Medical Mania!

This has been one of the busiest weeks we've had! Along with a visiting team, Dr Byron (ob/gyn) and his wife Nachita (dentist), we have been providing free medical care in various regions of Quito. Greg is becoming a pro at passing out vitamins and anti-parasitic medicine, and I have learned sooo much about the female body as I assisted Dr. Byron during the week. It was a week of firsts for me as I heard a baby's heartbeat in the womb, saw my first sonogram, pelvic ultrasounds, and much more! The boy with his shirt up is showing you his scabies, which he told me in spanish "itch more than fleas."

Today I was able to go to a young women's home and instruct her in the use of crutches. This 27 year old women was hit by a car 7 months prior and fractured her leg in several places. She still cannot walk due to poor healing of the bones in her left leg. In addition, she took a fall about 2 weeks ago while trying to hop to the bathroom (she lives on the 3rd floor and did not have crutches). We found some crutches at Steve and Micki's house left over from a previous team and now this young woman can at least get around her home safely. While assistive devices such as wheelchairs, crutches, and canes are available in pharmacies here, they are very expensive and most people cannot afford to purchase them.

Easter in Rio Bamba

We spent last week working in Rio Bamba (about 3 hours away from Quito) with a medical team from Pennslyvania. Our accommodations were barracks on a military base. We received a very warm welcome and had a wealth of help from the military there. They threw us a big fiesta at the end of our week complete with a band playing Bolivian music. We even got to ride on tanks from the 1950's! We worked out of a large church in the center of town for 3 full days. The two doctors and six nurses on the team provided free medical exams and medicine to 150 adults and children each day. Greg and I helped by passing out packets of vitamins and anti parasitic medicine to each person that came in. I also worked in the Pharmacy as a translator, explaining how much/when/why to take the medicines the doctors recommended. In addition to the medical clinics, we did one day of Happy Feet, washing kids feet and passing out new socks and shoes to them. Even though we have done this many times in the past, it never fails to humble us when we see really dirty, blistered feet and shoes that are worn to the sole with holes in the toes. On Good Friday, the team bought food to cook a hot lunch for 200 people of the community. It was a great week of sharing the love of Christ with people by ministering to their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Greg and I also colored Easter eggs with the kids on Friday, which was a completely new experience for all who participated. The following story sums up the whole experience. Because of the number of children , each child was only allowed to color one egg. One little boy who had just colored an egg came up to me and asked me if he could color another one. When I asked him where his egg went he said "En mi barriga" (in my belly). I wasn't sure if I understood him correctly, so I asked him, "you ate it?" to which he replied, "rapidito" (very fast). Most of the children were so hungry, they didn't really care about the dying or the decoration- they just wanted to eat their egg!

Healthy smiles

This week we hosted our first dental team of 60 from Charleston, SC- our old stomping ground. With their perfect smiles and giving hearts, they set up 2 different clinics in Quito to provide free dental cleanings, extractions, root canals, and tooth restoration to adults and children everyday this week. They also had an eye clinic to provide reading glasses to those who needed them. In addition, they participated in community outreach by going to schools and the soup kitchen to instruct kids how to brush and care for their teeth. Our role was to help make sure everything ran smoothly- Greg and I helped prepare and serve lunch to over 100 people each day as well as dinner for the 10 translators that stayed with us. Here are some pictures of the week.

The Markets...

Here are some colorful pictures of the market places where we buy bulk veggies, potatoes, beans and fruits for the teams that we host as well as for the soup kitchen. After you purchase a large sack of items you pay a human carrier to strap your sack on their back and carry it to your vehicle. It is quite impressive to watch a tiny Ecuadorian woman strap your 100 lb sack to her back and carry it as if it weighed nothing! I'm sure this also accounts for the early onset of arthritis and back deformities. We don't buy our meat at the markets (we aren't that brave) but wanted to include a picture of that as well. They sell everything from cow hooves to pig skin, cow stomach lining, live chickens, rabbits, goats and guinea pigs. It is quite an experience but not for those who don't like to be around a lot of people.

Rain, rain, go away....

February has been a very soggy month for us. Ecuador has a rainy season and we're in the midst of it. It will be sunny and 70 degrees in the morning, but by afternoon the temps will drop to 50 and we will be without power during hailstorms the size of dimes (making us very thankful for our waterproof shoes since our umbrellas were stolen last month)! Besides longing for the dry, sunny deserts of Arizona, we have been helping our soup kitchen children stay warm by bringing homemade cookies and hot cocoa to their houses. Last week, we were invited over a friend's house for dinner. When we arrived, we found her house flooded from all the rain so we spent the next 3 hours helping her evacuate all the water using shovels and old sweaters as mops. Twenty large buckets later, we had most of the floors dry and were able to sit down to some potato and pig skin soup.

Equator Fun!

This past week we went to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth) with our friend Vasanti from Arizona. We got to do some fun tricks on the equator because of the way magnetic forces and gravity work there. You can check out the video of watching which way water swirls on the equator and in both hemispheres. Greg was able to balance an egg on a nail head, and we all took turns using a blow dart gun used by some tribes to hunt. None of us hit our cactus targets. We were also lighter (approx 4-6 lbs! ) on the equator. We also learned about the indigenous cultures of Ecuador and saw some shrunken heads (but we didnt get any good pics- sorry!).