Just a little bit to keep anyone interested updated..
I have spent the past few days relaxing & recovering in Quito. On sunday I moved into a hostel after my homestay family basically kicked me out.. (unexpected!) but the hostel is awesome, situated on a hill in a neighborhood between the old and new parts of the city. It has a sweet view of the city and this awesome outdoor terrace upstairs which is amazing!!
We partied pretty hard saturday and sunday nights in celebration of the end up camp and also had a super motivating wrap up session on sunday where we discussed the impact of the camp and ways to stay involved. There is another camp in Bolivia in Dec/Jan that I would love to go to!! I have been helping out a little in the foundation with some of the wrap up work from camp as well as just hanging out and relaxing.
Last night my friend who is here for another week met up to discuss places to travel and came up with a pretty sweet route that involves thermal baths, hiking, mountain biking and maybe white water rafting. Today I met up with some ecuafriends and we attempted to go to mitad del mundo (the ecuator, which is about 45 min away) but after eating a long lunch decided we were too tired and ended up going to one of the girls houses where we sat around and watched movies- justified by the fact that the next couple of days will be really busy. Tomorrow my friend and I are going for the day to a place called Papallarta (about 2 hours away) known for hiking and thermal baths- both sound super sweet, and then tomorrow night mo is coming for a week and we'll be traveling around..
Anyway, thats all.. keep in touch!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
CAMPO AMIGO 2k8
We just got back from camp earlier today.. it was 6 days of pure craziness. the camp was held in the same place as the precamp, completely removed from civilzation by a dirt road and a big fence! I was in a bunk with 11 14-year-old girls (and 2 other counselors) who were the craziest bunch of kids i have ever experienced, and between trying to get them to listen and follow directions, checking blood sugars at least 8 times a day (including 1 am and 3 am each night), and having full full days of activities, not a whole lot of sleep was involved!! and now that its all over, my mind is still spinning while i try to decide what actually happened, how i feel about it, and in the end what everyone/anyone actually got out of it..
A typical day at camp involved waking up around 7, checking glicemias and giving insulin, and then eating breakfast. we would have an hour and a half each of diabetes education, sports and art each day, all intersperced with more glicemia checks, calculating insulin corrections, eating snacks and lunch and dinner (before all of which we had to check glicemias again and give insulin again while hoping that no campers would get low blood sugar and have a hipoglicemic reaction while we were waiting to talk to the doctor before we could eat) and a lot of free time to reflect, chill out, and if you happened to be one of the girls in my cabin you probably would spend at least an hour a day looking in the mirror, doing your hair and makeup, and probably at least another hour or 2 talking about the boys on the other side of the cabin and all the guy counselors on which you had a crush! plus, if you were a counselor, you were required to do night checks to make sure that no campers got low blood sugars in the middle of the night, which can lead to seizures. while thier were tons of low blood sugars every night, luckily they were all treated before anyone dropped so low they began convulsing... however it did mean that each night one of the 3 of us wouldn't go to bed until 330 or 4am or later, and still have to wake up and function all day long.
The range in campers was unbelievable- from fairly affluent kids to had been to camp 5 or 6 summers in a row and were more or less independent in controlling their diabetes, to kids that come from families with next to nothing, wearing the same clothes day and night for a week, to whom a lot of the information we were teaching was brand new, and sometimes unapplicable due to their economic situation. all of the girls in my bunk except for 1 had been to camp before and had a pretty strong basis of knowledge about their diabetes- however, that doesn't mean that thier diabetes is under control.. for example, one girl in my bunk said that her family´s income is 100$ a month. both her and her older brother have type 1 diabetes. in ecuador, one little bottle of insulin costs $40. do the math. there is absolutely no way that either of them can effectively control their diabetes strictly based on the fact that they can't afford to, and unfortunately it shows in their A1C´s (both are above the healthy range, meaning that they will inevitably suffer complications, even within the next 10 years)
My campers, even though they were young, were especially touched by these stories and very motivated to help those who dont have the resources to treat their diabetes effectively. this is essentially what the FDJE does, but my campers spent a good deal of time talking amongst themselves about what they could do to change the situation in ecuador, even one person at a time. it was super motivating to see them plegde to donate the extra glucose machines in their house, and x number of strips each month in order to ensure that those in need dont have to suffer complications from thier diabetes. like we teach in camp, diabetes is not a sickness, its a way of life that can be effectively controlled so long as one is given the opportunity. the girls made announcements throughout the camp inviting anyone who was interested to help them, and hopefully in the next few weeks we will be working with them so that they can begin to organize themselves, sort out thier ideas, and come up with a sustainable way to help those in need.
