Hola!!
Questa settimana giovedi e venerdi sono stata mandata in un villaggio a un paio d ore di viaggio spettacolare su per una montagna e giu per un burrone, che si chiama Angamarca. Li c e`una casa parrocchiale e un dispensario con una saletta visite per il medico una per l ostetrica e una per l odontologa. Di solito li ci stanno due infermiere tra cui Chiara, una ragazza di Sondrio molto simpatica! e ogni 2 settimane sale qualcuno dall ospedale di Zumbahua per fare visite etc. E quindi giovedi mattina alle 6 siamo partiti io, L ostetrica Dora, L odontologa Diana e Ross che pero`si e`fermato solo il giovedi. Abbiamo lavorato sodo! Io ho visto 50 pazienti in 2 giorni, mi sembravano tantissimi e ero abbastanza compiaciuta di me stessa ma mi han detto che e ìl normale. Ad Angamarca ci sono dei personaggi!!!! Un ragazzo con un orzaiolo nell occhio mi ha detto cha da 2 settimane lo automedicava con cacca di cuy(porcellino d india)! e pensa un po non guariva. anzi, peggiorava! Poi un vecchietto mentre gli scrivevo la ricetta si e`scatarrato e ha sputato uno scatarrozzo gigante sul pavimento dell ambulatorio, pensa che felicita`pulirlo! perlomeno non pareva tubercolotico. E un altro signore a cui ho chiesto malauguratamente di togliersi gli stivali ed e`uscito di tutto comprese zolle di paglia con letame che ho pure dovuto pulire da sotto il lettino.
Nella casa parrocchiale sempre vanno a mangiare altri personaggi come Pedro, che e`rimasto `un po strano` dopo che ha ricevuto una coltellata in testa, che gliha perforato il cranio e che glie`entrata nel lobo frontale. C e`anche un ragazzino di una decina di anni che ha preso una scossa elettrica in unfilo dell alta tensione mentre aiutava il suo papa`al lavoro e che adesso e`senza le braccia. Al posto delle braccia ha delle protesi metalliche con delle pinze al posto delle mani. Pero con quelle mangia e fa quasi tutto.
Abbiamo cenato alla fattoria dove vive un`altra coppia italiana dell OMG che sta fissa li, e tra le altre cose abbiamo scoperto di avere una amico in comune con la ragazza di questa coppia! Che storia no Giovanni?? Vivono in una fattoria con un sacco di animali e con anche 7 bambini ecuadoriani di famiglie povere. Abbiamo giacato a calcetto e ci hanno stracciati. E`stato molto bello e ci hanno invitati per un week end per camminare, cavalcare etc. Al ritorno ieri pensavo che mipiacerebbe ritornarci e a cena la dra Anita mi ha proposto di andarci per una settimana il prossimo mese!!! sono molto contenta per questo anche se dovro`separarmi da Ross ma credo che mi piacera`molto passare un po di tempo la e andare con Chiara a visitare la gente nelle comunita, li non ci sono macchine e tutte le visite si fanno a piedi,e alcune comunita sono a 3 o 4 ore di distanza!
LOvely english friends, this week they sent me, together with an odontologist and a midwife, to a little village called Angamarca a couple of hours across a mountain and down a sort of crater where there is a little dispensary and the staff of the hospital where i work goes there every 2 weeks for 2 days. It was great! the scenery was spectatcular and we worked very hard. I did my record and saw 50 patients in 2 days! and they told me thats perfectly normal. There is strange people in Angamarca. A patient came with an eye infection that hetried to treat for 2 weeks with guineapig shit. ( topic application BD) unfortunately non working, incredibly makingthings worse! Another oldie while sittingin front of me waiting for prescription spitted and enormous globe of saliva on the floor of the examination room! and there are no cleaning ladies up ther, dr makes it all :) and I had theterrible idea of asking a patient to remove the wellies and I swear the world fell out of them, mostly straw and cowshit. same same, no cleaning ladies. only dr! There is a guy called Pedro who got stabbedin the head, i mean properly in the frontal lobe, and since then is a bit strange and always hangs around the dispensary looking for his psych meds. There is another child, maybe ten, who was injured by electricity while helping his dad at work and lost both arms. Now he has metallic arms with a sort of pliers (edward scissorhandlike) as hands. and with them he does all!eating and all!
When I came back, Dra Anita asked me to spend a week there next month. And I said yes and actually am very happy because it s going to be good. There is an italian nurse called Chiara who lives there and is really nice and we are going to be a great team. Without Ross for a week but I think I will survive.
