Did I Ask For Fries?

Contrary to what the gaping silence of this page suggests, I haven’t been kidnapped in the jungle of Ecuador. I’ve just come home, and been really really busy with a little thing called uni starting back for the year.

I’ve been back for nearly 2 weeks now, and while it is great to be back, it has taken some adjusting to. I really, really miss Ecuador, it is a country that’s very easy to become enchanted with. “What exactly do you miss?” I hear you ask, well allow me to elucidate.

The top 10 things I miss about Ecuador (in no particular order):

1. The drinking yoghurt - so smooth and creamy and no yucky bits in it……mmm Toni!!
2. Speaking Spanish. I am by no means fluent, but damn it is fun (and frustrating, and embaressing) to talk in another language.
3. Reggaeton music, especially Gasolina.
4. Walking around various cities, towns and villages every day for hours on end.
5. Batidos and jugos…..mmm lovely fruit.
   
6. Saying good morning, good afternoon and goodnight to practically everyone you walk past in the street. Here in Sydney you don’t even make eye contact, let alone say hello.
7. Lots of pig, goat and cow spottings, even in the middle of decent sized cities.
   
8. The gorgeous people dressed in bright colours, especially the ladies in hats, cardiagans, skirts and long socks. That is exactly how I’m going to dress when I’m older.
   
9. The “party buses”, where every ride is an adventure. There might be animals onboard, there may be interesting people to meet, or you might jsut get squished to death. They’re cheap and they’re frequent, and they put Sydney buses to shame. And they show Stephen Seagal movies!
10. The kids that we taught (and all the other cute kids we saw too). Crazy as they are, they were a great bunch. I would love to know what happens to them in the future. It is scary to know that some of the 12 year old girls we taught are going to be married and popping out kids within a year or two!!!
    

So having been to South America twice now, I am still keen to go back for more. Such a big continent, and so many different things to see and do. I’m really keen to do my elective somewhere there in 3rd year, but exactly where, well that’s the million dollar question.

Why is it that some special books/movies/songs/whatever tickles your fancy can just hit you right there, and reduce you to a blubbering mess?

For me, one of the all-time culprits at doing this is Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One. I remember reading it about 10 years ago and crying not far into the book. Today I started it again and was crying by page 4.

Is this just a great book, or is there something wrong with me???

It didn´t help that I started reading it on a bus trip heading towards Ecuador’s main Incan ruins at Ingapirca. Instead of fully appreciating the ruins I was wanting to get back on to the bus home and read more.

Similarly right now I’m so tempted to go back to the hotel and veg out for a few hours reading it, instead of what I should be doing, namely going back, packing, having dinner and then attempting to go out, it being Saturday night and all.

After all I have a 4 hour bus ride and a 4 hour train ride on the cards for tomorrow. If that’s not quality reading time then I don’t know what is!!

Well the latest stop on my journeys has been the village of Villacabamba in the south of Ecuador, close to the Peruvian border. It’s a gorgeous village nested between some lovely Andean mountains, but isn’t high enough altitude to be cold.

Villacabamba is famed for having a ¨Fountain of Youth¨ that allows its residents to live 100 years plus. Some people attribute this to a magical waterfall there, some to the healthy diet it’s people eat. However it seems this is becoming less and less true over recent years, and I think the oldest person there is now around 90. Maybe it has something to do with the Westernisation of their diet.

Regardless, it’s a lovely place to chill out for a few days. The hostel we stayed at was more like a resort: it had a pool, spa, sauna, Turkish baths, badminton and basketball courts, and pool tables. Plus you got your own room with a double bed in it all for US$6 a night including breakfast. What a bargain.

I even did something I never thought I would be enticed to do: go on a 4 hour horse ride. Despite my misgivings it was an awesome day. The horses we had were lovely, which makes a big difference. I’m glad the trek we did was on horseback, because the path was very steep and wouldn’t have been much fun on foot. I’m even gladder that the horses knew what they were doing, and we didn’t really have to guide them too much.

My legs and bum are still a little bit sore though, but no pain no gain huh.

The only thing that marred the entire Villacabamba experience was a couple of conversations we had with people around town about the manager of the hostel that we stayed at. Rumour is that he has raped a few of the tourists staying there, which is an absolutely horrifying thought. Apparently he gave horse tranquilisers to one person and they woke up the next day not really knowing what had gone on.

I have no idea whether this is true or not. He did seem a little bit creepy to me, but I didn’t get a danger vibe from him. I’m torn between wanting to give people benefit of doubt, innocent until proven guilty and all that, and thinking that there must be some kind of basis for these rumours, otherwise they wouldn’t exist.

So while I had a great time there, I don´t necessarily know if I´d recommend that hostel heartilty to any blonde women travelling alone. Just in case.

Wow well what can I say. The Galapagos islands were amazing, and in a lot of ways defy description. Totally unlike any place I have ever seen.

