Reports from Ecuador

It has been 2 months of hard work, experimentation, research, exploration, odd incidents, unique cuisine and gorgeous sights. This has been a wonderful and memorable experience for the both of us and we are going to miss the beautiful country of Ecuador and everyone in it so much. The reason that our work there was so enjoyable was because of the wonderful people who were there to help us along the way. We would like to thank Maria Alicia, first and foremost, for lending us her home, knowledge, time and money, and for also being our trusty chauffeur and tour guide when we would have been utterly lost otherwise. Thanks to Marisol, for being a great resource for us for our many projects, and to Martita for being our Mamita when we were so far from our own. Thank you to all the doctors and nurses at the clinic in Yatzaputzan who gave us such helpful feedback and ideas for the technologies. And a huge thank you to everyone in Planchaloma, including the doctors, promoters, nurses, volunteers, and even the patients and people of the town for making us feel at home, for complementing our elementary-Spanish, for letting us feel useful at the clinic, and for all the fun times and laughs we’ve had together. Last, but most certainly not least, thank you BTB, for allowing us to have such a life-altering, eye-opening, and enjoyable learning experience; without the time, money, hard work, planning, efforts, that everyone there has put into this program, this would not have been possible for us.

We hope that we have accomplished enough to make even the smallest difference. We have learned a great deal and will be sure to pass that knowledge on to BTB and to future interns in order so that the next technologies that go to Ecuador will be Ecuador-ready and able to help to many throughout the country. We hope that we have made an impact, however small, in the communities and have made BTB and Fundacion Futuro proud to have had us as interns.

Chao, Ecuador! Don’t forget us, because we will most certainly never forget you.

El Reciclaje

The last week of our internship was a very busy and successful one. There was much left to do with our projects and the backpacks in preparation for Yvette’s and Dr. Oden’s arrival in Ecuador. At the beginning of the week, Lila and I went  to Quito to make yet another trip to the printing place to pick up our educational booklets for the CHO pack and the Zipocrit Reader Card booklets. We also took this opportunity to bring the recycled items from the clinic Planchaloma to the recycling company in Quito. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out the way I had planned. I had hoped that the company would buy the recyclables for a fairly reasonable price of at least a few dollars. However, when we brought the bags of items and the workers weighed them, the final price for all of the recyclables was only a 34 cents! We figured that a little money is better than no money at all, but when we saw that the taxi ride back cost more than we received, we wondered if this was an efficient way to recycle the items. In the end, we figured it just wasn’t worth it to waste gas to drive the items to a company who will only buy it for a few cents. However, later that day we discovered a huge recycling bin that belonged to Techniseguros, the office where Maria Alicia works. This turns out to be a much more convenient way for Maria Alicia to recycle the items from the clinics and more environmentally friendly because it saves on gas. Thus, I believe my recycling project has had a successful start and is sustainable in the communities as long as the health workers encourage the idea and Maria Alicia picks up the items during her visits to the clinics.

La Biblioteca

Lila’s library was also off to a very good start. We set up a check-out system in which every book is registered in a records book and contains a pocket with a red card that reads “You forgot to register me!” Then, once someone expresses interest in checking out a book, the health workers at the clinic will record the date and person’e name, remove the red card from the book and replace it with a green card that reads “Don’t forget to return me.” The system is very simple and organized, and the workers and patients caught on quickly. Lila also quickly gained a few loyal customers. A group of small kids had tracked her down one day while we were at an internet cafe in Planchaloma and asked her if they could please borrow some books. Lila was absolutely ecstatic and she walked with them to the clinic, where they each checked out 2 books from her library. This same group of kids not only come back about 3 times a day to get more books, but they also told all of their friends and siblings about the library and even brought them all to the clinic to show them. It’s really amazing to see the people in the surrounding communities so excited about the existence of a such a simple, convenient system in which they can read books for free. It’s refreshing and inspiring to see their thirst for knowledge and their desire to learn. Lila’s project has most definitely been successful so far. Hopefully, the doctors at the clinic are able to buy more books soon to add to the library’s collection; because pretty soon, those little kids will have read every book there!

