Daley Scott |
“Let love be genuine”
We arrived in Atlanta around 5:30 am eastern standard time, made it through customs (side note: pretty sure everybody that works in customs hates their lives because they are the meanest people I have ever met), went through security again (equally as angry people as customs), and made it to our gate after stopping for some coffee and chicken minis at Chick-Fil-A. I normally get home sick by the end of trips and am ready to sleep in my own bed; however, this was not the case for Ecuador. I would have stayed for another couple weeks of clinic if I could. I loved this trip so much, and I feel like I really grew as a person, nurse, and traveler because of this trip. Ecuador was amazing itself, but the people I met and the people I traveled with made it a million times better. I definitely made some lifelong friends from this trip, and I hope I never forget all the cool experiences I had. As I boarded the flight back to Cincinnati from Atlanta, I was a little sad because the trip was officially over, but I was also really excited to go back and give my family their presents and tell them all about my trip. This was definitely not my last Timmy Global Health Trip, and this was definitely not my last time in Ecuador.
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“Keep life simple”
We got up early again today because my group wanted to go zip lining before we left to go back to Quito. Zip lining through the mountains had some amazing views, and the Ecuadorians do not have as many safety rules, so we were allowed to zip line upside down, zip line in the super man pose, and we were able to zip line together for a few of the lines. After zip lining we went back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, said goodbye to Casa Rosa. I was amazed that all my activities (repelling, rafting, cliff jumping, and zip lining) in Mindo only cost $50 total. I was expecting the bill to be so much higher because only one of those activities in America would cost $50 or more. We got on the bus and started out 2 hour drive back to Quito. When we arrived in Quito, we went to the Artisan Market for a couple hours to buy souvenirs. Michelle taught Alli and me how to barter in Spanish; even though a lot of the people knew basic English, I wanted to seem like I knew what I was doing so I would speak to them in Spanish. Michelle was super impressed with my Spanish bartering skills. I was able to bring down prices on 3 alpaca blankets, a shot glass, and a hammock. I was super happy with myself and all my new purchases I was bringing home to my family and friends. Time for the final dinner! We went to Café Mosaico, which is a restaurant that sits in the middle of Quito. Our table was out on the balcony, and the balcony overlooked the basilica, the bull fighting rings, and the El Panecillo statue. This statue is of an angel, and the angel overlooks the north side of Quito. The story is that the statue turned her back on the south side of Quito, and that is why the south side is not as nice of an area as the north side. Some of the doctors from clinic came back for this dinner, so it was really good to see them one last time before we left for the airport. After dinner, many tears came when we said goodbye to Michelle at the restaurant. A lot of us cried, and Michelle cried when we had to say goodbye. Even more tears came later when we arrived at the airport and had to say goodbye to our interpreters and Rowan. Little did we know at the beginning of the week how close we would come to our interpreters, Rowan, and Michelle. I really hope this is not the last time I will be seeing them in my lifetime because they are all too great of people to not keep in contact with and see again. (TBH crying a little bit again while I am writing this after the fact) Good news: we all had Wi-Fi at the airport and were able to friend everybody from Ecuador on Facebook and follow them on Instagram. If I cannot see them every day like I was used to, at least we can keep up on social media. After making it through security and to our gate, we boarded our almost 5 hour flight to Atlanta around 11:30 central time. “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both”
We woke up super early on Sunday because we wanted to fit as many activities as possible in while we were in Mindo. We started the day by hoping in the back of a pickup truck and having them drive us to a 3 hour waterfall repelling trip. Alli, Amanda, Emma, Meg, Robert, Eric, Lionel, and I decided to go as a group. The hike to the waterfalls was another rough hike. It was super long and steep, just like the sunrise hike, but this one was in a bid more humid climate so we were all a tad tired when we finally made it to the waterfalls. Repelling down the 3 waterfalls was hard work too because the water was in your face, and the rocks we were repelling down were extremely slippery. However, this was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Next, we came back to the hotel and hopped in another pickup truck that took us to a place the Ecuadorians call “tubing.” We were thinking this was going to be a relaxing trip down the Mindo River after the waterfall repelling and hike. It was definitely not a lazy river, and we realized that when they made us put on helmets. This was more of a low level white water rafting trip that happened on a bunch of tubes tied together with