Don't eat Strawberries and don't pet dogs...

Hola! Como Estas? Estoy Bien! Things are going well here in Ecuador for Jess and I. We have been up in the mountains since Tuesday and it is so beautiful here. We are rooming together in a basic but nice hostel where we have a room and bathroom to share. They give us clean water, have wireless internet and change our sheets all huge pluses. On the downside our toilet doesn't particularly like to flush with anything solid in it, which can be rather annoying... more on that later.
On Wednesday we arrived and got a tour of Otavalo, mostly seeing the indigenous community who still work by weaving clothes and reeds. The highlight for me was seeing an adorable couple who are 75 and 65 and make lovely wool goods. They do the entire process for the wool goods themselves still, one of the last people here to do so. They shave the sheep, card the wool, spin the wool, dye the wool (sometimes naturally, othertimes with chemicals), and then weave on a loom. I got a gorgeous pink scarf for only $5, a hat for $2 and another scarf (heavy gorgeous wool... perhaps for Jon) for $8. You feel a bit guilty getting such beautiful things that took so many hours to make for such low prices.

On Thursday we visited a clinic called Jambi Huasi where western medicine and traditional medicine is practiced together. We got to meet the Shaman and a frigadora? The frigadora told us of a tradional method of birth control used by up to 20% of the indigenous people where after having children if the woman doesn't want anymore she can have her uterus massage to come up to her tummy and held in place by a very tight belt. It didn't sound pleasant to say the least. It was very interesting to see how they have been able to meld the cultures so well. We then went on a tour of the hospital which looked a lot like other hospitals except for the birthing room where the women hold onto a room and give birth on a mat. The women rarely have c sections and they allow babies to come out breech (there is an operating room down the hall for emergencies though).

Yesterday we got to do the most fun thing we have gotten to do yet which is the community health brigade. We were broken down into groups of 3 with one advanced speaker and given patients to see. Most patients did not require a physical but rather simply obtaining the HPI and medical and social history. We then reported our findings to one of two Ecuadorian physicians that were precepting. It was sad as most of the people had things that were far beyond our ability to treat such as large cavaties, vision problems and chronic back pain. We were able to treat a few people for parasites, give out some anti inflammatories to ease those having chronic pain and make referals to Huabi Juasi. It was great practice though and while I'm still not able to speak a ton, I am getting better everyday.

The last night poop hit the fan literally. Not sure what I ate but I got a fairly bad bout of food poisoning (and I had been strictly adhering to the rule only things that are peeled or cooked... and our program directors rules: no strawberries and don't pet the dogs!) It was a pretty long night, made significantly longer by a toilet that was not functioning. Jess was my hero this morning and talked to our program director and treked into the city to find some medicine to make me stop throwing up (so that I could hopefully keep some immodium down). She was only able to find a parasympathetic atagonist in the form of an intramuscular shot and her and our friend Vanessa (who is a DO and does AWESOME manipulations... sorry side track), figured out the correct dose and gave me a shot. Luckily it worked with no side effects and now just have a bit of a bubbly tummy.

We were supposed to go hiking up one of the volcanos tomorrow but I will probably take it easy, but hopefully Jess will get to see the stunning views. Its gorgeous here, we are learning so much and meeting some great people. Miss you all tons and can't wait to hear updates (Emily-- that means you lil girl!)