The backpacks

The Lab-in-a-Backpack is now being put to good use in the clinic in Planchaloma as well as in Yatzaputzan, now that both clinics have lab techs there at least once a week to run tests. And after all of our hard work, the new and improved CHO pack was able to be left at the clinic in Yatzaputzan, containing all of the items that they had requested to be added to the pack. Now hopefully the backpack contains everything that they would need to go on a brigade in the surrounding communities. However, unlike the other 2 backpacks, the OB/GYN pack was not as successful. Many changes and revisions must be made to the pack before it is ready to use in these communities and clinics. But we have received a lot of feedback on the pack and pass this information onto the next team assigned to work on the pack so that, in the future, the pack can be useful  and ready to use in Ecuador.

In other news…

Dr. Oden and Yvette finally made it to Ecuador! We were so excited to see them pull up in front of the clinic in Planchaloma. But when they arrived, everyone got right down to business. They met the new lab tech, Esperanza, who will be working with the Lab-in-a-Backpack every Saturday at the clinic. She made sure to let them know how much she enjoys working with the backpack, which contains almost everything needed to run her usual tests. She also voiced  her approval of Lila’s Sally centrifuge. She and the doctors all stated that they wished that we could’ve left Sally with them to use at the clinic and were a little upset when we told them that we couldn’t. Dr.Oden also brought m syringe clips with her, so we were finally able to demonstrate the clips to the doctors and promoters in Planchaloma. They were amazed at the simplicity of the concept and ease-of-use of the clip itself. They told us that they want a whole bunch of them of various sizes for both the 3mL and 5mL syringes. When I heard this, I could not have been happier. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done to perfect them, but hopefully in the near future we will be able to send the desired amount of clips to the clinics.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap.  To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading!

Wednesday marked our first day back in Planchaloma and another medical brigade to Yugsiche Alto. This time we were accompanied by Maria Alicia, Monica, a gynecologist at the clinic, and Don Juan, another health promoter from Planchaloma. When our truck pulled up to the school, we were greeted by a mass of smiling kids running up to greet and hug us. They even remembered our names! Once we got them to settle down a bit, Maria Alicia reviewed with the kids and parents what Lila and I had taught them the last week about hand hygiene and recycling. And they did very well on their little quiz! They remembered the important points that we covered the in our lesson week before. This is great news for Lila and me: our ‘charlitas’ with the kids are a success! The kids are actually learning and retaining the knowledge that we give them. Now, we just hope that they are using it as well.

During the brigade, the doctors from the clinic, including Lorena and Monica, took every child’s height and weight. Sandra, a health promoter in training, sat behind a small table and gave the kids bottles of multivitamins. Monica also gave all of the kids de-parasiting pills, which essentially will detox them of all the parasites that linger in their bodies and could potentially cause them extreme harm. Lila showed the ever-curious kids all of the devices in the backpack and how they worked. She also took care of various cuts, scrapes, and burns that the kids complained to her about by using the First Aid items in the CHO pack. After the wounds were taken care of, the kids found serious interest in Sally, which she demonstrated to them and let them take turns pushing the button for the allotted 10 minutes. I had most, if not all, of the adults ask me to take their blood pressure and glucose, a few of them telling me they were concerned about their health because of diabetes. I used the glucometer, test strips and antiseptic wipes from the Lab-in-a-Backpack to test their blood glucose levels and also used the blood pressure cuff from this backpack. There were no more lancets in the Lab-in-a-Backpack, so I used the ones from the CHO pack. I tested over 25 people and of these, one woman had a glucose level of 319. This is extremely high, given that normal is between 80 and 120. When I told her this, she said she knew that she has diabetes and has painful headaches all of the time. I asked her if she had medicine for this or if she had even been to the clinic to see a doctor about her condition. She responded no because she didn’t know that they could help her or give her medicine.

