Ecuador- Dia Quatro

Hump Day-Wednesday...Cherine & I again, ready for work! Dressed, breakfast and in the lobby before 0700.

More interesting places that we passed. The Hotel 8! Maybe next year we should stay here!
Again, another hour ride to our location today! All of the areas look the same. Not any grass, no televisions, no phones, no indoor plumbing.
We pulled up to a 'compound' that was blocked off with a wire fence all the way around. There were several rooms, so the MD's and pharmacy got one huge room and the eyeglasses got a separate room, and they even had bathrooms in a separate area too. WOW! We were living it up today. Again, when we arrived there were hundreds of people and children already lined up.

It was amazing in communities that didn't have running water, no power, alot of things that we take for granted and they could build a 'community center' and church like this. Totally amazing.

Again, everyone was banded and it was hot again. No fans blowing air this time. We did have windows behind us, which was nice when the wind would blow, but that wasn't regular so we were again on mandatory water stops throughout the day.

Lunch time came quickly again. Didn't seem like we were doing alot, but half the day was gone before we knew it. The fruit of the day looked like this:

I wasn't in the 'try new fruit' mood, so I just put it aside. It was a beautiful orange color with the texture of an apple or pear. I found out later that the inside middle was filled with things that looked like fish eyes. Someone was spitting them out and then someone else told them they were supposed to eat them. I wasn't up to that much excitement!

We also weren't aware that we had front row seats to a concert for lunch either. Dr. Ken and one of the Ecuadorian docs got up and were singing loudly. The guitar was going, the electronic keyboard, and singing. It was so funny. Linda got up and was dancing around the entire room as well as entertaining the outside patients that were waiting to be seen! The kids loved it.

Again, your pharmacy crew, hard at work, with Bob of course!

Michael is giving teaching instructions on the use of an inhaler in Spanish to his patient. This was a perfect picture! Hes going to be a great MD.

We kept a pile of prescriptions that we had filled. Later these will be used to help us out in future years as far as planning and a better med list. We also compared day to day to see how many people we saw.

This girl saw my name tag and recognized it as her own. Michelle y Michelle? I turned around and said 'si'. Yes, it was like a Michelle French and a little Michelle Campos (my best friend throughout High School). Wow! She got the biggest kick out of our names being the same.

It was again, time to go. The days seem to go by so fast. Where does all the time go? We got all of our stuff packed up and again, headed back on the buses. After the 1st two days, the bus clock always said something after 0100. We finally figured it out on Day 4! Everytime the bus driver started the bus it reset to 0100. Now we know!

Back to the hotel, shower and since we finished up early today some of us are treking back to the Lighthouse. Can I do it?

I had already advised Chris that we were not doing the Amazing Race pace. I still had my 85lb back pack but I was up for another hike! (It wasn't really 85lbs). Off we went, down past the church, through Iguana Park, cross the street to the Malecon. To the end of the waterfront we go.

Round 2......

It was going to be different doing this with it still being light outside. A different view awaits us at the top.

Halfway! Wow! No breaks yet, but halfway up! Dr. Ken took a breather, and then I told him he was doing way better than me the first time. I had already stopped twice by step 222.

I can't remember what step this was, but we were all in agreement on 'taking a breather'. The shops, stores, and houses that occupy both sides of this climb are amazing. Such a quaint area. I can't wait to read the history on this. I think between my reading list of Ecuador and Rosetta Stone, I may just be an expert next year.

Chris didn't give me a hard time at all. And I just remembered, we didn't shower before we left. We got in from the bus ride, changed and met back in the lobby within 10 minutes of our arrival. So the sweat now was mixed in with the sweat from our day.

Homes, bars, restaurants, stores all line the entire way up. They are so cute and quaint.

This is around step 385. This is the last platform before getting to the top. You can see one side of the Lighthouse. Dr. Ken advised us that he has a hobby of climbing lighthouses but he didn't know anything about this one. Remember the harmonica? Well, he runs up the last 65 steps with harmonica in his mouth playing the theme from Rocky. With me following with his camera getting his climb on film. As he ran through many Ecuadorian's, they began to cheer as he rose to the top. Of course yelling ADRIANE once he got to the top! Totally awesome! And we were all a part of it.

When I got to the top a lady had asked me where we were from. I said 'North Carolina' and she stated they were from Los Angeles but home visiting. Her husband asked what we were doing and I said ''a medical trip with 3 medical teams. He then asked how long we were staying and I said 'a week' he responded, 'you need to stay a month'. I agreed. While the work we were doing was totally amazing. It didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what is needed.

Because it was during the daylight hours, the Lighthouse was open, so we did get to climb the spiral staircase to the top. Amazing.

This picture follows the view of the waterfront that we just walked from. We believe our hotel is close to the 2nd tall building in this picture.

I did get Chris to snap a picture of me at the top. When you are the one always taking pictures, its hard to get yourself in one! Thanks Chris! Then we had Mike take one of all of us! I love this picture, Kelsey, Chris, me and Brad. You can't really tell how bad we stink, but I made the climb....again!