The Quito Project

LIfe so far

2007-05-21T20:28:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Paul W and I´m the only male tutor in the month of May. My experience in general down here has been quite interesting to say the least. Tutoring young children let alone in another language is demanding. My spanish skills at the beginning were not up to par according to my standards but I´ve made great improvements and I feel confident with my spanish skills after two weeks. It´s been a great experience working with the kids because they really grow on you. I feel like in the next to weeks it will be very difficult to say goodbye after building friendships with all of them. As many of the officers of the club know their have been a few problems between some of the tutors and the family concerning money and food. Rather then go into details, I will say they were mainly due to communication issues. I live on a seperate floor then the girls with the grandparents so the issues that affected them really had no bearing to me. The grandparents have been extremely kind and treat me as if I was one of their one children. They make me a snack everyday to go along with the lunch that is given at the tutoring site. At first I was the only person on the floor with the grandparents and Fernando, their autistic son, then Joe from social came after the first week. Any males reading this post will have a great time with Joe, the grandparents, and Fernando. They are all tremendous.

coca cola light

2006-08-03T14:30:00.000-05:00

Wow. What an amazing adventure in Ecuador! I just got back to the U.S. yesterday morning and am overwhelmed with the memories of the trip. Although I took the red eye flight on Tuesday and got very little sleep on the flight, I could not stop talking about my experience with anyone who would listen...including the ice cream guy at Wastenaw Dairy :) As promised, here are a couple of pictures from one of the Social Work projects, THE LIBRARY. Actually, I saved more pictures (or I thought I did) to my flash drive but am unable to access them due to formatting issues, etc. So what is posted will not be very impressive, but please know that the work involved in the library construction was greater than appears.

Right now I am in a stage of reflection on the goings on of the project and will continue to benefit from all that I learned about interpersonal communication, international social work and professional collaboration. AND the beautiful scenery will continue to be part of my repetoire of visualizations that I use to decrease anxiety during stressful situations!

I really appreciate the relationships that were formed during the trip and will truly miss each and every volunteer, foundation/family member, amazon guide, child, client and random person I met. Knowing you has taught me so much about myself and the world. Thank you as well for the support you all have shown and I wish you all the best in the life that you choose.

As an update on my life in general, the job that I was hoping to get upon my return actually called me the day I told them that I would be returning (yesterday). Yeah, I think that this can only be a positive sign...So I'll be moving to Chicago ASAP to begin my professional career! Any Quito Project reunion that we have will be scheduled for a weekend day, right?!

Again, thanks for the memories!

P.S. For those who were not in the know...the title, "coca cola light" refers to the "jugo gringo" (foreigner juice) that other Quito Project members and I would sneak out and buy to have with breakfast, lunch, snack, etc...a faux pas in Ecuador apparently. The Onas would make fun of me for drinking diet coke every time I bought it and then ask me if they could have a little. Teehee ;)

Ecuador te llevo dentro de mi corazon...

2006-08-01T13:25:00.000-05:00

I'm back in the old you ess of ay today. It was with a heavy heart that I boarded my American Airlines flight yesterday morning. Ecuador, Quito, the house of the Oñas-- that has been my home for the past month and a half. I was sort of glad that the power was out that morning because then no one could see me crying.
As someone who has moved around thirteen times-- I have come to know what sort of finality is entailed with leaving a place-- and even moreso in this case because for the medical students, this is our last vacation - period -. The best we can do is hold onto the memories and pictures in our head and the things that remind us of the people and places we've seen.

Some of the things I will always remember-- Sebastian and Andrea, the two little monsters/angels of the house who were always willing to hug you and then blame you for making them cry, watching the World Cup with all the project members—when PELIGRO! means take a swig from your Pilsener, late-night futbol on the canchas in the park outside our house, granadillas—the amazing break-it-over-your-head fruit that looks like alien guts but tastes like a million dollars, white water rafting in the jungle, making chocolate, climbing Guagua Pichincha, long bus rides with all the project kids, Choo choo gua (or however you spell it—it’s a fantastic song), days when we DIDN’T eat rice, riding horses in the Galapagos, smooshing faces into cakes on birthdays, dancing, late night Scrubs episodes, movies dubbed in Spanish, Fausto Vinicio, Ariel, and the internet guy, returning Pilsener bottles at 8am to the nutty lady in the corner store, eating lemon-flavored ants, Pinguino ice cream for 60 cents, giant turtles, BOB ESPONJA, late night medicine-counting, the long line of people every day at the clinic at 8:30 am, little kid hugs, Samy and Jordy, COSQUILLAS, farmacia drawings... I suppose this is one of those lists that only makes sense if you were there and can go on forever...so I think I’ll end it.

I hope I can go back one day but it’s always a frightening aspect to go back and know that it will never be the same as when you left it—and never will be again—but that is not always necessarily a bad thing.

To any and all who might ever be even minutely interested in joining the Quito Project—DO IT—this has been the best summer I have ever had –period-.

Mucho tiempo, mucho estudio, muchos abrazos y besos a todos,
Alex

Resumencito

2006-08-01T12:06:00.000-05:00

Three and a half weeks of clinic and I am still amazed that it went by so quickly. With six medical students and either 1 or 2 doctors (depending on what week)-- we managed to serve around eighty patients a day on a slow day and over a hundred and fifty on our last and busiest day. It is barely a raindrop in the ocean in comparison to all of the need for medical care in Ecuador, let alone in the world-- but I guess all oceans started off as raindrops...right?
I can't say that every day was easy peasy and that we solved every problem, cured every person. What I can say is that we gave every person our best care and utilized every available resource we had. Suffice it to say there were times when we had to put our hands up and surrender and say-- "I'm sorry there is nothing more we can do." It ripped my heart out to see people accept it when I myself couldn't. You want them to yell at you-- to tell you you are a failure-- and they don't-- they thank you instead for doing everything that you could.

