance to help herd the animals to get ready for the night.  The calves got tied to their line on the ground near the gers, and the mother goats got penned so they would be ready for milking in the morning.  After a good night sleep I was greeted in the morning by a Avada Kadavera curse from my young friend and that morning our gers turned into Hogwarts, the steppe our forbidden forest, and the stalks of the plants our wands.  I finished off my time with the family by making the daughter a wand with patterns carved into it and a nimbus 2000 out of a stick and grass for the boy.

Their recently arrived mother gave me a ride to my next family by car (with both my bags riding would have been difficult).  My next family was on their way to milk the mares when I arrived so I tagged along and observed for the first few before jumping in to help with the last couple.  Soon after another traveler arrived on a dairy products tour and we chatted for hours, mixed with watching the coming storm, going for a walk, and spoiling one of their dogs rotten.  We watched the sun set from the sand dunes, agreeing to rise at 4:30 the next morning to return to the dunes for sun rise.

We gave the dogs of the neighbouring ger wide berth as we walked, enjoyed a beautiful sin rise, got taken to a Buddhist temple and ovoo after breakfast, then helped make some cheese.  All too soon it was time to head to our final family, so our bags were strapped to a motor bike, horses were saddled, and our injured host introduced us to our horses, gave me Jennifer’s reigns, the caught up with us after a quick pit stop.  We kept a steady trot all the way to the next ger, Jennifer trailing behind our host, and me alternating between letting my horse trot ahead and waiting for them to catch up.

We arrived at our final family about an hour before the storm hit, and we took our time to try and chat with our hosts.  Their daughter is in Alaska right now so we couldn’t chat with her, and their son was at Naadam, so it left us with the lady of the house, our host, and grandma, a wonderful 87 year old with a beautiful spirit and a liking of sweeties.  we helped churn the fermented mares milk, went for a walk with an awesome view, and were even invited into the hosts ger for dinner.  We helped herd the goats for the night, then went to bed with plans to get up once more for sunrise- apparently we were too tired.  I slept until 6:45, but got up in time to help pen the goats and sheep (a wolf had attacked in the night and two sheep were injured).  I also got to hold an adorable black and white baby goat that I had taken a liking to the night before.  Getting a photo of that took a good 10 minutes of gesturing, sound effects, and laughing with one of our hosts.  Jennifer then joined me and we watched the foals get caught so that the mares could be milked.  As we were sitting wondering what to do next, grandma walked into our ger.  Apparently she had enjoyed the short back and head massage I had given her that morning and so I spent the next half hour working on her hunch, neck, shoulders, and back with her almost falling asleep in my lap.  Once she left we hung out for a while before our host took us on a ride to Swan Lake near by and into the sand dunes.  The views were wonderful and all to soon we were back, then eating lunch and preparing to leave.  At lunch we found out it was our hosts birthday, so the vodka followed the fermented mares milk around.  For someone who has never done a shot, drinking about four shots worth of vodka from a cup was an interesting experience.  Our hostess gifted us with a beautiful silk bag each as we were preparing to go, I left some maple chocolate with them, and grandma met us at the car with a handful of sweeties and some special cheese before we were finally driving away, headed back to the city.  I will never forget these four days, nor the families that hosted us.

Mongolia at last

Old meets new in Ulaanbaatar

Well, here I am, sitting in a common room of the Lotus guesthouse downtown Ulaanbaatar.  First impressions?  Toyota is the shit!  Every second vehicle seems to be a toyota landcruiser or a lexus 4xx series with a few rav 4s thrown in for good measure.  Parking rules… what parking rules.  I’ve decided that if I ever am crazy enough to drive in a city like this (one where most things are in easy walking distance) I will make sure I never park in an actual designated parking spot early in the day since everyone else will completely box me in once I’m settled.  People here: amazing so far, can’t wait to meet more.  Food: had some local but have spent most of my meals out at Luna Blanca, a vegan restaurant a couple of blocks from my hostel.  Awesome food and all stuff I can eat without worries.  Getting out of he capital: difficult, I think I’m going to try a combination of hitchhiking, mini-vanning, postal trucking, and private jeeping in the next few weeks.  Mongolia’s national museum is top notch, could have spent days there but got tired once I reached the mid-1920’s so sped through the 20th and 21st centuries.  I’m looking forward to some filming tomorrow at a couple of Buddhist monasteries and a shaman center.  Will keep you posted and can now finally add photos!