The kids using Lila´s Sally Centrifuge

After the brigade, the teacher and parents expressed their thanks to us and the doctors and health promoters that had done so much for them. In particular, the woman whom I had spoken to about her serious condition stood up and said that, if not for this brigade, she would never have known that anyone could help her, let alone give her medicine to help get her condition under control. She, along with other families, declared that they would be visiting the clinic in Planchaloma very soon.

The kids curiously watching as I take their teacher´s blood pressure

Once back at the clinic, Maria Alicia thought it would be a good idea for me to teach everyone who works at the clinic how to use the glucometer. It is a very simple machine to use and they caught on quickly. Now the health promoters as well as the doctors can use it for patients. Also, after seeing me use the blood pressure cuff on the patients in the clinic one day, Marta asked me if it was easy and if I could teach her how to use it. So, this next technology lesson will hopefully take place tomorrow, in which I will teach the health promoters in Planchaloma how to use and read the blood pressure cuff.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap.  To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading!

This weekend was also successful in terms of my project. In Planchaloma, Lila and I noticed that there are plastic bottles, wrappers, cutlery and bags strewn all over: in the streets, bushes, pig pens and fields. Also, since there is no garbage truck that comes by to pick up the trash in the area, so the promoters at the clinic throw all the trash in a large hole in the back of the clinic and burn it. I thought this would be a good time to practice what we preach, so I decided to start a recycling system in the clinic in Planchaloma, and eventually one in Yatzaputzan.

The night before we left Quito, Maria Alicia brought me to MegaKvwi, where I was able to buy 6 large recycling bins to put in the clinics. The bins are absolutely perfect and were just what I was looking for. Since there are no recycling trucks that come by the community and it would be too costly to get a company in an near-by town to come pick it up, I settled on an alternative mode of transportation. I found a recycling company in Quito that will buy the recycled glass, plastic and paper. Since Maria Alicia visits the clinics very often, once or twice a month, she agreed to pick up the bags of recycled items when she visits, bring them back with her to Quito, and sell them to the recycling company. She has also told me that she feels very strongly about recycling and will make sure that the clinic’s members are indeed using the system that we have set up for them. On Wednesday, I set up the bins in the clinic and Marta, the health promoter, and both Lorena and Monica thought they looked very nice and all thanked me for starting such a simple system that will benefit the community and environment in the long run. Each of the bins are conveniently labeled with a list of what items should be put in them. However, today Lila and I remembered being told that some of the people who come into the clinic can’t read Spanish or even Quichua. So I placed signs above each of the bins with pictures of what should be recycled into that particular bin. I officially recycled the first items yesterday: a Mac&Cheese box and a jam jar (this should speak volumes about our diet here…).

Marta and I and the clinic´s new recycling bins

However, I feel that setting up the bins and transportation of the recyclables is not enough. I really want to find a safer way for the clinic to dispose of their trash. Such a large fire so close to the clinic can never be good. And after several years, the trash will eventually begin to pile up. Of course, all they have to do is dig a new hole, but that would make the back of the clinic a kind of landfill. Maria Alicia said trash disposal here is a complicated matter, but I am still working to find a safer and convenient way for the clinic to get rid of their trash.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap. To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu. Thanks for reading!

Lila and I on our carriage ride though Quito

After arriving back in the much warmer city of Quito, we spent our weekend being the ultimate tourists. On Saturday we accompanied Maria Alicia to the Historic District of Quito. While she had a business workshop to lead, we had a few hours to explore all that the city had to offer. We began by taking a tour of the most ornate cathedral in the whole country of Ecuador. It took 160 years and over 100 pounds of gold to complete it. We then took a 20 minute carriage ride (with the horse and all!) around the Historic District and scoped out some more places to visit. We bought guanabana-flavored ice cream and visited a few of the shops that are in the plaza. We bought movies, sweets, souvenirs, handicrafts, and a new digital thermometer for the CHO pack, since the one that was in it initially was inaccurate by a few degrees. We also found a few pharmacies in this area that could possibly have the items needed to restock the backpacks when the time comes.