No more news for now, hugs and kisses and will ask Ross to write sth.
Adelexxx
(Ross:) I don´t have much to add to Adele´s wonderful retelling of our Angamarcan adventure! When they said it was 2 hours further into the back of beyond than Zumbahua I was expecting the worst, but actually it´s a pretty little colonial town with little cobbled lanes, balconies and wooden houses and it´s warmer and greener, much more picturesque than Zumbahua which is all corrugated metal rooves and cement in the howling wind! In the winter (i.e. when it really starts raining in Januray) it´s basically cut off from the outside world though. I was there to teach a couple of lessons in the school and when the bus came into view at the bottom of the hill (there is one bus out of Angamarca per day!) all the kids started shouting, and I ran out of the school with all the other teachers! (This is how the school day ends- none of the teachers actually live there). Also, and this is very odd, I met someone from the same town as my Italian friend Giovanni who works in Angamarca, and I wouldn´t have known about the connection unless Adele hadn´t met her as well later the same day and asked her where she was from! Small world...
sabato 29 settembre 2012
domenica 23 settembre 2012
LaMana´
Ciao!
Ieri abbiamo improvvisato una decisione e siamo saliti al Campamiento dove siprendono i bus e abbiamo preso il busper LaMana´una cittadina a 2 ore da Zumbahua che e´a 500 metri sul livello del mare! in pra6tica siamo scesi in verticale per 2 ore. Siamo arrivato ai tropici. Siamo scesi dall autobus e ci siamo trovati in un altro mondo!!! Fa caldo abbastanza da sudare e stare in maglietta! E c e´un casino di macchine colorate, musica a manetta che esce dai negozi, tutta la gente che sta in strada, donne scollacciate, tutti son ben cicciotti, al mercato ci son frutti stranissimi, c e´un ariamolto allegra e profumo di maiale arrosto dappertutto! Ieri sera ci hanno indicato la fiest della Virgen della Mercede per gli amici Virgencita e siamo andati a vedere, c era un palco, ci siamo seduti con tutte le altre persone a bere una birra e aspettare che ? si metttessero a suonare, c era un casino, giostre, banchetti di dolci e soprattutto gente che si sbronzava e alle 9 HANNO INIZIATO A DIRE MESSA DAL PALCO!!! non ci potevamo credere ma il prete era scatenato, cantava e batteva le mani einsomma era un gran divertimento. Poi ho convinto andora una volta Ross ad andare sulla giostra con le barchette/cestini che girano e visto che non ci voleva andare moltagente non ci facevano scendere, e ho dovuto urlare ripetutamente al macchinista che si fermasse, ma solo ci guardava e rideva! Siamo scesi in tempo per evitare che Ross mi vomitasse addosso. Si sente sempre male sullagiostra e ogni volta riesco a convincerlo a risalirci. E´vero amore!
Non abbiamo fatto molto altro. Girato per il parcgetto di cemento mangiando gelato, e girato per il mercatomangiando gran piatti di maiale arrosto e pop corn bolliti. E´proprio quello che ci voleva!
BacixxxxxAdele
In brief: we decided that this weekend we{d hop on a bus down to "La Mana"- it"s a city about two hours from Zumbahua, but it"s downhill virtually the entire journey, meaning we"re now nearly at sea-level. The difference is incredible! Here it"s hot, steamy, and noisy, the people are noticeably more well-fed and dress as though they"re on the beach- basically the opposite of what we"re used to in the mountains. The city isn"t even in the guidebook because there"s nothing particularly exciting to see, but we"ve enjoyed the complete change of atmosphere. The market is full of all sorts of tropical fruit and veg that we can"t identify. Last night they directed us to the "Fiesta de la virgencita de la Merced" which means something like "the festival of the little virgin of mercy"- we found rather an odd scene of a sort of stage surrounded fairground rides, men sitting around drinking beer, children eating toffee apples, music, fireworks- and then, in the middle of it all, a priest went up on stage and held Mass next to scary little doll in a white dress. In the end Adele convinced me to go on a ferris wheel and predictably I was green by the end of it- there wasn{t a queue so it just kept going and going, in the end we realised that you had to shout to the operator when you wanted to get off!