In and of itself, the camp was nothing like anything that would ever exist in the US. one of the volunteers that we were working with said that in the US if a child doesnt take insulin for an entire day, it is likely that child protective services would be called. here we are dealing with some children who maybe take insulin twice a month. we teach the campers that they can eat real sugar and carbohydrates, but it is a slippery slope - they can only eat these sugars if they can afford insulin. otherwise they have to stick to eating foods that dont raise the blood sugar and testing their glucose (like i mentioned before) by trying to note the stickyness of their urine... really difficult and often ineffective. plus, like most things in latin america, things were very disorganized and lots left until the last minute. even day to day counselors didnt always know what was going on and the lack of communication was unbelievable. although there are a million things i would do to change the camp, every single one of the campers learned something new and the psychosocial effects of bonding with a peer group that also has type 1 diabetes are undenyable.
As for me, while i may be a little frustrated with the organization, i definetly want to keep working with them to help in any way that i can. i have been talking with some of the other counselors about planning youth activities within the foundation here in quito, and also about traveling to some of the provinces and recruiting new families to the foundation. i am espeically interested in doing outreach work and this is definetly a motivating factor in what i do with the next 10 weeks.
While the AYUDA program is rapidly ending, you would think i would have a plan for what I am going to do next.... but I still havent decided. i have been in touch with Un Techo Para Mi Pais (the habitat for humanity organization here) about doing some volunteer work and I will obvously spend some time working with AYUDA. i want to travel around ecuador, but for now i am taking it a day at a time... when i know more, i will be sure to keep you posted!
take care.
ap
A typical day at camp involved waking up around 7, checking glicemias and giving insulin, and then eating breakfast. we would have an hour and a half each of diabetes education, sports and art each day, all intersperced with more glicemia checks, calculating insulin corrections, eating snacks and lunch and dinner (before all of which we had to check glicemias again and give insulin again while hoping that no campers would get low blood sugar and have a hipoglicemic reaction while we were waiting to talk to the doctor before we could eat) and a lot of free time to reflect, chill out, and if you happened to be one of the girls in my cabin you probably would spend at least an hour a day looking in the mirror, doing your hair and makeup, and probably at least another hour or 2 talking about the boys on the other side of the cabin and all the guy counselors on which you had a crush! plus, if you were a counselor, you were required to do night checks to make sure that no campers got low blood sugars in the middle of the night, which can lead to seizures. while thier were tons of low blood sugars every night, luckily they were all treated before anyone dropped so low they began convulsing... however it did mean that each night one of the 3 of us wouldn't go to bed until 330 or 4am or later, and still have to wake up and function all day long.
The range in campers was unbelievable- from fairly affluent kids to had been to camp 5 or 6 summers in a row and were more or less independent in controlling their diabetes, to kids that come from families with next to nothing, wearing the same clothes day and night for a week, to whom a lot of the information we were teaching was brand new, and sometimes unapplicable due to their economic situation. all of the girls in my bunk except for 1 had been to camp before and had a pretty strong basis of knowledge about their diabetes- however, that doesn't mean that thier diabetes is under control.. for example, one girl in my bunk said that her family´s income is 100$ a month. both her and her older brother have type 1 diabetes. in ecuador, one little bottle of insulin costs $40. do the math. there is absolutely no way that either of them can effectively control their diabetes strictly based on the fact that they can't afford to, and unfortunately it shows in their A1C´s (both are above the healthy range, meaning that they will inevitably suffer complications, even within the next 10 years)
My campers, even though they were young, were especially touched by these stories and very motivated to help those who dont have the resources to treat their diabetes effectively. this is essentially what the FDJE does, but my campers spent a good deal of time talking amongst themselves about what they could do to change the situation in ecuador, even one person at a time. it was super motivating to see them plegde to donate the extra glucose machines in their house, and x number of strips each month in order to ensure that those in need dont have to suffer complications from thier diabetes. like we teach in camp, diabetes is not a sickness, its a way of life that can be effectively controlled so long as one is given the opportunity. the girls made announcements throughout the camp inviting anyone who was interested to help them, and hopefully in the next few weeks we will be working with them so that they can begin to organize themselves, sort out thier ideas, and come up with a sustainable way to help those in need.