On Sunday, Maria Alicia and her adventurous mom Marta took us to La Mitad del Mundo: The Middle of the World. There is a large monument in the small town of San Antonio where the latitude is 0*0’0”. At this spot, the equator is perfectly perpendicular to the solstice line, the path that the sun takes on the longest day of the year. After taking an endless amount of pictures, we could not resist the urge to shop some more, especially since there were so many of our favorite cute, bargain-priced shops selling local handicrafts. We finished the day off with a delicious lunch, a mound of chocolate ice cream, and a quick glide on the mini-zipline in the kid’s park. It took some convincing but we finally got Maria Alicia to give it a try; and she had a blast.

Lila and I at La Mitad del Mundo

Of course being back in Quito didn’t mean all fun and no work. On Monday and Tuesday we went back to the Fundacion office and started working on some more education materials for the lessons that we’ve been doing at the schools in Planchaloma. In our ‘charlita’ on handwashing and recycling, we decided to add another topic: nutrition. Many of the kids, and even parents, here are not getting all the vitamins and minerals they need to stay healthy and prevent sickness, especially in these conditions (such as non-potable water). In our lesson we will talk about what kinds of vitamins and minerals we need to stay healthy. We will talk about the kinds of foods that our bodies need and how much of each kind of food we should be eating per day. We also decided that the kids would get more out of the lesson if it were interactive; so we made it a sort of game. We made a large poster of a colored food pyramid, minus the food items. We printed and laminated pictures of various food items and, after our lesson, the kids have to place the food items in the right category. During our lesson at the next escuelita, we are hoping to incorporate our nutrition lesson into our talk and see what kind of response we get.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap.  To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading!

Lila and I giving our "charlita" at the school

After Lorena took our lesson posters to get them bound, we set off to give hygiene lessons to the students of Chisulchi Grande and Chisulchi Chico. These are two smalls schools in the communities about 30 minutes away from Planchaloma. On Friday and Saturday, we went with Nicolas to Chusulchi Grande to give the kids lessons on “Cuando y Como Lavarse las Manos” and “Por Que es Importante de Reciclaje” For the handwashing lesson, we have an interactive activity in which we use glitter to represent germs: Lila and I put glitter on our hands and then shook every student’s hand, and had them shake someone else’ hand, in order to show how germs spread. We also had a short sorting game for the recycling lesson in which the kids have a bag of items and have to decide whether each item should be recycled as Paper, Glass or Plastic. On Tuesday, we went to Chisulchi Chico to give the same lessons to a group of younger kids. All in all, the kids seemed to get the message of the lesson and really liked the activities. They were very attentive and engaged. Nicolas has a whole slew of schools that he wants us to visit within the next few weeks, to which we will be giving the same “charlita”, or little talk, to the students there as well.

Me explaining the recycling game

The kids and Lila engaged in the activity

Living in the clinic at Planchaloma has taught Lila and me a bit more about the constraints of the developing world. For the first few days, we had to take ice-cold showers because there was no water heater installed. There were also some electricity problems for the first few days. But we learned to cook and get along with only the minimal light of our solar powered flashlights (great idea, BTB!). Internet is also impossible to come by in the clinic itself, so we venture down the street to a conveniently located internet café. Worst of all: Planchaloma is very cold. We are over 9,000 feet in the mountains and the clinic is not heated. At night, we lock ourselves in our room to keep in the heat from the small space heater.

However, we are still immensely fortunate compared to the living conditions of the people in the community, who don’t have electricity, filtered water, a heater (or water heater for showers for that matter), or the luxury to spend $1 an hour for internet at the local café. Lila and I are by no means “roughing it”, but the conditions have put us out of our comfort zones. This is how the people in these communities live every day, and to us it’s uncomfortable; but to them, its home.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap.  To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading!

