Diabetes Outreach

In an effort to reach out to the communities, we split up into 8 teams to scour the country for new cases of kids with diabetes, create relationships with endocrinologists, and maintain the relationships we have with the camper families. Jairo, Kendra and I went to Guayaquil with somewhat of a plan.

Due to competing organizations that are for-profit whereas we are non-profit, we lost a few kids to a competing camp conveniently being held on the same dates as our camp. However, Kendra, Jairo and I did find a few new kids to add to our camper list. So, how do we find these kids? We visited various hospitals and clinics and just asked the local diabetes educator, endocrinologist or pediatrician if they happen to know of any kids with Type I diabetes. The hospitals varied from the very rich and private to the government funded and crowded. For better or worse, the doctors have no patient privacy issues and freely gave us the kids names, their phone numbers and the names of the parents. Next year, we could do a better job of maintaining these relationships so that the doctors give us the names of the kids throughout the year. Many hospitals don't have electronic records so unless the doctor sees a kid with Type I that day, they won't be able to find the info. After recieving the info, we just then cold-called the kids and set up home visits. The families also, for the most part, don't seem to mind meeting complete strangers who know about their kid's condition. The first family we met has a 5 year old girl, Ayisha. Despite the last minute request to see if she would be interested in attending, the parents agreed to send her after we spent 30 minutes educating them on better ways to measure blood sugar, inject insulin and count carbs. We will need to help her learn to inject insulin in places other than her stomach. The area around that part is becoming hard due to the repetitive injections and the more hard it becomes, the less insulin gets absorbed. From an economic perspective, the parents will then have to spend more money on insulin due to absorption issues. However, if they rotate the sites of injection, she should be fine. She is absolutely precious although a bit closed off. The parents are worried that she will not open up to other campers since she is so shy. I can't wait to see if she does since most kids change quite dramatically after camp.

We also met up with Carlos, a 13 year old boy who will be in my camper group. He is extremely skinny and never measures his blood sugar. He only takes the base line insulin and no rapid insulin to account for the increase in carbohydrates. We didn't get a chance to measure his blood sugar during the visit and I will be interested to see what it is on the bus to camp. I think Jairo convinced him to come by mentioning all the pretty girls who will be there. The parents even laughed at that comment.

We found a few more campers who can not make this camp, but might be able to come to the next camp, strenghthened relationships with doctors and reconnected with old campers. One of our campers will make a public announcement on the radio where she works about diabetes and the camp. Yeah!

In-between visits, Jairo and I had lunch at the Malecon, a boardwalk that is pretty touristy but with a beautiful view. We are pretty beat overall from all the cold calls but overall excited for camp. Tomorrow, we head to Santa Elena to meet with campers and then take the 4am 11 hr journey to camp where we will meet up with other campers from around Ecuador.
We went shopping tonight for all the snacks and honey and cola for emergencies. I just hope we didn't forget anything. Can't wait for the journey!

Pre Campamento

Before diabetes camp, the Ecuadorian volunteers as well as the US ones came together at the campsite to prepare for Camp. So, what does that exactly mean? Well, we organized educational diabetes related activities for the kids as well as fun crazy activities, trained on what to do in hypoglycemia emergencies and participated in fun team bonding.

At pre-camp, I learned that I would be working with James and Jairo counseling the group of boys aged 13-14 years old. Jairo is Ecuadorian with diabetes and we had worked together in Bolivia before and James is from the US and new to the program. The others were divided up into groups and the monitors for the youth groups up to age 11, adolescents up to 14 and adults then had to create banners and songs for their groups. I have to say that our group created the best banner for our team the Tucanes Rojos although our songs could still use some work.
For Educational activities, we created stimulating ways to engage the kids in learning about diabetes. We think that diabetes is not a disease but a lifestyle and so we need to ensure that kids understand how to manage their lifestyle to best care for themselves. I continue to learn more about diabetes from those volunteers who have it as well as from the training sessions.
In order to truly understand the ritual of testing the sugar and injecting oneself with insulin, we did something similar. I've tested my blood sugar before in Bolivia and did it again here. We also each took a needle and inserted it into a place that is common to inject insulin to see what that is like for someone with diabetes who has to do this everyday. I didn't mind putting the needle in my stomach, but really hate pricking my finger to draw blood to test my blood sugar. Afterwards, we drew pics around our needle spots.

For fun, we created nicknames for everyone so that the kids would have an easier time remembering names. Although everyone just wanted to call me Fujimoto since they seem to like my last name a lot, I am now Juguete, which means toy in Spanish.

In case of an emergency, we simulated out what to do when a child's blood sugar goes so low that he starts convulsing in the middle of the night. I had seen this skit before in Bolivia, but each time I see it, it still shakes me up. We learned how to use the glucagon, an intramuscular emergency shot of sugar essentially, which I hope we won't have to use.