Ieri abbiamo improvvisato una decisione e siamo saliti al Campamiento dove siprendono i bus e abbiamo preso il busper LaMana´una cittadina a 2 ore da Zumbahua che e´a 500 metri sul livello del mare! in pra6tica siamo scesi in verticale per 2 ore. Siamo arrivato ai tropici. Siamo scesi dall autobus e ci siamo trovati in un altro mondo!!! Fa caldo abbastanza da sudare e stare in maglietta! E c e´un casino di macchine colorate, musica a manetta che esce dai negozi, tutta la gente che sta in strada, donne scollacciate, tutti son ben cicciotti, al mercato ci son frutti stranissimi, c e´un ariamolto allegra e profumo di maiale arrosto dappertutto! Ieri sera ci hanno indicato la fiest della Virgen della Mercede per gli amici Virgencita e siamo andati a vedere, c era un palco, ci siamo seduti con tutte le altre persone a bere una birra e aspettare che ? si metttessero a suonare, c era un casino, giostre, banchetti di dolci e soprattutto gente che si sbronzava e alle 9 HANNO INIZIATO A DIRE MESSA DAL PALCO!!! non ci potevamo credere ma il prete era scatenato, cantava e batteva le mani einsomma era un gran divertimento. Poi ho convinto andora una volta Ross ad andare sulla giostra con le barchette/cestini che girano e visto che non ci voleva andare moltagente non ci facevano scendere, e ho dovuto urlare ripetutamente al macchinista che si fermasse, ma solo ci guardava e rideva! Siamo scesi in tempo per evitare che Ross mi vomitasse addosso. Si sente sempre male sullagiostra e ogni volta riesco a convincerlo a risalirci. E´vero amore!
Non abbiamo fatto molto altro. Girato per il parcgetto di cemento mangiando gelato, e girato per il mercatomangiando gran piatti di maiale arrosto e pop corn bolliti. E´proprio quello che ci voleva!
BacixxxxxAdele
In brief: we decided that this weekend we{d hop on a bus down to "La Mana"- it"s a city about two hours from Zumbahua, but it"s downhill virtually the entire journey, meaning we"re now nearly at sea-level. The difference is incredible! Here it"s hot, steamy, and noisy, the people are noticeably more well-fed and dress as though they"re on the beach- basically the opposite of what we"re used to in the mountains. The city isn"t even in the guidebook because there"s nothing particularly exciting to see, but we"ve enjoyed the complete change of atmosphere. The market is full of all sorts of tropical fruit and veg that we can"t identify. Last night they directed us to the "Fiesta de la virgencita de la Merced" which means something like "the festival of the little virgin of mercy"- we found rather an odd scene of a sort of stage surrounded fairground rides, men sitting around drinking beer, children eating toffee apples, music, fireworks- and then, in the middle of it all, a priest went up on stage and held Mass next to scary little doll in a white dress. In the end Adele convinced me to go on a ferris wheel and predictably I was green by the end of it- there wasn{t a queue so it just kept going and going, in the end we realised that you had to shout to the operator when you wanted to get off!
venerdì 21 settembre 2012
more horror night tales
Ciao! (I´ve added a bit in English at the end- Ross)
voglio raccontarvi in breve un´altra storia dell orrore notturna. Saro´breve perche si commenta da sola e perche, tuttora, la sto metabolizzando lentamente e non ho molte parole.
L altroieri ero di guardia all ospedale, alle due suona il campanello e entra una signora, amzi una ragazzina, che e´in travaglio di parto...compiliamo un modulo seduti e poi l infermiera la fa accomodare sul lettino ginecologico... dopo un paio di passi sentiamo un tonfo e il neonato e´caduto a terra tra i piedi della donna....mi lancio sul neonato che perfortuna piange subito...il cordone ombelicale si e´rotto nella caduta, lo clampo e asciugo e sistemo la neonata, che sembra sana, anche la sua testolina sembra integra...intanto arriva l ostetrica che si occupa della mamma. Poco dopo la mamma inizia a complicarsi, ha la preeclampsia, la pressione alle stelle e rischia di iniziare a convulsvare da un momento all altro. Per di piu sanguina tantissimo dalle lacerazioni del parto a caduta libera.....il farmaco che le mettiamo per prevenire le convulsioni le scatena una risposta idiosincrasica per cui la pressione le crolla e la frequenza cardiaca le scende sotto a 30...e´in poeriarresto e facciamo rapidamente calcio gluc e atropina, per contrastare l effetto del sulfato di magnesio...si riprende....alle 7 vado a casa lasciando un pronto soccorso che sembra un campo di battaglia...anche stavolta non e´morto nessuno ma l immagine del neonato che cade da tra le gambe della mamma stara con me tutta la vita di questo sono certa...ma le due sono tranquille e beate nel loro letto ora.
