vignettes of yesterday

PHOTOS OF ECUADORIAN FOLK BALLET

Well, this is my 3rd try and I´m in a determined race to beat the technology gods who keep bumping me off my blog before I save it! Life in a developing country. Good news is that I feel great today, have an appetite, had a hot shower, and fresh coffee awaits!!!! Muchos Gracias to the ethos!

Yesterday we painted the children´s feet....yellow-amarillo and blue-azul! Purpose, just to have fun in the bright, glorious Ecuadorean sunshine and provide a cooling respite for little feet....lots of love and tickles! I miss being a child sometimes.

One of the toddlers is very ill, possibly with pneumonia according to our nurse practicioners on the team. The child has not been taken to the hospital even though they have free public option!!! Why, because they have to get up very early and wait in line. Only the first 15 patients get admitted! Welcome to capitation.

The tias decided to swath the sick baby in lemon juice which is a folk treatment that they very much follow. I may try this myself and I hope for little Analia´s sake that it works. I really wanted to hold her and rock her all day.

Funny thing, while sitting inside a classroom near an open window, a bird flew over and dropped his business all over my shoulders. Perfecto! The tias hastened to assure me that, in Ecuador, this is excellent luck!!!!! We´ll see.

After work, still feeling pretty lousy myself, I made an impromptu appointment for a massage at the spa across from the hotel. I just needed the back, neck, and shoulders attended to. Well, to my great fortune I got Fabian...no not like the one on the front of the cheesy novels...This was a lovely, young Ecuadorean master of massage who showed me to a table in a room full of gentle breezes. There was none of that spa music in the background, just the sound of him singing an Ecuadorean song. He laughed at my inability to comprendo a lot of his speech. I know muy little Spanish...He know nada English.

Last night the team went to a fine Ecuadorean restaurant in old town where I ate my espanadas with much gusto, but was not allowed sangria by the team nurses! They did ask the musician to play Happy Birthday as they sang a good old American round of the beloved song. The nine of us shared a piece of chocolate cake and it proved to be one of the best birthday surprises ever!

Breakfast awaits and this is the last day!
Te quiera!
Joann