rope. It sounds super sketchy, but this was one of the most fun things I have ever done. After we got back to the hotel, we walked around Mindo for lunch and to shop for a little bit, and then we decided that we could fit in one more activity today. We decided to hop in the back of another pickup truck, and it drove us about 15 minutes to a hiking trail that led to a huge cliff and waterfall at the end. There was a worker down at the end of the trail by the waterfall that told us we could jump off the cliff and into the water/ waterfall. We all decided to jump off the cliff! I was a little nervous, but this was a really cool experience that I did not want to miss. We put on a life jacket that was attached to a rope (still unsure what the rope was for but whatever…), and we jumped 45 feet off the cliff. Apparently I did not flex my core enough when I hit the water because water shot up my nose, and I had a little hard time breathing when I came up out of the water. However, it was one of the coolest things I have done, and I would definitely do it again if I go back. We ate dinner back at the hotel, and we all got dressed to go out again this night. However, we were all unaware of a law in Ecuador that makes it illegal to sell alcohol on a Sunday. Therefore, none of the bars were open in this small Ecuadorian town (not sure what we were thinking TBH), so we stayed back at the hotel, played games, and hung out with each other some more. “The higher the climb the better the view”
We were finally able to sleep in until 9 am today! That’s been the latest time by far this entire week. We packed up all of our belongings, ate breakfast, and loaded the bus with our belongings and the supplies and medication. We took all the bins and suitcases of supplies and medications back to Tierra Nueva where they will be stored until the next brigade. Diane told us that we were next going to be riding “gondolas” up the side of a mountain to the top that overlooks all of Quito. I was not sure what “gondola” she was talking about, but when we arrived at the place it basically was an enclosed ski lift. The lift took us up the side of the mountain for about 7 minutes until we reached the top at almost 14,000 feet. The top of the mountain had the most beautiful view of Quito and the farming land on the other side. My friends and I decided to get one of those tacky souvenir pictures where they photo shopped us into a picture of us falling out of the lift on the side of mountain. Normally these pictures are extremely expensive in the United States, but for 6 people to be in the photo, it was only $8. We decided to go for it- best decision we made on the trip. The picture is hilarious. After the mountain, we ate lunch and drove two hours to Mindo. Mindo is a small tourist town. The view on the bus ride there was incredible. First, we drove over the Equator!!! That was a really cool experience being in the middle of the world. Second, we drove through some of the Andes Mountains. I wanted to sleep on the bus ride there, but I had to keep looking out the window because everything was so beautiful. I have never seen anything like it before. We arrived in Mindo, and the hotel we stayed at, Hotel Sisakuna, was broken up into different houses. My 5 friends and I were able to get our own pink house. It was so cute, and definitely the best house out of all of them. We called it Casa Rosa! We arrived just in time for dinner. The hotel served us pizza, and then we went out exploring Mindo. We found Zumba happening on the square in the middle of town, so we obviously participated in that with all the little Ecuadorian children. We also went to one of the dancing bars in Mindo, and spent the rest of the night there. The translators were attempting to teach us to salsa again- it went a little better than last night but still not fabulous. I will not be on Dancing with the Stars anytime soon. “Do more of what makes you happy”
I cannot believe it is the last day of clinic! This week has gone by so fast (except Tuesday LOL), and I am extremely sad it is over. Today we traveled about two hours to the farthest community, Latacunga. Latacunga is at the base of the Cotopaxi Volcano, and it is absolutely freezing. I was wearing scrub pants, a long sleeve shirt, a quarter zip jacket, a sweatshirt, and my rain jacket; however, I was still so cold the entire day. Many of our patients came in with hats, scarves, and mittens on- so we were clearly under prepared. I was in the history station today with Amanda, and we got to practice a little of our Spanish. However, Jorge and Seth were at the history and registration station as well so they were able to help us translate occasionally. After the patients were registered in the Timmy Care system, they walked over to Amanda and me so we could get a brief history and write down why they were coming to clinic today. Although I enjoyed being in pharmacy twice, I really loved being in the stations that allowed me to interact with the patients more. The people we served in the clinics had incredible patience and were extremely grateful for the clinic we set up for them. In South America, cuy is super expensive and considered a delicacy. One of my friends who went to Peru earlier this summer said that I needed to try cuy while I was in Ecuador, so this was on my Ecuador bucket list… until I realized that cuy is guinea pig!!! Some of the people the community