Birthdays, Bonfires and Buffets

So here we are, returning back to the so-called "Daily Life Blog" with our tails between our legs. Yes, we are quite aware that our last post was on Wednesday. Seeing as how that was five days ago... well. You get the point. Sorry about that. But in our defense, life has been crazy around the Manna House in the last week. Here is a brief recap:

1. Summer Camp ended on Friday! It was a great way to start off our year, as it allowed us to get to know the kids and parents of our communities. We're thrilled to have had such a successful first program and hope that success will carry over to the programs that will begin in two weeks. (We're equally thrilled to not be required to get 10 people out of the door by 8am...)

Mike, Erik, Sonia and Sarah try their hand at the teeter-totter.
The weight distribution was clearly very equal...

Gisela chases Santiago in a game of duck, duck, goose.
(Or, as Iori likes to call it, "duck, duck, duck".)

Krysta walks the little ones back to the library.

2. We co-hosted a very successful health clinic at Alinambi on both Friday and Saturday. Krysta's weeks of planning (along with a little help from the rest of the health girls and the house) finally paid off! And she's kind enough to be writing a guest blog about it later this week!

The entrance to the clinic

Haley shows off the impeccably organized pharmacy.

LOTS of toothpaste donations

Krysta and Haley lead a charla on brushing and flossing.

The whole health crew

3. And finally, today is Jackie's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKIE!)! In order to celebrate both Jackie and Bibi's birthdays in style, we had our first rooftop bonfire of the year last night and made s'mores. We followed up the late night of s'mores and group bonding with an enormous buffet at the Marriott in Quito. Apparently all celebrations revolve around food in the Manna House.

The birthday brownies at the Marriott

Jackie's THREE... yes, three... birthday cakes
(Unfortunately we already ate the leftovers for breakfast/lunch. Typical.)

The whole group post-brunch and pre-food coma

All in all, it's been a fun (and hectic) last few days. This week will be more relaxed, as we're planning for our programs that begin in two weeks, catching up on work that was pushed aside last week, and making the blog a little more "daily"... :)

Thanks for checking in with us!
Sarah

Foresight

(With less than two months to go in our wild South American adventure, harassment of the roommates for more guest blogs has officially commenced. Serena is up first, and she has some exciting things to share! Enjoy.)

"A visit to a public hospital ran by the Ecuador Ministry of Health:
-Cost of receiving vitamins and micronutrients for all children ages 3 and under: Free
-Cost of an x-ray: Free
-Cost of a C-section: Free
-Cost of a TB vaccination: Free
-Cost of getting your eyes checked: Free
-Cost of anti-diabetic meds: Free
-Cost of an emergency service: Free

In the US?
-Contact your insurance company. aka, get out your pocketbook.

Of course, I'm not saying the health care system in Ecuador is superior in any way. All health care systems are internally flawed. But here I am, living in a relatively impoverished country that is considered "developing" by Western standards, and getting a free physical check-up without having to fill out any forms about who my provider is. In the same situation in the US, without insurance, I'd be paying close to triple digits. I don't get it.

But unfortunately, free services do come with a price. There are not enough medical personnel working for the MoH to service all patients who are in need of care. Many clinical physicians find themselves multitasking at both the micro- and macro- levels and end up running entire clinics completely on their own. Although Rafael Correa (the Ecuadorian president) is increasing spending on health care, the patient to physician ratio is over-saturated, so patients will only be seen if they are showing physical symptoms, thus diverting the attention away from the important aspect of prevention.

This is where we come in.

Along with summer volunteers Mari and Priya as well as our new Country Director Bibi, we have been working tirelessly on finalizing a promising health proposal in hopes of turning the 4th floor of the building that hosts the MPI library/teen center into a full-fledged, no BS, locally-owned Preventative Health Center (PHC). So far, we have held the first of many successful focus groups with 20+ women from the Exercise and Nutrition Program and attended various meetings with the Ministry of Health to obtain insight on local/national health issues as well as how to get this moving. We're currently in the process of contacting local health promoters and prospective community health workers (our aim is 10), connecting them with the Municipio (town) to provide professional and certified health promotion training, and then finally, in the long-run, hiring them to work at the PHC to create local ownership and sustainability.

We hope our surrounding communities will frequently utilize the health resources provided by the center, learn to properly care for their health before getting (and while being) sick, and in the long-term lower the national cost burdens spent on preventable illnesses.

Empowering individuals: Check
Strengthening institutions: Check
Building networks: Check

With the help of Healthechildren, we have high hopes of turning our idea into reality that is nothing short of extraordinary. Oye, that's how the library started, right?

