No Hay Englaise

Well that about says it all. And for those of you to whom that makes no sense at all . . . Welcome to my world. I have not spoken English to another living being (other than myself) for three days. But, I have to admit, my spanish is improving rapidly, and although I am frequently thuroughly confused, I manage to understand most of what is going on and being said.

I am now in Ambato, staying with my host family which consists of Señor y Señora Robles and their daughter Soledad who happens to be the same age as I am. We spent the weekend looking around the city, it is very beautiful here with volcanoes looming over us from two sides. I forgot how much I like volcanoes. Today we went for the first time to hospital where I am going to be working. Any worries I had about bringing the wrong supplies quickly dissipated, and the two bags of stuff I brought seem like I´m throwing a teaspoon of water on a house fire. The director of the hospital is wonderful, very friendly and very enthusiastic about getting me involved in the day to day activities. She seemed quite relieved that I have actually worked in health care before coming here. Apparently many people who volunteer are pre-med students from the states who, of course, have never touched a patient in their lives . . . It seems like it is going to be an incredible experience. I start tomorrow morning at 0800h.

There has been a small amount of miscommunication up to this point, unfortunately the main miscommunication came from the coordinator of this whole project in the States that told me I needed to have scrubs to wear at the hospital. This, of course, made perfect sense to me. The problem is though that I am only required to wear scrubs in the operating room. For the rest of the day I am expected to wear professional dress. And as you all know, I tend to travel with copious amounts of dress shirts and pants. So, this afternoon we went shopping. Fortunately everything here is substantially less expensive than in Canada. And hey, if I ever decide to turn in the Red Wings for office pumps, I am now at least partially equipped.

So, on a whole things are going really well. I will keep you all updated as I am sure you are all eagerly anticipating my next post . . .

Love to you all,
Emnlyn