I was really worried that they were going to be disspaointing and not worth the hype, but my fears were unfounded. The wildlife there was just incredible, both above and in the water.

I absolutely adored allthe sea lions, they are just the cutest things ever. So playful with each other, they just lie around cuddling up to one another, then for no apparent reason they will flop over and move on top of another one in the group. Moy lindo!!

And in the water they swim right by you, and mimic thing you do. If you dive down, they´ll copy. It´s an awesome feeling to be that close to nature. Very special.

And not at all over touristy. Pretty much every island is deserted. The main town is Puerto Ayora which is on Sanata Cruz island. Even that is way less hectic and touristy than places like Bali. And despite the number of shops and souvenir stalls, no-one hassles you to buy anything or go to theor restuarnts or anything. Very laid back - I like it!!!

Strangely enough that all feels like so long ago, even though it was only 3 nights ago that I was there.

I´m now in Villacabamaba which is a cool little town in in the Andes, about 2000m altitude, so not too extreme. It´s a very relaxed palce known for its national parks, horse riding and massages, all of which I plan to utilise over the next few days!! Today I have ticked off the horse riding and spa, sauna and swim, tomorrow is walking and massage.

But now, it´s time for dinner!!

…prospero anos, felicitad! So the song goes anyway.

This is what William, a boy in my class wrote in the sand for me, Iz and Ang. What a sweetie!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I’ll be celebrating it Ecuador style!!!

Well a lot has happened since the last post – more teaching, more lessons, and an awesome weekend to Puerto Lopez and the Isla de La Plata (the Poor man’s Galapagos).

However what I really need to write about right now is the hospital at Mangalaralto that we just visited.

Something that I had really hoped to be able to do on this trip was to spend some time inside a hospital here just seeing how things work here, what kind of things they do, and how different it is to back home.

One thing that I quickly realised is that without being able to speak Spanish, I wasn’t going to be able to communicate with anyone, or be able to fully appreciate the experience.

As of today we’ve been learning Spanish for two weeks and one day, and I finally felt that I was at a level where I’{d be able to form coherent (although definitely not grammatically correct) questions, and also have a high likelihood of being able to understand the gist of the answers.

We were a bit worried about just rocking up to the hospital and introducing ourselves – I was expecting pretty much a flat out rejection of our request to have a look around inside, but as it was only a 20 minute bus ride thought it’d be interesting to have a try anyway; at the very least we’d get to see the outside of the hospital.

Instead of suspicion or rejection, we were treated to an awesome tour of the entire hospital.

The first thing of note was the location. Now I’m not talking about the fact that it was only a few hundred metres from the beach, because we aren’t on the coast here for nothing, what I’m talking about is that fact that the hospital is right next door to a graveyard. A little too close for comfort I think really.

From the outside, the building looks like a lot of others around here, concrete and no windows (they have some holes in the walls that provide ventilation instead of having windows in most buildings here). There were about 10 school kids hanging around the front of the building.

There was one doors at the front of the building for emergency (emergencia), and a windows for the pharmacy (farmacia), and another window for the “estatistica”. We weren’t sure exactly what that was, but thought we’d give it a shot.

After attempting a somewhat lucid introduction of who we were and what we wanted, we were told to wait outside for 5 minutes by the friendly young guy at the desk. We weren’t exactly sure what we were waiting for, but at least it wasn’t the rejection we had feared.

Within about 30 seconds we were beckoned inside the building by a lady who was also inside the “estatistica”, and we were shown into the room. The guy at the window, Carlos, greeted us again, with a kiss on the cheek this time, and the grand tour begun!

He explained that the many folders that were stacked onto the shelves were the patient records. They had been kept there for the 35 years that the hospital has existed, so by this time there was 4,500 of them.

It’s quite a small hospital, but there is definitely a lot of different stuff that goes on in there. About 50 people work there in total, 8 of them are doctors, although there are only 4 doctors there on each day. From what I could understand the doctors don’t live in Mangalaralto, but travel in from either nearby towns like La libertad or Salinas, or from Guayacil, which is the largest city in Ecuador, and is about 2 hours away.

The first place we saw was the waiting room of the ED. There was about 30 people in there. Noone had a serious injury, and it was difficult to tell who was there waiting to be seen, and who was keeping them company.

The ED department was actually one big room about 5x5m in size. It had 2 separate examination tables in it, against opposite walls, and a lot of space in between. At the time we were there, about 4 hospital staff were inside the room, and one of the tables was being used to examine a guy who had lacerated his forearm.

We then had a peek into some of the different rooms, many of which would be entire departments in an Australian hospital.

One room for pathology, where they collected the blood. Another room dedicated to vaccinations, which, along with formula for both mother and child, were free for all Ecuadorians.

Another room for dental surgery, another for radiology, and then we hit the wards.

