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2013

Ecuador Archives: Dear Mom,

February 25th, 2013

Mommy,

                Heya. I thought I’d write you a letter to let you know how I’ve been doing.

                I just got back from TS3 (Training Seminar 3). We went to a nearby province called Imbabura to a town called Otavalo. Otavalo is super touristy because it has the biggest outdoor market in South America. Good part: Lots of really cool Ecua stuff. Bad part: I totally judge tourists.. not all of them.. just a significant chunk of them.

                Otavalo was really fun. This is what we did:

This is Otavalo.

We stayed in this cute place.

     Took plenty of photos.
 












Hiked this mountain with our weak, low altitude Cloud Forest lungs… it was hard, but worth it because we took TONS of photos and it was beaaautiful!

This is Betty, my “site mate” (that’s a Peace Corp term I’ve decided to adopt). 

We got a cleansing by an Indigenous woman. To cleanse you, she rubs a cuy (guinea pig) all over. The cuy takes out the bad spirits. (If the cuy dies fast it’s because you had a lot of bad spirits.) She rubs the cuy all over you until it dies. Then she puts the cuy in a bowl of water, takes off the skin (without a knife -- she starts at the anus and pulls it inside out) and examines the insides. Where the blood accumulates is where you have a sickness. Based on where you're sick, she then gives you recommendations for how you can feel better. (My diagnosis? Healthy! ..not a very exciting one)

Ecuador Archives: Puerto Quito

Just a few photos with no particular significance, except that they are of my favorite place in the whole world.

(my fake & beloved Ray-Bans)


Next on my Ecuadorian adventures: Porch Sitting & my Best Friend Betty.

Sydni Heron PCT

I. have. a. job!

Within the next two weeks, I will be a maroon scrub wearing Patient Care Technician on the Medical Surgery floor of a hospital in a big city in the USA.

Coolest part about my new job? I'll be trained in Phlebotomy. This girl will be drawing blood for a living. (You know you work in the health field when you're excited about that.)

After I got the job, the first thing I did was buy the proper colored scrubs and take a crappy quality cell phone picture... 

...and I'm too excited to be embarrassed about it.

Ecuador Archives: Porch Sitting & My Best Friend Betty

Hobbies.

Betty, the only other American living in my Ecuadorian town of Puerto Quito, and I developed a few new ones while in Ecuador.

Knitting:

[Oh darn! I lack a proper photo of us knitting, Betty. I assure you, though, this became a large part of our lives. We spent many days/evening knitting in my house or hers, making scarves. And only scarves because we had not learned to make anything else yet. And by "we" made scarves, I mean usually I worked on the same scarf I'd been working on for months while Betty knit a few lines and then redid it because it wasn't good enough.. over and over again. That's my perfectionist Betty.]

Walking / Rain Forest Exploring:

We found a cute little oasis a few miles out of Puerto Quito during one of our walking adventues.

Cooking

Okay... Betty did most of the cooking... all of the cooking...

Double Dating

Oh, the memories...

Archutilla Hunting:

  Bags of them. Good work us.

All of these hobbies were great, but our favorite newly acquired hobby?

Porch Sitting.

Yes, you heard that correctly.

Let me explain for those of you novices in the art of Porch Sitting:

This is Betty's house.

Otherwise known as the perfect Porch Sitting location.

Let me zoom in a little bit:

It's pretty simple. Betty and I sit on the corner of the sidewalk, facing the street.

Really, that's it. 

We fill our time talking about nothing or our jobs or boys or life goals. Feel free to talk about whatever you'd like. Topic of conversation does not affect the quality of your Porch Sitting Session. We say hi to passers-by. We people watch. 

This Porch Sitting Time is yours. As long as you stay on your porch, the rules are not very strict.

Leading expert in the field, Aidan Holloway-Bidwell, teaches us more on the subject:

 "Porch sitting, not to be confused with porch standing, or its similar counterpart, reclined porch sitting, has been a common practice for longer than you might imagine. All one really needs to join the ranks of porch sitters around the world is a chair (rocking chair is usually preferred) and the willpower to just sit. Oh, and a porch."

This location is particularly ideal because the road you see leads out of town, so many motorcycles (sometimes being driven by cute Ecuaboys whom I have been known to whistle at a time or two *cough*) and cars and people use it to go inside and outside of Puerto Quito.

