Wow, those 2 weeks have gone fast. And now where to begin? They were 2 very full, very different weeks and last week was such an adventure in such another world that the memory of that first week of camp is already fading.
So first came camp, the week for the younger youth, the week that Forestview sponsored. It was a good week, our new camp was well broken-in last year, and this year all went smoothly. We had the most people there ever - 192, including kids, counselors, kitchen help and others. That was a lot of people to feed, and at this camp all food is prepared from scratch. No frozen shortcuts, no cans to open, no big ovens. And I'm talking some complicated and tedious
preparation. Like french fries, from potatoes that you-know-who peeled, cut into fries with a blunt knife, and fried in a frying pan, batch by batch!! yes, we are talking time consuming. But we all just take it as part of life, and it all gets done. And we had some pretty fine meals. Shrimp ceviche one lunchtime, 15 pounds of fresh shrimp bought from the market in Playas, all cleaned and peeled and deveined (not by me - yuk!), and turned into wonderful ceviche. Yummy!
Only one major health issue all that week. Carlos (one of the older guys who I have known since the first year of camp) arrived at camp sick with a fever. I decided it was probably viral, there was nothing else to show for it, but by Thursday he was still sick. Seemed to get better during the day, but then spike a fever of 40 at night. Somebody raised the possibility of malaria, and it was a valid thought, so on Friday we took him into a little private clinic in Playas. Well, there was an education for me. It was so interesting for me to see the workings of a
place like that, in some ways not unlike where I had been working in Burlington, but in most ways, poles apart. Anyway, $50, 3 hours, and many prescriptions later, we left, happy to know that it wasn't malaria, just an infection that he showed no signs of. Of the 6 prescriptions that he was given, I decreed that only one of them was necessary, the Cipro to treat the infection. The only fault I could find with the care he got was overkill on prescribing - a whole bunch of things that in my humble opinion,he didn't need.
In the meantime, during the week, I had got myself talked into joining a group that was going into the "jungle" last week. Not really the true jungle, but as near to it as I'm probably ever going to see.
So last Saturday, camp was done, the buses full of tired kids departed, and I with other staff from Bastion, got on a public bus and came back to Guayaquil, where I spent exactly 4 frantic hours doing email, reorganizing and repacking for the next trip.
We were a group of about 15 Canadians, and a few Ecuadorians, and we all got on a chartered bus at 7:30 and headed north up the coast to the province of Esmeraldas. That was a journey to forget! Many hours of jolting, jerking, swaying, stopping, bumping over untold numbers of speedbumps through every hamlet that we passed through, swerving around enormous potholes. Pouring rain for much of the night. Sleep was next to impossible, there was nowhere to put yourself, and I would just get sort of settled when the driver would slam on his brakes for something and I'd slide off the seat. But at least I wasn't carsick, like one poor girl the whole way there. (However, I made up for it on the return trip last night - oh boy!!)
But in due course we arrived at the landing spot, by the river Onzole, near the town of Borbon, and we loaded
ourselves and all our belongings into 3 very long canoes with motors. And then began the part of the trip that more than made up for the misery on the bus. It took us more than 2 1/2 hours to travel up that river to our destination. And that trip was unforgettable, cruising along into an evermore unreal world, little bamboo houses on stilts by the river's edge. Some completely isolated, and others gathered together in little communities. We passed people going about their lives, washing clothes (and themselves) in the river, travelling in their own canoes, most of those much smaller than what we were in, and powered by a paddle, not a motor). People just hanging out by their homes, waving as we went by. Lush greenery of every kind all 
around us, coconut palms, trees full of orchids (not blooming) vines, flowering shrubs planted around 
the little houses. Once I saw a huge blue butterfly. And when we stopped to refill the gas tank, I could finally hear all the birds that were everywhere, but we couldn't hear above the motor. Tired as I was after the night before, I didn't even think of dropping off to sleep, my head never stopped swiveling about to see all the sights all the way there. I think it was just about the most fun I ever had!