For example, we made a housecall on a family who had asked us to stop in. We'd been told that the father of the house had some sort of leg wound and couldn't make the twenty minute walk up to the clinic which involved many rocky pathways and lots of uphill hiking. When we got to the tipsy house, leaning out over the road, the entire family came down to greet us-- in all about seven children, four dogs, and three women. The children called down to the father who was apparently working in the backyard. About five minutes later, a man hobbled up the precariously steep earth stairs to the road where we waited and then we all climbed up some plywood stairs to the house. He carried his leg like one carries a sack of potatoes-- sort of dragging it up. We all crowded into the one visible bedroom in the house and he sat on the bed with his leg on a small stool. He unwrapped his leg and the smell was like a knife cutting through the room. It was double the size of the other leg and was a mottled grey and yellow. Two large open sores were visible from one side and a third wet sore was on the other side.
Dr. Serlin asked, pointing at the leg, "Cuanto tiempo?" (how long)
"Un año" (one year)
Dr. Serlin looked at Darren and me after examining it further-- "That's gangrene. It's going to have to come off."
I tried to explain it to the family in a way that would drive the importance home-- that the infection could spread and eventually affect his heart, his brain, all of the important organs along the way. They understood-- but kept telling me that he needed his leg-- he worked with the cows and the crops-- he'd already had a surgery on his hip after being assaulted-- he already had enough trouble walking. They thanked us for our trouble and told us they would stop by the clinic again.
Several days later, they returned saying they would not go through with the surgery-- even with financial help-- but "thank you so much for everything you've done, may God pay you for your service."

However, there was also the patient suffering from chronic arthritis who finally was able to move her fingers after years of having them clenched and throbbing who couldn't stop thanking us for giving her her hands back.

It's both rewarding and frustrating to have this opportunity to serve the community of San Martin-- however, is it good enough to just fix the symptoms of another underlying problem? Once the naprosyn, the ranitidine, the lotrel that we gave our patients runs out-- what then? If someone had been able to monitor our patient with diabetes, he wouldn't have ended up with an infected foot ulcer that turned gangrenous and needed amputation.

The Quito Project is designed to address some of those underlying problems-- addressing information on nutrition, social work, tutors-- but we are only there for three months out of a very long year. I wish there were a way that we could help all year long. We are working toward that end-- and who knows? Anything can happen when you have enough gumption, enough idealism, and a creative executive board.

a little of this, a little of that

2006-07-30T14:48:00.000-05:00

The social work team, Erin and I, have been very busy during our month in Quito. We have been multitaskers extraordinaire, juggling our time between several different projects. Our primary project has been to furnish and buy a full supply of books for a library at the local primary school in San Martín and also to buy books for the Fundación San Martín tutoring site. While these sound like fairly straightforward tasks, they were actually quite challenging. Our bookshelves, tables, and benches had to be commissioned from a local carpenter. Gaining an assessment of what types of books are needed and then locating those books in Quito was time consuming, especially because the need for books is so great, and locating appropriate, educational, and affordable books in the city is not easy. However, we are happy to report that the library and foundation together will receive over 300 brand new books. These include fairy tales and fables (favorites of the children), encyclopedias, dictionaries, and countless stories and children´s literature books. At the school this year, all of the children will have a 1-hour period of library time every day, which they have never had before, and this time will be devoted to class literacy instruction and pleasure reading. We are very excited to make our official delivery of the books on Monday, and we will post pictures of the finished product! Special thanks to the July tutors, who were very helpful during several whole nights of coding, stamping, and covering all of these books!

Our second major project has been working with the public health students and then with Adriana after their departure to implement nutrition classes for mothers from the community of San Martín. We hold class every Thursday and Friday afternoon from 2:00-3:30pm. To prepare for class each week, we pick a theme (so far each day has featured a different nutritious vegetable), research nutritional benefits of this food, go grocery shopping for ingredients, and prepare several tasty recipes featuring this food. In class, we review the nutritional benefits, facilitate a discussion with the women on how they already use this food, and then present our new recipe ideas. The overarching goal for these classes is to form a cohesive group of women who are invested in the idea of bringing more accessible, nutritious food to their community. We hope that this group will form the basis for a produce market, to begin next summer. After only 3 weeks, I am already seeing seeds of community-building growing in our group of women. Where at first they were shy and hesitant to talk, now they have open discussions about what their children (and husbands!) will and will not eat, where to find the cheapest and best ingredients, and how to make a small budget stretch its furthest. They laugh and joke, and we are seeing them build cohesion. With our project budget, we have been able to purchase the appliances, tools, and ingredients Adriana will use to continue these classes every week throughout the next year.

Finally, Erin and I have been putting our social work training to work by taking ¨referrals¨ from both the clinic and the tutoring site. The students and doctors at the clinic had several patients report psychological or psychosomatic complaints, and we have been able to schedule meetings to initiate a therapeutic relationship with these patients. Their struggles range from grief, to depression, to children´s behavioral problems, to spousal conflicts, and beyond. We have met several times with the clients, gathered background and intake information, and told them about the help that the Foundation can offer. When we leave, Adriana will continue weekly meetings with these clients. It is obvious that mental health care is an extreme need here, and there are no resources for obtaining it here, so we are glad to have been able to offer our time while we are here. Similarly, there are some children at the tutoring site who benefit from one-on-one work time for one reason or another. We have spent most of our mornings working individually with these children, learning how to follow the rules, talking about problems happening at home, or working on a school subject that is particularly difficult for them. Working with clients and in one-on-ones with the kids has been incredibly rewarding, especially when we have seen improvements literally happening before our eyes.

So that, in a nutshell, has been the work of the social work team this month. We have been very busy, but we have enjoyed each of our projects. Look for library pictures to be posted soon!

