Today was a pretty okay day for me. For the past few days I have been sick with some sort of flu virus, "gripa" in Spanish, that may possibly be dengue....Thank God I'm doing a lot better, but I still have a bit of a cough, "tos" in Spanish. Today was a pretty reflective day for me. I ACTUALLY got a bit more sleep today!! WOOHOO!! I was relocated to a new room that was cooler, but it doesn't have a door and initially didn't have a fan. Unfortunately for me, the mosquitoes had a family reunion buffet with my face and body, leaving me with a swollen lip and itchy spots for days. Since I'm naturally an EXTREMELY light sleeper, I couldn't sleep a wink. Also, since there are at least 6-10 stray dogs that live on my block ALONE, they have gang-turf wars. It's absolutely horrible. It literally sounds that someone dog is getting jumped every 15-30 minutes. Sadly, this increases as the night ages. In result, I ended up crying for at least two hours because I had not had a SINGLE full night's rest since arriving to Ecuador. I was sleep deprived and miserable. What hurt the most was the fact that sleep deprivation causes memory loss and hinders memory retention. Sadly, I was beginning to notice that. Simple words and phrases that I knew in Spanish were gone in the wind. So, that following morning, I made a list of things that I was going to buy, no matter the cost, in Spanish for my host family to direct me. Door, fan, repellent, mosquito net, and ear plugs! Luckily for me, my host mom was able to retrieve a working fan for me and smoked the house with a particular wood that mosquitoes hated. Then I used a housemate's repellent spray, and plugged my ears with toilet paper. No matter what, this night was going to be a real night! So, I slept and woke up for 30 minutes, PRAYED, fell asleep, woke up for 5 minutes, slept, and then saw the sunlight! I rejoiced!!! Honestly, sleep has been a real struggle for me the past few years. I know I need to do a sleep study, but sometimes I wish that there was something free and easy that I could do to be able to sleep through one night.

Yesterday, I took a day off of work in order to allow my body to heal, while I searched for possible sleep solutions. So, today I decided to go to work after lunch, when the ER is usually less busy. When I walked in, the hospital's director, Dr. Caballero, who actually is a gentleman, was helping out. He did not appear to look like ANY of the other people in Puerto Lopez. He's tall (6'3"), has dark, thick, wavy eyebrows and hair, light skin, and speaks fast and confident. With looks like that, he should be in a telenovela! The other volunteer and I got to shadow him and learn some awesome diagnosis techniques. One child had asthma, so Dr. Caballero let me listen to the child's breathing, another child contracted hepatitis A, his liver was sore to the touch, so the doctor used an IV to administer vitamin b (not sure about which one). I thought that was pretty cool. Anyways, this doctor had SO much confidence and swag, I'd have to admit I was a little jealous. He was able to not only be effective, but also efficient. Also, his demeanor was humble, and calm. Best 10 minutes of my life! After he left, the ER was like a desert land, so I left to help somewhere else.

Now that i've been here for about a week, I have a few random thoughts:
-Let your desires be independent of what others have
-High waters don't always mean trouble; they could also mean protection
-Old people and young people are one in the same; they grow to be stuck in their ways
-Give out of love, receive out of love

Yup. That's it folks. I've been home most of this week because of my flu (maybe dengue!)...thank God for wifi!

A Day to Soak it All In......Puerto Lopez

I'm not very good at blogging, so here's some effort. Although I've been in Ecuador for only 3 days, I'm already having trouble writing in english! HA!

Here are some details about my volunteer job. I work as a volunteer/intern at the 24 hour government clinic in Puerto Lopez. Puerto Lopez is a calm, peaceful beach village that where most people walk or take a motor taxi. The pace of life here is easy, and the people are EXTREMELY warm and welcoming. This is TRUE southern hospitality....more southern than Texas! :)

The beach is beautiful! I really enjoy going there. During sunrise, there is an open fish market on the beach where all of the fishermen sell their fresh catches. Also, the women cook the fresh seafood on the beach. This town has a STRONG sense of community and sharing. I'm in love with that aspect. Especially in the hospital. I have been assisting in the emergency room, which houses MANY people at one time without patient confidentiality, it has opened my eyes to see how we often forsake the power of community.

So! I know y'all have been curious about what i've been doing in the hospital, right? Yesterday, I got to assist one of the doctors in suturing, and the doctor even threatened that my friend and I would do the next patient by ourselves when we see her again...! I also got to touch a pregnant lady's cervix....with my own two GLOVED fingers... :) It wasn't so bad! I've noticed that all of the doctors and nurses are crosstrained, so they may do obstetrics and geriatric thangs....Today I had to wash/disinfect the feet of a really old man who walked with a cane. He appeared to have some sort of skin disease that caused him to have really bad blisters and flaking on his feet.  He only wore crocs which made his feet more susceptible to filth. Over here there are mainly dirt roads COVERED in trash (everything is covered in trash) and poop. People use the restroom in the streets and stray dogs are rampant. He doesn't own any closed-toed shoes, so he has to get his blistered feet sterilized once a week....only to get them immediately dirty. Today, they put me to work cleaning wounds/stiches and rewrapping them. I even got to remove a stitch! People chuckle at my Spanish BIG TIME lol

As far as the language goes, people speak really fast in this town, and don't want to slow down lol I have ALOT to learn...I feel like i have forgotten the spanish rules, and lost of vocabulary....I often get confused too lollll  But people are pretty patient. Great food also!

Welp, this is far as my short attention span would let me go! Love yall peeps!!! <3

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