At the end of pre-camp, one person held a ball of string together and stated what he received out of pre-camp and what he hoped to achieve at camp. After his statement he threw the ball to another person who did the same. Once we had created an interwoven tangle that bond us together, we cut the string and tied it around our wrists to remember this time together and the objectives we had set out for ourselves. The gathering proved to be an emotional one when Martina, a 14 year old Ecuadorian broke down crying when she explained that her sister who has diabetes would be dead today if not for the the support of the foundation. I expect Camp to be even more moving and emotional and I look forward to supporting these kids in their development of skills and tools necessary to better manage their condition.

Playing Tour Guide

Given that I enjoyed diabetes camp so much in Bolivia, I thought I would rejoin AYUDA in Ecuador and continue their work on juvenile diabetes education there. This time the program is a month long and a group of 15 16-24 year olds came prepared to support AYUDA's efforts. Having been in Ecuador for the last 2 months, I thought I would show them around and be the social coordinator in usual fashion.

In the mornings, we received training on diabetes education and in the afternoons, I took the group of volunteers out on excursions. The first day, we went to Lagunas de Mojando and to the Otavalo market. Due to weather issues, I took them to another artesanal market the next afternoon instead of to the TeleferiQo.

When the skies cleared, I brought them up the TeleferiQo to view Quito from some 4100 meters.
Since I missed the Guayasamin museums the last time I was in Quito, I brought them there. Guayasamin is the most famous Ecuadorian artist who also created a memorial to the poor and the suffering of Latin America. Inside the memorial, one particular wall really drew in my attention. It says, "I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a child who had no feet." This really embraces the last year of my journey and all of that I have experienced, witnessed and newly appreciate as a result.
For the tour of Old Town, I hired the local police to show us around.
To properly appreciate Ecuador, I bussed them over to the Equator for the photo opps and the cool science tricks.In order to apprciate the nightlife, I had Maria provide salsa lessons and we hit the clubs to practice.
The night activities in general, I left up to Corey to coordinate. We pretty much went out to random clubs to dance although, I did miss a few nights since I think my age might be catching up with me. But everyone enjoyed watching my microwave dance move that I learned from Leah in Bolivia.
After a week of diabetes training, afternoon excursions, and late night clubbing, I think they wore themselves out. I found them napping in the diabetes foundation one afternoon after our outing to the equator.

Dressing the Part

When in Silvia.... dress the part. About 1.5 hrs away from Popayan is Silvia, a small town that is most well-known for the local Tuesday indigenous market of the Guambianos who wear their traditional handwoven blue dress while spinning wool. The market is not touristy, but the tourists come for the photo opportunities as I clearly did.


When I arrived, the town had police crawling through the city checking IDs, patting down guys for guns, inspecting buses and just looking quite menancing until I spoke to them. They regularly patrol the towns and this just happpend to be the day they patrolled Silvia. They explained that their presence ensured safety and gave people a sense of security. True, I felt secure with an entire town full of machine gun and grenade toting police men. Although I wanted to see the grenades in their pockets, I decided against asking since they looked quite busy, but they did graciously pose for pics with me.

In the afternoon, I joined a Chiva bus tour of the Guambiano region. Children came out to greet us and even sang to us at the urging of our tour guide. My favorite photos are always of children who usually look quite inquisitive.

Case of the Missing Toilet Seat

Toilet seats are MIA in Southern Colombia. In restaurants, hotels and public bathrooms, toilet seats are a rarity. I have my conspiracy theories and I wonder if the FARC is somehow responsible for the kidnappings. Or maybe the added step of adding a toilet seat is just too much trouble for people and the rim of the toilet works just fine as a seat. Normally, I never actually sit on a toilet seat in a public restroom and have perfected the squatting technique that is necessary for survival, but to not have a toilet seat to sit on in your own hotel seems rather odd. I worry that small children might fall in and drown. Well, whatever the reason for the missing toilet seats, the locals don't seem mind or maybe they just don't know what they are missing.

The toilet in this pic is from a theatre house I visited and is not exactly the cleanest, but those in the hotels are really clean but just missing the seat. By the way, in Latin America, you have to put toilet paper in the trash and not in the toilet or it clogs it up. Yes, it is gross, and I just try not to look in the trash. Overall, my level of tolerance for many things has increased greatly.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Everything about Cali, Colombia is hot; the sun scorches, the dance floor sizzles and the women are on fire. The rumors are true. The women in Cali may just be the most beautiful and the salsa dancing is an obsession as is the plastic surgery. Despite lacking the obvious, a pair of heels, just one left foot, and a dress that barely covers my ass, I hit the salsa clubs anyway.

