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Participants Views on the Overall Experience of TDI Workshop 2001 By Katherine
Johnson
As the workshop comes to an end, I have the opportunity to reflect on the entire trip. This has truly been an adventure. The first steps off the airplane in Quito were steps into a journey through many places and many adventures. We’ve visited several places--the coast, the cloud forest, the highlands, and the city of Quito, and each area has held new adventures and new people to meet. It is amazing that a country that is so small can have such large differences between areas.
The differences in health care facilities are amazing to me. We’ve been to communities with no access to health care, and to communities with access to health care facilities that rival those in the US. Some communities have health care “workers” that have been trained by PLAN International, and this is their only access to health care, and they are providing a great value to the community. The one thing that has hit me the most about this trip is the great disparity in the distribution of health care amenities. The Red Cross in Manta compared to the Red Cross in Quito shows a great example of this. Both are members of the same organization, but their access to funds, and therefore supplies, is extremely different. The president of the Manta Red Cross is an ex-congressman, so he is able to secure major funding for them. The Red Cross in Quito is only able to provide the supplies for their main service of collecting blood. It is amazing to me that although these are both members of the same organization, they have totally different access to money. I would expect them to work together and raise money for the Red Cross, not the Manta Red Cross or the Quito Red Cross. After all, isn’t the Red Cross a service providing organization to help the people--all the people not just those who are lucky enough to live in Manta? The communities that we have visited have had extreme differences as well. The types of housing that the people live in change from community to community and province to province. The food that the people eat also changed. In the coastal region, the people had chickens, but in the highland areas the people had more sheep and pigs. The dress of the people also changed to a more traditional Indian dress in the highlands.
One thing that was the same about the people was how friendly and inviting they were to us. We show up at their homes and their communities, a bunch of gringos, and ask if we can look around their houses. They graciously invite us in and show us around while answering all of our pesky questions about their homes and their lives. We are totally invading their privacy, yet they still welcome us into their homes. This trip has been an eye opening experience. As I move out of college and into the real world, this experience will allow me to more fully appreciate what I have and all that I have been able to experience in my lifetime. As the crazy guide that took us into the cloud forest/waterfall night hike said it would be, it has truly been the adventure of a lifetime!
By Angie Evans Mind wondering, stomach turning, heart fluttering, trying to grasp a notion of what to expect. Body is forced forward as the plane comes to a complete stop. After all the hard work of organizing the trip and fundraising, the Ecuador 2001 trip begins. The group consists of a vast variety of majors: Medicine, Biology, Biochemistry, Photography, Psychology, Hearing and Speech, and Human Health. Each person inputs different aspects of their specialty, which caused me to see an outcome of a much more detailed picture instead of a narrow fold that holds only my perspective. I, being one of the non-medical majors, began to focus on my area, but realized the need to understand all the factors involved. The trip allowed the group to view a variety of settings: hospitals, clinics, blood banks, and communities all of which are located in different parts of Ecuador. The coast, highlands, and tropical forests are some of the areas where the group was able to decipher the different lifestyles and living conditions.
Touring the hospitals, clinics, and blood banks, I had the chance to view the medical care of Ecuador. Some facilities reminded me of the health care centers of the United States, yet others were much different with not as clean equipment and surroundings. As the group ventured through the different sectors of the health care facilities, it was difficult for me to see the lack of treatment simply because of lack of money. A feeling of depression arose over me and the thought of change came to mind. A lightened path broke through as a doctor of one of the hospitals spoke to the group. “Thoughts of change” are a necessity in his eyes. Hope filled me as his words of doing, not just saying, were in effect. Entering the communities, the group was always welcomed which surprised me at times. We were able to meet the people of the communities and hear them speak of their lifestyle. After each household we passed tears of sadness sprang down my face. The reality hit me right in the face. Meeting PLAN International helped me grasp the complexity of the experience at hand. Employees of PLAN taught me that happiness is the main variable in life. One of the main goals of PLAN is education. If the communities are educated on how to better survive and improve sanitation, then longer, healthier lives will result. This concept makes the dark clouds disappear and the light shine through. Thanks to our leader, I had the experience of a lifetime.
By Stephanie Norwood
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