blah blog

morning is here and we're taking inventory of the aftermath (aka assessing the health and wellbeing of all of our sickies from yesterday)...

apparently one of the guys in our group has a theory that these beans from the corn field yesterday are what made people sick. it is the common denominator between all who were vomiting, etc and the timing of the symptoms fits. the beans grow up the corn stalks, a symbiotic relationship, and when cooked they are harmless - raw, however, more than 5 can make you very sick and our sickest member, trisa, had eaten like 15 or something!!...

 the hospital last night sounds like it was an interesting experience for her... they wouldn't let trisa into the hospital until she registered/signed in (difficult to do when she didn't have any id on her - the other members of the group brought her backpack to hostel), so she was laying on the floor of the ed while two of our fluent speakers tried to sort things out. she was in so much pain and dehydrated and still dry heaving in the hospital. when they finally got trisa into a bed they were told she could get pain meds and iv fluids to rehydrate her - wonderful! but 20 minutes later the hospital staff returned with only prescriptions for all of the meds and supplies to start the iv, which meant that apparently the girls who were with trisa were supposed to go hunt down these materials (lucky she had friends with her, what if you ended up in the hospital alone?!)... on a sunday, this is not an easy task in otovalo. to make everything more fun for her, the only bathroom she had access to had no toilet paper, no hand towel, and no soap. julie said to help trisa to the bathroom was a huge task, especially because the iv pole wheels were rusted so instead of rolling it they would pick it up and carry it. and according to leah there was blood dried on the floor, as well as some drips on trisa's bed - ?! ...leah and julie were also responsible for running her blood sample to the lab (rather than having that as someone's designated job in the hospital)... oddly enough there was no charge when they left, she was only responsible for the small cost of the meds and iv supplies. talk about experiencing the health care system here up close and personal!! 

our numbers still dwindle this morning with 3 of our people in the recovery stages and thus not coming along on our second health brigade. we're on the bus now headed up into a more remote place in the hills where we will hold a clinic.  our schedule has been all switched around because we had both a soccer match with the local kiddos planned for yesterday (cancelled because half our team was bathroom dependent every 15 minutes or so), and a visit to this house where famous ecua musicians live and make instruments (again, with everyone quarantined to their rooms, dr. W decided to postpone it until tonight)... unfortunately this change in schedule means we won't get movie night tonight, which was apparently supposed to be the motorcycle diaries (isnt this the one you were telling me about, Pete?)... hopefully we'll figure out another night to squeeze it in... 

 it is the day before official carnival today, but you wouldnt know it - yesterday was so crazy everywhere we went I could have been convinced that was the carnival... it is impossible to stay dry here!!... while running to catch the bus into otovalo yesterday we were attacked with the foam by kids in a car - dang it!! now I not only perseverate on children's hands and what they might be hiding behind their backs, but I give a wide birth to every car with an open window... and we learned yet another lesson while on the bus. we had our window open because it was hot, and becca sitting next to me felt she might get sick, so just in case we thought it wise to keep the window open... bad. idea. somehow as the bus was making a slow turn around a bumpy corner, these kids, with a perfect shot into our window from the hill where they stood right by the road, took a hose or buckets of water or something (honestly there was so much water I couldn't really see) and sprayed it through our window and into the bus, soaking everyone within range... oh boy, not even safe on the public transit here, lesson learned.

just a morning update since I have some time to kill on the bus... wish us luck on this health brigade!!