Per il resto va tutto bene! Non siamo piu andati a correre in altura. Domani abbiamo in programma di scendere alla costa a prendere un po di calura.
Stiamo bene e siamo contenti! Ross ha delle mani piene d calli che non si possono vedere!!! con tutta polvere di contruzione nella pelle e le unghie rotte....poverino! Pero io lo spalmo di crema in ogni momento possibile!
Hello english loves, just briefely another horror tale that probalbly you wont believe....I still have problems believing it myself.
Last night was on call sleeping in the hospital, nurse woke me up at 2 am with a pregnant patient that was in labor. I called the midwife and in the meanwhile walked the lady to the bed....three steps and the newborn falls to the ground from below the skirt of the lady between her feet... she jumps away, I jumped on the baby that was luckily screaming from the moment she touched the floor, the cord was broken from the fall, caught the baby and clamped the cord, and the baby was well. even her head! incredibly. Later on, the mum complicated , was preeclam,ptic and had a terrible reaction to the drug administered to lower her blood pressure, and nearly arrested on me. I ended my shift trembling and still get goosebumps evrytime I think of it...The bright side is that mum and baby are fine now. And the little girl who came to the world a bit hardly is gorgeous and healthy. I really find it incredible.
God bless the labour ward guys.
xxx
Hello all, this is Ross, I don´t have any tales as good as Adele´s I´m afraid but I am well and working hard! We´ve started building a new house, in a place that makes Zumbahua seem like a metropolis. To get there, we first drove for half an hour up into the mountains (8 of us, with a load of 150 breeze blocks), and then stopped. I asked Mauro where the site was, and he pointed across the valley- about 2 km away, straight down to a little stream and then straight back up again. At this altitude the walk alone is quite hard, let alone carrying anything. At most we managed to take 3 or 4 blocks with us, so we spent the whole day traipsing up and down the valley, between the site and the car. The family we´re building for is the poorest I´ve ever seen, two children, their mother and the grandmother who are currently living in a tiny tent made of straw- it´s very sad to see people living in such conditions, but at the same time nice to be able to do at least something to help. At a certain point, when we were all sprawled next to the pile of bricks having just carried a load of 3 or 4 each, the mother passed us carrying 10 on her back!! And she was about as tall as I am when I sit down! The locals have such hard lives that they have a physical strength that makes us Westerners seem feeble.
Then the next day the school where I am working received the annual éducation plan´from the government in Quito, outlining all of the elaborate knowledge of the English language that the students are supposed to have learned by now- many of these children live in conditions not much better than those described above, and have problems even speaking Spanish, let alone English! Quito seems about a million miles away from here, and in a lot of ways the people there and the people here live in completely different worlds, or completely different centuries.
Hope everyone at home is keeping well, happy birthday Roger!
Ross
voglio raccontarvi in breve un´altra storia dell orrore notturna. Saro´breve perche si commenta da sola e perche, tuttora, la sto metabolizzando lentamente e non ho molte parole.
L altroieri ero di guardia all ospedale, alle due suona il campanello e entra una signora, amzi una ragazzina, che e´in travaglio di parto...compiliamo un modulo seduti e poi l infermiera la fa accomodare sul lettino ginecologico... dopo un paio di passi sentiamo un tonfo e il neonato e´caduto a terra tra i piedi della donna....mi lancio sul neonato che perfortuna piange subito...il cordone ombelicale si e´rotto nella caduta, lo clampo e asciugo e sistemo la neonata, che sembra sana, anche la sua testolina sembra integra...intanto arriva l ostetrica che si occupa della mamma. Poco dopo la mamma inizia a complicarsi, ha la preeclampsia, la pressione alle stelle e rischia di iniziare a convulsvare da un momento all altro. Per di piu sanguina tantissimo dalle lacerazioni del parto a caduta libera.....il farmaco che le mettiamo per prevenire le convulsioni le scatena una risposta idiosincrasica per cui la pressione le crolla e la frequenza cardiaca le scende sotto a 30...e´in poeriarresto e facciamo rapidamente calcio gluc e atropina, per contrastare l effetto del sulfato di magnesio...si riprende....alle 7 vado a casa lasciando un pronto soccorso che sembra un campo di battaglia...anche stavolta non e´morto nessuno ma l immagine del neonato che cade da tra le gambe della mamma stara con me tutta la vita di questo sono certa...ma le due sono tranquille e beate nel loro letto ora.
Per il resto va tutto bene! Non siamo piu andati a correre in altura. Domani abbiamo in programma di scendere alla costa a prendere un po di calura.