The first club, Tin Tin Deo was packed with salsa experts. I felt a little out of place since I arrived alone and everyone else had come with a partner. But after befriending a local woman who salsa'd with me on the dance floor to show me the basics again, guy after guy asked me to dance. They could see that I obviously sucked at salsa, but yet they still asked me to dance. They twirled me in every which direction and back again. I believe that you can be the worst dancer out there, but if you are with a guy who really knows how to salsa, then it doesn't matter. After awhile, I finally ran into the couch surfing group I was suppose to meet, but I only had an hour left to dance with them. Unfortunately, the clubs in Cali city proper close at 2am. And so to truly dance the night away, you have to go about 20 min outside of Cali to the clubs that close at 6am. So that's what I did the next night.
The next night, I partnered with Julia from NY and Lady, that's really her name, from Colombia and we went clubbing in the Menga district to TiTiFeRu. Apparently, it's best to go to these clubs in a large group with an equal number of men and women because the women get jealous if their guys dance with other women. Despite this, we chose a ladies night out. TiTiFeRu is where the beautiful congregate although after awhile, they all kind of looked the same; tall, skinny, long straight hair, lots of cleavage, and perfect smiles. I think if I had come with guys, they would have spent the whole night gawking. Instead, Lady, Julia and I just danced the night away to the rhythms of Merengue, Regatone and Salsa.

On another night, I joined up with a local guy from Couch surfing and we went to watch a dance show. The dancers really wowed me with their flexibility, creativity and high energy. At one point, 2 guys bent this woman's back in the air til she almost folded in half and I literally thought they were going to break her. Seeing the cultural side of countries is my favorite part.


Before the dancing, I checked out the local bars and cafes. I especially like this bar full of kitsch stuff with each room decorated in its own artsy theme. And on another night, I dragged some tourists out to a bar with a 9 piece live salsa band.

Other than the night activities, the day activities are rather boring. There's not a lot going on in Cali by day. Their zoo is rather impressive and I especially liked these strange creatures that look like shrunken head idols. I never did find their nametag and so I'm still unsure what they are. The zoo even had a Bengal tiger whose paws are as big as my head.
When not visiting live animals, I visited the cat statues in the cat park. I petted a couple but none of them purred. I walked around the city, visited the museums and received a facial. I could have received a full body sculpture for less than $1000 with every piece of cellulite drained from my body, but figured the facial was good enough.

Popayan

With a multitude of white-washed colonial buildings, I immediately lost my sense of direction in Popayan and walked in circles until my sense of direction decided to rejoin me. Despite its cute and quaint nature, Popayan remains unaffected by the tourism that is growing in Colombia, although I did stay at the first hostel to open up here. Very few tourists come to Popayan and if they do, only as a stopover to get to San Augustin and Tierradentro. I expect this town to grow in tourism once the infrastructure is in place given the many day trips that can originate from here. I rather enjoyed the sleepy town feel and spent a couple days just relaxing from all the killer bus rides over the last week while catching up on my blog.

Ancient Burial Grounds and Cool Statues

If you can stomach a 7 hour bumpy bus ride that makes you want to pee the entire time while your kidneys rock to a beat all their own, you will be lucky enough to see underground tombs with colorful designs, ancient statues carved out of volcanic rock and the picturesque scenery of San Augustin and Tierradentro. Within these two towns lie the essential elements for a new Indiana Jones movie or just good sightseeing.

Since I wasn't sure if I would hit both towns given the poor road conditions, I chose to go to Tierradentro first, the less touristy of the two. Throughout the hills of Tierradentro lie tombs where people buried their dead. Not a lot is known about the people and tomb raiders stole many of the artifacts. Stone steps lead down into each tomb that occasionally has colorful artwork in shades of red and black while others are just plain, but cool nonetheless.


While sightseeing the tombs, I came across a group of 20 locals from Cali who are all studying tourism. When they saw me, they immediately started taking pics as though the roles somehow reversed and I became their tourist attraction. I guess they don't see many Japanese American tourists and everyone wanted their picture with me. They were all so friendly and they once again reminded me why I love Colombia so much, the people. They wanted to make sure that I had a good impression of Colombia so that I would tell others to visit their wonderful country. So, go visit Colombia. After I left them, I hiked for some 6 hours and visited every tomb in the area.
The next day, I took the 5:30am bus, switched a couple times and eventually made my way to San Augustin to check out the mysterious volcanic rock statues. Little is known about these statues that sometimes accompanied burial sites. I think that instead of annual pumpkin carving contests, these people host volcanic rock carving contest and then just leave them lying around year after year.

To view these statues, I walked through a cool jungle where each had its own display. The rest are scattered in the hillsides and so I rode a horse to visit the rest.