cooked a few guinea pigs for medical staff as a way to say thank you, so a few of the Ecuadorian doctors ate a whole guinea pig, and the rest of the UC students each took a turn eating a bite. I was a little freaked out at first because it still looked like an entire guinea pig, feet and all. But I thought to myself, “well, why not?!” So I tried a bite of guinea pig! It was not the best thing I have ever eaten, but I am certainly glad I tried it. Guinea pig is a super salty, dark meat, and I typically do not eat dark meat. We all became more daring, so Eric ate the guinea pig heart, and Amanda ate part of the guinea pig’s leg. I checked eating cuy off the Ecuador bucket list, but I can say that I can honestly never eat that again and be okay. Today’s clinic had a little less than 100 patients, so we saw around 500 patients the entire week. We got a group picture at the end with all the UC nursing students, our professors, the pharmacists, doctors, translators, Blanca (the cook from the hospital who made us lunch everyday), Rowan, and Michelle. The group picture was bittersweet because I was definitely going to miss all these people, but the clinics would not have been as great if each and every person was not there throughout the week. I really enjoyed my time in clinic, learned so much, saw the most grateful/ polite patients ever, and saw a lot of sonrisas that made my heart happy. #ForTheSonrisas After our two hour drive back to Quito, we said goodbye to the hospital staff, and headed back to The Centro. We were all super excited to get our fun weekend plans started, but we first had to eat dinner and then take inventory of all the medications, vitamins, and supplies. This inventory was super important because this told Timmy which medications they needed to send down with the next brigade because some were getting low or were completely out. The activity for Friday was going dancing at a couple bars in La Ronda. We had so much fun doing karaoke, salsa dancing with the Ecuadorians, and dancing to Despacito with each other. Despacito was the song of the trip because it was the only song in Spanish that any of us knew. It came on at both the bars that we went to that night! Both of the bars we went to had multiples levels, but each of the levels overlooked the dance floors. We looked up to the different levels, and some of the Ecuadorians were taking videos of us dancing with their phones with the flash on. We asked Michelle why they were taking videos of us, and they said that whenever a bunch of “gringos” walk into a public place people tend to stare and want to take videos/ pictures. I had a few people come up to be and ask for pictures because I had natural blonde hair. I got over the people blatantly taking videos of us and danced with all of my friends. After we got back from La Ronda, we stayed up in the common area of The Centro and practiced our new found salsa dancing skills with each other. “I believe in good people”
Another day in pharmacy! Today we traveled to Músculos y Rieles, and we had the same set up for pharmacy as Tuesday. Christine and Lionel were the pharmacists again. However, Samantha and Nina made the labels; Diane, Amanda, and Emma filled the prescriptions; and I was the runner. I did not get a ton of pictures of clinic today because I was super busy being the runner in pharmacy. However, when my tasks ended at the end of the clinic day I was able to play soccer with one of the kids who attended clinic. Amanda, Emma, and I decided we were going to get a picture with our favorite drugs to count today. My favorite is amoxicillin 500 mg capsules because they are a pretty pink and blue capsules. Emma enjoyed counting omeprazole 20 mg capsules because they were purple. Amanda liked counting out the ocular lubricant bottles because they were super easy to count. Super weird- but we think medical humor is funny. After we got back to The Centro, the group ate dinner, did night tasks, and then got ready for a night out at one of the breweries. Earlier on in the week, we voted between learning salsa dancing or going to one of the breweries for our activity on Thursday night. We decided to go to Bandido Brewing. A few guys from the United States moved to Ecuador when they graduated college and opened up four breweries in the Quito area. We definitely enjoyed eating the pizza and drinking a couple craft beers; it was a nice change from rice and water that we had been eating the rest of the week. It was also a great way to celebrate four successful clinic days and get ready for the last one on Friday! I was talking to Michelle tonight at the brewery, and she said that Timmy always needs nurses to come down and volunteer on brigade. I am loving this trip so much, and I definitely would love to come back to Quito (and potentially other Timmy locations) to volunteer again. After I (~hopefully~) pass my boards next summer, I am going to get back in contact with Michelle about coming down to volunteer again. “To love another person is to see the face of God”
