Salasaca, Pelileo, and the Hospital

Sunday morning Jen, Rachel, Susan and I got on a bus to Salasaca - an indigenous town known for its beautiful textiles. The bus ride was about thirty minutes and cost $1.25. They had some really great stuff. I bought an alpaca wool sweater for $18 and some linen pajama pants for $8. The girls bought alpaca sweaters as well! From Salasaca we got back on a bus to Pelileo - a town known for its jeans and brown sugar empanadas. A woman from our program told us that the bus driver would know where to drop us off for the empanadas if we told him that is what we were interested in. When we asked he said he would... come to find out, he was wrong. When we got off the bus the empanadas were no where to be found! So we did a little shopping (I bought a pair of pants - which was a lot more challenging than expected because everyone is so short here!), and asked around about the empanadas. Three people pointed us in the same direction so we started our trek. About 5 minutes into it a passing van started honking at us like crazy! When we looked closer, it was everyone else from the program on their way to Banos. Celso, our program leader in Ecuador, told us we were walking in the wrong direction for empanadas, and that it was about twenty minutes the other way! So we turned around and after asking 2 more people on the street finally found the empanadas. They were DELICIOUS! And at 8 for a dollar how could you go wrong? After 8 empanadas and a couple hours of shopping we were ready to go home. Our options were to get back on the bus, or contract a truck to take us to Banos. We tried getting a truck, but they wanted to charge us $5. We didn't want to pay over four, and they wouldn't budge on the price so we walked to catch the bus. Upon our return to Banos, we met up with the rest of the group and had dinner. We ate at a restaurant that was supposed to have the best chicken in town... It was pretty good.

Yesterday we toured the hospital in Banos. Talk about rural medicine. The hospital has 15 beds and specialists in surgery, orthodontia, psychiatry, physical therapy, pediatrics, emergency and obstetrics only. That being said, there are currently no surgeries being performed due to the fact that they dont have an anesthesiologist. The lack of diagnostic equipment and laboratory equipment was astounding. Nothing like in the US. Working in the hospital down here is going to be a real eye opening experience. After our hospital tour, we did a scavenger hunt in Banos, speaking only Spanish. It was a lot of fun! Later in the evening we got our class/hospital assignments. Jen, Rachel, Susan and I get to stay in the same Spanish class! We have hospital work 8:30 am to noon and Spanish 3-6 pm.