Quito Film Communiqué

2006-07-26T13:37:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Some of you may have been wondering what that greasy haired clutch of miscreants with the camera has been up to. Following a strict stormchasing regime through Ecuador, we’ve been working tirelessly to collect footage from Quito, Loja, Peguche, Otavalo, Juncal, San Martin, and Illuman.

The film, more than anything, is a rigorous collection of qualitative data on the health and healing options in and around Quito. Although by no means a comprehensive ethnography, the focus is on the personal narrative of navigating, hybridizing, and understanding the quest for keeping oneself healthy in Ecuador.

We’ve filmed in local markets, clinics, Afro-Ecuadorian barrios, indigenous villages, retirement communities, streets, homes, and dancehalls.

Last week, we traveled to Peguche, Ilumàn (a town known for its many healers), Juncal (known for its many football players) and Otavalo, a few hours northwest of Quito. These pueblos are home to fire-breathing Shamans, who conduct ritual cleansing through herbs, burning embers, pure sugarcane alcohol, and yes, flame. Huddled in a dark cinder block room, we witnessed a strange and mysterious ceremony that only a handful of gringos have ever had the opportunity to encounter.

The other night, we attended a religious festival to San Pedro in the Church plaza in Peguche. Here, indigenous people mixed with mestizos, as they kicked around soccer balls soaked in gasoline and lit on fire while a gigantic homemade castle exploded in tiers of fireworks and torches. Meanwhile, vaca loca or "crazy cow" - men with wooden structures configured with fruits and fireworks - charged at crowds (and at the camera).

In the days previous, we visited Jambi Huasi, a unique clinic in Otavalo. Jambi Huasi (House of Healing) serves the underrepresented indigenous community, charging less and providing patients with the option of western and/or traditional (Shaman) medicine. There, we witnessed a curandero (healer) rubbing and slapping someone with a live guinea pig as a diagnostic process. She then killed the poor creature, skinned it, and turned it inside out to reveal the black organs which represented the patient’s ailments and absorption of negative energy. We also filmed a healer perform spiritual healing with a mixture of potions, stones, and smoke, while next door, a dentist cleaned teeth and a pharmacist wrote prescriptions for biomedical drugs.

With given permission, we worked with one Limberg Valencia, an Afro-Ecuadorian marimba musician, social activist, anthropologist, and cultural revivalist. Mr. Valencia has introduced us to the unique and overlooked world of African medical traditions, which are unlike any other contemporaneous practices. Here, the "Afro" community relies on a fascinating blend of spiritual healing, communal health dances, and music to revive and empower African culture.

Orfa Renosa is another contact we made through the Afro-Ecuadorian community. She works for an expansive national NGO, specializing in alternative medicine, traditional curing, health education and community organizing.

With her, we filmed a streetside ¨check-in¨ between an Afro-Ecuadorian nun and the poverty-stricken families on the periphery of Quito proper. There, we met and interviewed a number of “curbside” healers.

We have also been interviewing and following around Jaime Guevara. He is a very popular political folk singer who, unbeknownst to the majority of his fans, suffers from severe epilepsy. We filmed a conversation between him and indigenous friend about health and Quito, the ¨schizophrenic¨ city. We also had the opportunity to film and attend one of his concerts, commemorating the death of an Ecuadorian leftist killed by state terrorism.

There´s a lot more to be said; our session with Limberg and his dancers, our experience in the clinic in San Martin, our exploration of religious healing practices, our run-in with the brujas (witches). It´s all on film, and we can´t wait to share it with you once we have the chance.

We have more than 50 hours of footage to work with, and possible another year until we edit everything together, Keep in touch with us at: quitofilm@umich.edu.

Best,

Yoni
The Quito Film Collective

habas, yuca, y aji - oh my!

2006-07-25T23:03:00.000-05:00

Well, it’s already been a week since we (Erika and I – the public health portion of the Quito Project) have returned to the United States from a whirlwind of a trip in Ecuador and we’ve been swamped since! Erika is fortunately able to work again and has been since Wednesday morning and I am still recovering from Ecuador withdrawal, but I am still glad to be back ☺ So to recap all that happened for the time we were in Ecuador, I’ll have to start from the very beginning since we had no time to blog while there in Quito (I have been spoiled by cable-speed internet and 56K modem does not bode well with me).

Even when I was unable to be there for part of the time, we spent the beginning of the week of 7/3 meeting and discussing with our foundation’s director, Adriana. From our gathering, later in the week we then went out into the community of San Martín and conducted a needs assessment of the neighborhood. We learned quickly that the plans and ideas we had construed in America way ahead of time (i.e. possibly opening some sort of market) would be drastically changed and we had to adapt and be flexible to the plans and ideas that needed to implemented right away. And so, with questionnaires in hand, we started conversations with “What do you like to cook?’ and “What do your kids not like to eat?” [to provide just a few examples] so that we (public health and social work students/graduates) were able to gain a greater understanding and fuller comprehension of the health status of the people. Walking from morning until late afternoon going house to house, we gained a deeper and more complete picture of the community looking at the houses and their animals, listening to mothers’ concerns while hearing kids and the TV in the background, taking notes at a tienda and observing the produce and junk food they have to offer. Our next step: mission – to start nutrition classes in order to initiate a grassroots enthusiasm for health awareness and nutritious living.