In and of itself, the camp was nothing like anything that would ever exist in the US. one of the volunteers that we were working with said that in the US if a child doesnt take insulin for an entire day, it is likely that child protective services would be called. here we are dealing with some children who maybe take insulin twice a month. we teach the campers that they can eat real sugar and carbohydrates, but it is a slippery slope - they can only eat these sugars if they can afford insulin. otherwise they have to stick to eating foods that dont raise the blood sugar and testing their glucose (like i mentioned before) by trying to note the stickyness of their urine... really difficult and often ineffective. plus, like most things in latin america, things were very disorganized and lots left until the last minute. even day to day counselors didnt always know what was going on and the lack of communication was unbelievable. although there are a million things i would do to change the camp, every single one of the campers learned something new and the psychosocial effects of bonding with a peer group that also has type 1 diabetes are undenyable.
As for me, while i may be a little frustrated with the organization, i definetly want to keep working with them to help in any way that i can. i have been talking with some of the other counselors about planning youth activities within the foundation here in quito, and also about traveling to some of the provinces and recruiting new families to the foundation. i am espeically interested in doing outreach work and this is definetly a motivating factor in what i do with the next 10 weeks.
While the AYUDA program is rapidly ending, you would think i would have a plan for what I am going to do next.... but I still havent decided. i have been in touch with Un Techo Para Mi Pais (the habitat for humanity organization here) about doing some volunteer work and I will obvously spend some time working with AYUDA. i want to travel around ecuador, but for now i am taking it a day at a time... when i know more, i will be sure to keep you posted!
take care.
ap
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Quito
Well the past few days have been a little calmer than the first week and I am finally getting some time to know the city. Quito is basically a long narrow flat area sourrounded by higher mountains on either side. The city used to be only the old part, but in the last 60 years it has been built up so much that the airport which used to be really far north is now literally in the middle of the city! I am living a little ways up one of the hills next to the Universidad Central de Ecuador, which I think is one of the biggest universities here. As far as universities go, it looks pretty run down, but has buildings on every possible thing you could want to study. The flat area below where I live is called el mariscal, or maybe better known as "gringolandia" because it has all kinds of new upscale restraunts, coffee shops, internet cafes, hostels etc. I have only been once, and besides from maybe going out there at night, I wouldn´t mind avoiding it!
2 nights ago I went out to a bar in a neighborhood called Guapulo with some of the people from AYUDA. Guapulo is this older neighborhood built straight into this steep hill and the bar was really cool bc it was super arsty and had a balcony literally hanging off the hill overlooking Quito. We sat out there, surrounded by clouds because we were so high up, and drank canelazo which is native to ecuador and is basically sugarcane alcohol, cinamon and maybe some kind of cidery mixture. in any case, its decent but becuase it is served hot it tastes really strong.
last night my family took me and my friend from AYUDA who lives across the street with a different family to see the centro historico of Quito. This part of the city is really old and dates back to like the 1500s. We went to the plaza grande where the main church is and where pres. correa lives. Then we walked around this street called La Ronda which has lots of live music and little bars and restraunts and art galeries. It was really cool because I havent had time to go to the old city yet and so my host family showed me kind of what is there so now i know places to go and things to do. Plus the old city looked gorgeous all lit up at night.. I can´t wait to go back.
Besides that I am beginning to adjust to all sorts differences that exist here. First of all, the air is so thin that sometimes walking up stairs makes my heart pound. I have been attempting to run through the university and also at this big park called the Carolina but it is really hard. Secondly, my family lives on a diet which consists of tons of bread! We generally eat bread and eggs or fruit for breakfast and then they dont eat dinner except for more bread and instant coffee or tea. They ask me if I want them to make me a real meal, but I dont want to be the odd one out, so I usually stick to eating another roll. I have only been home for lunch once, but the ecuadorian diet consists of usually a piece of meat, rice and a vegetable with usually a soup for an appetizer. When I don´t go home, we can go to a restraunt and get a full meal for 2 dollars!
We still havent started visiting homes yet, and I´m starting to feel like AYUDA is pretty disorganized with trying to send everyone to the different provinces. My group is supposed to recurit 40 campers for a camp which begins on sunday and we have barely started calling houses! I know that things work differently here, but it seems crazy to think we will be able to finish in the next 3 days... But i guess we´ll see...
Thats all.
ap
2 nights ago I went out to a bar in a neighborhood called Guapulo with some of the people from AYUDA. Guapulo is this older neighborhood built straight into this steep hill and the bar was really cool bc it was super arsty and had a balcony literally hanging off the hill overlooking Quito. We sat out there, surrounded by clouds because we were so high up, and drank canelazo which is native to ecuador and is basically sugarcane alcohol, cinamon and maybe some kind of cidery mixture. in any case, its decent but becuase it is served hot it tastes really strong.
last night my family took me and my friend from AYUDA who lives across the street with a different family to see the centro historico of Quito. This part of the city is really old and dates back to like the 1500s. We went to the plaza grande where the main church is and where pres. correa lives. Then we walked around this street called La Ronda which has lots of live music and little bars and restraunts and art galeries. It was really cool because I havent had time to go to the old city yet and so my host family showed me kind of what is there so now i know places to go and things to do. Plus the old city looked gorgeous all lit up at night.. I can´t wait to go back.
