Ecuador (vicariously)

Bill just spent two weeks in Ecuador. He was asked, as an Alumni of BYU, to go with the nursing students as a teacher, mentor and Spanish translator.  He won't post about it so I thought I'd try to capture some of the highlights to share.

Abbie has a magnet on her refrigerator that says: "To be able to find joy in another's joy: that is the secret of happiness"  This is how I felt about Bill's trip.  As he would e-mail me several times a day and send pictures along the way, I found true happiness for the opportunities he was having.  Although it was hard, for both of us, to be apart for two weeks, we agreed we both learned from it and had blessings come our way that otherwise we would have not experienced.

So, this is where he went.......Guayaquil Ecuador.There were four alumni that assisted the nursing students.
The alumni and the nursing professors. There were seven nursing students. This is outside the children's hospital.  Bill said this was quite modern.
They were able to go to the temple once a week and do baptisms. They were glad to see Bill. Nothing like a tall strong priesthood holder who could do the baptisms.
They visited a maternity hospital. What an experience. They had labor rooms that had about20 tables for laboring and delivery rooms that had eight tables.
Can you imagine? The babies were whisked away as soon as they were born. No bonding time, Bill said. They were placed in these metal containers and when they ran out of room, they doubled them up. Couldn't you just scoop up these little thick haired newborns.
So cute!!!Bill teaching firefighters different life support and intubation techniques.
Things could get exhausting at times and Bill can always find a place to take a nap - - - even if it doesn't look comfortable.
They built a house one morning (that's right - - - one morning) A single mother with eight children. This house was about 250 square feet. It did have one division down the center but no electricity or plumbing.
The family, some of the workers (students and alumni) Bill said they couldn't have been happier. Do we really understand how fortunate and blessed we are? To need so little to be happy.
Children coming home after school in the neighborhood where the home was built. They would crush up tiles and spread them out along the wet roads to make it more passable.One day they went to an elementary school on a city bus.
Bill got to know these seven nursing students so well and said he grew to love them like daughters. He was so impressed with their knowledge, compassion and personalities.
Although these were "private" schools, Bill said they were very poor and lots of garbage around. The kids were all so cute he would have liked to bring them home and said it would keep us busy until we grew old and died.
At the school they would check the students eyes, teeth, take their measurements and the most dreaded - - -a prick of the finger for a blood draw to check for anemia. This was not popular. He said they have found that 28% of the students were anemic and so they were issued bottles of fortified soy milk. As they would check back a year later, they found the number to have gone down to 2%. A great project.

They were all proud of the band aids they got on their fingers to show the trauma they experienced.One little girl took it extra hard and Bill was handy for a little comfort. He's got a tender place in his heart for little ones and this one ate it up. He said she sobbed and sobbed. This is a touching pictures.

Bill rarely goes out in the sun without a cap.  He left it in his hotel room one day and the girls reverted back to school days when they learned how to make a hat out of newspaper.  So, he was taken care of from the suns rays.

The weather was hot and humid but the experience was worth the discomfort. They had devotionals every night together and each night spotlighted someone different. He was spotlighted one night and they gave him a poster that had a package of Werther's candies on it and said "(werther's candy) - - it's safe or not, thank you for being our protector, traffic stopper, laundry carrier, treat buyer, camera man, and everything else! You're the best! We love you!

He said he felt like he had been at girls camp.

May I just add my own thoughts of feeling so blessed that we can do these kinds of things and experience different cultures and events. This was a great experience for Bill and I'm so glad he was able to arrange his work schedule and share his knowledge, experience and spirit with the people of Ecuador and the nursing students. They are all the better (including Bill) because of it.