The following second week, we prepared, discussed, advertised, planned, and prepared some more for our nutrition classes that we held on Thursday, 7/13 and Friday, 7/14. Before those dates, all four of us public health/social work students again trekked house to house now following up our questions and inquiries with a tangible means to serve the community – providing an avenue for education and collective concern and discussion as a community. As a lure as well as a exemplary model, we slaved in the kitchen each day before our class to prepare veggie burgers for the Thursday class and soybean burgers for the Friday class so that the women can sample and guess the recipe. Overall, we all agree that the classes were a success!! Hooray! 35 attendees on the first day and 15 the next, but most important of all we believe that we accomplished the goal of finding people who are possibly and hopefully invested in seeing the improvement of health and nutrition of their own community. Although Erika and I had to leave before the next set of nutrition classes for the month of July, we know and trust that not only are the social work students carrying along the final set of classes, but that Adriana will be the one sustaining and continuing this vision for nutrition classes all through the upcoming months when all of us Quito Project volunteers are not there. I am happy to declare: mission accomplished!

A post worth 12,000 words

2006-07-23T16:05:00.000-05:00

We've taken more than 3,000 photos so far this summer. Here, in no particular order, are just 12 to give you a glimpse into what we've been up to.

A line of patients waiting for our arrival at the clinic.

Dr. Serlin with some patients in the exam room.

We made a house call to an elderly man with a gangrenous foot.

The 6 med students in front of our clinic.

Kamala's bridge jump in Baños.

Kamala with two patients.

Testing out the exam table after we gave the room a fresh coat of maize and blue paint.

Jenny with some young patients in the waiting room.

Emergency? Has him the lever!

The park across from our house. We play nightime fútbol here frequently.

Our future doctor.

The first installment of our nutrition class series, which will continue through the year.

Each day, the kids in our tutoring project wash their hands and faces, brush their teeth, take a vitamin, and drink a hot, nutritious colada.

2006-07-19T20:34:00.000-05:00

Hi, I´m Jenny and I´m a July tutor. It´s already been more than 2 weeks since we´ve been working with the kids here and the days fly by faster and faster. As for the type of tutoring we do with the kids, it´s pretty relaxed since it´s summer vacation for them, too. We´re mixing a bit of studying time with playing time everyday before they drink their coladas, brush their teeth, take a vitamin and put on some aloe vera for their skin. We´ve divided the kids into grade levels and one or two tutors are in charge of each group. Adriana, the host´s daughter and director of the tutoring program, gives us specific work for each of the groups. For example, the past week the older children (the groups ositos, mariposas, conejos and estrellas) did ¨dictado,¨which is writing what they hear, the 3rd level kids (los gatitos) learned the abc´s, and the 1st and 2nd level kids (los elefantes, los tiburones) learned the color red and number one. The past week we´ve been working on reading comprehension and next week we´ll be starting on mathematics. The children are taking an exam at the end of the summer that they need to pass in order to advance to the next grade, so Adriana wants to make sure they learn and review all that they need to do that. If the kids don´t pass, they have to repeat the grade. Adriana has told us that the parents won´t pay for their children´s education if they have to repeat the grade so that would be the end of schooling for the kids.
The kids are adorable and loving. Some become very attached to us, and we can tell that all they want is some attention. When we move from the project area where we study to the soccer field where we play, they always want to hold our hands. They love it when we carry them, make them ¨fly¨(the Chango boys always shout ¨haceme volar!¨), and play hand slapping games with them. They´re very cute but sometimes it´s hard to keep them all focused for a stretch of time (for example, when we read them the stories for reading comp) and they can get out of hand when they´re in line to get their coladas. I think we´ve been getting better at keeping them in order though :)
Some of the kids that were shy have been opening up to us more recently, and it´s kind of sad that we´ll be leaving in less than two weeks. I just hope that we can make the most of it during the rest of the month and that the transition to the August tutors will be smooth. It´s been an amazing experience so far...I´d love to come back next summer and see how the kids have grown!

¡hola hola coca cola!

2006-07-19T20:22:00.000-05:00

Hellooooo,
My name is Chelsey and I am the July Education Director.

For starters the month of July is vacation time for the kids here in Quito, so we have been working with them in the mornings from 9am-12:30pm. They are divided into groups by grade with some stragglers in between. Each group is then called by an animal name, myself and Jenny lead "los gatitos" (the cats/kitties) which are predominately 6-8 year old third graders. The other clans are: los tiburones (sharks), las estrellas (stars), los conejos (rabbits), los ositos (bears), and las mariposas (butterflies). We have laminated, or rather contact papered, cartoon style name tags of the animals for each student to wear thus identifying him/her apart of a group. Since we range from 60-80 kids a day this has been the best system of organizing them and giving them a sense of unity within each group. Many a times there are world cup eligible games of fútbol (soccer) where los conejos verse los gatitos. ; )

The children have been great; friendly, easy to love, and eager to learn we have each fallen in love with them. I believe their most admirable quality is their unyielding ability to care for one another. Literally 6 year olds are watching over 4 year olds, holding their hands and guiding them through the day with patience and tenderness. A favorite clan of ours is the Changos/Calapiñas who live next door to the school. There is Erica, Henry, Brayon, Marco, Diego, and little Angelito. Full of energy and always wanting one more photo they run to greet us and give tons of hugs to anyone willing to receive one. They remind me of the simple things in life, of wanting to care for another person above one´s self. Diego, only 4 years old, is Angelo´s (2 years old) constant partner in crime and caretaker, making sure his little brother is in line for colada (a daily nutritional drink) or brushing his teeth well. Of course not all is perfect here, there are some family feuds and brotherly brawls but overall all of the children get along very well and truly help each other out with a very mature sense of comradery.

So far each group has been working on different skills concerning the group´s particular needs. Los gatitos have mastered their abc´s and are now working on comprehending stories once they have been read. The director has told us that all of the children are able to read and write with no major probelms, but they lack the ability to fully understand what they have just read or written. For example los gatitos follow our stories to their best of their attention spans (which is not very long for rambunctious children on vacation :) answering questions about details with flying colors. However, when we ask what was the overall moral or theme of the story they guess and kind of miss the point. Hopefully after a month of the phenomenal July tutors this obstacle will be cleared!