(to be continued)
So first came camp, the week for the younger youth, the week that Forestview sponsored. It was a good week, our new camp was well broken-in last year, and this year all went smoothly. We had the most people there ever - 192, including kids, counselors, kitchen help and others. That was a lot of people to feed, and at this camp all food is prepared from scratch. No frozen shortcuts, no cans to open, no big ovens. And I'm talking some complicated and tedious
preparation. Like french fries, from potatoes that you-know-who peeled, cut into fries with a blunt knife, and fried in a frying pan, batch by batch!! yes, we are talking time consuming. But we all just take it as part of life, and it all gets done. And we had some pretty fine meals. Shrimp ceviche one lunchtime, 15 pounds of fresh shrimp bought from the market in Playas, all cleaned and peeled and deveined (not by me - yuk!), and turned into wonderful ceviche. Yummy!Only one major health issue all that week. Carlos (one of the older guys who I have known since the first year of camp) arrived at camp sick with a fever. I decided it was probably viral, there was nothing else to show for it, but by Thursday he was still sick. Seemed to get better during the day, but then spike a fever of 40 at night. Somebody raised the possibility of malaria, and it was a valid thought, so on Friday we took him into a little private clinic in Playas. Well, there was an education for me. It was so interesting for me to see the workings of a
place like that, in some ways not unlike where I had been working in Burlington, but in most ways, poles apart. Anyway, $50, 3 hours, and many prescriptions later, we left, happy to know that it wasn't malaria, just an infection that he showed no signs of. Of the 6 prescriptions that he was given, I decreed that only one of them was necessary, the Cipro to treat the infection. The only fault I could find with the care he got was overkill on prescribing - a whole bunch of things that in my humble opinion,he didn't need. In the meantime, during the week, I had got myself talked into joining a group that was going into the "jungle" last week. Not really the true jungle, but as near to it as I'm probably ever going to see.
So last Saturday, camp was done, the buses full of tired kids departed, and I with other staff from Bastion, got on a public bus and came back to Guayaquil, where I spent exactly 4 frantic hours doing email, reorganizing and repacking for the next trip.
We were a group of about 15 Canadians, and a few Ecuadorians, and we all got on a chartered bus at 7:30 and headed north up the coast to the province of Esmeraldas. That was a journey to forget! Many hours of jolting, jerking, swaying, stopping, bumping over untold numbers of speedbumps through every hamlet that we passed through, swerving around enormous potholes. Pouring rain for much of the night. Sleep was next to impossible, there was nowhere to put yourself, and I would just get sort of settled when the driver would slam on his brakes for something and I'd slide off the seat. But at least I wasn't carsick, like one poor girl the whole way there. (However, I made up for it on the return trip last night - oh boy!!)
But in due course we arrived at the landing spot, by the river Onzole, near the town of Borbon, and we loaded
ourselves and all our belongings into 3 very long canoes with motors. And then began the part of the trip that more than made up for the misery on the bus. It took us more than 2 1/2 hours to travel up that river to our destination. And that trip was unforgettable, cruising along into an evermore unreal world, little bamboo houses on stilts by the river's edge. Some completely isolated, and others gathered together in little communities. We passed people going about their lives, washing clothes (and themselves) in the river, travelling in their own canoes, most of those much smaller than what we were in, and powered by a paddle, not a motor). People just hanging out by their homes, waving as we went by. Lush greenery of every kind all 
around us, coconut palms, trees full of orchids (not blooming) vines, flowering shrubs planted around 
the little houses. Once I saw a huge blue butterfly. And when we stopped to refill the gas tank, I could finally hear all the birds that were everywhere, but we couldn't hear above the motor. Tired as I was after the night before, I didn't even think of dropping off to sleep, my head never stopped swiveling about to see all the sights all the way there. I think it was just about the most fun I ever had! (to be continued)
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