There are only 15 beds in this hospital – 5 for women, 5 for men, and 5 for el niños (children). Today there were no people in the men’s ward, and only one in the women’s – a mother and her baby who had been born 11 days ago, along with his mother. The baby was still very tiny, but I couldn’t work out how to ask whether he was premature or not. They were going home tomorrow though, after the doctor had returned from Guayacil to give them the OK.

There were 2 kids in the children’s ward. The first boy was about 10 years old, and had a cough and respiratory infection. He seemed to be getting better though as he was quite active and jumping around on his bed.

The other was a girl who was probably around 7. She had dengue fever, and was fast asleep while we were there, as was her mother on the bed next to her. Her grandmother was also by the bedside.

After the wards we looked at the surgery department. There was one basic surgery room, another one with quite a lot more equipment, and then the labour room. Surgery is performed there 3 days a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday, when the surgeon comes in from Guayacil.

Today the labour room was occupied by a lady about have her seventh child. She was pacing around the room, looking to be somewhat distressed. In a connecting was was the room for premature babies that had an incubator in it.

Next we saw the kitchen and the laundry, which were both hives of activity. They had a new oven for the kitchen waiting to be installed, this one electric, which they were excited by. And a washing machine for laundry meaning the lady there didn’t have to do it by hand, which I hope she was very excited about!

That pretty much completed the tour. It was really fascinating, and so surprisingly how welcoming people were – both staff and patients. It served to yet again highlight the differences between Australia and South America – there are definitely good and bad points about both.

Apologies for the brief nature of the last post. Unfortunatamente it was late and I was tired, so my brain was pretty much mush. There is so much I want to say and describe about what has been happening here, but as the saying goes, there is so little time.

And when you are at an internet cafe, time really is money.

Today was another full-on day in Ecuador. Instead of having our spanish lessons from 9-10:30am, we had to be at the school at 8:30am because the teachers were away for the whole day. About half of the 190 students turned up, so we didn´t have the normal full classes. This was interesting, because it meant we got to teach with other people that we normally don´t share classes with, and to see some new students.

The class I taught played bingo with numbers in English. The kids were about 12 years old, and the game worked suprisingly well. I think some of them are definately better at maths than me.

After school we headed back to the house, where I had to spend the next hour desperately working on my homework that was due in the afternoon. Homework today was writing a 3-5 minute speech about our family.

I didn´t get it finished before lunch, and I was on washing up duties after lunch, so by the time our activity time of 3pm came around, I was not only tired, but also a bit stressed about my lack of preparation.

Activity for the day was to join in with the ¨clean up Olon¨day that the town had organised. I wanted to do some work in the computer room first to try setting up a spreadsheet to do some maths questions and answers in, so I headed over to the school instead.

I had some success with the spreadsheet, but everything took such a long time, because all the menus etc were in Spanish, and there were no help files on the machine. Argh!!

When I´d finished working on that, the principal came in and I showed him what I´d done. We then spent a bit of time working on the school budget, and fixing up some errors in his spreadsheet that he didn´t know how to fix. It was kind of bizarre that he had the budget on one of the computers in the lab, with no password protection or antyhing. Things really are differnet over here.

I really enjoyed helping him out though, despite the communication problems, because I think the more that the teachers know, the more they are able to help the kids, which is the ultimate aim. Hopefully we´ll spend a bit more time doing other tasks over the coming weeks.

As for Spanish lessons, we are now on a long weekend until Monday morning. I have a lot to revise before then however, so this weekend isn´t going to be rancho relaxo.

We´re also doing a few songs at the town concert on Saturday night. That should be very interesting to say the least. We´ve chosen ¨give me a home among the gum trees¨, accompanied by actions. Inspired huh?

Cheesy title I know. What can I say - it´s 11pm on a Tuesday night and I have been awake since 8am.

During that time I have

• woken up before 8am
• eaten breakfast at 8am
• done 2 hours of Espanol from 8:30-10:30am. These lessons are much more full-on than I was expecting them to be. As a result I have had to learn more English grammar in the past few days than I have ever learnt.
• Taught computaciones to fifteen 12 year old boys on 5 computers simultaneously. At least the fuse didnt blow and shut all the power off like it did yesterday when we had the girls in.
• Had lunch
• Played very cheesy games with about 50 kids under the age of 10 from 3-5pm. I had no idea how tiring that would be.
• Had another Spanish lesson from 5:15-6:15pm. Challenging again, and we got homework.
• Went for a quick dip in the ocean - so warm!
• Ate a fantastic dinner - mashed potato, salad and fish patties, as well as mango and alfalfa. Accompanied by more fresh juices. So good.
• Walked 40 mins to Montanita to use the Internet cafe to check emails, start trying to organise a Galapagos tour and write this entry amongst other things.

Now I need to walk back and start my homework: to write a paragraph about someone else using the third person, to find 10 verbs relating to nature, and 10 nouns/adjectives relating to nature.

I think I need some chocolate to assist with this task.