Ecuadorian Health Care

We finally got our window screens and it is so wonderful to be able to leave the windows open in this lovely weather – and not be hassled by flies and mosquitoes.  Our landlord decided she would have them put in – and did.  We still need living room furniture and this house will be complete.  Well, sort of.

German, the young man who is setting up the English school, tried very hard to get me to be a full time administrator for his school.  I told him I just wanted to help – not another career.  He has finally come to understand that I want to be part time help.  He has a student who is a teacher at the school here who has some Basic English, but needs to become more proficient and understand the grammar.  German says he would like me to help with this person (Raul).  Right now German is getting the books and supplies together.  He has four or five other students lined up, so he’s looking around for more teachers.  He believes that he could easily have a classroom full by fall.  

Steve had a go-round with a bug of some kind that wouldn’t respond to my tea and acidophilus regimen.  So after fighting the battle for three days, we went to the near-by hospital and floundered our way through an explanation of what the problem was.  A girl and her father walked in at about that time, and Dad spoke English very well – married to an American – so he helped us get the information needed to the nurses.  Steve was taken in for a shot, blood tests, stool test, re-hydration, and a general work-up.  While all this was going on, I asked a nurse if there is a doctor in Sucua who spoke some English.  It turns out there is and he had just walked by me a few minutes earlier.  She went to get him and we talked for a while.  He is a super nice guy who gave us his cell phone and home phone numbers and said to call at any time.  While I had him captive, I asked him about my insomnia.  The only medication I have not been able to get here through the pharmacia is my insomnia meds.  He asked me to come back the next Wednesday and he would set me up with the sleep specialist.  We went to the appointment and he sat in acting as translator with the specialist.  The hospital doesn’t dispense the meds I took in the states.  The only thing they had was much stronger and highly addictive.  I didn’t want that.  So they told me to ask for another medication at the pharmacia.  Doctors here cannot write a prescription to take to the pharmacia – they can only prescribe what they have in the hospital pharmacy.  In fact, they can get in trouble by suggesting anything else.   I finally found the meds I need at the local pharmacia.  

For Steve’s care, prescriptions, and my appointment the cost was $0.    I feel really good about having met the doctor knowing that he will help us should we need it in the future.

Steve and I are still hammering away at our Spanish lessons.  We are conjugating verbs all over the place.  Steve is getting really good at giving the cab drivers instructions.  We do OK when we try to converse with someone who understands our struggles, but occasionally we find someone, who makes the ordeal worse.  We have run into two people who, when we don’t understand their rapid fire Spanish, and say so, they respond by speaking very loudly and even faster, which really is not a big help.  Our overall experience with trying to converse with Spanish speaking people, though, has been good.  They tend to be very patient, and helpful.