In hopes for a better clinic day than yesterday, we boarded the bus after breakfast, picked up the Ecuadorians at the hospital, and headed off to our third clinic day in Hermandad. There were a ton of kids in clinic today which was super fun because we had a great time trying to speak in Spanish to them and teaching them some words in English. Rowan said that sometimes kids will come up to him randomly in clinic and say, “Hello, cat, dog,” because those are the English words they know. I was triage with Robert and Emma today, so I took a ton of vitals! Robert and I took a manual blood pressure and heart rate on every person that came through clinic, and Emma got their height, weight, and temperature. It was extremely odd to me that we were not taking all the vital signs I usually take when I work at the hospital and in clinical. During my co- op and at clinical, we normally take temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation at least every 4 hours (sometimes more). I had to remember that I normally work with acutely ill children, and treated the fairly healthy individuals coming through clinic would be extremely different. I LOVE KIDS SO MUCH! I work at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital at home, and my love for kids definitely translates to Ecuador too. My favorite patient today was a little boy (probably around 6 or 7 years old). He came into triage with his mother, and he seemed extremely afraid and was crying. I called Michelle over to come translate, and she said the little boy was afraid because he thought we were going to give him a shot or poke him with a needle. I had Michelle explain back to him that I was just going to listen with my stethoscope, and it would not hurt at all. I put my stethoscope in his ears and chest piece over my heart and allowed him to listen to my heart beat. His face immediately light up, and he stopped crying. I then allowed him to listen to his own heartbeat and his mother’s heartbeat. Even though it took a little bit longer to get his vital signs, I was super happy that I was able to calm him down and make sure that he was comfortable. I will never forget his face when he heard my heartbeat for the first time. After all the patients had come through triage for vitals, we decided to explore the community a little bit. A few of us walked up and down the streets looking at the houses and inside the stores. We decided to stop in one of the stores because each bag of chips, ice cream, and pop was only 25 cents. We also met some kids who were playing in the street, and they loved when we tried talking to them in Spanish. They greeted us with, “Hola, gringos.” The kids today made me super sad though because their clothes and faces were so dirty. After another successful day of clinic and over 100 patients, we headed back to The Centro and ate dinner. After dinner, we all boarded the bus and went to the North side of Quito where the historic district is located. We did a walking tour where one of the tour guides dressed up as an indigenous woman and gave us a tour of the inside of the Compañía de Jesús, Quito. The church was absolutely beautiful; we were not allowed to take pictures inside the church, but the entire inside was gold. The tour guide also made Robert and I act out the story of how El Diablo tempted the man who built the church. At the very end of the tour we also learned a dance they used to do at parities and tried snack they used to eat at parities as well. “See the good”
This morning a few of us decided to get up at 4:30 and go on a sunrise hike up one of the mountains that overlooks Quito. Rowan said the sunrise hike is one of the most beautiful things you can do in Quito; however, the hike was rough! Even though we are so close to the Equator, Quito is in such a high altitude that the weather is chilly. So the hike this morning was early, cold, and a really good workout. We had to stop a couple of times to catch our breath because the trail was extremely steep, and there is less oxygen with higher altitudes. The hike was definitely worth it when we saw the sun rise over the city. We did not realize how beautiful the view was until the sun rose fully and we could see Quito on one side of the mountain and a bunch of farmland on the other side. After breakfast and picking up the Ecuadorian healthcare professionals from the hospital, we headed off to the second day of clinic in Venecia. Today I was assigned to be in pharmacy with Maddy, Corinne, Meg, Acacia, and Emma. Maddy, Corinne, and I filled prescriptions once they were approved by Christine, one of the pharmacists. Meg was the runner and got us all the medications we needed to fill the prescriptions from the suitcases and bins we transport them in. Acacia and Emma made the labels for each of the medication bags, and Lionel, one of the other pharmacists, approved each prescription filled and check the labels. It was extremely convenient that Lionel spoke pretty fluent Spanish because all the labels and instructions on the medication bags were written in Spanish. The checked prescriptions were then handed to the Ecuadorian nurse who explained each prescription to the patients and answered their questions before they left clinic. We got clinic off to a rough start because for the first hour there was only 3 doctors instead of 4. Therefore, clinic ran a lot slower in the beginning with not as many patients being able to be seen at a time. We saw around 105 patients today, but clinic took from 9 am all the way until about 6 pm. We boarded the bus and made it back to The Centro to eat dinner around 7:30. After getting up at 4:30 this morning, half of us were falling asleep at dinner. I had an especially rough day because the pharmacy table was too tall to sit in chairs. I got up at 