Quito

We have spent this week in Quito.  The sun is shining and after being in clinic all morning I have ants in my pants so this may be quicker.  If you are bored while reading imagine me dancing around like I have ants in my pants, jig jig jig.  Beautiful picture I know.  Ok, moving on.

So we have had Spanish class in the mornings and afternoons this week except yesterday when we went to the medical museum.  Be prepared, here comes a rant.  I am so sick of the machismo crap in this culture.  We walked up to the building and split into two groups.  My group had 5 girls and 2 guys and of course the male tour guide looked at the two men and asked if they were going to be doctors and then at the women and asked if we were going to be nurses.  No!  I´m in MEDICAL SCHOOL, not nursing school!!  I am a woman and I´m going to be a damned DOCTOR!  Ugh, what is wrong with people?  Nursing is a fantastic job but just becuase I am a woman does not mean I can´t be a doctor and a surgeon. 

Ok, stepping off soap box, or at least onto a different one.  As the 8 of us crowded into a tiny elevator to begin our tour the guide stood at the door approximately 4 inches from my face and asked everyone´s names.  Seems normal right?  Wrong.  The doors had already opened on the floor we were going to get off at and he just stood there talking as though we were going to have the entire tour in the tiny elevator.  Haha, awkward moment.  We then asked him to speak in short sentances so we could translate for the less advanced speakers and he told us this was not possible, ok, that makes no sense.  We then spent 30 minutes 60 minute tour talking about one painting and not even about the medical relevance of the painting. 

The tour was terrible but makes for good stories.  Just imagine a slightly creepy man with his face 4 inches from mine, elevator door open, him blocking it and everyone wondering why we are still standing there.  Haha, it does make me laugh now.  The rest of the museum was actually really fascintating.  There was a table that is 170 years old and contains many bottles of meds from original hospital.  The first EKG in Ecuador was also in the museum.  Amazingly, speculums have not changed at all.  Torturing women´s lady parts for 200 years. 

I went to clinic this morning and it was an interesting experience.  Mostly, they gave every woman antifungals or metro for vaginal infections.  The worst was watchign a woman have cauteization of her cervice for dysplastic changes, she was crying but at least her partner was there with her holding her hand as she endured the pain.  It was actually quite wonderful to see how supportive he was.  Ever heard of penoscopy?  Yeah, me neither.  It´s like a colposcopy but on a penis.  Hmm, maybe if more men in the US had to endure the same torture as women it would motivate them to get vaccinated againsta HPV.  Just a thought.  Anyway, we have our last private spanish lesson this afternoon and then this weekend we have some time off.  Then on Sunday we are heading to the rainforest and I won´t have internet access until the following Friday and then home Sunday.  I can´t believe my trip is almost over. 

Ciao!