Out On A Limb : Class Field Trip to Compare Indigenous and Western Medicine (January 24-28)

The first field trip of winter quarter began last Monday, when we drove north for 2 hours to Otavalo. Our first stop was the Hospital San Luis de Otavalo and we learned about their new birthing areas that respect Indigenous womens' desires to use their traditional birthing positions and have the help of Indigenous midwives as well as trained doctors. The doctors and nurses in the hospital showed us a presentation about this program, which started in 2008. Then we got to see their birthing areas and meet a Quichua midwife.

Demonstrating a seated birthing with the help of the "husband" behind (actually the midwife here)

Next we took a short bus ride across town to Jambi Huasi (Quichua for House of Health), a private clinic set up to promote traditional medicine, yet serve the urban community with a mix of mestizo and Indigenous patients. We got to see some amazing demonstrations, including a cleansing by a yachac (Andean version of a shaman or elder wiseman) and a diagnostics method using a cuy and one using an egg! Three of my classmates participated and it was fascinating to watch.

A Cuyfichak cleasing Marisol with a live guinea pig

Next we drove up the hill about 2 miles to Hotel Casa del Sol, a luxurious place to spend the night! We enjoyed a super lunch and then had some time to chill in the sun before an Indigenous leader, Enrique Cachiguango, from the nearby town of Cotacachi came to talk to us about the Indigenous perspective of health programs in Ecuador. Afterwards we walked with him to Peguche Falls, just around the corner from our hotel. We headed back and enjoyed another delicious meal at La Casa del Sol and spent the night relaxing, reading and talking.

View from our incredible hotel in Otavalo

Lunch at the hotel with Jenean, Marisol, Geoff, Kate and Michael (L-R)

Casada de Peguche

The whole group in front of the falls with Enrique in front

On Tuesday after breakfast at the hotel we drove about 15 minutes to a smaller town called Cotacachi, which is famous for it´s leather stores and set in a valley between two large volcanoes. Our first stop was Jambi Mascari, an Indigenous health and community action center. The people there told us a lot about their organization and their current projects and then we got to see a simulated traditional birthing with the help of midwives.

Afterwards the midwives took us to their medicinal garden a few miles away in the country. We returned to Cotacachi for a ridiculously large meal at a touristy restaurant and then we got back in the car to drive further north. Late in the afternoon we made it to our next destination, a hotel in the Valle del Chota, about 1-1.5 hour south of the Colombian border by car. In the afternoon, Salomon Acosta, a local leader of the Afro-Ecuadorian community told us about the groups' history in the valley. The area is predominantly made up of African descendents due to slavery that existed in the region more or less until 40 years ago, when farmers finally started owning their own land.

Right before dinner some of the group decided to climb up the small mountain right outside of our hotel. It was a little bit difficult trying to avoid the cactus plants growing everywhere, but the view and sunset from the top were gorgeous! After hiking back down and eating dinner at the hotel, we managed to amuse ourselves way out in the country by swimming in the hotel's pool, playing ping pong and dancing outside to the tunes of our personal DJ (aka the hotel receptionist). Thank goodness we were the only group staying there!

Demonstating a tradtitional birthing method in Jambi Mascari in Cotacachi

Sunset from atop a hill above Valle del Chota

On Wednesday we ate breakfast at our hotel and then hopped in the van under very sunny skies to drive a bit further north to the small town of Juncal. Once there we met the only two doctors in town (both women!), running two separate clinics to serve the Afro-Ecuadorian population there. The most impressive part of the day was definitely stopping in on a elderly folks dance therapy class and getting to dance to Bomba music with them! The Bomba is a type of music from this specific area and the dance that goes along with it involves the women balancing glass bottles on their heads! Thankfully none of the bottles fell to the floor!

After a really nice tour of the town from the doctors, we started heading back south to Quito. On the way we stopped in Ibarra for some traditional all-fruit ice cream (actually more like gelato!), in Cotacachi for lunch and finally to walk around the market in Otavalo again.

The bottle dance to tradtional "Bomba" music with an 81 year old woman at left!

On Thursday we met early at CIMAS again and this time headed in the opposite direction, to Riobamba. We spent the morning at a main hospital in the city which offers three types of medicine; chemical (Occidental), Alternative and Andean. We got to talk to the director and a female Quichua healer ("Yachac") in the morning and when we returned in the afternoon, we also got to see the Alternative medicine side and talk to a woman who coordinates the community outreach programs of the hospital.

One of the best experiences of the entire week occurred on Thursday afternoon when we visited the Polytechical University in Riobamba, which has a medicine program. One of the professors there talked with us for over an hour and his mentality as a doctor was so impressive. He stressed that doctors need to have a human side and understand emotions in order to relate to patients and treat them in the best way possible. After hearing his perspective, our group had a lot to discuss! We returned to the hotel for dinner and afterwards walked around the streets of the city and bought some interesting South American documentaries for $1.25 each!

Cotopaxi Volcano south of Quito in the morning

View from the hotel balcony of a Riobamba street

Another exquisite CIMAS hotel!

Friday was our final day of this trip and we wrapped it up by visiting two Indigenous towns to see the current state of problems such as malnutrition and high child and mother mortality rates. Our tour guide was the director of the community health outreach programs at the Hospital in Riobamba, who we had met the day before. She directed us first to San Jacinto, where we talked to the principal and 5 teachers at the primary school there. They showed us the facilities and gardens and then we played with the kids there. They were fascinated by our cameras, and much like the old women who we'd met on Wednesday in Juncal, they were so happy that we were visiting them!

Afterwards we drove to the nearby pueblo of Calerita to meet a group of women who spin wool and weave their own clothing. They told us about their traditions, how they make their crafts and the future demise of their trade with the disinterest of the upcoming generations.

We drove back into Riobamba one last time and had lunch before busing back to Quito in about 3.5 hours. And now to write the first essay of the quarter...in Spanish, of course!