An Eventful Week

August 10th was Independence Day here in Ecuador. We had the 13th off of work to honor the day. Apparently most celebrations occur in Quito but lots of people were traveling for the long weekend. Tena was full!

August 15th was the 4 year anniversary of PediHabilidad. Last Monday, we had a big party to celebrate! All the kids were invited to the program and the auditorium was filled with families showing their support for the program. Some doctors and a local government representative gave thanks for the services and Nicole gave a recap and list of future goals. Then 16 adapted seats were given to children as well as 2 sets of crutches that had been donated. The event ended with cake and guayusa (a local sweet drink that tradition says that if you drink it, you have to return to Ecuador). The news crew was there and I did my first TV interview!
Wednesday was another exciting day at work. I joined one of the women’s indoor soccer teams from the hospital. With the beginning of any new sports season, holidays, school classes at any level, there is a madrina pageant. It is something that would never fly in the U.S., but here a representative is picked for each team that is single. This person has to get all dressed up – do their hair, makeup, wear a dress, carry flowers, wear a sash – and compete against the other team representatives. Somehow I got picked to be madrina for my team, the Superstars. The girls from work got me all fancied up and then I had to strut out in my heels in front of the team. During the event, the team was chanting my name and there was music playing. It is quite the tradition. Luckily, it ended in a drawing rather than a winner being chosen! I lost the drawing. Our team did win for best uniform though!

Then the game started. We have lost our first two games but it has been pretty fun! We play on a small cement field with a small, hard ball. There are 5 players and a goalie on the field at one time.

Before the 16 adapted chairs are to be sent home, a couple of changes needed to be made. The chairs were intended to be very simple; however the needs of many of the kids from PediHabilidad are more complex. Therefore, those constructing them were not accustomed to some of the suggestions and further adaptations needed to be made to ensure safety. The therapists came in this week to make the changes.
Last night, one of my friends had the inauguration of his new bar. It was a lot of fun. There were two bands and a lot of people there.