¿Estás inquieto? ... No. Estoy en Quito.
Exploring the Ecuadorian Healthcare System... and other fun stuff, too.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Acerca de Cerveza

Any establishment that sells beer is going to sell Pilsener. Consider yourself lucky if you find Club or any other types of beer. If you find anything beyond the national beers it will probably be Budweiser or maybe Corona, but you’ll pay a lot more for it.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Mi Familia Anfitriona
The picture above is of the apartment complex we lived in.
El Subcentro de Cochapamba – A day on the streets
For the third and final day with Dra. Sancho we went around the neighborhood verifying that all the children have been vaccinated. We started at the clinic. There was a group of about eight people that morning including doctors, nurses and volunteers ready to go out on this door-to-door vaccination campaign. After a brief discussion on what to look for, we separated into groups. Daniel and I went with Dra. Sancho.
El Subcentro de Cochapamba – A day at the office
So Thursday was an ordinary day at the office for Dra. Sancho. She saw her patients in her office the entire morning. And when I say she saw them in her office, I mean she actually saw them in her office. Every doctor’s office I have seen in the United States has multiple exam rooms and the doctor and nurses rotate around and serve the patients in the exam rooms. However in Ecuador doctor does not leave her office because her office serves as both an office and an exam room.
El Subcentro de Cochapamba – Going to grade school
Wednesday was day one of the whole reason why I came to Ecuador – to gain more experience observing the practice of medicine. The next three mornings I would spend shadowing a pediatrician named Dra. Silvia Sancho in a neighborhood clinic in the north part of Quito. This neighborhood was known as Cochapamba and like basically everywhere in Quito this neighborhood was situated upon the hillside.
Los Primeros Días en Quito
Saturday evening I arrived in Quito having traveled all day long from Seattle with layovers in Dallas and Panama City. Sunday was orientation day. We took a Spanish test and were placed in our classes and then later took a walking tour around the city to see where all the hospitals were at. I was placed in the advanced level Spanish class with other students who had pretty extensive experience in Spanish. This was the highest level class they were offering, however I was quite disappointed when we spent the first couple hours of class going over ‘ser y estar’. We later moved on to some medical vocabulary terms like how to say parts of the body and common illnesses; however, as far as Spanish grammar is concerned, I didn’t learn a thing during my two weeks of class. It was all review. And quite honestly, I could teach myself vocabulary from a book. But the teacher, Marisol, was nice and it was good to practice.
For lunch I and the other students would typically walk a few blocks to any number of restaurants. There were traditional Ecuadorian sit-down cafes, some fast food specialty type places, and then some restaurants which could be classified somewhere in between. It was possible to get a full meal consisting of a meat (often chicken or beef), rice and beans (menestra), fried plantains, salad, and a drink for just $3 if you ordered the Menu del Día.
Monday and Tuesday I had class for a few hours in the morning and then a few hours after lunch. Wednesday began my first day shadowing physicians.
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