In the afternoons we help out at the clinic by taking care of any antsy kids waiting for their turn or some simply come to visit us. Thursdays and Fridays a nutrition class is being offered by the social workers and public health students so the tutors also lend a hand with the children during these sessions. I seem to be making many grocery runs for colada supplies and snacks for those other children (us) or we all go exploring the local areas. On the weekends we have been making amazing trips to Baños, Otovalo, Cotocachi, Pichincha, and this weekend we head to the jungle!

It has been an amazing experience and I cannot believe three weeks have already flown by. I know just spending time with the children helps them grow but I hope we can also leave something else behind for them. Perhaps hopes for a better future, some dreams that we have shared with them, or simply the experience of meeting a group of crazy Gringos willing to be their friends will be lasting memories to cherish. I know I will never forget them with their sunburnt cheeks and beautiful smiles.

Hope you enjoyed the mini-novel,
Chels =)

2006-07-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

¡Hola! Thanks for reading our blog. My name is Doug and I´ve been here in Ecuador helping the tutors with the kids for July. This is my first time out of North America and it has been an amazing experience so far.

July has been an interesting month so far. The children are mostly out of school for the summer now, so they don´t have any homework. We´ve been playing lots of games to reinforce their learning and keep them busy and happy. We also make sure they all wash their hands and face, brush their teeth, drink a healthy colada and take some flintstones vitamins daily. The children are quite amazing and absolutely adorable. Hopefully, our help tutoring and health education will have a lasting impact long after we have to leave.

If anyone has any great games, songs, suggestions or questions feel free to contact us through TheQuitoProject.org website.

"Disculpe, Doctorita"

2006-07-04T19:44:00.000-05:00

I’m not going to lie… hearing patients call me ¨little doctor¨ is kind of a sweet feeling. We have officially finished our second day of the San Martin Clinic and it has been Fourth of July, Christmas, and chocolate balls of goodness all rolled into one. What really blows my mind is that the blue scrubs and the stethoscope are enough to make people put their utmost faith in my ability to help them—and I suppose that someone else believing in me makes me…believe in me, too. I guess in the back of every medical student’s mind is that nasty little beady-eyed man saying ¨YOU WILL NEVER CUT IT AS A DOCTOR, BWAHHHHH¨… well maybe not in the back of EVERY medical student´s mind… but definitely sometimes in mine.
Anyway, back to the clinic… all of the people are delightful and so gracious that even when we are all tired as a you-know-what in a you-know-where, we are all smiling and laughing and hugging the eleventy million children that are constantly hanging around asking for some more Flintstone´s vitamins. It’s a simultaneously thrilling and frightening experience because, I suppose, we will be REAL doctors in only a matter of years. We won’t get to fall back on the talents of the doctors that we have with us now.

Another crazy aspect of all this is that while I’m already 23 years old, I still feel like a little kid running around playing doctor. Women who are a good three, four, five years younger than I am come in seeking help and they already have entire families and I can only think while I’m trying to do my best to help them that they know so much more about life than I do and I still can’t definitively say that I ever will know everything that they know. I also performed four pregnancy tests today…and I am not going to lie…I was just as nervous as the women for whom I was performing them.

Anyway—so far a list of the things that I have learned from working at the clinic: 1) chewable vitamins can get you very far with 4 and 5 year-olds 2) sometimes the only medicine someone needs is a little bit of attention… and maybe an otoscope (med students will get that) and 3) a little trust can go a long way… be it between a doctor and a patient, two spouses, parents and children, and also between friends.

High Fives all around,
The Kejner-ator

Back in the U.S.

2006-07-04T18:49:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posts during the month of June... the internet is poopy and never let me online.

This past month was most definitly an amazing experience, and i truly hope I can do it again. I, along with the rest of the June tutors just returned to the states these last few days, and while it is nice to be home, it was also very hard to leave Ecuador. The Onas are a fabulous family, and they made my stay in Ecuador an extremely postive experience. It was hard to say good bye to them. I know that a lot of what i learned about myself and life in general, I learned from them.

Tutoring was also a fabulous experience. the kids are so eager to learn and to be loved, and while we were teaching them, they in turn taught me a lot. I know that the July in August tutors will also do an excellent job. One of the most important things i learned was that it doesn't matter how much we actually teach them - we are changing thier lives just as much by just being there for them and being their friends and expressing love for them. I feel like us June tutors tried our hardest to do that, and i know that the next groups will do the same thing.

Good luck to everyone in Quito, and everyone who is going to Quito next month. I know you will make a huge impact in the lives of the people who live in Ecuador. Thank you again for a wonderful experience, one which i hope to have again.

-Brandi

Meds are ready.

2006-06-15T20:59:00.000-05:00

Good luck to all of the medical students now down in Quito. Just a note to let you know that received the MAPS shipment of medications and I have sorted and packaged them for the docs to bring down. I will leave some of the extra meds in reserve with the latest expiration dates that will last through next year in case we do not need them.

Based on last years needs assessment and clinic experiece, I think we have a great selection of medications to treat most of the things were are going to see(at least those that are actually treatable!). We also received more childrens and prenatal vitamins as well.

I am excited to get back down there. Looking forward to seeing Jorge, Magdelena and all of the Onas.

¡Sí se puede!

2006-06-15T13:00:00.000-05:00

It's currently halftime in the Ecuador vs. Costa Rica World Cup game, and Ecuador is up 1-0. Kamala, Alex, Eric and I have been here since Monday night, and have been getting acquainted with Quito, helping the tutors, and planning for the clinic, the market, and the library.

This picture is from our first day at the tutoring site. We had our 10 volunteers, 30 students, and a variety of dogs, cows, pigs, and roosters. We were also greeted by a hail storm worthy of the ten plagues and the ensuing mud rivers that took over the mountainous roads.

