Quito!

I am now back in Quito living with my previous family and finishing my final paper. The last week at the hospital was incredible - I did interviews with teens for my monografia about adolescent pregnancy and spent some time interviewing doctors and nurses about the services in the hospital. On Tuesday I went into see two different births that happened right around the same time and one was an 18-year-old. After the baby was born the nurse was busy, so she handed me the baby girl, Linda Isabel, and told me to teach the new mother how to nurse.....long story short, the mother, Karina, told me I needed to come back to Ecuador every year on April 27 for her baby's birthday. When I left quirofano (or the delivery room area) the father of the other baby, Leif, asked me how it his wife was doing since family cannot enter the delivery room. When I told him everything was ok he hugged me so hard I could barely breath and he was glowing with happiness.

Over the weekend Emily's family took us into the Selva, or jungle, for one last adventure before returning to the big city. We hiked through streams and climbed waterfalls using ropes and ocassionally ladders carved into the rocks. When we stopped for lunch in a small community i was literally chewed by fleas, but only on the skin between my knee-high rubber boots and shorts. I apparently was allergic to them and the bites swelled up making it incredibly painful to walk.
Sunday was filled with writing the monografia and baking about 200 oatmeal raisin cookies for the entire hospital staff. Emily's mother has a panaderia and we used her industrial oven, which made it go a lot faster. Say goodbye to the doctors and nurses was difficult - they have been incredibly kind and welcoming especially considering we have only been at the hospital a little over a month. I did a couple last interviews and we asked one of our favorite residents for a perscription for the horrible bites. As I waited for the ride to the bus terminal the director of the hospital and his wife, on OB nurse, leaned out their apartment window waving and blowing kisses....an excellend good-bye to Tena.

So now....about a week left of classes and my mom will be here on the 14th!