The night before we were told that we were going to have to get up early so we could drive to the Santa Elena providence on the western coast of Ecuador. It was going to be a 2 hour drive and we were going to be there for 4 days and 3 nights.
That morning we got up around 6ish. I was a little slow because I hate getting up in the morning and I still felt under the weather a bit. It usually got worse as the day went. Luckily we still had a bunch of the cold medicine we bought at the airport. I washed up, got my clothes on and made sure I had all of my stuff packed in my pack.
Again, I went into the kitchen to grab a banana because I wasn't sure when we will be having breakfast. Getting and shuffling 20+ people around is a pretty daunting chore. We had to go into two separate groups, one group went with Felipe and his van, our hired driver for the next few days, and the other had to pay a few dollars to take a city bus to the hotel in Ballenita which was technically in La Libertad. Mom and I made sure we got in the van to avoid a taxi and a bus fee. Our bags and supplies went in a separate truck.
We left between 7 and 8 a.m. We got onto the E40 freeway and headed west towards the coast. About a half hour in I was so tired I fell asleep. I woke up a couple times throughout the drive but quickly fell asleep. I woke up for good about a half hour from our destination.
This section of the Santa Elena providence was very rural and had several thousand acres of banana plantations. It was an experience to see where some of our banana's are imported from. Several of us, because we are not banana plantation owners, were curious to why several of the crops were covered in plastic bags. Felipe answered our question in Spanish and Dr. Harris quickly interpreted it for us. She told us that the bags help the bananas ripen. Makes sense.
We finally made it to our destination around 10ish off of the E70. We put our bags in the lobby and were told that the chef, Richardo would be making us breakfast. I guess he went to culinary school, he spoke English and his food was pretty fancy. We got in line and he made us an omlette to our liking...I picked cheese, green onions and ham. I got a little bit of oatmeal, a bread, watermelon with some orange juice and a banana for later. I sat with mom, Maritza and Dr. Harris while we ate.
About halfway through breakfast the rest of our group arrived via bus. They said the ride was awesome. I guess the bus had a bathroom, reclining chairs and movies. I don't know if they were trying to make a bad thing into something good to make us jealous or the bus actually had those things. I will never know.
When we were done, we were told to go out to the back to start our first group of the day. They were the community that lived directly near the hotel and there were probably around 75 or so adults and children. I heard we were to work on them then go to another location about 10-15 miles from the hotel. I knew this was going to be a long, humid, sweaty, tiring day. I followed mom to where we were suppose to go. Maritza and my mom ran the restoration station and I was close by getting ready to set up the sterilization area.
My sterilization area was basically towels, bowls, buckets and a hose. Of course my prior training with sterilization made me think of this situation as unsanitary. This would definitely not be acceptable in the US with their standards but according to Maritza this set-up was perfectly acceptable for Ecuador as long as we had bleach.
It was a blur once we started. I had to change out the water in my bowls a lot just because of the oral surgery happening in the room. We had a lot of people have their teeth pulled because they were not able to be saved with the amount of decay in them. We saw a lot more adults this round and we still had one more place to go after we were done here. There were a few times I was told we were done and we weren't. I had taken my station down at least twice and had to put it back together because we really weren't done. In this situation, my improvement to the group would be to have a plan and communicate it with everyone. We would waste less time, resources and more people could be seen.
We were here until about 2ish. Maritza told us to actually pack up our stuff because we were being transported to the community of Cerra Alto. Before we actually headed out that way everyone met up in the lobby and had some lunch. Richardo had made us rice, pork/beef, salad and fruit.
We all piled into the van and truck and headed to our next village. The drive didn't take that long and we got to see all of the big buildings and beach houses along the coast by Punta Blanca. I heard we were going to stay in one of the beach houses on Friday night. When we got to our location, it was a small community center, and we were welcomed with open arms. We got our supplies out and scouted the rooms we were going to be in. Again, similar to the previous locations, we had a restorative room, a oral surgery room and a hygiene room. I was with the restorative room again because they chose the room with the sink.
The place was packed with people which overwhelmed me. How are we going to get through all of these people before bed time? At the time, I had no idea we were going to come back tomorrow for an all day stint at this particular community, but we were.
I was constantly sterilizing and moving around instruments. I even had Thomas helping me move instruments to and from rooms. They were concerned at first, they didn't want him actually touching them, so we designated a dirty bucket and a clean bucket for him to transport. It worked pretty good since he seemed like he was bored and needed something to do.
Just after 6 p.m. we all took a break. Some of the community members all made us tuna fish sandwiches, juice and Coke. It was very nice of them to take the time and money to make us food. We knew a lot of these people didn't really have that much to give. The break came at a great time. It was nice to sit and relax after the amount of people we went through.
We got through several other people before Myrna and Maritza decided it was time to pack up our stuff and head back to the hotel. We packed all of our equipment up into our plastic totes and placed them aside for tomorrow since we were coming back to this location. When we got back we were instructed to figure out room assignments and get into something to go down to the beach. We needed to get our stuff into the washer so we could have clean clothes for tomorrow. Plus they would have to dry over night as long as possible so they could be dry. The process for picking rooms was complicated for some reason and my mom and I ended up in a room suite with Stephanie, Dr. Smith and Thomas.Just after 6 p.m. we all took a break. Some of the community members all made us tuna fish sandwiches, juice and Coke. It was very nice of them to take the time and money to make us food. We knew a lot of these people didn't really have that much to give. The break came at a great time. It was nice to sit and relax after the amount of people we went through.
They told us the nearest beach entry was less than a mile from the hotel. We were originally going to walk but one of the hotel guys said to hop in the back of his truck. All of us fit in the truck.
He drove us the few blocks to the beach, let us out and told his he would be back in about an hour. We walked down and took off our shoes. Some of us actually went swimming 9 p.m. at night and some of us just enjoyed the warm Ecuadorian breeze while we walked along the beach. I was not one of those people who went swimming. I reflected on my time so far since we've been here. I still could not wrap my head around the fact that I was actually in Ecuador. I was actually away from the United States in another country in South America. This was insane. I was on the other side of the equator where they were just getting out of their winter and beginning their warm season. If this was their winter I wondered what their summer was like. I Googled it. Winter was like our summer season at home in Washington and summer is their really rainy season. Their temperatures really do not change as much they still are in the tropical humid mid 80's during the day and the tropical humid low 70's in the evening. No matter what you were going to be sweaty.
The truck showed up exactly an hour later and we all piled into the back of the truck for the short ride back to the hotel. We thanked him when we got back and I went to my room and showered before all the hot water disappeared. I brushed my teeth and headed to bed. I was exhausted and I knew tomorrow was going to be a long day as well. I wish this cold would go away. I put in my ear plugs and went to bed. During the middle of the night I got cold because Stephanie put the AC on so I had to wear my sweatshirt to bed.
Next Adventure: Ecuador Day 8: Our Second Day in Cerro Alto
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