Enferma in Ecuador

I went on my first trip last weekend. It was pretty much a bust. I went with a fellow volunteer to Oltavio - I think that is how it is spelled. We took a two hour bus ride. I was sick. Of course. Didn´t really think about it before I was 5 minutes into the ride. We went there because they have a big market. We met up with two other volunteers and shopped awhile. Unfortunately, after maybe 30 minutes, the girl I was with walked off and I didn´t find her again for two or three hours. I found out later the three of them had gone to lunch because they couldn´t find me. It was crazy how much stuff they had packed into the streets. I ended up getting two small paintings of children and a small wallet-sized bag. I am glad that the style of the local culture isn´t my style otherwise I would have had trouble saying no. I also took cash and not my card, so there was no way I could spend too much. There were tons of ¨indigenous¨ people on the bus and in the market - the kind you see on TV programs. They had rough, dark skin and the women had many gold necklaces around their necks. They all carried their babies on their backs. I did love going through the countryside. There was more of what I had expected of Ecuador - hut houses and random animals roaming about. The roads weren´t paved, and we were driving through the mountains. The plants were similar to those in Texas, though some looked like they were from Africa - trees that grew more horizontal than vertical, very rough looking. I saw huge rivers and children playing in the streets. On the way back to Quito we had a nicer bus which had a TV. Because we couldn´t get reception for the TV channels, they turned on a movie - an American movie (in Spanish) about some scarecrow monster trying to kill all the kids on a school trip. Let me know if you have seen it in English. It was very slasherish with people getting stabbed, and their heads getting ripped off, all this with 1/3 of the people on the bus being kids. Very interesting choice. By the time we got back about dinnertime on Saturday, I realized I must have picked up a bug because my throat was starting to hurt. During that night, I came down with a fever and chills. Maria found me in the morning because it was time for my Spanish lesson and realized I was pretty sick. She has nursed me back to health. She called the pharmacy and the delivery man came to the door with the medicines in hand. It was great because I really didn´t feel like going to the doctor. Today I tried to go back to the orphanage, but the cold air hurt too much and I came back home. Maria made a call to Patricia, who is in charge of the program, and she called a doctor to get a stronger medicine for my throat. I have taken it once today, and it working pretty well. I should be able to go back to the orphanage tomorrow.

Because the Internet service could end at any time, I am going to write more in a second post so that this one is saved.