First, to wrap up my experience in clinic last week. Although patient volume was surprisingly quite light, I had a great time teaching Ecuadorian medical students! Medical school in Ecuador, like in many other countries, begins right after high school. I'm still trying to understand the details, so more on that later. The students I met were in their 4th semester (knowledge level of ~1st yr med student) and 2nd semester (equivalent to our pre-med students). In my haphazard Spanish, I explained clinical principles related to the patient we had just observed, and they would help me with the vocabulary. By Friday, I was even (nicely) pimping the students! They seemed to enjoy my teaching, I of course remember being at that stage and starved for relevant clinical knowledge. And thank goodness for all the cognates - most medical terms have Latin roots - so the students were usually able to infer what I was saying and simply correct my pronunciation to Spanish.
(In the clinic with the Doctora and the medical students)
(In the clinic with the Doctora and the medical students)
This weekend we traveled to the city of Mindo. Mindo is only 2hr away by bus, and sits at 1200m elevation (to Quito's 2900m). Mindo's climate is "subtropical;" it's a cloud forest. Seven of us traveled there, and the weekend was packed with activities! I think my favorite was zip-lining! I had never done this before. We suited up in harnesses and zipped across 10 different cable lines, soaring high above a valley of plush green landscape. Towards the end of zip lining, and through all of our next activity - hiking to waterfalls - it was raining, first misting, then raining large fat drops of water. We didn't mind, however, because it was fairly warm there.
We went to a butterfly and hummingbird garden, so beautiful!
We went to a butterfly and hummingbird garden, so beautiful!
Butterflies:
Ziplining:
I must describe to you - in detail, of course - about the other highlight of the weekend: our tour of the El Quetzal chocolate factory. They do everything there ("bean to bar") except grow the actual cacao pod. (They actually do have some cacao plants, but the pods can only ripen when grown between 0-800m, Mindo is thus too high, so they use cacao from nearby Puerto Quito). Some chocolate facts:
- The highest quality type of cacao can only be grown within 10-15degrees of the equator, which is the type of cacao they use.
- Thousands of years ago, the cacao plant used to be eaten raw as a fruit. A sweet pulp surrounds the beans inside the pod.
- Cacao used to have value and was a form of currency for the Mayans and the Aztecs.
- The beans (and pulp) are fermented for 6 days.
- Air dry for a couple of weeks.
- Roast for a couple of hours in the oven.
(the roaster) - Grind coarsely into cacao nibs (the inside) and shell fragments (outside).
- Separate shell and nibs using wind (a fan). The lightweight shells are blown to the far end of the room (and then used in compost) and the heavier nibs fall straight down. They only need to repeat this process 3-4 times to ensure there are no shells in with the nibs. So clever!
- The nibs are placed in a hydraulic press to separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa. The result is pure cocoa powder/paste.
- The pure cocoa can be finely ground into cocoa powder. Or, varying amounts of cocoa butter and sugar can be added back to the cocoa to make a chocolate mixture, which is tempered for 72 hours, and then cooled into bars.
[Note: A chocolate bar of, for example, 72% chocolate, is 72% pure cocoa. Cocoa butter and sugar together make up the remaining 28%. Since the cocoa plant is about 30% cocoa butter, it must always be separated before being added back with sugar, to be able to make desired types of dark chocolate]
Overall a great weekend!
Today I started my week in the Emergency Room of the women's hospital - an emergency room for pregnant women. I haven't been exposed to obstetrics for a year, so I have lots to brush up on. I was also still mostly in the observational role. However I think I will be able to weasel my way into doing the initial patient history (intake), which is ideal, actually, para practicar Español! I also had a great time there today because there were two "internos" (Ecuadorian medical students in their last year of school, but more like a 1st year resident in the US, ~25 years old) and two students in their 9th semester (5th year - like a 3rd or 4th year US student, ~23 yrs old). These people were really nice and very helpful. It was also helpful to have someone of a roughly equivalent level to mirror to become more involved (these guys do the aforementioned intakes).
Today we had went to our second salsa dance class! It was very fun, and I've convinced myself I'm making progress! I did also get to practice a bit when we went out this weekend in Mindo - it's a small town, so we recognized and danced with a lot of the guys who worked the zip line and other activities.
(en la clase de Salsa)I've decided to begin a daily mango regimen. Mangoes here cost 50cents and they are quite delicious.... ¿como no? (why not?!).
Fun fact of the day
re, why Ecuadorian Spanish is so much easier to understand than other Spanish:
The theory goes the higher the altitude, the less oxygen, the slower, the softer, and the clearer they speak. The Caribbean islands, with much higher oxygen content in the air, speak fast, drop syllables (and combine words), and are often perceived as practically shouting. Both the highlands of Ecuador and Mexico D.F. (the capitol, also high elevations), certainly fit this stereotype. Even within Quito, as the elevation drops (and the oxygen content increases), the people speak faster and louder. So interesting!
[More pictures in the web album, link provided in previous post]
Might there be some El Quetzal in my future? - Dad
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