reunión y fotos

Words can’t even begin to explain the fulfillment of being able to, for the first time since stepping foot in Ecuador, help those at the medical clinic hands on. Therefore, I’ve decided to include some pictures to give you a better idea of how everything went.



Although I hadn’t learned officially how to take blood pressure until the morning of the support group meeting, by the time 5 pm came around, I was pro- having spent the entire day practicing on almost any arm I could find. Fifteen minutes before the meeting, it started to rain for the first time I’d been to Ecuador (ok, not honestly the first time, but prior to, and in comparison to this, it was hard to consider any of the light sprinkles “rain”), but regardless, nothing could deter my enthusiasm and motivation to help the people that already began to join in the Sala Odd Hanssen (our meeting room named after the esteemed entity behind the entire Fundación Valle Interoceánico). In all, 13 people journeyed through the pouring rain to make it to this, the 3rd meeting of the support group for hypertension.




After getting in front of everyone and trying to express my gratitude for coming in the few Spanish phrases that I know at this point, the way that the group welcomed me with warm smiles and an incomparable round of applause made me certain that I had made the right choice to continue working on this project.

For about an hour Dr. Andrade (the head doc at the clinic) and Paola shared the main stage as I observed their well designed presentation to describe the basics of arterial pressure, and the psychological stresses of living with the disease. Following this, I began to personally meet the members of the group in a more intimate manner, taking their blood pressure, advising them on how to fill out a personal record of pressures that should be brought to every meeting, and ensuring them that their excessively high pressures are something that we can work at lowering together. I spent the rest of the night cleaning up the meeting room, and saying good bye to the handful of people that I hope to see in a month or so; my grammar errors and lame-jokes must not have made them think any less of me, as every person that came went out of their way to introduce themselves, shake my hand, and tell me things ranging from “hasta la próxima reunión” to “muchísimas gracias.”



From that point on, I immediately began to think of how I could strengthen the group, build the camaraderie I later found it was lacking (only 2 persons who attended the meeting had been to any of the previous two…), and continue the momentum and desire to change that I felt while looking into the eyes of each and every person I had the pleasure to meet.