baños

on a bus to baños (meaning baths, named for the many hotsprings there), the 'hippie town' of ecuador and I couldn't be more excited!! our entire group of 15 decided to spend our free wkend down there and I'm sure we'll have a blast despite it being a "dry weekend" in honor of the elections here. 

 we've had health brigades the past two mornings (from around 8:30-1) at a place CENIT, an acronym, I believe, for the center for the working girl. I guess a bunch of nuns noticed how many children, particularly girls, were on the streets working rather than in school and they set out to do something about it. they created an elementary curriculum, then high school, with education that meets the needs of working children. normally in ecuador school is 6 years of elementary followed by 6 years of high school; CENIT shortens this with an accelerated program.

In addition to math, lit, science subjects, there is also training in sewing, and with graduation students get their high school diploma and sewing certificate, which allows them to get better jobs and make more. the only requirement to be in the program is that you must be a working child (CENIT had also started accepting brother of their female students into the elementary program). they also provide an after school program, and will watch infants of those students with children under the age of 6 months. CENIT is run by volunteers, from the US, all over europe, and local - 35 full time volunteers in total, including social workers, psychologists, and nurses providing the full range of care and attention this impoverish children need to break to cycle of uneducated poverty. how cool that programs like this exist?! one problem is that apparently the govt is trying to shut it down :( this won't happen, because they are changing their curriculum to appease the powers above, but the issue is that the accelerated program graduates the students at age 16, fully ready work. technically it is illegal for kids to work under the age of 18 in ecuador and the govt says CENIT is facilitating underage workers. how messed up is that? their making the appropriate adjustments to stay in business, luckily, because they are doing a lot of good for so many children in quito...

our health brigades were specifically for the high school age girls from CENIT, (I think I understood that the elementary school, and most all schools in ecuador, are closed for a week or two in honor of carnival... better than spring break!!)... we treated everything from rashes to UTIs to parasites, and discussed difficult topics with every girl: sexual and reproductive health, contraception, safety in the home and at school/work, etc  (however unsuccessful given how quiet and embarrassed these young teenage girls are). but all in all it was a very good two days in a large room in one of their buildings decorated for valentine's day with pink balloons and table cloths :)

we also did our 'ecuador talks' yesterday afternoon... all but one of us (Julie, our only non-4th-year; she's in her final year of her pediatric residency) are taking this for credit toward graduation, and I guess giving the talk is part of the deal. it was however, very informal (and short, 5-7 minutes each). I basically talked about everything on the coca tea blog plus a few extras from my last minute research during the lunch hours (that's right, in ecuador you have lunch hours, two of them, back to back, each day).

the topics I found most interesting were mine, obviously ;) and then also Amy's. Amy is from new mexico and came to this program as a first year med student. she liked it so much she wanted to come back as a 4th year, under the impression that the trip would be quite different. well according to her it is has been very similar. but she's having a great time despite the deja vu and we all like having someone in the know...  she talked about ayahuasca (or aya waska) meaning soul/spirit (aya) vine (waska... at least I think thats what she said). this is a solution made of two plants, basically an maoi (mono amine oxidase inhibitor) and dmt (dimethyl tryptophan - I think), which is normally broken down in the stomach, but when combined with the maoi, it remains active... it has been used for many things in the past, but today it is usually used for vision quests/cleansing due to its psychotropic effects and ability to cause visual hallucinations. common side effects when the tea is consumed include nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, which is considered to be a part of the cleansing process; a way to purge yourself of impurities... the tea is usually consumed in special ceremonies - on her last trip, Amy and two of her fellow travelers did an all night ayahausca experience where they fasted all day then took the tea at this temple and spent the night on the ground there or something. I haven't gotten all of the details from her, just that the high lasts about 6 hours, with onset about 30 minutes after taking the tea, and with the psychotropic effects/hallucinations peaking around hour 2. unfortunately the timing of the availability of the ayahausca sessions does not fit well with our schedule, so I am not sure many of our group will be participating (I'm sure my parents are thrilled, but I want to reassure them that even if the dates worked out I doubt I would participate - Amy has horror stories of her two group members having bad trips and spending their entire nights wretching; sounds fun, dont it?)... either way an interesting topic and something I was oblivious to before my trip...

final thing, last night for valentine's day we had the craziest feast with mami gloria, her daughter, and her daughter's bf of 5 years... they had 5 different types of meat, 2 types of queso, and a bunch of varieties of veggies, all raw. we set up around the table with slices of french bread and this sautee machine, george forman grill-esque, with a top area for sauteeing everything and then these little individual spatulas you could pile with food and put underneath to cook/heat... it was all so delish! like I said, we hit the host family jackpot :)