We took yet another day-trip on Saturday to Otavalo, a town about 2 hours north of Quito. On the way, we passed the Equator and a large sign welcoming us to “La Mitad del Mundo.” It was so cool that we were able to be in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time! And once we were in Otavalo, there was non-stop shopping. Otavalo is essentially a massive outdoor market where locals sell their handicrafts. We were accompanied by Marta, Maria Alicia’s clever and savvy mother who showed us Americanas a thing or two about bargaining with Ecuadorians. Lila and I spent the day haggling for our souvenirs and finished it off with another traditional Ecuadorian-style meal, which included the inescapable Ají, along with moté, queso and llapingachos.

The sickness has struck.

Unfortunately, after our wonderful trip to Otavalo, I became very ill. Maria Alicia called a doctor to the house to make sure it was nothing very serious. Fortunately, it was simply due to the drastic and sudden change in my diet; the doctor gave me medicine and the order to rest so my body could adjust. I stayed at home in bed on Sunday and Monday to give my body time to recover and returned to the office on Tuesday to help Lila finish up the hand-washing and recycling posters. Lila also brought her Sally Centrifuge in order to demonstrate it for everyone here in the office, including Maria Alicia and Marisol. On Thursday, we will be leaving Quito and heading out for Planchaloma. We are excited to finally see the community and clinic there and to get to work with the Backpacks and Sally.

At our desks in the Fundacion office.

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap. To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading! 

On Friday, a long and winding mountain road led us to Yatzaputzan, an indigenous community located about 2 hours from Quito and 12,000 feet high in the Andes Mountains. We were greeted by a breathtaking view of an endless expanse of green hills, crisp mountain air, a bout of altitude sickness, and the indigenous men and women of the community. We were given a tour of the clinic there, which was very different than the clinic in Guayaquil in that it was in a newly constructed building. Though this clinic was still partially under construction, we could tell that it was much larger than the other, having more amenities, rooms and space. The Yatzaputzan clinic is definitely a modern, affordable and trustworthy resource for the people in the surrounding communities.

The waiting room at the clinic

The other reason for our visit was to attend a ceremony for the welcoming of the new officers of the Women´s Cooperative. The Woman´s Cooperative is a partnership between Fundacion Futuro and the women of the community of Yatzaputzan and of the surrounding area. In 2008, the Fundacion began the Cooperative by giving the women of the community the seed money to start a small business, which could be something as small as owning a cow. Then once their businesses started growing, the women of the communities were able to lend money to each other to aid in the growth and maintenance of their businesses.

Marisol's amazing dance moves

After departing later than scheduled, taking a detour into Guayaquil Airport due to “mal tiempo en Quito”, and spending almost 10 hours sitting on Continental Flight 653, we finally arrived in the gorgeous capital city of Ecuador that is Quito.

Besides that crazy flight, everything went smoothly: the CHO and OB/GYN backpacks have arrived safely in our company, and we are ready to explore all that Ecuador has to offer while also helping in any way we can and making as much of a difference as two college students can possibly make in a developing country.

Maria Alicia has treated us so well and has opened up her beautiful and cozy home to us which we will be forever grateful. She has unofficially taken on the role of our own personal tour guide and encyclopedia of knowlege of everything Ecuadorian, especially her home city of Quito. Before the real work begins, she has made sure that we feel right at home and are seeing as much of this beautiful city as possible. Tomorrow happens to be a holiday in the city of Quito when El Festival del 24 de Mayo will take place. It commemorates La Batalla de Pichincha that took place on a mountain in Quito in the early 1800s and which showed that Ecuadorian indepedence from Spain was imminent.

We will be spending the remainder of the week in Quito with Maria Alicia. She is hesitant to talk about any kind of work yet; I guess she is fully enjoying the holiday and days of rest! The real work may begin on Tuesday; but until then, I will make sure to take in all that Quito has to offer the eager and mesmerized tourist.