it really was an awesome trip as it always is. i get so much out of this trip every year and it helps me come back to my job re-energized. this year we went out to the amazon instead of the coast where we have always previously gone. it was a totally different environment with all new challenges.
for me one of the hardest things was that i was que solo in my triaging of patients. as you can see from the picture below there was no one else there translating for me! i think i did a decent job considering a few years ago my Spanish consisted of "yo quiero taco bell"
but between the bats, the boa constrictors, the monkeys, the spiders so big you could ride
them
and the daily afternoon monsoons...i'm talking rain falling so hard i couldn't hear theperson standing next to me, i had an incredible trip. the amazon is a beautiful place and the people are so different. very stoic. that probably comes from the fact they drink gallons of chicha every day from birth on.
chicha is a drink made from the yuca root that is traditionally chewed up and then spit into a bowl and covered with water then allowed to ferment for a day or two. this delightful beverage is considered a gesture of welcome from the community and is offered to all guests from a communal bowl.
don't worry though, we didn't have the communal bowl passed around to us, they were generous to offer us our own individual mugs filled to the brim with that distinctly pungent beverage.
dee-lish! i've taken to making it myself and answering the door bowl with a bowlful in my hands, i could tell geek squad was truly impressed when the came over to fix my computer.
i was truly sad to leave my other home, my friends mom kept introducing me to different people my last night saying "esto es kate, ella es de los estados unidos pero ella es ecuatoriana, ella es ecuatoriana" i am ecuadorian. it feels like going home when i go back there and i miss my city so much. i miss the people, i miss the culture, i miss the life, i don't miss the smells so much but really who would? i can't wait to go back again. there is an amazing organization down in the south of ecuador that i really want to go visit next, if you check out my friend maribeth's blog that i link to she has a lot of information about it in there. they're looking for people to sponsor some of the orphan's there for $50 a month so let me know if anyone has any questions about it and i can get you all kinds of information about it.
well for now i'm still trying to recover from the trip, the new job and trying to figure what i'm going to do next so i'll write more about my PICU adventures next time. it's pretty intense.