(¡Gooooooooooooooooooooool! Ecuador is now winning 2-0.)

Yesterday, Ximena gave us a tour of el Centro Historico before tutoring. Today, after the game, five of us are going for a run in the park right by the Oñas' house, and then we're going to see the clinic site for the first time. Tonight, the 10 volunteers are all going out to the local karaoke bar, which seems to be a ubiquitous feature throughout Quito. Tomorrow night: Gringolandia, the touristy section of Quito, for some late-night dancing.

Estamos en Quito ahorito

2006-06-04T19:45:00.000-05:00

hola chicos

this is brandi, and i am part of the June tutors. I thought i would just update you on what we´ve been up to. Lisa, Marissa, Rachel and I arrived on Tuesday night, and Mallory and Jeff arrived late on Thursday night. Thursday was el día del niño, and we celebrated by having a fiestita at the project. we went shopping in the morning and bought supplies to make the kids little presents, which were marshmallows on a stick with a little drawing on the top that said "feliz día" and we also bought cake and pop for the kids. Adriana thinks that these kids many times don´t get to participate in fun things like this that most other children get to experience, and she wanted to give that to them. On friday we didn´t work because we had to have a big meeting with Adriana and Ximena explaining the foundation, our roles, what is appropriate, ect. it was much needed, because i personally felt completely in the dark on wednesday and thursday when we went to the project.

As Markia said, the May tutors visited the school in San Martín and worked with the kids. We are not doing that in June, because the students have exams and then they are out of school. During the mornings, we will be making worksheets, flash cards, games, excersizes, and the like to prepare for the afternoons, since shortly they will not have homework to do after school. Tomorrow we are making multiplication flash cards.

We have also been experiencing much the the Ecuadorian culture, which has been fabulous. last night we had a birthday party for Sebástian, Adriana´s son.

We will keep updating on the project and our stay in Quito. Already it´s been an amazing trip :-)

Brandi

I Ecuador You

2006-06-02T21:40:00.000-05:00

So I finally decided to join the technologically competent and post a blog. As the fundraising chair, I've gotten to do most of the super crazy fun stuff involved in working on a great project like the Quito Project. So far, we managed to raise a decent amount of funds via bar nights, t-shirt sales, food sales, and other various, non-underhanded methods. We still have some t-shirts if anyone is interested in purchasing some. They are green and yellow and say "I Ecuador You"-- at ten dollars a pop they are socially conscious as well as fashionably sound...or something.
Right now I'm decompressing after a delightful first year of medical school and recovering from all eight thousand of the vaccinations (or 5, whatever) with which my upper arms were bombarded prior to my leaving Michigan. I have a suitcase-load of Flintstones vitamins, my DEET filled mosquito repellant and the bright-eyed bushy-tailedness that will hopefully make for a great trip to Ecuador. I'm sort of torn between being excited to go and missing all of my newly-made Michigan friends who will, for the most part, be sticking around Michigan doing cutting-edge research. It will be exciting to go back and swap stories with all those crazy cats.
I guess the reason that I picked the Quito Project over staying in Michigan and doing research stems from the idea that somehow we all sort of get a random deal. I didn't do anything particularly special to be born where I was or to the family I have or to have many of the opportunities that we take for granted every day. I am not any type of special person in any way (unless you believe in reincarnation, I guess)-- but anyway-- I guess I feel like since I was lucky enough to have the opportunities that I have, I ought to share the skills I have learned as well as the generosity of the people who donated vitamins and medicines to people who don't have easy access to such resources. It has nothing to do with a sentiment of superiority as was erroneously suggested by the Michigan Daily letter to the editor that someone wrote-- it has more to do with reaching out to fellow human beings in a way that I would like to be reached out to if I were in need of some help as well-- (what a ridiculous sentence that was). Regardless of motivation or intention, I hope that as many people as possible can benefit from the Quito Project, whether it be the medical care we can provide, learning about ourselves, learning about the people of Quito, or learning about life in general.
I also hope to meet a sweet sweet llama.

Tips to future tutors

2006-06-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

My name is Mariko, and I just arrived back in the USA last night along with Miss Laura Osborne. We had intended to post a blog during our time in Quito, but the internet was a little unreliable...so please excuse this late posting.

Basically, we thought it might be good to give the future tutors an idea of what they will be working with once they arrive. In the mornings, 4 of us went to the school to work with the kids on crafts projects that involved testing their dexterity. Every morning we were accompanied by Adriana and Ximena (two sisters from the Ona family) who lead the activity for each class (although towards the end of the month they had us leading the activities). The other two tutors (Laura and I) walked down the hill to work with two families that are part of the project. The Changos and Calapinas were originally living in Chillogallo, but were moved to San Martin (along with the entire project...which makes you wonder where the medical clinic will be now) two weeks before we arrived.

The Chango family consists of 4 boys: Henry (also goes by his middle name, Santiago...Santi for short), Bryan, Diego and Angelo. Their parents are Jaime and Laura. Henry and Bryan go to school in the mornings and worked with us in the afternoon when we tutored. Bryan always claims to have no homework, so give him addition and subtraction problems to do with tons of numbers - he's pretty good at it. Diego is 4 years old (although he thinks he's 2) and LOVES to get her ears cleaned out. He and I had been working every morning on "motricidad" which is essentially being able to connect the dots to form shapes and letters. We also worked on learning his colors, numbers and shapes. I'm happy to say that he knows all of his colors and shapes very well...his numbers still need work. He absolutely loves flashcards, it's a great way for him to learn his numbers along with drawing chanchos (pigs) and vacas on paper and making him count the animals. Angelo is 2 years old, and adores his older brother Diego. Although these children are so young, I have seen them do things I would never fathom a 4 and 2 year old doing. I watched Diego wheel a wheelbarrow down the hill to his mother, I watched Diego and Angelo carry cement bricks to their mother. Also, I watched them both climb a mountain alone up to a store to buy the family groceries (bananas and bread), Diego taking off his sweater to put the bananas in and tying them up so they wouldn't fall out. As you will learn, all of the kids you will work have excellent streetsmarts.