Besides that I am beginning to adjust to all sorts differences that exist here. First of all, the air is so thin that sometimes walking up stairs makes my heart pound. I have been attempting to run through the university and also at this big park called the Carolina but it is really hard. Secondly, my family lives on a diet which consists of tons of bread! We generally eat bread and eggs or fruit for breakfast and then they dont eat dinner except for more bread and instant coffee or tea. They ask me if I want them to make me a real meal, but I dont want to be the odd one out, so I usually stick to eating another roll. I have only been home for lunch once, but the ecuadorian diet consists of usually a piece of meat, rice and a vegetable with usually a soup for an appetizer. When I don´t go home, we can go to a restraunt and get a full meal for 2 dollars!
We still havent started visiting homes yet, and I´m starting to feel like AYUDA is pretty disorganized with trying to send everyone to the different provinces. My group is supposed to recurit 40 campers for a camp which begins on sunday and we have barely started calling houses! I know that things work differently here, but it seems crazy to think we will be able to finish in the next 3 days... But i guess we´ll see...
Thats all.
ap
Monday, July 14, 2008
Precamp
This weekend all of the people who will be working at the camp went to "precamp" in the Valle de los Chillos at a place called Nueva Vida where the actual camp is held. The place is so nice!! It's kind of on the outskirts of this little town and its like what you would expect a real overnight camp to look like, except it's just a place that we are renting out for a week. There are cabins and a dining hall and a theater, fields, a lake and a pool.. and it's especially awesome becuase its surrounded by big mountains on all sides.
At the precamp they brought everyone together so that we could keep learning about diabetes but also to start bringing us together and forming a real team before the camp starts. Along with playing games and doing team building activities, we also started to plan the schedule for the camp. We also talked about some really intense things like what to do if one your campers gets really low blood sugar and has a seizure, or how to teach campers who don´t have the resources to buy test strips other ways in which they can test their blood sugar (ex. rub pee on your skin and if it's sticky you have high blood sugar). After doing so much work this weekend, I am really excited but also nervous for camp to start. There is so much to remember!!! And while part of what we are doing is supervising and playing with the kids, there is the huge commitment to teach them about how to control thier diabetes, not to mention that their health is in our hands!
Anyway, there are about 40 counselors, half american, half ecuadorian as well as 4 guys who came from Bolivia who worked with AYUDA at the first ever diabetes camp in Cochabamba. Its awesome because everyone comes from really different lives and together, even though we are so different, everyone is equally motivated to help and do really good things. There will be 10 groups of campers, each with 4 counselors. I will be working with girls ages 12-14 or something like that, which i think will be a good age because they are old enough to really learn and understand how diabetes affects their lives and how they can improve their health, but they are also young enough to still want to hang out and play games etc.
Besides from working with AYUDA and the diabetes foundation here, there hasn't been tons of free time. We just got back to Quito last night and I think today is going to be one of the few free days. This coming week we have to do lots of recruiting for the camp. Some of the couselors are going to other provinces in Ecuador, but I am staying here in Quito. As far as I understand, and I guess I will learn more later today, we will be going to old and potentially new campers houses to evaluate thier living situations (you might not know from looking at people but a significant percentage of people dont have electricity or running water even within the boundaries of Quito), also to radio and tv stations to promote the camp, as well as working with this organization un techo para mi pais which is kind of like a south american habitat for humanity. So, it should be cool and I am really looking forward to getting out into the city and seeing more and working with people.
Thats all for now!
ap
At the precamp they brought everyone together so that we could keep learning about diabetes but also to start bringing us together and forming a real team before the camp starts. Along with playing games and doing team building activities, we also started to plan the schedule for the camp. We also talked about some really intense things like what to do if one your campers gets really low blood sugar and has a seizure, or how to teach campers who don´t have the resources to buy test strips other ways in which they can test their blood sugar (ex. rub pee on your skin and if it's sticky you have high blood sugar). After doing so much work this weekend, I am really excited but also nervous for camp to start. There is so much to remember!!! And while part of what we are doing is supervising and playing with the kids, there is the huge commitment to teach them about how to control thier diabetes, not to mention that their health is in our hands!
