Avenida America

I was going to write an entry yesterday but we were at a different internet cafe and it was too expensive (seriously...$3 an hour...no way). So today is friday and we got out of our clinic at 11 because the whole staff had to go to a meeting. We went in early to compensate for the time. I woke up at 5:30 and left by 6:30 and reached the clinic at 7:45...lots of travel time. Yesterday was awesome because we worked with the doctor and sat with her while she was with patients. She specializes in rural medicine and most of the patients were children, but it ranges with age. It varied from fever (fiebre), cough (tos), infections from parasites (infecciones de parasitios), to high blood pressure (presion alta). There are very few medicines that the clinic can prescribe...mainly because it is so limited. Usually amoxacilin (did i spell that correctly?) and tylenol. It was fun...I took someone´s blood pressure (i know it`s not that serious but i was so excited) and listened to a lot of heart beats and lungs. Today was the same and when we were done, we took pictures with the doctor, staff, and of the clinic. I brought the disposable type camera (teehee) but it´s perfect because I´ll get them on a CD when I go back home.

Two days ago at our spanish class our teacher told us we had to memorize all the body parts and the parts of the systems in spanish...I was pretty frustrated that day because one girl in the class kept giving all the answers (she´s a med student) and I was sitting there because I never learned these parts before. BUT...that didn´t stop me...I memorized them that night (the night I wrote my last entry) and felt real happy in class...WOO! Cheverre! =) The nurse at our clinic quizzed me as well so I was happy. We don´t have spanish class today so we´re going to go walk around the historic sites of Quito and tomorrow we will go to Otavalo!

In other news:
-Shoutouts to everyone who has a name that begins with the following: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
-Walking up hills seems to be very prevalent here.
-God is good.
-I ate a fried plantain yesterday and it tasted like ethyaka appam.
-I forgot my alarm clock in the US. BUT...somehow, I have woken up on time (early even) to get ready and go to clinic. Yay for my biological clock.
-Spongebob is popular here. Bob Esponja! =)
-I am inspired by people who know how to go so far despite limitations. (Yay for the people at La Raya!)
-I like public transportation.
-Sometimes I accidently mix Spanish and Malayalam. Someone asked me how many weeks we were staying here in Quito and I said, ´nala` (four...did i spell that right?) instead of ´cuatro.` And when my ammachi asked if I wanted more rice at dinner...I said ´enikke vende` instead of ´no quiero, gracias.` It´s sort of funny actually. =)
-I miss everyone.

Me voy a ir. Necesito ir a mi casa despues voy a reunir con una chica para almuerzo.
Con amor,
-gina-