Their mother (Laura) is very quiet and sweet, but very oblivious to potentially dangerous situations for the boys. The first week we were there, she let Diego and Angelo play with a kitchen knife. We also discovered a huge oozing scar on Angelo's arm from where someone spilt coffee on him. (The parents usually let the kids fend for themselves for food from the looks of it, and if they feed them anything it's coffee in the morning). There was also barbed wire on the ground. The second week Angelo fell into a 15ft pit while trying to climb down the ladder by himself and hit his head. The week we left Diego fell into the same pit and smashed up his lip, only this time the pit was filled with the hot bricks they were making. Adriana has to constantly be on Laura's case about looking out for the boys, and making sure that they are bathing, washing their face and hands before coming to work with us, and wearing shoes (they are always running around with no shoes on - make sure you tell them to put them on!) They are always very dirty, sometimes wearing the same clothes numerous days in a row (something else Adriana talks to Laura about) and all of Diego's teeth are rotten.

When working with these two boys, always start off by reminding them to wash their face and hands, and make sure they put on shoes. Please try to keep them with you in the afternoon (Laura usually was holding Angelo) as it keeps them out of danger. They are usually so tired they fall asleep in your arms, then you can take them into the house and put them in bed. Make sure to ask them when they last bathed, and there are Q-tips in the supplies cupboard for cleaning out their ears (they love this!). There is also soap and shampoo in there too (we gave them baths the 3rd week).

The second family, the Calapinas, consists of a 60-something year old mother named Rosa and her two children: Erika(11) and Marco(9). Rosa is the mother of Jaime which makes her children, Erika and Marco, the aunt and uncle of the 4 Chango boys (even though they are practically the same age). Erika goes to school in Chillogallo every afternoon, so Laura was working with her in the mornings. They would work on whatever homework Erika had from the day before, along with her multiplication tables. Erika is a very sweet and helpful girl, and acts like a mother to Diego and Angelo (as their mother is usually not around). She also helped us out alot clarifying what the boys wanted (as sometimes it's hard to understand them). Erika only started school when she was 9 years old, so she is very behind. Some days she doesn't go to school because her mom doesn't have money for her to ride the bus, which is very frustrating as we are not allowed to give her money. She and Marco missed 8 days of school because they both came down with chickenpox the second week we were there. We are hoping that over the summer Erika will be able to take an entrance exam into the nearby school up the road and start the new school year there. Marco is also a very sweet boy, extremely helpful and smart. He can help you maintain order with the other boys, as they listen to him. He is in the same grade as Henry (his nephew) and they have the same homework to work on in the afternoon.

In the afternoons we have been having anywhere from 30 to 75 kids show up to get help with their homework. We don't have enough tables for all of them, even after taking the kitchen table out of the Chango's house, and many of them do their homework sitting up on the hill in the grass. Each table is usually grouped by grade, and they all work on their homework together. Mother's have been bringing their children down to us too, with special requests. Quite a few of the children can't read, so you have to read the instructions to them in order for them to complete their homework assignments. Laura worked with the 6th graders and discovered how much the children love multiplication flashcards.

I've realized that I'm writing an essay here...and that I've given you a pretty good ideal of what to expect. So I will leave you with a quick list of things to remember:
* they use the word "deberes" instead of "tarea" here
* invest in hand sanitizer, you'll need it after playing with the kids
* learn which kids get distracted easily, and isolate them
* the kids go nuts if they see a camera - try to take your pictures covertly, otherwise they will be requesting a photo-op
* send the kids that get done first home, otherwise they start creating mischief and chaos (plus there will be more room at the tables for other kids to get their work done)
* always have toilet paper on you (there is none in the school)
* flashcards is an excellent way to get the kids to learn, and they love taking turns in a group

If you have any other questions about the kids, or what you'll be doing you can email me at marimiko@umich.edu

hope this was helpful, and good luck with tutoring - you will love the kids!

Mariko

Que puedo hacer?

2006-05-10T18:55:00.000-05:00

Goodbye bugs & drugs… hello Quito? I’m getting really antsy to start the Quito Project. Of course, there’s been a lot of preparation work here, but I’m ready to actually be there and see what it’s like for myself. Until then, I’m just musing about what we’ll find there. It seems like there have been a lot of relevant articles, t.v. shows, and conversations about the nature of medical relief trips recently. Are they really beneficial to the populations that they target, or are they just a way to practice quickie, ‘duffel’ bag medicine that doesn’t alleviate the underlying causes of health disparities? I don’t really know. It just seems that not being able to do everything isn’t an excuse to do nothing. Our supplies and facilities are limited. We’ll only be in the clinic for one month, and communication is going to be a bit of a barrier in spite of our medical Spanish lunches. However, it is at least an opportunity for an annual check up. We’re also working the most random connections to find Quito physicians. We’re hoping for a crash course on the Ecuadorian health care system & places to refer our patients if we can’t treat them. This is the part of the project that I hope really fans out. It would be a real transition from parachute medicine and actually providing consistent, continued care. I’ve heard that students at Northwestern started a similar project in Peru, and have trained local community members to sustain the clinic year-round. Maybe that can be a goal for Quito Project in a few years? The impact of the trip on the participants is also going to shape how we contribute to this project and other similar ones in the future. I'm not going in expecting to miraculously cure the neighborhood of everything. But, I do know that the trip is going to shape how I can contribute once I have more directly applicable skills & money. This will hopefully be the beginning of a continued pursuit to improve healthcare and a cultural introduction to Ecuador. For now, it’s back to the logistics of getting the rest of our participants down to Quito…

Treasurer's Update

2006-05-10T16:44:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, a great big thank you to all of the individuals and groups who are supporting our project in Quito. We're pleased that so many people have taken an interest in our work and want to help.

