On a relaxing weekend day...

Today has been a lovely day in Zumbahua. On Sundays like today, we don't have hospital rounds until 9am, therefore I got to sleep in, drink my coffee in bed, and made pancakes for our breakfast (Mike, myself, and Justin our visiting medical student). On morning rounds we got to discharge 4 out of our 5 pediatric patients to their home, always an exciting thing when you get to see the kids make a full recovery.

After rounds, I proceeded to go wash all my clothes by hand. Normally I am a laundry procrastinator, but when you are doing it by hand, you really don't want to let it build up, because even a small amount of washing is quite an upper-body workout. Workout for today... check. Then, since there still wasn't much in the way of pediatric emergencies, I came down to the house to make lunch for everyone. After lunch, a short walk with Mike down to the nearby river. Since we work 10 days straight, it is nice to get outside the hospital compound once in a while, even if it is just nearby for a few minutes. Outside it is a beautiful blue sky day with a light breeze, rare in Zumbahua,  and the mountains surrounding the town are clear and vibrant green. We commented on how much we will miss this beautiful scenery.

Now, as I write this I am sitting in the kitchen, waiting for my big pot of water to boil for 5 minutes, so we have drinking water this evening. I am trying my hand at making boxed brownies (thank you mom!) in our primitive oven, but they are coming out disappointingly flat, probably because of the altitude.  

I enjoy these days when I get to do some of the things that remind me of the comforts of home... leisurely drinking coffee in the morning, backing or cooking in a kitchen all to myself, walks on sunny days. I think it helps prevent burn-out in a place that is wonderful, but can also be very challenging and frustrating at times. It is amazing how fast these last 5 months have flown by. I only have about 2 1/2 weeks left here in Ecuador, and I am trying to enjoy every moment.

 It is neat to reflect back on how much I have learned, how much more confident I have become in a clinical capacity, and how many interesting things I have gotten to experience. I sometimes wonder if in future practice settings I may be bored or Jaded with the run-of-the-mill colds and tummy aches, after being exposed to so many children here who have such complex health needs or "really" illnesses. Or perhaps it will be a nice relief. Either way, I am certain that I will never again have an experience such as this, and I am so grateful for every colleague, patient, family, and especially Mike, who have taught me so much along the way.



Enjoying the view from outside Ibarra, Ecuador

Adventures in Ibarra

On our last weekend off, we took a trip with my friend Sophie, and her husband, to her husband's home-town of Ibarra, in the northern highlands of Ecuador. It was very fun traveling with them as we got to see and do many activities that we would not have known about, or would not have been able to access without a vehicle.

My favorite event of the weekend was when Pablo, Sophie's husband, decided to cook us a crab feast for one of our lunches. We picked up the crabs early in the morning from the market, where they were still live, and tied together in a bundle of 13 or so. Total, was had about 26 crabs, probably brought in fresh from the coast in the early mornign. Pablo preferred to keep them alive until they went into the boiling water, so the real adventure was cleaning the crabs with a scrub brush to get them clean, without getting pinched by the crab. I was a bit tentative at first, letting out a few squeeks and "ahhs" now and then, but eventually I got the hang of it. Occasionally one would get away in the big wash basin, and scurry to the drain, where it would clamp onto the drain grate so tightly that you could not pry it away. The crabs, once scrubbed clean, were a beautiful array of purple, red, and orange.



Our live crabs from the northern coast of Ecuador.

Carefully cleaning each one with Pablo.

 

All finished, ready for cooking.

Eating them was another story. As Mike and I are used to larger bodied crabs, with accompanying shell cracker tools to access the meat, we had small bodied crabs, with only one shell-cracker for the table to share. It is obviously an acquired skill, because Pablo and Sofia skillfully used their teeth the crack the shell, and mouths to suck out the meat. They had devoured a handful of crabs before I had gotten through one and a half, with sore fingers, and crab meat flung all around my plate. They were delicious though.

A few hours later, Pablo's mother heard some clicking in the family dining room, down the hall from the kitchen. She went to investigate and found that one of the crabs had leapt out of the bucket on the floor by the boiling water, while awaiting his turn to be cooked, and had run away, trying to escape his fate. Which he did for about 4 hours, but to no avail, he got eaten later for dinner.

View on our drive up to Ibarra.

Getting to know Lago San Pablo.

Mike holding a falcon at an bird rescue park.

Trying Cuy (Guinea Pig) for the first time.

Volcanic crater lake.

Trying to get an Avocado down from his parent's tree in their back yard.

Re-enacting an Incan sacrifice on a ceremonial sacrifice stone.

Just kidding.

Ibarra by night.