¡Salud Pública!

This past week our little Public Health track had it's first field trip! For Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we were about two hours north of Quito to learn about the relationship between traditional (indigenous) and western medicine. My favorite visit was the first clinic we went to, called Jambi Huasi. This is a small clinic, and as far as we saw, is not very busy. What I think is neat is that they offer traditional and western medical options for their patients, but because it is not a state-sponsored clinic, care is not free (or maybe it's on some sort of a sliding scale - I didn't really understand) so that is why many people will opt for the free public hospital instead. We were shown some traditional treatments/diagnoses, which you will see in the pictures! I would love to work here for my internship portion of the program, and help out with their nutrition program while learning about all the plants and herbs involved in indigenous medicine. Unfortunately, my program directors don't think there will be enough to do, so hopefully the Jambi Huasi people send them a satisfactory plan for me so I can go.

Jessica getting a "change of energy" with many oils and water being rubbed on her head. 

Plants used for medicine! I really hope I get to learn all of these while I intern, even if it's not at this clinic. 

Cuy cleanse. The cuy is a guinea pig that yachaks (indigenous doctors) ask to absorb our sicknesses, then they shake/rub it all over your body until the cuy dies. Then, the yachak skins it, pulls out all its intestines, and searches it for a diagnosis. In this case, she said I have parasites (been there, done that). I'm not so much interested in these types of indigenous medicine as in the plants and their nutritional/healing properties. Also, as you can see in this picture, it was really hard to keep a straight face during this. Plus, I didn't want to look at the cuy because I'm afraid of dead animals.

The yachak skinning the cuy. I left the more graphic pictures off :)  But it was, uh, interesting to see the entire inside of the animal. 

Marais getting the egg cleanse. Similar idea to the cuy cleanse, except this one is supposed to diagnose spiritual health rather than physical. After rubbing the egg all over Marais, the yachak broke it into a pan and looked for any white parts on the yoke to determine if she had good spirits. According to the egg, she passed!

Looking at the egg, with a couple yolks from past patients.

That day we also visited the hospital San Luis, which was contrasted with Jambi Huasi in the sense that it is public and free, and the only bit of traditional medicine available was a vertical birth assisted by a traditional midwife. The newest constitution of Ecuador encourages a better integration of traditional and wester medicine in its health facilities, but that has been hard to accomplish because of the cultural differences of payment, location, etc.

Front of the hospital! If you look closely, you can see our professor Edward Ayala, Jessica, and Marais!

In our scrubs to see the birthing room! We didn't know what was going on, so when we started putting on the scrubs, we were getting nervous that we were going to see a real birth. Luckily, we didn't have to intrude on anyone like that and just saw the room where it happens!

Around the time of our lunch break, we got to spend a couple of hours in the Otavalo market, a craft market known for its hugeness. I may have spent a bit of money there. Oops. Everything was so beautiful to look at though, and there were even some street performers near the end of our time there!

Otavalo!

Performers in the market. He's not playing it now, but if you look on the bench you can see his big PVC pan flute :) It actually sounded pretty decent!

We stopped at our hotel after lunch to unpack and relax for a bit. CIMAS always gets us really nice places to stay! I don't actually have any pictures of the hotel itself, but I do have some of the area around it!

Llamas and a chicken - not my best audience ever. Playing the pan flute I bought at the market!

Looking down at Otavalo! It's a lot smaller than Quito and a lot more tied into the nature around it, I think. I really hope my internship is here!

CAVE! We found this a little bit down the road from our hotel, just off to the side.

Had to struggle through some thorns, but I'M IN! I couldn't go very far though; the holes off the right and left were to small for me :/ Probably for the best since I didn't have a light...

Public Health girls :)

Our last visit of this busy first day was to the house/clinic of another yachak. He lived on the top of a hill with his family, and explained a little about the use of plants for medicine. It was interesting, and I want to learn more! He had us walk around for 15 minutes, and pick a plant that "spoke to us." I first chose a plant with some red in its leaves, but eventually went with a mushroom that spit out powder when I touched it. We then sat around a fire and talked about the medicinal qualities of the plants we chose, as well as a few others. He told us about how he doesn't have a garden because the world is his garden, and he just collects the plants he needs from where they originally are. After this, his mother performed a sort of cleans on me with one of the plants. She first took sips of this tea and spit it on me (quite a surprise) and then hit me with the plant a lot :) The plant smelled good though, so it actually was pretty refreshing!

The yachak's house. 

The first plant I chose.

And the one I eventually went with! He told me that this is a plant that they teach their kids not to touch when they're young... oops. Of course it would be the one I pick. 

Being spit on by the yachak's mother! 

The yachack on the drum, and his brother on the flute. Playing a song during my cleanse. His wife and adorable little daughter look on :)

Finally we got back to our hotel, ate dinner, and went to bed at 8:30. What a day! Not ashamed of the bed time at all. Though I'll definitely have some adjusting to do when I get back to Lawrence...

Day two was not quite as interesting or full as day one. We drove to Ibarra, which was probably 45 minutes away, and visited a clinic the just had traditional midwives as far as I know. They simulated a traditional birth, and then told us about some of the politics of the public health situation. A big question in this area right now is whether or not the midwives should be paid in the hospitals or not, but these women brought up how part of their cultural/traditional views about their job is that the mother pays them with food or items. Yes, it might be nice if they were paid and respected as much as the doctors who do the same job, but at the same time they would loose part of the culture of their job if they were given money rather than items. After that, we had some time to swim at our next hotel while we waited for the group from the Social Services track to meet up with us. Once we were all together in Valle del Chota, we had a talk with one of their government leaders who told about all the racism and discrimination there still is against Afro-Ecuadorians. Apparently it's pretty blatant, and makes things like getting health-care harder for them. :( Unfortunately I didn't hear much more than that from the talk, because the fleas were biting me up like crazy!

Enjoying the views out the van window :)

Getting into Valle del Chota!

Ready to swim. I forgot my swimsuit, and the supermarket didn't have any I could buy. Luckily, they had this giant training bra with astronauts on it, which is better than any suit! 

The end of the sunset from the valley. 

Good morning Valle del Chota! It was pretty cool being surrounded by mountains like this :)

Somehow all 5 of our beds (one not pictured) got messed up from the 3 of us who stayed there... must have had to do with the scary movie we watched before bed!

The pool and soccer field.

Aaaaand my flea bites. All over my ankles. 10x itchier than any mosquito bites I've ever had...

The morning of day three, we talked to a ministry of public health clinic, which was a little boring. After walking around the downtown area a little bit to kill time and then eating lunch, we headed back to Quito! Considering that we had a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday field trip and no class Friday, I'd call that a good week! :)