"I would say the most rewarding part of Porch Sitting is feeling completely calm and welcoming of whatever your day brings. Some porch sitting sessions end in fascinating conversations with total strangers. Others simply end because it's 8:30 and dark and you figure you should go home and eat dinner. Either way, you leave that porch with a newfound feeling of fulfillment."

-Quote from an avid Porch Sitter (me)

Some of us are not as fortunate, though..

 "A lot of people have no porches to sit on..." Galen Tsongas, San Francisco Resident, writes. He continues: "A sad story... But no matter how much I wish for a porch to sit on, one won't appear, and the bureaucratic city government hears not my pleas for such an addition to the apartment complex..."

Please be aware of our porchless sisters and brothers and, if possible, offer them a rocking chair next to yours.

Next on my Ecuadorian adventure: I leave Ecuador...

Mission?

When I was fifteen I made the commitment that I would wait until my 21st birthday so that I could really make the choice on whether or not I wanted to serve a mission..

And now that the option is here, I have no idea if the next phase in my life includes a mission.

My papers are done, but I am not sure when (or if) I will turn them in.

I am praying.

And that's just how it goes sometimes.

Ecuador Archives: 14 de febrero, 2013

Otavalo, Ecuador

February 14, 2013



Next on my Ecuadorian adventures: Otavalo Part 2.

I'm Home!

On April 14th, I left my second home of Puerto Quito to come back to my first home in The States.

I made a video to tell ya'all about my experience, and remember it myself:

I also happened to be featured in USA Today and The Des Moines Register in an article about gap years. (http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2140259 ;  http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130507/NEWS/305070052/Advocates-gap-year-say-time-away-from-school-builds-confidence-expands-worldview)

And now that I am home (with reliable internet access), I will keep my blog better updated. Hopefully. :)




Next on my Ecuadorian adventure: I go back!

something new.

I am learning how to knit!

I’m working on my first piece, una bufanda. Though it is far from perfect (notice how it gets really big in the middle there), I am indeed very proud of it. 

Looking at something that you made with your own hands is a really happy feeling (no matter how ugly it is).

WHICH IS [PARTIALLY] WHY I’m starting a new apprenticeship! The lack of patients in the clinic means a lot more time and I have decided to learn something new with this newfound free time.  In the mornings I will be continuing my work as a Nursing Assistant in Patronato Municipal (http://astorybysydni.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-short-preview-of-my-apprenticeship.html) and in the afternoons I will be …..

learning how to sew from a very talented costurera named Neli in a small sewing shop in Puerto Quito, Ecuador.

 

& I am unbelievably excited for this opportunity!

check out an article I wrote at:

http://everydayambassador.org/2013/01/07/looking-up-from-sympathy-to-respect/

¿Conoces La Pirámide de Alimentación?

Rainy season has temporarily brought a decline in patients, and I have a new cumpeñera, which means I have a lot more down time at work. In that free time, I have taken to doing little projects around the clinic, like this food pyramid poster I put in the waiting room:

 

By the end of my bridge year, I expect these walls to be filled with informational posters. I am currently working on a poster about taking care of your body when you’re pregnant. (We own the only ultrasound machine in Puerto Quito and the surrounding area, so many of our patients sitting in this room are excitedly waiting to see their unborn baby!)

All the “food” on this poster is velcroed on, so the idea is to take them all off, guess where they go on the pyramid and then check if you’re right. (It is geared to children, but I have heard many adult patients discussing food portions and how their diet relates to the recommendation of this Pirámide de Alimentación.)

(If you’re interested in humanitarian blogs, particularly about health care, I stumbled upon a really neat blog [while researching ideas for these posters, ironically] about a small organization trying to help maternal health care in Honduras here: http://darlaluzhonduras.wordpress.com/)

getting political.

It’s political season here in Ecuador!

..which is why the outside of our house is painted with a mural in support of my host-parents’ candidate. Who needs yard signs when you can paint the outside of your home? 

Many days, the streets are filled with “parades”. These ones aren’t as fun as the parade of horses we had in September. In these “parades”, pick-up trucks decorated with the face of the candidate they are supporting drive around the streets waving flags out the side of the vehicle and honking. Each of them honks to whatever beat they choose and when 10 trucks are honking to their own rhythm, the result is a clash of ugly noise-makers that is sure to get your attention. 

¡Vota todo!