China 2.0

Baloons and Bustle in Beijing

Along with facebook, wordpress is blocked in China so I was unable to blog for you all. Andrew met me at the airport, we headed to his place, got in touch with Evon and arranged to meet the following day. After a quick dinner and some catching up I hit the hay for some badly needed shut eye. In the following days I got to spend some time with both Evon and Andrew, visit Beijing’s natural history museum, eat the fabulous spicy hot pot (something I badly need to do next year), meet with one of Evon’s friends from highschool, chat with international students at a cafe, visit the 798 art district, eat more fabulous food with Evon’s experiential learning coordinator and mother, see Brave, eat some more, and enjoy the bustle of the big city. The five days flew by and all too soon I was hopping back on the subway to make my way once more to the airport. Pictures should follow soon, once I get internet on my laptop.

It’s Been a While

Alright, its been quite some time since I actually blogged about adventures.  This trip it is going to be my goal to keep a daily written journal, courtesy of my best friend Jen, as well as blog regularly to that everyone who is worried about me can see that I am both alright and learning lots.  I am currently sitting at Gate D55 in YVR, awaiting the boarding call for my flight to Beijing.  For those that I have yet to bore with the details of my trip, I will be spending 5 days with my amazing roommate Evon in Beijing then will fly to Mongolia for a three and a half week stint to work on my documentary.  No, I don’t have any plans, all I know is that I am now a member of couch surfing and that Anya has been amazing at connecting me with her friends and family which will surely ease my transition into a new culture.  From Mongolia I head to India for a month long program with CFHI, the same program that I worked with in Ecuador, studying a variety of traditional medicines.  Once again I will be working on my documentary while also participating in the medical field in north western India.  I am very excited for this new adventure, one on which I don’t speak any of the local languages, and will be out of my comfort zone.  Here is to new beginnings, new adventures, and the continued Quest for knowledge.    (Cheesy enough?) 

The end of week one

The next morning was my last at Vozandes, much to my regret. I learned a lot and really enjoyed my experience but I was also looking forward to seeing what health care at a public Subcentro de Salud was like. The morning passed quickly, an achilles repair in the OR, Cleaning out some more infections and wounds in the ER, and a kid with his hand caught in the door (luckily superficial and only requiring two layers of stitches). The morning ended off with a man coming in after falling two stories and having some material fall on him. Once again, responders in the front of the ambulance, no spinal control or head support. When I have time I want to come back and offer some basic first aid and CPR courses to the first responders here… might be able to save some more lives. I helped get him out of the ambulance (one of the two back doors was jammed so getting him out was a challenge. We finally got him into the ER, somewhat stabilized then I took head control so that a full exam of his back could be done. Once we sent him off for X-rays and got them back we found only a broken clavicle and potential lower spine (lumbar) damage. I then had to leave for La casa de fe, said my hurried goodbyes and headed out.

At La casa de fe (house of Faith), I met with some of the women that work with the kids. Though considered an orphanage very few of the children are actually orphans. A good number are special needs that their families couldn’t care for and many of the others were simply too much for their families to look after at the time. Most are indigenous from deep in the Amazon and many return to their families in their mid teen years. It felt so surreal, walking from room to room, faces peering up at me, some in my space and time, others in their own worlds. I felt almost like I was at a zoo… “and over here we have our baby chimp Maria, she is blind but gets by alright”… So many kids, so sterile an environment, so secluded. Upstairs was the school, four class rooms with some local teachers and some from the US, downstairs the dorms and kitchen. After we finished the tour of the main building, my guide took me to the shell of the new school and I met with one of the missionaries from the US that had been working at Casa de Fe for three years. The eventual plans for the place include the new school, and several houses which would act as ‘houses’ so that the kids could live in smaller ‘families’ each house with a volunteer or staff member living with the kids for guidance. The whole place made me itch, and once I was told the mission I understood why. Its incredible that a bunch of strangers have taken in all these kids, given them the love, care, and education that would otherwise be denied to them, but they also gave faith. More than that, the mission was to have these kids go back to their families, deep in the amazon with their own traditions and beliefs, and spread the word of god to save them.

