In Ecuador

Saludos a todos!

I hope this "blog" greets you all happy, healthy, and enjoying your summer thus far. We have been in Guayaquil for about 2 1/2 weeks now and it is hard to know where to begin...now about half way through this trip I think I am actually catching the flow of it all! We have been working in the mornings (Monday-Friday) at "Lorenzo Ponce", the largest psychiatric hospital in Ecuador and attending language classes in the evenings. The transition, at least for me, was difficult at first. In our first week here the earth literally shook beneath us (earthquake) and on top of all the inevitable culture shocks (where's my Starbucks coffee?), Juan, Zack and I, ended the week watching a patient at the hospital undergo Electro Shock Therapy (something I had heard about but had never witnessed before). I cried. It helped to ground and locate me in the family of things as they exist here.

Like I said, it's nice to be finally catching the flow of it all here, especially in our clinical work in the hospital. Known as "los psicologos de los Estados Unidos" by doctors and patients alike I am proud to say we are rising to their positive projections and breaking negative stereotypes. I promise to be more explicit later, I notice my time on this computer is "timing out'!

Alas, this is all from me for now. Vague, but a start nonetheless.

Peace,

jeanine baillie