Stiamo bene e siamo contenti! Ross ha delle mani piene d calli che non si possono vedere!!! con tutta polvere di contruzione nella pelle e le unghie rotte....poverino! Pero io lo spalmo di crema in ogni momento possibile!
Hello english loves, just briefely another horror tale that probalbly you wont believe....I still have problems believing it myself.
Last night was on call sleeping in the hospital, nurse woke me up at 2 am with a pregnant patient that was in labor. I called the midwife and in the meanwhile walked the lady to the bed....three steps and the newborn falls to the ground from below the skirt of the lady between her feet... she jumps away, I jumped on the baby that was luckily screaming from the moment she touched the floor, the cord was broken from the fall, caught the baby and clamped the cord, and the baby was well. even her head! incredibly. Later on, the mum complicated , was preeclam,ptic and had a terrible reaction to the drug administered to lower her blood pressure, and nearly arrested on me. I ended my shift trembling and still get goosebumps evrytime I think of it...The bright side is that mum and baby are fine now. And the little girl who came to the world a bit hardly is gorgeous and healthy. I really find it incredible.
God bless the labour ward guys.
xxx
Hello all, this is Ross, I don´t have any tales as good as Adele´s I´m afraid but I am well and working hard! We´ve started building a new house, in a place that makes Zumbahua seem like a metropolis. To get there, we first drove for half an hour up into the mountains (8 of us, with a load of 150 breeze blocks), and then stopped. I asked Mauro where the site was, and he pointed across the valley- about 2 km away, straight down to a little stream and then straight back up again. At this altitude the walk alone is quite hard, let alone carrying anything. At most we managed to take 3 or 4 blocks with us, so we spent the whole day traipsing up and down the valley, between the site and the car. The family we´re building for is the poorest I´ve ever seen, two children, their mother and the grandmother who are currently living in a tiny tent made of straw- it´s very sad to see people living in such conditions, but at the same time nice to be able to do at least something to help. At a certain point, when we were all sprawled next to the pile of bricks having just carried a load of 3 or 4 each, the mother passed us carrying 10 on her back!! And she was about as tall as I am when I sit down! The locals have such hard lives that they have a physical strength that makes us Westerners seem feeble.
Then the next day the school where I am working received the annual éducation plan´from the government in Quito, outlining all of the elaborate knowledge of the English language that the students are supposed to have learned by now- many of these children live in conditions not much better than those described above, and have problems even speaking Spanish, let alone English! Quito seems about a million miles away from here, and in a lot of ways the people there and the people here live in completely different worlds, or completely different centuries.
Hope everyone at home is keeping well, happy birthday Roger!
Ross
14 september (Adele)
Ciao ! Se penso che siamo qui da un mese non ci credo!!!
Stiamo bene e siamo contenti, Ross fa lavori pericolosissimi ma gli piace e io in ospedale vado bene...
La settimana scorsa eravamo io e JuanFrancsco , il mio collega della mia eta soli soletti a gestirci l ospedale per ben 3 giorni, e cosi terrorizzati che succedesse qualcosa che praticamente vivevamo in ospedale tutto il tempo! Non e´successo niente ni tragico, ma ci siamo gestiti una pancreatite acuta da soli, una colecistite che minacciave la colangite da un momento all altro e io ho fatto nascere un bambinello sottopeso minuscolo a cui la faccia restava sempre blu nonostante l ossigeno! Mi sono preso lo spavento della mia vita, piangeva e respirava e tutto ma la faccia rimaneva blu anche se il torace era rosa! Non sapevo piu che fare quando la superostetrica mi ha detto che la faccia sarebbe rimasta blu per un po perche era rimasta schiacciata nel canale del parto a lungo! e che il neonato era un po depresso perche la mamma aveva la preeclampsia e avevano condotto il parto con qulsiasi farmaco possibile. Poi il bambinello non succhiava e siamo stati ore a monitorare la sua glicemia che non restava su, fino a che abbiamo dovuto dargli glucosia endovena. Che paura! Ma quando mai io ho avuto a che fare con neonati prima!? E poi anche martedi mattna ho estratto 2 wawette bellissime. Un giorno e´arrivata una bambina di nome Wendy in coma per la disidratazone, ed e´stato miracoloso assistere alla sua ripresa solo con un infusione di, basicamente, acqua! Io non mi ero mai resa conto di come l acqua fosse realmente vita, prima! Sono state giornate un po provanti ma adesso abbiamo di nuovo i capi n ospedale e siamo tutti piu tranquilli, soprattutto i pazienti!
