Ecuador collage

Here are some pictures that I´ve taken of my work and of the city that I thought were pretty cool, so check them out.

The pic on the left is a the typical crowd outside the clinic when I arrive every morning. The gate is locked till about 8.45, but people have already started forming a line and I have no idea how early they would need to come to be first. But the next pic is a view from the inside of teh clinic and all the doctors, before the gate opens, goes out and gets all the ID cards and figures out who has the greatest need and the what the order of the day will be. The doctors will then come back with all the slips, and my job is then to get all the files and put them all in order ready for the day. And that´s what I do for the rest of the day. It might sound mundane, but it really is a crucial role and I have no idea what they´re doing now without me there.

These are the two lady doctors - Laura on the left in the green is one of the dentists and Rosalia on the right is the doctor. They absolutely loved the little Australia koalas I gave them.

There are so many stray dogs and inevitably, some wander in and just check out the place. Not the cleanest or hygenic thing for a medical clinic, but it still happens. The pic on the left is the filing room where Cathie and I spent most of the day.

Last Monday and tuesday, the street was absolutely packed with crowds and crowds of people and the line went so far down the street I couldn´t see the end of it. The reason they were all there was because school was about to start and the foundation was giving out school supplies to all the sponsored kids. There was something like 2000 plus kids that received school supplies.

The dentist at work.

This little girl, Alisson, is the absolutely cutest little girl I have ever met in my life!! She came in several times and we got to know her pretty well. We would give her drawings and paintings to do while she waited, and other times she would just come in and watch us work and give us company. It was perfect timing and I´m glad she came back in my last week - she actually came back to give us both a little present! Sooo cute. I gave her one of my koalas, so here she is showing it off. I totally love her and wish I could be her sponsor, but whoever her sponsor is is totally lucky and they really ought to get to know her.

On my last day, they organised a lunch of chochos con tostados - which is this white bean soaked in water, with tostadas and the ubiquitous tomato and purple onion salad. It´s quite tasty and it was nice that they did that for me. In the pic on the right, it´s Dr Laura on the left of the table, then Dra Rosalia, Dr Ernesto and Irma - the mother of the two girls I went to Baños with a couple weeks ago. It was a nice farewell lunch and even though I still didn´t understand everything they were saying, it was still cool to be part of it. Can´t believe I was there for 8 weeks, but it was definitely really good. Definitely a challenge but worth it.

The area we were in was called La Roldos and is obviously a really poor marginal area, hence the clinic being situated there. So here are some pics of the neighbourhood. The pic on the right is a paved road, but most of them are dirt roads. On the right it´s a view from the back of the clinic. If you zoom in, you can see Mt Cotopaxi in the far distance. it was such a beautiful view, when there wasn´t a massive cloud of smog blocking it - with the snow capped Cotopaxi towering over the entire Quito valley.

Here is a more complete view:


This is plaza de independence, right in the centre of the city. These pink trees are just beautiful.

The mannequins here are so hilarious - absolutely totally all about the butts and the chest. It´s amazing how far they all protude, but that´s the look they go for. So funny.

They´ve got an ingeious security system here - it´s called jamming huge spikes of broken glass into every top surface of walls and roofs. Bloody brilliant and looks quite effective. It definitely deters me from trying to break into houses ;)

I´m not sure what this sign means. I saw it in the park and I wonder if that particular sitting position is offensive or maybe some other reason why it´s prohibited ? - very curious. I wonder what happens if you do choose to recline in that matter - who polices that and what´s the fine?

Some food pics:

It was Danilo´s birthday on 30 Aug, so I made him a choc pavlova. I was pretty proud of the way it turned out since cooking here is quite altered (apparently) due to the altitude and so need to adjust teh temperature and time accordingly. But it was as perfect as I could make it and it was really tasty =) None of my family had ever had anything like it, so glad i could expand their culinary world.

Frozen banana on a stick - yum..hmm..

Saw this in the market and not sure exactly what they are - I think the big brown compost looking pile on the right is coconut with apple? The big green balls I think are sugar coated figs and the white balls are sugar coated peanuts? I´m sure they´re all very tasty, but didn´t try any.

This I did try though and very frequently at that too. It is called helados de paila, which is the ice cream found everywhere here. They make it by spinning the mixture constantly on a massive stand of ice, and I guess over time the icream solidifies and that´s helados de paila. Really nice. I saw this boy every day on my way back from work, spinning away his pan and watching tv at the same time.

After my last spanish lesson, Sofy and I went out for sharwarmas - the Ecuadorian kebab. Eating shawarmas is all about the sauces of mayonnaise and aji and every bite you take, you pour it on nice and thick. And of course a shawarma meal isn´t complete without one of the gigantic Ecuadorian pilsener beers. Only $1 for that giant bottle! It´s not the best beer, but hey who expects that for $1.