Quito and otovalo

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Well I havent updated in a week...partly because ii have been so busy and so tired that i havent been ablye to do anything but sleep. (and i cant actually do that here)

I arrived in Quito on a fast bus...2 hours early.. which left me stranded in the middle of the dodgy part of quito at 4 30 with no prospect of a lift until 6 am earliest...i could have taken a taxi but only had a street name not an address and then i would mmiss the lift and it would all get complicated....
I endede up striking up a conversation with a non threatening young man, who turned out to be a total gentleman and waited with me for two hours in the absolute freezing cold and bought me tea, and then my lift still didnt turn up so he walked me to the street and we managed to find the house...he then gave me an avocado and left!! very nice, and he definitely was responsible for keeping me safe! there were loads of drunks lurking..

So less than ideal welcome to Quito. My room is in a little apartment at the back of the volunteer house (which is full of germans).. In some ways it would be nice to be in the big house but everyone in there shares a room and theres about 20 to a bathroom so maybe im better off where I am. My aparmtment has a little single room for me. Very adequate, single bed little desk built in wardrobe, clean but shabby. There is another single room which a german girl lives in.. at first I thought she was so unfriendly, she didnt even answer me when i talked to her, but now I just get the impression that shes a little awkward and shy. She and I share a bathroom, whic should be fine if they fix the hot water and the badly flushing toilet. there are two south african girls in the other room at the moment, but they are moving downstairs to their owen apartment , which is a shame for me, but in practice shouldnt make too muich difference as i will just go downstairs to talk to them, and who knows, maybe someone nice will move into the room..
We have a little kitchen which only has one pot, which is less than ideal but seing as Im too tired to cook, hasnt been too much of an issue.

Monday was my introduction to the hosptal..an endless rounds of introductions and not understanding very much. The hospital is a 45 min journey on a bus which i s a ten min walk away and high in the hills in the South of quito, enough of a difference to give me altitude probs during my first few days there.

I also started Spanish on monday. 4 hours in the afternoon. It was actually rather nice last week. Im not sure how far my spanish progressed, mostly because the teacher spoke no English so I couldnt ask her how I would say something in Spanish etc, but we had interesting discussions about life in Ecuador,
For example how corrupt the president is. He is turning himself into a dictator by lying to the poor and changing the constitution so he can have longer without election. He has created lots and lots of ministers funded by increased tax, he has increased goods prices by 200% in 2 years and has lowered middle class salaries by 50% n the name of equalising society...and he is supposed to be giving money to the poor but you only qualify to get something if you have no house no family (even distant cousins) no job (not even selling something in the street and theres a reason why not and then ists 30 dollars a month for a maximum of 2 years....awful. but anyway his propaganda is supposedly good..

and apparently the universities are v politiscised with students having to belong to a party (this is because uni is a sanctuary where police cant enter, so lots of people join just to demonstrate) but its not a good thing. Her dauhter went to a public uni and when she wanted to learn not demonstrate...and she got beaten up, her things broken and death threats for not joining a party so she left uni..

and other interesting things like the macho society..
which is demonstrated to me by everyone first wanting to know my name and then if i have a boyfriend..and then proceeds a whole load of questions about how it could possibly be that he isnt here with me and what that must mean about my relationship..this kind of question is REALLY annoyin especially when its even 'profeessionals' like doctors...noone wants to know anything about me really..
here noone lives together without being married , which means they get married early. So im quite old not to be at least engaged..

so my dy for the last week was intensely tiring,,,i got up at six went to hospital left at one journeyed back started lessons at 1 and home by 5 45 and wanting to sleep! There are activities laid on fby the school but i wa s too tired to join..

The main source of this tiredness is the fact that my appartment is sandwiched between two party streets so the thumping music goes on until at least 3 am if not until morning. I cant sleep through it and plus being homesick gives me bad dreams so combined I think i get max three hours a night sleep...and thats set to continue this week!

the hospital itself was pretty dire the first two days. I was on the ward, which is basic but sufficient..no such thing as privacy, i.e. curtains etc... people only pay for medicine here. However, after the ward round, which occurs in an exteemely hierarchical fashion with a dragon of a woman consultant leading it shouting at drs and patients alike...there was absolutewly nothing t od o..i just sat for three hours waiting to go home.

On thursday i got to switch to paeds a and e which is more interesting,, at tleasty theres stuff to watch and i can hel a bit, cleaning wounds taking blood,listening to chests etc. Its stiill pretty awful for me. though, theres nothing worse than feeling useless and standing around, and although if i was the only person there i could do it, my spanish isnt good enough to take a history when there are drs to do it..
so im just constantly clock watching...im going to try and shave a few mins offf by arriving late i think...

so last week wasnt amazing between the tiredness and boredom it doesnt leave a lot of emotional reserve if youre homesick...

On thursday night though, mum arrived, which is lovely, two weeks having my mum will go fast I think! qwe didnt actually do anything becasue i lost my photo card and panicked, but it was still ncie!
Then Friday I left to go to Otovalo with mum..a taxi ride and then straight on the bus in the dark for two hours..I was mostly looking forward that first night to being able to sleep...but unfortunately it wastnt to be..there was no party but the street noise and the car alarms and traffic was constant..almost as bad as Qutio.

To get to the hotel., we had to walk through the streets of otovalo and it eemed to be large but entirly deserted, apart from one pizza place where i finally ate some substantial food...very much needed after the hectic day! We started feeling that maybe the market wasnt going to be what we had thought ..i had visuallised a village or small town rather than a small city!
Arriving at the hostel was rather nice, its an old house with an open courtyard so the upstairs is a balcony with rooms coming off it..Our room had shutters ..but they didnt keep the noise out. The beds were a problem..actually as hard as a rock, so waking up was just a discovering of aches..and finally we did get hot water after a lot of faff with gas cylinders..

At about 8 we got a taxi to the animal market. This was the highlight of otovalo. its impossible to describe, a massively crowded area outside of the town. You walk through zones of animals so first baskets of chickens guinea pigs and rabbits (for eating) and kittens and puppies, and sometimes all these mixed together in sacks or pens....all the indignas in their traditional drress of long skirts ponchos, frilly shirts and hair wraps are haggling over which guninea pg is fattest.. next theres a place where chickens are being killed..wehich was enough to make me determined not to eat chicken if i can help it! I tried some strange fruite which turned out to be a tree tomato. So odd that I had to give them away to a child playing in the dust..Far nicer..in fact delicious were thise warm dough balls bright yellow inside with sugar on them, a bit like doughnuts but not, really really yummy..i think i had 4 small bags in total during the day...which is just as well as there were none to be found today and ive never seen them before..

Then if you push through the throngs you reach the larger animals. long legged pigs who ar efar stronger than the people trying to hold them, piglets, two llamas/alpacas, and then the cows. Theses were of variable quality..ranging from skinny ones with diarrhoea and runny noses, calves, one still with an umbilical cord, to prize bulls some of which were loose...which scared us a bit.
Finally its the horse, and although the rest were bay and skinny there was one fine male an iron grey wiith a beautiful head and crest which makes me yearn for the time i can finally own a horse again...hopefully not too long..

Its impossible to decribve the maket really because its enitrely alien world..my photos definitely dont do it justice, but it was an amazing experience.

Im going to write about the rest of otovalo tomorrow.....

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