Medicino

6.10.11

It is confirmed. I am sick and was not in fact making it up. Two nights ago I woke up mi mama and her daughter with my trips to the bathroom (talk about embarrassing) but I was in so much pain at that point I just couldn’t be self-conscious. They kindly greeted me at 1am with team and a heating pad for my tummy. Trying to speak in Spanish in the middle of the night was quite a new challenge. After a restless night with trips back and forth from the bathroom I decided to sleep through the first hour of school and go straight to the doctor.

The hospital was very nice and the doctor was smart and generous. He was very interested in what we were doing and gifted us with free medicines for our first aid kit. After learning about my symptoms (in Spanish, with help from Elizabeth Thurber and Sarah) and doing all the tests he informed me that I had an infection in my intestines and they were I inflamed. He assured me that this is very common and happens to delicate stomachs who aren’t used to the foods in Ecuador. He prescribed me some meds and hopefully I should be 100% in a few days. I wish it were overnight but of course recovery takes time.

I went home for lunch and shared the news with my host family. They kindly had Gatorade, jello, crackers and other foods in the house for me by night time. At school in the afternoon we learned about the new products SEC is introducing this summer. Agrodrip is a irrigation system and nutributter is like peanut butter and it for malnourished infants. SEC is seeing how selling and building stoves will work in rural communities along with the potential use of SMS technology in the communities. These are all interesting new ideas and products and our intern team will spend the summer researching them, doing surveys, and assessing if these products be useful in our communities.

By dinnertime, I was not feeling so great once again so I had a small meal and fell asleep at the 8:30. Oh my.

This morning I arose at 6am to cook Emborrjados with mi mama for my Spanish class. They are essentially fried bananas. Every intern was assigned a different food to cook and present to the class and staff before our authentic feast at 10am. We had tons of food but once our plates were full we realized, like most food in Ecuador, it was all brown. Carbs, fried, corn, potatoes, butter, eggs, bananas—the ingredients of Ecuador. Unfortunately I had to be incredibly selective about what I ate but I probably saved myself from the stomach ache others felt after the masses of comida.

I am sitting in an internet café and just met two girls from UNC-Pembroke. It is a small world. I am about to head to our last day of development discussion-- hard to believe. 2 weeks down, 6 to go.

Thanks for reading!

 Hasta luego,

Cate