Ecuadorian Engagement

The love of my life, David Lawler, just left Ecuador. It was a great trip. He got to see how programs have improved since October, we got to travel to the beach, and we spent some relaxing time together. Oh yeah, and we got engaged!

For all of those out there who are interested, here's how it happened:

I picked Dave up from the airport on Saturday and we took a taxi back to the house. Knowing that we would be going to dinner in Quito for Shawn's birthday, I decided to chill until then and check my e-mail. Dave left the room to bring something downstairs, and when he returned, a taxi honked outside. He said "that's us!" and Sarah threw a packed bag at my face.

We got in the taxi and Dave (very sneakily) gave directions to the north bus terminal of Quito. we took a bus up north to an old hacienda on a lake. It was fairly late, so after arriving we had dinner and just chilled. The next morning we had breakfast and walked around the gardens.

In the early afternoon, we got a taxi to take us to Cuicocha (a crater lake about 45 minutes away). The place was gorgeous and we decided to hike just a bit to take in the view. After hiking for 20 minutes or so, I was ready to turn back, since the taxi was waiting for us (note: private transportation in Ecuador is not very expensive, but being conditioned to take buses everywhere, I was freaking out about the cost of the taxi... it ended up being $30 for a 3 hour trip). When Dave kept pushing for us to walk just a little bit farther, I starting getting frustrated and got up to start hiking. Dave then "tripped" and fell o one knee, but in my frustration, I kept walking (I really love him, promise). Then Dave got up, grabbed me, spun me around, and got down on one knee. He said, "Haley, I love you. You are my best friend and I can't wait to grow old with you. Will you marry me?" Of course, I said yes!

After returning to Quito, we had a fabulous meal at the nicest restaurant in the city. We were greeted at the house with champagne, a room full of flowers, and letters from my friends back home. It was a pretty good day, if I do say so myself.

So excited!

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Sunset at the beach (we traveled later on in the week)

There's a Reason I've Been MIA

Last week I spent time in a "homestay". One of the women in our Women's Exercise program invited me into her home for the week, so I went to live with her and her family from Monday-Thursday, before we left for our third retreat.

Patricia (from exercise) lives in a two story house. On the first floor, Maritza (her oldest daughter, who also comes to exercise) and her husband live. On the second floor, Patricia lives with her husband, two younger daughters (11 and 2), and her mother. Her mother-in-law also lives on the property out back. This family is a tight-knit group. Every night, everyone gathers upstairs to play card games, play dominoes, do magic tricks, tell jokes, and just enjoy each other's company. They showed me family photos and spoke of life in Ecuador. I was really welcomed into the family... I was even invited on the family trip this summer!

There were many things I learned from my short stay with the family last week, but I'll highlight a couple of them. It was very interesting to see lifestyle and eating habits of women involved in our health programs; it's important to notice cutural norms but also see that habits may be slowly changing based on an education of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Ecuadorians really stress the importance of family, and my week made that even more evident. People who join our programs and attend our classes really appreciate what it is that we do, and they see us as one of them. Although we only live amongst them for only a year, they don't see us as foreigners doing charity work. On the contrary, they see how much we can get from a year here and love that we are spending our time working alongside them to better their communities. Spanish is hard, but mine is slowly improving day by day. Even though I'm not fluent (my definition of fluency has certainly changed as well), I can still communicate all that I want to and develop strong bonds with people in Rumiloma and the surrounding areas. The experience was great, and I know that even though I'm not physically living with them anymore, I will be frequently visiting the family and know that I am welcome home anytime.

