Marta, Charlie y Monos

One of Ecuador's jungle provinces, known as Napo, is home to many interesting people, animals, and natural resources. By far my favorite province so far, Napo's friendly indigenous communities and mischevious monkeys made for an unforgettable experience. Here are some of the people I met during a week-long medical brigade in the pueblo called Misayualli and surrounding communities:

Marta- A 28 year-old female living in a one-story, wooden hut built on sticks to provide protection from torrential rains and poisounous snakes, spiders, and more. A mother of one child, and sibling of many, Marta lives in extreme poverty in a community far into the jungle. We entered her home to find about ten people huddled around on the floor, dirty clothes hanging from the ceiling, an eery silence and fearful eyes from Marta's family members. In the corner we saw Marta. Covered in blankets it was hard to see the little flesh that still hung from her bones but it was apparent she was unhealthily skinny, her skin color (normally very dark) was nearly white, with cracked lips and sunken-in eyes. Our last patient of the day, Marta.
Our medical brigade team consisted of rougly 6 doctors, 4 nurses, a handful of translators (including myself), and 40 volunteers from Microsoft in Seattle. Our mission was a week-long quest into the jungle, treating more than 100 patients a day for 5 days. Doctors, nurses, translators, and volunteers were split up within 8 communities and each day brought new stories and memories never to be forgotten.
Marta's hut could fit no more than 5 of us at a time, with fear of her house falling down, so I was sent with a doctor and an emergency nurse to help her. The trouble was the extreme lack of ability to communicate, not because of language differences but because of cultural differences which made it hard to get the right story. Marta and her family speak Qhechua, one of Ecuador's indigenous languages, so we ultimately were playing a game of phone tag that went something like this:
Doctor: Marta, how long have you been sick?
Me: Por cuanto tiempo ya estas enferma?
Quechua Translator: translate Spanish to Quechua
Marta: reply
Send back the other way.
This went on for about an hour, but the end result left us with frustration and confusion. Marta and her family, according to them, had no idea what happened to her. She did not fall, she was not beaten by her husband, she had no infeccion, they simply told us, "the doctors told us she was sick." Marta had visited the doctors office two months ago, but the family did not have money to keep her there so they brought her home. So there she layed, for two months on a wooden floor, dehydrated, and ready to die. The head doctor for Marta was nervous, she wanted Marta out of there immediately and insisted she go to the hospital. After giving her an IV, we carried her out of the hut, onto our bus, and to the hospital. We left the next day, it is still a mystery what happened.

Charlie: An 11-year old boy from the same community as Marta, atleast an hour from any larger town, very isolated in the jungle. Driving up to Charlie's community, I noticed signs for oil companies (PetroEcuador) and, not surprisingly, was aware of the great presence that oil companies held in this region. I am not sure of the relevance of that information with what I will go on to explain- but, only time will tell. Charlie is son to a mother of five and is one out of four other siblings that suffer from severe mental disabilities and retardation. Charlie is 11, yet he acts as though he is 3 or 4 years old. He was one of the cutest kids I have ever seen, I was instantly drawn to him. Yet Charlie's life is, unfortunately, at risk and unless he recieves further help from Timmy (the medical brigade foundation) could potentially die before he gets much older. Charlie looked sickly, although he wanted to be fun and playful he had a hard time breathing, his forehead was dripping with sweat, and held a severe cough. Not to mention it was hard to interact with Charlie, and he was unresponsive to the doctors or myself. Alone, just Charlie himself, this case would seem manageable. A child with health problems, mental retardation, those cases happen. But, one of four in the family? Charlie, his two sisters, and brother, all suffered from similar symptoms. Here was a family, sitting with us, every one of them suffering from some type of severe ailment. It was scary.
The doctor and I spent over an hour with the family, trying to figure out what could possibily be going on. This family, shockingly, was one amongst MANY families we saw that day that suffered from mental disabilities. Something was wrong, very wrong, in this town. What was going on? Was it the extreme isolation that the community faced, causing for inter-breeding which leads to disabilities? Was this an environmental issue, potentially caused from the nearby oil companies we saw on our drive there? Were people being poisoned? It was shocking.
Charlie and his family will be referred to Quito, where they will recieve medical treatment for Charlie's enlarged liver, other ailments, and hopefully help with his mental disability. Thanks to the Timmy Foundation, the community will continue to be seen and hopefully more evidence will be presented about what is going on there. Only time can tell.

Monos: Mono in Spanish means monkey. I used to love monkeys, well, I still do. But I never realized how mischevious and annoying they can be at times. Misayulli, the pueblo we were based in, is home to hundreds of monkeys who sit around in the town plaza, waiting for tourists and locals to turn their heads away. When they do, the monkeys quietly sneak in, steal whatever they can, and run away before the victim has even realized what happened. They are aggressive, outgoing, and kind of terrifying. I, unfortunately, or fortunately, was a victim to the monkeys twice during my stay in Misayulli. The first interaction occurred in the town's local bar. We were sitting down, eating patacones (fried plantains) when all of a sudden, in walks a monkey. He creeps into the kitchen, steals a bowl full of eggs which he carried out in his hand, and bolts for the plaza. The owner of the restaurant chased after him with a broom, but, she was too slow and lost alot of eggs that day. The monkey then sat, facing the restaurant, and quietly cracked open each individual egg, lining them up in a row after sucking out the eggyoke from each one. He had an expression as though he was completely justified for stealing so many eggs, and sat pleasantly to enjoy the snack. I thought he was really cute, of course, so I went to sit next to him. He didn't seem to mind, as my friend and I sat there talking, watching him eat. We looked away for one second, and I felt something touching my leg. I look over, and the monkey has his paws on me, staring at me in the face.
Monkey interaction number two was even more bizarre, and I am pretty sure a lesson from my grandma Oma. It happened within 15 minutes of the first interaction, with the same monkey who apparently did, or did not, like me I am not sure which. We were having a couple of beers, and I had a pack of cigarettes in front of me on the table. I turn my head because I was getting good at spotting out the monkeys before they attacked, and see a monkey slowly climbing down the pole near where I was sitting. I wasn't worried this time, though, as I was prepared. I spotted him! He could do no harm...wrong. All of a sudden, Mr. Monkey leapt forward, put his hands on my shoulder, grabbed my pack of cigarettes, and ran away! WHAT?! I was shocked, again.
You may think that is funny, I did too. Well, I turned around to watch him run off with my recently opened pack of cigarettes and, as if out of a movie, he began dropping them down one by one from three stories up AND, slowly walked across the telephone wire with A CIGARETTE IN HIS MOUTH. You've got to be kidding me, you crazy monkey! I don't know how often that happens in Misayulli, although I don't think it is uncommon, but I take it as a sign from my grandma Oma to stop smoking. I get it, I do.

These were only three of the hundreds of people that truely impacted my life during this past week in the jungle. I will never forget the amazing trip we had and will be doing more of them later on this year. Thanks for listening!