L altroieri io e Ross siamo andati a correre con la M DOlores e siamo quasi morti di altura. Siamo pertiti alle 5 e mezza edi mattina e siamo stati fuori piu di un ora arrancando su e giu per le montagnole tra nubi di polvere e cani pazzi, abbiamo visto salire il sole e a me e´piaciuto un sacco anche se mi ha quasi uccisa. Dire che correre a 3.800 metri e´molto diverso che correre sul tapis rulant al Virgin Active Gym.
Hello everyone! Just out of a hectic week where we didnt have any senior staff at the hospital and Juan Francisco (other ecuadoria junior dr) and me had to run the hospital. We were waiting for a major disgrace to strike anytime but luckily nothing too bad happened and no patient died. :) We managed somehow an acute pancreatitits and a colecistitis menacing a colangitis, and a neonatal hypoglicemia that scared us to death! Baby born by myself, with a preeclamptic mother and delivery conducted with allsorts of drugs from ossitocine to mg sulph, and baby born blue non getting pink quick enough and not very active, had to resuscitate and treat with antibiotics and dextrose, HOW BLOODY SCARY!!!!! I hate obs and gyne.
We had a child coming in unresponsive basically with a gcs of 9 for acute dehydration, and it was so good, like a miracle seeing that she was coming round and getting better just with a simple drip! I never before realized completely how water is life.I am qute scared most of the time but keep up thinking better me that noone.
Today I ate potatoes with a sauce of peanuts, delicious and lyng on my stomach right now. But great.
Stiamo bene e siamo contenti, Ross fa lavori pericolosissimi ma gli piace e io in ospedale vado bene...
La settimana scorsa eravamo io e JuanFrancsco , il mio collega della mia eta soli soletti a gestirci l ospedale per ben 3 giorni, e cosi terrorizzati che succedesse qualcosa che praticamente vivevamo in ospedale tutto il tempo! Non e´successo niente ni tragico, ma ci siamo gestiti una pancreatite acuta da soli, una colecistite che minacciave la colangite da un momento all altro e io ho fatto nascere un bambinello sottopeso minuscolo a cui la faccia restava sempre blu nonostante l ossigeno! Mi sono preso lo spavento della mia vita, piangeva e respirava e tutto ma la faccia rimaneva blu anche se il torace era rosa! Non sapevo piu che fare quando la superostetrica mi ha detto che la faccia sarebbe rimasta blu per un po perche era rimasta schiacciata nel canale del parto a lungo! e che il neonato era un po depresso perche la mamma aveva la preeclampsia e avevano condotto il parto con qulsiasi farmaco possibile. Poi il bambinello non succhiava e siamo stati ore a monitorare la sua glicemia che non restava su, fino a che abbiamo dovuto dargli glucosia endovena. Che paura! Ma quando mai io ho avuto a che fare con neonati prima!? E poi anche martedi mattna ho estratto 2 wawette bellissime. Un giorno e´arrivata una bambina di nome Wendy in coma per la disidratazone, ed e´stato miracoloso assistere alla sua ripresa solo con un infusione di, basicamente, acqua! Io non mi ero mai resa conto di come l acqua fosse realmente vita, prima! Sono state giornate un po provanti ma adesso abbiamo di nuovo i capi n ospedale e siamo tutti piu tranquilli, soprattutto i pazienti!
L altroieri io e Ross siamo andati a correre con la M DOlores e siamo quasi morti di altura. Siamo pertiti alle 5 e mezza edi mattina e siamo stati fuori piu di un ora arrancando su e giu per le montagnole tra nubi di polvere e cani pazzi, abbiamo visto salire il sole e a me e´piaciuto un sacco anche se mi ha quasi uccisa. Dire che correre a 3.800 metri e´molto diverso che correre sul tapis rulant al Virgin Active Gym.
Hello everyone! Just out of a hectic week where we didnt have any senior staff at the hospital and Juan Francisco (other ecuadoria junior dr) and me had to run the hospital. We were waiting for a major disgrace to strike anytime but luckily nothing too bad happened and no patient died. :) We managed somehow an acute pancreatitits and a colecistitis menacing a colangitis, and a neonatal hypoglicemia that scared us to death! Baby born by myself, with a preeclamptic mother and delivery conducted with allsorts of drugs from ossitocine to mg sulph, and baby born blue non getting pink quick enough and not very active, had to resuscitate and treat with antibiotics and dextrose, HOW BLOODY SCARY!!!!! I hate obs and gyne.