I left when I saw the teachers head out, it felt wrong for me to be there, as I represented something quite contrary to their mission, freedom to choose and explore cultural differences, spiritual differences. I was here, in the amazon, to learn about traditional ways and to learn from them. I had a lot to think about, and question on my way back home. Both about the mission of Casa de fe and about my own stance on spiritual teachings.

The next morning I found myself off to a local subcentro de salud in the El Dorado district of Puyo. I spent my morning in consults then joined a young doctor at one of the near by schools to do checkups and pass out medication from previous checkups. From our conversation I gathered that many of the kids at the school were indigenous and that this was the only access point for them for health care. Almost all the kids that we saw had some sort of parasite and many were suffering from a lack of vitamins and minerals in their diets. Every single kid we saw got a prescription for something. I joined the doctor for lunch and her husband joined us. In the afternoon I did a few more consults before the rain drove away almost all the patients and my supervising doc sent me home. I finally had an afternoon to get to know Puyo. The next day was similar, without the school visit, and once again rain prevented most patients from coming to the clinic. When it rains it pours here. I found some yuca bread in the afternoon to keep me company, bought some fruit, and spent the evening reading.

First two hospital days

Firstly, this is my apology to all that have been waiting for updates. I will try and be better now, but expect to be bombarded with three weeks of Ecuador in a very short period of time.

My first evening I arrived and settled in with the promise of getting up early to catch a ride with Dr. Torres to Hospital Vozandes del Oriente where I would be spending my first three days. Upon arrival I joined in for the briefing pre-rounds then was introduced to Dra. who was seeing patients in the clinic. We saw ten patients in the morning, broke for lunch, and saw many more after. We saw patients with lung problems, with colds, with temperatures, and with high cholesterol. One of our patients was an indigenous woman from three hours away, who only spoke her native language. Her son joined her so that he could translate for her. Standing no more than four and a half feet, with a beautiful wispy voice, she patiently explained to her son, and through him to us, about her stomach pains and breathing problems. We learned that the sweet voice was changed by tuberculosis twenty years before and had never returned to its original strength. Later in the day, an x-ray of her lungs revealed the damage done in the past and present.

Our last patient of the day was a pregnant mother of two that had started bleeding earlier in the morning. With an exam it was almost certain that she was miscarrying but in order to be sure she opted to go for an echo first. Incredibly her echo came back not just positive for a baby but for one still alive with a strong heart beat. Even though the news was good at that moment my discussion with the Dra. after revealed a less than optimistic outlook on the baby going full term. I will never know. I was reluctant to leave and didn’t end up catching the bus back from Shell until almost 6:00pm.

The next morning I got up even earlier to catch the 6:15am bus to Shell, eager to learn more. Once again I joined the doctors, residents, and interns for morning consult then tagged along with one of the Surgeons (the only one currently in the town as the other two were away) on his rounds with patients. He changed the dressing on a few post-op incisions and two colostomy bags. I then accompanied him, along with two fourth year american med students, to watch two endoscopies. On the second I even got a try and felt like I was playing a very advanced video game. From there I wandered over to the emergency room and helped with the dressing change for a young teen with a couple of holes in his side. I learned that he had fallen onto the rifle he was holding and it went off, discharging the shrapnel it contained into his side. Incredibly all his wounds were superficial (if you call having pingpong ball sized holes blown out of your sides superficial), and though an exploratory surgery was performed to see if there was any damage to his organs no damage was found. From there I got invited to observe an open appendectomy on a 16 year old with acute localized abdominal pain. Once the surgeon found the appendix we discovered that it wasn’t appendicitis causing the pain and further explored to see if we could find the culprit. After an additional half hour of looking the surgeon gave up, closed the boy and prepared to talk to his parents. This was all before lunch. I joined the other students for lunch then headed back to the clinic to sit in with the surgeon on consults for the afternoon.