-Serena"

(If you're interested in learning more about this program or how to donate directly to it, please email either serenazhou1@gmail.com or bibi.alebrahim@gmail.com)

Playground Project

(only one out of three swings is functioning)

Tuesday morning (after the whole Christian's English experience), I stopped by Aliñambi to take photographs of their various pieces of playground equipment for a potential project. Seth and Serena were both already there; Seth helping Lorenzo compose a letter of intention for the sewing talleres which have been difficult (to say the least) to implement, Serena going through all of the medicines from HealtheChildren each of us brought back from the states with Julia, the clinic doctor.

I was taking photographs of all the playground equipment to send to a constructor contact of Seth's who will be working with us and HealtheChildren to refurbish all the equipment in the complex. Considering that Aliñambi serves as a home for children from rough households, a school for a couple hundred kids in the neighboring communities, and a location for various summer camps, to say that their playground equipment is in a sad state would be an understatement. Through the lens of my camera, I was able to see just how decrepit the equipment truly is. Missing swings, broken see-saws, rusting slides, tilted platforms, missing screws, chipping paint.

And yet, the kids couldn't care less what it looks like, or what's missing. Because come recess, they can't wait to return to their pirate ship, or swing through Tarzan's jungle, or launch into space from the sea-saws, three adventures I was asked to join in on while snapping my pictures. Just another reason we're excited to be diving back into the thick of things.

Next week will start up the Wednesday guest blogs again, promise!

Holly

(the rusting slide sinks into to the grass)

Papanicolau

(Today's guest blog comes from Serena Zhou, who has recently begun teaching us all words in Chinese while lounging on the couch in the kitchen.)

"Doctora: "blah blah blah, blah blah, blah papanicolau blah blah, blah?"

Me (pretending to know what's going on...my ultimate downfall): "ya ya ya, bueno!"



La Doctora (Dra.) dons a pair of surgical gloves, motions me over to the patient bed, and hands me an ancient-looking metal clamp device. The patient, a woman in her 50s (although most women here tend to look a lot older than they are), starts unbuttoning her pants. Meanwhile, I'm holding this monster clamp in my right hand watching this woman willingly reveal her world, feeling my gracious smile beginning to twitch. What have I gotten myself into? 




In Ecuador, like in most other countries in the world, high school graduates apply to universities as a medical student. In other words, there is no such thing as "pre-med." To save the confusion in trying to explain this minor discrepancy, I tell the doctors that I'm a 5th year med student (my logic being that I've had 4 years undergrad training as a pre-med, planning to start my 5th year as a medical student-here's hoping!). I'm about to find out just how much "5th year med students" in the US are perceived to know by Ecuadorian doctors...



The clinic where I've been shadowing for the past month functions under the Ministry of Public Heath in Conocoto, and provides free services to its patients who cannot otherwise afford basic health care. I would've walked right past the unlabeled building if it weren't for the locals directing me to it. To be honest, it made the clinics in ghetto downtown Baltimore seem like penthouse suites. But I love it. 

Lines as long as those formed in Ohio on Nov. 4, 2008, appear every morning before it opens at 8am. The clinic has 2 nurses and 7 doctors (2 obstetricians, 1 gynecologist, 2 pediatricians, 2 general practitioners), who's showings are as predictable as Ecuadorian weather (that is, very UNpredictable). Over the course of the past few months, I have had the lucky opportunity to do clinical rotations and shadow a different doctor each week.

On my first day (that is, after a few no-shows), I shadowed Dra. Espinoza, an obstetrician. She taught me the word papanicolau, which means "pap smear" and subsequently set me to work. If it weren't for the lack of liability, I think I would have been in some legal trouble. The staff just don't seem to fully grasp the meaning of "no, no todavia he aprendido eso" (no, I have not yet learned that). I've been asked to prescribe medicine despite my broken Spanish (don't worry, I didn't. Not about to build a malpractice track record that will haunt me for years). But I do get to take patients' histories and fill out various medical forms in Spanish, fill out prescription forms (with proper assistance), and perform/record basic clinical procedures (blood pressure, weight, height, temperature). How accurate they are might be another story, seeing how I taught myself how to take blood pressure from a CVS pamphlet. But hey, the nurses seem to trust my measurements over their own. (It must be the white jacket? Or being Asian?


).

Nonetheless, these experiences have confidently prepared me for medical school in the future, for which I am immensely grateful. I can definitely see myself, and hope to be, working long-term in a clinic that serves underprivileged citizens such as this (apart from the flakiness). However, it did, I have to admit, confirm my interests to not specialize and instead go for primary care...at least over ob-gyn.

:) Serena."

(Jocelyn gets her blood pressure taken by Serena. And tries not to laugh.)