¡Bailamos!

Friday was a super fun and busy day! First, I went to the schools one more time to finish up some hemoglobins on the kindergarteners. You can see my previous post if you wonder how that went. :)

Then we came home to shower and relax for a bit before we headed off to another Stake Health Fair. This time I was working in the Nursery! At first none of the parents even brought their kids but I lured them in with some animal crackers (Mom I learned that tactic from you!). The language barrier and lack of toys made for an exciting night. I tried to teach them "Red Light, Green Light" but they didn't quite understand. I just kept saying rojo, verde, or amarillo and they would make up what each one meant on the spot and run around. Awesome. 

Here's one of the cute little girls I played with.... 

After the health fair we headed to a Young Single Adults dance down here. A few people forgot clothes to change into so pretty sure we went straight there in our scrubs! As if we didn't already stick out enough.... It was so fun to hang with the YSA in Ecuador! Actually at first they seemed scared by us. The only person that would dance with us was the Church's PR guy that brought us there! His name is Gunther and he kindly taught us some dance moves. Despite the little lesson we still looked like fools on the dance floor. I am sure there is some "hip shaking" gene we just don't get as white people. Finally I mustered the courage to ask this cute group of girls if I could dance with them. They had some sweet moves and Gunther could only entertain us for so long! So we made some new friends and danced until we were dripping with sweat. Yay! 

Getting hyper before the dance...

Trying to blend in :)

New friends!

And here's some videos for your amusement. Sorry to say I'm not actually in these because I was behind the camera! 

Gunther leading the pack of nurses

How to look really white at a Latin dance

Friday encompassed two of my greatest passions: teaching about health and Latin dancing. Perfect.

why the kids don't love me

Thursday I was back in the community at the school finishing assessments with the kids at one of the schools. I was on finger stick/hemoglobin duty. I became very creative with ways to distract the children from the pain or get them to extend their little fingers for a second. As a bribe we offer a garfield band-aid and a piece of taffy! We even let them pick which color. Despite all this, getting a finger stick still isn't the kids' favorite activity. 

Most were super brave and cute. It's so funny when they aren't scared at all until they see the blood coming out. By then the pain is over but they end up crying more!  I have realized there is a direct relationship between the quantity of blood the child sees and how loud they scream. This isn't exactly my favorite job because the cute kiddos get so sad but I'm glad these kids are at least getting screened. So many have anemia and need more iron in their diets. We're trying to educate the parents with nutrition classes each day and help Hogar de Cristo to start producing soy milk. Until then though, I'll keep upsetting the children with finger sticks...

This little girl can hardly contain her excitement as she awaits a hemoglobin check :)

She wasn't a big fan! 

I'll try to catch up on the blog tomorrow! Thanks for reading guys :)

Subcentro de Salud

On Wednesday I got to go to an Hogar de Cristo Subcentro de Salud and screen community members for hypertension and diabetes! It was so fun to see where the people actually live and where they go for medical care. We worked with their volunteers to record each person's blood pressure and blood sugar. Those with abnormal reading are going to be checked up on and invited to start attending a support group put on by Hogar de Cristo. 

Checking blood pressures :)

Karen checking blood glucose 

Afterwards, we taught this cute volunteer to check blood pressure and glucose so she can do it herself in the future. She was so excited! I was the "patient" for the blood glucose checks so I have some sore fingers from all the practice sticks. :)

¡Feliz día de las enfermeras!

Tuesday was Nurses' Day (dia de las enfermeras) here in Ecuador! 

We were invited to celebrate with the nurses here at Luis Vernaza Hospital (the one with the pretty courtyard). They asked us to have a booth at their little conference! We taught CPR with our dummies and just talked to all the nurses. It was fun to see them trying to further the nursing profession just like we're doing in the States. 

Check out the nurses' cute hats! 

Sonya and I got a kick out of their infection control tent. It's kinda different down here...

BYU and Ecuadorian nurses

Amber teaching CPR

Here's one of the cute nurse's aides I taught CPR

Then they invited us to go to mass in their cathedral! I had to snap a photo of a bunch of BYU nurses in scrubs going to mass...

Kellog's Grant and Soy Milk

This week I have been in the community doing assessments on children at a community school. We are collecting data for a study in collaboration with Hogar de Cristo and the Benson Institute. We are trying to get a Kellog's grant to improve nutrition down here. 

Hogar de Cristo has a "mechanical cow" machine which produces soy milk from soy beans. They want to start growing their own soy beans and distributing this soy milk in the schools. It is a sustainable solution to their malnutrition problems. The soy milk would provide some much needed protein, iron, and calcium. 

We are checking weight, height, skin, hair (lice), teeth, vision, hearing, and hemoglobin. The most important for the study are height/weight to assess malnutrition and hemoglobin to check for anemia. Many of the kids are anemia because they have little to no iron in their diet. All of this data will be given to Hogar de Cristo so their doctors can follow up on any problems. 

Checking the hemoglobin has proven to be quite the task! Let me tell you I'm not making too many friends at the school. They are all pretty scared of us because we're associated with the pain and anguish of a finger stick. I overheard one kid joking to another that one of our pink water bottles with Crystal Light was "blood juice." I laughed and then assured the other child that it was just fruit juice. It's been funny to see the 5th grade boys cry their eyes out with at finger prick while the kindergarten girls just take it without a word of complaint. 

On Tuesday I got to teach a nutrition class to the parents of the children. It is difficult to talk about grains and fruits and vegetables when their resources are so limited. Their main staple is white rice which has about zilch nutrients. Everything grows like crazy in this climate but they just don't eat fruits and vegetables. Another problem is that they drink coke like it's water. Sorry mom it's not really beneficial for the kiddos nutrient-wise! This "mechanical cow" is one way they're trying to get more affordable milk available. 

This research is really interesting. I don't know the numbers yet but so many of the kids are anemic. The children with the lowest hemoglobins will receive some iron supplements but that isn't a sustainable solution. 

We've learned about relief vs development and this is definitely a relief solution. Relief is easier in the moment but these children will just develop anemia again unless something else changes. I hope the "mechanical cow" becomes sustainable in the community. Hogar de Cristo is working hard with the people to find solutions. If we can enable them with some resources (Kellog's Grant) and knowledge they may be able to solve some of their malnutrition problems on their own. 

Relief is fun to do (ie handing out toothbrushes at the health subcenters) but development is enabling. We're hoping by collecting the data down here on malnutrition we can help them get more funding for their own projects. 

Here are some pictures of the cute kids! 

Cerro Santa Ana

Sorry I'm falling a little behind with the blogging. It's been a busy week! Here's a bit about Sunday though at least....

After church on Sunday we decided to take a little Sunday walk to Cerro Santa Ana! Trish you would have loved it! 

Cerro Santa Ana is one of the only touristy things to do in Guayaquil. It is a big hill with colorful homes and a lighthouse and cathedral on top! It's 465 steps to the top of the lighthouse so it's was a little climb. Sorry for so many pictures- I love the colorful houses.

I'll try to post about this week soon! I've been in the communities doing assessments on school children. I'll post some cute photos of the kiddos soon for sure! Oh and tonight is officially the halfway point for our trip! I know the rest is going to go by super quick too. I'm a little sad but I am excited to see all my bffs in Provo! Thanks so much for emailing and commenting guys. I love you!