I flew into Quito last night and I´ll be flying out at 11:30 pm tonight to return to oooklahoma. (unfort they dont have one-way tickets from the Galapagos to Oklahoma).

As I was boarding the plane to leave the islands, an unusual sadness came over me. I realized I had just spent 2 months in one of the most beautiful places in the world (after Iran that is) and now I was leaving it, most likely forever. My time there was ridiculous. I saw amazing creatures and just pure natural beauty (pictures to come soon). The people were awesome, especially the locals, and they made my experience that much better. Working in the hospital was also very eye-opening and I learned some invaluable lessons. I´m going to miss island life.

So whats next…going home, chilling with the fam, fasting, finishing the last of my secondary essays and going back to NU.

Its been real

…of Ramadan is almost over and its been awesome. We cooked both days and it was delicious! We made pasta, chicken, and garlic bread today. We also bought the BEST chocolate-banana cake everrrrrr.

So I have decided not to go to the hospital anymore for the rest of my time here. There are now three confirmed cases of swine flu, and I dont want to risk getting it. They have closed down all of the bars to prevent its spread but its not really working because now people are crowding restaurants that have bars until late night. Most of the other restaurants and shops are closing up which is kinda eerie. Thankfully my favorite icecream shop is still open.

Since I have nothing to do the next couple of days, im just gonna chill at my friends house and wait for sunset.

Happy fasting,

Afsaneh

…so there have been 3 confirmed cases of TB and one confirmed case of swine flu. Therefore, Im staying away from the hospital until further notice.

Sup Homies,

Sorry for taking so long to update, I been busy. Aight so the island I went to on Saturday was ridiculous. The island itself was so beautiful. We climbed up to the top of the volcano that created the island (I think). The view was amazing. Then we went snorkeling off a beach on the island. We swam with four penguins for a while that were chillin near the beach. (I def saw them penguin-hug). We saw tons of fish and more sea lions. There were also a ridiculous amount of starfish in the coolest colors. I decided then if I could be any animal, I would be a starfish because all they do is chill, sometmies even on top of each other. (sidenote, dont take starfish out of the water, right Archana? haha). In conclusion, this island was awesome.

So I decided to take like a 5-day vacation from the hospital this last week haha. I finally went back yesterday. Nothing too exciting, just more butt injections. Im bummed though bc apparently the other a day a man came in with his hand nearly chopped off. Instead of taking him into surgery, they just operated on him right in the emergency room.

One more week till i come back to the US…later

Tomorrow I am going to see another island called Bartolome. The island is known for its penguins. There are also sharks, sea lions, sea turtles, lobsters and of course fish. Ill let yall know how it goes.

The past week has been pretty chill. Ive been working in the emergency room mostly. I have become a pro at giving butt injections. (If you come into the emergency room with any sort of illness or ailment, they will prescribe you an injection of some sort. And they give all injections in the butt here). Therefore, I have made many a kids cry. Also, Ecuadorian men have hairy butts. Im learning how to put IVs in, but that is a bit trickier than butt injections. And messier. There is also some greys anatomy action going on at the hospital. Translation - doctors hooking up in the on-call room. Lucky for me, the oncall room is attached to the emergency room, so I get to see doctors comnig out of the room, disheveled and such. After 4 weeks of walking around town in scrubs, everyone thinks Im a doctor. They dont even call me by name, they just say doctora. Yeah maybe I havent corrected them, but its not my fault that they just assume Im a doctor.

Yall probably have noticed I havent talked about food much lately. Its cus…my host mom is the most terrible cook ever. I dont eat lunch at home anymore, but I have to eat dinner there (or else Id go poor). For dinner I usually get rice with a side of plain pasta. They love carbs here.  We went to the only chinese restaurant on the island the other day, its called chifa for some reason, and it wasnt too bad. Other than that…Im thinking fasting wont be such a bad thing now hahah.

Later

So much to tell yall. Yesterday I went scuba diving! It was pretty ridic. Apparently scuba divers come from all around the world just to dive here. Before we got on the boat, everyone had to introduce themselves and say how many dives they have done previoiusly. Most people ranged from 50 to 300 dives, and one old guy had gone 1400 times before! Everyone looked at me when I said that this was my first dive, and they def judged.  So first we went snorkeling and saw white-tip sharks, sea lions, tons of colorful fish and the sort. Then we geared up and went diving! I came face-to-face with a white-tip shark and saw a couple sting rays which were sooo cool. When we got back on the boat, a group of hammerheads started circling our boat. Of course I started singing the Jaws theme song. I got a kick out of it. We also saw the sting rays jumping up into the air and flipping several times. Apparently they do that to fling the parasites off of them. (We learned this from the annoying american guy who wouldnt shutup. He just graduated from law school, go figure). All in all, a good time.

At the hospital I got to scrub in on a uterus removal. The uterus is the weirdest organ ever. There was also a huge medical conference on the island. We tried sitting in on one of the talks, but it was the most boring thing ever. So we left. 