Our budget for the project is sizeable and we originally thought we wouldn't be able to do everything we hoped to, particularly building a simple home for a needy family in the community. But our fundraising has gone well, and we are close to being able to carry out all of our original plans. We were fortunate to get some help with the costs of our medical supplies, library and market budgets and printing with grants from the Office of the Dean of the Medical School, the Community Service Committee of the Michigan Student Assembly and the LSA Student Government. We've also had some great fundraising events, including "Guest Grilling" at Mongolian BBQ, a night at Studio 4, a salsa lesson and dancing with the instructors from MSalsa and the sale of Alex's fantastic "I Ecuador You" t-shirts. Additionally, the response to our letter campaign has been overwhelming-those donations will go a long way in helping us carry out our project this summer. Our latest fundraising news is that we have found a donor who is giving the remaining funds we need to build the house. Starting out, we didn't think we'd be able to raise enough money to do that, so this is really exciting for us.

Thanks again to all of our donors. We are close to meeting our fundraising goals and appreciate your help and support.

-Jenny

Chillin' and Grillin'

2006-05-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

On Monday the medical student Quito Project members hosted our final fundraiser of the year. We took advantage of the perfect weather in Ann Arbor to provide food, drinks and fun to out fellow med students over lunch. Darren manned the grill and managed not to catch anyone on fire...the only casualties were a few hotdogs that lept off the grill. Dr. Fantone even made an appearance, but was too late for the burgers. In our limitless love for the Quito Project some of us decided to stick around and finish off the leftovers from the BBQ.

We are in Quito

2006-05-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

My name is Jeff and I am one of the May tutors. Many people have asked me what I will be doing down in Quito this summer and I have joyfully ducted the questions and answered in generic response. This was mostly because before I did not know, so I could not give you any specifics. So here is what I know now that I am down here doing the work. I am working with a foundation. This foundation principally helps with children´s education. They do this by helping to pay the cost for private schooling (because the public school in Ecuador are a joke) and by tutoring children as well. They tutor, in part, to help childrepass entrance exams and get into better schools. There is a law here that if you are not in high school by the age of 16 you can never go. The Onas, the family that runs the foundation, have repeatedly reminded me that they do not adopt a child they adopt a family. This means that in order for the foundation to adopt a family they demand accountability from the parent. It is not much, clean house, shower daily, cook food, hold a steady job/look for one, and send the child to school. Sadly or justly, if the family does not hold up their end of the bargain the aid is pulled. They are usually given 5 years to change and this is confirmed by home visits.

This foundation is run quite incredibly by one women with some help from her family. It is quite an undertaking. They have close to 200 children in the program. Because of the setup of the program the families eventually graduate from it when they are financially self sufficient and responsible for themselves and their children. However this is harder for some than others because there are some parents that are analfebetos or illiterate and so the work it more tedious and with the parents as well.

Now to what I have been doing . We are doing a o prelimanary work now. We went to a school in the poorest part of quito to take information about the students to find more families to enter into the program. It is slow work. Students up until the 6th grade do not know their birthday. I had kids that were 6 tell me they were 2. The children cannot write till at least 5th grade. So we went around taking information like name parents name address (about 5% know their street name and have yet to find one that knows their full address but they can all get to their house), favorite subject, number of rooms in their house and whether they have water light or telephone. The teachers are overwhelmed with 55 or so students in each class room. It is quite a sight. So we did that each morning and each afternoon I have typed this information up on a computer.

The others have gone to the site to tutor kids after school and help them with work. Another thing the foundation does is help find housing for people displaced by the government. So they require that the families put in as much work as they receive aid which is often tough for families where both parents work 5 days a week and if they miss a day they are fired but the do try. For instance the families made all the bricks for the house and the foundation bought the roof and the family will do all the installation.

We are about two miles up so the altitude is something to contend with for sure. It is high. I am not sure what I expected commons here but this has both completely surprised me and met my expectations at the same time. It is hard to describe. At some moments the need seems overwhelming and I question what good is coming out of this and at other times I can see progress. And am very encouraged. I just know that I am continuing to build a foundation, adding one brick at a time, that others after me wilcontinuene to work on and lead to an amazing finished productct

1503.5 pounds of supplies!

2006-04-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

We have the final group of 45 participants traveling to Quito with the project this summer. This includes physicians, undergraduates, medical students, social workers, public health students and film students.

After counting pills (including 7,800 Tylenol) and weighing everything, we learned we were trying to bring down more weight than we could possibly carry with the number of Project participants--that was quite a day! After removing a few items and compromising on a few others, we're down to a weight that we can distribute among Project members. The estimated total for supplies including all the medicine and diagnostic items for the clinic, vitamins (400,000!), soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste is 1503.5 pounds- not including the film supplies! (we're still waiting on receiving the vitamins and prescription meds so this is a rough estimate based on last years numbers) Thanks to everyone for helping to bring these items down to Quito!

T minus 1 week....

2006-04-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

Get ready, folks. The Quito Project officially hits the ground for summer 2006 in just one week. In May, our first talented team of tutors will open shop in our "casita" in Chillogallo and work with children ages 3 through 13. Stay tuned for updates from the team.

Welcome!

2006-04-06T01:33:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Quito Project Blog. On this page, the 49 Quito Project volunteers will post regular updates on our activities and progress. The blog is intended for our family, friends, and supporters, as well as the general public interested in issues of global health. Please check back regularly as we add updates, stories, reflections, and photos.