a day in the life of........jkb

La Basilica, the oldest church in Old town Quito-

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Nuns on the street by their monastery

                                              

ceiling of the La Compañia iglesia.... plated in incan gold

Ben taking  pic of me taking a pic of La Ronda by day

                                           
                                         

example of a standard almuerzo: YUM!

the CFHI student crew at lunch, on our tour de Quito OLD TOWN

                                              
                                             

 Ben & I playing horseshoes on the sidewalk. I´m turning away from his stale coffee breath         

                      

the marriage of 2 great professions

a celebration on "La Ronda" Oct 9th the anniversary of Guayaquil´s independence

 me in front of the La Virgen de Quito

                                              

tomfoolery in a bar on La Ronda

                                                

 Club-- the  poor students´s cerveza of choice

                                                 

 the ascent begins:  trail to Pichincha

                                                   

 about halfway up to the peak, right around 12´000 ft

                                        

 beautiful Quito in the background

                                              

climbing up the northwest flnk of Pichincha. 14,900 ft. I can´t breathe.

                                            

 I reached the very top and here is a hawk

                                        

a sweet view from the top, Quito behind me

                                         

 I climbed this volcano in my Chacos. Word!

                                       

 top of the world, it seemed

                                             

sunset illuminating the path back to the gondola

Mirador= the vista point.

                                            
                                                                    
                                                       the walk back down. can´t feel my legs

Volcan Chimborazo behind me

                                            

the descent, super fun! skiing down ash at 50% grade.

                                          



a vulture, waiting for us to expire



 where we began our ascent: at 4300 meters

                                             

my partner in coffee, riddles and climb! Ben!

                                           

 Me and Sarah in Parque Alameda

                                          

         CFHI students playing soccer with Quiteño kids

                                 

Buenas tardes~
Ahorita estoy en un cafe de internet, in a mall, listening to Michael Bolton´s hits projected over a loud speaker. it´s quite hilarious. and i´ve found it to be true that in every new city i visit outside the U.S., the most common american music played is late 80´s/early 90´s hits, and the 1 ever famous Eagles hit "Hotel California." Dios mio! the things that bring me amusement.

So today began as every day has since I arrived: desayuno (breakfast) composed of a bowl of mixed fruit, toasted cheese sandwich, & Nescafé prepared by the lovely Francia. (Side topic: She and I watched every possible minute of the Chilean miner rescue coverage over the past 48 hours. hooray for the successful extraction of 33 miners trapped underground for 70+ days. truly a miracle. )
After breakfast I paid my 25 cent dues to ride the trollebus to La Maternidad, the hospital I am doing rotations in this week. we have only one more day in the Emergency ward, and next week I begin observing at the Hospital Militar, a privately funded hospital providing services for military families. Yesterday, La Maternidad Hospital ran out of rooms to admit patients for urgent surgeries; this was particularly unfortunate timing, as yesterday turned out to be the busiest and most critical day for the patients we saw. Out of 5 pregnant women needing surgery (4 pre-eclampsia and 1 ectopic preg) these 5 patients were turned awaty and referred to a hospital down south.

By "down south" I am unclear as to how far away this place is and how long it takes to get to this hospital; no matter what the situation, I watched 5 women leave La Maternidad in severe discomfort without a clear plan as to how they would secure a ride to this southern hospital, and once there, how they would obtain a surgery. I imagine it´s difficult to serve every patient´s needs when operating as a public hospital. Anyway, I am curious to follow-up on the outcome of these women´s situations, in particular the woman with an Ectopic pregnancy, but I may never know because La Maternidad does not do f/up care once they refer out. 2 exciting things also happened yesterday: I got to watch an abdominal ultrasound performed for a woman 36 weeks pregnant who was having severe pain in what they thought was her kidneys; turned out she was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to get surgery right away. The 2nd exciting event for me was that the doctor gave me the chance to do an ultrasound on a woman 37 weeks pregnant. I was terribly nervous because I have never performed an ultrasound on a pregnancy that far-developed; i took a few minutes searching for the head so that I could perform measurements, but i had no luck and handed the probe back to the doc. Turns out , the fetus´ head was quite low in her belly, and i never thought to scan the probe over that area. No me importa ahora (its no matter to me now), but in the moment I was rather flustered that i couldn´t locate the head or the femur. Dr. Gomez didn´t seem to have expectations either way, and was very calm and patient with me. he completed the u/s and it was determined that her gestational age was 37 weeks. I thanked him for the opportunity and am hoping to be given another chance to get hands-on experience at future rotations/hospitals here.

I am free to roam as I please this afternoon, as I have completed y 30 hours of spanish class already. After La Maternidad, I explored the Mariscal district which is considered "New Town." It is the hustling, bustling business district blended with hip shops, eateries, and cafe nooks. I was a little overwhelmed because I hit the center of Mariscal at lunch time and I was repeatedly almost hit by cars and plowed over by women in heels for the duration of my walk, so I decided to head the safe internet cafe on the 3rd floor of this mall.

Tonight I´m considering watching Resident Evil:2 en 3D & español. could be cool....? and this weekend I am heading to Baños, a small town south of Quito where there are natural thermal baths, waterfalls, and amazing discoteques. Stay tuned for the Baños post!

Love yous........... Jessica