On a more serious note. I was thinking the other day about whether or not I should fast for Ramadan (Im here for the first week of Ramadan). I was having a tough time deciding because the days are really hot here and my host family isnt the most accomodating family ever. I had pretty much decided that I wasnt going to fast two days ago. But, later that night when we were out with some friends, I was talking to a friend of mine who is from the island and who had lived in America for several years before. Somehow it comes up that she speaks Arabic and that she converted to Islam like 6 years ago. I was pretty shocked. Anyway, point of the story, we got to talking about Ramadan and by the end of the night, we had decided to fast together! The next day she tells me that she had decided not to fast before she found out I was Muslim, but that she was happy that she finally found another Muslim on the island. If that aint a sign, then I dont know what is…  

Hope yall enjoyed the few pictures I posted. There are a lot more, but the internet is too slow to download more so youll probs see a couple at a time.

So I went on a tour last Friday to an island called North Seymour. It was amazing. When we got onto the boat, I yelled: IM ON A BOAT! The one American couple on the boat got a kick out of it, but everyone else (South Americans and Europeans) didnt find it amusing and they just stared at me. Anywhoooo…so this boat was very nice, and we get out into the middle of the ocean, at which point our tour guide comes out to the top deck and tells us the navigation system has stopped working. hahaha we freaked out but then they told us that another boat is coming to pick us up. So we got to chill on this awesome boat for a couple hours until the next boat came haha. Anywho, we hiked the island and saw tons of amazing animals (pictures to come). After that we ate lunch on the boat and then went to a beach off the island. This beach was THE most amazing beach I have ever seen. Like seriously off of a movie. Once we got to the beach, we went snorkeling and saw a ton of colorful fish (I saw 10 nemos). Pretty legit trip.

At the hospital

This week I started working with a gyno. Its been interesting to say the least haha. I dont know if I told yall, but the last two weeks weve been hitting up all of the schools on the island to de-parasitize the kids by giving them mebendazole tablets. Whats funny is that they tell the kids to wash their hands before they eat and after they play but then they make us (the volunteers) put the tablets directly on their tongues without washing our hands first. It was cool though bc we now see a lot of the kids around town and they remember us as the pill-givers.

I bought the new harry potter movie for 1.50 last week, havent seen it yet though haha.

Ok now for the BEST part of my post. I FOUND FRISBEE ON THE ISLAND!! Ok what happened was last night we were walking back from the grocery store at like 9pm. If you must know, we walked 30 minutes into town to buy chocolate from the grocery store in order to make chocolate covered bananas. haha. alright so as we were walking past the dock area, I spot a group of people playing ultimate on a concrete court. I think my jaw dropped and my eyes widened at the sight of a disc in the air. I made my friends wait while I went over to see if I could play with them. In no time I was on the court playing utlimate in the GALAPAGOS! It gets better. They play ultimate every monday and wednesday at 8pm. what what. most of them are young locals my age and they seem pretty cool, there is an american guy who is a bit older, and of course from cali. he seems legit (ie he can play ultimate pretty well). the rest are pretty solid at ultimate too. I dont know how i feel about playing utlimate on concrete, but well see what happens haha.

Later dudes

PICTURES!

This last week in the hospital has been pretty eventful. I was able to scrub in on a C-Section!! For those who don´t know what that means, I got to watch surgeons take a baby out of a womans stomach! It was awesome to say the least. Next, a man came into the hospital with a fractured nose. I have never seen so much blood in my entire life. He was soaked in it. He was fine though, he even started talking to me while he was still bleeding haha. Ok, on a sad note, a man died on sunday. He was swimming in the most popular beach, Tortuga bay, but in the part of the beach with huge waves. He was advised against it yet he still went in. They tried to save him but it was too late. He was only 20 years old. Also, a boy came in who swallowed a nickel.

Moving on, Friday we hit up a tour of the bay and saw tons of marine iguanas and blue footed boobies (type of bird), and other creatures. We also got to swim in this natural spring which was awesome. Saturday we hit up Tortuga bay, in the calm part of the beach, and chilled. We rented kayaks and went out into the ocean and saw sea turtles, sea lions, and other stuff. On Sunday we did a highlands tour and saw TONS of huge turtles. There are pictures, yet, I dont have them with me haha sorry.

Keep it real.

Sup playas,

Sorry I havent posted in a bit, I been lazy/buzy.

Aight so on my last day in Quito I hit up Old Quito (the older, prettier part of the city) with my host mom. We saw a ton of churches, cool arquitecture, and the like. The coolest part was going to this run-down monastery. My host-mom went up to a wall that had a little door that was closed and she started asking someone for a cream. In a minute, the door opened a bit and a bottle of cream popped out and my hostmom dropped 2 bucks in the slot. Some tourists wondered in and asked me in english what was going on, so I asked my host mom. Apparently the monastery is a special type in which the woman are never allowed to be seen by anyone for the rest of their life except close family. In their free time, they make natural medicines, wine, and cream and sell it to people. The tourists were intrigued, as was I.

Then Sunday, I flew to the GALAPAGOS!! The island is pretty ridic to say the least (i will post pictures sometime when im not lazy).  Ive seen some animals, but ill hit up real tours on the weekend to see more. I also started work at the hospital today, it was a bit slow today, but im hoping tourists do dumb stuff and get hurt so i have something to do at work. As for living - the house im at is pretty tight, the kitchen and living room is outdoors, and there are three girls that live there (all vegetarians randomly). the host mom is a lawyer.

Random note - on my flight to the glops, i met a woman who started talking to me about all her travels. when she found out i was iranian/muslim, she told me about how a huge sufi movement is taking over ecuador and columbia. then she started quoting rumi and interpreting his poems for me. she also speaks like a million languages.

later dudes