I have to mention how much I admire everyone I worked with or observed at Hospital Vozandes. Every doctor, nurse, intern and resident would focus all of their attention on their patient, and seemingly have nothing else to do but help that one individual or answer that extra question. This was particularly noticeable after one of the consults in the afternoon. Earlier that morning the son of one of our elderly patients asked several questions about lung surgery for his son. In the afternoon they came into consults with the surgeon. We looked at the x-ray before they came in, and while one lung was mostly clear, the other was riddled with tumors. A pneumonectomy (removal of the whole lung) looked like the only option for him, something that Vozandes del oriente is not equipped to deal with, and in fact very few, if any hospitals in Ecuador are equipped to deal with. I watched as surgeon explained all of this to the father, uncle and 16 year old (who was shaking with sweats). At the end of the consult the surgeon offered the only thing he could, prayer, then the family thanked each of us, shook our hands and walked out with a near death sentence hanging over the head of one young man. We took a couple of minutes after the family left to quickly debrief, collect ourselves, and go out to call the next patient. The surgeon greeted the young girl and her mother with enthusiasm, able to move on, at least outwardly, as if nothing was more important than her. He inspected her hand and wrist (he had completely put them back together after her hand was nearly ripped completely from her arm in an accident) and was pleased at the level of mobility she had gotten back, it seemed she would make an almost full recovery, minus sensation in her ring finger.

Once we had gone through all of his patients for the day we headed over to watch another doctor working in the clinic scrape down and freeze a number of warts that one of his patients had on his hands and feet. This was followed by a prescription for liquid asa to treat them in hopes of completely destroying them.

We finished up and saw one more patient before I headed back to the nursing station to get my bag. Almost there I heard sirens and changed course to emergency instead. I arrived at the same time as the ambulance and watched as both bombardiers got out of the front to unload their patient from the back with his wife and some family members. Once in the ER we began CPR on the lifeless body of an elderly man. no pulse, already cool… puff…puff… 1..2..3..4..5…. puff…puff. 15 minutes pass, only for show now, wife crying, family frantic… 1..2..3..4..5.. thats it, done. Lymphoma, terminal, from Quito. Came to the amazon looking for natural medicines, looking for a miracle, not ready to let go. Who? the patient? No. The family. My supervising doc apologizes to us, none of us should have had to do that he tells us, the family should have been prepared to say goodbye, the patient allowed to pass on in peace at home. Poor communication here, free medical care, lots of medicine, lacking care? Never done CPR on a person before, firm chest, steady slow squeezes of the BVM. Numbness. His time? what is the role of health care?

I head home, walking out of the hospital with my small bag, scrubs and name tag, hop on the bus, “buenos noches doctora.”

Baños

I arrived in Baños around 8:30pm with little incident after a three and a half hour bus ride from Quito.  I wandered until I found the Hostel Plantas y Blancas, got a room, then headed to the Casa Hood for some dinner.  I ordered a plate of beans, rice, and salad and while I ate and several different bands and singers came and went I began chatting with the woman at the table next to me.  She’s been traveling for quite some time, including having lived in Buenos Aires for a while.  As it was her birthday the next day she was celebrating and I joined her with a delicious brownie of my own.  Her friend joined us part way through and we all stayed chatting until the restaurant kicked us out at closing time.  I went back to meet my roommate for the night.

Nicolas, from Belgium, greeted me as I entered our room.  He had been traveling around South America but was on his way home for a family emergency.  We stayed up chatting until about early in the morning, then finally got some sleep.

I spent my Saturday morning on the roof top terrace of my hostel, enjoying a big breakfast and chatting with a variety of individuals, including an independent film maker.  In the afternoon I went for a walk on the trails, then returned to read, relax, and head to Casa Hood once more for dinner.  In the evening I was joined by a woman from Ireland in my room and we chatted then I headed to the Piscinas de la Virgen, the natural hotsprings, situated under a waterfall.  I was the only white individual there, which was very interesting, but also meant that I got to converse with a bunch of locals.  After an hour at the hotsprings I returned to the hostel and bed.