We had a child coming in unresponsive basically with a gcs of 9 for acute dehydration, and it was so good, like a miracle seeing that she was coming round and getting better just with a simple drip! I never before realized completely how water is life.I am qute scared most of the time but keep up thinking better me that noone.
Today I ate potatoes with a sauce of peanuts, delicious and lyng on my stomach right now. But great.
giovedì 13 settembre 2012
13th September Zumbahua
Hello everybody, hope you are well!
We are both well and have settled in, and it´s still dry (although extremely windy)
Here the locals are eager for the rains to start as it has been dry for a long time and the price of potatoes (which is the staple food here) has reached five times what it is during harvest time, as supplies are running low (although the hospital is very well stocked and if anything we eat more here than at home!).
At the weekend Adele and I tried a second time to complete the five hour walk from Chugchilan to Quilatoa without getting lost, but this time we got even more lost! We ended up at the bottom of a valley where we luckily ran into a farmer called Manuel who was headed towards Quilatoa with a sack of watermelons and offered to lead the way. He was middle-aged but it was hard to keep up with him as he jumped across streams and scrambled up practically vertical "trails" which seemed to only exist in his head. Further on we were joined by a 10-year old indigenous girl walking the same way home from school, and who seemed very disappointed when she asked us how many hectares of land our families have and how many "beasts´", and the answer was "a cat"! Here, wealth is measured by how many llamas, sheep and cattle a family has, and how many fields of potatoes it manages to grow and sell.
Speaking of eating, I also experienced "cuy" for the first time a few days ago- otherwise known as roast guinea pig. It´s a big favourite here, everyone keeps a few in their house, and all the Ecuadorians were very excited about such a delicacy (the Italians less so!). I got the back end. It was a lot like rabbit, but the amount of meat on it was microscopic!
Apart from that I can´t think of much other news... we would like to send some more postcards but Zumbahua doesn´t have a post office or any postboxes so it´s a bit difficult! Adele is getting on well in the hospital and has now delivered five babies, and treated lots of illnesses that you hardly ever see in Europe (but she will have to fill you in on the details).
Love to everyone, write to us or leave a message here to tell us how you are!
Ross (and Adele)
We are both well and have settled in, and it´s still dry (although extremely windy)
Here the locals are eager for the rains to start as it has been dry for a long time and the price of potatoes (which is the staple food here) has reached five times what it is during harvest time, as supplies are running low (although the hospital is very well stocked and if anything we eat more here than at home!).
At the weekend Adele and I tried a second time to complete the five hour walk from Chugchilan to Quilatoa without getting lost, but this time we got even more lost! We ended up at the bottom of a valley where we luckily ran into a farmer called Manuel who was headed towards Quilatoa with a sack of watermelons and offered to lead the way. He was middle-aged but it was hard to keep up with him as he jumped across streams and scrambled up practically vertical "trails" which seemed to only exist in his head. Further on we were joined by a 10-year old indigenous girl walking the same way home from school, and who seemed very disappointed when she asked us how many hectares of land our families have and how many "beasts´", and the answer was "a cat"! Here, wealth is measured by how many llamas, sheep and cattle a family has, and how many fields of potatoes it manages to grow and sell.
Speaking of eating, I also experienced "cuy" for the first time a few days ago- otherwise known as roast guinea pig. It´s a big favourite here, everyone keeps a few in their house, and all the Ecuadorians were very excited about such a delicacy (the Italians less so!). I got the back end. It was a lot like rabbit, but the amount of meat on it was microscopic!
Apart from that I can´t think of much other news... we would like to send some more postcards but Zumbahua doesn´t have a post office or any postboxes so it´s a bit difficult! Adele is getting on well in the hospital and has now delivered five babies, and treated lots of illnesses that you hardly ever see in Europe (but she will have to fill you in on the details).
Love to everyone, write to us or leave a message here to tell us how you are!
Ross (and Adele)
martedì 4 settembre 2012
4th September- Zumbahua
Hello everybody, sorry I haven´t written for a bit- this week has been a bit hectic!
At the beginning of the week I met Claudio, who runs a secondary school in the village- like all of the foreign volunteers here except for me, he´s Italian. It turns out that, aside from the hospital, there are lots of things waiting to be done here. On Monday we drove for over an hour and covered the last part on foot to take supplies and firewood to a very old indigenous lady in a remote village called Chicho. Her house, like the others in the village, was just a wooden hut with a straw roof and a few chickens. She seemed happy to see us, and luckily there was someone there who could interpret from Quichua into Spanish!
