First Week and Birthday

February 3, 2013

I just finished my first week here in Quito, Ecuador. I spent my first Sunday here wandering around Quito, exploring a couple parks, walking around Old Town, and getting my first taste of public transport. All the other students were off having a weekend adventure so Rosita, my house mom, gave me a little driving tour of Quito and then dropped me off in El Ejido Park to fend for myself, which resulted in a great, sunny afternoon exploring the city. I had two full days of Spanish lessons on Monday and Tuesday. Since I was the only student taking lessons this past week, it was just me and Mario, my Spanish teacher this week. We spent the mornings going over some medical terminology, reading some articles about Ecuadorian culture and traditions, and chatting. During the afternoons, we went to different places around Quito, all the while practicing Spanish, which involved me asking lots of questions about the places we visited as well as random words I couldn’t remember or didn’t know.

Outside the Clinica de los Adolescentes.

I spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at La Clínica de los Adolescentes with Dra. Carrera. It’s a pediatric clinic for the infants of teenage mothers, ages 12-18, and is part of a complex of clinics and hospitals devoted to maternal health. We spent the first couple hours every in Dra. Carrera’s outpatient clinic and then saw all her newborn patients. I had the opportunity to perform lots of newborn exams and infant blood draws and saw several interesting cases.

I spent this Saturday, which also happened to be my birthday, in Mindo, a small town right next to cloud forests, not too far from Quito. Another CFHI student went with me, and we hiked along a waterfall trail, birdwatched, and went ziplining through the cloud forest, which I think was a wonderful way to spend my 26^th birthday.