In the morning I went for a massage, facial, and pedicure then went to book Paragliding for the afternoon.  I checked out of my hostel then met up with Edgar and Isreal, as well as a girl from Isreal and we headed out of town to find some wind.  The flying was fantastic, I can see myself becoming a paragliding pilot in the future, its so freeing!  After I went I sat with Isreal and watched my companion fly.  Late in the afternoon we finally headed back down, stopping several times on the way to take photos of the volcano.  Once back in Baños, I exchanged contact info with the girl from Isreal then headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Puyo, my home for the next three weeks.

Clinical and Lingual Experiences

Upon arrival at my host family’s house I was greeted by Rosita, the local coordinator and my host mom. She took me down to my room, introduced me to Davinder, then left me to unpack and sleep as I wished. I didn’t stay up too late, as we had our orientation in the morning at the spanish school. On Sunday we drove to the Amazing Andes Spanish School, got the lowdown on expectations during our stay, then Davinder, Raj and I went for some lunch at Gus. After lunch Davinder and I headed to el Mitad del Mundo, the equator. We visited the Indigenous museum there, enjoying the view from the top, then took some equator straddling photos to have some tourist shots, Davinder even planked across the equator.

We caught bus back that got us to El Centro and met a guy from Quebec as we got off. We joined him for coffee in the Plaza San Francisco and he told us stories about getting mugged twice, the first at knife point. Note to self: be smart about where I go at what time and with who…
We then headed back to Rosita’s house where we met the other two students, Kelsey and Courtney, ate dinner, then headed to bed excited for Spanish classes the next day. Monday and Tuesday were 7 hours each of Spanish, with a meeting with my Puyo medical director on Monday and salsa class on Tuesday after Spanish.

Wednesday was Davinder and my first clinical rotation at El Centro de Salud #1. We had a slow morning in the ER, only a couple of ulcers, kidney stones, strep throat, a dog bite, and a hook stuck in a foot. At one point a man with a gun passed us and there were calls to close all the doors (I’m still not sure what that was all about). Shortly there after an ambulance stopped by and a young woman was wheeled in. Turns out she was in labour so we followed along and watched a rather quick 20 minute birth of a beautiful baby girl. Once it was time to take mother and daughter back to the ward I got the honors of carrying the little girl… mom still hadn’t had the chance to hold her. After that Davinder and I ran upstairs to meet with Dra. Magdalena Castro to arrange our schedule for the next day then we headed to a Krishna restaurant for lunch before catching the trole back to our Spanish school for our afternoon class.

After class I headed back to my Tropical Dance class (today included Salsa, Merengue, Reggaeton, samba, and lambada). The lesson continues until 6:30, by which time I was very tires then I returned home for dinner then bed.

Thursday at the Hospital: Davinder and I found ourselves in El Plaza Grande for a free Influenza vaccination clinic, set up under a tent with the workers inviting anyone over 65, under 5, diabetics, and those with high blood pressure to get their influenza vaccination. Giving your name and age was all it took to get a vaccine. We ran out of vaccinations around 11am so we headed back to the hospital. The streets were rather full and there was an expectant air to the crowd. We found out why when we returned. Apparently the President of Iran had an imminent arrival in El Centro. We were advised to catch our trole before the whole centro got shut down for security reasons.

Class ended well, it was my last day with Jorge, and after my final Tropical dance class I returned home to get ready for a night in the Mariscal (aka Gringolandia). We ate dinner at a funky restaurant, had some volcano shots, then headed to a couple of different bars before settling on a club which was featuring Brahma (my favorite Brasilian beer). The music was quite mixed from electro to American pop hits, to reggaeton to salsa. We stayed until about 1 then the others hit up the taco bar before we caught a cab home.

In the morning we headed out on our tour of Quito which included a museum, a beautiful view of the city, the Panacilla, and La Basilica. We finally returned home, picked up our laundry, got packed, then I said goodbye to the others who were headed north for the weekend before catching a cab to the south terminal in Quito the catch a bus to Banos.