Spanish

Fourth Clinic Day!

Back to School in Virgen de Chapi!

On day four of our mobile clinic we visited the people of Virgen de Chapi and Manchay. The clinic in Virgen de Chapi was in a tiny open schoolhouse. It was incredibly fun to see the brightly coloured handprints all over the walls and the “Feliz Cumpleaños” paper signs with children’s names in each room. It was such a fun atmosphere for our clinic and everyone’s mood reflected that.

One little boy in Manchay stood out the most to the volunteers for being so intelligent at such a young age. He was impressing us with his incredible Spanish to English translations that he had learned in school. We really hope that this child is going to have opportunities available to him in his future because he has all of the potential in the world. It’s difficult sometimes being here and seeing these children and not knowing what their future may hold for better or for worse.

Paula is one of our brigade members and as a native Spanish speaker she is able to have a much different experience than the rest of us who suffer from the language barrier.

Coming from Venezuela, I had seen the unfortunate conditions in which some people still live in to this day. I had always wanted to do something about it and MEDLIFE gave me the opportunity to come to Peru and contribute to improve people’s lives. It has been an unbelievable experience that I will surely never forget.

My most memorable experience from this brigade so far had been interacting with the children. In every village we have been to, they have brightened our day with their smiles and irresistible cuteness. Being in the toothbrushing station allowed me to talk to the children and learn about their lives. I remember this 12-year-old girl who was telling me how she is learning English at school because one day she will travel all over the world. I realized that just like us, these children have dreams. They should have the right to pursue them, but without the essentials they might not even have the chance to finish high school. That is what MEDLIFE is about, helping bring these people the primary care they need to provide a better life and better opportunities for the next generation. It was touching to see how we all became so close with he children at each clinic and how they would wave us goodbye, asking when we would be back.

I also had the opportunity to talk to Señor Carlos, an active MEDLIFE member. It was truly through his explanations that I saw how MEDLIFE actively involves the people in the village and cater to their needs when they ask for help. He described in great detail how the stair project works. He is in charge of bringing the community together in order to put the project forward. The people in the village start working on it two to three months before the brigade starts. The men have to miss work days to help break the rocks and build a way for the staircase to be built. Some areas are deep into the mountain where no cars can pass so they also have to carry cement and the necessary materials to the construction site. They are all very hardworking people and it is humbling to set how they all come together to work towards the same goal.

We learn so many great things from these people and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to meet them. I hope to come back again, but next time for longer.

Hasty pronto y gracias por todo!

MedlifeMcGill

DAY 3 – 1st Clinic, San Pedro Guamote.

by Sunita Kheterpal

When I awoke this morning, it was quite cloudy. Our room, which I share with another McGill student, Shruti, has a balcony (I think one of the only rooms with this beautiful balcony). It overlooks the road in front and we wake up to taxis honking (but it’s okay because you have to wake up early anyways). The train station is right across our room (no trains run because this part of the track is broken). The showers are hot (don’t worry about running water). I made sure that after yesterday’s piercing cold shower, none of us had to go through that again! The only problem is that I’m not sure how to get the cold water back in…I’ll figure it out eventually.

The breakfast venue is across the street and the Señor and Señora who own the restaurant are extremely welcoming. Señora is a doting mother who tells us to drink the leche (hot milk). She often sings “leche, leche, leche” and dances with the steaming hot milk in one hand and tea in the other. She reminds me of my mom who constantly tells me to drink milk to prevent my bones from cracking all the time. On the bright side the milk is very different from Canadian and American milk but in a good way. The Señora and Señor make amazing juice (blackberry which you would never think was blackberry and juice from special Ecuadorian tomatoes which tastes like mango/peach/orange). Also, don’t worry the couple is extremely accommodating for those vegetarians out there!

We boarded the bus at 7 am and drove for 1.5 hr to our destination, San Pedro Guamote. It is a little town that lies high in the Andes Mountains. It is one of the poorest towns in all of Ecuador. In the bus, we were split into groups (vitals, education, medicine, dentistry, gynecology, pharmacy and our week’s project to build a baño for this community).

I was in a group of five, taking vital signs.
Following patient inscription our group measured height, weight, blood pressure, and temperature. I was mostly taking blood pressure and ensuring that everybody (patients and volunteers) were okay.
Once the vitals were “terminado”, I told the patients to “sigueme por favor a la carpa educacion”.

I learned Español in Grade 9 (quite a long time ago), and since then have never used any Spanish. This was the first time in a foreign country that I actually tested out this new language. I grew up in Montreal and I find that Español is very similar to French. You can add an “o, a, or e” at the end of a French word and it becomes Español. It turns out that I had the phrases down but when I pronounced them, they weren’t quite the same. Instead of saying “sit here”, I said “feel here”. It was amusing because the patients would laugh at us, but some of them helped me pronounce the sentences or corrected my grammar.

There were many young mothers, so I was also holding the little babies (one was a couple of days old and another was a few months old). The children were extremely well behaved, quiet, but curious. They intently watched us foreigners roll in on our touristy bus and set up our tents. Then, when we tried to talk to them, they would smile, look away shyly, and finally run away. When they realized we were here to help them, I think they warmed up to us. I actually started getting responses when I asked “coma te llamas”! We did not have many patients (about 50) and thus we ended early. Most of the patients were women and children.

The poverty here is a different type of poverty than I have ever experienced before. I don’t know why but since the day that I have arrived in Ecuador, I constantly compare Ecuador to India. I went to India in 1999 around the state of Gujarat. As soon as I walked out of the airport in Quito, the first thing I said was that it smelled like India. There is this smokey scent here in the evenings and early mornings. The buses are very similar and so are the streets. When I was in India we were mostly in an agricultural region where cows, donkeys and sheep walked the streets freely. In San Pedro it was the same feeling. Even the weather is the same- chilly in the mornings/evenings and warm in the afternoons. I don’t normally sunburn, but I definitely got a little one on my face yesterday and today. So, even if you think you are not going to burn, bring the sunscreen. Trust me, you’ll need it because the sun is a lot stronger here than where you live. The one difference I have noted between India and Ecuador is the poverty level. In India, everywhere you looked in the shopping areas, you saw people without arms or legs, or children simply begging for money. In San Pedro, it is a very different poverty because all of the people are subsistence farmers but none that I have seen have begged for money. I think that the reason for their extreme poverty level is their isolation in these mountainous regions. They do not have access to basic services/needs which other parts of the world do. You will notice here that everything is shared, communal. The community of San Pedro also prepared a “muchas gracias” (thank you) meal for the MEDVIDA crew.

I have gotten over my fear of dogs here. The dogs here don’t bark, bite or run after you. Today they were circulating around me and I didn’t even notice them. It is kind of the opposite here because the dogs are either scared of us and run away or they don’t care that we’re around. I think we have an understanding, a mutual agreement.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a little place with a lake and some tourist shops. It was a beautiful scene/picture spot. We returned to the hotel at 4 pm, changed our clothes, freshened up and headed out to the ciudad of Riobamba for some tourist shopping. I bought a colorful hammock, blue bag, new bracelets made of Ecuadorian beads and shells. We were also on a mission to find some piña (pineapple) for a fellow MEDVIDA from Colorado. On the way I realized that all of the mess from the New Year’s celebrations had been cleaned up while we were gone. The city looked as good as new! For dinner we went to our first Ecuadorian restaurant. It was great! I don’t know exactly how to describe and put into words the people here, other than that they are extremely giving, welcoming and sweet.