4:30, hiked, and stood for about 9 hours; I started to have really bad abdominal pain about halfway through the clinic day. Part of altitude sickness is anorexia and abdominal pain, and I think I was starting to experience some altitude sickness. However, we all pushed through the last day and put on a great clinic for our patients. After we finished dinner and restocking for clinic the next day, we had a presentation from Fundacion Dunamis. Fundacion Dunamis is a nonprofit that helps underage Ecuadorian girls once they are rescued from the sex trade. After hearing about how Fundacion Dunamis was started and hearing plans for how they were going expand in the future, they had jewelry on sale that was made by the girls at the Fundacion. I was able to purchase a super cute, colorful necklace! s“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”
Everybody met for breakfast, and the room was buzzing with everybody nervously talking about what to expect at clinic. After breakfast, we loaded the bus with all the supplies, vitamins, and medications we would need for clinic that day. After picking up the Ecuadorian doctors, nurse, and translators at the local hospital, Hospital Padre Carollo, we headed off to our first community, Chilibulo. As we drove to the community, I was overwhelmed with the amount of poverty we saw as we got closer to the community. Quito is an extremely long city that sits in the valley of the mountains. We stayed on the south side of Quito, and each day the communities we traveled to were located farther up on the mountains and not as close to the center of the city. The farther up the mountain, the more rural the communities tended to be. Pulling up to the clinic, there was a huge line of people waiting outside the door for us to arrive. We got all the bins and suitcases off the bus and started putting them in correct rooms so we should start clinic for all of the patients who were patiently waiting outside. Getting off the bus we were greeted by the communities’ health promoters with many hugs and, “Buenos días.” The health promoters are respected people in the community that Timmy educates about certain health topics. Timmy then gives the health promoters the tickets for the clinics, and the health promoters give out the tickets to the people in the community that need to go to the clinic the most. The health promoters help to organize and run the clinics each time they happen in their community. Each day we were assigned a new location in clinic. There was a registration station, history station, triage, lab, scribing for the doctors, pharmacy, and giving fluoride treatment to the kids. Today, I was assigned to scribe for Dr. Rene. Dr. Rene speaks Spanish, so my translator today was Santi. Santi is a medical student in Quito, and he was a translator for the UC College of Nursing trip to Quito last year as well. Dr. Rene was really awesome because he allowed Santi and me to listen and look at some interesting things he assessed on the patients. For example, he made Santi and I try to find a ruptured tympanic membrane before he told us where it was. I appreciated Dr. Rene allowing Santi and I to learn while he also treated many patients that day. Clinic today had over 100 patients come through; so needless to say, we were all a bit exhausted. After all the patients received their medications and vitamins, we cleaned up clinic and headed to the Mega Maxi AKA the Ecuadorian version of Walmart. Mega Maxi reminded me of a combined Target and Walmart from home; they had clothes, snacks, etc. We loaded up on snacks for the rest of the week, and we went back to The Centro for dinner and to discuss how the first day of clinic went with Rowan, Michelle, and the healthcare professionals. Also, each night we came back from clinic we were in charge of restocking our bins of medications, vitamins, and supplies so they would be fully stocked for the clinic the next day. “Do what you like- like what you do”
After a much needed good night of sleep, we woke up at The Centro, ate breakfast, and got our first day in Quito started. Rowan and Michelle gave a quick overview of Timmy Global Health, Timmy’s partner Tierra Nueva in Quito, and what we would be doing in the clinics that week. We were then also able to meet the other healthcare volunteers who were on the trip with us. There were 16 UC nursing students, our nursing professors Diane Grever and Jaime Leslie, two pharmacists Christine and Lionel, a pharmacy student Amy, Dr. Janet Higgins, and her daughter Emma. We then rode the bus to Fundación Guayasamin which is an art museum and the house of the famous Ecuadorian artist, Oswaldo Guayasamin. The view from the museum and the house were amazing to say the least. After eating lunch, we stopped by Tierra Nueva to pick up all the supplies and medications that we were going to need for clinic during the week. The rest of the day was spent preparing for clinic during the week. We had to learn how to work Timmy’s Electronic Medical Record, Timmy Care. We also had to sort through all the medication and supplies, divide up counting out different analgesics and vitamins, and put everything into labeled bins and suitcases so we could take them on the bus to the clinics. We were also able to meet some of our translators that would be with us throughout the week, Santi, Lia, Sofi, and Seth. |
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