Anyway, there are about 40 counselors, half american, half ecuadorian as well as 4 guys who came from Bolivia who worked with AYUDA at the first ever diabetes camp in Cochabamba. Its awesome because everyone comes from really different lives and together, even though we are so different, everyone is equally motivated to help and do really good things. There will be 10 groups of campers, each with 4 counselors. I will be working with girls ages 12-14 or something like that, which i think will be a good age because they are old enough to really learn and understand how diabetes affects their lives and how they can improve their health, but they are also young enough to still want to hang out and play games etc.
Besides from working with AYUDA and the diabetes foundation here, there hasn't been tons of free time. We just got back to Quito last night and I think today is going to be one of the few free days. This coming week we have to do lots of recruiting for the camp. Some of the couselors are going to other provinces in Ecuador, but I am staying here in Quito. As far as I understand, and I guess I will learn more later today, we will be going to old and potentially new campers houses to evaluate thier living situations (you might not know from looking at people but a significant percentage of people dont have electricity or running water even within the boundaries of Quito), also to radio and tv stations to promote the camp, as well as working with this organization un techo para mi pais which is kind of like a south american habitat for humanity. So, it should be cool and I am really looking forward to getting out into the city and seeing more and working with people.
Thats all for now!
ap
Thursday, July 10, 2008
longest trip of my life..
After traveling for more than 36 hours i am finally in ECUADOR!!! Due to bad weather in Atlanta, I missed my connection on Sunday afternoon and had to spend the night in a hotel, change airlines and ended up arriving in Quito 26 hours later than expected... safe and sound but without any luggage!
The first night I was here all of the AYUDA volunteers stayed in a hotel together, and we have spent most of the past 2 days doing diabetes education and training - learning things like symptoms of high and low blood sugar, which insulins do what, how to mix insulins, how to inject insulin (we all got to inject ourselves with saline!!) etc. etc. We are working with a team of ecuadorian med students, nutritionists and other youth to create an integrated team of counselors and medical professionals at the camp. All of the people are really nice and everyone is young.. even everyone in charge is in thier 20s. Its pretty cool to see.. here we are a big group of youth but able to put on this camp and make a difference in these kid´s lives.
2 nights ago we moved in with homestay families. my family is really nice. they have 2 daughters who live in the house with us, one is 10 and the other 22. the daughters are pretty quiet, but the parents talk alllll the time and are really funny. the father talks to me about everything from the changing climate around the world to politics to the geography of ecuador. At breakfast this morning i learned that we all weigh 2 kilos less by the ecuator because there is less pressure from the earth`s rotation. who knew? the house is nicer than i expected. its a whole house, fairly small but with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and while its still a little dingy, its pretty nice. there is a big dog who lives with us called sacci. its gigantic and really fuzzy but completely silent. if it´s supposed to be a guard dog its doing a terrible job!
anyway, besides that there is not too much to say. i haven´t seen too much of the city yet since we have spent lots of time in the foundation training, but there is plenty of time. i am still trying to orient myself around Quito so I can feel comfortable getting around and not get totally lost and also figure out the bus system etc. so yeah, thats all for now. keep in touch everyone!!!!!
ap
The first night I was here all of the AYUDA volunteers stayed in a hotel together, and we have spent most of the past 2 days doing diabetes education and training - learning things like symptoms of high and low blood sugar, which insulins do what, how to mix insulins, how to inject insulin (we all got to inject ourselves with saline!!) etc. etc. We are working with a team of ecuadorian med students, nutritionists and other youth to create an integrated team of counselors and medical professionals at the camp. All of the people are really nice and everyone is young.. even everyone in charge is in thier 20s. Its pretty cool to see.. here we are a big group of youth but able to put on this camp and make a difference in these kid´s lives.
2 nights ago we moved in with homestay families. my family is really nice. they have 2 daughters who live in the house with us, one is 10 and the other 22. the daughters are pretty quiet, but the parents talk alllll the time and are really funny. the father talks to me about everything from the changing climate around the world to politics to the geography of ecuador. At breakfast this morning i learned that we all weigh 2 kilos less by the ecuator because there is less pressure from the earth`s rotation. who knew? the house is nicer than i expected. its a whole house, fairly small but with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and while its still a little dingy, its pretty nice. there is a big dog who lives with us called sacci. its gigantic and really fuzzy but completely silent. if it´s supposed to be a guard dog its doing a terrible job!
anyway, besides that there is not too much to say. i haven´t seen too much of the city yet since we have spent lots of time in the foundation training, but there is plenty of time. i am still trying to orient myself around Quito so I can feel comfortable getting around and not get totally lost and also figure out the bus system etc. so yeah, thats all for now. keep in touch everyone!!!!!
ap
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