On Tuesday I drove a pickup truck down to Latacunga to get supplies, as part of a convoy- a lot of things are unavailable up here. On the way back we stopped off at Guangaje, apparently the poorest parish in Ecuador, to deliver something. Why anyone decided to build a village there in the first place I´m not sure- it´s basically an extremely high-altitude dust-bowl where the wind never seems to drop below gale force, which blows away what little soil there is.
For the rest of the week I´ve been helping to build houses, along with another Italian (Mauro) and two local builders, Ramiro and Juan. They´re nothing special but at least they´re built out of bricks and cement, generally replacing decrepit wood and corrugated iron shacks for people who are too old to rebuild their own houses, and whose children have gone to find work in the big cities. One day the wind was so strong that it ripped the sheet-metal roof off of one of the neighbours´houses and carried it away down the valley. Everything has to be done by hand, from loading pickups with sand by shovel to hauling sand and cement to the building site in sacks, to mixing the cement- as they don´t have a cement mixer. It´s very hard work, and I feel like a bit of a soft-city dweller next to the locals- they´re half the size of me and about three times as strong!!! The lady of the (soon to be) house keeps us going with what appear to be cups of hot water with about 15 spoonfuls of sugar in them.
Apart from all that, I´m continuing with the English lessons for the doctors, and Adele is working in the hospital every day. At the weekend we went down to Baños for two nights- it´s a city that would be about 2 and a half hours from Zumbahua, but is actually about 5 hours away due to the roadworks. It´s much lower down than Zumbahua, however, meaning it´s much warmer and more humid- it´s basically the start of the Amazon Basin. We rented some bikes and visited some big waterfalls, one of which you could crawl in behind along a rather cramped tunnel-pathway, which was brilliant but we both got absolutely soaked!
So that´s about all the news I have for now, Adele´s at work in the hospital with the new batch of Ecuadorian students and I´m about to teach my first lesson of the week. I hope everyone is well, send us some news!!
Ross
At the beginning of the week I met Claudio, who runs a secondary school in the village- like all of the foreign volunteers here except for me, he´s Italian. It turns out that, aside from the hospital, there are lots of things waiting to be done here. On Monday we drove for over an hour and covered the last part on foot to take supplies and firewood to a very old indigenous lady in a remote village called Chicho. Her house, like the others in the village, was just a wooden hut with a straw roof and a few chickens. She seemed happy to see us, and luckily there was someone there who could interpret from Quichua into Spanish!
On Tuesday I drove a pickup truck down to Latacunga to get supplies, as part of a convoy- a lot of things are unavailable up here. On the way back we stopped off at Guangaje, apparently the poorest parish in Ecuador, to deliver something. Why anyone decided to build a village there in the first place I´m not sure- it´s basically an extremely high-altitude dust-bowl where the wind never seems to drop below gale force, which blows away what little soil there is.
For the rest of the week I´ve been helping to build houses, along with another Italian (Mauro) and two local builders, Ramiro and Juan. They´re nothing special but at least they´re built out of bricks and cement, generally replacing decrepit wood and corrugated iron shacks for people who are too old to rebuild their own houses, and whose children have gone to find work in the big cities. One day the wind was so strong that it ripped the sheet-metal roof off of one of the neighbours´houses and carried it away down the valley. Everything has to be done by hand, from loading pickups with sand by shovel to hauling sand and cement to the building site in sacks, to mixing the cement- as they don´t have a cement mixer. It´s very hard work, and I feel like a bit of a soft-city dweller next to the locals- they´re half the size of me and about three times as strong!!! The lady of the (soon to be) house keeps us going with what appear to be cups of hot water with about 15 spoonfuls of sugar in them.
Apart from all that, I´m continuing with the English lessons for the doctors, and Adele is working in the hospital every day. At the weekend we went down to Baños for two nights- it´s a city that would be about 2 and a half hours from Zumbahua, but is actually about 5 hours away due to the roadworks. It´s much lower down than Zumbahua, however, meaning it´s much warmer and more humid- it´s basically the start of the Amazon Basin. We rented some bikes and visited some big waterfalls, one of which you could crawl in behind along a rather cramped tunnel-pathway, which was brilliant but we both got absolutely soaked!
So that´s about all the news I have for now, Adele´s at work in the hospital with the new batch of Ecuadorian students and I´m about to teach my first lesson of the week. I hope everyone is well, send us some news!!
Ross
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