A Bittersweet Farewell to Spring Break

The end has come and gone. We hosted 10 volunteers from Tulane the last week of March. The group arrived on a Saturday, so we made it to the LIGA game on Sunday where our favorite professional soccer team won 1-0. They jumped right into program rotations on Monday. The group was broken down into 3 smaller groups to shadow the following programs: Children's English, Library/Teen Center, and Women's Exercise. They also completed several work projects for us. The volunteers painted two rooms in the Centro-- the English classroom and the soon-to-be Preventative Health Center on the third foor. They helped us design bookshelves for the upstairs rooms, they deep-cleaned the library, and they designed and painted a mural for the homework corner of the library. In between working hard on projects, learning about and running programs, and seeing community development firsthand, they went on several cultural outings to learn more about Ecuador. The volunteers were awesome and we would all agree that we could have taken a little more of the craziness of Spring Break if that meant they would stay longer. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the following tell you a little be more about their trip:

Sonia and I are so pumped to have Tulane finally here (plus LIGA was winning)

The volunteers on our tour of Old Town

Shawn and Sonia with the sweet Tulane SBers

It's a beautiful city!

Enjoying a dinner out in the city

Working hard to clean the library

Starting the mural in the homework corner

The awesome (almost) final product

A Mule, Two Girls, and a Mission

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a big deal in Ecuador. Since schools were out and the Tulane volunteers were traveling on Friday, we had a vacation day and closed the library. Krysta and I went into Quito on Friday morning to see the professional. This ceremony is very important to Ecuadorians, and many years of traditions has made the huge processional into what it is today.

The outfits may remind you of the KKK, but they are said to represent a hiding of one's sin. Individuals also carry crosses and wear crowns of thorns to reinact the events of the crucifixion. Thousands of people march from the San Francisco church to the Basillica and back barefoot. The trip is a couple of miles uphill, and the whole processional takes 4-6 hours. The event was really powerful, and I was moved to tears with such a visual reminder of the sacrifice Christ made.

Afterwards, we dined on the typical Easter dish, Fanesca. It was.... interesting. It is a creamy soup with an extensive ingredient list is:

Cream broth

Choclo

Beans

Chocho

Salted fish

Peas

Cooked white onions

Raw red and green bell peppers

Banana

Raw green onions

Habas

Fried sweet dough balls

Potato
Cheese

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.... Essentially, it is a soup with 12 grains in it (representing the 12 disciples) and some donuts that taste like fish. De-liscious.

After our meal, we traveled to Quilatoa. Quilatoa is a crater lake that is downright breathtaking. Krysta and I stayed in a quaint hostel and snuggled to keep each other warm (the altitude makes for a very cold night). One morning we took a 6-hour hike around the rim of the crater. Since our legs were so sore the next day, after hiking down to the lake and kayaking in the turqoise water, we opted to take a donkey back up. I can't adequately describe the beauty of the laguna, the wonderful company, or the relaxing yet fun-filled weekend. I hope the pictures do it justice. Happy Easter!

Adventures with Dr. E

The Spring Break group from Tulane is here this week, but I managed to slip away this morning to go shadow at the hospital. When I arrived at the nursing station this morning, there wasn't much to do, so I was sent to the Emergency Room to help out. On my way there, I ran into Dr. Escobar (a doctor who is a prominant figure in the hospital and the community of Sangolqui). We all met Dr. Escobar back last fall, and he is a friend of Manna. He greeted me and asked why I wouldn't be working with the nurses this morning. After explaining that there weren't many vaccinations to give this morning, he suggested I follow him around for the morning. I gladly accepted his offer and accompanied him to his office. Dr. Escobar specializes in internal medicine, tuberculosis patients, and diabetes/hypertension patients.

As Dr. E's nurse this morning, I got to record each of the visits in a patient log (I learned to do this in the rural clinic in Jatumpungo) and I took a LOT of blood pressure measurements. I had the privaledge of seeing several cases that made me happy to have a strong stomach. This includes, but is not limited to, a perirectal abscess, a case of vaginosis, a recovering case of TB, and a woman with vomiting reaction to a new medicine. YUM!

The "perirectal abscess" was on an 18-year-old boy whose mother works at the hospital. Along with the pain, the poor boy was suffering from embarassment. It was all I could do to keep from telling him about when I had to sit on a doctor's table butt-up last year. That probably wouldn't have been professional, but my empathy and general inclination to care for people and make them as comfortable as possible leads me to believe that I'm fit to be a nurse one day.

Also, we treated several hypertension patients. This was especially interesting, since many of the women in our communities or involved in the Women's Exercise program struggle with hypertension. It was yet another great morning of shadowing.